** A tire blows under warranty and the steel belt rips off half the fender. The tire is replaced under warranty. What about the fender ? ** Actually, I believe the tire would be covered under the tire manufacturers warranty, not the manufacturer of the vehicle. Don't beleieve me, grab the warranty and/or owners manual out of any new vehicle on the lot. Post back where it says that GM warranty's Goodyear tires. The body damage in this example would come out of your insurance policy unless the tire manufacterer would spring for it which I doubt. I bet their warranty is phrased to limit their liablitly to damage to the tire. The damaged fender wouldn't have been the result of vehicle manufacterer defect. Damage to wiring or loss of the vehicle from a fire due to a defective componant would certainly be covered under warranty. That would be a 'related problem'. Unless refering to a crane or an airport, I have no idea what you mean by 'tower operator'. The service writers where I worked are the people who make contact with the costomer. They fill out the paperwork describing the complaint and verify if they can. That's an important job. They give estimates for costomer work, schedule the work, and assign it to a mechanic. From then on he's the go between between the mechanic and the costomer or manufacturer which ever the case may be. They were my boss. They interviewed and hired me. They in effect, ran the shop, not sit around on their thumbs somewhere out of sight. In your original post, there were no other 'related problems'. There was one misdiagnosis after another. I don't even think the tire balacing would have been covered under vehicle or tire warranty anyway. Though I do remember us sending warranty cars out for tire balancing. I thought the shop/dealership just ate that expense for customer satisfaction's sake. What would have happened in the case you discribed, barring the use of creative paperwork, would have been after somewhere between the 1st and 3rd attempt to fix the original problem, the district rep wouldn't authorise any more payments. Their position would be that they already paid to correct this problem, and rightly so. He'd assume the tech doesn't know WTF he's doing. The only way they would have paid for all that as you said is if your service writer consulted the district rep and he directed the work of replacing the engine, trans, etc, before hand. If that were the case, I'd be surprised if he still has a job with GM today. The example in your original post was why imo warranty flat rate is a rip off of the shop and mechanic. The manufacture's positon is something like since it's new and clean, everything comes apart easier. Though there may be some truth to that, it's still mostly BS. When a car that's 5 or 10 years old comes in with a problem, it's a pretty safe bet it's been working fine for some time. What you have to do then is figure out what's worn or broken. When something new comes in, something may not have ever been right in the first place like your missing bolts. For me it's harder to figure out what's wrong with something that never worked than something that used to and then quit. They seldom if ever paid extra diagnosis time on account of that. Dealerships here are privately owed also. They are franchises which I'm sure is the same everywhere.

Ebay Classifieds do not work. And I discovered more business are listed there I want nothing to do with. Craigs list you can decide if you want to buy from a private person or a business. I sold on both sites for over 2 years and never sold a thing on Ebay Classifieds. On Craigs list I was able to sell at least one or two items per week. I tried Amazon.com and found that the sellers there on the forums wanted me off the site. They did not want new sellers at all and kept telling me to go sell on Ebay. Well I sold on Ebay too. Did well till another seller got pissed, she purchased something from me, cancelled the sale before it was over and then posted badly about me. The main problem with both sites is the buyers. If they do not get that they think they want or are entitled to, they will post some God awful things which will hurt a seller. Neither Ebay or Amazon care as long as the buyers keep coming back. It seems both sites think there are so many sellers, so what if they loose a few. I was doing well on Amazon, till I sent out a book and flat out posted no returns, no refunds. The buyer sent back the book damaged. Amazon, kicked me off the forums as I spoke my mind and then "fined" me for a bad return. We now see what Amazon was really about, as it has been proven in court it was cheating its buyers (always cheated it's sellers in my opinion). The recent lawsuit proved Amazon is a "dirty dealer". If you look long enough on local to your home sites you will find what you want. If you are buying used, buy local only. Go look at the item. If you buy on line and can't see it as in furniture, you are making a big mistake. Good luck.

For visibility on the road and ease of entering and exiting the car, my mother drives a Ford Escape, one of the smaller SUVs. It has the advantage too of allowing her to place her groceries, packages, at a good height in back for removing those once she's pulled into her garage to not bend then lift. She's had both hips replaced and has osteoporosis at 86, is 5'2" and about 125 pounds. Like all SUVs, it does have a bit of a blind spot to the rear right so looking over one's shoulder is always a good idea before making lane changes. I've had hip surgery myself and have driven an Explorer for the last 30+ years - not the same one, I've had three now :) DH, who drives a Ford 250, and I both find it easier to get up into a larger or taller vehicle than down into a smaller one. The deal breaker for me any more is heated seats. We don't operate at the same temperature and I was always too cool driving with DH, and if I was comfortable he was too warm. The electronically adjustable (lumbar too) individually heated seats have solved that, but I have to say its so nice for an achy back (and mine hurts a lot of days) I am warming my backside when driving alone too. Most makes of cars offer them, although not always in the base models, you have to go up a little in the extras.

Stacey, I loved The Stand. Originally as published. I think professional editors are professional for reason. That being said, I think my most favorite Stephen King book was a little known one he co-authored with Peter Straub (who wrote Ghost Story). This has been one of my all time favorite books - both for it's fantasy and it's horror. Several studios have tried to make it into a movie/mini series. I think Ron Howard is the latest to attempt it. I would recommend it as equal, but different, to The Stand. Both in my Stephen King Hall of Fame. 4 1/2 stars on Amazon from 623 reviewers: Here is a link that might be useful: The Talisman