Ranger carrying the mail

[12Bravo20]

I grew up in rural North Carolina in the 60’s - 80’s and the local mail carrier was a family frIend. For 30 years he drove whatever the family car was at the time and sat in the passenger seat and steered the traditional left hand drive car with his left hand and braked and gassed with his left foot. You actually saw that a lot in small town America. They probably don’t allow that anymore for liability reasons.

I still see that quite often where I live. Most routes are rural here.

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[MountainGoat]

Yeah, thinking the current vehicles with the iron duke Pontiac motors have been around since the early '80s...

Oh god a buddy in high school had a Camaro with that Iron Duke. Thing was sloooowwww, I bet that postal truck really moves with it.

 

[Progeny2021]

Oh god a buddy in high school had a Camaro with that Iron Duke. Thing was sloooowwww, I bet that postal truck really moves with it.

Thinking it was a 'one year only option' (1982) - first year of the Gen 3 Camaro.

Lots of weird stuff back then - even talk of putting a diesel into the Corvette. I've driven exactly one GM diesel - a first year 1978 Olds 88 coupe. Red with red interior. Seemed interesting but it wasn't long before I started hearing about all of the issues that plagued the 1st gen 5.7L diesel.

 

[MountainGoat]

Thinking it was a 'one year only option' (1982) - first year of the Gen 3 Camaro.

Lots of weird stuff back then - even talk of putting a diesel into the Corvette. I've driven exactly one GM diesel - a first year 1978 Olds 88 coupe. Red with red interior. Seemed interesting but it wasn't long before I started hearing about all of the issues that plagued the 1st gen 5.7L diesel.

Yep it was a beat to shit 82. My buddy tried taking it through inspection with colored tape instead of taillight glass and told the inspector "I thought tape passes" and the inspector was like "NO. Tape Fails". lol

 

[Dereku]

What was cool was the mail carrier we had in SC when I lived there was a JDM fan. He imported early 90s cars from Japan. Some were pretty cool.

 

[BobMac]

I grew up in rural North Carolina in the 60’s - 80’s and the local mail carrier was a family frIend. For 30 years he drove whatever the family car was at the time and sat in the passenger seat and steered the traditional left hand drive car with his left hand and braked and gassed with his left foot. You actually saw that a lot in small town America. They probably don’t allow that anymore for liability reasons.

I live in rural ne NC and it is still going on. Most of our guys and gals just swing the left leg ove the center and steer with left hand. Looks like most delivery routes are that way around here. I think I read somewhere that this is how the USPS hires drivers and pays them a car allowance on top of their pay. You pay for insurance and repairs thus saving the USPS them money.

 

[Langwilliams]

Thinking it was a 'one year only option' (1982) - first year of the Gen 3 Camaro.

The first new car I ever bought was a '84 camaro with the 2.5 4 cylinder and 4 speed auto. Same base motor as the fiero. It was slow but most cars were back then. The turbo mustang in the early 89's had a whopping 132 hp an the 5.0 had a staggering 139. they got better every year. '85 was the last carb year an was a decent performer but the '87 5.0 with 225 hp got things going.

 

[Progeny2021]

The first new car I ever bought was a '84 camaro with the 2.5 4 cylinder and 4 speed auto. Same base motor as the fiero. It was slow but most cars were back then. The turbo mustang in the early 89's had a whopping 132 hp an the 5.0 had a staggering 139. they got better every year. '85 was the last carb year an was a decent performer but the '87 5.0 with 225 hp got things going.

Just now read the motor was available for the Camaro in 1985 too. Too bad the modern 2.0L turbo four was still decades away....

 

[Langwilliams]

Just now read the motor was available for the Camaro in 1985 too. Too bad the modern 2.0L turbo four was still decades away....

The first modern high output small displacement engine I recall was the GM quad 4. I had one in an 88 or 89 Grand Am. It was a good family car that wasn't a slug an at the time I lived in Hawaii an insurance options were limited an it wasn't too bad to insure. The svo 2.3 turbo had the tech an output numbers for it's day but it was problem prone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_4_engine

 

[ControlNode]

Post office is always hiring here. Rural route though, gravel roads and byov(vehicle). From what I hear you need to buy tires every 3 months! They can't keep anybody.

I think that is poor budgeting. EMI (or whatever the right letters are) is a good amount of money, way more than the gas alone and if that is set aside for car maintenance as it should be, instead of driver's thinking of it as income, more times than not they end up with good money in an account that when needed for vehicle work it's not such a hit to their pocket. My wife is all upset some days about talks of her route getting a new van and keeps saying "I'm gonna lose $x a month" because that is what she makes in EMI. I can't get her to understand, when she is not pumping gas into that Jeep, buying tires, the constant work it needs from wear and tear that while she may be out some money, it's nowhere near the total EMI. And the only reason the costs are not that high is her Jeep is still under the extended warranty so she is only paying $100 deductibles right now, but that warranty cost at purchase should be from her EMI fund and was several thousand dollars. Really, when she gets the van she can sell the Jeep and get a car that is really good on gas, or even electric and have almost no maintenance cost for years and hope it's like the bolt and ends up with in warranty battery replacement. I have the Ranger and RS for road trips where range anxiety would be an issue.

Her Jeep was in the shop for 2 weeks and they gave her a van to drive recently. During that time she was driving the Ranger to work. I asked how much was gas those 2 weeks verses 2 weeks driving the Jeep and she got upset that by her Jeep breaking I had proof for my side of the argument. Other downside is that I think she now just wants to sell the Jeep and take my Ranger from me.

 

[MountainGoat]

I think that is poor budgeting. EMI (or whatever the right letters are) is a good amount of money, way more than the gas alone and if that is set aside for car maintenance as it should be, instead of driver's thinking of it as income, more times than not they end up with good money in an account that when needed for vehicle work it's not such a hit to their pocket. My wife is all upset some days about talks of her route getting a new van and keeps saying "I'm gonna lose $x a month" because that is what she makes in EMI. I can't get her to understand, when she is not pumping gas into that Jeep, buying tires, the constant work it needs from wear and tear that while she may be out some money, it's nowhere near the total EMI. And the only reason the costs are not that high is her Jeep is still under the extended warranty so she is only paying $100 deductibles right now, but that warranty cost at purchase should be from her EMI fund and was several thousand dollars. Really, when she gets the van she can sell the Jeep and get a car that is really good on gas, or even electric and have almost no maintenance cost for years and hope it's like the bolt and ends up with in warranty battery replacement. I have the Ranger and RS for road trips where range anxiety would be an issue.

Her Jeep was in the shop for 2 weeks and they gave her a van to drive recently. During that time she was driving the Ranger to work. I asked how much was gas those 2 weeks verses 2 weeks driving the Jeep and she got upset that by her Jeep breaking I had proof for my side of the argument. Other downside is that I think she now just wants to sell the Jeep and take my Ranger from me.

Seeing how I have been getting other peoples mail for years I'm gonna say they are not too organized.

As for your wife taking the Ranger, if you lift it and don't add running boards I've found that makes women hate it so might be a good idea!

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