Australian's Lamborghini impounded after his mechanic caught speeding.

[dazzleman]

One time, he had a date with a girl from Wilton (CT), a pretty wealthy town,  and used the excuse that he'd never be able to find her house with my navigation system..  Pretty clever.  I didn't fall for it, but let him use the car anyway.  I knew the real reason.

[SVT_Power]

I hope he at least pays for your interior cleaning once in a while 

[dazzleman]

[James Young]

I see that Officer Rohan does not spend a lot of time worrying about equity.

[Raza]

Nope it's not.  It's a matter of KNOW who you're lending your car to- you're the owner it's your responsibility to make certain people are driving it are proper drivers - how you get your mechanic to pay you back isn't the problem of the court.  The law says that if a officer stops a car which the driver does not have a valid license the officer "shall" impound the vehicle.  Shall = Must.  Also- if I pull over a drunk driver who has a prior conviction for drunk driving if he's borrowing your car I'm still taking the plate and giving you a red "DUI" tag for the rear window and impounding the car.

Are you responsible for your car if it's stolen? 

[Raza]

It's na?ve to think a car shouldn't be impounded because the owner claims not to know what was being done illegally with the car.  It's too easy to feign ignorance.  The point is -- be careful to whom you lend your car.  I don't really let anybody borrow my car, except for my nephew on a few occasions when he wanted to impress a girl.

I don't let anyone borrow my car.  But I do drop it off at the dealership...

[rohan]

Are you responsible for your car if it's stolen? 

No your not but you will have to pay the impound and storage fees with the tow company.  But from what I know is you turn in your receipt to the insurance company with the stolen report and they reimburse you fully-  -  -  UNLESS you left your keys in the car and then you're not gonna probably see a dime from the insurance.

[rohan]

I don't let anyone borrow my car.  But I do drop it off at the dealership...

You know I honestly believe that if a dealership or licensed mechanic has someone using the car they're probably going to be liable if it gets impounded because of their employee status and will either just pay you for the impound and probably some for your inconvenience.

[JWC]

This was the same reason/scenario I used to object to red light cameras.  Everyone then said just go to court and it will be dismissed, provided I can prove I wasn't driving the car, but as I said then, it shouldn't be my responsibility to prove my innocence, but the state's responsibility to prove that I was driving the car.  Plus, I don't have time to spend a day in court for something I wasn't guilty of in the first place.

Having worked at dealerships, I can say, without a doubt, that the places I worked at, the tech would have been dismissed for no license and the dealership would have a manager accompanied the owner to pay the towing and storage.

The dealers I worked for required a tech to have a valid license.  Of the ones that were more lenient, the tech without a license would take another tech with him to drive the vehicle.   The tech without a license would have a couple of tenths removed from his paycheck and given to the guy who had to drive.

The only time I have had a tech pulled over was because the customer's plate had expired two months before.  In that case, and thankfully the tech had a copy of the RO with him, the car got the ticket, not the driver.  The car's owner was pissed and demanded the dealership pay the 250 dollar fine.  We didn't.

[Raza]

No your not but you will have to pay the impound and storage fees with the tow company.  But from what I know is you turn in your receipt to the insurance company with the stolen report and they reimburse you fully-  -  -  UNLESS you left your keys in the car and then you're not gonna probably see a dime from the insurance.

Jeez, I can't believe there are people that leave their keys in their cars still.  I usually lock my car in my garage for the overnight, too.

[SVT_Power]

Jeez, I can't believe there are people that leave their keys in their cars still.  I usually lock my car in my garage for the overnight, too.

I leave my keys in the car all the time when it's in the garage.

But my car's not worth nearly as much as yours.

[Raza]

I leave my keys in the car all the time when it's in the garage.

But my car's not worth nearly as much as yours.

I park my car next to an LS460, which is parked next to an S500.  No one is going to steal the stickshift Volkswagen.   

[The Pirate]

I park my car next to an LS460, which is parked next to an S500.  No one is going to steal the stickshift Volkswagen.   

You never know.  The VW may be the one that's easiest to break into, disable the alarm, and hotwire...

[JWC]

You never know.  The VW may be the one that's easiest to break into, disable the alarm, and hotwire...

True.  When I worked at the Pontiac dealer, we towed in a Chevy Corsica that had been stolen. What a piece of crap, but the owner was happy.  He had two newer vehicles, one brand new, and they didn't touch them.  Just took the POS.

[Raza]

You never know.  The VW may be the one that's easiest to break into, disable the alarm, and hotwire...

Given that the thief a) doesn't break into the house and b) can drive stick. 

It's got a laser cut key though; I don't think it's all that easy to steal.

[Tave]

No one even so much as took a single penny out of my change tray in Phoenix after I had removed the top from my 4runner. I even hid the spare key in a magnet on the frame.

[VTEC_Inside]

Did you ever come close to getting your car impounded, VTEC?

Highest ticket to date was the bullshit 48kph over one that I got before the 50 over law came into effect here. That ended up as a 29kph over.

[rohan]

Given that the thief a) doesn't break into the house and b) can drive stick. 

It's got a laser cut key though; I don't think it's all that easy to steal.

How wrong you are!  A real car thief- not the crack head looking for a $50 score- will use what we call a "universal key" which is basically a round tube that about 2 1/2" inches deep with a metal bar that goes across the inside but not all the way to the "top" of the tube.  They're apparently really easy to make.  The thing usually has a 4x lug wrench welded to it.  They place the thing over your key ignition and line up the bar inside the thing to lay against the finger holds on the ignition  and start turning until your ignition breaks off taking the chip thingy with it.  Then they just reach in with a screw driver and start the car.  Takes about 15 seconds and your car is gone.  You wanna secure your car so it probably can't be stolen?  use a remote manual fuel shutoff switch on one of those super tiny hideaway switches.   There used to be (don't know if it's still there) a company in Detroit that put those in they were really hard to find unless you knew they were there we used to get complaints of Attempted Theft but I dont' think anyone ever actually stole one successfully.

[dazzleman]

Highest ticket to date was the bullshit 48kph over one that I got before the 50 over law came into effect here. That ended up as a 29kph over.

So I guess you've always been able to drive away from your encounters with Johnny Law.  Me too.  It's a lot better that way, man.

[rohan]

Highest ticket I ever got (in a car that wasn't quite mine) when I was a kid was 88/25 on Leverette St in Detroit.  The guy wasn't really very happy to see me so I "exited" the car.  A little while later he explained the error of my ways.   

[dazzleman]

Highest ticket I ever got (in a car that wasn't quite mine) when I was a kid was 88/25 on Leverette St in Detroit.  The guy wasn't really very happy to see me so I "exited" the car.  A little while later he explained the error of my ways.   

So you were a fucking delinquent....no surprise there...

And people talk about my 'indiscretions' because I used to go through toll booths without paying....

[rohan]

Let's just say I had an interesting childhood full of plot twists and surprising dialect.

[dazzleman]

Let's just say I had an interesting childhood full of plot twists and surprising dialect.

Apparently.  Mine was pretty lame by comparison.

[TurboDan]

And people talk about my 'indiscretions' because I used to go through toll booths without paying....

A cigar-smoking friend of our family used to deposit his stogie in the toll collection basket as "payment" back in the day and just drive off. Harder to do now with more advanced cameras and computer cross-matching. But funny nonetheless.

[dazzleman]

A cigar-smoking friend of our family used to deposit his stogie in the toll collection basket as "payment" back in the day and just drive off. Harder to do now with more advanced cameras and computer cross-matching. But funny nonetheless.

Dan, are you familiar with the toll they used to have on the lower end of the Hutchinson River Parkway in New York, right on the border between the Bronx and Pelham Manor (Westchester County)?

The first time I blew threw it without paying, I had no choice.  I had nothing smaller than a $20 bill and the only manned lane was temporarily closed.  I got a great feeling blowing through it, and nothing happened, so I continued to do it habitually after that.  Never got caught.

Depositing a cigar is pretty funny, since not only did he not pay, but he probably clogged the machine.  New Jersey deserves that, especially on the Garden State with all those idiotic tolls.

[TurboDan]

Dan, are you familiar with the toll they used to have on the lower end of the Hutchinson River Parkway in New York, right on the border between the Bronx and Pelham Manor (Westchester County)?

The first time I blew threw it without paying, I had no choice.  I had nothing smaller than a $20 bill and the only manned lane was temporarily closed.  I got a great feeling blowing through it, and nothing happened, so I continued to do it habitually after that.  Never got caught.

Depositing a cigar is pretty funny, since not only did he not pay, but he probably clogged the machine.  New Jersey deserves that, especially on the Garden State with all those idiotic tolls.

Nope, never been through that toll! I was in a situation like that last year in Florida. I went to get off an exit, but it was a "SunPass Only" exit. Turns out the state is slowly converting the entire Florida Turnpike into automated-only, meaning if you don't have SunPass, you can't drive on the highway. I was visiting a relative in area to which I had never been, so I couldn't just go past the exit and get off somewhere 5-10 miles away as I wouldn't have known where I was going. So I just blew through it. It was in my grilfriend's car, though.  I don't think she ever got a ticket from it - maybe their system doesn't cross-match with NJ plates, though I would think if FL wanted to cross-match with any other state it would be NY or NJ.

Funny thing was that in 2008, my father got a toll ticket in the mail that went back to 2003. Ironically, it was this incident that spurred him to get EZPass. He found himself on the way into the Lincoln Tunnel stuck in an EZPass lane and absolutely no way to get out of it (if you've ever used this tunnel, you know how this can happen!). So he had to go through the EZPass lane without the transponder. He called up and told them he actually bought EZPass because of what happened that day and they dropped it right there on the phone.  But it did take them five years to catch up to tickets going back to 2003, which was pretty funny!

[JWC]

On a midnight road trip, I found myself faced with having to cross the San Mateo Bridge, but I didn't have the $1 for the toll.  Since I owned a 1964 VW camper, I pulled into a branch of the bank I belonged to and climbed in the back and slept until the bank opened....about five hours.  (You'd probably get arrested trying that today, or since it was Oakland, you'd probably be murdered).   I cashed a check, crossed the bridge and when I arrived home, found out from my room mate that all I had to do was present my license and they would have billed me.

[Tave]

Nope, never been through that toll! I was in a situation like that last year in Florida. I went to get off an exit, but it was a "SunPass Only" exit. Turns out the state is slowly converting the entire Florida Turnpike into automated-only, meaning if you don't have SunPass, you can't drive on the highway.

That sounds horribly unconstitutional.

[J86]

Who knows, maybe they sold it to a private...

[Tave]

Florida Turnpike is owned and operated by Florida DOT.