I’m here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with Torch, fixing up our 375,000 Mile Nissan NV200 Taxi Cab. Will it be in good enough shape to limp to a nearby parking lot for an Autopian meetup on Sunday? I sure hope so! Because we want to meet you!
This van is part of a partnership we have with Copart. We bought it for $800, and it has 375,000 of the hardest miles known to man — New York City miles.
And those hard miles show on this non-running, somehow-charming steaming pile we bought:
Anyway, I’m in town to help Torch get this thing up and running, so I figured we should have a meetup considering how great last year’s went:
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We’ll meet at noon on Sunday in a parking lot across from Merritt’s Grill (1009 S Columbia St, Chapel Hill, NC 27514) in Chapel Hill. If, for whatever reason, this unsanctioned location is taken up/blocked off, our alternative location will be Walmart (Walmart Supercenter, 12500 US Hwy 15 501 N, Chapel Hill, NC 27517). But we had good luck in this gravel lot before, so it should work:
Bring your cool car, or don’t! We just want to meet you.
About 3:35 away per Google, but I haven’t managed to get the Grand Marquis registered yet, and after that there”s the window regulator and whatever might have ossified in the 18 months it’s been in my driveway. And it’s just as well – all I’d manage is to eavesdrop on other people and throw in quick drive-by comments, because I still pride myself on having absolutely nothing substantive to say. Maybe another year.
Alas, I still have to sort out the brakes on the 300TD before I can drive it anywhere and the weather has not been cooperative, what with all the rain, the snow, and temps dropping into the teens and all (yeah, the pitfalls of only having a driveway and no garage) so I’ll have to sit this one out. Hopefully next time.
Though it’ll be interesting to see how you all do with the Faustian bargain you all have disappointingly made in partnering with Copart, Copart’s repugnant founder (repugnant because of how aggressive he is in terms of working to disenfranchise so many minority communities, of which many of your very own staff, not to mention readers, are members, through his substantial monetary donations and his activism), and Copart’s painfully subpar customer service (based on the experiences of myself and my friends and the experiences related by many in the comments on previous articles about your Copart project.) Hopefully you all can finish it up quickly with the Copart partnership and be done once and for all with that company and move on to more fruitful partnerships with choices better aligned with the core values of this website and its staff.
It’s only about 2 1/2 hours but already have plans to go to LKQ with a buddy for various parts for our 2000s vehicles on Sunday. Jason you need to come to Radwood Charlotte this year! Well any Autopianos…autopianers?…I like pianos better, it’s gonna be a hoot, and warmer than the current weather, and such.
Hmm… Last time I showed up in my 2007 lifted GX470 with 300K miles. Seemed appropriate. This time I either have an F250 with a gigantic truck camper complete with slideout, or my new to me Jaguar F-Type. Leaning towards the F-Type just for gas $$$ reasons (I’m 120 miles away)….
I remember you (IIRC, haha)! I was literally just thinking how much I liked that GX.
If I were still young and single – Chapel Hill is about 8 hours, 480 miles
Argh, six and a half hours each way. And in the truck, because the Chrysler has summer-only tires on it and I can’t trust the weather. Yeah, I don’t think I’m up for that on short notice.
We should do some other East Coast thing when it’s warmer, though.
Do it…. That which does not kill us only makes us stronger.
No. It just usually hurts a lot.
I hope you guys have a great turnout! The only letdown is the fact Merritt’s Grill isn’t open on Sundays. (I binged their BLTs when in college at UNC)
Balls. I hope one of these lines up with one of my many family trips to the NC Piedmont someday.
Alas I am some 750 miles away. Have fun though!
260 miles. So tempted.
OMG this was so fun last year, and I have the filthy, rusty, VA license plate from DT in a place of honor in my garage! I’ll try and get there from just down the road in Raleigh
I missed the last one and I’m less then an hour away, I just wish it would be warmer!
The forecast for Sunday is sunny with a high of 57! Sounds great to me.
Is Matt going to be there? There’s just something about meeting him and the new van down by the griller.
This is in way better shape than the FC David bought from coastal Washington, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
I live in Colorado which is exactly umpteen thousand miles away from your meet-up. Now, if someone had a taxi…..
I’ll be there in the Sunset Truck, and will try to roll in with some cohorts again.
It just so happens that there is a Cars & Coffee that morning at Marsh Creek Park in Raleigh from 9-12. TriangleRAD will be hosting a cruise from there to Chapel Hill, leaving at 11:30.
Man….a 6.5 hour drive one-way is a tough pill to swallow since my friends aren’t available to trade driving duty with.
Hope y’all come to PA (or at least MD, NJ, NY…something under 3 hours) someday! Would love to meet you (and show off my Prius v).
I can’t this time, but I am always down to meet halfway (SE corner of Virginia) and drive the rest.
Can I keep you in mind as well? I would be coming from Pittsburgh and Wytheville VA is a logical fuel/food stop.
Absolutely. I’m down for a road trip with anyone! Just please don’t harvest my organs?
I must drive too much…
If you can detour slightly (looks like it adds about 30 minutes) to go through Richmond that would be so much better on my end. Wytheville is further from me than Chapel Hill is.
Richmond implies DC area for me …
I usually come down from PA 79-19-64-77 which gets me to Charlotte or so.
Oh fair. Yeah DC sucks. Not sure I’m close enough to your route for it to make sense then. I’m in Williamsburg VA area
Vaguely know the area. I95?
No, the beginning of 64. I have to go to Richmond to catch 95
That’s PA turnpike, 76 to Breezewood and 70 down to Baltimore/DC. Then 95 south.
I misread SE as SW.
You are in Western PA. Ugh 76. Sorry man, those tolls suck. :/
To get to my parents from NC its 95 to 270 to US 15 to 81 to 78 Then I can take 78 to 100 to 22 or I can take 78 pretty much all the way in.
So, I know the time its gonna take you to get down here.
If you’re coming through MD on I 81, I could join you from there.
Oh hell yeah, see y’all Sunday. Last time I rode home with a dirty old license plate from DT tucked in my pants, can’t wait to see how we top that!
You’re so excited, you commented twice!
Dang it, did it do that? Sometimes I hit post, and it’s still in the edit box the next time I look at my phone and I think “I must not have hit post”
Heh. I wouldn’t know; I don’t post from my phone.
Just thought it was funny, was all.
Apologies, in my 20’s, when I was set on “not bowing down to the man” – I got a speeding ticket in North Carolina on my way from Ohio to Hilton Head. The fine was $25. But, due to a vagary of the North Carolina legal system, I was required to either A: appear in court or B: Hire local counsel to appear in my stead. Making it back to NC on a work day was not an option, and paying “local counsel” $300 was not something I was willing to do either.
Little did I know that NC has a reciprocity set up with Ohio so Ohio WILL suspend your license for non payment of NC fines.
TL;DR – $730 some odd dollars later I had my license back. I will also drive 10 hours out of my way to avoid North Carolina if the need ever arises.
Have fun everyone!!
Fun fact, NC has a whole cottage legal industry set up around speeding tickets. Basically, you hire a lawyer from one of the MANY law firms that specialize in speeding tickets, pay a fixed price, and they will make it go away for you.
It’s one of those quality regressive taxes that make sure the poor of The South stay poor.
Look up “Iticketlaw” if you don’t believe it.
Can confirm. It’s been some years now, but I spirited one away from for some $400. I got at least a dozen advertisements from lawyers offices wanting my business, too.
So court costs in NC are around $250 now. The fines go to the school system in the county where the infraction occurred. So if you go to court, they typically range from 0-$25. So you’re looking at $275 just for the ticket. I’ve used iTicket.law before, they only added $100 to the cost of the ticket (and got it reduced to a city code violation rather than a moving violation.) Money well spent to not have to get up early to sit in court – and I live near the courthouse. Also, it depends on the county as to whether you can get the ticket changed to a non-moving violation, some are very liberal with the equipment (inaccurate speedo) violations, while the county I used to live in would laugh in your face for even suggesting it.
I can’t believe that as an Ohio resident you’re complaining about our tickets. I’ve had warnings from people who live there to not speed more than 5 mph over, and seen people who were pulled over for such on my couple of journeys through there. You’re pretty much safe going up to 9 over in NC. In fact, as much as people complain about how strict the police are in the South in general (I’ve heard stories about how the HP is in all the I-95 states south of Maryland) I’ve found you can go 9 over in all of them.
The real problem in NC is actually that insurance increases are tied to insurance points (different than driving points) and penalties for tickets and accidents jack up your insurance rates quickly – and for 3 years.
Ya mighta replied to the wrong person, as an NC resident I’ve been trained to fear VA highway patrol, and so feel we have it mostly comparatively good.
by the time I got home 8 days later, my mailbox was FULL of solicitation letters from attorneys. From what i was told, they pay to be put on some sort of notification list so they get the mailing address of all the out of state ticket recipients, so they can try and get their business
So yeah, i totally believe it
We NC residents get them too, it’s not just for out of state people.
*boots crunch in the gravel as the participants take their positions*
*a hawk screams in the middle distance*
*all stand motionless as a tumbleweed rolls through the scene*
“Hi, everyone! I’m Jason and this is David…”
😀
Cue the Sergio Leone music score …
Shower Spaghetti Western
COTD
Oh hell yeah, see y’all Sunday
Dang! Wish I could join, but I will be lounging about in the Chicago airport at that time. Terrible timing for a work trip on my part!
Welcome to NC David!
Do I try to make it again in the Saabaru, which has gotten even more sketchy since last year, and have it catastrophically break down in the middle of nowhere again?
No, but only because I would need to still be at work at 6am on Monday, and it’s an 11-hour drive, and missing work after 27 layoffs and the removal of 401k match and raises for the year would be very unwise.
If it wasn’t for those things, I would be there.
We got it fixed last time though, right?
The driver side front corner, yeah. It’s still rusting apart and shakes a lot at certain speeds, for undiagnosed reasons, so it’s not fun to drive long distances if you have to spend any time at those speeds. I’m just trying to keep in on the road long enough to get through this winter and OppoX at the end of March, anything beyond that is well past what I would have expected.
Dang. Here’s hoping it makes it to spring.
I kind of hope it doesn’t, I’ve had its replacement in the garage since February? March? of 2024, and I’d like to get my car count back down. The ideal situation would be a catastrophic corrosion-related failure at OppoX. I’d like it to survive until then.
It’s only an 11.5 hour drive away, but I don’t think the Test Car will be ready by Sunday. I’m finally fixing the transmission!
I’m visiting family in Florida this week, down from New England. One more plane crash making the news just might lead me to join you, nonrefundable return ticket or not.