We’re screwed! [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS. MEMBERS BANNED]

[Rusty PW]

The national 55 was repealed in the 90s.
BUT - it was set up in the 1970s in answer to very real threats to national security and our economy.
Did you even live through the 1970s as an adult so you can remember if it was the day for you to be able to buy gas? Remember how long you waited in line - then got 4 cars back from the pump and sorry, out of gas............... and no more coming for a while....
Misguided? No, not at all.
Hated and loathed? Yeah, you bet it was.
Imagine being a guy (or gal) who made their LIVING driving! Some got paid by the load, some by the mile, and for an OTR driver to suddenly have to make it from NY to NE - imagine the hours difference (I know a guy here in the forum who would figure that for you )
So it was hated, bigly, and when people hate something then it's called misguided, stupid, not helpful, not necessary, and any list of words you might think of.

I can't forget the gas station lines for blocks - then that station ran out of gas, don't forget the "you can buy gas only on odd numbered days if your license plate has an odd number or xx letter", the ratioing? The "you can only buy xx gallons at a time" or "no filling unless your tank is under 1/2"
I remember it well. Some places had NO gasoline, some had to ration it. You might be in a line for almost an hour, even longer, in some places.
The USA oil output was dropping to a low point, OPEC came in and say "we are not going to sell you ANY oil" and we were stuck on only what we could get from non-OPEC nations, or our own reserves and resources. Prices shot up but worse than that - there wasn't any gas.
Imagine being a farmer needing fuel to haul grain, or even the gas tractors working the fields and how the prices shot up.
How about owner/operator buying their own fuel, and finding their pay has been cut because they can't make the same trips in a week they used to.
It's a fact that once you hit 60 mph, MPG drops like a rock. Science, universities and yes, congress did studies that showed how much would be saved by a then typical car on US roads, and similar for SUVs and so on. (it was also considered that most people would drive over the limit and that would make them feel good, so 55 meant that even if they went 60, there'd be big savings)
I believe it was figured at one point it saved over 150,000 barrels of oil PER DAY. I recall it was way over 100,000 barrels, and that made a difference.

Now - did I like it? @#$& no! This ADHD teen/young adult in the 70s racked up so many speeding tickets one of the troopers knew me by name when he walked up to my car. The magistrate "what is it this time"? I hated it more than you might imagine because I'm that sort that struggles with limits. I was REALLY BAD back then, I mean REALLY bad. I should have been killed more than once. Luckily - there are things and ways I can sort of help control that and I've learned a lot - especially working years in a shop along I35/I80 intersection where we did 24/7/365 towing for the IHP and local police and the things I saw - you can never ever unsee - and it helped a lot seeing things only EMTs or military persons might see. Sometimes cleanup of a vehicle isn't that great before it gets towed in.
(And maybe, it's a reason to drive a Jeep - I mean, how fast ya gonna really go in one of these?)

So don't think I'm defending it for the wrong reasons or that I liked it at all. No way did I like it.
But I understood it, the principals behind it.

but none of that even matters because we're all screwed now that our Jeep values are in the toilet.

I worked at a Boron gas station in high school during the gas shortage. We had one guy pumping gas, one collecting the money, and the manager standing near by with a shotgun. We would get gas once, if lucky maybe twice a week. We would have a line of cars going for 4 blocks. The most you could buy was 10 gallon. We had fist fights break out while people were waiting in line. I always had a full tank of gas. So did my dad for work.

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[Rusty PW]

Interesting. learn something new everyday.

Am I really the only person who looked? It seems that grade school math has taken over this thread.
"If a train leaves station A traveling at 70 mph heading to Pheonix , but leaves 5 minutes early, how long ..."

Wait, what was the topic again? Screwed? My "toy" is going to lose value? At my age I'll either trade it in for another one or be buried in this one!

I looked.

 

[Zachanadandy]

Saving time doesn't matter one bit when driving excessive speed is the cause for wrecks and deaths. Last year there was 10 fatalities within 20 miles of my town. They want to claim 'icy roads' as the cause. We all know the real cause is idiots driving way too fast for conditions. Just because the DOT uses rock salt and deicer isn't an excuse to think you can drive 95. I see it. Every single day. Its terrible. Even in the summer. In town daily, literally daily, there area t least 3 or 4 wrecks. Bad ones. Ones people don't walk away from. At least 4 or 5 times a week part of the interstate is partially or fully blocked because of a multi-car wreck and life flight. Yet, speeding still continues. Nobody cares, so reckless driving induced death will continue to trend upward. What's even worse is innocent people dying or loosing their vehicle and or legs because of some selfish high speed driver. I know if I got in a wreck because of some idiot driver at unnecessary speed, I would be too angry for words.

Nobody is saying drive 95 in an ice storm, but I'll take an attentive driver doing 10mph over the speed limit over the average dumbass texting and eating a bag of chips 10mph under the limit. The concept of speed limits includes the safety factor to cover everyone. If the semi hauling triples is "safe" at 75mph, I'm pretty sure my 85mph is safer. From a stopping distance to a maneuverability at that speed to the amount of damage done if I did hit something.

 

[JW Jeep]

I worked at a Boron gas station in high school during the gas shortage. We had one guy pumping gas, one collecting the money, and the manager standing near by with a shotgun. We would get gas once, if lucky maybe twice a week. We would have a line of cars going for 4 blocks. The most you could buy was 10 gallon. We had fist fights break out while people were waiting in line. I always had a full tank of gas. So did my dad for work.

ya , I remember the odd and even days on your license plates for getting gas. We would just switch plates sometimes.

 

[OVERLORD]

I thought it was hilarious a few years back, our main road into the metro area (winding, hilly, near the river, a whole lot of deer and critter crossing and a lot of homes in the area) the speed limit was 45. I thought reasonable for the winding hilly areas where trees were right up to the edge of the road in places and deer could come up out of the valleys and people coming onto the road while traffic approaches that they can't see because of the hills and curves and all.
All of a sudden after one of those studies, we found the speed limit signs at 35! A full 10 mph decrease. You gotta be kidding? It's how people from Monroe, Runnells and some other areas get to work in Des Moines! oh, boy, that's going to go over like a lead balloon.
that lasted a couple of weeks. No one paid any attention to it.
Then suddenly the signs were changed up to 40. Better, but still slow for all those miles on that part of the road. You DO find quite a few actually driving 40, sticking really close. Maybe up and down a bit, but I'd say they average 40 while the majority still go 45, and then there's the other end at 50-55 (and I love to watch them slam on the brakes and do a bit of a slide after they whiz past us, pull back in and then a deer pops out ahead of them.)
So their study was flawed or something. It's really not bad at all at 45, I have no idea why they changed it in the first place.
Then as the road gets closer to the river, and there's a couple of steeper hills and the trees are denser and right up to the road - Pleasant Hill has their section of that road at ..........45.
Funny to see the county drop it so dramatically to 35 while PH kept 45 the whole time, then the county relents and goes up to 40 - PH still at 45 down by the river. (and there's a goofy RR crossing there as well)

On any given road, eighty-five percent of folks drive at a speed they find safe.

That's how speed limits standards began.

Then, you have a percentage of the blue-haired-white-knuckle-types who drive, WAY below the speed limit.

Then, you have a percentage of the heavy-right-foot-types, and youngin's who drive above the posted speed limit.

Then, you have a percentage of folks who realize, they can make money knowing human patterns, and throwing them a curve ball.

Let us knock the 85th percentile standard down a bit, and oil up them there cash registers., then we can add ................................ court fees!

Cha Ching Walla Walla Bang Bing!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

. If the semi hauling triples is "safe" at 75mph, I'm pretty sure my 85mph is safer.

You are - they are not. Unions and special interest groups.
Live around here where you have massive truck traffic crossing the country on I80 east and west, and I35 north and south and see what happens with those rigs. Massive damage, death and destruction even at the speed limit.

16.5 percent of all fatal vehicle crashes in Iowa involved large trucks compared to the national average of 7.8 percent.

The states with the highest percentage of large trucks involved in fatal crashes in 2021 are:

Nebraska – 16%
Iowa – 16%
Kansas – 14%
Wyoming – 14%

The states with the most deaths resulting from large truck crashes in 2021 are:

Texas – 806 deaths
California – 437 deaths
Florida – 373 deaths

The problem here is they TAILGATE - I mean they come up on you with maybe only 2 or 3 car lengths while running 70+
I could stop easily if necessary - but I'd be crushed.
I was rear-ended by a big rig in the 1990s and the driver blamed ME. He was going like a bat out of hell, cut me off changing lanes and a couple of miles ahead I was actually ahead of him and here he comes up on my tail and when I have to slow down for a heavy traffic pattern ahead - WHAM. he hits me and then blames me for "stopping on the highway". No, dude, I was slowing for heavy traffic - it was I80 near Altoona and if anyone has ever driven that in late afternoon, they know what it's like - for no reason at all, traffic slows to a crawl, then as quickly as it slowed, once past Altoona, things clear out and speed up again.

Naw, they ain't safe at 75, no way, the lobby groups and unions did that. They play games on I80 as well, getting next to each other and refusing to let any traffic past them. Tons of complaints about that, along with tailgating and so on.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

but I'll take an attentive driver doing 10mph over the speed limit over the average dumbass texting and eating a bag of chips 10mph under the limit.

Man, I can't even begin to list the ways I agree with that one. I'd do 50 likes for that statement alone

 

[Stuntman Mike]

Funny to read about speed limits in a Gladiator forum.

Since I bought the Gladiator the travelling speed on the highway for me is a relaxing 62 to 75 mph.

Wife and dog appreciating this ...

Before I was usually going between 125 and 150 mph where allowed.
MPG for this kind of driving was ok with Porsche and Corvette, with other cars not.

And 15 years ago I could really reduce my travel time considerably, nowadays not because of traffic ..

 

[JTGuy]

I can remember getting gas for 20 cents a gallon. I remember my lungs hurting living just outside Los Angeles.

 

[Minty JL]

Well this thread got spicy with the mods and staff threatening to ban people.

 

[chorky]

Nobody is saying drive 95 in an ice storm, but I'll take an attentive driver doing 10mph over the speed limit over the average dumbass texting and eating a bag of chips 10mph under the limit. The concept of speed limits includes the safety factor to cover everyone. If the semi hauling triples is "safe" at 75mph, I'm pretty sure my 85mph is safer. From a stopping distance to a maneuverability at that speed to the amount of damage done if I did hit something.

Neither is safe - around here anyway. Last time I passed a truck thinking it was going slow I ended up having to punch it to 95 to pass. Thats not ok. They're not supposed to go past 70 here. And I beg to differer that your 85 is 'safer'. Maybe the potential for major catastrophe is slightly less, but people tend to give even less following distances around other smaller vehicles, so goof up at 85 and it's a bad day. Not to mention most roads here are really not suitable for such speeds. People have a false sense of security because modern vehicles are more often than not more capable of speed than the driver is capable handling a problem. And the bigger issue is half the people going well over the limit are also texting and not paying attention. I am shocked more people dont die on the daily out here.

 

[Zachanadandy]

Neither is safe - around here anyway. Last time I passed a truck thinking it was going slow I ended up having to punch it to 95 to pass. Thats not ok. They're not supposed to go past 70 here. And I beg to differer that your 85 is 'safer'. Maybe the potential for major catastrophe is slightly less, but people tend to give even less following distances around other smaller vehicles, so goof up at 85 and it's a bad day. Not to mention most roads here are really not suitable for such speeds. People have a false sense of security because modern vehicles are more often than not more capable of speed than the driver is capable handling a problem. And the bigger issue is half the people going well over the limit are also texting and not paying attention. I am shocked more people dont die on the daily out here.

I70 in Utah has an 80mph seed limit and most of I40 has a 75mph seed limit. These are uncrowded desert freeways. I'm not doing 85mph through traffic or in town and in my opinion it's perfectly safe.

 

[Mr._Bill]

I70 in Utah has an 80mph seed limit and most of I40 has a 75mph seed limit. These are uncrowded desert freeways. I'm not doing 85mph through traffic or in town and in my opinion it's perfectly safe.

It may be perfectly safe, for you. That is information you should provide when saying you drive at high speeds and don't think it's a problem.

 

[Uparms]

Just got a 2023 Sport Max Town with S package and Premium soft top, 42K. Built it with dealer, submitted factory order and watch a 10 day build and 15 day delivery.

Part of the problem is buying off the lots with all the BS dealers overload them with, IMHO. 1/2 the people who buy these and the JLs are buying luxury amenities, not Jeeps.

These JTs, the F150 and even the Silverados can be had affordably if you are willing to look wide or factory order your own and cut back on some of the luxury car amenities.

#OneMan'sKiaIsAnotherMan'sCadilac!

One thing think we should be thinking and it may have appeared already..... Looking for value estimates from any and multiple dealers is not the best place to seek tru numbers.

A practice I use when buying and selling used is comparing identical vehicles on 3 big estimation sites, NADA, Edmunds and (an average of identical featured cars/miles) from Cars.com or CarGarus. Average the 3 together and you get a pretty good idea of what's going on.

Dealer is the last person I look to for a value number.

 

[Deleted member 57233]

Funny to read about speed limits in a Gladiator forum.

Since I bought the Gladiator the travelling speed on the highway for me is a relaxing 62 to 75 mph.

Wife and dog appreciating this ...

Before I was usually going between 125 and 150 mph where allowed.
MPG for this kind of driving was ok with Porsche and Corvette, with other cars not.

And 15 years ago I could really reduce my travel time considerably, nowadays not because of traffic ..

Yeah, the gladiator is not exactly a speed demon lol. The speed limit on the freeways in Idaho is 80mph. My VW happily humms along at 90-95 at about 2300 rpm in 6th.

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