I agree. 4x4 can benefit if exercised with due care rather than increased confidence. There is NO decrease in stopping distance with a 4x4 and NO increase in safe driving speed. There are conditions when a 4x4 can get through when a 2WD cannot. The keys are to drive slow, maintain good distances between vehicles, and not underestimate stopping distances relative to visibility and road conditions. In some ways, the ability for a 4WD to drive slowly up inclines is very important when compared with the need of a 2WD to maintain speed and momentum not to get stuck going up an incline. It also helps a great deal to know the limitations of a given vehicle with and without tire chains. The advantage gained in adding tire chains to a 4WD is incredible and hard for a person who has never used them to understand.

But success in a 4WD depends on care and experience. Louisiana drivers are particularly poor with regards to spacing between vehicles, moderating speed to account for visibility and road conditions, and due care in signaling, lane changes, passing, and anticipating what may be happening in front of the vehicle.

This made me bust out laughing. Just imagining it in my head. I've been off too long. This weather needs to ease up. Lol

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Most beautiful thing about that is they have an option. Sorry for your bad luck smalls.

Don't think to highly of a 4wd in snow / ice guys. I can tell you that a front wheel drive vehicle with a limited slip differential more often than not does better on snow / ice than a 4wd. Having the engine weight right above the drive wheels and having both the drive wheels providing power helps very very much. The low center of gravity for a FWD vehicle also means that if you do lose control and spin you are less likely to flip.

Order of driving preferance for me in sleet / ice conditions is thus. from worst to best

1) rear wheel drive truck/car. (FORGET IT, Dont even think about leaving your driveway)
2) 4 wd truck / suv or FWD vehicle (standard 4wd not limited slip diff's) (Better)
3) Front wheel drive vehicle with limited slip diff (pretty good)
4) 4wd vehicle with limited slip / full time awd systems (best)

But as everyone is saying, slow speeds, extra distances for breaking, you can do okay in most any vehicle...

I managed car rental operations as a regional manager for Hertz and Alamo over 15 years in the Northeast. I have seen a lot when it comes to dealing with driving in the snow. And i sure talked to one heck of a lot of guys like Southern 151 during times like this. You always knew when snow / ice was in the weather report when you talked to your body shop guys.. they had grins from ear to ear.

Finally made an appearance after being made a duck!! Next week huhh?? LMAO

Your a joke ^^^

I have a special dance just for such occasions!:rotfl: So far though, we've only had junk towed in. The coming days will hopefully shed some brighter light on the industry though!

The funny part is when I was halfway back to the house I realized how much an idiot I am. 75 yard walk down the driveway in the sleet just to take a damn picture. Yep im an idiot.lol

It is pretty funny....I got a day off out of it you won't hear me complaining. Got a pot of venison meatball stew cooking and chilling out.

Lol

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I bet you do.. :)

What kind of labor rates does the industry charge down there for mech / body / paint?

Mechanical in a mechanical shop starts at $90. We do not get that rate. Ours is about $75. Frame is $65. Body and, paint runs @ $48 and, materials is $33/hr. We're working to bring some of those numbers up a little right now. Heck, we had an approx. 20% increase in material cost last year and, not a bit of increase in rate.:pissed:

Do you feel there is a big difference in labor rates charged for shops depending why type of clientele they pursued?

I was always amazed at how different labor rates were in different markets. some markets there would be back alley type shops that would get all the low $ work, and then there would be high end lovely looking shops which had huge showrooms and immaculate work bays that would charge through the roof. Then other markets it seemed like all the body shops worked together and held the line on what minimum rates were.

We are in a state of emergency and not one snow flake has fell south of I-10

LMAO

You've got some room to raise rates, and you'll still be our first choice with higher rates.

We work really hard at avoiding the need of your services, but with a flock of teenagers getting licenses, our avoidance efforts may not succeed indefinitely.

I do recommend License2Drive in Lake Charles for those with teens approaching driving age. We were unable to find good training in the Baton Rouge area, so we expanded the search. These folks seem intent on actually developing safe teenage drivers and not merely meeting the state requirements and cashing the checks.

Wife's family has a drug store - every pill head around was freaking out yesterday to get their drugs filled. Biggest day in history of the store - bigger than last few hurricanes.

We have a HUGE volume of cut-rate shops around here and, they hurt us sometimes. Some folks don't know why we charge "so much" and, I've been told before that "I'm not paying for some fancy office and, nice building! I'm going over there!" Too bad, "Over there" is a shop full of crackheads, with terrible quality, no warranty, and, no insurance coverage for a customer's vehicle! I'm insured and, my guys are the best so, I charge as per industry standards. Most of your named shops stay pretty competitive though.

We also do have a pretty "fancy" office for our industry but, I don't charge for that...I just pay for it!:rotfl:

Thanks! We work very hard to keep our customer satisfaction index up top! For customers, I've stayed late, came in early, taken care of rental cars, saved a few $, etc, etc. Our customer service, I think, is what sets us apart from so many of the other shops in our area.

As far as avoiding the needs of our services, I understand. I was told a while back that "I love what you did for our vehicle but, I hate seeing you!":rotfl: We're more loathed than the dentist!:)

That's good rates, ours is not 75$ for mechanical, body and paint is stuck at 51$, not 100% sure on what shop gets on frame right now but I don't think it is 65$ despite the decline in payout from insurance companies on labor hrs per job...We are statefarm service 1st and enterprise rental contracted plus other contracts...

It is like that here in lake Charles, all the shops are pretty much getting the same rates, I think one dealership went up first and all the bigger shops followed suit right afterwards. The money in collision isn't what it was 10yrs ago. I've been doing this for 9 years now, 8 of which at the same shop.

I think I was misunderstood. Duck man I'm down here in thibodaux. We didn't even get cold until after 10am. Barley a drizzle all day. If I thought we would have any ice I wouldn't compromise the safety of my employees or customers. I just think we are so fast to jump the gun sometimes.
Wednesday no doubt about closing.

As far as cops writing tickets for sliding through stop signs I probably would go to jail if one did that to me.

W did I see slick on this thread? At the least I would change my user name if I were him.