If you own one of the following cars, you really need to pay attention to this post. You might be in trouble of having a serious problem due to the accelerator pedal and your floor mat:

This is the list of the Toyota and Lexus car models that are affected by the recall:
2007-2010 Camry
2005-2010 Avalon
2004-2009 Prius
2005-2010 Tacoma
2007-2010 Tundra
2007-2010 ES 350
2006-2010 IS 250 and IS 350

If you own any of these cars you need to take the floor mat out of your driver’s side floorboard and throw it somewhere where it cannot affect your driving at all.

A problem has arisen with the floor mats where they are actually not the right size for the cars and have been known to cause the accelerator pedal to get stuck against the floorboard. That means that you, the unsuspecting driver, will be careening out of control down some road if this unlikely event were to happen to you.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had this to say about the recall:

“This is an urgent matter,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “For everyone’s sake, we strongly urge owners of these vehicles to remove mats or other obstacles that could lead to unintended acceleration.”

NHTSA notes that there continue to be reports of accelerator pedal clearance issues which provide the potential for an accelerator pedal to get stuck in the full open position. A stuck accelerator may result in very high vehicle speeds and a crash, which could cause serious injury or death.

NHTSA said that Toyota has announced that it will soon launch a safety recall of various model year vehicles to redress the problem. However, the safety agency warned owners to remove all driver-side floor mats from the models listed below immediately as an interim safety measure in advance of the recall.

It’s the story everyone can’t stop talking about. When Michael Jackson passed away on Thursday, he left behind a mountain of debt, much more than the normal person would have. However, something strange has happened in the days following his death.

People have begun to buy his albums up so fast that cd producers can’t keep up with demand. After more than 15 years of having a CD anyone wanted to have in their house, all of a sudden, consumers are welcoming those albums back into their homes, actually opening up his music to a whole new generation of listeners.

Over the past few days, all of his albums have been in the top lists on iTunes and Amazon. It looks like following his death, Michael Jackson could end up being a very lucrative empire, although the man himself was $400 million in debt.

Deceased celebrities can actually bring in a small fortune after they have passed, particularly if he or she passed suddenly or unexpectedly. Elvis’s estate generated $52 million in 2008, 21 years after his death. Charles Schulz, the artist and creator of the Peanuts cartoon, earned $33 million in 2008.

In death, Elvis does so well partly because his image can be sold where as Schulz would likely not be recognized by the average person. You will see this anytime you walk into any gift shop on Beale Street in Memphis; they are all filled with Elvis memorabilia that is covered with his image. Jackson will likely not be remembered for his image, but for his music.

There is always the memorabilia that has been produced prior to his death that will earn some lots of money. Already, at auction, memorabilia from the early 90’s and 1980’s has fetched thousands of dollars more than what some thought they would be worth, and definitely more than they would be worth two weeks ago.

I thought that I should touch on the subject considering all the news agencies are reporting on this.

“Now his pension plan’s been cut in half and he can’t afford to die,” sings John Rich, of the country music duo Big & Rich, in his new, controversial song, Shutting Detroit Down. Two things nobody is ever financially ready for, especially if he or she is a money spender: retirement and death. Financially speaking, it is hard to die at the right time, unless you know much more than anyone else and can plan your death. People are so wrapped up in saving for retirement, 401k plans, life insurance plans, IRAs, money markets, or anything else they can find that will provide extra money for retirement and death. If you die too early, the paychecks your family was living off of are gone. If you die too late, you impoverish your family or confine yourself to an unpleasant local retirement home by depleting your savings.

One unexpected side effect of the recession is a jump in sales of fixed immediate annuities, which dispense guaranteed income for life. New York Life reported an 82% sales increase this quarter alone. A man at retirement age paying them $100,000 now will receive $650 a month for life, which is perfect for a retired man whose house and vehicle are paid off and bills are low. That’s equal to 7.8% of the total each year, double what most retirement investments pay out.

Christopher Blunt, who runs New York Life’s retirement division believes that annuities offer the best way to lock in guaranteed retirement income. Retirement income is  generated from a stock-and-bond portfolio requires keeping plenty of assets in reserve in case they’re needed to fund a long life or contend with a nasty bear market,” he says. The point is that you can get the same retirement income as you could from your portfolio, with 25% to 40% less principal.

The way they generate superior retirement income is by transferring it from those who do not collect it to those who do. For instance, if you pay them $100,000 and die three days later, your money is lost and goes to someone who is still collecting. However, if you live until you’re 85 and you have been collecting since you were 65, you have received $156,000 over the tenure of the relationship, over 50% profit. If you are lucky to live to 95, you have likely received $234,000, with a profit of nearly 150% of what you paid. For those who are healthy at 65, it is a good investment, especially if that person also has savings and stocks to tide over through bad times or to leave to their families. Assuming you are in good health, there are few downsides to a fixed annuity, especially if you keep your product features simple. You pay $100,000 of your savings to provide for the rest of your life. If you have been saving well for retirement, you likely still have $350,000 to leave to your family whether you collect or not.

One of the ads features a man clinging to steel beams. It looks like if he lets go, he will plummet to his death, and he knows it. However, when the camera backs out a bit, you see he’s only a few feet off the ground.

That ad would be more funny, to me and possibly to others, if right now people had the opportunity to change where they wanted to work or the field they wanted to work in. Construction is one of the fields that is hemorrhaging jobs right now too.

The video can be seen here

The report recommended setting up barricades or rope lines to manage crowds before the sale, handing out wristbands or numbered tickets to arriving customers, positioning store employees in the parking lot and providing them radios to share information.

Patrons should enter the stores in smaller groups, not all at once; retailers should have maps showing where to find the hottest sales items, and patrons should be kept out once the store reaches maximum occupancy, the report said.

Stores should call police if crowds become unruly and plan whom to call in a medical emergency, but they should also have defibrillators on hand and staffers trained to use them, the report said.-AP

Hopefully these measures will prevent another tragedy like that…however, crowds can and will still be unpredictable.

Source

There was someone very close to my family who was killed in an auto accident on Thanksgiving. So, please be careful during this holiday season, and always designate a driver if you have been drinking or are otherwise shouldn’t be driving.

No. 1 Thanksgiving
Average Vehicular Deaths: 573

No. 2 Independence Day
Average Vehicular Deaths: 505

No. 3 Memorial Day Weekend
Average Vehicular Deaths: 493

No. 4 Labor Day Weekend
Average Vehicular Deaths: 488

No. 5 New Year’s Eve/Day
Average Vehicular Deaths: 421

At 5 a.m. shoppers “broke down the doors” to get to the sales, trampling Jdimytai Damour while he was attempting to open the doors. At least four other employees were injured trying to save him.

Store managers and police were telling customers to leave because they were closing due to the death…many of the customers became angry because of the announcement (even though they knew why the store was closing).

I was at our local Wal-Mart this morning, and while no one was trampled, it was a “mad house.” The store didn’t close the night before, so people were lining up around the items they wanted. The largest (and angriest) line was around the electronics, followed by toys.

This is a sad, sad accident to happen…unfortunately, it will most likely not be the last time someone is injured or killed because of an unruly crowd during a large sale.

The latest wave of new fees by Ebay gives ample reasons to list with greatly lower listing fees and the new 30-day listing features which where previously only available to Ebay Store owners, however it comes with a range of final value fees that differ by category. Before FFV where pretty much standard across all categories except autos now they differ “GREATLY” depending on your listing category. Click here for the new listing fees.

With sellers constantly having to come up with ways to save on listing fees and FFV fees, PayPal fees and etc we are left with fewer and fewer options as our costs rise. I and several other Power Sellers are experimenting with listing our items in different categories than what they actually are. Because of this I wouldn’t be surprised if the category “Computers & Networking” has a spike in listing because that category carries the lowest FFV, almost half of every other category, as long as you target your keywords right you should reduce your fees without harm to your over sales volume.

Today they reported a decrease in sales again, 20.3% less than last year for August. Still, that’s better than the 31% drop from July’s totals. When looking at all the major car manufacturers, only one increase over last year, Nissan.

Toyota is up from July too. Their sales would go up a lot more if they could produce the Prius faster. Even at a small local dealer (in a town of less than 20,000) the wait list for one of them is between 3 and 6 months.

I’m sure that sales will go up for all the companies, especially with oil prices falling every day. I wouldn’t advise anyone to purchase a GM…but that’s personal preference.

The worst part is it is no more than 4 1/2 years old.

It seems like we’re not the only people experiencing these issues with this particular refrigerator. After an extensive search, there are plenty of people complaining about the ice dispenser. I have read people’s complaints that sound like they’ve walked into my home and examined my fridge.

I will lay some of the blame on the faulty fridge on the fact it’s not the most expensive refrigerator on the market. Still, something that cost close to $1000 should last a bit longer than 5 years.

The point of this post is to discourage people from purchasing GE refrigerators, or appliances. If my single opinion isn’t enough to say your decision here’s a couple of websites that may:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/ge_refrigerators.htm

http://www.my3cents.com/productReview.cgi?compid=230&product=Refrigerator-Side

I have also had nothing but wonderful experience with the airline. The only complaint I have is that seating is first come, first serve. However, it is still a small inconvenience when compared to the cost of traveling on a different airline.

We live closer to Memphis, TN which does not have a Southwest terminal in the airport. However, with other airlines charging more for fares and bag fees, it is cheaper to drive to Jackson, MS or Little Rock, AR to get to an airport that Southwest flies to than to fly on Delta, Northwest, American Airlines, etc…

I am getting tired of extremely small measures airlines are taking to cut costs. They are nickel and diming the consumer to death. Hopefully I never have to fly US Airways on a long trip and get thirsty. The next thing they’re going to do is charge to use the toilet. Ridiculous!

Of course, a lot of hype building up to the release was fueled by the untimely death of Heath Ledger, who plays the Joker in The Dark Knight. Most of the focus in the trailers has been on the Joker. With very little saying anything about Two-Face, who is also in the movie.

I didn’t care for Batman Begins. I don’t like Christian Bale. I think he’s an over-actor. The worst line in the entire movie is where he yells “Where are the drugs”! It could have been the most unintentionally funny moment.

I would like to extend congratulations to Warner Brothers for the success of this movie. At least it gave people something to be excited about.

Seriously though, a lot of people are going to lose their jobs because of this. GM had to of known about the problem though. I mean, it costs my friend $80 to fill up the take of her truck. It costs me half that and I can drive further on a tank of gas. I drive a small 4 cylinder car though.

The GM CEO just says they have to plan to survive. He also says the largest cut backs would be cutting the health benefits for people who are salaried and over the age of 65. So you can see how much GM values seniors. It’s really awful to see people who have basically given their lives to a company get the shaft at the end of the day.

I can’t say I’m helping though, after the painful death of my Cavalier, I vowed never to buy a domestic car again. So I got a Scion. Now we’re thinking about trading in the Ford for a Prius. I can’t bring myself to purchase a car that is not reliable after the first year of use. The Cav made so much noise right from the start. I don’t understand how Chevy sold SO many.

Here’s my take on this, people have to pay for groceries rather than gas. They take fewer trips and therefore, are not on the road as much. However, there are still plenty of awful drivers on the road. They will continue to use their cell phones, drive like there isn’t anyone else on the road and not pay any amount of attention as they make left hand turns.

On another note, I suppose accidents will be going down a bit more, because oil is trading at $147 a barrel today. lame. I would like to speculate for a moment, because it seems like every time I hear something about oil prices, it’s bad. I think there will be peace in the middle east starting tomorrow. Oil production will be through the roof, and prices will fall below $50 a barrel again. That is my speculation. Now…only if someone believed me, lol.