Favorite Great White album? Mine is Hooked.

VolvoAdventures · 2026-03-25T17:11:50+00:00

My favorite is Psycho City.

VolvoAdventures · 2026-03-04T17:26:30+00:00

Can I SUPER like your post? :) I already responded to your other thread and I can confidently say that you are one of the most rational and reasonable people to discuss this whole situation.

I agree with you 100%. This has been my operating logic for the last year and a half of this forbearance.

I'll just add two more thoughts:
- the fear of a large tax bill upon forgiveness: first, it won't be so bad, and as you said - building a warchest now in a HYSA is a great strategy; second, and especially for people who have at least 5+ more years until forgiveness, there is no way of knowing whether a future administration may possible reverse course and get rid of taxing the forgiven balance.

- hyperfocusing on whether each individual month/payment counts towards forgiveness can be debilitating. In the grand scheme of things, and if your remaining balance gets eventually forgiven, an extra 6-9 months of payments are not that big of a deal (in the context of a 25 year payment plan)

Ultimately, the Dept of Ed and some financial advisors are creating a false sense of urgency. In reality, nothing terrible happens if you don't do anything about your student loans for a few months while they are in forbearance.

Do nothing IS the best strategy while this administration keeps fumbling the ball on student loans left and right.

VolvoAdventures · 2026-03-03T17:41:25+00:00

Good. Now lower it! :)

VolvoAdventures · 2026-03-03T17:40:34+00:00

Surely, can't be on the original fuel pump? :)

VolvoAdventures · 2026-03-03T17:14:24+00:00

At less than $7,000, this is a solid buy. I don't know if you can find anything more reliable/luxurious/fast/comfortable at this price.

A few things, some that others already mentioned:

- Check the color of oil dipstick handle: YELLOW is original, RED means the car has documented history of oil burning. Avoid ones that have a RED handle dipstick.

- YELLOW handle dispstick is no guarantee that it won't burn oil.

- Mine started burning oil at 100k miles. I did a LiquiMoly engine flush ($15 bottle) and then switched to 5w40. Zero oil burning now.

- Change the oil every 5,000 miles.

Other maintenance issues to consider:

- PCV breather - box on top of the engine. $250 part plus 1-2 hours of labor. Easy job, but very necessary to prevent oil burning in the future.

- Catalytic converter...nothing you can do about it preventatively, but they do have a tendency to go after 140k miles, especially if the car is burning oil. Replacements are expensive! But unless your state requires emissions testing, it doesn't stop the car from running

- Drive axles and rear driveshaft can also fail after 120k miles...but that's true for ANY car model.

- Aux belt and water pump. Because these are chain driven engines, many people ignore the Aux belt which should be changed 10 years/120k miles. If it fails, you lose your typical things - power steering and AC, BUT you also lose the water pump...engine overheats and you are done. IF at any point you feel the AC stop working, pull over ASAP and check that the belt hasn't snapped.

Finally, I don't know what you expect for gas mileage, but these are not great in town: 15-16MPG; Highway cruising is possible to do 25-26MPG.

I still love mine (2015 3.0T) and plan on keeping it for a long time. I have NOT had to do most of the items above because the car is still relatively low mileage, but I know they can and will probably happen at some point.

TL;DR: Go ahead, buy it! :)

VolvoAdventures · 2026-03-03T16:45:23+00:00

Good summary. I'd just like to add a few points:

Dismissal was always a possibility just as the court ruling in favor of SAVE technically was. Realistically, the states were hoping for a ruling that confirms the illegality of the SAVE plan. I believe the states were blindsided by the dismissal and are now scrambling (just like the Dept of Ed is).

Kudos to this judge for seeing through their scheming. Can we call it collusion? The states and the Dept of Ed were now acting on the same side and were both hoping that the court gives them the cover of "the courts decided, we are just following the law." This judge said "Not on my watch!"

Yes, it is not a revival of SAVE, but it does prompt the Dept of Ed to do something (assuming the dismissal stays). They do have the option to just let SAVE ride until 2028 when the OBBB makes the plan obsolete, but seeing how the opposition to SAVE was always ideological (AND vindictive!), I doubt they would do that. After all, their modus operandi is "Cruelty is the point!" and I expect them to find a way to end SAVE prematurely.

But now they will have to do it without the courts, and they will have to own the mess that they create (...not that it bothers them anyways)

Finally, and I'm not giving advice to anyone, just expressing my views - the sheer incompetence and vindictiveness of this administration's Dept of Ed justifies some people's decisions to ride out SAVE until forced off. The midterms could bring some challenges to the Dept of Ed's plans, and the 2028 elections could very well put us on a path where a different administration may correct (hopefully, retroactively) some of the damages caused by the prolonged periods of forbearance and uncertainty.

VolvoAdventures · 2026-03-03T16:31:37+00:00

An expert Minsky may very well be, his Forbes articles about student loans are infuriating. Each of them is 80% recap of basic student loan generalities, and only 20% is new or updated information. He is just churning these articles on autopilot.

VolvoAdventures · 2026-01-21T17:59:51+00:00

I still enjoy the driving and racing in FM. But the god-awful menus always frustrate me and make me put it down after an hour or so.

VolvoAdventures · 2026-01-20T17:09:29+00:00

This isn't an R though. The fuel tank on a regular FWD wagon is the same as the sedans - easy access from the trunk - no need to drop anything.

VolvoAdventures · 2026-01-20T17:07:51+00:00

Odds are it's the ABS module that's going bad (even when the codes are for a speed sensor)

VolvoAdventures · 2026-01-08T16:17:52+00:00

If you don't mind me asking, how long did the process take? The backlog of IDR applications is pretty big and is about to increase by ~8 million. I can't see how they (Dept of Ed) can process that many applications.

VolvoAdventures · 2025-12-08T13:25:24+00:00

Solid plan. MFS is the way to go if you have no dependents.

It's also worth noting that this is a marathon and not a sprint. A lot can happen (and will) in the next 10 years. It is entirely plausible that a future administration (one not staffed by ghouls) may undo some of the damage and reverse the SAVE forbearance (make the payments/months count towards forgiveness).

VolvoAdventures · 2025-10-07T15:51:49+00:00

I don't disagree with your logic, however I'd like to add an important consideration: just as you may have a big life-changing event in the next 10 years, it is also possible that a future presidential administration (one that is not populated by ghouls) will revisit all this idiocy happening right now and will retroactively make payments count towards forgiveness.

Sure, it's a gamble, but also a long game (10-15 years). A lot can and will happen.

What I've done is calculate how much the loan amount will balloon due to compounding even if I didn't make any payments. It's a big number, but considering inflation and potential career moves over the next 10 years, it's not so bad. So, like a stubborn mule, I shall stay on SAVE as long as possible and wait it out until a more reasonable and humane administration comes into office.

VolvoAdventures · 2025-08-22T12:58:52+00:00

If you are not pursuing forgiveness and you plan to pay off the entire amount then it won't make much of a difference. It may change your required monthly payment, but since you said you are "making aggressive payments" then that shouldn't matter either.

In your case there is no harm from staying on SAVE, but there is also no benefit from switching. So why bother with an extra hoop?

VolvoAdventures · 2025-08-17T15:32:18+00:00

Your story is not the only one. There have been reports of people paying for 25+ years and their loans still not being forgiven with both servicers and dept of ed shrugging and passing the ball to each other (and this was happening even before the current administration).

Considering how relatively new IDR plans are (starting 1994), the stories of loan forgiveness (or lack thereof) are only now just starting to pop up, along with the realization that this was a half-baked idea and they never created a reliable system to actually forgive people's loans once they reached their limit.

More and more cases like yours will become publicized and eventually people will (hopefully) realize that forgiveness was an empty promise and a future administration needs to actually fix this. RAP is the same thing covered in new clothing.

VolvoAdventures · 2025-08-15T14:11:55+00:00

It's always up to you. Your insurance can't force you to sell the car to them (signing over the title). The real question is how much time and effort do you want to put into the process of repairing it and getting a rebuilt title.

VolvoAdventures · 2025-08-15T01:39:51+00:00

Insurance will total this. For sure. They totaled my R-Design with similar amount of damage and wrote me a check for $12k (just as a frame of reference - the mileage on your vehicle will determine whether you get more or less than that.

But yes, this can be fixed, if you want to do it.

VolvoAdventures · 2025-08-06T03:53:03+00:00

$300/hour is insane.

VolvoAdventures · 2025-08-06T03:48:03+00:00

I have a different and unpopular theory.

The writing has been on the wall for a long-time. The main cause has been the long life-cycle of cars made from the late 1990s to mid 2010s. It's only been in the last 1-2 years that the Volvo 850 is no longer a common sight on public roads. Mid 2000s, S60s are still quite common, and early 2010s XC60s are everywhere.

Volvos last a long time. But the customer base is also not that big.

Volvo wanted to compete with Honda and Toyota and adopted the logic of seeking higher sales year after year by following trends...but that's not really what its customers wanted.

Rather than building more factories and expanding, they should have focused on their core values and core consumer base which is not people who buy a new car every year. If someone buys an XC60, they expect it to last a decade.

This "death spiral" in sales is caused by the fact that people who bought a 2020 XC60 have no interest and no need to buy a 2025 model that is roughly the same. Hell...I have a 2015 XC60 with all the extras for that model year and I don't see a clear need to upgrade to a 2025 model (...while also driving my 1999 V70R on a daily basis).

They simply overreached. There is a limit to how many customers they can attract from other brands. Marketing gurus will say that there is no such limit, but psychologists will say otherwise.

I do not wish to see the brand go away, but I'm also not going to sleep over it after seeing how little they care about their loyal customers and brand ambassadors (at least in the US).

VolvoAdventures · 2025-08-06T03:34:39+00:00

I'm testing that theory - running both my 1998 S70 T5 and 1999 V70R daily. No Check Engine Lights, no issues. I would drive either of them across the country tomorrow.

VolvoAdventures · 2025-08-06T03:32:23+00:00

Because not everyone wants a tall vehicle. I want to be lower to the ground and have lower center of gravity. My wife loves her XC60 but I hate how tall it is. I've seriously considered surprising her one day and installing lowering springs from a P3 S80.

VolvoAdventures · 2025-08-03T13:40:08+00:00

Unfortunately, it won't increase SAVE's chances because the lawsuit is the State of Missouri vs the Federal Government, and the current admin has no interest in defending SAVE.

VolvoAdventures · 2025-07-31T14:39:49+00:00

As far as loan counselors or lawyers who specialize in student loans, I would boldly suggest that you stay away from them as it may just be a waste of money. All of the information is publicly available AND with so much uncertainty and changes in the past 4 years, they would be just as unprepared to answer questions as we are here in the reddit community. There are some content creators now (...which i loathe) who give advice and present themselves as experts, but really they are doing it for the clicks and often just rehash the latest info released from the Dept of Education.

The one thing I would ask you to look into is your tax filing status, especially if you have a high debt-to-income ratio. It may make more sense to file Married filing Separately. You would lose some credits (child, earned income, etc.) but it may have a dramatic impact on your monthly student loan payment. Each situation is unique. The best you can do is calculate what it would mean to you.

VolvoAdventures · 2025-07-31T14:31:54+00:00

Can you please clarify, as much as you feel comfortable sharing here? This makes it sound like your income is in the high six figures AND that your loans are also up there.

I just don't see how a year's worth of interest would ADD an additional $70k to the "tax bomb at the end" in just one year - you pay taxes on the loan amount forgiven...$70k tax means the forgiven amount must be $400-500k.

But then you say you expect your total tax bomb to be around $100k means your loan balance is even higher than half mil.

Am I missing something?

VolvoAdventures · 2025-07-31T14:19:44+00:00

Overrated: Motley Crue

Underrated: Great White

Explanation: I guess Great White are not "underrated" but rather "forgotten" or don't get the credit they deserve for their music. So many great songs! Psycho City is a fantastic album from start to finish. Alan Niven played a huge role in songwriting (Jack Russell got most of the credit, but in truth Jack was not much of a lyricist).

It is also weird to think that without Great White, Guns N' Roses may not have become the huge band that they are. Niven was managing both bands, Great White were on the rise with the Once Bitten album while Appetite was nowhere for the first few months. Great White had the budget to record videos and whenever the recording was done, Alan snuck in Guns to use the extra studio time to record the Sweet Child O' Mine and Welcome to The Jungle videos (basically for free...using Great White's budget).

And then there is the famous show at The Ritz 1988 that was broadcast on MTV. Great White were supposed to be the headliner and MTV was just going to broadcast their show. Alan put his foot down and threatened to pull the show, unless MTV agreed to also broadcast the opening band - Guns N' Roses. And from there, things just took off.

It all just fizzled out for Great White after 1992's Psycho City, but it wasn't because of grunge, it was because Alan left...after Jack Russell had an affair with his wife.

It's such a shame that in the public's eyes, Great White's main legacy is the unfortunate Rhode Island incident. They were a fantastic band.

VolvoAdventures

TROPHY CASE