Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

PF_Flyer

Intellectually, I know that advertising MUST work, because everyone keeps advertising everything. But if it worked the way that some people seem to think it does, instead of craft brews that I've seen virtually no advertising for, I'd be drinking Bud because I REALLY liked those frogs

bwia

My daughter just picked up her brand-new company car yesterday. It is a GMC Terrain SLT optioned to the hilt. She likes it but thinks the AWD 1.5 litre Turbo 4 cylinder 170-hp 9 speed auto is underpowered. If the engine is like her 2016 SLE I am inclined to agree.

While she is enjoying the "benefits" of a company car she is also wondering how good a deal is a company car since she must pay $150 a month (up $50 from the previous model) for the personal use component. The company pays for fuel and all operating costs and she has complete ownership of the vehicle to go anywhere she pleases outside of work hours.

Personally, I think it is a good deal for her and perhaps and even a better deal for the company who is perhaps able to negotiate a competitive purchase or lease price. By the way, does any one of you have a company car and if so, how much do you pay for the subsidy?

stickguy

I Remember commercials. But rarely what product it was selling

xwesx

Well, if she is *only* paying $150 a month, that seems like a great deal. The only down side is that she has what the company will let her have versus what she might actually want to drive. But, the upside is that it is incredibly cheap compared to all the rest of us! Even for an "owned" vehicle (e.g., no loan), that's cheaper than most running costs. I pay that much in fuel alone each month.

jmonroe1

suydam said:

Many banks will waive fees if you have your mortgage through them. I don’t pay any fees at either my bank or my credit union.

And some banks can be encouraged to waive their fees even if you don't have a mortgage with them.

Several months ago we received notice from our mortgage holder that our last payment would be due with the next billing. Great, we have been waiting for this. However, our last payment HAD to be made via a wire transfer and that they would not accept the traditional payment via a personal check like we had always paid for our mortgage. I called the mortgage company and questioned this and was told I HAD to make the last payment via a wire transfer. I had no leverage with them so I guess I had to comply with their rules or possibly, more than likely really, have a problem getting my lien release letter sent to me. OK, now I call my bank where I have a fairly decent sum of money in a savings account along with direct deposits to my checking account from Social Security and a relatively small check from a division at my old employer. I was told there was a $20 fee for the wire transfer. Not wanting to get into it over the phone, I waited until we got our final mortgage billing. I go to the bank have a seat with one of their behind the scenes woman and I tell her I did not want to pay a $20 wire transfer fee, given the years I had dealt with them and the size of my savings account. I was told, "Mr. jmonroe, that is a standard fee we charge all of our customers for a wire transfer even those that have accounts larger than yours". I told her as politely as I could that I didn't care about their other account holders, I only cared about me. I admit I'm very selfish when it comes to stuff like this so I told her I guess they had me by the you-know-whats and I wasn't going to jeopardize making my last payment but I wanted to talk to the branch manager. In a minute the branch manager came into the office (we knew her from past dealings and she knew us too) and she wanted to know how she could help us. I tell her that if I had to pay the wire transfer fee, I was going to close my accounts as soon as I could after I paid that fee. Just had to line up the direct depositors with another bank and then they'd see me for the last time when I came in to close my account. Again I get the party line about "all of our customers pay that fee". Again, I said I didn't care about the others, I only cared about me". Almost before I could blink she said smiling, "Mr. jmonroe, I'm going to waive the fee for you".

Just another case of, "if you don't ask you don't get". Sometimes having a big mouth works.

FWIW, my late Brother who dealt with banks on a regular basis, said several times over the years, "banks are some of the biggest thieves out there. They'll smile and screw you every day of the week if you give them the chance and twice on weekends". I know what he meant.

jmonroe

berri

A lot of that stuff is covered under IRS rules for companies. Many firms use outfits like PHH (or whatever they are called these days) to go through when buying company cars which gives them greater quantity discounts.

qbrozen

Does she get a list of vehicles to choose from?

Is it really just $150? And how does that figure into taxes. All the years my dad had a company truck, they never "charged" him, persay, but they did report it as a line item on his W2 that he had to pay taxes on. I don't remember what the number was. It was more than $150/mo, though.

tjc78

That is what I always thought it was. You have to pay taxes on the personal miles.

stickguy

I think if you are paying a portion of the cost, it covers that. So should be no tax implication.

28firefighter

you pay taxes on the personal use component, for sure - but $150 a month is a great deal if that includes fuel, insurance, etc.

driver100

stickguy said:

I Remember commercials. But rarely what product it was selling

One course I took about advertising said an ad probably wouldn't make you but a certain brand. What the ad does is 1) if a car has certain features you really want, an ad could influence you by telling you that car has those features. For example, if you really like the idea a car will stop when the car 2 ahead stops the ad could make you check out a new Suburu (is that the right car?). And 2) an ad confirms you purchased a good car so you are more likely to buy again.

Most ads are of the come in and drive away in a new car for $99 a month, or get employee pricing....that is to get you in the door.

No amount of advertising will persuade me to buy a Smartcar or something I don't like.

driver100

28firefighter said:

you pay taxes on the personal use component, for sure - but $150 a month is a great deal if that includes fuel, insurance, etc.

A newer car is probably going to cost $4000 or $5000 a year in payments, insurance, gas etc., so $150 a month is a great deal. When I had a company car I said 20% of the miles were personal......had to pay taxes on that.

henryn

qbrozen said:

Does she get a list of vehicles to choose from?

Is it really just $150? And how does that figure into taxes. All the years my dad had a company truck, they never "charged" him, persay, but they did report it as a line item on his W2 that he had to pay taxes on. I don't remember what the number was. It was more than $150/mo, though.

At one point in my life, several decades ago, I worked for a company that provided company cars for everyone above a certain level. I was one level too low, which was aggravating. But I remember many of my fellow employees talking about this, and it worked much as @qbrozen described, a line item on the W2, and it was not cheap.

To answer the other question, yes, they did get a choice of cars. And the higher your pay grade, the more expensive the cars you could choose from. And the bigger the line item on the W2.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

2014 94,400

2018 103,590

Fewer sales but an upswing

An upswing and probably more profitable since they can use parts from other cars in the lineup.
Just me, but, I think Ford did a smart thing with Lincoln.....they aren't going to compete by making a true luxury car, so they fancy up a regular car and put a prestigious name on it...and can sell it for a lower price than the competition.

The Aviator is a different animal. Yes, it is a completely new model, but, Ford could make the Aviator the F-250 of SUVs, and SUVs are hot, and Ford is successful at making trucks.

Don’t all car companies that have a lux brand use parts from their less expensive models?

Not sure if Cadillac shares parts with other GM cars.????

I know that they share the GM 3.6L V6 among different brands. I’m guessing transmissions too. Must be a lot of parts that cross brands as to design say, a separate sway bar for each company would be redundant.

oldfarmer50

qbrozen said:

oldfarmer50 said:

It’s amazing How you can have a 460hp car and still be made to feel inadequate in an instant.

https://youtu.be/wecVzPzf8R4

looks great, sounds even better. But... flappy paddles and a rotary knob selector? Just doesn't feel right for a Stang.

I was hoping that knob was a radio control or something like I found in a Mercedes once.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

That car needs a stick.

Agreed but isn’t that the way of the world now?

oldfarmer50

bwia said:

My daughter just picked up her brand-new company car yesterday. It is a GMC Terrain SLT optioned to the hilt. She likes it but thinks the AWD 1.5 litre Turbo 4 cylinder 170-hp 9 speed auto is underpowered. If the engine is like her 2016 SLE I am inclined to agree.

While she is enjoying the "benefits" of a company car she is also wondering how good a deal is a company car since she must pay $150 a month (up $50 from the previous model) for the personal use component. The company pays for fuel and all operating costs and she has complete ownership of the vehicle to go anywhere she pleases outside of work hours.

Personally, I think it is a good deal for her and perhaps and even a better deal for the company who is perhaps able to negotiate a competitive purchase or lease price. By the way, does any one of you have a company car and if so, how much do you pay for the subsidy?

I have two million company cars and they pay ME to drive ‘em.

Seriously though, the best I ever got was mileage reimbursement for using my own car.

xwesx

Mileage reimbursement (federal) is fairly generous, though. For 2019, it is $0.58 per mile (inclusive). Funny enough, I just found a payment made by my company where the vendor included a line item for fuel and also a line for mileage reimbursement at the federal rate.

I rejected it and asked our AP group to review it with the vendor to ensure this was not "double-dipping." Vendor is flummoxed and responding with "we've always done it this way." My response is, "well, it is wrong, so you're not doing it this way anymore..." They don't seem happy about it, but I'm the one holding the check, so I guess we'll see how long their resolve lasts over a few hundred dollars (the total invoice is many tens of thousands).

ab348

Yeah, those kind of deals with vendors are always vexing. It always made me wonder how much of that actually filters through to the pockets of the person doing the travel. Probably very little.

When I worked for the provincial govt here we had a ridiculously low mileage rate for when we traveled, along with equally ridiculous per diem meal rates. You always lost money being on the road if you followed the rules to the letter. It was made even worse when we agreed to contracts with vendors that let them use their own rates to bill us. Seeing their guys getting reimbursed at 2 or 3 times total what we got for making the same trip was a bit much. Eventually most contracts were written to require vendors to use our rates, which they weren't happy about, but which I'm sure they made up in other ways.

One of those was when we left a loophole open in one particular large deal that let them supply and bill us for a few dozen PCs back in the mid-90s. At the time the street price for what we were getting was $2000-$2500/unit. Imagine my surprise when I got a bill from a large international IT corporation charging us about $8000/unit, which was allegedly their suggested retail price. I bounced it and told them to charge us something closer to reality or they weren't getting any of the invoice paid, which was for a bunch of other things as well. They grumbled and threatened but eventually we got a more realistic invoice.

oldfarmer50

xwesx said:

Mileage reimbursement (federal) is fairly generous, though. For 2019, it is $0.58 per mile (inclusive). Funny enough, I just found a payment made by my company where the vendor included a line item for fuel and also a line for mileage reimbursement at the federal rate.

I rejected it and asked our AP group to review it with the vendor to ensure this was not "double-dipping." Vendor is flummoxed and responding with "we've always done it this way." My response is, "well, it is wrong, so you're not doing it this way anymore..." They don't seem happy about it, but I'm the one holding the check, so I guess we'll see how long their resolve lasts over a few hundred dollars (the total invoice is many tens of thousands).

.58 per mile? What was it for 2018? I heard .545. My Uber driving son will be happy to hear about the boost.

henryn

ab348 said:

Yeah, those kind of deals with vendors are always vexing. It always made me wonder how much of that actually filters through to the pockets of the person doing the travel. Probably very little.

When I worked for the provincial govt here we had a ridiculously low mileage rate for when we traveled, along with equally ridiculous per diem meal rates. You always lost money being on the road if you followed the rules to the letter. It was made even worse when we agreed to contracts with vendors that let them use their own rates to bill us. Seeing their guys getting reimbursed at 2 or 3 times total what we got for making the same trip was a bit much. Eventually most contracts were written to require vendors to use our rates, which they weren't happy about, but which I'm sure they made up in other ways.

A few years back, when I was a company employee instead of a contractor, and traveled a few times a year, we had a pretty reasonable expense plan. The rules stated "mid sized car", but I never had a problem with getting reimbursed for a full-sized car. The one and only time I was ever questioned, I just said, "Look at me. Do you think I fit in a mid-sized car?"

And the meal expenses were also flexible. You could just put down $35 per day for meals with no receipts, or submit receipts when you spent more. And mix and match, no receipts one day, receipts the next. All in all, I thought we were treated pretty fairly.

tjc78

I manage a team of road warriors.  We give .50 /mile plus tolls.  

We have $133 a night with taxes for hotels and allow $40 / day for food.  

If I average their expenses for the month they never hit $40 a day.   A few of them try and get hotels with Kitchenettes so they can cook small meals and they just expense their grocery bill rather than going to restaurants all the time.  

When I’m approving their CC statements I’m fairly liberal.  If I see a receipt with a beer on it once in a while it’s fine as long as it’s not everyday.    No one in the company travels as much as them (40+ weeks) so they get a little leeway. 

28firefighter

Holy moly - where are they staying for $133/night and getting by on $40 a day for food....

Michaell

Funny that we are talking about this .. I'm looking at it from the other side of the table, as a vendor providing services to both public and private companies who are our customers.

We've had expense invoices challenged, and denied, in the past. It has taught us to ask if there are any customer expense protocols we should be following, before we travel. @ab348 - we had a trip to Nova Scotia last year where they provided us their policies - dated 2010!

We're happy to follow what the customer wants, in terms of meals, travel, lodging and ground transportation. If they don't provide us with anything, then we've structured our contracts to state that our policies will prevail. Our staff instructors don't normally have a problem following these rules, but we'll occasionally borrow someone who doesn't travel that often who does bend - or break - the rules. A gentle reminder usually sets them straight if they travel for us a second time.

imidazol97

stickguy said:

Yes theyvdotherecwasvplatfirm sharing. I think the XT4 is based on. Equinox, and the FWD sedan was a glorified impala or lacrosse. Plus of course, the Escalade is just a Tahoe.

It's just like politics: people would be ridiculing GM were they not making use of similar items across vehicle lines and they criticize if they do. The architecture readjustment a few years back was to generate chasses that could be adapted to various vehicles easily. I believe, but don't quote me on this, that the trend was started by Toyota.

In fact the data I see shows that the XT4 shares the basic platform with the Malibu Generation 9. E2XX.

The Equinox, on the other hand, is based on the D2XX. Now I'll be durned if I'm going to waste time chasing down if the D2XX is similar to the E2XX. I put that in the same category as checking how Mary Barra invests her own accumulation of money.

I recall, long ago, when toyota came out with a completely "new" Avalon. Edmunds in their reviews, usually very clear and honest and thorough, had said it was based on the Camry chassis just by extending the length slightly. Much like the Park Avenue, leSabre, And Deville, Aurora shared a related platform long ago. A toyota fan at that time swore that the Avalon was all new parts and shared nothing. So I just started through major parts like wheel hubs, spindles, etc.. Yup. Shared.

Why not share the parts already engineered and available from vendors.

ab348

Parts sharing =/= platform sharing =/= badge engineering.

A manufacturer would be stupid NOT to do the first two and stupid to do the latter to any great extent.

houdini2

Mr_Shiftright said:

oldfarmer50 said:

It’s amazing How you can have a 460hp car and still be made to feel inadequate in an instant.

https://youtu.be/wecVzPzf8R4

But that's the whole point of advertising....to make you feel perpetually dissatisfied with what you have, or who you are.

The best definition of advertising I have even seen. Very insightful for a youngster like you.

ab348

Michaell said:

@ab348 - we had a trip to Nova Scotia last year where they provided us their policies - dated 2010!

When I moved from within the provincial bureaucracy to a Crown corp the difference between the provincial policy on travel - which gets updated maybe every 10 years overall and every 5 for rates if you're lucky - those the ones in the new place, which in parts went too far the other way, but which in general were far more reasonable, was remarkable Our Board directors were happy to get compensated at our rates, until the province, who appointed them, insisted they use their rates. There was much grumbling.

tjc78

28firefighter said:

Holy moly - where are they staying for $133/night and getting by on $40 a day for food....

You’d be surprised.  Naturally some areas don’t allow that but others are cheaper.  Plus when you are on an 8 week project you negotiate with the hotels.  Mostly they come under that.  Typically they get $159+ a night hotels for $119 or so.  I’ve got someone in CC Philly.  Obviously that $133 is out the window on this project.    

ab348

28firefighter said:

Holy moly - where are they staying for $133/night and getting by on $40 a day for food....

When I joined our gov here in 1985 meals were $23.50 a day and stayed there until well into the 1990s. You could spend the entire per diem on dinner and still have to pay excess out of your own pocket, not to mention breakfast and lunch.

tjc78

imidazol97 said:

Yes theyvdotherecwasvplatfirm sharing. I think the XT4 is based on. Equinox, and the FWD sedan was a glorified impala or lacrosse. Plus of course, the Escalade is just a Tahoe.

It's just like politics: people would be ridiculing GM were they not making use of similar items across vehicle lines. The architecture readjustment a few years back was to generate chasses that could be adapted to various vehicles easily. I believe, but don't quote me on this, that the trend was started by Toyota. In fact the data I see shows that the XT4 shares the basic platform with the Malibu Generation 9. E2XX. The Equinox, on the other hand, is based on the D2XX. Now I'll be durned if I'm going to waste time chasing down if the D2XX is similar to the E2XX. I put that in the same category as checking how Mary Barra invests her own accumulation of money to compare to Musk supposedly has used all his own money and no government money in his ventures. I recall, long ago, when toyota came out with a completely "new" Avalon. Edmunds in their reviews, usually very clear and honest and thorough, had said it was based on the Camry chassis just by extending the length slightly. Much like the Park Avenue, leSabre, And Deville, Aurora shared a related platform long ago. A toyota fan at that time swore that the Avalon was all new parts and shared nothing. So I just started through major parts like wheel hubs, spindles, etc.. Yup. Shared. Why not share the parts already engineered and available from vendors.

Man that Avalon thread was epic ... good times at Edmunds back then.  

I got absolutely flamed for saying I thought the 2006 Avalon was better than the Lucerne.  I can’t remember what thread it was.   

The major component that was “new” in the 05 Avalon was the 2GR V6.  Still one of the best V6s out there today.  Shame Toyota lost their way otherwise! 

houdini2

henryn said:

ab348 said:

Yeah, those kind of deals with vendors are always vexing. It always made me wonder how much of that actually filters through to the pockets of the person doing the travel. Probably very little.

When I worked for the provincial govt here we had a ridiculously low mileage rate for when we traveled, along with equally ridiculous per diem meal rates. You always lost money being on the road if you followed the rules to the letter. It was made even worse when we agreed to contracts with vendors that let them use their own rates to bill us. Seeing their guys getting reimbursed at 2 or 3 times total what we got for making the same trip was a bit much. Eventually most contracts were written to require vendors to use our rates, which they weren't happy about, but which I'm sure they made up in other ways.

A few years back, when I was a company employee instead of a contractor, and traveled a few times a year, we had a pretty reasonable expense plan. The rules stated "mid sized car", but I never had a problem with getting reimbursed for a full-sized car. The one and only time I was ever questioned, I just said, "Look at me. Do you think I fit in a mid-sized car?"

And the meal expenses were also flexible. You could just put down $35 per day for meals with no receipts, or submit receipts when you spent more. And mix and match, no receipts one day, receipts the next. All in all, I thought we were treated pretty fairly.

Ah yes, simpler times. When one could be in one city playing golf and his expense acct. would show him in another city buying lunch for a customer or prospect...and no one really cared as long as his numbers were good.

28firefighter

I have a trip to NYC coming up at the end of the month for a conference and just found out my per diem is $50 a day. By comparison, the government per diem is 76. Going to be paying out of pocket for quite a bit, I expect. Assuming a decent, no frills dinner will run me $25-$30, that leaves me $20 for breakfast and lunch.

explorerx4

#oldfarmer,
All that GT500 video needed was a black Charger to complete the scene. Soundtrack was very familiar.

explorerx4

When one of my kids was doing marketing for BMW, we went to visit her.
Stayed at a Ritz Carleton and rooms were $500 a night.
She got us the corporate rate, $99.

stickguy

meals were always an art form. When I would travel, ideal was a hotel with free breakfast, lunch as part of the meeting/reason for travel, so just dinner on the expense account. We usually had a rule that you only needed a receipt over a certain amount, so as long as you kept your bar tab dinner to the daily max, you came out OK. Happy hour, always your friend (could do really good with Courtyard at times, since they had evening hospitality that could often cover your dinner needs).

I miss getting to travel. Been a while.

ab348

By the time I retired I had all the hotel rooms and airport departure lounges I could stand. Never was a huge fan of air travel but post-2001 it became a nightmare. Glad that part is done. 

driver100

houdini2 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

oldfarmer50 said:

It’s amazing How you can have a 460hp car and still be made to feel inadequate in an instant.

https://youtu.be/wecVzPzf8R4

But that's the whole point of advertising....to make you feel perpetually dissatisfied with what you have, or who you are.

Mr_Shiftright said:
» show previous quotes
But that's the whole point of advertising....to make you feel perpetually dissatisfied with what you have, or who you are

The best definition of advertising I have even seen. Very insightful for a youngster like you.

Advertising may make me feel dissatisfied with the car I have, but it doesn't make me dissatisfied with who I am.

oldfarmer50

28firefighter said:

I have a trip to NYC coming up at the end of the month for a conference and just found out my per diem is $50 a day. By comparison, the government per diem is 76. Going to be paying out of pocket for quite a bit, I expect. Assuming a decent, no frills dinner will run me $25-$30, that leaves me $20 for breakfast and lunch.

You’ll be eating at Mickey D’s a lot.

driver100

houdini2 said:

henryn said:

ab348 said:

Yeah, those kind of deals with vendors are always vexing. It always made me wonder how much of that actually filters through to the pockets of the person doing the travel. Probably very little.

When I worked for the provincial govt here we had a ridiculously low mileage rate for when we traveled, along with equally ridiculous per diem meal rates. You always lost money being on the road if you followed the rules to the letter. It was made even worse when we agreed to contracts with vendors that let them use their own rates to bill us. Seeing their guys getting reimbursed at 2 or 3 times total what we got for making the same trip was a bit much. Eventually most contracts were written to require vendors to use our rates, which they weren't happy about, but which I'm sure they made up in other ways.

A few years back, when I was a company employee instead of a contractor, and traveled a few times a year, we had a pretty reasonable expense plan. The rules stated "mid sized car", but I never had a problem with getting reimbursed for a full-sized car. The one and only time I was ever questioned, I just said, "Look at me. Do you think I fit in a mid-sized car?"

And the meal expenses were also flexible. You could just put down $35 per day for meals with no receipts, or submit receipts when you spent more. And mix and match, no receipts one day, receipts the next. All in all, I thought we were treated pretty fairly.

Ah yes, simpler times. When one could be in one city playing golf and his expense acct. would show him in another city buying lunch for a customer or prospect...and no one really cared as long as his numbers were good.

That was like me. Originally my order sheet was one piece of paper, mail it in and everything was fine. Then it became a form that was in 4 parts, one for manager, one for office manager etc., and if orders weren't big enough had to go back and give a reason why order wasn't larger.

I also liked the managers who liked to add their name to the form...Return to Mr J Smith - they hoped by putting their name on the form they would be employed by the company longer.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

#oldfarmer,
All that GT500 video needed was a black Charger to complete the scene. Soundtrack was very familiar.

It was from You Tube so for all you know it was the soundtrack from ‘Bullit’.

houdini2

driver100 said:

houdini2 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

oldfarmer50 said:

It’s amazing How you can have a 460hp car and still be made to feel inadequate in an instant.

https://youtu.be/wecVzPzf8R4

But that's the whole point of advertising....to make you feel perpetually dissatisfied with what you have, or who you are.

Mr_Shiftright said:
» show previous quotes
But that's the whole point of advertising....to make you feel perpetually dissatisfied with what you have, or who you are

The best definition of advertising I have even seen. Very insightful for a youngster like you.

Advertising may make me feel dissatisfied with the car I have, but it doesn't make me dissatisfied with who I am.

Come on now, when you bought that stripped shirt you thought you would look just like that model you saw in the Sear's catalog !!

driver100

28firefighter said:

I have a trip to NYC coming up at the end of the month for a conference and just found out my per diem is $50 a day. By comparison, the government per diem is 76. Going to be paying out of pocket for quite a bit, I expect. Assuming a decent, no frills dinner will run me $25-$30, that leaves me $20 for breakfast and lunch.

Hope there is a Chic-a-Fil nearby.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

When one of my kids was doing marketing for BMW, we went to visit her.
Stayed at a Ritz Carleton and rooms were $500 a night.
She got us the corporate rate, $99.

When we had the days of bliss at my niece’s wedding on the private island off Key West in 2004 the groom worked for Hilton so we got a big discount...$1500 for 3 nights.

driver100

houdini2 said:

driver100 said:

houdini2 said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

oldfarmer50 said:

It’s amazing How you can have a 460hp car and still be made to feel inadequate in an instant.

https://youtu.be/wecVzPzf8R4

But that's the whole point of advertising....to make you feel perpetually dissatisfied with what you have, or who you are.

Mr_Shiftright said:
» show previous quotes
But that's the whole point of advertising....to make you feel perpetually dissatisfied with what you have, or who you are

The best definition of advertising I have even seen. Very insightful for a youngster like you.

Advertising may make me feel dissatisfied with the car I have, but it doesn't make me dissatisfied with who I am.

Come on now, when you bought that stripped shirt you thought you would look just like that model you saw in the Sear's catalog !!

Nope....I am what I am, and that’s all that I am ~ Popeye, the Sailor Man.

In fact, I don't make any new years resolutions and even if I was an RC I wouldn't go to confession, I don't do anything bad, wrong or illegal.

ab348

The lavishness of the expense account usually is directly proportional to the profit margin on what the account holder is selling/representing. Best I experienced (or worse, depending on your POV) was the SAP software outfit.

driver100

ab348 said:

Parts sharing =/= platform sharing =/= badge engineering.

A manufacturer would be stupid NOT to do the first two and stupid to do the latter to any great extent.

Sharing a platform means nothing. Why design a different platform if it can be used in another model...it doesn't change the dynamics of the car? It is a short cut with no negative impact.

Michaell

ab348 said:

By the time I retired I had all the hotel rooms and airport departure lounges I could stand. Never was a huge fan of air travel but post-2001 it became a nightmare. Glad that part is done. 

I traveled pretty regularly from 1989 to 2003. Mostly domestic, probably averaged 30,000 flight miles a year. Most of it was on United, so got to bring the wife along on a few trips using the rewards - Boston, Las Vegas, Honolulu and Anchorage.

Agreed, that after 9/11 it was not nearly as enjoyable.

I'm doing a little bit of travel with my new job (new? I've been there 2 1/2 years already). A few trips a year, mostly overnight. Just enough for a change of scenery from time to time.

abacomike

It was so beautiful out yesterday I decided to open my sunroof on the S450 (72 degrees under clear skies).  When I got home, the sunroof would not completely close - it remained tilted up on the left side but closed on the fight side.  Then, it would not open or close and the electric shade under the sunroof would not close.

So I took it into The Mercedes service department.  They had no loaners available so the soonest they could get the car in was Thursday at 8:30 AM.  All they could do was get it closed but the sunshade still won’t close so I have the sun glare to deal with.

First they have to diagnose the problem and then order parts.  They said it could take weeks to repair the sunroof if it needed parts - which I presume they will need because the right rear does not lift over the roof.

This will teach me not to open the sunroof if it isn’t used very much.  Bah Humbug! 

Mr_Shiftright

28firefighter said:

I have a trip to NYC coming up at the end of the month for a conference and just found out my per diem is $50 a day. By comparison, the government per diem is 76. Going to be paying out of pocket for quite a bit, I expect. Assuming a decent, no frills dinner will run me $25-$30, that leaves me $20 for breakfast and lunch.

You could try "Meatball in a Cup" near Union Square. Of course, you'll freeze to death eating it, but it sure is good (and cheap).