If an Audi dealer was more than 45 minutes away I doubt we would have a Q5 in the driveway. Within the same time and distance to the Audi dealer there are four Honda dealers. Most of the Honda dealers are closer, 30 minutes away. There are two Audi dealers in the Charlotte area, one about 40 minutes away and is within a mile of the single local Acura dealer and an Audi dealer about an hours drive to Concord, NC.
If the Audi dealer was an hour away what would you have bought instead....a Honda?
Not necessarily a Honda, but certainly something we liked and the dealer more conveniently located. However life’s lesson has taught me not to say/think ‘never’ as I get spanked everytime
At one time I would drive any distance to get the car I wanted. But, it is an advantage to have a dealer 15 minutes away....my MB dealer is the closest dealer to my home by far....next is 30 minutes, for a Mazda. It is about 35 to 40 minutes to BMW or Audi dealer. I would really have to love another make and become unhappy with MB and the dealer to change. Location means a lot these days....time and convenience is a big factor.
Want to escape the contentious politics and the covid pandemic that's crippling America then perhaps it's to time to wait it out in the Caribbean. /
I dunno about the Caribbean but I agree we all need to unite to pull out of this malaise. I found this and I think many of us would agree with the sentiment:
If an Audi dealer was more than 45 minutes away I doubt we would have a Q5 in the driveway. Within the same time and distance to the Audi dealer there are four Honda dealers. Most of the Honda dealers are closer, 30 minutes away. There are two Audi dealers in the Charlotte area, one about 40 minutes away and is within a mile of the single local Acura dealer and an Audi dealer about an hours drive to Concord, NC.
If the Audi dealer was an hour away what would you have bought instead....a Honda?
Not necessarily a Honda, but certainly something we liked and the dealer more conveniently located. However life’s lesson has taught me not to say/think ‘never’ as I get spanked everytime
At one time I would drive any distance to get the car I wanted. But, it is an advantage to have a dealer 15 minutes away....my MB dealer is the closest dealer to my home by far....next is 30 minutes, for a Mazda. It is about 35 to 40 minutes to BMW or Audi dealer. I would really have to love another make and become unhappy with MB and the dealer to change. Location means a lot these days....time and convenience is a big factor.
I would have to say that I am within 30 minutes of a dealer for any make of car.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
I’m an on demand service. I’m not carried on payroll. They don’t pay me for dead time. I carry my own liability insurance. The big one.....they can pay me out of petty cash, and not cut a check. A check would be an expense to the sales dept. I can slip in under whatever rules they have for petty cash (usually $250-$500). I collect after each delivery, so it’s not a rolling amount that would exceed their petty cash restrictions.
If they are following proper accounting practices then it would still be an expense to the sales department. Any funds pay out from petty cash needs the date of the expense, the reason for the expense and the cost center to be charged for so that when accounting replaces the petty cash funds they can charge the proper account.
I figured it would have to be accounted for by some dept. Not sure which one gets the “ding”. But, the Sales Manager I spoke with says it doesn’t come out of his pot. Maybe it’s just a matter of time before whatever dept is getting charged wises up and shifts it over to sales. Or, perhaps it’s just considered an operational expense.
Had the same Sales Manger (Toyota) tell me yesterday I can get to him quicker than him trying to find a lot boy who’s wandering around somewhere.
Whew...feels good to be really busy. I’m actually sitting in Starbucks right now waiting for a call from Toyota to do another transport. I can practically see their dealership from where I’m sitting.
Some of you guys could write my marketing “cut sheet” I hand out to dealerships.
I’m an on demand service. I’m not carried on payroll. They don’t pay me for dead time. I carry my own liability insurance. The big one.....they can pay me out of petty cash, and not cut a check. A check would be an expense to the sales dept. I can slip in under whatever rules they have for petty cash (usually $250-$500). I collect after each delivery, so it’s not a rolling amount that would exceed their petty cash restrictions.
I’m kind of lucky as I’m within 10 to 15 minutes of a whole slew of new car dealerships (Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Cadillac, VW, Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mazda, BMW, Merceds, Kia, Volvo, Acura, GMC, Ford, Buick).
$25 minimum per car if delivered under 10 miles. Over 10 miles, it’s $25 plus $1/mile. Over 25 miles (one way) I will quote separately. One way transport is mileage plus the expense of me UBERING home. They’d rather get something for their money, so the do dealer trades to get the most bang for their buck.
I know what you’re thinking....”GG, that’s probably $50/hour”. True. But, transporting between 2 dealerships, each dealership bears ½ the cost. Again, no $10/hr lot boy who can (and probably has) backed into one of the new pristine cars on your lot. No liability. And, I’m not lolly gagging around. I deliver the car, collect my money from the cashier I give them a slip stating what I delivered, where it was delivered from, and who authorized me to do the transport. They only have to put a slip in the cash box to pay me.
By the time I’m done today, I’ll have made around $700+ in the last 3 days. And, I already have another retiree who’s willing to help so if I can snag a few more dealerships, I’ll have a nice little business running. Again, won’t get rich from it, but keeps me busy and I’m enjoying it.
Picking up bits and pieces of the sales guys’ pitch. No wonder there’s so much turnover. I’m sure there are a lot of newbies, but geez-Louise....are you training these guys to be a PITA to sell cars?
RB...answering your question....Corollas aren’t my cup of tea. They are innocuous to drive, which is probably the point. Given Toyota’s reputation for quality, I’m a bit taken aback at the cheapness of the interiors. But, I would imagine if you want a car that gets good MPG, costs little to maintain, and will last 10+ years, you could do a lot worse than a Corolla.
Gotta go. Just got the word on the transport.
Don’t work too hard now, remember, you’re retired.🥳
I have two more today. Should be done by 1:00 p.m., at the latest. Then, grilling out with the GF and my son.
I think I’ll be pretty slow until the end of this month, being end of quarter.
Some other observations at the dealerships.....
-just eyeballing, I’d say there are about ½ the sales people that most of these dealerships have in normal times -they are putting and emphasis on service business and offering new services (like detailing cars and charging extra for sanitizing them) -For Acura at least, they have 2 retailers for sold cars, not the usual 4 -Sales people are finding and moving cars to get the ones customers want, vs having someone else do it -dealerships appreciate me being prompt and efficient. Hope they like the service as I pride myself on being a business person and knowing how important service is. I’m transporting some of these cars in about ½ the time as their own staff.
Toyota is an interesting case study. The one I’m working with the most is probably one of the highest volume dealers in the state, if not the region. Observed a lady who was getting ready to leave because the dealership didn’t have the color of Camry she wanted (which was odd, because she wanted silver). I pulled up in a silver Camry dealer trade just as the sales person and lady was walking out the door of the dealership. Like clockwork, sales guy asks if the one I pulled up with belongs to the dealership...me..”no idea but I’m just transporting it to your store”. While I stopped to get a coffee from their coffee machine, I saw him slap a “hold” sign on it. Don’t know if he made the sale, but the lady came back into the dealership.
If an Audi dealer was more than 45 minutes away I doubt we would have a Q5 in the driveway. Within the same time and distance to the Audi dealer there are four Honda dealers. Most of the Honda dealers are closer, 30 minutes away. There are two Audi dealers in the Charlotte area, one about 40 minutes away and is within a mile of the single local Acura dealer and an Audi dealer about an hours drive to Concord, NC.
If the Audi dealer was an hour away what would you have bought instead....a Honda?
Not necessarily a Honda, but certainly something we liked and the dealer more conveniently located. However life’s lesson has taught me not to say/think ‘never’ as I get spanked everytime
At one time I would drive any distance to get the car I wanted. But, it is an advantage to have a dealer 15 minutes away....my MB dealer is the closest dealer to my home by far....next is 30 minutes, for a Mazda. It is about 35 to 40 minutes to BMW or Audi dealer. I would really have to love another make and become unhappy with MB and the dealer to change. Location means a lot these days....time and convenience is a big factor.
I would have to say that I am within 30 minutes of a dealer for any make of car.
I would have to think hard to come up with one that I am not that close to. Helps that the big Ferrari/RR/Etc. dealer is about 20 minutes from me! That takes care of a lot of the exotics.
If an Audi dealer was more than 45 minutes away I doubt we would have a Q5 in the driveway. Within the same time and distance to the Audi dealer there are four Honda dealers. Most of the Honda dealers are closer, 30 minutes away. There are two Audi dealers in the Charlotte area, one about 40 minutes away and is within a mile of the single local Acura dealer and an Audi dealer about an hours drive to Concord, NC.
If the Audi dealer was an hour away what would you have bought instead....a Honda?
Not necessarily a Honda, but certainly something we liked and the dealer more conveniently located. However life’s lesson has taught me not to say/think ‘never’ as I get spanked everytime
At one time I would drive any distance to get the car I wanted. But, it is an advantage to have a dealer 15 minutes away....my MB dealer is the closest dealer to my home by far....next is 30 minutes, for a Mazda. It is about 35 to 40 minutes to BMW or Audi dealer. I would really have to love another make and become unhappy with MB and the dealer to change. Location means a lot these days....time and convenience is a big factor.
I would have to say that I am within 30 minutes of a dealer for any make of car.
I would have to think hard to come up with one that I am not that close to. Helps that the big Ferrari/RR/Etc. dealer is about 20 minutes from me! That takes care of a lot of the exotics.
That's another email address that doesn't come out sounding that good. You guys who brag about being in the upscale neighborhoods with all the fancy car dealers......... :@
Want to escape the contentious politics and the covid pandemic that's crippling America then perhaps it's to time to wait it out in the Caribbean. /
I dunno about the Caribbean but I agree we all need to unite to pull out of this malaise. I found this and I think many of us would agree with the sentiment:
Son #1 is a cyclist of sorts. Don’t know where he got that because it damn sure wasn’t from me. That is waaay to much work for me. He doesn’t go on public streets and roads. He goes on those bike paths and goes quite far at times. Goes with his wife and three sons, sleeps over a lot of times then gets up and goes again. Like I said waay too much work for me.
Last night grandson #1 came over for dinner and told us this:
He decided not to go with the family and his mother’s brother and GF from Ohio on a trip to DC. Maybe for the better. He said his father and youngest brother had their bikes stolen some where on a downtown DC street when everyone was at a restaurant having lunch. The bikes were chained to a bike rack in broad daylight but that didn’t stop the thieves. Fortunately only the two bikes were stolen. I guess it could have been more. Not to ruin the bike trip, he is renting two bikes to finish the tour. Yes, he filed a police report and mentioned to the police that he thought he had a good enough hardened steel lock and chain but it must not have been good enough. The police said that some of these thieves have pairs of car batteries connected to plasma cutters and nothing stops that. So, he’s out over 2 grand for those bikes (not sure if he has insurance for that). Maybe he plans to work overtime at the flip to make up for that loss but I ain’t. :@
jmonroe
'15 Genesis Ultimate just like jmonroe's. '18 Legacy Limited with 3.6R (Mrs. j's)
we already have a poster that got quarantined down there for months. Not sure if he ever made it back.
I don't think I could handle having to pay $30,000 for a beater old RAV4 imported from Japan.
Hmm, I think I know that guy. After six months of him being cloistered in a hilltop villa overlooking the Caribbean sea, he will be returning to Boston on 9/17. Not ready to return so soon, but despite the risk of Covid-19 infection, I need to take care of my taxes.
we already have a poster that got quarantined down there for months. Not sure if he ever made it back.
I don't think I could handle having to pay $30,000 for a beater old RAV4 imported from Japan.
Hmm, I think I know that guy. After six months of him being cloistered in a hilltop villa overlooking the Caribbean sea, he will be returning to Boston on 9/17. Not ready to return so soon, but despite the risk of Covid-19 infection, I need to take care of my taxes.
You can cheat on your taxes from there just as easily as you can in the states, plus, the scenery is a whole lot nicer there. Once you try it you’ll never want it any other way.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis Ultimate just like jmonroe's. '18 Legacy Limited with 3.6R (Mrs. j's)
we already have a poster that got quarantined down there for months. Not sure if he ever made it back.
I don't think I could handle having to pay $30,000 for a beater old RAV4 imported from Japan.
Hmm, I think I know that guy. After six months of him being cloistered in a hilltop villa overlooking the Caribbean sea, he will be returning to Boston on 9/17. Not ready to return so soon, but despite the risk of Covid-19 infection, I need to take care of my taxes.
You can cheat on your taxes from there just as easily as you can in the states, plus, the scenery is a whole lot nicer there. Once you try it you’ll never want it any other way.
jmonroe
.....and that way if they find anything wrong....you are already out of the country.
Whew...feels good to be really busy. I’m actually sitting in Starbucks right now waiting for a call from Toyota to do another transport. I can practically see their dealership from where I’m sitting.
Some of you guys could write my marketing “cut sheet” I hand out to dealerships.
I’m an on demand service. I’m not carried on payroll. They don’t pay me for dead time. I carry my own liability insurance. The big one.....they can pay me out of petty cash, and not cut a check. A check would be an expense to the sales dept. I can slip in under whatever rules they have for petty cash (usually $250-$500). I collect after each delivery, so it’s not a rolling amount that would exceed their petty cash restrictions.
I’m kind of lucky as I’m within 10 to 15 minutes of a whole slew of new car dealerships (Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Cadillac, VW, Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mazda, BMW, Merceds, Kia, Volvo, Acura, GMC, Ford, Buick).
$25 minimum per car if delivered under 10 miles. Over 10 miles, it’s $25 plus $1/mile. Over 25 miles (one way) I will quote separately. One way transport is mileage plus the expense of me UBERING home. They’d rather get something for their money, so the do dealer trades to get the most bang for their buck.
I know what you’re thinking....”GG, that’s probably $50/hour”. True. But, transporting between 2 dealerships, each dealership bears ½ the cost. Again, no $10/hr lot boy who can (and probably has) backed into one of the new pristine cars on your lot. No liability. And, I’m not lolly gagging around. I deliver the car, collect my money from the cashier I give them a slip stating what I delivered, where it was delivered from, and who authorized me to do the transport. They only have to put a slip in the cash box to pay me.
By the time I’m done today, I’ll have made around $700+ in the last 3 days. And, I already have another retiree who’s willing to help so if I can snag a few more dealerships, I’ll have a nice little business running. Again, won’t get rich from it, but keeps me busy and I’m enjoying it.
Picking up bits and pieces of the sales guys’ pitch. No wonder there’s so much turnover. I’m sure there are a lot of newbies, but geez-Louise....are you training these guys to be a PITA to sell cars?
RB...answering your question....Corollas aren’t my cup of tea. They are innocuous to drive, which is probably the point. Given Toyota’s reputation for quality, I’m a bit taken aback at the cheapness of the interiors. But, I would imagine if you want a car that gets good MPG, costs little to maintain, and will last 10+ years, you could do a lot worse than a Corolla.
Gotta go. Just got the word on the transport.
Don’t work too hard now, remember, you’re retired.🥳
I have two more today. Should be done by 1:00 p.m., at the latest. Then, grilling out with the GF and my son.
I think I’ll be pretty slow until the end of this month, being end of quarter.
Some other observations at the dealerships.....
-just eyeballing, I’d say there are about ½ the sales people that most of these dealerships have in normal times -they are putting and emphasis on service business and offering new services (like detailing cars and charging extra for sanitizing them) -For Acura at least, they have 2 retailers for sold cars, not the usual 4 -Sales people are finding and moving cars to get the ones customers want, vs having someone else do it -dealerships appreciate me being prompt and efficient. Hope they like the service as I pride myself on being a business person and knowing how important service is. I’m transporting some of these cars in about ½ the time as their own staff.
Toyota is an interesting case study. The one I’m working with the most is probably one of the highest volume dealers in the state, if not the region. Observed a lady who was getting ready to leave because the dealership didn’t have the color of Camry she wanted (which was odd, because she wanted silver). I pulled up in a silver Camry dealer trade just as the sales person and lady was walking out the door of the dealership. Like clockwork, sales guy asks if the one I pulled up with belongs to the dealership...me..”no idea but I’m just transporting it to your store”. While I stopped to get a coffee from their coffee machine, I saw him slap a “hold” sign on it. Don’t know if he made the sale, but the lady came back into the dealership.
Whew...feels good to be really busy. I’m actually sitting in Starbucks right now waiting for a call from Toyota to do another transport. I can practically see their dealership from where I’m sitting.
Some of you guys could write my marketing “cut sheet” I hand out to dealerships.
I’m an on demand service. I’m not carried on payroll. They don’t pay me for dead time. I carry my own liability insurance. The big one.....they can pay me out of petty cash, and not cut a check. A check would be an expense to the sales dept. I can slip in under whatever rules they have for petty cash (usually $250-$500). I collect after each delivery, so it’s not a rolling amount that would exceed their petty cash restrictions.
I’m kind of lucky as I’m within 10 to 15 minutes of a whole slew of new car dealerships (Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Cadillac, VW, Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mazda, BMW, Merceds, Kia, Volvo, Acura, GMC, Ford, Buick).
$25 minimum per car if delivered under 10 miles. Over 10 miles, it’s $25 plus $1/mile. Over 25 miles (one way) I will quote separately. One way transport is mileage plus the expense of me UBERING home. They’d rather get something for their money, so the do dealer trades to get the most bang for their buck.
I know what you’re thinking....”GG, that’s probably $50/hour”. True. But, transporting between 2 dealerships, each dealership bears ½ the cost. Again, no $10/hr lot boy who can (and probably has) backed into one of the new pristine cars on your lot. No liability. And, I’m not lolly gagging around. I deliver the car, collect my money from the cashier I give them a slip stating what I delivered, where it was delivered from, and who authorized me to do the transport. They only have to put a slip in the cash box to pay me.
By the time I’m done today, I’ll have made around $700+ in the last 3 days. And, I already have another retiree who’s willing to help so if I can snag a few more dealerships, I’ll have a nice little business running. Again, won’t get rich from it, but keeps me busy and I’m enjoying it.
Picking up bits and pieces of the sales guys’ pitch. No wonder there’s so much turnover. I’m sure there are a lot of newbies, but geez-Louise....are you training these guys to be a PITA to sell cars?
RB...answering your question....Corollas aren’t my cup of tea. They are innocuous to drive, which is probably the point. Given Toyota’s reputation for quality, I’m a bit taken aback at the cheapness of the interiors. But, I would imagine if you want a car that gets good MPG, costs little to maintain, and will last 10+ years, you could do a lot worse than a Corolla.
Gotta go. Just got the word on the transport.
Don’t work too hard now, remember, you’re retired.🥳
I have two more today. Should be done by 1:00 p.m., at the latest. Then, grilling out with the GF and my son.
I think I’ll be pretty slow until the end of this month, being end of quarter.
Some other observations at the dealerships.....
-just eyeballing, I’d say there are about ½ the sales people that most of these dealerships have in normal times -they are putting and emphasis on service business and offering new services (like detailing cars and charging extra for sanitizing them) -For Acura at least, they have 2 retailers for sold cars, not the usual 4 -Sales people are finding and moving cars to get the ones customers want, vs having someone else do it -dealerships appreciate me being prompt and efficient. Hope they like the service as I pride myself on being a business person and knowing how important service is. I’m transporting some of these cars in about ½ the time as their own staff.
Toyota is an interesting case study. The one I’m working with the most is probably one of the highest volume dealers in the state, if not the region. Observed a lady who was getting ready to leave because the dealership didn’t have the color of Camry she wanted (which was odd, because she wanted silver). I pulled up in a silver Camry dealer trade just as the sales person and lady was walking out the door of the dealership. Like clockwork, sales guy asks if the one I pulled up with belongs to the dealership...me..”no idea but I’m just transporting it to your store”. While I stopped to get a coffee from their coffee machine, I saw him slap a “hold” sign on it. Don’t know if he made the sale, but the lady came back into the dealership.
This is a real education for me.
All day today we were racing to catch up with demand at the airport. Quite a few times I pulled into the garage and the agent was loading in a customer as I was getting out. Kind of make you feel important doesn’t it.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
I noticed more cars leaving the airport Friday and Saturday that I thought were rentals. Good to see people are flying and businesses are renting vehicles.
I did my good deed on Friday for a Jeep owner from out-of-state. We got on the interstate heading for lunch and an errand. Friday is a busy day for travelers for the weekend. OSPatrol had car stopped. I decided there would be another OSP vehicle because this area has been abused by the high speed drivers since it's 3 lanes but 65 mph. Saw a Jeep coming up behind me in 3rd high speed lane. I stayed in high speed lane because a usual spot for OSP was up ahead against the Jersey wall. Yup. I was going 70 in 65 and Jeep driver was far above that.
And there was a 3rd OSP a couple miles up ahead with another driver donating to our Ohio deficit.
Whew...feels good to be really busy. I’m actually sitting in Starbucks right now waiting for a call from Toyota to do another transport. I can practically see their dealership from where I’m sitting.
Some of you guys could write my marketing “cut sheet” I hand out to dealerships.
I’m an on demand service. I’m not carried on payroll. They don’t pay me for dead time. I carry my own liability insurance. The big one.....they can pay me out of petty cash, and not cut a check. A check would be an expense to the sales dept. I can slip in under whatever rules they have for petty cash (usually $250-$500). I collect after each delivery, so it’s not a rolling amount that would exceed their petty cash restrictions.
I’m kind of lucky as I’m within 10 to 15 minutes of a whole slew of new car dealerships (Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Cadillac, VW, Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mazda, BMW, Merceds, Kia, Volvo, Acura, GMC, Ford, Buick).
$25 minimum per car if delivered under 10 miles. Over 10 miles, it’s $25 plus $1/mile. Over 25 miles (one way) I will quote separately. One way transport is mileage plus the expense of me UBERING home. They’d rather get something for their money, so the do dealer trades to get the most bang for their buck.
I know what you’re thinking....”GG, that’s probably $50/hour”. True. But, transporting between 2 dealerships, each dealership bears ½ the cost. Again, no $10/hr lot boy who can (and probably has) backed into one of the new pristine cars on your lot. No liability. And, I’m not lolly gagging around. I deliver the car, collect my money from the cashier I give them a slip stating what I delivered, where it was delivered from, and who authorized me to do the transport. They only have to put a slip in the cash box to pay me.
By the time I’m done today, I’ll have made around $700+ in the last 3 days. And, I already have another retiree who’s willing to help so if I can snag a few more dealerships, I’ll have a nice little business running. Again, won’t get rich from it, but keeps me busy and I’m enjoying it.
Picking up bits and pieces of the sales guys’ pitch. No wonder there’s so much turnover. I’m sure there are a lot of newbies, but geez-Louise....are you training these guys to be a PITA to sell cars?
RB...answering your question....Corollas aren’t my cup of tea. They are innocuous to drive, which is probably the point. Given Toyota’s reputation for quality, I’m a bit taken aback at the cheapness of the interiors. But, I would imagine if you want a car that gets good MPG, costs little to maintain, and will last 10+ years, you could do a lot worse than a Corolla.
Gotta go. Just got the word on the transport.
Don’t work too hard now, remember, you’re retired.🥳
I have two more today. Should be done by 1:00 p.m., at the latest. Then, grilling out with the GF and my son.
I think I’ll be pretty slow until the end of this month, being end of quarter.
Some other observations at the dealerships.....
-just eyeballing, I’d say there are about ½ the sales people that most of these dealerships have in normal times -they are putting and emphasis on service business and offering new services (like detailing cars and charging extra for sanitizing them) -For Acura at least, they have 2 retailers for sold cars, not the usual 4 -Sales people are finding and moving cars to get the ones customers want, vs having someone else do it -dealerships appreciate me being prompt and efficient. Hope they like the service as I pride myself on being a business person and knowing how important service is. I’m transporting some of these cars in about ½ the time as their own staff.
Toyota is an interesting case study. The one I’m working with the most is probably one of the highest volume dealers in the state, if not the region. Observed a lady who was getting ready to leave because the dealership didn’t have the color of Camry she wanted (which was odd, because she wanted silver). I pulled up in a silver Camry dealer trade just as the sales person and lady was walking out the door of the dealership. Like clockwork, sales guy asks if the one I pulled up with belongs to the dealership...me..”no idea but I’m just transporting it to your store”. While I stopped to get a coffee from their coffee machine, I saw him slap a “hold” sign on it. Don’t know if he made the sale, but the lady came back into the dealership.
This is a real education for me.
Interesting stories and observations.
+1 I like hearing these stories too....from a working guy. Same with oldfarmer's experiences.........they remind me of when I once worked. These days I have been very busy, getting the plumber to come and fix a plugged up kitchen sink, trying to find the problem with a faulty cable box (trying different ones to see if it is the TV or the cable box), trying to find a dent guy that will answer my email when they say in their ads they will email you back a quote, trying to get our lawn guy to cut down a diseased tree- finally did that, and playing tennis for 2 hours a day 6 days a week.................so I need these real stories of people actually doing stuff.
Whew...feels good to be really busy. I’m actually sitting in Starbucks right now waiting for a call from Toyota to do another transport. I can practically see their dealership from where I’m sitting.
Some of you guys could write my marketing “cut sheet” I hand out to dealerships.
I’m an on demand service. I’m not carried on payroll. They don’t pay me for dead time. I carry my own liability insurance. The big one.....they can pay me out of petty cash, and not cut a check. A check would be an expense to the sales dept. I can slip in under whatever rules they have for petty cash (usually $250-$500). I collect after each delivery, so it’s not a rolling amount that would exceed their petty cash restrictions.
I’m kind of lucky as I’m within 10 to 15 minutes of a whole slew of new car dealerships (Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Cadillac, VW, Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mazda, BMW, Merceds, Kia, Volvo, Acura, GMC, Ford, Buick).
$25 minimum per car if delivered under 10 miles. Over 10 miles, it’s $25 plus $1/mile. Over 25 miles (one way) I will quote separately. One way transport is mileage plus the expense of me UBERING home. They’d rather get something for their money, so the do dealer trades to get the most bang for their buck.
I know what you’re thinking....”GG, that’s probably $50/hour”. True. But, transporting between 2 dealerships, each dealership bears ½ the cost. Again, no $10/hr lot boy who can (and probably has) backed into one of the new pristine cars on your lot. No liability. And, I’m not lolly gagging around. I deliver the car, collect my money from the cashier I give them a slip stating what I delivered, where it was delivered from, and who authorized me to do the transport. They only have to put a slip in the cash box to pay me.
By the time I’m done today, I’ll have made around $700+ in the last 3 days. And, I already have another retiree who’s willing to help so if I can snag a few more dealerships, I’ll have a nice little business running. Again, won’t get rich from it, but keeps me busy and I’m enjoying it.
Picking up bits and pieces of the sales guys’ pitch. No wonder there’s so much turnover. I’m sure there are a lot of newbies, but geez-Louise....are you training these guys to be a PITA to sell cars?
RB...answering your question....Corollas aren’t my cup of tea. They are innocuous to drive, which is probably the point. Given Toyota’s reputation for quality, I’m a bit taken aback at the cheapness of the interiors. But, I would imagine if you want a car that gets good MPG, costs little to maintain, and will last 10+ years, you could do a lot worse than a Corolla.
Gotta go. Just got the word on the transport.
Don’t work too hard now, remember, you’re retired.🥳
I have two more today. Should be done by 1:00 p.m., at the latest. Then, grilling out with the GF and my son.
I think I’ll be pretty slow until the end of this month, being end of quarter.
Some other observations at the dealerships.....
-just eyeballing, I’d say there are about ½ the sales people that most of these dealerships have in normal times -they are putting and emphasis on service business and offering new services (like detailing cars and charging extra for sanitizing them) -For Acura at least, they have 2 retailers for sold cars, not the usual 4 -Sales people are finding and moving cars to get the ones customers want, vs having someone else do it -dealerships appreciate me being prompt and efficient. Hope they like the service as I pride myself on being a business person and knowing how important service is. I’m transporting some of these cars in about ½ the time as their own staff.
Toyota is an interesting case study. The one I’m working with the most is probably one of the highest volume dealers in the state, if not the region. Observed a lady who was getting ready to leave because the dealership didn’t have the color of Camry she wanted (which was odd, because she wanted silver). I pulled up in a silver Camry dealer trade just as the sales person and lady was walking out the door of the dealership. Like clockwork, sales guy asks if the one I pulled up with belongs to the dealership...me..”no idea but I’m just transporting it to your store”. While I stopped to get a coffee from their coffee machine, I saw him slap a “hold” sign on it. Don’t know if he made the sale, but the lady came back into the dealership.
This is a real education for me.
Interesting stories and observations.
+1 I like hearing these stories too....from a working guy. Same with oldfarmer's experiences.........they remind me of when I once worked. These days I have been very busy, getting the plumber to come and fix a plugged up kitchen sink, trying to find the problem with a faulty cable box (trying different ones to see if it is the TV or the cable box), trying to find a dent guy that will answer my email when they say in their ads they will email you back a quote, trying to get our lawn guy to cut down a diseased tree- finally did that, and playing tennis for 2 hours a day 6 days a week.................so I need these real stories of people actually doing stuff.
You’re in good company. There are dozens of TV shows which follow people just doing regular stuff like cleaning drains or fixing up and selling a house. My wife likes to watch various living in the wilderness shows where people fight with the weather as the heat goes out or the generator breaks down and drama is created as they try to fix it.
Then there’s Mike Rowe’s ‘Dirty Jobs’ which chronicles people doing what nobody else wants to do.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
You’re in good company. There are dozens of TV shows which follow people just doing regular stuff like cleaning drains or fixing up and selling a house. My wife likes to watch various living in the wilderness shows where people fight with the weather as the heat goes out or the generator breaks down and drama is created as they try to fix it.
Starting in March when all live sports got paused and there wasn't that to watch on TV any more - which I came to realize made up most of my TV watching these days - I was looking for something to fill the time and gravitated to some of those shows. Most are pretty awful and I find many of the lead players quite off-putting. I really do not understand what makes them so popular in a lot of cases *cough*FixerUpper*cough*.
One of the ones I was able to tolerate was "Building Alaska" which, if you can get past the premise of some of their projects - "person who has never built anything decides to build a place on a piece of property on top of a 100-foot cliff 100 miles from civilization completely off the grid and only accessible by boat" - can be somewhat interesting. But I quickly discovered that not only is a lot of the stuff scripted or at least staged to reflect things that might have actually happened off-camera, but that also each hour-long* (*42 minutes with commercials) episode probably has maybe 20 minutes of actual footage. The rest is scenery, teasers, set-ups, and then recaps after coming back from commercial of something that in the end amounted to nothing at all. One example I recall is a piece that showed them running wiring and installing an electrical panel in a new place with the intent of running things off a portable generator until their solar/battery system got installed. The guy has a helper plug the panel into a generator and then makes a bit of a show about how all he needs to do is flip this breaker to have lights inside. Then they cut away to an exterior shot as you hear him say "Oh no!". I swear they used that last 5-second clip 4 or 5 times throughout the show. As it happened he supposedly flipped the wrong breaker and then seconds later hit the correct one to make the lights come on. Such drama!
Maybe I should get a show like Scotty has and I could get a camera guy to follow me around and I could comment on stuff. My daughter sent me a link of a guy who gives his opinions about various songs; https://youtu.be/haKiMBHcBfA He has ads so he must have some followers. He seemed more like a rapper guy so I was surprised that he appreciates Frankie Valli. This guy and the shows you guys mentioned remind me of the slogan for the Comedy Channel "Time Well Wasted".
I found Jamal aka Jamal a while ago. He seems like a pretty good guy. Although I do wonder if he likes everything (I have never heard him say anything bad about a song but maybe that is because of what I choose to watch on his channel), but more importantly, how he has supposedly never heard so many of these songs. I guess he lived a sheltered life.
Whew...feels good to be really busy. I’m actually sitting in Starbucks right now waiting for a call from Toyota to do another transport. I can practically see their dealership from where I’m sitting.
Some of you guys could write my marketing “cut sheet” I hand out to dealerships.
I’m an on demand service. I’m not carried on payroll. They don’t pay me for dead time. I carry my own liability insurance. The big one.....they can pay me out of petty cash, and not cut a check. A check would be an expense to the sales dept. I can slip in under whatever rules they have for petty cash (usually $250-$500). I collect after each delivery, so it’s not a rolling amount that would exceed their petty cash restrictions.
I’m kind of lucky as I’m within 10 to 15 minutes of a whole slew of new car dealerships (Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Cadillac, VW, Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mazda, BMW, Merceds, Kia, Volvo, Acura, GMC, Ford, Buick).
$25 minimum per car if delivered under 10 miles. Over 10 miles, it’s $25 plus $1/mile. Over 25 miles (one way) I will quote separately. One way transport is mileage plus the expense of me UBERING home. They’d rather get something for their money, so the do dealer trades to get the most bang for their buck.
I know what you’re thinking....”GG, that’s probably $50/hour”. True. But, transporting between 2 dealerships, each dealership bears ½ the cost. Again, no $10/hr lot boy who can (and probably has) backed into one of the new pristine cars on your lot. No liability. And, I’m not lolly gagging around. I deliver the car, collect my money from the cashier I give them a slip stating what I delivered, where it was delivered from, and who authorized me to do the transport. They only have to put a slip in the cash box to pay me.
By the time I’m done today, I’ll have made around $700+ in the last 3 days. And, I already have another retiree who’s willing to help so if I can snag a few more dealerships, I’ll have a nice little business running. Again, won’t get rich from it, but keeps me busy and I’m enjoying it.
Picking up bits and pieces of the sales guys’ pitch. No wonder there’s so much turnover. I’m sure there are a lot of newbies, but geez-Louise....are you training these guys to be a PITA to sell cars?
RB...answering your question....Corollas aren’t my cup of tea. They are innocuous to drive, which is probably the point. Given Toyota’s reputation for quality, I’m a bit taken aback at the cheapness of the interiors. But, I would imagine if you want a car that gets good MPG, costs little to maintain, and will last 10+ years, you could do a lot worse than a Corolla.
Gotta go. Just got the word on the transport.
Don’t work too hard now, remember, you’re retired.🥳
I have two more today. Should be done by 1:00 p.m., at the latest. Then, grilling out with the GF and my son.
I think I’ll be pretty slow until the end of this month, being end of quarter.
Some other observations at the dealerships.....
-just eyeballing, I’d say there are about ½ the sales people that most of these dealerships have in normal times -they are putting and emphasis on service business and offering new services (like detailing cars and charging extra for sanitizing them) -For Acura at least, they have 2 retailers for sold cars, not the usual 4 -Sales people are finding and moving cars to get the ones customers want, vs having someone else do it -dealerships appreciate me being prompt and efficient. Hope they like the service as I pride myself on being a business person and knowing how important service is. I’m transporting some of these cars in about ½ the time as their own staff.
Toyota is an interesting case study. The one I’m working with the most is probably one of the highest volume dealers in the state, if not the region. Observed a lady who was getting ready to leave because the dealership didn’t have the color of Camry she wanted (which was odd, because she wanted silver). I pulled up in a silver Camry dealer trade just as the sales person and lady was walking out the door of the dealership. Like clockwork, sales guy asks if the one I pulled up with belongs to the dealership...me..”no idea but I’m just transporting it to your store”. While I stopped to get a coffee from their coffee machine, I saw him slap a “hold” sign on it. Don’t know if he made the sale, but the lady came back into the dealership.
This is a real education for me.
Interesting stories and observations.
+1 I like hearing these stories too....from a working guy. Same with oldfarmer's experiences.........they remind me of when I once worked. These days I have been very busy, getting the plumber to come and fix a plugged up kitchen sink, trying to find the problem with a faulty cable box (trying different ones to see if it is the TV or the cable box), trying to find a dent guy that will answer my email when they say in their ads they will email you back a quote, trying to get our lawn guy to cut down a diseased tree- finally did that, and playing tennis for 2 hours a day 6 days a week.................so I need these real stories of people actually doing stuff.
My, my sooo many problems for one guy. I could tell you what to do for some of them but you'd call "The Guy" anyway but I can do this one remotely for that little bump on your car. Comes highly recommended. jmonroe
'15 Genesis Ultimate just like jmonroe's. '18 Legacy Limited with 3.6R (Mrs. j's)
You’re in good company. There are dozens of TV shows which follow people just doing regular stuff like cleaning drains or fixing up and selling a house. My wife likes to watch various living in the wilderness shows where people fight with the weather as the heat goes out or the generator breaks down and drama is created as they try to fix it.
Starting in March when all live sports got paused and there wasn't that to watch on TV any more - which I came to realize made up most of my TV watching these days - I was looking for something to fill the time and gravitated to some of those shows. Most are pretty awful and I find many of the lead players quite off-putting. I really do not understand what makes them so popular in a lot of cases *cough*FixerUpper*cough*.
One of the ones I was able to tolerate was "Building Alaska" which, if you can get past the premise of some of their projects - "person who has never built anything decides to build a place on a piece of property on top of a 100-foot cliff 100 miles from civilization completely off the grid and only accessible by boat" - can be somewhat interesting. But I quickly discovered that not only is a lot of the stuff scripted or at least staged to reflect things that might have actually happened off-camera, but that also each hour-long* (*42 minutes with commercials) episode probably has maybe 20 minutes of actual footage. The rest is scenery, teasers, set-ups, and then recaps after coming back from commercial of something that in the end amounted to nothing at all. One example I recall is a piece that showed them running wiring and installing an electrical panel in a new place with the intent of running things off a portable generator until their solar/battery system got installed. The guy has a helper plug the panel into a generator and then makes a bit of a show about how all he needs to do is flip this breaker to have lights inside. Then they cut away to an exterior shot as you hear him say "Oh no!". I swear they used that last 5-second clip 4 or 5 times throughout the show. As it happened he supposedly flipped the wrong breaker and then seconds later hit the correct one to make the lights come on. Such drama!
Yep, just a lot of drama but those shows are popular. If they want real world they should come over to the flip house a couple times. I have to admit we don't have surprises per se but what you would see is real. Sometimes even the nail gun acts up.
As for that electrician, it doesn't sound like he'd have been much help when I wired up a 5-way lighting circuit in the newly created basement game room last night that is almost finished.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis Ultimate just like jmonroe's. '18 Legacy Limited with 3.6R (Mrs. j's)
Whew...feels good to be really busy. I’m actually sitting in Starbucks right now waiting for a call from Toyota to do another transport. I can practically see their dealership from where I’m sitting.
Some of you guys could write my marketing “cut sheet” I hand out to dealerships.
I’m an on demand service. I’m not carried on payroll. They don’t pay me for dead time. I carry my own liability insurance. The big one.....they can pay me out of petty cash, and not cut a check. A check would be an expense to the sales dept. I can slip in under whatever rules they have for petty cash (usually $250-$500). I collect after each delivery, so it’s not a rolling amount that would exceed their petty cash restrictions.
I’m kind of lucky as I’m within 10 to 15 minutes of a whole slew of new car dealerships (Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Cadillac, VW, Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mazda, BMW, Merceds, Kia, Volvo, Acura, GMC, Ford, Buick).
$25 minimum per car if delivered under 10 miles. Over 10 miles, it’s $25 plus $1/mile. Over 25 miles (one way) I will quote separately. One way transport is mileage plus the expense of me UBERING home. They’d rather get something for their money, so the do dealer trades to get the most bang for their buck.
I know what you’re thinking....”GG, that’s probably $50/hour”. True. But, transporting between 2 dealerships, each dealership bears ½ the cost. Again, no $10/hr lot boy who can (and probably has) backed into one of the new pristine cars on your lot. No liability. And, I’m not lolly gagging around. I deliver the car, collect my money from the cashier I give them a slip stating what I delivered, where it was delivered from, and who authorized me to do the transport. They only have to put a slip in the cash box to pay me.
By the time I’m done today, I’ll have made around $700+ in the last 3 days. And, I already have another retiree who’s willing to help so if I can snag a few more dealerships, I’ll have a nice little business running. Again, won’t get rich from it, but keeps me busy and I’m enjoying it.
Picking up bits and pieces of the sales guys’ pitch. No wonder there’s so much turnover. I’m sure there are a lot of newbies, but geez-Louise....are you training these guys to be a PITA to sell cars?
RB...answering your question....Corollas aren’t my cup of tea. They are innocuous to drive, which is probably the point. Given Toyota’s reputation for quality, I’m a bit taken aback at the cheapness of the interiors. But, I would imagine if you want a car that gets good MPG, costs little to maintain, and will last 10+ years, you could do a lot worse than a Corolla.
Gotta go. Just got the word on the transport.
Don’t work too hard now, remember, you’re retired.🥳
I have two more today. Should be done by 1:00 p.m., at the latest. Then, grilling out with the GF and my son.
I think I’ll be pretty slow until the end of this month, being end of quarter.
Some other observations at the dealerships.....
-just eyeballing, I’d say there are about ½ the sales people that most of these dealerships have in normal times -they are putting and emphasis on service business and offering new services (like detailing cars and charging extra for sanitizing them) -For Acura at least, they have 2 retailers for sold cars, not the usual 4 -Sales people are finding and moving cars to get the ones customers want, vs having someone else do it -dealerships appreciate me being prompt and efficient. Hope they like the service as I pride myself on being a business person and knowing how important service is. I’m transporting some of these cars in about ½ the time as their own staff.
Toyota is an interesting case study. The one I’m working with the most is probably one of the highest volume dealers in the state, if not the region. Observed a lady who was getting ready to leave because the dealership didn’t have the color of Camry she wanted (which was odd, because she wanted silver). I pulled up in a silver Camry dealer trade just as the sales person and lady was walking out the door of the dealership. Like clockwork, sales guy asks if the one I pulled up with belongs to the dealership...me..”no idea but I’m just transporting it to your store”. While I stopped to get a coffee from their coffee machine, I saw him slap a “hold” sign on it. Don’t know if he made the sale, but the lady came back into the dealership.
This is a real education for me.
All day today we were racing to catch up with demand at the airport. Quite a few times I pulled into the garage and the agent was loading in a customer as I was getting out. Kind of make you feel important doesn’t it.
OF....having fun, for sure. I don’t stick around long enough at the dealerships to get into any protracted conversations other than what I eaves drop on. While there’s really no down side, I am only transporting mostly mundane vehicles. A couple of exceptions....the Toyota Avalon TRD, RDX (which is probably what I’d buy if I were ever in the CUV/SUV market) and ILX A-Spec. But, mostly it’s more mundane transports.
There’s a Porsche dealership (only one in Cincinnati) that I’m going to drop in to see later this afternoon to see what it would take to get their transport business. Surprisingly, I haven’t had much push back on meeting with dealership management. I always frame it as “I’ll help you sell more cars by getting what your customers want”. They like that approach and see the value.
That said, I pretty much reached my limit on transports I can personally do. That became apparent this weekend. And, so as not to disappoint or turn down a dealership, I’ve got a friend (Ford Engineer-retiree) who will help me when needed.
Toyota sales manager wanted to know if I wanted a job in sales after gushing about the Avalon TRD. I politely declined stating I wouldn’t work the hours they wanted me to work. Let me do it part time? May be interested. He didn’t say “no”. He didn’t say “yes”, either.
In case 2020 was not ominous enough, it is raining ash at my house in the Seattle suburbs and I can barely see a quarter mile because of all the smoke. Wildfires in the central and eastern washington....
2025 Jetta GLI Autobahn, 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xE
In case 2020 was not ominous enough, it is raining ash at my house in the Seattle suburbs and I can barely see a quarter mile because of all the smoke. Wildfires in the central and eastern washington....
We were getting smoke and ash here, too. Was 91 yesterday, and today it's snowing.
So I took a new job about 5 weeks ago. Good company, but truth be told the CEO didn’t quite explain the day to day. I’m not entirely happy, and really feel like I’m not doing what I was hired to do either. On the flip side the money is good, WFH, and there should be room for advancement.
Today I get a phone call from the retailer that I had an offer pending with before Covid hit. He explained that they want to now offer me a Sr level position with 4 direct reports one of them being a PM I had at my last job. Salary is just shy of a 25% bump.
I feel bad because they just made a big announcement on LinkedIn and during a Town Hall. OTOH I feel it’s a much better opportunity and basically a carbon copy of what I did at the other retailer. It’s a tough call.
Thanks for listening.
25%? That's not a tough call. That's an easy call. If your worth that much, then you under-negotiated your current salary.
Not necessarily. I did negotiate and they changed the role to a Sr position once the CEO approved me to be at the top of the pay scale. New job is more responsibility for a much larger company.
In case anyone is wondering, I spoke to them again on Friday and their offer came in stronger than the original conversation making it an effective 30% increase, WFH/30 % travel, and 3 weeks vacation right out of the gate. A no brainer and I will be accepting and giving notice today providing there are no surprises in the formal written letter.
Thanks for all dialogue it's always nice to hear from a group of impartial friends here.
Is anyone here particularly good with home networking?
I recently upgraded our Fiber connection to a gigabit connection, because it was only $10/month more. However after doing so, I realized just how poor my home wifi setup is. We do have whole home hardwired connections that all terminate in an OnQ box up in our laundry room. That box is also where our Fiber connection comes into.
In that box I have a Netgear Nighthawk AX6 that I picked up recently at Costco. Performance when connected to that router is very good - nearly 900mbps down and 900 up. However coverage of the house from that location is very poor. I have two Apple Airport Extreme APs setup in bridge mode to extend the wireless network. Performance on those is less stellar - 500 up and down if you are connected to 5 ghz and close by. Two issues: (1) Performance drops off quickly by an order of magnitude
(2) The hand-off of devices between all 3 APs is really poor - meaning devices cling to the last AP they were connected to until some random point, even if they've moved to a room with a new AP.
I've looked into the Mesh systems, but while they provide consistent performance, they don't seem to provide fast AND consistent performance.
Any recommendations short of looking into enterprise equipment?
2025 Jetta GLI Autobahn, 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xE
I'm not the guy to ask about home networking given how often my 3 Win10 machines refuse to talk to each other. But I read an article on CNET last week about WiFi6, which sounds like it can take advantage of gigabit connections. The problem seems to be less the routing infrastructure than it is the devices that connect to it, since if they have any age on them at all they cannot take advantage of all that speed.
Wow, $10 more per month is a smokin’ deal. My former provider (Cox) would raise me $10 per month just to continue the same service, and, that was on a 24 mos. “guaranteed price” contract. Obviously, there was fine print qualifying that, the reason it is my former internet provider.
Is anyone here particularly good with home networking?
I recently upgraded our Fiber connection to a gigabit connection, because it was only $10/month more. However after doing so, I realized just how poor my home wifi setup is. We do have whole home hardwired connections that all terminate in an OnQ box up in our laundry room. That box is also where our Fiber connection comes into.
In that box I have a Netgear Nighthawk AX6 that I picked up recently at Costco. Performance when connected to that router is very good - nearly 900mbps down and 900 up. However coverage of the house from that location is very poor. I have two Apple Airport Extreme APs setup in bridge mode to extend the wireless network. Performance on those is less stellar - 500 up and down if you are connected to 5 ghz and close by. Two issues: (1) Performance drops off quickly by an order of magnitude
(2) The hand-off of devices between all 3 APs is really poor - meaning devices cling to the last AP they were connected to until some random point, even if they've moved to a room with a new AP.
I've looked into the Mesh systems, but while they provide consistent performance, they don't seem to provide fast AND consistent performance.
Any recommendations short of looking into enterprise equipment?
Who is your provider? Lifehacker had a lengthy article recently about tuning up your Comcast wifi. As they are my provider, I printed the article out and will be doing some testing when I have some time.
I have Ziply Fiber (a spinoff of Verizon FiOS that then became Frontier FiOS before being spun off again). It is a true fiber-to-the house, gigabit up and down connection.
2025 Jetta GLI Autobahn, 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xE
Surprisingly, I haven’t had much push back on meeting with dealership management. I always frame it as “I’ll help you sell more cars by getting what your customers want”. They like that approach and see the value.
I really like that line. Business managers are busy and don't want to waste time....so a quick snappy line that can get their attention and is the best way to get your foot in the door. Another key point is you are telling them about a way for them to make more money....all in one simple line that has to grab their attention.
One thing I would recommend and this came up in a sales talk about ways to make "hard selling" softer, is to send them a very brief attention getting brochure/letter before calling, and say you will be contacting them in a day or two. If the Porsche guy is hard to see....it is worth a try, should be brief, get their attention, somehow say this will save you time and money and actually make you more money.....everyone loves to hear that. Any business guy that knows what he is doing should be open to any idea that could be a winner for him.
I could see the "dust" in the streetlights in Bellevue last night, and I turned off my HVAC as the smell was annoying. I still have it off and can still smell it, but with the sun becoming stronger in the past hour, I'll probably need to use AC again or live in an oven.
A lot of problems in the Puyallup/Graham area too I think - several homes lost, power outages, etc.
In case 2020 was not ominous enough, it is raining ash at my house in the Seattle suburbs and I can barely see a quarter mile because of all the smoke. Wildfires in the central and eastern washington....
TJC.....I've been using a mesh system by Amplifi. It's been good. Had to buy an additional "mesh hot spot" as I wanted as strong of a wifi signal as possible in my Home Theater, which is two floors away from my Amplifi router.
That Nighthawk Router is a good one. Their mesh points are pretty costly (IIRC), though.
TJC.....I've been using a mesh system by Amplifi. It's been good. Had to buy an additional "mesh hot spot" as I wanted as strong of a wifi signal as possible in my Home Theater, which is two floors away from my Amplifi router.
That Nighthawk Router is a good one. Their mesh points are pretty costly (IIRC), though.
So I took a new job about 5 weeks ago. Good company, but truth be told the CEO didn’t quite explain the day to day. I’m not entirely happy, and really feel like I’m not doing what I was hired to do either. On the flip side the money is good, WFH, and there should be room for advancement.
Today I get a phone call from the retailer that I had an offer pending with before Covid hit. He explained that they want to now offer me a Sr level position with 4 direct reports one of them being a PM I had at my last job. Salary is just shy of a 25% bump.
I feel bad because they just made a big announcement on LinkedIn and during a Town Hall. OTOH I feel it’s a much better opportunity and basically a carbon copy of what I did at the other retailer. It’s a tough call.
Thanks for listening.
25%? That's not a tough call. That's an easy call. If your worth that much, then you under-negotiated your current salary.
Not necessarily. I did negotiate and they changed the role to a Sr position once the CEO approved me to be at the top of the pay scale. New job is more responsibility for a much larger company.
In case anyone is wondering, I spoke to them again on Friday and their offer came in stronger than the original conversation making it an effective 30% increase, WFH/30 % travel, and 3 weeks vacation right out of the gate. A no brainer and I will be accepting and giving notice today providing there are no surprises in the formal written letter.
Thanks for all dialogue it's always nice to hear from a group of impartial friends here.
That’s great. It’s humbling to be among the captain’s of industry with you and graphicguy.
Speaking of “guys”, I had mine show up to do some repairs caused by a storm in March. Everything shut down right about then so I had to wait until later only to find repair services were swamped. I had to contract with a second guy who ran a smaller operation. He fixed all the storm damage, including some I hadn’t noticed. Then he started on some exterior trim work and a new front door (which I had been putting off doing myself). He’ll finish tomorrow and for $500 less than the bigger company had estimated.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
I would like a fancy new job. But at this point, will probably settle for not having my current place go belly up, and just being largely left alone until I can actually retire! And start a GraphicGuy car delivery franchise!
hmm, that does not sound all that ambitious does it?
I would like a fancy new job. But at this point, will probably settle for not having my current place go belly up, and just being largely left alone until I can actually retire! And start a GraphicGuy car delivery franchise!
hmm, that does not sound all that ambitious does it?
About as ambitious as I am, just sitting it out and laying low until it comes time for retirement.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Comments
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Had the same Sales Manger (Toyota) tell me yesterday I can get to him quicker than him trying to find a lot boy who’s wandering around somewhere.
I think I’ll be pretty slow until the end of this month, being end of quarter.
Some other observations at the dealerships.....
-just eyeballing, I’d say there are about ½ the sales people that most of these dealerships have in normal times
-they are putting and emphasis on service business and offering new services (like detailing cars and charging extra for sanitizing them)
-For Acura at least, they have 2 retailers for sold cars, not the usual 4
-Sales people are finding and moving cars to get the ones customers want, vs having someone else do it
-dealerships appreciate me being prompt and efficient. Hope they like the service as I pride myself on being a business person and knowing how important service is. I’m transporting some of these cars in about ½ the time as their own staff.
Toyota is an interesting case study. The one I’m working with the most is probably one of the highest volume dealers in the state, if not the region. Observed a lady who was getting ready to leave because the dealership didn’t have the color of Camry she wanted (which was odd, because she wanted silver). I pulled up in a silver Camry dealer trade just as the sales person and lady was walking out the door of the dealership. Like clockwork, sales guy asks if the one I pulled up with belongs to the dealership...me..”no idea but I’m just transporting it to your store”. While I stopped to get a coffee from their coffee machine, I saw him slap a “hold” sign on it. Don’t know if he made the sale, but the lady came back into the dealership.
This is a real education for me.
https://www.fckerbeck.com/
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
You guys who brag about being in the upscale neighborhoods with all the fancy car dealers......... :@
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
Last night grandson #1 came over for dinner and told us this:
He decided not to go with the family and his mother’s brother and GF from Ohio on a trip to DC. Maybe for the better. He said his father and youngest brother had their bikes stolen some where on a downtown DC street when everyone was at a restaurant having lunch. The bikes were chained to a bike rack in broad daylight but that didn’t stop the thieves. Fortunately only the two bikes were stolen. I guess it could have been more. Not to ruin the bike trip, he is renting two bikes to finish the tour. Yes, he filed a police report and mentioned to the police that he thought he had a good enough hardened steel lock and chain but it must not have been good enough. The police said that some of these thieves have pairs of car batteries connected to plasma cutters and nothing stops that. So, he’s out over 2 grand for those bikes (not sure if he has insurance for that). Maybe he plans to work overtime at the flip to make up for that loss but I ain’t. :@
jmonroe
'18 Legacy Limited with 3.6R (Mrs. j's)
Fortunately, just bumps and bruises, and a little knee rehab. Very, very lucky.
He had built his high-end bike by getting last year's parts, etc... But, still had $7K into it. Insurance valued it at $12,800.
He still doesn't recommend cashing in this way, though.
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2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
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jmonroe
'18 Legacy Limited with 3.6R (Mrs. j's)
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
2025 Forester Limited, 2024 Subaru Legacy Sport
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
I did my good deed on Friday for a Jeep owner from out-of-state. We got on the interstate heading for lunch and an errand. Friday is a busy day for travelers for the weekend. OSPatrol had car stopped. I decided there would be another OSP vehicle because this area has been abused by the high speed drivers since it's 3 lanes but 65 mph. Saw a Jeep coming up behind me in 3rd high speed lane. I stayed in high speed lane because a usual spot for OSP was up ahead against the Jersey wall. Yup. I was going 70 in 65 and Jeep driver was far above that.
And there was a 3rd OSP a couple miles up ahead with another driver donating to our Ohio deficit.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Same with oldfarmer's experiences.........they remind me of when I once worked. These days I have been very busy, getting the plumber to come and fix a plugged up kitchen sink, trying to find the problem with a faulty cable box (trying different ones to see if it is the TV or the cable box), trying to find a dent guy that will answer my email when they say in their ads they will email you back a quote, trying to get our lawn guy to cut down a diseased tree- finally did that, and playing tennis for 2 hours a day 6 days a week.................so I need these real stories of people actually doing stuff.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
Then there’s Mike Rowe’s ‘Dirty Jobs’ which chronicles people doing what nobody else wants to do.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
One of the ones I was able to tolerate was "Building Alaska" which, if you can get past the premise of some of their projects - "person who has never built anything decides to build a place on a piece of property on top of a 100-foot cliff 100 miles from civilization completely off the grid and only accessible by boat" - can be somewhat interesting. But I quickly discovered that not only is a lot of the stuff scripted or at least staged to reflect things that might have actually happened off-camera, but that also each hour-long* (*42 minutes with commercials) episode probably has maybe 20 minutes of actual footage. The rest is scenery, teasers, set-ups, and then recaps after coming back from commercial of something that in the end amounted to nothing at all. One example I recall is a piece that showed them running wiring and installing an electrical panel in a new place with the intent of running things off a portable generator until their solar/battery system got installed. The guy has a helper plug the panel into a generator and then makes a bit of a show about how all he needs to do is flip this breaker to have lights inside. Then they cut away to an exterior shot as you hear him say "Oh no!". I swear they used that last 5-second clip 4 or 5 times throughout the show. As it happened he supposedly flipped the wrong breaker and then seconds later hit the correct one to make the lights come on. Such drama!
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
My daughter sent me a link of a guy who gives his opinions about various songs;
He has ads so he must have some followers. He seemed more like a rapper guy so I was surprised that he appreciates Frankie Valli.
This guy and the shows you guys mentioned remind me of the slogan for the Comedy Channel "Time Well Wasted".
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
I do like him.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech
jmonroe
'18 Legacy Limited with 3.6R (Mrs. j's)
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
As for that electrician, it doesn't sound like he'd have been much help when I wired up a 5-way lighting circuit in the newly created basement game room last night that is almost finished.
jmonroe
'18 Legacy Limited with 3.6R (Mrs. j's)
There’s a Porsche dealership (only one in Cincinnati) that I’m going to drop in to see later this afternoon to see what it would take to get their transport business. Surprisingly, I haven’t had much push back on meeting with dealership management. I always frame it as “I’ll help you sell more cars by getting what your customers want”. They like that approach and see the value.
That said, I pretty much reached my limit on transports I can personally do. That became apparent this weekend. And, so as not to disappoint or turn down a dealership, I’ve got a friend (Ford Engineer-retiree) who will help me when needed.
Toyota sales manager wanted to know if I wanted a job in sales after gushing about the Avalon TRD. I politely declined stating I wouldn’t work the hours they wanted me to work. Let me do it part time? May be interested. He didn’t say “no”. He didn’t say “yes”, either.
Yay for Colorado!
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
In case anyone is wondering, I spoke to them again on Friday and their offer came in stronger than the original conversation making it an effective 30% increase, WFH/30 % travel, and 3 weeks vacation right out of the gate. A no brainer and I will be accepting and giving notice today providing there are no surprises in the formal written letter.
Thanks for all dialogue it's always nice to hear from a group of impartial friends here.
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
I recently upgraded our Fiber connection to a gigabit connection, because it was only $10/month more. However after doing so, I realized just how poor my home wifi setup is. We do have whole home hardwired connections that all terminate in an OnQ box up in our laundry room. That box is also where our Fiber connection comes into.
In that box I have a Netgear Nighthawk AX6 that I picked up recently at Costco. Performance when connected to that router is very good - nearly 900mbps down and 900 up. However coverage of the house from that location is very poor. I have two Apple Airport Extreme APs setup in bridge mode to extend the wireless network. Performance on those is less stellar - 500 up and down if you are connected to 5 ghz and close by. Two issues:
(1) Performance drops off quickly by an order of magnitude
(2) The hand-off of devices between all 3 APs is really poor - meaning devices cling to the last AP they were connected to until some random point, even if they've moved to a room with a new AP.
I've looked into the Mesh systems, but while they provide consistent performance, they don't seem to provide fast AND consistent performance.
Any recommendations short of looking into enterprise equipment?
Here's the article: https://www.cnet.com/news/wi-fi-6-and-what-it-means-for-you-wifi-routers/
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
Surprisingly, I haven’t had much push back on meeting with dealership management. I always frame it as “I’ll help you sell more cars by getting what your customers want”. They like that approach and see the value.
I really like that line. Business managers are busy and don't want to waste time....so a quick snappy line that can get their attention and is the best way to get your foot in the door. Another key point is you are telling them about a way for them to make more money....all in one simple line that has to grab their attention.
One thing I would recommend and this came up in a sales talk about ways to make "hard selling" softer, is to send them a very brief attention getting brochure/letter before calling, and say you will be contacting them in a day or two. If the Porsche guy is hard to see....it is worth a try, should be brief, get their attention, somehow say this will save you time and money and actually make you more money.....everyone loves to hear that. Any business guy that knows what he is doing should be open to any idea that could be a winner for him.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
A lot of problems in the Puyallup/Graham area too I think - several homes lost, power outages, etc.
That Nighthawk Router is a good one. Their mesh points are pretty costly (IIRC), though.
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Re: Netgear mesh, yes it is expensive and doesn't have ethernet backhaul, so speeds are limited.
Speaking of “guys”, I had mine show up to do some repairs caused by a storm in March. Everything shut down right about then so I had to wait until later only to find repair services were swamped. I had to contract with a second guy who ran a smaller operation. He fixed all the storm damage, including some I hadn’t noticed. Then he started on some exterior trim work and a new front door (which I had been putting off doing myself). He’ll finish tomorrow and for $500 less than the bigger company had estimated.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
hmm, that does not sound all that ambitious does it?
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D