Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

stever

Had a lot of noise driving the van to El Paso this morning. Got home and the driver's sliding door is way gappy. Bet it'd even leak if it rained.

Back to the shop on Tuesday.

Found the Soul I want. It's on the way to my sister's house. My sister just lives an hour away. I'm a few miles further, like 1900. Maybe I could do a fly/drive....

I don't really want to buy it and have my sister pick it up, but she might manage to get it to her house without wrecking it. Kind of a coin toss on that.

abacomike

@stever:

Sorry to learn that the van looked better in the pictures than it did driving it.  Unfortunate, stever. 

stickguy

Hmm. I really like that one. Looks good in white. and man, is that thing loaded. Got all the stuff I want. Not sure I could ever sell the wife on one though!

My sister actually lives really close to there in Herndon. Probably a whopping 10 minutes. And it is super close to Dulles if you want to do a fly in/drive home!

driver100

stever said:

Had a lot of noise driving the van to El Paso this morning. Got home and the driver's sliding door is way gappy. Bet it'd even leak if it rained.

Back to the shop on Tuesday.

Found the Soul I want. It's on the way to my sister's house. My sister just lives an hour away. I'm a few miles further, like 1900. Maybe I could do a fly/drive....

I don't really want to buy it and have my sister pick it up, but she might manage to get it to her house without wrecking it. Kind of a coin toss on that.

Looks really nice in white...with black accents. I have seen one with red accents and that looked nice too...I think it had a red roof as well.


I don't know how they could mess up the door like that, that is a bummer - hoping they make it right for you stever.

driver100

Duplicated!

stever

stickguy said:

Hmm. I really like that one. Looks good in white. and man, is that thing loaded. Got all the stuff I want. Not sure I could ever sell the wife on one though!

My sister actually lives really close to there in Herndon. Probably a whopping 10 minutes. And it is super close to Dulles if you want to do a fly in/drive home!

I always fly into IAD when I go visit and my sister is expecting me next month "sometime". She's over near Winchester. I could fly free if my sister could figure out her UAL passes, but she's computer illiterate and is afraid if I log on and set it up for her remotely, I'll fly around the world and she'll be stuck with the taxes on the flight value.

Looks like I could fly Southwest to IAD for ~$350, then get my wife to fly to Chattanooga or Atlanta and we could drive back. But she's got stuff happening next month so it could be a solo jaunt home. My local guy is telling me that the Nero won't be out until the end of the first quarter, so April at the earliest most likely. The training info hasn't been released by Kia and that doesn't happen until a month before they start shipping them to the dealers. Wayne Gerdes drove one coast to coast recently and got 76 mpg on it.

Oh, I have an inquiry in on the Soul via chat; TMV is close to MSRP; wondering how they are going to justify a price that's over MSRP now that I've expressed interest.

I bet the unibody on the van is messed up and that it'll never be right.

stickguy

any time you get hit in the side, pieces can tweak or move. Even in the panels did not get hit directly. and my minivan experience is that sliding doors are very touchy and easy to get out of whack.

one reason that if my car ever gets hit, I want it to get hit real good and no question about being totaled out. Because I know I won't want it back. Sucks for Steve to have to deal with this, but saving grace is that it was worth next to nothing anyway, so the accident won't make any difference to that (plus he was keeping it for a beater anyway).

graphicguy

andres3 said:

abacomike said:

sda said:

andres3--can you say orange? I saw this at Best Buy when I was shopping for a present for my daughter last Saturday. I hope everyone had a nice holiday. It was almost 70 deg, here!

I had a 1974 MGB-GT in almost that same color. I loved it when I saw it on the lot. Sometimes, just the color of a new car on the lot will get my heart athrobbin' - come to think of it, any new car on the lot gets my heart athrobbin' - genetic I think!

They say if an old man avoids old man colors like white, black, silver, and gray, buying a colorful car automatically reduces your age by 10, and women in particular, will perceive you to be 15 years younger than you actually are

Sounds like my next car is bright red or bright blue.....;)

roadburner

Sold my first car. I'm now apparently on the reserve list from now on- not just December. Crazy.

abacomike

roadburner said:

Sold my first car. I'm now apparently on the reserve list from now on- not just December. Crazy.

Good for you RB!  I still remember the first car I sold - it's something you'll never forget.  What model and how much money did you get out of it?  Big score or a mini?

driver100

graphicguy said:

andres3 said:

abacomike said:

sda said:

andres3--can you say orange? I saw this at Best Buy when I was shopping for a present for my daughter last Saturday. I hope everyone had a nice holiday. It was almost 70 deg, here!

I had a 1974 MGB-GT in almost that same color. I loved it when I saw it on the lot. Sometimes, just the color of a new car on the lot will get my heart athrobbin' - come to think of it, any new car on the lot gets my heart athrobbin' - genetic I think!

They say if an old man avoids old man colors like white, black, silver, and gray, buying a colorful car automatically reduces your age by 10, and women in particular, will perceive you to be 15 years younger than you actually are

andres3 said:
They say if an old man avoids old man colors like white, black, silver, and gray, buying a colorful car automatically reduces your age by 10, and women in particular, will perceive you to be 15 years younger than you actually are

GG Sounds like my next car is bright red or bright blue.....;)

Yeh, I am ahead of the curve, fire engine red C250....I feel and look 10 years younger already...and can now wear horizontal stripes

ab348

graphicguy said:

Sounds like my next car is bright red or bright blue.....;)

Why do you think my ATS is painted Red Obsession?

driver100

roadburner said:

Sold my first car. I'm now apparently on the reserve list from now on- not just December. Crazy.

Nice work RR. Quite an accomplishment.

qbrozen

roadburner said:

Sold my first car. I'm now apparently on the reserve list from now on- not just December. Crazy.

So was it a grinder, laydown, or baby seal? ;b

driver100

roadburner said:

Sold my first car. I'm now apparently on the reserve list from now on- not just December. Crazy.

If you see JMonroe coming into the showroom lock the doors, he will grind you into tiny bits of pulp. :@

driver100

Be careful in your new job RR:

Florida Man Attacks Car Salesman With A Golf Club

It’s nice to win a prize. Scratch-off lotto tickets, a free milkshake, free tickets to a show. Prizes are good. On Wednesday, Linsey Owens, 83, thought he had won a prize from a local Nissan dealer. He did not. When a Nissan employee explained why, police say, Owens beat him with a golf club.

Owens was charged with two counts of aggravated battery, after an altercation broke out at a local mall parking lot between him and an employee working a sales event from a Nissan dealer.
***************************************
Apparently you have to buy a car to qualify for a prize! Buy a car to win a milk shake?

FULL STORY

28firefighter

Congrats, RB!

oldfarmer50

stever said:

Had a lot of noise driving the van to El Paso this morning. Got home and the driver's sliding door is way gappy. Bet it'd even leak if it rained.

Back to the shop on Tuesday.

Found the Soul I want. It's on the way to my sister's house. My sister just lives an hour away. I'm a few miles further, like 1900. Maybe I could do a fly/drive....

I don't really want to buy it and have my sister pick it up, but she might manage to get it to her house without wrecking it. Kind of a coin toss on that.

Time to start writing that Craigslist ad.

oldfarmer50

graphicguy said:

andres3 said:

abacomike said:

sda said:

andres3--can you say orange? I saw this at Best Buy when I was shopping for a present for my daughter last Saturday. I hope everyone had a nice holiday. It was almost 70 deg, here!

I had a 1974 MGB-GT in almost that same color. I loved it when I saw it on the lot. Sometimes, just the color of a new car on the lot will get my heart athrobbin' - come to think of it, any new car on the lot gets my heart athrobbin' - genetic I think!

They say if an old man avoids old man colors like white, black, silver, and gray, buying a colorful car automatically reduces your age by 10, and women in particular, will perceive you to be 15 years younger than you actually are

Sounds like my next car is bright red or bright blue.....;)

Do you really want to drive a Solo cup?

BTW, the inventor just died this week.

oldfarmer50

roadburner said:

Sold my first car. I'm now apparently on the reserve list from now on- not just December. Crazy.

Few more months and you'll be running the dealership. Hope you'll still have time for us.

Did you expect that your second career would take off like this?

driver100

Huge changes coming in the automotive business according to Top Gear - BBC

A few points;

Between the bookends of January and December were major deals that underlined the new adapt-or-die approach sweeping across motor manufacturing.
General Motors bought a small three-year-old San Francisco company specialising in autonomous driving technology, Cruise Automation, for more than $1bn.
GM also invested $500m in on-demand taxi-hailing business Lyft, a rival to Uber, and reportedly tried to buy the whole thing for $6bn.
Why buy?
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles teamed up with Alphabet to collaborate on the development of self-driving minivans.
Ford, whose chief executive Mark Fields now refers to the company that made the first mass-produced vehicle as a "mobility services provider", pushed deeper into connected-car technology.
This included investment in a San Francisco cloud-based software and data analytics company, Pivotal, in which Microsoft also has a stake.

And there is now evidence of consumers deferring car buying because of the growth of taxi-hailing and car-sharing services,

FULL ARTICLE

nyccarguy

@roadburner - great job! Mazel-Tov!

He sold his 1st car to an out of state grinder from WA. The guy posts here and goes by the name @isellhondas4

jmonroe

sda said:

abacomike said:

driver100 said:

abacomike said:

driver100 said:

abacomike said:

@jmonroe:



It takes a smart CEO to make big bucks out of car dealerships.  Look what Auto Nation has accomplished - stock up - dividends up!

And AutoNation doesn't do the negotiating game too much. They have found a winning formula, sell at a fair price, pay a reasonable but not great price for trade-ins, and don't give in....no matter what kind of tantrums someone like JMonroe throws on the floor. Let the other dealers sell to those guys, they aren't loyal good customers anyway. Not only that, but it aggravates loyal customers to find a haggler got a lower price.

I don't know about your conclusion regarding Auto Nation, driver. Every Mercedes I bought over the past 10 years was purchased from an Auto Nation Dealership - and I paid below invoice one every car I bought (of course the USAA and Mercedes Benz Club of America discount incentives helped a lot). But whenever I would walk in to buy a car, the negotiations started at invoice. It was usually the trade value that had to be negotiated.

Auto Nation dealerships have been great for me. The 5 BMW's I bought from Pembroke Pines is a Holman Dealership - another large conglomerate. I ended up buying this new 740i from them as well.

Yeh, but your an unusual case Mike....they make it up in volume.

That's funny, driver. I can visualize it now:

There is a sales meeting at my Mercedes Dealership taking place in late November and they are discussing sales goals for the year. The General Manger asks each salesman/saleswoman how many cars they will sell in December. Everyone responds including the salesman I deal with. He says, "...21 new and used cars." The General Manager responds, "...add at least one to that total - Mike hasn't bought a car yet this year - definitely time for him to make his move." Just as the meeting is about to end, my salesman says, "...hey, there's Mike now - just walked into the showroom - right on time!"

And what bitter disappointment when he finds out you defected and bought a BMW from someone else. How could you?

The BMW guy was only getting a FAIR profit on the sale.

The MB guy was going to screw Mike as usual.

jmonroe

28firefighter

nyccarguy said:

@roadburner - great job! Mazel-Tov!

He sold his 1st car to an out of state grinder from WA. The guy posts here and goes by the name @isellhondas4

Almost choked on my beer.

Poor @isellhondas4. Not even around to defend his honor!

murphydog

Sigh - walked out to run errands and noticed the hood emblem is gone from my wife's X3...So stupid and annoying...

Looks like replacements are $15 for knock offs and ~ $35 for the OEM. Wonder if I should get the carbon fiber looking one?

28firefighter

murphydog said:

Sigh - walked out to run errands and noticed the hood emblem is gone from my wife's X3...So stupid and annoying...

Looks like replacements are $15 for knock offs and ~ $35 for the OEM. Wonder if I should get the carbon fiber looking one?

Someone stole an emblem...in Seattle? That seems like so much effort for so little return.

berri

Tweekers!

jmonroe

driver100 said:

jmonroe said:

driver100 said:

abacomike said:

@jmonroe:



It takes a smart CEO to make big bucks out of car dealerships.  Look what Auto Nation has accomplished - stock up - dividends up!

And AutoNation doesn't do the negotiating game too much. They have found a winning formula, sell at a fair price, pay a reasonable but not great price for trade-ins, and don't give in....no matter what kind of tantrums someone like JMonroe throws on the floor. Let the other dealers sell to those guys, they aren't loyal good customers anyway. Not only that, but it aggravates loyal customers to find a haggler got a lower price.

OK, now that is a valid point. I never want to be responsible for aggravating loyal customers.

You should have pointed that out yesterday.

Better late than never.

jmonroe

I don't believe in horoscope stuff but I am an Aries which supposedly makes me loyal. I try to stay with companies I have been satisfied with, and which have been fair to me, and I don't change to try to save a few dollars. It has worked for me personally and in business, I don't think I ever paid too much for a car, and if I did, so be it.......no complaints. But, if I found out someone got a better deal than I did because they threw a fit on the showroom floor, I will demand the same price or I will walk.

I think I get a better price than average because I am the kind of customer dealers really like. Just give me a fair price on the new car.....I can't do better than get 4% off on a new car, and give me the KBB price of my trade-in. And, it is much easier to keep a happy customer, than to go out and troll for new one's - you might get a JM. They also go out of their way to be helpful, like come to the house to set up the Homelink or deliver a new GPS program.

I'd still rather be the guy that throws a hissy fit on the showroom floor and get a car for my price than over pay the way a lot of people seem to do when they buy cars. If a dealer doesn't mind trying to take money from me, why should I just roll over for him so that I don't offend him?

jmonroe

abacomike

And what bitter disappointment when he finds out you defected and bought a BMW from someone else. How could you?

The BMW guy was only getting a FAIR profit on the sale. The MB guy was going to screw Mike as usual. jmonroe

JM, you really don't know me at all - and I thought you did.  My buying a BMW had nothing to do with money - it had to do with comfort and ease of getting into and out of the driver's seat.  Mercedes had nothing that was comfortable and BMW did.

28firefighter

jmonroe said:

driver100 said:

jmonroe said:

driver100 said:

abacomike said:

@jmonroe:



It takes a smart CEO to make big bucks out of car dealerships.  Look what Auto Nation has accomplished - stock up - dividends up!

And AutoNation doesn't do the negotiating game too much. They have found a winning formula, sell at a fair price, pay a reasonable but not great price for trade-ins, and don't give in....no matter what kind of tantrums someone like JMonroe throws on the floor. Let the other dealers sell to those guys, they aren't loyal good customers anyway. Not only that, but it aggravates loyal customers to find a haggler got a lower price.

OK, now that is a valid point. I never want to be responsible for aggravating loyal customers.

You should have pointed that out yesterday.

Better late than never.

jmonroe

I don't believe in horoscope stuff but I am an Aries which supposedly makes me loyal. I try to stay with companies I have been satisfied with, and which have been fair to me, and I don't change to try to save a few dollars. It has worked for me personally and in business, I don't think I ever paid too much for a car, and if I did, so be it.......no complaints. But, if I found out someone got a better deal than I did because they threw a fit on the showroom floor, I will demand the same price or I will walk.

I think I get a better price than average because I am the kind of customer dealers really like. Just give me a fair price on the new car.....I can't do better than get 4% off on a new car, and give me the KBB price of my trade-in. And, it is much easier to keep a happy customer, than to go out and troll for new one's - you might get a JM. They also go out of their way to be helpful, like come to the house to set up the Homelink or deliver a new GPS program.

I'd still rather be the guy that throws a hissy fit on the showroom floor and get a car for my price than over pay the way a lot of people seem to do when they buy cars. If a dealer doesn't mind trying to take money from me, why should I just roll over for him so that I don't offend him?

jmonroe

My approach is not to set foot in a dealer to close a deal until we have either agreed on price already or are at a price I'd be willing to pay. I tend to give first right of refusal for subsequent purchases to dealers and sales people I have worked with in the past, since I figure they're more likely to skip the BS. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

I fully respect a sales person or dealer that says "we gave you a great deal last time because of X, and we simply can't do it this time. If you can't find at the price you want to pay elsewhere, definitely give us a chance". What I don't respect is people who waste my time - which is why when the first email back from a dealer says "come on in and we will make you a great deal", I immediately rule them out.

I have friends and family whose philosophy is that they'd rather get an OK deal but have a great buying experience than have to fight for a great deal, because it ruins the process for them. I've taught some how to get a great deal AND have a great experience, but not everyone is interested or cares that much.

jmonroe

roadburner said:

Sold my first car. I'm now apparently on the reserve list from now on- not just December. Crazy.

Congrats on the sale.

Now you know I have to ask this question...did the dealer make a FAIR profit?

If you give us a time and place we'll join in on the bottle cork popping.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

murphydog said:

Sigh - walked out to run errands and noticed the hood emblem is gone from my wife's X3...So stupid and annoying...

Looks like replacements are $15 for knock offs and ~ $35 for the OEM. Wonder if I should get the carbon fiber looking one?

Get the one made out of razor wire. :@

jmonroe

driver100 said:

graphicguy said:

andres3 said:

abacomike said:

sda said:

andres3--can you say orange? I saw this at Best Buy when I was shopping for a present for my daughter last Saturday. I hope everyone had a nice holiday. It was almost 70 deg, here!

I had a 1974 MGB-GT in almost that same color. I loved it when I saw it on the lot. Sometimes, just the color of a new car on the lot will get my heart athrobbin' - come to think of it, any new car on the lot gets my heart athrobbin' - genetic I think!

They say if an old man avoids old man colors like white, black, silver, and gray, buying a colorful car automatically reduces your age by 10, and women in particular, will perceive you to be 15 years younger than you actually are

andres3 said:
They say if an old man avoids old man colors like white, black, silver, and gray, buying a colorful car automatically reduces your age by 10, and women in particular, will perceive you to be 15 years younger than you actually are

GG Sounds like my next car is bright red or bright blue.....;)

Yeh, I am ahead of the curve, fire engine red C250....I feel and look 10 years younger already...and can now wear horizontal stripes

Yeah, we noticed but not very well.

jmonroe

jmonroe

murphydog said:

Sigh - walked out to run errands and noticed the hood emblem is gone from my wife's X3...So stupid and annoying...

Looks like replacements are $15 for knock offs and ~ $35 for the OEM. Wonder if I should get the carbon fiber looking one?

That's pathetic.

Was there any damage to the hood?

jmonroe

jmonroe

abacomike said:

And what bitter disappointment when he finds out you defected and bought a BMW from someone else. How could you?

The BMW guy was only getting a FAIR profit on the sale.

The MB guy was going to screw Mike as usual.

jmonroe

JM, you really don't know me at all - and I thought you did.  My buying a BMW had nothing to do with money - it had to do with comfort and ease of getting into and out of the driver's seat.  Mercedes had nothing that was comfortable and BMW did.

Why are you taking me so seriously now?

jmonroe

abacomike

@jmonroe:

Put a  next to lighthearted posts - I'd take you less seriously.  But a   can be taken more seriously.

besides, I still luv ya no matter what you say or do! 

jmonroe

28firefighter said:

jmonroe said:

driver100 said:

jmonroe said:

driver100 said:

abacomike said:

@jmonroe:



It takes a smart CEO to make big bucks out of car dealerships.  Look what Auto Nation has accomplished - stock up - dividends up!

And AutoNation doesn't do the negotiating game too much. They have found a winning formula, sell at a fair price, pay a reasonable but not great price for trade-ins, and don't give in....no matter what kind of tantrums someone like JMonroe throws on the floor. Let the other dealers sell to those guys, they aren't loyal good customers anyway. Not only that, but it aggravates loyal customers to find a haggler got a lower price.

OK, now that is a valid point. I never want to be responsible for aggravating loyal customers.

You should have pointed that out yesterday.

Better late than never.

jmonroe

I don't believe in horoscope stuff but I am an Aries which supposedly makes me loyal. I try to stay with companies I have been satisfied with, and which have been fair to me, and I don't change to try to save a few dollars. It has worked for me personally and in business, I don't think I ever paid too much for a car, and if I did, so be it.......no complaints. But, if I found out someone got a better deal than I did because they threw a fit on the showroom floor, I will demand the same price or I will walk.

I think I get a better price than average because I am the kind of customer dealers really like. Just give me a fair price on the new car.....I can't do better than get 4% off on a new car, and give me the KBB price of my trade-in. And, it is much easier to keep a happy customer, than to go out and troll for new one's - you might get a JM. They also go out of their way to be helpful, like come to the house to set up the Homelink or deliver a new GPS program.

I'd still rather be the guy that throws a hissy fit on the showroom floor and get a car for my price than over pay the way a lot of people seem to do when they buy cars. If a dealer doesn't mind trying to take money from me, why should I just roll over for him so that I don't offend him?

jmonroe

My approach is not to set foot in a dealer to close a deal until we have either agreed on price already or are at a price I'd be willing to pay. I tend to give first right of refusal for subsequent purchases to dealers and sales people I have worked with in the past, since I figure they're more likely to skip the BS. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

I fully respect a sales person or dealer that says "we gave you a great deal last time because of X, and we simply can't do it this time. If you can't find at the price you want to pay elsewhere, definitely give us a chance". What I don't respect is people who waste my time - which is why when the first email back from a dealer says "come on in and we will make you a great deal", I immediately rule them out.

I have friends and family whose philosophy is that they'd rather get an OK deal but have a great buying experience than have to fight for a great deal, because it ruins the process for them. I've taught some how to get a great deal AND have a great experience, but not everyone is interested or cares that much.

My last 3 purchases were started via the internet then followed up via the phone. So, I never moved from my home making those deals. Like I have said before all of them were out of state. Two in Ohio ('09 Genny and '12 Legacy) and the '15 Genny in Virginia.

The dealer in Virginia had a decent price but I wanted a better price which required a couple call backs from him but we finally came to a price. The stickiest part was that he wanted $549 as his doc fee. I told him the doc fee in PA was $135 so why should I make the drive to VA to pay more. He talked to his SM and came back with, "my SM said we charge that to everyone regardless of where they are coming from". I told him that killed the deal because now his price was not so good anymore.

He then said, "let me talk to the owner but he has gone for the day (it was about 4:30 PM) and I promise to call you back early tomorrow morning". He did better than that. He called back about 2 hours later and said, "the owner agreed to sell at the PA doc fee but our form will still show our $549 doc fee. We'll just move some numbers around and might even show that we are giving you more for your trade but the bottom line will be the price we agreed to".

Like I have said before, "when 2 reasonable people want to make a deal, it usually happens".

jmonroe

henryn

Be glad they only took the hood emblem, and not the hood!

jmonroe

abacomike said:

@jmonroe:

Put a  next to lighthearted posts - I'd take you less seriously.  But a   can be taken more seriously.

besides, I still luv ya no matter what you say or do! 

That's good to know.

Just wait until I get my second wind.

jmonroe

stever

henryn said:

Be glad they only took the hood emblem, and not the hood!

Need to buy some cheap insurance and hook it up to one of those USB battery gizmos to keep the car battery from draining over night. And put a bigger memory card in it.

Mine seems pretty okay for seven dollars.

fintail

That's a shame about the BMW emblem, I hope that kind of thing isn't coming back. In the late 90s I lost two fintail hood ornaments, but it hasn't happened since. Maybe the car gets respect as it is so old, but I was thinking the fad had passed, and nobody wants to emulate Flava Flav with a huge car emblem as a pendant anymore.

That cheapo dashcam is intriguing. I just picked up a $50 one with an Amazon gift card I got for Christmas, I am going to use it in the old car. It is HD, but not nearly as fancy as the hardwired Blackvue front and rear setup I run in the modern car. I am not going to hardwire it in, just use it to document pleasure driving.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

Huge changes coming in the automotive business according to Top Gear - BBC

A few points;

Between the bookends of January and December were major deals that underlined the new adapt-or-die approach sweeping across motor manufacturing.
General Motors bought a small three-year-old San Francisco company specialising in autonomous driving technology, Cruise Automation, for more than $1bn.
GM also invested $500m in on-demand taxi-hailing business Lyft, a rival to Uber, and reportedly tried to buy the whole thing for $6bn.
Why buy?
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles teamed up with Alphabet to collaborate on the development of self-driving minivans.
Ford, whose chief executive Mark Fields now refers to the company that made the first mass-produced vehicle as a "mobility services provider", pushed deeper into connected-car technology.
This included investment in a San Francisco cloud-based software and data analytics company, Pivotal, in which Microsoft also has a stake.

And there is now evidence of consumers deferring car buying because of the growth of taxi-hailing and car-sharing services,

FULL ARTICLE

Sounds as if companies like Uber might have a short life span as yet more people are replaced by machines.

As for me, they won't remove me from my car until they pry my cold dead fingers from the steering wheel.

stickguy

Same here OF. I can't see any possible scenario where I could get rid of my car and use some driverless service. If nothing else, it will cost a fortune! Taking an Uber for 5 days 300 miles from home? Not happening.

if what they are really talking about is driverless taxis in the cities, well, maybe. But even driverless cars are not going to be replacing personal automobiles.

oldfarmer50

Maybe we'll get Johnny Cabs like in 'Total Recall'.

roadburner

Sorry for the late reply- had to check in on my 80 year old uncle. Thanks for all the kind words.
Now for the sales story: On December 23rd I upped a middle age couple who were interested in an SUV(their Nissan Pathfinder lease expires in a week). I shoed them the X1, X3, and X5 in the showroom and they decided that they liked the X3. Took them on a test drive in a X3 with the M Sport package and that was that. They wanted a 36 month lease with 15,000 miles/year and no money down. We quoted a number, they counter-offered and we accepted. We locked everything in and they pick up the car next week. Very nice people. One spouse works for an employer that gets a fleet discount from BMW, so that sweetened the deal quite a bit. We are getting a lot of business from that arrangement.

driver100

What a nice smooth 1st sale roadburner. Just watch for any email requests from a JMonroe, you will regret it if you reply

driver100

murphydog said:

Sigh - walked out to run errands and noticed the hood emblem is gone from my wife's X3...So stupid and annoying...

Looks like replacements are $15 for knock offs and ~ $35 for the OEM. Wonder if I should get the carbon fiber looking one?

I thought that kind of thing was over for now. Not original, not smart, just plain stupid. I was going to say it could have been worse, but, people always say that, and I don't think it is that helpful.

I see carbon fibre insignias for about $8! What makes them different...b&w opposed to blue?



ONE EXAMPLE - NOT RESEARCHED

ab348

murphydog said:

Sigh - walked out to run errands and noticed the hood emblem is gone from my wife's X3...So stupid and annoying...

Looks like replacements are $15 for knock offs and ~ $35 for the OEM. Wonder if I should get the carbon fiber looking one?

Well, maybe it just fell off when you went over a bump, or when cruising at high speed. Warranty claim! "It just flew right off, I swear!"

OTOH, be glad they didn't steal the entire front clip, as happened to a certain member here with his truck.

imidazol97

fintail said:

Built in 'Bama. Silver, a safe positive color, appeals to the cautious monied suburban set who buys things like the GLS.
Silver is also the traditional German racing color going back 100+ years,

I recall silver cars in pedantic brands are labelled as rental car silver. But when it's a premium price brand it's a racing color for German cars. But these are Alabama cars, not German? LOL

If I paid the price for something like those SUVs, I'd want a color that makes me say, "Hmmmm." Like the dark putty color with a tone of blue in it on a Porsche Panamara? that passed by on I75 near Cincy yesterday. I liked the 80s and 90s Riviera and Cadillacs that had variations of the standard colors in tones that were gorgeous to look at, although sometimes the monstrosities had a vinyl roof on them,

I watch cars go through the drive thru line at ChickFilA and it's a bland, drab mess of silver, black, white, and a few darker gray cars. Rare is an orange or green or bright blue.

imidazol97

driver100 said:

Huge changes coming in the automotive business according to Top Gear - BBC

Interesting information. Thanks.