Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

driver100

qbrozen said:

berri said:

Seems to me using hotels is cheaper on a total cost of ownership basis, but whatever works for an individual.

Of the 2 weeks we have, the most expensive is currently at $750/yr for the maintenance/taxes/fees. I pay something like $40/yr to be a member of Interval International, then it is $100 transfer fee to exchange my week. That is $890 total for 6 nights in a 2-bedroom condo, or a bit under $150/night. I'd have to get 2 hotel rooms for $75/night/room to even come close, and I still wouldn't have a full kitchen in that case, and it wouldn't be a very nice hotel at that rate (again, unless in a place like Vegas). Our cheaper week is about $200 less, BTW.

Of course, none of this is taking initial purchase into consideration. That was $0 for me, however.

Could be OK, what happens if you can't travel in one year or you reach a point when you may not be up to travelling any more....are you locked in for life.

That is my neighbors dilemma......he is retired and doesn't want to use his timeshare anymore but he is still paying for it...and wants to get rid of it.

Michaell

houdini1 said:

stickguy said:

Not sure if the average millennial even knows what "no solicitors" means!

stickguy said:

Not sure if the average millennial even knows what "no solicitors" means!

stickguy said:

Not sure if the average millennial even knows what "no solicitors" means!

Someone was telling me the other day that they had asked a woman at their door selling something, if she didn't see the no soliciting sign. She replied, "Oh I am not soliciting, see, I have all my clothes on" ! Supposedly actually happened.

The town I lived in had a "no knock" policy. Door to door people had to register with the city and they would be given a list of addresses to skip.

Didn't always work, but it was a start.

driver100

graphicguy

driver100 said:

graphicguy said:

This and that......

Mike....good report...glad to hear you're doing better.

In Toronto this week (actually, Markham) for work. Got a RAV 4 as a rental. Now, I understand that I prefer to drive vehicles on the sportier end of the spectrum, but the RAV 4 makes the Avalon I test drove feel like an autox machine.

Way too much understeer (to the point it didn't feel safe, at least not the way I'm used to driving). Steering is light, and more of a suggestion than an actual way to guide the RAV 4.

Rides well. Brakes are either on or off, hard to modulate.

This one must be new, as it has Toyota's radar crash avoidance. That part of the vehicle works well. No sudden speed changes when you come up on someone when using cruise control.

I guess you either like these things or you don't. I don't. It even looks weird to my eyes.

GG, you are about 40 miles from me...being in Markham. We are about 50 miles West of you near Burlington On but leave for Victoria BC out of Pearson airport on Friday.

It has been about 6 or 7 years ago that I had a RAV4 rental....sounds like the driving dynamics are about the same though. No joy in riding the box on wheels.

You would think, with Toyota sales being so good they could add a little bit of driving pleasure to their cars.....but, then again, they have hit on a formula that works for them. Low tech, econobox, simple design, tried and true safe technology, makes their cars more reliable and inexpensive. Not too exciting but meets the needs of most people.

Maybe next time, I'll give you some warning. Would love to have lunch, dinner, tilt a beer with you.

Timeshares.....Haven't been captured by one of their sales "Weekend Give-always" in quite some time. I always felt I needed a shower after sitting at a "closer's table" for a 2-3 hour hard core pitch. Never bought one.

The new hard sell is for travel discounts. Purportedly, you pay a fee (several hundred dollars) up front to joint a travel club that gets you deep discounts on hotels, cruises, airfare, etc that are available nowhere else. Of course, none of that is true, as I was able to use Google on my phone to show I could match, and beat their price on a cruise. That put the end to the pitch. But, the (then) wife was so enamored with the pitch, and thought we should invest, that she didn't talk to me for two days after I put the kabosh on the whole idea.

qbrozen

driver100 said:

Could be OK, what happens if you can't travel in one year or you reach a point when you may not be up to travelling any more....are you locked in for life.

That is my neighbors dilemma......he is retired and doesn't want to use his timeshare anymore but he is still paying for it...and wants to get rid of it.

Yup. You are stuck. And that is exactly how I wound up with my parents' timeshares. At some point, I'll be stuck and want to offload them on my kids. Haha. I have heard tell of people just surrendering them. Not sure how that works.

andres3

graphicguy said:

This and that......

Mike....good report...glad to hear you're doing better.

In Toronto this week (actually, Markham) for work. Got a RAV 4 as a rental. Now, I understand that I prefer to drive vehicles on the sportier end of the spectrum, but the RAV 4 makes the Avalon I test drove feel like an autox machine.

Way too much understeer (to the point it didn't feel safe, at least not the way I'm used to driving). Steering is light, and more of a suggestion than an actual way to guide the RAV 4.

Rides well. Brakes are either on or off, hard to modulate.

This one must be new, as it has Toyota's radar crash avoidance. That part of the vehicle works well. No sudden speed changes when you come up on someone when using cruise control.

I guess you either like these things or you don't. I don't. It even looks weird to my eyes.

The RAV 4 might be more reliable than even the mighty Camry, which is why people like them. Back in 2006 you could get the great V6 with it, and in sport trim, it wasn't a marsh-mellow. You probably got the "soft" version.

ab348

houdini1 said:

Someone was telling me the other day that they had asked a woman at their door selling something, if she didn't see the no soliciting sign. She replied, "Oh I am not soliciting, see, I have all my clothes on" ! Supposedly actually happened.

Did you hear a rimshot after they told you that?

andres3

graphicguy said:

driver100 said:

graphicguy said:

This and that......

Mike....good report...glad to hear you're doing better.

In Toronto this week (actually, Markham) for work. Got a RAV 4 as a rental. Now, I understand that I prefer to drive vehicles on the sportier end of the spectrum, but the RAV 4 makes the Avalon I test drove feel like an autox machine.

Way too much understeer (to the point it didn't feel safe, at least not the way I'm used to driving). Steering is light, and more of a suggestion than an actual way to guide the RAV 4.

Rides well. Brakes are either on or off, hard to modulate.

This one must be new, as it has Toyota's radar crash avoidance. That part of the vehicle works well. No sudden speed changes when you come up on someone when using cruise control.

I guess you either like these things or you don't. I don't. It even looks weird to my eyes.

GG, you are about 40 miles from me...being in Markham. We are about 50 miles West of you near Burlington On but leave for Victoria BC out of Pearson airport on Friday.

It has been about 6 or 7 years ago that I had a RAV4 rental....sounds like the driving dynamics are about the same though. No joy in riding the box on wheels.

You would think, with Toyota sales being so good they could add a little bit of driving pleasure to their cars.....but, then again, they have hit on a formula that works for them. Low tech, econobox, simple design, tried and true safe technology, makes their cars more reliable and inexpensive. Not too exciting but meets the needs of most people.

Maybe next time, I'll give you some warning. Would love to have lunch, dinner, tilt a beer with you.

Timeshares.....Haven't been captured by one of their sales "Weekend Give-always" in quite some time. I always felt I needed a shower after sitting at a "closer's table" for a 2-3 hour hard core pitch. Never bought one.

The new hard sell is for travel discounts. Purportedly, you pay a fee (several hundred dollars) up front to joint a travel club that gets you deep discounts on hotels, cruises, airfare, etc that are available nowhere else. Of course, none of that is true, as I was able to use Google on my phone to show I could match, and beat their price on a cruise. That put the end to the pitch. But, the (then) wife was so enamored with the pitch, and thought we should invest, that she didn't talk to me for two days after I put the kabosh on the whole idea.

When we were pitched the timeshare the first time, we were clueless about the industry and the complaints you could easily find online.

Now I like the free stuff for wasting 2 hours sometimes, but my wife has put an end to that. Knowing what I now know, I'm able to easily say no, no matter how great the salesman is, and I can even thwart their efforts to overcome objections with my knowledge, experience, and mathematical ability to add dollars.

Now that I know how it works, it is a very hard pitch to convince me it is a good deal. It really in my opinion should be outlawed, but then again, that might make my fees increase even faster.

thebean

Michaell said:

...

I'll be staying at a B&B in Santa Fe over the holiday weekend. One we haven't been to before, which is always a bit worrisome.

We just got back from a week in Santa Fe. Weather was great. There is a taco trailer near downtown - El Chile Toreado - with the best street tacos I have ever had. Definitely worth a stop, even if you have to eat in your car.

Michaell

thebean said:

Michaell said:

...

I'll be staying at a B&B in Santa Fe over the holiday weekend. One we haven't been to before, which is always a bit worrisome.

We just got back from a week in Santa Fe. Weather was great. There is a taco trailer near downtown - El Chile Toreado - with the best street tacos I have ever had. Definitely worth a stop, even if you have to eat in your car.

Good to know! Not sure how the wife feels about food trucks.

Just looked at the forecast - 72 next Friday. Which will be nice, as we are expecting up to 6" of snow tomorrow night and into Friday.

driver100

graphicguy said:

driver100 said:

graphicguy said:

This and that......

Mike....good report...glad to hear you're doing better.

In Toronto this week (actually, Markham) for work. Got a RAV 4 as a rental. Now, I understand that I prefer to drive vehicles on the sportier end of the spectrum, but the RAV 4 makes the Avalon I test drove feel like an autox machine.

Way too much understeer (to the point it didn't feel safe, at least not the way I'm used to driving). Steering is light, and more of a suggestion than an actual way to guide the RAV 4.

Rides well. Brakes are either on or off, hard to modulate.

This one must be new, as it has Toyota's radar crash avoidance. That part of the vehicle works well. No sudden speed changes when you come up on someone when using cruise control.

I guess you either like these things or you don't. I don't. It even looks weird to my eyes.

GG, you are about 40 miles from me...being in Markham. We are about 50 miles West of you near Burlington On but leave for Victoria BC out of Pearson airport on Friday.

It has been about 6 or 7 years ago that I had a RAV4 rental....sounds like the driving dynamics are about the same though. No joy in riding the box on wheels.

You would think, with Toyota sales being so good they could add a little bit of driving pleasure to their cars.....but, then again, they have hit on a formula that works for them. Low tech, econobox, simple design, tried and true safe technology, makes their cars more reliable and inexpensive. Not too exciting but meets the needs of most people.

Maybe next time, I'll give you some warning. Would love to have lunch, dinner, tilt a beer with you.

For sure.....love to get together when you are up this way.

That put the end to the pitch. But, the (then) wife was so enamored with the pitch, and thought we should invest, that she didn't talk to me for two days after I put the kabosh on the whole idea.

Sometimes the wife is easily convinced conned, sometimes the guy. These guys know how to find the weak spot....that is what con men do. My con man antenna really starts to make warning sounds when they show me all these happy people talking about how smart they were and how wonderful it is having this timeshare or vacation. no one gets that excited, except for paid actors.

Same with those pyramid scheme guys, they always show people swimming in a huge pool and having a big house and not a care in the world, as they explain how they made $3 million last year working 3 hours a day from home.....and the money just kept rolling in.

andres3

isellhondas said:

oldfarmer50 said:

andres3 said:

driver100 said:

Has anyone ever come out ahead buying a timeshare? Why would anyone buy one anyway? I have heard of so many people who take vacations they don't want or go to places they didn't really want to go to...because they had to get their moneys worth from their timeshare.

You summed up the timeshare industry in a nutshell. I got conned into one a long time ago. Wish I knew then what I know now. The fees continually outpace inflation every year.

It's tough to resist those professional manipultors selling time shares. Almost bit on one in Hawaii 40+ years ago. But thanks to my skeptical wife and being broke we dodged that bullet.

I know a couple who got approached while on vacation in Las Vegas by a timeshare company who offered them 100.00 cash to sit through a presentation. Having nothing better to do, they boarded a bus which took them to a remote location. They sat through an intense two hour presentation were handed a hundred dollar bill and took the same bus back. I have to wonder what percentage actually sign up?

We know a couple that have two or three timeshares and think they are just the greatest thing!

Go figure!

I think retired people can take greater advantage of timeshares as you can take a vacation any of the 52 weeks a year on little or no notice, and of course, with 2 years advance notice. That is impossible to do with a full-time job at 99% of employers.

The other thing where a time share can pay off is if you really love a place and will go there the same week every year. If you like a spot enough to go for a week every year, then a timeshare could work for you. If you are an avid skier or something, and you have a place near a ski location, that would be an example of a great use (if you know you have to ski one week a year minimum).

This allows you to avoid exorbitant exchange and membership fees (including Interval International) What a hassle. @qbrozen said $100, I'd like to know what plan he's on, because for the last few years it is more like $200 per exchange, and the membership fee is additional ($40/year sounds a little low, even if you buy 5 years at a time, and that's the most basic membership).

Speaking of which, exchanges in many locations seem to be almost impossible to get unless you can plan 1 to 2 years ahead of time.

I think the unknown bothers and upsets me. I am powerless to stop the escalating maintenance fees at my resort (well, maybe 1 vote of thousands). They did try to breach on a portion of my contract that benefited me though, after a ton of fighting and hassle, they finally caved for the most part (but I think "they" in my case was the HOA President, and he's like the President of the Developer, so a lot of collusion going on (Diamond Resorts; I was sick when the CEO got to go on that TV show where they have the CEO's go undercover to pretend to care about the little guy at the bottom of the totem pole).

The argument was about "they" paying for my first special assessment. Their argument was that their intent was only to pay for the first assessment that failed to pass in a vote by the members/owners (probably due to lack of actually trying to garner votes). Then they write a letter saying to vote for the increase because in my "deal" they will pay for the assessment (needless to say, this confirmation of the original contract (and oral promises they were already known for not keeping) helped to garner more votes I'm sure!). No expiration date on that letter by the way. So without my knowledge, the first vote apparently failed. The second vote was on an extremely similar assessment, with the only differences being that it covered a little more as a couple years went by and more was needed, and of course the amount went up (construction inflation was huge at the time too). I figured they still had to pay for "my first special assessment" which I think any reasonable person would interpret the contract that way. It was very shady of them to try and argue differently. No language in the contract with "if and only if the assessment passes on the first vote." Ended up settling for about 75-80% or so, since that is what the value of the first assessment was compared to the very similar second one. The difference besides dollars was construction inflation and renaming it aka "new GM" style.

driver100

thebean said:

Michaell said:

...

I'll be staying at a B&B in Santa Fe over the holiday weekend. One we haven't been to before, which is always a bit worrisome.

There is a taco trailer near downtown - El Chile Toreado - with the best street tacos I have ever had.

Not sure how good an endorsement "the best street tacos I have ever had" is!

andres3

Speaking of Interval International, I'd like to air a complaint. Knowing the scandalously bad customer service of most developers/resorts in the industry, I think they figured out they can be bad, and still come off as fairly good in comparison.

I have a 1-bedroom unit, which sits in the middle between a Studio unit, and a 2-bedroom unit. When you do an exchange, it used to not matter all that much, since there was so little available, they let you select studios, 1-bedrooms, and often 2-bedroom units for exchanges (especially since my home resort has good demand). Nowadays (not sure when they started this policy but found out a few months ago) they charge you extra if you go for the available 2-bedroom units. They call it an "upgrade fee". Is this fair? Hell no. Selection is already severely restricted. However, if they were trying to be the slightest bit honest, they would know what is good for the goose is good for the gander. When I select a smaller downgraded Studio unit, do I get a "credit deduct discount?" Hell no! Outlaw it; put it to a vote, I'll vote outlaw.

graphicguy

andres3 said:

graphicguy said:

driver100 said:

graphicguy said:

This and that......

Mike....good report...glad to hear you're doing better.

In Toronto this week (actually, Markham) for work. Got a RAV 4 as a rental. Now, I understand that I prefer to drive vehicles on the sportier end of the spectrum, but the RAV 4 makes the Avalon I test drove feel like an autox machine.

Way too much understeer (to the point it didn't feel safe, at least not the way I'm used to driving). Steering is light, and more of a suggestion than an actual way to guide the RAV 4.

Rides well. Brakes are either on or off, hard to modulate.

This one must be new, as it has Toyota's radar crash avoidance. That part of the vehicle works well. No sudden speed changes when you come up on someone when using cruise control.

I guess you either like these things or you don't. I don't. It even looks weird to my eyes.

GG, you are about 40 miles from me...being in Markham. We are about 50 miles West of you near Burlington On but leave for Victoria BC out of Pearson airport on Friday.

It has been about 6 or 7 years ago that I had a RAV4 rental....sounds like the driving dynamics are about the same though. No joy in riding the box on wheels.

You would think, with Toyota sales being so good they could add a little bit of driving pleasure to their cars.....but, then again, they have hit on a formula that works for them. Low tech, econobox, simple design, tried and true safe technology, makes their cars more reliable and inexpensive. Not too exciting but meets the needs of most people.

Maybe next time, I'll give you some warning. Would love to have lunch, dinner, tilt a beer with you.

Timeshares.....Haven't been captured by one of their sales "Weekend Give-always" in quite some time. I always felt I needed a shower after sitting at a "closer's table" for a 2-3 hour hard core pitch. Never bought one.

The new hard sell is for travel discounts. Purportedly, you pay a fee (several hundred dollars) up front to joint a travel club that gets you deep discounts on hotels, cruises, airfare, etc that are available nowhere else. Of course, none of that is true, as I was able to use Google on my phone to show I could match, and beat their price on a cruise. That put the end to the pitch. But, the (then) wife was so enamored with the pitch, and thought we should invest, that she didn't talk to me for two days after I put the kabosh on the whole idea.

When we were pitched the timeshare the first time, we were clueless about the industry and the complaints you could easily find online.

Now I like the free stuff for wasting 2 hours sometimes, but my wife has put an end to that. Knowing what I now know, I'm able to easily say no, no matter how great the salesman is, and I can even thwart their efforts to overcome objections with my knowledge, experience, and mathematical ability to add dollars.

Now that I know how it works, it is a very hard pitch to convince me it is a good deal. It really in my opinion should be outlawed, but then again, that might make my fees increase even faster.

I give the timeshare sales people credit, they are quite adept at making a thousands of dollars spend into a bargain of a lifetime.

As much as I travel, with hotel points, AMEX points, airline points, etc, none of them have been able to beat my free hotel, free airfare, free bookings via AMEX. S I told the "vacation club" salespeople, "unless you can give me a vacation without me pulling my checkbook or credit card out of my pocket, you are wasting each other's time."

andres3

driver100 said:

I was watching the CBS Evening News and they had this story on;
AT&T and DirecTV face thousands of complaints linked to overcharging, promotions

Seems it is a bait & switch situation, they advertise low rates for 2 years, then they change the rules and charge much more. Their contract says you have to go to their arbitrator if you have a problem. It is almost impossible to win.....and there is a huge penalty if you want to end your contract.

I think more companies are going to do this....use arbitration which is almost impossible to access, and make large penalties if you choose to leave.....buyers beware.

FULL STORY

I think I've listed my "do not use" blacklisted companies before, but let me try and remember to add dates this time around.

DO NOT USE List:

1. AT&T since 2000
   
2. Circuit City since 2004
   
3. Chrysler since 1994 (actually probably 1998 or so when the car really went downhill fast).
   
4. Big 3 guilty by association from Chrysler's lack of performance since 1998 or so.
   
5. Rite Aid since 1994
   
6. Any Time Shares since about 2004 (but I'm stuck with one week)
   
7. Best Buy since 2004
   

I am having a hard time remembering any others. I'm sure Circuit City isn't the only one to be out of business since going on my list, but that was one of the more satisfying bankruptcies of my lifetime. The bailout bonanza from two Presidents in a row prevented a couple other celebrations of bankruptcy.

abacomike

After owning my BMW 740i now for 5 months, I finally activated the Car Play for my Apple iPhone 7+. It took me about 30 minutes for figure it out and pair the phone to the BMW's computer software. Then, after fidgeting with it for about an hour in this heat and humidity, I decided to give the BMW Genius a call at my dealership to see if he could fit me in for a demonstration and additional set-up stuff this afternoon. He was free, so I drove down there.

We sat in the car for about 25 minutes while I downloaded Pandora and iHeart apps to the iPhone. So, I asked him what is with the big deal of having Car Play in your car? It seems all you can do with it is burn up data on your phone since Siri won't work without an internet connection and I am not about to pay AT&T $100.00 a month to have a WiFi Hotspot in my car. All you can do with the thing is send and receive texts messages and listen to Pandora and iHeart Radio, make phone calls (which I could do through the car's applications) and use Apple Maps for navigation purposes - but I have 24+ hours of music on my phone and on the car's hard drive and I listen to SiriusXM radio and FM HD radio, and I have a perfectly good GPS system in my car - so what is all the fuss about Car Play? Additionally, I have several BMW apps that I can bring up News, Weather, Sports, etc., through the satellite feed from bmwusa. It certainly is not what I expected. I thought it was a full extension of your phone right through the car.

Oh well, expect a lot and get disappointed. Expect a little, and you still get disappointed. Bah, Humbug!!! :@

tbirdmarco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ox25_KjdWpY

abacomike

I just finished downloading a huge update for Windows 10. It took about an hour for the download and installation. There is at least one great feature in this new Windows 10 - on the bottom task bar there is an icon of an envelope. I clicked on it and what it does is sets up the "mail" icon for your email. I just entered my email address, the password, and then it asks how you want outgoing mail to be labeled - and I inserted my name. That was it! So now, whenever I want to check or access my email, I don't have to go into Edge or Chrome to get into my email. I just click on the icon of an envelope in the task bar and up pops all my email(s). It takes less than 5 seconds to get into your email account. Amazing!

There is also enhanced security with the new Windows 10 - brought about by that malware that extorted bit coins from users all over the world.

tjc78

@abacomike

Apple Car play is much more useful in a car with less bells and whistles than your 7.  Out Enclave doesn't have car play but has built in NAV and interfaces with Pandora etc.  I would have zero use for car play in that car.   OTOH my Elantra has car play but no NAV, so I can use Apple Maps and it comes right up on the car's screen as if I had built in NAV. 

explorerx4

My daughter bought NAV with her Fusion even though it has A & A Car Play because you need cell service for those to work.

stickguy

I can download carplay in my Sonata as a software update if I want, but there really is not reason to. But it would be a wonderful upgrade in my RDX

Michaell

@abacomike - I have CarPlay in my Jetta and I love it. Since my car doesn't have factory nav, the Maps application can be used instead.

With your 7-series, I can understand that it's overkill.

dino001

I ordered one without Apple CarPlay. First, $300 for a piece of software is just an outrageous price. As much as BMW may deserve premium for stuff, nearly half price of a phone itself is a highway robbery. Second, just like Mike said, it will essentially project the iPhone screeen (or about) and burn through the data whenever any feature (like Navigation) is used. Why would I do that, if the car has its own navigation with Google engine in it? BMW Connect will also play stuff over the cable or Bluetooth. Apple CarPlay at $300 makes no sense to me, especially that I use relatively skinny data plan; don't need more, as I have WiFi at both work and home, so those rare occasions I'm on the go outside of those things, I'd rather use Nav from the car. Hope it's going to be better than the current one

driver100

I have come to the conclusion that a Timeshare is like buying an extended warranty....only a lot worse. You are gambling that prices for vacations are going to be so high you better lock into a plan at today's prices. I try to avoid being locked in as much as possible.........I don't even lock into 3 or 4 plays for a season....there may be a better one someplace else.....I would rather have a choice of going to the play I want to go to, when I want to go, and select my own price. I might decide I am not in the mood for a play, or any of the one's offered for the season. Vacations even more so....I want to be able to be free to choose.

Michaell

dino001 said:

I ordered one without Apple CarPlay. First, $300 for a piece of software is just an outrageous price. As much as BMW may deserve premium for stuff, nearly half price of a phone itself is a highway robbery. Second, just like Mike said, it will essentially project the iPhone screeen (or about) and burn through the data whenever any feature (like Navigation) is used. Why would I do that, if the car has its own navigation with Google engine in it? BMW Connect will also play stuff over the cable or Bluetooth. Apple CarPlay at $300 makes no sense to me, especially that I use relatively skinny data plan; don't need more, as I have WiFi at both work and home, so those rare occasions I'm on the go outside of those things, I'd rather use Nav from the car. Hope it's going to be better than the current one

Crazy - BMW charges $300 for the "privilege" of adding CarPlay, while it was free in my $21K VW.

dino001

driver100 said:

I have come to the conclusion that a Timeshare is like buying an extended warranty....only a lot worse. You are gambling that prices for vacations are going to be so high you better lock into a plan at today's prices. I try to avoid being locked in as much as possible.........I don't even lock into 3 or 4 plays for a season....there may be a better one someplace else.....I would rather have a choice of going to the play I want to go to, when I want to go, and select my own price. I might decide I am not in the mood for a play, or any of the one's offered for the season. Vacations even more so....I want to be able to be free to choose.

For me timeshare doesn't work for one simple reason - I like spending vacations in different places each time. I also like changing locations, while on vacation. Three days here, five days there, sight see, hike, learn about the place. So even it it were the greatest deal ever (and they're not), I still wouldn't buy it.

oldfarmer50

imidazol97 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

It's tough to resist those professional manipultors selling time shares. Almost bit on one in Hawaii 40+ years ago. But thanks to my skeptical wife and being broke we dodged that bullet.

Decades back in Gatlinburg and Pirgeon Forge, the salespeople along the sidewalk practically pulled people in by grabbing their arms to come to the side where the open windowed booth was to talk them into a presentation with all kinds of special offers (and probably locked exit doors, LOL).

In the restaurants, there were sales booths set up in the lobby and people even came around to the tables with brochures they plopped down. This was in addition to the roving gypsy groups of performers at various theaters in the area whom the restaurants had agreed to allow to come in to both their patrons in the middle of meals, for which the patrons were paying. Irritating. There was more than one restaurant to which we never returned because they allowed this kind of harrassment.

Obviously there was a high commission being paid to the salesman out of the pricing for the condos for them to be so motivated.

What suckered me in was a pretty girl offering a free rental car.

suydam

Michaell said:

dino001 said:

I ordered one without Apple CarPlay. First, $300 for a piece of software is just an outrageous price. As much as BMW may deserve premium for stuff, nearly half price of a phone itself is a highway robbery. Second, just like Mike said, it will essentially project the iPhone screeen (or about) and burn through the data whenever any feature (like Navigation) is used. Why would I do that, if the car has its own navigation with Google engine in it? BMW Connect will also play stuff over the cable or Bluetooth. Apple CarPlay at $300 makes no sense to me, especially that I use relatively skinny data plan; don't need more, as I have WiFi at both work and home, so those rare occasions I'm on the go outside of those things, I'd rather use Nav from the car. Hope it's going to be better than the current one

Crazy - BMW charges $300 for the "privilege" of adding CarPlay, while it was free in my $21K VW.

Wait. You have to pay for it? It's standard on most vehicles now! I know my Volt has it.

oldfarmer50

abacomike said:

After owning my BMW 740i now for 5 months, I finally activated the Car Play for my Apple iPhone 7+. It took me about 30 minutes for figure it out and pair the phone to the BMW's computer software. Then, after fidgeting with it for about an hour in this heat and humidity, I decided to give the BMW Genius a call at my dealership to see if he could fit me in for a demonstration and additional set-up stuff this afternoon. He was free, so I drove down there.

We sat in the car for about 25 minutes while I downloaded Pandora and iHeart apps to the iPhone. So, I asked him what is with the big deal of having Car Play in your car? It seems all you can do with it is burn up data on your phone since Siri won't work without an internet connection and I am not about to pay AT&T $100.00 a month to have a WiFi Hotspot in my car. All you can do with the thing is send and receive texts messages and listen to Pandora and iHeart Radio, make phone calls (which I could do through the car's applications) and use Apple Maps for navigation purposes - but I have 24+ hours of music on my phone and on the car's hard drive and I listen to SiriusXM radio and FM HD radio, and I have a perfectly good GPS system in my car - so what is all the fuss about Car Play? Additionally, I have several BMW apps that I can bring up News, Weather, Sports, etc., through the satellite feed from bmwusa. It certainly is not what I expected. I thought it was a full extension of your phone right through the car.

Oh well, expect a lot and get disappointed. Expect a little, and you still get disappointed. Bah, Humbug!!! :@

I have all that stuff in my living room...it's called a TV and I don't have to drive anywhere to use it.

I save my driving time for...driving.

graphicguy

The big advantage for CarPlay is voice recognition. Siri in the iPhone is exponentially better than what I've experienced on any car.

ab348

abacomike said:

I just finished downloading a huge update for Windows 10. It took about an hour for the download and installation. There is at least one great feature in this new Windows 10 - on the bottom task bar there is an icon of an envelope. I clicked on it and what it does is sets up the "mail" icon for your email. I just entered my email address, the password, and then it asks how you want outgoing mail to be labeled - and I inserted my name. That was it! So now, whenever I want to check or access my email, I don't have to go into Edge or Chrome to get into my email. I just click on the icon of an envelope in the task bar and up pops all my email(s). It takes less than 5 seconds to get into your email account. Amazing!

There is also enhanced security with the new Windows 10 - brought about by that malware that extorted bit coins from users all over the world.

I don't seem to have that yet, though W10 just did a big upgrade sometime over the last week or so.

Not sure I want to trust Microsoft with my gmail address and password though.

suydam

Umm. Like Apple has had -- oh, forever?

graphicguy

Driving to dinner in Markham tonight, I saw something I bet I haven't seen in 15 years, at least......a Peugeot 505 Turbo. Rare animal. Looked in decent shape, too.

thebean

driver100 said:

...

I'll be staying at a B&B in Santa Fe over the holiday weekend. One we haven't been to before, which is always a bit worrisome.

There is a taco trailer near downtown - El Chile Toreado - with the best street tacos I have ever had.

Not sure how good an endorsement "the best street tacos I have ever had" is!

Street tacos are a type of tacos, not just tacos sold on the street.  I believe they are normally soft tacos with corn tortillas with all different kind of fillings.  I know you Canucks are "challenged" in your knowledge of Mexican food.  I'm glad to educate you.  

driver100

thebean said:

driver100 said:

thebean said:

Michaell said:

...



I'll be staying at a B&B in Santa Fe over the holiday weekend. One we haven't been to before, which is always a bit worrisome.

There is a taco trailer near downtown - El Chile Toreado - with the best street tacos I have ever had.

Not sure how good an endorsement "the best street tacos I have ever had" is!

Street tacos are a type of tacos, not just tacos sold on the street.  I believe they are normally soft tacos with corn tortillas with all different kind of fillings.  I know you Canucks are "challenged" in your knowledge of Mexican food.  I'm glad to educate you.  

No problem.....I was just joking. I know food trucks and street food can be amazing. We have a grilled cheese truck around here....called Gorilla Cheeze. We do have Mexican Food here, but not nearly as many as you do. I would always choose a soft taco. Our pickleball group in Florida went for $2 taco night near Ellinton FL. (Margarita's $2.50)

roadburner

abacomike said:

After owning my BMW 740i now for 5 months, I finally activated the Car Play for my Apple iPhone 7+. It took me about 30 minutes for figure it out and pair the phone to the BMW's computer software. Then, after fidgeting with it for about an hour in this heat and humidity, I decided to give the BMW Genius a call at my dealership to see if he could fit me in for a demonstration and additional set-up stuff this afternoon. He was free, so I drove down there.

We sat in the car for about 25 minutes while I downloaded Pandora and iHeart apps to the iPhone. So, I asked him what is with the big deal of having Car Play in your car? It seems all you can do with it is burn up data on your phone since Siri won't work without an internet connection and I am not about to pay AT&T $100.00 a month to have a WiFi Hotspot in my car. All you can do with the thing is send and receive texts messages and listen to Pandora and iHeart Radio, make phone calls (which I could do through the car's applications) and use Apple Maps for navigation purposes - but I have 24+ hours of music on my phone and on the car's hard drive and I listen to SiriusXM radio and FM HD radio, and I have a perfectly good GPS system in my car - so what is all the fuss about Car Play? Additionally, I have several BMW apps that I can bring up News, Weather, Sports, etc., through the satellite feed from bmwusa. It certainly is not what I expected. I thought it was a full extension of your phone right through the car.

Oh well, expect a lot and get disappointed. Expect a little, and you still get disappointed. Bah, Humbug!!! :@

My 2er has Professional Navigation but it doesn't have CarPlay. I'm still able to use Siri as well as send and receive text messages. I'm certain your 7er has the identical capabilities. CarPlay is an absolute non-starter for me.
As for wi-fi hotspots? As you may recall,I now know virtually everything there is to about their implementation in new BMWs thanks to a X5 with a recalcitrant telematics control unit. I think they are pointless in a car.

stickguy

definitely pointless. I use my phone as a hot spot for my wifi only ipad, and it works great. Data is data.

driver100

graphicguy said:

Driving to dinner in Markham tonight, I saw something I bet I haven't seen in 15 years, at least......a Peugeot 505 Turbo. Rare animal. Looked in decent shape, too.

Peugeots last sold in Canada and the US in early 90s. They are talking of making a comeback to North America.
Late 80s looked like this;

berri

I wonder if they will be Opel based when they do

berri

So Aba - are you a Doo-Wop or British Invasion type rocker?

Wait, I just recalled some time ago you mentioned some time in SoCal, so maybe a California beach and surf music fan (you know, Jan & Dean, Beach Boys, Rivieras)?

qbrozen

andres3 said:

This allows you to avoid exorbitant exchange and membership fees (including Interval International) What a hassle. @qbrozen said $100, I'd like to know what plan he's on, because for the last few years it is more like $200 per exchange, and the membership fee is additional ($40/year sounds a little low, even if you buy 5 years at a time, and that's the most basic membership).

Speaking of which, exchanges in many locations seem to be almost impossible to get unless you can plan 1 to 2 years ahead of time.

You are correct. I just double checked the last exchange and it was $189.

I don't recall the yearly membership because I re-upped it many years ago at this point. Right now, the 5-yr is running $70/yr. Back when I did it, my guess probably isn't too far off.

We haven't had an issue getting exchanges. I'm not sure anyone can deposit 2 years in advance, so you wouldn't be able to find availability that far out. I know I can't deposit my own weeks until the year they are coming due. Try to deposit any sooner and they get kicked back because the resort won't let those weeks get deposited until the taxes/fees are paid, which of course I don't do (and can't since the costs are nog yet known) 2 years in advance.

If you are flexible in time and location, there are a great number of choices. For example, I started looking in the first week of April to find something for the last week of summer break. I had no place particular in mind, just the dates. I found units in Australia, Spain, Italy, and a number of other interesting places. The deciding factor was airfare, however, and flights to Costa Rica were relatively cheap at $500 ea, so that's what we went with. Costa Rica was on the wife's bucket list anyway (although not mine).

driver100

qbrozen.....you have found a way to make the Timeshare system work for you, and that is great.

I get about 20 trips a week that are offered from Travelzoo.com. They often have a week in Costa Rica flight and beautiful hotel and tours included for $700 or $800. The last few months they have offered China, 9 or 10 days, flight and hotels included, often internal flights to get to the great wall, pandas, Terra Cotta soldiers for about $1400. I think this week it was $1100 or $1200.

One year we wanted to go to Amsterdam, this year tennis match in Halle Germany and miniature railroad in Hamburg......last year Switzerland.

What I am saying is I want to be in control of any travel plans.........not at the mercy of a timeshare....some people like them though and if it works that is fine. My guess is 80% of the buyers bought based on emotions....kind of like a car

driver100

Stick....I won't forget labor day in Toronto. I have a busy schedule......off to Victoria Fri to Tues, but will try to get a few ideas some time next week.

abacomike

graphicguy said:

The big advantage for CarPlay is voice recognition. Siri in the iPhone is exponentially better than what I've experienced on any car.

You should experience BMW's voice recognition - far superior to Mercedes - that comes from someone who has experienced both! 

abacomike

berri said:

So Aba - are you a Doo-Wop or British Invasion type rocker?

Wait, I just recalled some time ago you mentioned some time in SoCal, so maybe a California beach and surf music fan (you know, Jan & Dean, Beach Boys, Rivieras)?

Soft rock is my preference. 

abacomike

Starting on my next billing cycle with T-Mobile, I am going to "unlimited" everything including LTE data speed for $10.00 a month more than I now pay.  So I go from $59.65 a month, tax and fees included, to $70.00 a month, tax and fees included.  That way, I can use Car Play whenever I want without going over my current 2 gigs of high speed data.  And I don't need to activate my BMW WiFi Hotspot in the car and pay AT&T $100 a month to use it!  There, I saved $90 bucks.

T-Mobile has great rates.  So long as you live in a metropolitan area, calls, texts and data are great.

stickguy

Stuff like pandora and navi don't really use much data. That gets eaten up by streaming video and stuff like that.

abacomike

stickguy said:

Stuff like pandora and navi don't really use much data. That gets eaten up by streaming video and stuff like that.

T-Mobile does not charge data usage for streaming video or music.

fintail

I think you can get a $5/line/month discount if you use autopay, too. Their coverage has improved a lot in the last few years.

abacomike said:

Starting on my next billing cycle with T-Mobile, I am going to "unlimited" everything including LTE data speed for $10.00 a month more than I now pay.  So I go from $59.65 a month, tax and fees included, to $70.00 a month, tax and fees included.  That way, I can use Car Play whenever I want without going over my current 2 gigs of high speed data.  And I don't need to activate my BMW WiFi Hotspot in the car and pay AT&T $100 a month to use it!  There, I saved $90 bucks.

T-Mobile has great rates.  So long as you live in a metropolitan area, calls, texts and data are great.