Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

nyccarguy · March 2015

I took Saturday off to see my younger son (he's turning 6 on Friday) play hockey. It was the final day of the season & they had a scrimmage. He has begged me to come see him play, so I promised that I'd take off a Saturday to watch him. It was a lot of fun.

My 8 year old son has been in full hockey mode all year. I've seen him play a lot because mst of his games are Saturday afternoon or Sundays. He plays on 2 teams, a house team & a travel team. This weekend was the final tournament for the house teams (there are 4). Each team played 3 games on Saturday to decide "seating," then there were 2 games on Sunday to decide who was the house league champion. My Son's team ran the table and won. He was so happy! He really just picked up hockey last year & is really enjoying it.

So after running back & forth to the rink a bunch of times over the weekend, I noticed the snow mound around my Prelude was 95% melted. I ran inside, grabbed the keys, opened the door, depressed the clutch, turned the key, & it fired right up! Oh yeah!

abacomike · March 2015

nyccarguy said:

I took Saturday off to see my younger son (he's turning 6 on Friday) play hockey. It was the final day of the season & they had a scrimmage. He has begged me to come see him play, so I promised that I'd take off a Saturday to watch him. It was a lot of fun. My 8 year old son has been in full hockey mode all year. I've seen him play a lot because mst of his games are Saturday afternoon or Sundays. He plays on 2 teams, a house team & a travel team. This weekend was the final tournament for the house teams (there are 4). Each team played 3 games on Saturday to decide "seating," then there were 2 games on Sunday to decide who was the house league champion. My Son's team ran the table and won. He was so happy! He really just picked up hockey last year & is really enjoying it. So after running back & forth to the rink a bunch of times over the weekend, I noticed the snow mound around my Prelude was 95% melted. I ran inside, grabbed the keys, opened the door, depressed the clutch, turned the key, & it fired right up! Oh yeah!

After reading your post, Bradd, I had difficulty determining which event got you most excited - your son's hockey team winning in the finals or your Prelude firing up at the first turn of the ignition key?

bwia · March 2015

tyguy said:

Earlier today I posted a brief message about a vehicle purchase yesterday. Well, it's not the typical car/truck/SUV we're used to discussing on this forum. This purchase was a personal watercraft. We've owned a Yamaha FXHO Waverunner for 5 years and originally intended to add a Yamaha VXR in 2012 until a job transfer moved us away from our family and the friend group that spent weekends with us on the lakes. We've now built a new friend group and lake-going habits, so we're ready for the second ski we had envisioned earlier. Personal watercraft have changed over the years. Twenty years ago they were lightweight, 2-stroke, dirty for the environment, and a lot of fun at slower speeds with relatively low-top end speeds (50 mph). Today they're heavy (some over a thousand pounds), 4-stroke, clean, big, very powerful, and fast (65 mph). But with all that girth the watercraft have lost the fun factor at slower speeds, like the ability to spin around, jump wake, and get thrown off them at safe speeds. Today's modern craft are more suited for ocean waves than they are for common lakes. So, last year Sea-doo did something extraordinary. They launched a cheap watercraft, called the Spark, one that harkens back to those old days with light weight and good power to weight ratio with a modern 4-stroke, which resulted in fun at slower speeds. It's half the weight of our Yamaha. The Spark is also very simple with minimal electronics and other luxuries available on most high-end watercraft. It's the Mazda Miata of the watercraft world and the response from the buying public has been huge. The major challenge was finding one in the color and equipment preferences we wanted. MSRP is the name of the game, and really, as inexpensive as these things are, the dealer profit is very small on them. After locating one at a Sea-doo dealer in Denver I set up the deal over the phone, simple as pie (in honor Pi day yesterday), and we took our trailer down to Denver to pick it up yesterday. We just put the craft on a credit card and the entire deal took about 10 minutes in their finance office. The federal disclaimers were longer than the purchase contract The drive to and from Denver was our first chance to tow with our new 2015 Outback. Typically we'd average about 17 mpg with our Dodge AWD minivan. The Outback averaged 27 mpg. Acceleration was leisurely with the 4-cylinder motor, but maintaining freeway speeds was no problem and I never felt the trailer swaying the car. Here's the tow setup: Here are the watercraft (white one is the new purchase):

Thanks for chiming in with such a nice story on the purchase of that sharp looking watercraft, the Spark.

How fast does it go and do you require a special license? And the Subaru looks cool too.

bwia · March 2015

Sb55 and Murphydog welcome back from your hibernation and Happy Spring.

graphicguy · March 2015

coldinohio said:
GG:KBT is great- my fave was Woodford and 4 roses
; fun place of you new car; (frequent reader, rare poster)

Welcome...hope to see more posts.

Two good bourbons you mention. I'm curently enjoying some Jefferson Reserve. Try it if you haven't yet.

Buffalo Trace and Basil Hayden are two other faves.

roadburner · March 2015

nyccarguy said:
I took Saturday off to see my younger son (he's turning 6 on Friday) play hockey. It was the final day of the season & they had a scrimmage. He has begged me to come see him play, so I promised that I'd take off a Saturday to watch him. It was a lot of fun.

My 8 year old son has been in full hockey mode all year. I've seen him play a lot because mst of his games are Saturday afternoon or Sundays. He plays on 2 teams, a house team & a travel team. This weekend was the final tournament for the house teams (there are 4). Each team played 3 games on Saturday to decide "seating," then there were 2 games on Sunday to decide who was the house league champion. My Son's team ran the table and won. He was so happy! He really just picked up hockey last year & is really enjoying it.

So after running back & forth to the rink a bunch of times over the weekend, I noticed the snow mound around my Prelude was 95% melted. I ran inside, grabbed the keys, opened the door, depressed the clutch, turned the key, & it fired right up! Oh yeah!

If at all possible, make as many of those games as you can; I was blessed with a schedule that allowed me to attend most all Div Jr.'s school events. No one lies on their death bed and says, "I wish I'd spent more time at the office."

[Deleted User] · March 2015

bwia said:
Thanks for chiming in with such a nice story on the purchase of that sharp looking watercraft, the Spark.

How fast does it go and do you require a special license? And the Subaru looks cool too.

You bet, and thanks! I'm glad you called out the lurkers, me included, which has prompted some of us to post. Hopefully we'll see more of the missing old timers chime in.

The scary part about boats and personal watercraft is that licenses are not required for adults, which unfortunately has led to operators that would make even the worst Florida drivers look like skilled racers. I see mistakes all the time on the lakes and have subsequently taught my daughter to be highly defensive and proactive on the water. At 11 years old she's one of the safest operators I witness. When she turns 14 she can take a boat handling course and become licensed to operate one on her own without mom or me aboard.

The Yamaha will top out around 63ish mph and the Spark about 10 mph less once I get it past break-in and add a software flash to the onboard computer. Both have sophisticated engines, the Yamaha a 1.8 liter 180 hp 4-cylinder with double overhead cams and 4 valves per cylinder, and the Sea-Doo something similar except 3 cylinders and about 110 HP with the ECU software flash. The Yamaha is highly stable and a dry ride, so sustained runs at over 60 mph in chop are comfortable. The Spark is all about 40 mph or less, jumping wake, spinning around, carving aggressively, getting wet, and being thrown off. At higher speeds the low weight becomes a detriment and the machine gets pretty bouncy. They'll be totally different watercraft and that's what we were shooting for.

ab348 · March 2015

roadburner said:

If at all possible, make as many of those games as you can; I was blessed with a schedule that allowed me to attend most all Div Jr.'s school events. No one lies on their death bed and says, "I wish I'd spent more time at the office."

Indeed. Retirement has brought that home to me.

nyccarguy · March 2015

@roadburner - thanks. I do get to as many sporting events as possible. Valentine's Day at 6:00 pm I was at an ice rink with Henry, cheering on his big brother, Andre who scored the first goal of his life. Tonight I got home "early" and took the opportunity to toss the ball around with the boys & my daughter. It is a privilege to watch them grow.

driver100 · March 2015

No one lies on their death bed and says, "I wish I'd spent more time at the office."

Indeed. Retirement has brought that home to me.

stever · March 2015

It's all backwards to me. People should play hard and travel often in their youth and then start working more as their physical energy declines in their 60s.

bwia · March 2015

For those of you with kids in college take heed to the warning signs (lack of adequate sleep for example) of your child being overstressed by the academic demands of college and parents' expectations.

Today's Boston reported that two MIT students committed suicide this month and four during this academic year.
"Other elite colleges have seen their own troubling suicides. Between fall 2013 and fall 2014, six University of Pennsylvania students took their own lives, according to media reports. During the 2009-2010 academic year, six Cornell students committed suicide."

In an effort to deal with this troubling phenomenon MIT has decided to lighten the academic load for students.
Personally, I feel parents are the ones to blame for this. Too much emphasis is put on getting into a "good" school, where an otherwise good excellent student is merely average. Most studies show that the most important attribute for academic and professional success is faculty and campus engagement.

Read more at: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/16/mit-students-open-about-stress/dS61oA5tiKqjvVsJ5VZRAL/story.html?s_campaign=email_BG_TodaysHeadline

isellhondas · March 2015

bwia said:
Where are they now?

I just spent the last hour on the "old" Stories from the Sales Frontlines thread of April 2013. It was so much fun reading some of these posts again. And By the way, what happened to these posters? tjc78, snakeweasel, verdugo, gogiboy, murphydog, tyguy, jmonroe, and sb55

Anyway, this is one of my posts:

"I was just reading my April print issue of Car & Driver and buried way in the back pages is a brief article on the vernacular salesmen use to describe potential customers. Here are a few of them:

1. Mop and Glow -- An extra-cost paint sealant or fabric protector of dubious value.
2. Laydown -- A customer who offers little resistance and pays full list price or more. Also known as an "ace."
3. Paperboy -- a buyer who comes in with an advertisement or printouts from the internet. Also known as a nerd.
4. Stroker -- a buyer who acts interested but has no means or intentions of buying a car.
5. F.D.R.S -- "Filthy Disease Ridden Swine. A buyer with horrible credit. Used as inter-salesmen code to name the type of loan as you qualify for our F.D.R.S. loan. Such customer is also referred to as a roach.
6. Third Baseman or Third-base Coach -- the "expert" a buyer brings to provide advice on the deal. Also known as the "lawyer."
7. Gold Balls -- A customer with excellent credit. The opposite of the F.D.R.S.
8. Lot lizard -- A salesperson who stalks customers as they pull into the dealer lot.
9. De-horsing -- taking away the keys and driving away the trade-in to "assess its value." This leaves the buyer with no means of leaving the dealership."

A lot of those terms I never heard of.

A "Stroker" is actually a "Stroke" and those are the worst. These people entertain themselves by going from store to store wasting salespeople's time. They love test driving cars they have no intension of buying and asking dumb questions. Once I determined a shopper to be a stroke I did my best to rid myself of that person while still being polite.

I once had a woman test drive a used Prelude. A long, "creative" test drive on a busy Saturday.

When we (finally) got back, I asked her if she wanted to try to work a deal.

" Oh no, I would never buy a red car and the back seat is way too small"

I lost it. " Well, the color didn't change on the test drive and the back seat didn't shrink"

" Well, I have never driven a Prelude and I wanted to see what it was like"

Total STROKE!

abacomike · March 2015

@bwia said:

"For those of you with kids in college take heed to the warning signs..."

Excellent post bwia! As a retired educator and school administrator (car sales & mgt. came later in life), I can attest to the stresses our kids experience in college. One of the major reasons for this significant stress can be attributed to the lack of proper preparation in our Public High Schools for the amounts of studying and writing and research necessary to compete in 4-year college settings.

That is why many families have opted for the 2-year Community College route with a transfer to a 4-year college campus after acquiring the Associate's Degree. This approach better prepares many kids for the grueling campus life at the university level.

I found that unless a high school graduate can write a 2-3 page essay using standard English and superior grammar, spelling and punctuation skills, he/she is going to have a very difficult time at the university level. Written communication skills coupled with commensurate oral communication skills are the keys to greater success in college.

Thanks again bwia - the stress emanates from fierce competition for grades at the university campus and the disappointments these kids experience if not well prepared.

venture · March 2015

bwia said:
For those of you with kids in college take heed to the warning signs (lack of adequate sleep for example) of your child being overstressed by the academic demands of college and parents' expectations.

Today's Boston reported that two MIT students committed suicide this month and four during this academic year.
"Other elite colleges have seen their own troubling suicides. Between fall 2013 and fall 2014, six University of Pennsylvania students took their own lives, according to media reports. During the 2009-2010 academic year, six Cornell students committed suicide."

In an effort to deal with this troubling phenomenon MIT has decided to lighten the academic load for students.
Personally, I feel parents are the ones to blame for this. Too much emphasis is put on getting into a "good" school, where an otherwise good excellent student is merely average. Most studies show that the most important attribute for academic and professional success is faculty and campus engagement.

Read more at: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/16/mit-students-open-about-stress/dS61oA5tiKqjvVsJ5VZRAL/story.html?s_campaign=email_BG_TodaysHeadline

I agree with you about the parents expectations. Some of it is, of course, to make sure their kid makes out well in life, but a lot of it is also, "My kid goes to MIT" (with their nose in the air).

When my son was at Penn State he had a dual major, in IST and Communications". I often asked him how it was going and if he was having any problems. I also told him he could take a year off if he wanted to. Fortunately he sort of breezed through it all. He later got his Masters at Boston U.

venture · March 2015

isellhondas said:

bwia said:
Where are they now?

I just spent the last hour on the "old" Stories from the Sales Frontlines thread of April 2013. It was so much fun reading some of these posts again. And By the way, what happened to these posters? tjc78, snakeweasel, verdugo, gogiboy, murphydog, tyguy, jmonroe, and sb55

Anyway, this is one of my posts:

"I was just reading my April print issue of Car & Driver and buried way in the back pages is a brief article on the vernacular salesmen use to describe potential customers. Here are a few of them:

1. Mop and Glow -- An extra-cost paint sealant or fabric protector of dubious value.
2. Laydown -- A customer who offers little resistance and pays full list price or more. Also known as an "ace."
3. Paperboy -- a buyer who comes in with an advertisement or printouts from the internet. Also known as a nerd.
4. Stroker -- a buyer who acts interested but has no means or intentions of buying a car.
5. F.D.R.S -- "Filthy Disease Ridden Swine. A buyer with horrible credit. Used as inter-salesmen code to name the type of loan as you qualify for our F.D.R.S. loan. Such customer is also referred to as a roach.
6. Third Baseman or Third-base Coach -- the "expert" a buyer brings to provide advice on the deal. Also known as the "lawyer."
7. Gold Balls -- A customer with excellent credit. The opposite of the F.D.R.S.
8. Lot lizard -- A salesperson who stalks customers as they pull into the dealer lot.
9. De-horsing -- taking away the keys and driving away the trade-in to "assess its value." This leaves the buyer with no means of leaving the dealership."
A lot of those terms I never heard of.

A "Stroker" is actually a "Stroke" and those are the worst. These people entertain themselves by going from store to store wasting salespeople's time. They love test driving cars they have no intension of buying and asking dumb questions. Once I determined a shopper to be a stroke I did my best to rid myself of that person while still being polite.

I once had a woman test drive a used Prelude. A long, "creative" test drive on a busy Saturday.

When we (finally) got back, I asked her if she wanted to try to work a deal.

" Oh no, I would never buy a red car and the back seat is way too small"

I lost it. " Well, the color didn't change on the test drive and the back seat didn't shrink"

" Well, I have never driven a Prelude and I wanted to see what it was like"

Total STROKE!

I would bet that most people don't even know what they are doing when they waste a salespersons time like that and don't know it's a big deal, especially on a Saturday. Either that or they just don't care which could be entirely possible. After all - it's all about them you know.

driver100 · March 2015

isellhondas said:

bwia said:
Where are they now?

I just spent the last hour on the "old" Stories from the Sales Frontlines thread of April 2013. It was so much fun reading some of these posts again. And By the way, what happened to these posters? tjc78, snakeweasel, verdugo, gogiboy, murphydog, tyguy, jmonroe, and sb55

Anyway, this is one of my posts:

"I was just reading my April print issue of Car & Driver and buried way in the back pages is a brief article on the vernacular salesmen use to describe potential customers. Here are a few of them:

1. Mop and Glow -- An extra-cost paint sealant or fabric protector of dubious value.
2. Laydown -- A customer who offers little resistance and pays full list price or more. Also known as an "ace."
3. Paperboy -- a buyer who comes in with an advertisement or printouts from the internet. Also known as a nerd.
4. Stroker -- a buyer who acts interested but has no means or intentions of buying a car.
5. F.D.R.S -- "Filthy Disease Ridden Swine. A buyer with horrible credit. Used as inter-salesmen code to name the type of loan as you qualify for our F.D.R.S. loan. Such customer is also referred to as a roach.
6. Third Baseman or Third-base Coach -- the "expert" a buyer brings to provide advice on the deal. Also known as the "lawyer."
7. Gold Balls -- A customer with excellent credit. The opposite of the F.D.R.S.
8. Lot lizard -- A salesperson who stalks customers as they pull into the dealer lot.
9. De-horsing -- taking away the keys and driving away the trade-in to "assess its value." This leaves the buyer with no means of leaving the dealership."

I once had a woman test drive a used Prelude.

" Oh no, I would never buy a red car and the back seat is way too small"

I lost it. " Well, the color didn't change on the test drive and the back seat didn't shrink"

" Well, I have never driven a Prelude and I wanted to see what it was like"

Total STROKE!

You're probably right in that case, she was a STROKE!

But in 1995 I needed an SUV type car to haul books around for my new business. I really wanted a Jeep. I was on a limited budget so I thought I would try a Taurus wagon. I tried it on a test drive and it was worse than I thought.

So, we went back and I ended up paying a few dollars more a month for the Jeep, which I loved and may even have helped me grow the business.

All I'm saying is sometimes we may take a test drive, learn the car isn't for us, and buy something else....hope I wasn't a STROKE!

qbrozen · March 2015

College? Hell, my kids aren't going unless they insist and get scholarships/loans. College was joke in my case. I slid through with very little effort, and there isn't a damned thing I learned in the classroom that helps me in my career. There doesn't seem to be a call for knowledge of Shakespearean tragedies and/or comedies. Go figure.

Do some folks need schooling? Sure. I prefer my doctors with a Medical Degree. But the large majority of college grads will not find their degrees useful in the working world. It is unnecessary and unnecessarily expensive.

oldfarmer50 · March 2015

Amusing things:

First, just saw a new commercial for the BMW 4 series where a man is sitting in his BMW and a beautiful woman gets in beside him. He stammers "you're not my wife" and she stares at him provocatively and answers "I know".

Way to appeal to the male ego.

Second, I saw this ad on CL. Would you trust this seller?

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/4935343362.html

dino001 · March 2015

I have no quarrels to go and test a particular car even if I didn't want to buy it "today" provided it has some rare options that I may be seriously interested in the future at the time I'm ready to buy. A good example are German cars come with lots of different options and packages, some of which change the car quite dramatically. Between different engines, transmissions, suspensions, seat types (not just colors, seat shape), body types, etc. there is essentially zero probability that they'll have a car I want to buy at the time I want to buy it. The operating word is "special order", which doesn't exist in vocabulary of a Honda dealers, thus I have to introduce it into glossary

(just kidding... a little). In that case, there may be a vehicle here and there over a course of the year, that may have one, or couple of those particular options that I want to evaluate and will have NO OPPORTUNITY at time of purchase or order, usually at a different color, wrong interior, or with an option missing, or some too many (there may by another $4000 package on it that I'm not interested in buying). I'm not ready to buy it, just yet, but I'll be amiss if I didn't come and try that car. If it is a used car (like a demo), then it's even better - I can do a little more than four going around three blocks with it (I understand that putting too many miles on a new inventory for sole purpose of evaluation is not nice). I feel ZERO guilt about it. In fact, if you ask the manufacturers, they'll all encourage everybody to come and test their cars - they'll sometimes even pay for it. I know it sucks for the retailer, who has to put time into what will not be a sale, but it's part of their charter for the franchise.

Again - don't care if they call me a stroke, I have no guilt about that. One general condition is that the car has to be on my future list and I try to keep the list fairly short. There are also manufacturer-sponsor events that I like to attend, where one gets to use their inventory, not retailers, often you get more seat time and no annoying (and ticked off) salesman sitting next to you. If I get an invitation for that, I go, exactly to spare the retailer's time, if I can help. However, I'll still scout their inventory from time to time and show up when something relevant pops up, even if not buying "today".

venture · March 2015

qbrozen said:
College? Hell, my kids aren't going unless they insist and get scholarships/loans. College was joke in my case. I slid through with very little effort, and there isn't a damned thing I learned in the classroom that helps me in my career. There doesn't seem to be a call for knowledge of Shakespearean tragedies and/or comedies. Go figure.

Do some folks need schooling? Sure. I prefer my doctors with a Medical Degree. But the large majority of college grads will not find their degrees useful in the working world. It is unnecessary and unnecessarily expensive.

Agreed.

Where I used to work...when I first started...there were maybe 4 or 5 with degrees in the entire organization. Things ran pretty well. Soon "college creep" entered until all management had degrees, bypassing the grunts on their way up. When that happened it was extremely difficult to get hired without having a college degree.

Some of the best people we had could not advance because they didn't have that sheepskin. Meanwhile, most of management didn't know their behind from first base.

stickguy · March 2015

there are a lot of places in the corporate world where the college degree is a minimum requirement. so to me, the key point was not "skip college", it was "get a degree/training that actually prepares you for a job that needs it".

My son graduated with an engineering degree (materials science) and is getting paid well in a technical job (clean room, nanotech). that wasn't happening with just a HS diploma. Your average philosophy BA degree? That ain't getting you a job (falling into the liberal arts "teach you to think" concept).

Probably should have pushed kid #2 into a STEM program, but she is currently an accounting major, so that too leads to a degree/certification that is worth something. Even though her dream job is to "save puppies".

nyccarguy · March 2015

oldfarmer50 said:
Amusing things:

First, just saw a new commercial for the BMW 4 series where a man is sitting in his BMW and a beautiful woman gets in beside him. He stammers "you're not my wife" and she stares at him provocatively and answers "I know".

Way to appeal to the male ego.

Second, I saw this ad on CL. Would you trust this seller?

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/4935343362.html

Trust him that he is going to jail? Or trust him because he posted 4 pictures of 4 different cars? Definitely a scam.

robr2 · March 2015

Unfortunately, even basic jobs for retail managers often require a college degree.

My son is planning on a liberal arts degree - biochemistry is considered liberal arts by many college. His "dream" is to do medical research which will require him to get a PhD/MD or go to law school and work in environmental law for a few years and then become a lobbyist for the bad guys.

I'm personally channeling my inner Jewish mother who so wants to say "Meet my son, the doctah."

oldbearcat · March 2015

stickguy said:
there are a lot of places in the corporate world where the college degree is a minimum requirement. so to me, the key point was not "skip college", it was "get a degree/training that actually prepares you for a job that needs it".

My son graduated with an engineering degree (materials science) and is getting paid well in a technical job (clean room, nanotech). that wasn't happening with just a HS diploma. Your average philosophy BA degree? That ain't getting you a job (falling into the liberal arts "teach you to think" concept).

Probably should have pushed kid #2 into a STEM program, but she is currently an accounting major, so that too leads to a degree/certification that is worth something. Even though her dream job is to "save puppies".

My wife and I agree with you completely. I would add - make it a job that you want to do as well. We put all three of our kids through college. Our oldest son was an average student, but, had a ton of mechanical aptitude. We put him through a 2 year Mechanical Engineering Technology program at a local college. He got snapped up by US Steel as a maintenance team leader, and, has been quite successful at it ever since. This kid was changing out engines in cars in my garage when he was in middle school, and, getting paid good money for it. Our middle son was the overachiever type. He had excellent grades and was outstanding in both sports and music. He decided he wanted to teach school, and, ended up going to the University of Kentucky on an Oboe Scholarship - got a music education degree. He's a middle school music ed. teacher in Ky., and, also has 21 years in now in an Army Reserve Band.
Kid number 3, our daughter was also strong academically, and, decided, in high school, to try engineering school. She went through WV University's Electrical Engineering program, got picked up as a Summer intern by EI DuPont, and has been with them ever since. She's done extremely well with DuPont.
We helped all 3 as best we could, but, they all ended up with student loans to pay off as well. I have to say that the life plans that the 3 kids came up with have worked well for them, and, led to good, stable incomes.

Regards:
Oldengineer

driver100 · March 2015

oldfarmer50 said:
Amusing things:

First, just saw a new commercial for the BMW 4 series where a man is sitting in his BMW and a beautiful woman gets in beside him. He stammers "you're not my wife" and she stares at him provocatively and answers "I know".

Way to appeal to the male ego.

Second, I saw this ad on CL. Would you trust this seller?

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/4935343362.html

I just checked and the listing got removed....guess that answers the question.

driver100 · March 2015

qbrozen said:
College?

Do some folks need schooling? Sure. I prefer my doctors with a Medical Degree. But the large majority of college grads will not find their degrees useful in the working world. It is unnecessary and unnecessarily expensive.

A degree just makes it easier for HR people to narrow down the possible choices, and makes it less likely they will choose a dud.

I have seen people who have degrees (SIL with an MBA) who don't have a clue, and I have seen extremely competent people who have a high school diploma or some college (a few of our employees).

The degree will possibly open more doors and give one more opportunities, and may add to one's quality of life.

venture · March 2015

driver100 said:

qbrozen said:
College?

Do some folks need schooling? Sure. I prefer my doctors with a Medical Degree. But the large majority of college grads will not find their degrees useful in the working world. It is unnecessary and unnecessarily expensive.
A degree just makes it easier for HR people to narrow down the possible choices, and makes it less likely they will choose a dud.

I have seen people who have degrees (SIL with an MBA) who don't have a clue, and I have seen extremely competent people who have a high school diploma or some college (a few of our employees).

The degree will possibly open more doors and give one more opportunities, and may add to one's quality of life.

When I first started working we had a Personnel Department. Then it changed to Human Resources. I think I felt better when I was a person rather than a resource.

qbrozen · March 2015

driver100 said:

A degree just makes it easier for HR people to narrow down the possible choices, and makes it less likely they will choose a dud.

I have seen people who have degrees (SIL with an MBA) who don't have a clue, and I have seen extremely competent people who have a high school diploma or some college (a few of our employees).

The degree will possibly open more doors and give one more opportunities, and may add to one's quality of life.

HR is an obstacle both as a job hunter and as a hiring manager. I took the college degree requirement out of the job descriptions I inherited for my department. Feel like I've said this around here before, but I'd much rather hire someone with 4 years of real experience than a 4-year degree. Not even a contest. Also don't forget there is a big big difference from even just 10 years ago. Getting a college degree is no longer anything special.

oldfarmer50 · March 2015

qbrozen said:
College? Hell, my kids aren't going unless they insist and get scholarships/loans. College was joke in my case. I slid through with very little effort, and there isn't a damned thing I learned in the classroom that helps me in my career. There doesn't seem to be a call for knowledge of Shakespearean tragedies and/or comedies. Go figure.

Do some folks need schooling? Sure. I prefer my doctors with a Medical Degree. But the large majority of college grads will not find their degrees useful in the working world. It is unnecessary and unnecessarily expensive.

Couldn't agree more. Many colleges have turned into diploma mills which provide no practical education. Gone are the days when a company would take a generalist degree as proof of ability and provide in house training. Now they want highly specific technical skills. Choose your major wrong and you find yourself working at Starbucks with $50k in loans.

Sad.

oldfarmer50 · March 2015

nyccarguy said:

oldfarmer50 said:
Amusing things:

First, just saw a new commercial for the BMW 4 series where a man is sitting in his BMW and a beautiful woman gets in beside him. He stammers "you're not my wife" and she stares at him provocatively and answers "I know".

Way to appeal to the male ego.

Second, I saw this ad on CL. Would you trust this seller?

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/4935343362.html
Trust him that he is going to jail? Or trust him because he posted 4 pictures of 4 different cars? Definitely a scam.

Glad you got to see that ad before it was flagged. Thought it was one of the funnier scams I had seen recently.

isellhondas · March 2015

driver100 said:

isellhondas said:

bwia said:
Where are they now?

I just spent the last hour on the "old" Stories from the Sales Frontlines thread of April 2013. It was so much fun reading some of these posts again. And By the way, what happened to these posters? tjc78, snakeweasel, verdugo, gogiboy, murphydog, tyguy, jmonroe, and sb55

Anyway, this is one of my posts:

"I was just reading my April print issue of Car & Driver and buried way in the back pages is a brief article on the vernacular salesmen use to describe potential customers. Here are a few of them:

1. Mop and Glow -- An extra-cost paint sealant or fabric protector of dubious value.
2. Laydown -- A customer who offers little resistance and pays full list price or more. Also known as an "ace."
3. Paperboy -- a buyer who comes in with an advertisement or printouts from the internet. Also known as a nerd.
4. Stroker -- a buyer who acts interested but has no means or intentions of buying a car.
5. F.D.R.S -- "Filthy Disease Ridden Swine. A buyer with horrible credit. Used as inter-salesmen code to name the type of loan as you qualify for our F.D.R.S. loan. Such customer is also referred to as a roach.
6. Third Baseman or Third-base Coach -- the "expert" a buyer brings to provide advice on the deal. Also known as the "lawyer."
7. Gold Balls -- A customer with excellent credit. The opposite of the F.D.R.S.
8. Lot lizard -- A salesperson who stalks customers as they pull into the dealer lot.
9. De-horsing -- taking away the keys and driving away the trade-in to "assess its value." This leaves the buyer with no means of leaving the dealership."

I once had a woman test drive a used Prelude.

" Oh no, I would never buy a red car and the back seat is way too small"

I lost it. " Well, the color didn't change on the test drive and the back seat didn't shrink"

" Well, I have never driven a Prelude and I wanted to see what it was like"

Total STROKE!
You're probably right in that case, she was a STROKE!

But in 1995 I needed an SUV type car to haul books around for my new business. I really wanted a Jeep. I was on a limited budget so I thought I would try a Taurus wagon. I tried it on a test drive and it was worse than I thought.

So, we went back and I ended up paying a few dollars more a month for the Jeep, which I loved and may even have helped me grow the business.

All I'm saying is sometimes we may take a test drive, learn the car isn't for us, and buy something else....hope I wasn't a STROKE!

It sounds like I wasn't clear on my definition of a "stroke"

Test driving a car that you are considering to buy does not make a customer a stroke. I had no problem with people like that who were narrowing their short list down to the finalists.

Using my example with my Prelude woman. She told me she hated red cars and would never own one. She also said the back seat was way too small.

Still, she wanted to drive it since she had never driven a Prelude!

I wonder if she headed to the Rolls Royce store after leaving ours?

explorerx4 · March 2015

The college experience for my kids was pretty good. My advice was to go to the best school you get into.
No matter what college you go to, the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.
Pretty much like anything else in life.

bwia · March 2015

No matter what college you go to, the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.

And perhaps that is the crux of the problem. The more you put into it...but at what cost to your mental health?

To put it bluntly some kids are being educated beyond their intelligence. It doesn't matter how hard they try they will never be as good as the next Joe, yet their parents keep pushing them to the breaking point. Yes, we read about the suicides but the real casualties are the thousands of students strung out on antidepressant drugs walking around campus as zombies.

Someone once said about America's higher education: the top one third students are the best in the world, the next one third are just average, and the bottom third are the worst in the world. And I am inclined to agree with that assertion.

driver100 · March 2015

isellhondas said:

driver100 said:

isellhondas said:

bwia said:
Where are they now?

I just spent the last hour on the "old" Stories from the Sales Frontlines thread of April 2013. It was so much fun reading some of these posts again. And By the way, what happened to these posters? tjc78, snakeweasel, verdugo, gogiboy, murphydog, tyguy, jmonroe, and sb55

Anyway, this is one of my posts:

"I was just reading my April print issue of Car & Driver and buried way in the back pages is a brief article on the vernacular salesmen use to describe potential customers. Here are a few of them:

1. Mop and Glow -- An extra-cost paint sealant or fabric protector of dubious value.
2. Laydown -- A customer who offers little resistance and pays full list price or more. Also known as an "ace."
3. Paperboy -- a buyer who comes in with an advertisement or printouts from the internet. Also known as a nerd.
4. Stroker -- a buyer who acts interested but has no means or intentions of buying a car.
5. F.D.R.S -- "Filthy Disease Ridden Swine. A buyer with horrible credit. Used as inter-salesmen code to name the type of loan as you qualify for our F.D.R.S. loan. Such customer is also referred to as a roach.
6. Third Baseman or Third-base Coach -- the "expert" a buyer brings to provide advice on the deal. Also known as the "lawyer."
7. Gold Balls -- A customer with excellent credit. The opposite of the F.D.R.S.
8. Lot lizard -- A salesperson who stalks customers as they pull into the dealer lot.
9. De-horsing -- taking away the keys and driving away the trade-in to "assess its value." This leaves the buyer with no means of leaving the dealership."

I once had a woman test drive a used Prelude.

" Oh no, I would never buy a red car and the back seat is way too small"

I lost it. " Well, the color didn't change on the test drive and the back seat didn't shrink"

" Well, I have never driven a Prelude and I wanted to see what it was like"

Total STROKE!
You're probably right in that case, she was a STROKE!

But in 1995 I needed an SUV type car to haul books around for my new business. I really wanted a Jeep. I was on a limited budget so I thought I would try a Taurus wagon. I tried it on a test drive and it was worse than I thought.

So, we went back and I ended up paying a few dollars more a month for the Jeep, which I loved and may even have helped me grow the business.

All I'm saying is sometimes we may take a test drive, learn the car isn't for us, and buy something else....hope I wasn't a STROKE!

It sounds like I wasn't clear on my definition of a "stroke"

Test driving a car that you are considering to buy does not make a customer a stroke. I had no problem with people like that who were narrowing their short list down to the finalists.

Using my example with my Prelude woman. She told me she hated red cars and would never own one. She also said the back seat was way too small.

Still, she wanted to drive it since she had never driven a Prelude!

I wonder if she headed to the Rolls Royce store after leaving ours?

OK, glad I wasn't a "stroke". Unfortunately almost every business does get "strokes", only they take different forms. My wife was a very good family therapist, she got lots of people who would return and lots of referrals, many from doctors. It was surprising to me how many people would just not show up for a $60 one hour appointment.....not call or anything. And a lot would come but would not pay....she had to get tougher about collecting.

It's annoying that the woman would want to just try the car out because she was curious, and probably had no respect for your time or that you could be spending time making real money. There are some people who just go up to salespeople because they are lonely and want someone to talk to.

driver100 · March 2015

oldfarmer50 said:

nyccarguy said:

oldfarmer50 said:
Amusing things:

First, just saw a new commercial for the BMW 4 series where a man is sitting in his BMW and a beautiful woman gets in beside him. He stammers "you're not my wife" and she stares at him provocatively and answers "I know".

Way to appeal to the male ego.

Second, I saw this ad on CL. Would you trust this seller?

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/4935343362.html
Trust him that he is going to jail? Or trust him because he posted 4 pictures of 4 different cars? Definitely a scam.
Glad you got to see that ad before it was flagged. Thought it was one of the funnier scams I had seen recently.

I am sorry, I got to the ad too late. Find us another one and see if we can spot the scam!

oldfarmer50 · March 2015

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

nyccarguy said:

oldfarmer50 said:
Amusing things:

First, just saw a new commercial for the BMW 4 series where a man is sitting in his BMW and a beautiful woman gets in beside him. He stammers "you're not my wife" and she stares at him provocatively and answers "I know".

Way to appeal to the male ego.

Second, I saw this ad on CL. Would you trust this seller?

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/4935343362.html
Trust him that he is going to jail? Or trust him because he posted 4 pictures of 4 different cars? Definitely a scam.
Glad you got to see that ad before it was flagged. Thought it was one of the funnier scams I had seen recently.
I am sorry, I got to the ad too late. Find us another one and see if we can spot the scam!

This one isn't a scam (as far as I know) but just seems to be strange. Why would you go to the trouble of putting a performance engine in an auto tranny sports car? That might be great for someone like me who hates to shift but otherwise would be a negative with the performance crowd. Maybe the enthusiast stick shift people can weigh in on this.

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/4927996873.html

houdini1 · March 2015

explorerx4 said:
The college experience for my kids was pretty good. My advice was to go to the best school you get into.
No matter what college you go to, the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.
Pretty much like anything else in life.

I agree. One of our grandsons is a junior in high school. He has received letters of interest from several top universities, including Harvard. If he has an opportunity to attend Harvard, we will make it happen.

robr2 · March 2015

Well I am sitting in a VW dealership in Stratford, CT. The Passat decided to die on I95 about 20 miles north of where Bradd lives. This is gonna be fun.....

stever · March 2015

ray80 · March 2015

robr2 said:
Well I am sitting in a VW dealership in Stratford, CT. The Passat decided to die on I95 about 20 miles north of where Bradd lives. This is gonna be fun.....

Not good, That general are was a mess with a little weather earlier today, I think a breakdown may be a tad better then the many incidents I heard about

imidazol97 · March 2015

robr2 said:
Well I am sitting in a VW dealership in Stratford, CT. The Passat decided to die on I95 about 20 miles north of where Bradd lives. This is gonna be fun.....

Deepest sympathy. Dealership and waiting never mean fun.

nyccarguy · March 2015

robr2 said:
Well I am sitting in a VW dealership in Stratford, CT. The Passat decided to die on I95 about 20 miles north of where Bradd lives. This is gonna be fun.....

Ouch! That stinks! Let me know if I can do anything to help. I'm closing on my refinance tonight at 6:30. But if you need a lift, let me know.

driver100 · March 2015

robr2 said:
Well I am sitting in a VW dealership in Stratford, CT. The Passat decided to die on I95 about 20 miles north of where Bradd lives. This is gonna be fun.....

Keep us updated, I'd like to know the outcome. What year is your Passat and how many miles?

Our 2013 has under 5000 miles and is 2 1/2 years old. I think it is a lot of car and a good value for $23k. But, after the Audi experience, I hope my wife can find a car she likes better if we have to trade it in at some point.
No plan to do that, but, I like to have a backup plan in place just in case....................

driver100 · March 2015

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

nyccarguy said:

oldfarmer50 said:
Amusing things:

First, just saw a new commercial for the BMW 4 series where a man is sitting in his BMW and a beautiful woman gets in beside him. He stammers "you're not my wife" and she stares at him provocatively and answers "I know".

Way to appeal to the male ego.

Second, I saw this ad on CL. Would you trust this seller?

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/4935343362.html
Trust him that he is going to jail? Or trust him because he posted 4 pictures of 4 different cars? Definitely a scam.
Glad you got to see that ad before it was flagged. Thought it was one of the funnier scams I had seen recently.
I am sorry, I got to the ad too late. Find us another one and see if we can spot the scam!

This one isn't a scam (as far as I know) but just seems to be strange. Why would you go to the trouble of putting a performance engine in an auto tranny sports car? That might be great for someone like me who hates to shift but otherwise would be a negative with the performance crowd. Maybe the enthusiast stick shift people can weigh in on this.

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/4927996873.html

Just an opinion but there are probably more people who will buy an automatic than a manual these days....high performance or not.

The car seemed to be OK.............but he could have taken some better pictures....from all angles, would be nice to know if the rear is in good condition.

I had an 84 Camaro and it looked about the same...they didn't change much in those days. It was rough riding and totally uncomfortable. Also, very impracticle, small rear seat hard to get into, and very little trunk space, but was the right size for carrying one bike.

fezo · March 2015

I'll be eagerly awaiting the word on the Passat. Volkswagen just kills me. They make so many tempting cars but my Rabbit (which was admittedly a 1980) left a miserable taste in my mouth and it may be just individual cases but I swear I hear a lot more of typical Volkswagen stories despite Consumer Reports giving them average reliability. That coupled with driver's Audi gives me pause.

I don't normally lease but I could see leasing a GTI just long enough to stay in warranty.

oldfarmer50 · March 2015

robr2 said:
Well I am sitting in a VW dealership in Stratford, CT. The Passat decided to die on I95 about 20 miles north of where Bradd lives. This is gonna be fun.....

Boy that really stinks to have that happen away from home.

A guy at work just aquired a loaded 2013 Passat for $10,000 through the estate of his wife's deceased relative. 2800 miles. He says it stickered for $28k. Leather, heated seats. Grey with black interior.

Seems the old man who owned it was well off enough to always drive Caddys but when he realized the end was near he bought a VW. Go figure.

Anyway, he''s considering selling or trading it in on something else. So if you were interested I could put out some feelers. He's in profit at $10,800. (He had to pay 8% sales tax when he registered it.)

Edmunds prices a 2013 SEL premium with the 2.5L 5cyl. @ $22k private party. Don't know what his trim level is but he did say it had 5 cylinders.

robr2 · March 2015

Well no word from the dealership yet. I was able to rent a car and still make my sales calls. The AAA tow truck driver said I was the 168th call they got in the Fairfield area since 6 AM.

The Passat is a 2005 with 122K miles on the clock. It has been a super reliable car with mostly maintenance costs. My goal was to run it to 150K.

Bradd - got your message. Thanks. I can drive the rental home to Boston if my car isn't ready.

driver100 · March 2015

robr2 said:
Well no word from the dealership yet. I was able to rent a car and still make my sales calls. The AAA tow truck driver said I was the 168th call they got in the Fairfield area since 6 AM.

The Passat is a 2005 with 122K miles on the clock. It has been a super reliable car with mostly maintenance costs. My goal was to run it to 150K.

Bradd - got your message. Thanks. I can drive the rental home to Boston if my car isn't ready.

What actually happened? Wouldn't start or died?

2005, 122K miles..........pretty good service, hopefully just a small glitch.

nyccarguy · March 2015

robr2 said:
Well no word from the dealership yet. I was able to rent a car and still make my sales calls. The AAA tow truck driver said I was the 168th call they got in the Fairfield area since 6 AM.

The Passat is a 2005 with 122K miles on the clock. It has been a super reliable car with mostly maintenance costs. My goal was to run it to 150K.

Bradd - got your message. Thanks. I can drive the rental home to Boston if my car isn't ready.

Good. As long as you were able to get out and keep making your calls! Safe trip home. Let us know what's going on and when you are going to pick it up.

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