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2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
I felt the signs were playing to 1) the drive-bys 2) the payment buyers who, I feel, aren't careful about how much they pay but rather look at the monthly payment. If anything the design of the signs made the list price - the supposed store discount not obvious. So I ended up seeing the full, list price rather than seeing the price - immediate discount. That store is a high pressure store where the sales folk would walk along the car as I drove through rows of new cars when I would drive through to check the wares on the shelves of the Fusion and Focus lines.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I was listening to a radio show Saturday that's supposed to be a call in show for problems with maintenance or shopping for a car--sponsored by a Honda store owned by a company owning lots of stores. Usually the one "expert" is telling how awful GM cars are when someone calls in with a problem or shopping question. He then laughs about how he upsets people who write to him about his bias. He gives long excuses for Hondas with problems. Oh, he also dislikes Mopar products.
But on to the point, they had a call from someone who bought a slightly used Mustang a couple years back from a Ford store in the city. Carfax, Car and Driver guarantee (I think that's the right mag). Had a wreck and the body shop and insurance company says the car is totaled. He expected it to be fixable. BUT there was previous bad body damage to the rails and (other things I missed) AND the car had been totaled BEFORE. But it was resold by the Ford store. He had paid on it for 2 years almost. I think he really wants to be repaid for his payments on a car he believes now was not as represented.
The car expert did go to bat to help the guy. He told him how to ask questions without giving information about what had happened. He told him a name at the anonymous store who sold the car for contact. He also had the caller stay online after the call for the expert's cell phone number to call the expert for further help through this mess. He also mentioned that attorneys without enough work were salivating at the thought of this guy calling them for help.
Oh, first on list was to get 2 other reputable body shops to inspect the wreck and verify the previous damage and severity along with current damage. That would be the first legal fact to have the ducks in the row set up.
PS. For anyone ready to jump on me that I'm criticizing the bias unfairly, the same day the expert made blanket criticism of GMs he excused a later call from a Honda owner saying his Honda and that of 2 other friends all have their check engine lights coming on and staying on after some service. The expert gave a long-winded excuse blaming the EPA. For GM, his favorite comment is "they all do that." LOL
The expert used to have general criticism of Fords, but the corporation sponsoring the program bought a Ford store, so now he kinder toward Fords.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Then again, it's easy for me to find an excuse not to let go of a buck.
The dealer from whom I bought had a separate building for prepping vehicles for the Chevy store. They also have a separate used car sales lot adjacent for what I suspect is buy here pay here buyers. They have Honda, Hyundai, BMW, Cadillac, Scion, and Toyota stores in the immediate area. A Land Rover store and a distant Honda store also come up when I looked up their dealer group. Quite an operation. But no Mop and Glo. No wheel insurance. No extended warranty push in closing office--just mentioned it was available for purchase up to 3/36.
Actually it was worth the lack of push to buy there. I did not like the store where my son and I had looked on the day before, because it was a Chevy store open on Sunday, who had Mop and Glo stickers on the windows of some of the slightly used Cruzes. That store a few year back had a feature face in ads who was let go and after a couple years started his own used car stores.
Click for obnoxious advertisement
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Some of the best dealers, at least for shopping, were in the middle of Michigan (Toyota and Kia - guess they had to be better to get beyond the Big 3 domination there). Wisconsin had some good ones too.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
'24 Chevy Blazer EV 2LT
That story sounds like what happened to GG's Caddy. I always thought his car must have had some in-transit accident to have steering problems like that.
My wife's PT Cruiser had a series of front brake rotors warp (the first time at only about 15,000 miles). By 30k we were looking at the third set. Finally my mechanic took an extra close look and found the supporting structure was bent (I think he said wheel spindle but can't remember exactly). What I do remember is that he said it might have come from the dealer that way. I can just imagine some kid bouncing the car over a railroad track as it was unloaded from the train.
But selling a car that had been totaled is deliberate fraud.
On the mop&aglow thing I have never been approached for that on the last three new cars I've purchased. I'd like to think that they read me as a person they didn't want to mess with but who knows. BIL got it on his new Altima but I don't know if it was listed as mandatory or was sold to him in the F&I office by one of those cute young women they hire to confuse us old guys.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
And Costa Rica is nice and all, but I'd suggest a long visit first.
I understand that no one should operate any vehicle while impaired on anything. But, every time I see the commercial I think of the [non-permissible content removed], or some other nefarious gov't agencies.
Speaking of lack of security, I received 3 emails on Friday from H&R Block. I have used them in the past, but it was over a decade ago.
They said....
"Congratulations Gordon (I'm not Gordon),
Your Federal Tax return for 2015 has been accepted. Expect your refund of $x,xxx to be deposited within 21 days."
This was repeated with the same name for his return for MD and VA. Apparently, he lived in both places.
Point being, how did H&R Block pull up an email for me that I haven't communicated with for over a decade. And, how did they associate it with an entirely different person....unless of course, it's a phishing scam.
Either way, I informed them of the faux pas. They told me that they'd investigate and get back to me in 2-3 weeks. I'm sure GORDON appreciates his information being disseminated to someone he doesn't even know (even if he knows his information came to me). Moreover, I'm sure GORDON appreciates H&R Block's sense of urgency protecting his privacy.
'24 Chevy Blazer EV 2LT
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
Here's an idea for a dealer to be different. New XYZ, just $20,000, but with your upside down payments on your current car just add $4000 = $24000 and you can be driving a new XYZ.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
I would only want to live in a place that has good roads and highways. I can't imagine living well, without access to a car and being able to drive around. That ain't living to me.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
One thing I do think is rare, and is wonderful, two great countries with the longest undefended border in the world, friendly, and who both benefit from this friendship.
Houdini...I haven't been to the interior of British Columbia and I know it is beautiful. Fairly mild, and with mountains for skiing not too far away. We do go to Vancouver and Vancouver Island to see children and grandchildren, most years......and that is very nice.
Kamloops and Flin Flon are strange names. There is a place near London England we used to go to to see a supplier. I also liked going there so I could tell everyone I had been to "Leighton Buzzard". Doesn't sound great, but it was a cute little town.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
So some people in Flin Flon live in one province, and others live in another province? That's pretty cool.
Like Union City Indiana/Ohio where the state line runs through the middle of town.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
When Tom Creighton discovered a high-grade exposure of copper, he thought of the book and called it Flin Flon's mine, and the town that developed around the mine adopted the name. Flin Flon shares with Tarzana, California, the distinction of being named after a character in a science fiction novel.
The town is named after the fictional character Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin
Houdini...that train ride is supposed to be magnificent. I have been to Banff, Jasper and the ice fields....beautiful.
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
I've also driven through Hot Coffee Mississippi.
I think I mentioned once before that when the Saturn Sky first came out I saw one in a mall that had holdback listed as an additional charge over and above MSRP. I couldn't decided if the dealer had that much gall or if they just assumed that the average customer was that stupid.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
I can remember as a youth guys who carried can openers on their key rings. Now the heaviest thing is the key fob.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
@berry, plenty of Yoopers would have preferred to be in WI but Ohio wanted Toledo, and so it goes. UP loyalitie were pretty evenly split between the Packer and the Lions. Cars too - Henry Ford had a sawmill/village that they gave to Michigan Tech but lots of folks only drove GM. Dodge seemed to run third.
You can add Chicken, AK, and Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, to the list. The story is that Chicken got its name because no one at the time could pronounce Ptarmigan (arctic birds plentiful in the area), so they went with Chicken.,
Extra credit to our Las Cruces buddy if he knows what T or C was called before.
T&C was Hot Springs NM, iirc. It reminds me a little of Hot Springs Arkansas back in the 70s before it was fixed up. T&C has a few bathhouses, but the town is a bit run down and "past its prime" looking. Good café there.
You guys have me jonsing for a road trip, been two months since we've gone anywhere.
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An interesting point, which got me started thinking. I worked my way through college mainly by doing construction work in the summers. Which meant, quite often, playing in the mud, with 4 wheel drive work trucks and heavy construction equipment. I'm not the type who would go out and do it just for fun, but if it were necessary to get around, I wouldn't mind.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
And then there's Paradise (PA).
In the rural Indiana area where I grew up, there was a cluster of homes called Shakerag and another called Lickskillet. Of course, they both had general stores originally, but those had died off as shopping centralized to larger grocery stores in other towns by the time I was old enough to remember. Then they were just clusters of houses that my dad would use as reference points when we were going somewhere off the highway. He had done custom thrashing work throughout the area in his younger days, long before I came along, so he knew all the roads and villages.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Not as nice as the one in holland though!
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.