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Comments
Thanks for clearing that up, Brenda! That'll teach me to be away for awhile!
Patti
:-)
Ross
Cheers Pat.
I'm guessing there may not be a chat.
Jim
Bob
I saw 2 Subies there in two weeks: an Outback and a Forester. That's about how often I see Subies in TX.
Just curious whether anyone else has seen the (new?)Forester commercial. I just saw it for the first time on Nov. 21 pm, prime time TV. It shows the Forester driving along on roads as the announcer asks, Which one ranked #1 on safety tests, Which one comes standard with AWD, etc....
Here in TX they are offering special 1.9% APR financing again, of which I took advantage.
I have driven about 900 miles in two months. On my last tank of gas, I averaged 22 mpg. I don't do very much highway driving. Mainly short trips within a few miles from home & work.
Almost finished with the break-in period! I'm very happy with my vehicle. It easily fit two 72" long bookshelves in their boxes and still had room for my husband to sit in the back seat. My bicycle also fits easily.
Patti
What part are you in? I lived in Houston for almost 40 years, and near Dallas-Ft.Worth for a few, too ...
The place is the fuzzy black dot just to the right of Piazza di Pesce (plaza of fishes)by the Ponte Vecchio
Have a great time and have some chocolate mousse icecream for us!
Pat, yes you did tell me so. Retirement is a FULL TIME JOB! Actually though, I am considering taking a part-time job related to the volunteer work I did in Vancouver. There is nothing definite at this point.
Ross
Subaru has no presence in Texas. When I picked my son up from school one day one of the teachers asked me if that was one of those new electric cars!
Also hard to be seen amidst all the suburbans and pickup trucks. May be if we glued 2 subies together they would sell better here..
HG
Cheers Pat.
I'll start-
I sell wine to restaurants in Baltimore city, plus 4 key retailers. This quarter has blown big donkey chunks. With the weak economy, fear of war, and late holiday season, folks just aren't in the celebration mode or in the fine wine mode. I can't believe my numbers for November.....it's almost as bad as August, the traditional nadir of the business. Maybe Monday and Tuesday will cough up some late orders (as folks finally figure out T-day is this week) but for my restaurants it is pretty much too late. Welp, here's to December!!............?
Cheers,
Lucien
I can imagine the sale of high-end wines would suffer in times like this. Do you see an increase in value wines or the entire volume down?
Did Maryland allow direct shipped wines? I read an article in the paper that mentioned NY state is thinking of allowing direct shippments -- a bonus for many of the small wineries here in CA. Would that affect your business at all?
As for myself, my industry (automated semiconductor test equipment) is hurting as a whole (chip sales are down), our specific niche of flash-memory testers is doing very well. We actually had a record quarter. It's kind of a bummer when you're the only one doing well in the company -- you still need to adhere to spending cuts and constraints.
Ken
my company is cruising along somewhere north of 20% gross return on capital expended...easily #1 in the US market. not as good as last year when to higher crude prices and many things just worked out to our advantage; we're quite a bit behind last year's record profits. we're trying to figure out if we can grow and keep that level of profitability-- if not, there's no point in growing.
my job is extremely busy and I've received some contact from headhunters looking for people that do what I do. but since I don't want to travel 90% of the time in a pure consulting job right now, I stay. plus I enjoy my job and my co-workers, and right now I've got the best manager I've ever had. things could be much worse!
-Colin
Well .. as long as no one alleges I did something to a kid that I didn't do ....
Allegations alone can kill a career ...
Yes, we were hit by the 'E' word, the 'W" word, 'G' word,... basically, all them big fishes that stunk the place up when they died. We get a general idea as to how the economy is doing by how fast our distress portfolio grows.
As far as how the company itself is doing?...
No Christmas Party this year just about said it all.
-Dave
And y'all thought it would be me anxiously awaiting for my WRX wagon.
I wonder if SoA ever considered a customer PR perk like; when a customer orders a car and it has to be built, send them a weekly e-mail update on the progress of the car through the production line up till the dealer door step. Throw in a few pics to entertain like, "here's your car having it's seats installed" or "here's Yamaguchi san [big grin on face] torquing the bolts on the left rear strut of your WRX"...
I think it would be entertaining, and, I could show my Mom "here Mom look, it's almost done."
-Dave
On Subie topic: Saw an ad (new to me) for the Baja tonight. Couple going surfing, she drives while he talks vaguely about reincarnation. A quick flash in the rear view mirror: a BRAT. Cut to the couple unloading their surf gear and up pulls the BRAT. Message: The Baja is the BRAT reincarnated. Good ad, nothing to get anyone's feathers ruffled this time like the Forester/rabbit and WRX/"Radar Love" ads.
Ed
Jim
hgutstein: "May be if we glued 2 subies together they would sell better here.." --LOL!
Yup, Texans like things BIG. I've seen more Hummer 2's on the roads than Subarus.
Went for a hike at Brazos Bend State Park today-beautiful weather- saw 3 large adult alligators (~8 ft long) and several baby alligators (~8 inches long), all easily viewed from the trails!
The closest one was only 10 feet away, and one observer told us that it was dead, because it hadn't moved in a while. However, when he stupidly touched the alligator's tail with his hand, he found out that it was alive. He was really lucky that the alligator was not hungry or aggressive enough to bother hurting him. That was our excitement for the day!
Fortunately, my new company is doing very well. This change has been good for me. Like Colin, my boss is great and the job is exciting and challenging.
Jim
I've been safe so far though which is good. Colin, didn't realize you were an IT guy @ an energy company. I worked at PSEG in NJ for 7 years, aching to go back there now
-mike
Yep we are doing the 48hrs of Tri-state again this year. We will be raising money for the American Cancer Society this time. Dates are set Jan 3-5. It will be a beautiful ride starting in Long Island and heading up to Albany, then backroads through the Adirondacks to Rochester and over to Niagara Falls. Then we'll head down to Pittsburgh and over to Philadelphia!
Anyone who wants to participate or meet up with us can keep track of the events at http://isuzu-suvs.com/events/48hrs-2/ Also anyone who can get their dealership or SOA to donate paraphanalia that would be great too!
-mike
Here in gator land, they teach the kids to run in a zig-zag pattern if being chased by a gator; they can only run (at 30mph!) in a straight line for a short period of time.
Ed, have a great time.
That Holden SSX AWD looks awesome. Clever tailgate, too. Reminds me of the Matrix/Vibe, which also have those metal strips on the cargo area and a plastic lining. But for messy cargo the Baja is a better solution. I like that ad, too, Ed.
Glue 2 together, I was LOL too. TX is a big state for big trucks. I borrowed a Rodeo for a week when I was there, and while it felt big to me, it felt tiny on the roads. Seems like everyone has a Suburban there. Most curteous drivers I've ever seen in my life, too.
How's Bid-ness? IFC actually eeked out a profit last fiscal year. I hate how they have to have a dramatic reorg just to lay off a couple of bad managers. Worse, the managers get cushy "consultant" jobs while their staff lose their jobs. Not fair.
So sometimes it feels like a war zone with bodies laid out all over the place, including many friends of mine that worked 50-60 hours a week. Then again, I still have a job and it's so far, so good. Right now my kids are my priority so it's not nearly as important to me anyway.
-juice
Happy Thanksgiving!
PS to Ed: Hope something good happens for you soon.
-Dave
-Dave
-dennis
On another topic, it's almost time to get my latke-making skills back in shape; 2 years ago, made one that ended up in the shape of Australia!
-juice
Mark
Thanks for the link
-Dave
I hope I get to use it: weather forecast for this area calls for up to 6" of snow between tomorrow night and Wednesday midday; our flight from Phila. - Paris is scheduled to leave around 5:00pm. Quelle horreur! Not the circumstances under which I want to put the Forester to the test.
Ed
-Frank P.
You do the country proud.
-Dave
[/Saluting]
On Saturday, I shopped several dealers and had one offer me a new 2003 Forester X, 5-spd for $19,499. It only options it had the were the tweeter kit, cargo net and tail pipe cover. That price appears to be right at dealer invoice. Throw in 1.9%, 24 month financing and it's a no-brainer, right?
It was the right car, but just about my last color choice (dark blue). I wanted to think about it overnight. The sales guy wanted to be sure that I would come back the next day, so he begged me to drive the Forester home.
It was about a 25 mile drive, which gave me time to get to know the car better than your typical "with the sales guy test drive". Nice car, plenty of pep, nimble handling, comfortable, fairly quiet... all the stellar qualities of which the Subie-crew sing the praises, and all-wheel drive to boot.
But it's not a pickup, and I've had a pickup for the last ten years. When I got home, I called a lady who had a 1996 Toyota Tacoma 2wd, V-6 extracab, 5-spd that I had driven earlier. I told her I would buy her pickup. I took the Forester back Sunday and now own the Tacoma.
There is some Subie method to my madness, however. By buying a relatively inexpensive used truck, I can wait a couple years for the Forester turbo!!! At that point, I will probably just keep the truck as a second vehicle for misc. hauling/towing and have the Subie as the primary car.
This particular Tacoma is a fairly unusual model. You don't often find the V-6 in small Toyota 2wd pickups. This is the same engine as used in the larger T-100 truck, and in 1996 it was upgraded from 3.0 to 3.4 liters. 4-cams, 190HP, 220 ft/lbs of TORQUE... this thing pulls like a freight train. I haven't checked the mileage yet, I'm hoping for low to mid 20s. The EPA was 20/24 IIRC.
-james
I think you did the smart thing. If you're going to spend $20K on a new vehicle, it should be exactly what you want. If you didn't mind waiting, your Subaru dealer could have ordered the exact configuration you wanted.
Well, your hopes will be answered soon. The turbo Forester is supposed to come out next year, not in a couple! Hope you didn't pay too much for that truck! ;-)
Ken
Enjoy the truck. If there's a Subie in your future, it will happen.
Jim
Good luck with your truck and keep us informed!
Patti
I think it was very wise. The turbo Forester should be worth waiting for, although that was an awesome deal you were pitched.
-Colin
http://isuzu-suvs.com/events
http://isuzu-suvs.com/autox
-mike
Yes we are truly blessed.
Cheers Pat.
Drove down from NY to Fredricksburg, VA last night in the Odyssey with the new snow/wheels purchased from Tire Rack. We were expecting the snow storm, but it never happened.... Unfortunately, they appear to have been badly balanced, so have an appt with a local authorized installer to look them over later today.
Work? Like most of the semiconductor industry, it was a lean year at IBM's Microelectronics Division. But business is looking up, so maybe the worst is over? Fortunately for my small group, Focused Ion Beam (FIB) chip repair is still hot, so we did OK.
Frank: Thanks for defending our freedoms....
James: Enjoy the truck....
To the rest of you: Enjoy Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be grateful for this year!
Steve