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I will smash your face into a car windshield and then take your mother, Dorothy Mantooth, out to a nice seafood dinner and never call her again!
Tell me about it, this morning, I woke up and I shit a squirrel, but what I can't get is the damn thing is still alive. So now, I've got a shit covered squirrel running around my office and I don't know what to name it.
Traitor! Worse, it might keep on running for years and years so you won't be tempted to get rid of it, and your bad decision will hang over your head all that time.
p.s. I've had my Suzuki now for 8+ years--the longest I've ever owned a car.
Now let me tell you the car sales people are the worst. I felt like I just wrestled in a tournament after all the sleazy negotiations. They never give you a price that you want right away and look for a fool to settle for a high payment. You have to basically threaten to walk out for them to get reasonable with you. I hate this part which makes the experience of buying a car a much less enoyable one.
I'm in sales so I know all the tricks of the trade. I would say that Time Share people are the worst salespeople out there. You know one of those "we'll give you $100 if you sit through a 90 minute presentation" type deals. The only thing is that it's not 90 minutes. It's more like 3 hours because after you meet with the first scumbag trying to sell you a share, they pass you off to another scumbag to do some "Q & A" when in reality they try to sell you on a cheaper deal and then after that they take you through the back door only to meet another scumbag trying to sell you an even cheaper deal.
I remember one particular instance my brother and I were down in FT Lauderdale and we stayed at a hotel affiliated with the time share place. We were planning on going to Disney up in Orlando afterwards. In order to get some tickets or a voucher or something we had to sit through a "90 minute presentation." They basically held our tickets for ransom until we finished the tour. This was after both my bro and I nicely told them several times we weren't interested, we were both younger, not making much $ at the time, didn't have any significant other and had no need for a times share. They didn't care. They were trying to tell us about what a great investment opportunity it would be for young people like us and even tried to get us to give them our credit cards out for a swipe. When we told one woman thanks but we needed to leave to get to Orlando (like a 3.5 hour drive) she gave us a guilt trip by saying she would lose her job if we didn't stay the 90 minutes and that it might be hard to get our tickets/voucher. Oh yeah the tickets/voucher had a time expiration and we were cutting it close with the 3.5 hr drive ahead of us. Some of the people there were downright nasty when it was clear we weren't being sold.
I felt like I needed a shower after that. Disgusting people.
Another way they get you is by having a fake raffle and then calling every person and tell them they won a free trip to The Bahamas (or wherever) but that they need to pay like $500 for incidentals. Once they get there they need to sit through one of those presentation things.
Last edited by quick_single; 11-09-2007 at 12:12 PM..
When we were in Sedona, AZ, we strolled into a western movie museum which featured movies that were filmed in Sedona (there were many). The guy behind the counter was extremely friendly, but since everyone we encountered was pretty friendly, we didn't think anything of it. After inquiring about our trip, he offered us a place to stay for free if we wanted to spend more time in Sedona. When we declined, he showed us some pictures of properites in the area that we might be interested in. Turns out the "museum" was simply bait to get people in to hear a time share speil. I do have to admit that the museum was pretty interesting and the guy did take no for an answer without being obnoxious.
I agree, but you jumped all over me, and now you're whistlin' a different tune. Maybe an apology is in order? I'm just sayin'... I have a Hyundai Elantra, and (knock on wood) I love it. Before that, I had a Toyota Paseo that I drove to Washington, then to Connecticut, and then back to Chicago, with an oil leak. It didn't matter what I did to that car, it never stopped.
And for the record, buying a Toyota does support the American auto industry, it just doesn't support the car places that are headquartered in America. Your purchase supported the salesman (who are not all sleazy - my father is a car salesman), the porter who prepared your car for delivery, the receptionist who answered the phone or pointed you towards a salesperson, the finance person who made your deal, the used car manager who gave a price for your trade-in, and the factory workers who put your car together, (I think those cars are made in Tennessee) not to mention the various factories who made the different parts for your car. These is no such thing as an American car. The auto industry is global.
Toyotas are made in Georgetown, KY. About 60% of the parts are shipped in from Japan from a variety of Japanese companies. About 20% come from Japanese companies elsewhere in teh word and about 20% from US based companies, many owned by Japanese based companies. For example the window glass is made by AGC Automotive in Kentucky a US subsidiary of Asahi in Japan. I can tell for a fact that AGC has a minimal margin on the glass. They also make the glass for Mercedes, Honda, BMW, Chrysler and many of the GM cars. Other US components include the the seats and dash panels, anti-lock brakes, tires. About the only pure Toyota (and Honda for that matter) imported parts are the tranny and the engine.
With most any product, the bulk of the cost in from labor. Toyota could reduce the overall cost of production by importing the cars, but they won't because the US has caps on the number that may be imported. The cap for Toyota is 45,000 vehicle imports.
Also, Toyota and Honda do not have UAW contracts. All of their plants are non-union and the employees have never had much interest in unions since the benefits are pretty darned good.
With the value of the US dollar in decline, the foreign based companies are not likely to pull a lot of cash out of the US right now.
Re: I decided to go with a Japanese car 
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