oldshurst442

Like I said back then. Cash will always be king. Just don't pissed it all away. Real estate is an investment like any other investment. You could always go back to re-invest your cash in real estate or anything else that may come your way. As long as your money grows. (even if by a small % rather than a huge % and always better than a loss obviously) No investment is forever. One has to "get out" of an investment eventually. One shouldn't be afraid or reluctant to "get out". Like I said, as long as money was made. Sometimes, one HAS to cut his losses if losses are to be had. One has to see the bigger picture at all times and if an investment becomes stagnant, one should cash out. However, if there is much money to be had, one BETTER ride the gravy train as much as possible! Im glad that you came to a conclusion about the job offer and about your properties. Those stresses are now relieved (Im assuming for the most part) and now you could concentrate on other money making ventures. You strike me as a businessman. You also strike me as a person that is not afraid to take risks...CALCULATED risks... Good on you! Good luck on your next venture!

Im under the impression that (middle class) Americans...and Canadians...are so into keeping up with the Kardashians and the Joneses, that they have voraciously consumed themselves into oblivion, that the majority do NOT have the means to buy new. AND...because they are now accustomed to make monthly payments on everything, including making the monthly credit card payments on the bubble gum they bought 6 months ago, that leasing is just about the ONLY way of driving a car...regardless of price tag or luxury or mid-luxury or even on the lowest of echelons of price point in cars... Leasing was always a luxury car thing as soon as leasing was a thing...non? The problem as I sees it, is when leasing cheap Hondas has become a thing... Leasing for a car company versus buying changes nothing, for the short term...as it contributes to getting cars built, shipped and rolled out of the showroom floor. Its just that with 3-4-5 year leases, versusof 6-7-8-9-10 year ownership of vehicles presents different good and bad scenarios... Good scenarios for short leases: It creates more buyers faster... Downside....creates used cars as competition to your new car sales Upside, good marketing makes for more excitement to get the newest ride faster to the people. But Im assuming that also creates less brand loyalty. 6-7-8-9 year ownership creates less traffic in showrooms to roll out and sell new vehicles. But if an owner is satisfied with that new car that now is an old car, brand loyalty is stronger? Anyway...for me...leasing versus buying in the luxury market in the manufacturer point of view means that if Mercedes leases more than Cadillac...welll...good on Mercedes...bad on Cadillac. The name of the game is getting people to your dealership and making them leave with YOUR car regardless of the means...

Are these end of lease cars? When the lease is up, the dealership uses its discretion and keeps the end of lease cars that are worth reselling and certifies them with Mercedes or Porsche backing them up with warranties and guarantees? Is this a new program? Is this offered in Canada if you know?

It will all boil over. The world over is bubbling with too much debt. Debt. Debt. Debt. There isnt one industrialized nation that doesnt have debt. Government debt. Consumer debt. Maybe not all industrialize nations. But a good portion. In Canada and in the US, citizens are over-consuming and have an insane amount of consumer debt. I also can assume that the rising prices of new vehicles in North America are going to have some serious consequences because North Americans are spoiled bitches...in that new cars are priced higher and higher is because we North Americans will NOT buy a new car with no frills. We have come to the point where a luxury nameplate used car several years old is more valuable to our fragile egos that we North Americans refuse to buy brand new cheap cars with no frills. We are no longer proud to own a new car. Granted, reliability of cars today far exceed cars of yesteryear so I REALLY do understand why a 5 year old BMW well equipped 5 Series would be more appealing to own than a similarly priced brand new Nissan Sentra with no options...but THAT has forced entry level cars to have the same options as luxury vehicles which keeps pushing the average price of cars higher and higher and eliminates the cheaper, smaller cars. Manufactures need to move metal, and this phenomenon has created another competitor...the used car ... the previously owned... the certified pre-owned vehicle. It will all boil over. The system will reset itself. Either by a very gloomy future or a more friendlier version like we had back in 2009. But a global meltdown will happen again. I could be a Debbie Downer here....but Im amazed how we as consumers still consume voraciously yet we still complain the high price of this commodity and that how expensive that product is and how this service is lacking for high high the price is and... And this here is another example... We dont want high payroll, but we want to make big salaries. We dont want to pay high taxes, but we moan about the condition of anything public... We want everything now, we do not want to save, we buy everything on credit, we have bought all the damned toys that we could possibly want and need and are in debt several years worth of salary for it, yet we still want more and our consumer companies still want us to spend more...because they need to make more products for us to buy so they could still be in business and yet, we are all in debt...companies borrow money, we borrow money. We buy buy buy. We spend spend spend... There are sooooo many car companies to buy cars cars cars... Something will give.

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Well...you down voted a couple of posts without explanation (to other posters). Assuming you did not like their post for whatever reason. I did the same thing to yours. I did not like your post, so I down voted... .

BMW marketed their whatever this segment was in the 1990s as SAVs. Sports ACTIVITY Vehicles. The first from BMW being the X5 way back in 1999. They did this to distinguish their version of whatever this segment was in the 1990s from the others... SUVs were body of frame things that went off road up until this point in time for the most part. Unibody versions existed, but the main focus was off roability and go anywhere attitude even with the unibody versions. And that they were, capable off roaders. Many things happened in the 1990s (OJ Simpson as 1 example) and the focus of off roadability for SUVs got muddied...(family hauling, grocery getters as 1 example) The BMW marketing department settled on ACTIVITY rather than UTILITY...although UTILITY for the most part was off roading which ironically is more akin to activity and utility is what the SUV has become today... wierd... Mercedes did the offraod thing with their new-wave SUV, and wanted to showcase the ruggedness with Jurassic Park movie product placement. The Infiniti FXs and Nissan MURANO would be more X5 SAV-ish rather than SUV-ish Pathfinder, Xterra and Armada and its luxo brother the Infiniti QX. Then BMW would, I assume, would wanna upstage the other sporty SAVs with virtually NO off road capabilities, which BMW DID indeed invent, and create the low and tapered midway roofline version of the X5 called the X6. The Infinity FXs had bulbous(still do) rooflines. Lexus (and Toyota) went the other way and offered no offroadbility, no sportiness and no personality to their new new-wave small SUVs. Because their big and midsized BOF SUVs were still true to the original formula for SUVs. This is my take on it. PS: That Buick rendering reminds me of the current Chevy Blazer. Not a bad thing. I think the Blazer looks good. As does this rendering. I wouldnt want one either way though. Im still waiting on a new personal coupe (or sedan) worthy of the name Riviera. But...seeing what the market is today with sedans and coupes, the Riviera name would be soooooo befitting on this rendering of a possible Buick SAV... (I HATE this nomenclature of SAV, but kudos to BMW for tapping into a great idea...)

No. The conversation was a cool, informative, civil, factual to a degree, discourse. Nothing childish about it. Debunking illogical or even proving certain aspects of that discussion was the direction. Balthy informed me that 90% of the Model T from 1908 and 1927 remained the same. Then you come along and spew childish remarks...and then I become the bad guy again...derailing the thread and making my remarks borderline personal.... I do NOT enjoy being this way. I do NOT enjoy posting this way and I certainly do NOT enjoy interacting with you guys this way. These kinds of discussions, the way you and I approach it, are high school level intelligence. YOUR arguments are high school level. Please stop!

Happened twice. Plus... But you still dont get it! Stop the motherphoquing childish trolling...

I LOVE Springsteen's work...its your political stab at him I dont appreciate... Like how YOU do when I say I dont trust Trump's administration...is what the reaction was PS: the song is NOT about MAGA... And HE has a right to his political views without YOU dissing him in an automotive forum. In a MAGA Amerca, HE has THAT right to his political views and SING about them...

Yes. And we have Google Home and Amazon "whatever its called" that controls literally everything you want it to control in your home. But when there is a power failure...kiss all that good-bye and we have to cope with day to day living the old fashioned way.... And some of us are so far up Google's and Amazon's ass that we dont know how to 'git er dun' anymore. Point being, technology will always have limits no matter how far advanced technology has become and we will always advance and evolve our ways and adapt quite easily to these new advancements but when something incredibly new arrives, and there will be set-backs and/or minor deficiencies, we will have to cope with those deficiencies one way or other until we iron out those kinks. And the innovation cycle will continue to repeat itself that way.

Here I am and Im watching playoff hockey. I came to a realization. In sports, fans like to compare how today's sports greats measure up to past sports greats and vice versa. But we cant do that accurately. Different eras. Past sports greats smoked, drank, ate like pigs.Had other jobs. Did not train, exercise etc... Today's sports stars, well, they do the opposite of that. Plus, they use technology that records and captures their motions and they play it back micro second to micro second and analyze their movements with a professional sports trainer and improve on their imperfections. Anyway...back to cars. Same logic though. Different times had different obstacles to overcome with different advances in technology. Its not fair for the Model T to be scrutinized by me the way I did. But...its not fair for the EV to be scrutinized the way some do regarding charging times... Technology is simply not there for that...yet. But...that is just 1 aspect of charging an EV. For the umpteenth time. We forget that even with a 275 mile range in winter, so the range is even cut by 60-65%, an average Joe commuting with his EV, will never have to stop at a charging station just daily driving his EV back and forth to work if he has a home charging unit... Modern EVs, Telsa EVs, SURPASS performance levels the way that guy made his argument, hands down with the daily driving aspect as a Tesla EV, or Bolt, has enough range to never have to charge on public roads...never has to detour and stop to "fill up". No time wasted...like at all... Some people just harp on charging times needlessly because it shant be a problem... But...just like the early Ford Model T adapters, cranking the engine by hand to start, fiddling around with bottles and funnels, taking out water from the radiator in the night because of freezing cold weather in the winter and adding water back into it in the morning, and then monitoring the water levels constantly, checking the water in the battery... You know, those early car adapters, well, they coped... Same with the EV guys. They cope with the different set of obstacles they have to face... If you are not capable, or willing to cope with the EV obstacles...its simple, dont buy an EV. But for many, especially in other parts of the world not named United States of America, they cope with it quite well...

That Golf R is one heck of a performer. Its got all the characteristics a car enthusiast craves for. A similar thing I see in Montreal, many 50 year old males drive Audi A3s.

I am about to say flawed logic to that as well... But before I do say it, I wanna know how many gasoline stations were around in the 1900s, then the 1910s, then the 1920s. (because obviously gasoline powered vehicles, especially affordable ones like the Model T, just exploded unto the scene by the 1920s...) Then, Id like to know how far apart were those gasoline stations. Again, each decade had growth. And that poster just mentions Model T territory, but obviously a 1908 Model T was different enough from a 1927 Model T and more to it than that, the automotive landscape had significantly changed from 1908 to 1927...his argument does not mention what decade of Model T. Because I bet you, especially in the early days, the gasoline stations were farther apart than the EV infrastructure is toady. But at what point in time did the early gasoline stations equal the EV infrastructure we have today in 2019 and at what point in time did it surpass it? Then Id like to know, how big of a gasoline tank the first Model Ts had, and then Id like to know how big of a gasoline tank the last gen Model T had. Then...Id like for us to make a REAL and honest calculation of what a Model T performance is like...according to its respective decade. Because it WAS different in the 1900s, in 1910, in 1920... Also..in the early days of motoring...there werent even real roads. The Model T was a true blue off roader. To which I also wanna know, those early Model T pioneers, or other gasoline powered vehicle owners, how far did they really need to drive? Because we all know, in the beginning of the automotive industry, there were no Clark Griswold, Chicago to Wolly World family truckster vacations...Route 66 came after WW2 I think... We could all summarize and come to a conclusion that fits our biased agendas...that doesnt mean our conclusions or our opinions are correct. https://driving.ca/auto-news/news/what-the-history-of-gas-stations-means-for-electric-cars from that link above: I also wanna know if that poster knew you had to play around to fill up the gas tank that way...did he calculate the time wasted fiddling around with bottles and funnels and mopping any spillages? Did he calculate the time needed for all the little nuances that the early cars required to get going? I bet not... So...the 36MPH for a certain vintage Model T may in fact be lower than that...

In Montreal, GTIs are still a young guy's fast and the furious dream. Many millennial boys and men drive these. There are even some car gals that drive them as well. And yes, I am talking about the current gen. And yes, there are car gals to speak of in Montreal. Kinda cool if you ask me. The new Civic Si also follows this same path. Toyobarus too.

What? They need a Corvette for that? I thought all they had to do was grab them by the...um...sugar wall? "You can't fight passion when passion is hot Temperatures rise inside my sugar walls Let me take you somewhere you've never beeeeeen I can show you things you've never seeeeeeeeeeeeen I can make you never want to faallll in love againnnnnn Come spend the night inside my sugar walls Take advantage, it's alright I feeel so alive when I'm with yououou Come and feel my presence, it's raining toniightt Heaven on earth inside my sugar walls Let me take you somewhere you've never beeeeeen I can show you things you've never seeeeeeeeeeeeen I can make you never want to faallll in love againnnnnn Come spend the night inside my sugar walls" THANK-YOU PRINCE!!!! AND LET US NOT FORGET ABOUT SHEENA!!!

I have a smartphone too. An ancient iPhone6. Im not some sort of nantzy panzy who doesnt realize the worth of tech. Smartphone tech at that. But...I also dont agree with your statement of putting it as "ancient times without smartphones" Ive had a cellphone since 1993. I was 20 years old. I use my smartphone in countless of ways. But I also found myself yearning for those "ancient times" to come back...only with the constant need to use our smartphone every second of the damned day. When I need to use the internet for whatever reason, to make a restaurant order, or whatever, yes, I could do it with my iPhone... I used to log unto my on my restaurant's security cameras with my iPhone to see what is going on at the store. All that constant need to be connected got me into a paranoia state of mind... Now...I just calmed myself the phoque down, breathe, and just use the internet when I can. ON MY OWN TERMS... And if that means being off the grid for 15 hours, 20 hours. 48 hours, so be it... I just use the internet the way we used to use the internet during the "ancient times" OK...sometimes Im on Youtube listening to music. OK...kinda like all the time when Im at home NOT watching TV or doing homework with my kids...But never when I drive. I dont use internet to listen to music when I drive or Im waiting in a doctor's office. I got enough music using early 2000s tech for that. I dont use CDs, but other storage devices NOT called the cloud...or Spotify... In fact, when Im waiting in a doctor's office, or dealership, or check-out line, or whatever, my smartphone, is tucked away in my pocket, like it was in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996...in other words, I simply use my phone as a phone, and if I do NOT want to be bothered, its off. Internet and all...all on my OWN terms But yeah...a life without internet is almost impossible today. Even for non-business usages. You can play your own DJ. Get sports scores instantly. And all that great instant information stuff...Yada yada yada.... But...I have found a happy medium to NOT be connected 24/7/365. And its such a nice feeling is alls Im saying.

All this talk about "wait until you can do this" or "you'll wonder how you have lived before smart phones that"... All that wonderin' and doin' with smart phones just makes you into a phone zombie... Its like crack cocaine or qualudes...sorry, Im still stuck in the 1980s...its like opioid drug abuse...(so you folk dont think Im stuck in the past) We get addicted to the fast, instant information that we require instant repsonse and no waiting times...like for anything... We will send a message to order something, then like spoiled bratty children, we look at our phones to see if the recieving party got the message and we want him/her to respond IMMEDIATELY and we continue looking at our phone to see if and when he/she will respond... And with all that, one could just have the patience to get to a regualr computer and process all their messages he/she wants and the reciever will recieve all the messages and he/she will process those messages and those answers will back answered when possible...and all will be done sent and recieved instantly because the medium used between a smart phone or a regualr computer like we did in the early 2000s BEFORE Smartphones is the same medium... If we sent the messgae 2 hours ago on our smartphone...but the dude on the recieveing end could not respond immediatley...but responds 3 hours after...what difference does it make if we did not have smart phones and we waitned those same two hours when we got to our regular computers? Now...having a smartphone on our persons is a GREAT invention...changed humanity even more than an internet computer did...and THAT is saying a lot... but...all it really did, is make us zombies and impatient and intolerant as a whole... So...count me out on the "wait until you see what you could do with a smartphone..." camp Because I actually DO the what the smartphone does...at MY OWN PACE WHEN I CAN WHILE NOT USING A SMART PHONE and it seems I HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO ENJOY MY SURROUNDINGS AT THE SAME TIME...UNLIKE SOME SMARTPHONE USERS!!! Im like that lone guy in the pic...

Im gonna be watching Stars Wars in the next 24-48 hours. In the memory of Peter Mayhew. R.I.P.

Wrong PHOQUING answer!!!

wrong answer... If you think its about you and Tesla... you are waaaaaaay off If you want answers from me, maybe you should start giving decent arguments. Not hidden agenda rhetoric. When I respond to you, answer back. Dont ignore. Acknowledge. If not. You'll get what you do. You downvote when you dont like something, or you use that laughy thing without answering to it. So, whenever I see something I dont like from you, Ill just downvote without explanation. I left for about two weeks. And its the same ole same ole trolling. We are all over 30 years of age. Some of us are well into our 40s. Some of us into our 50s. Can we just have INTELLIGENT conversation and let go of the petty, childish crap? We get it. You dont like Tesla... BIG PHOQUING DEAL!!! However, even at GM, cars are in the shop for 45 days...it happens sometimes... And in GM North America at that! What? We are sooooo wanting everything right now today? I sometimes have to wait 48 hours to get a phoquing oil change and tires changed at BOTH Acura and Ford... Tires and oil change... Without knowing what really was wrong with that ride sharing Tesla...we give our two bit hatred for Tesla just because a Chinese ride hailing company said Tesla gave shyte service. One glaring question I got for that Tesla ride sharing company is: What did YOU do to the car for it to be in the shop for 45 days? What did the driver do to it? How phoqued up was his driving for the Tesla to be in the shop? North Americans are not exactly awesome drivers...but Chinese drivers are notoriously bad... Its funny though, your hatred for Tesla IMMEDIATELY makes you blame Tesla. But as I, when I said I dont trust China and Trump...you downvote me. Because I mentioned Trump? Funny? You mention immigrants in an EV thread and you wanna pass that off as OK converstaion... Well... Hypocrite much?

definitely wrong answer...

Wrong answer...