oldshurst442

Interesting indeed. Nobody defending these upcharges are calling these tactics as "fair market". The people are saying, me especially, that this kind of practice is good 'ole fashioned capitalism. (Said with Jackie Gleeson's Sheriff Buford T. Justice's voice) Nobody said its fair market. Its FREE MARKET ECONOMY. ] NOBODY wants to pay more than he/she needs to. EVERYONE looks at the bottom line and wants to pay as less as they have to. ESPECIALLY when its blatant price gouging. Why? This is from your link "The Dealer shall avoid in every way any 'bait,' deceptive, misleading, confusing or illegal advertising or business practices," the letter said. Because some dealerships HAVE been deceptive and misleading and confusing.... From your link again. Examples of these negative interactions include demanding that customers who are already on the reservation list for the 2022 model year F-150 Lightning make additional deposits or payments, the letter said. "These actions are perceived as threatening customers by withholding their opportunity to convert reservations to orders," the letter said. "This behavior is not allowable ..." "If it is determined that your dealership is engaging in such practices, Ford Motor Company reserves the right to redirect that dealerships allocation of the F-150 Lightning" for all of model year 2022, the letter said. HOWEVER...like as with the Ford GT...FoMoCo will prevent the CONSUMER to make money off of the F150 Lightning. As in, if you think dealerships should not make unGodly amounts of money on a hot item, how do YOU feel when business savvy consumers make money off of the dealerships? Ford provided language that explicitly requires the buyer to agree not to sell, offer to sell or transfer any ownership interest in the Lightning within one year of purchase. If the buyer sells the vehicle within one year, they may face court action that includes blocking transfer of the car title. But I read NOTHING on FoMoCo's stance on market adjusted pricing... Meaning, FoMoCo, if the price on the F150 Lightning is CLEARLY marked and stated and AGREED upon by BOTH the seller and the buyer, there is NO problem. IF the Buyer agreed upon 1 price, the dealer can NOT hike the price up again, but if the price was hiked up and clearly stated as such and before any agreement, then its FAIR game... It may not be FAIR market, but its FAIR game because it is a FREE market economy

Yeah...like duh! I didnt realize myself... The ITALIAN Job... DUH! Im afraid to ask about you not wanting to swim in the oceans and the seas. Oddly enough, I dont like swimming in lakes. I dont like the muddy, murkiness nature of lake water. or at least the lakes that I have swam in Quebec. At least in those particular lakes anyhow. Believe it or not, I get creeped out from lakes. Nothing to get creeped out with, especially when compared to the oceans. Sharks and jellyfish and all kinds of fish that can and will kill a human. That does NOT creep me out. But safe, lake water scares me. Something aint right with my head me thinks...

I made a mistake. I said that Donald Sutherland was from Montreal. He is not. He was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. I do not know why I thought he was a Montreal native. Possibly because he frequented Montreal often in the 1980s? Maybe he was a resident of Montreal then? USDM FTR!!! I love the fact that they race Dodge vans in Japan and these vans are called...Dajibans. I just LOVE that word too. Dajiban. Dodge van. Daji ban. Wax on, wax off, Daniel-son.

My dad's dad, my granddaddy, came from Zakynthos. My grandma from Ithaca. My mom's side, everybody came from Kephalonia. The 7 islands of the Ionian. Kephalonia being the largest of the 7. Ithaca and Zakynthos being within swimming distance of Kephalonia. About that movie. The remake of The Italian Job in 2003 starring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Seth Green, Edward Norton, and Montreal's own and superstar Donald Sutherland. And @Robert Hall beat me to it!!! Kudos to you Robert!!!

Dont know about Finland and Sweden were most classic American cars end up going to, but I could tell you about Greece. The roads on the islands, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, were skinny donkey trails snaking up and down mountains. There were some that were paved then, but most were not. Eventually all were paved and enlargened. But please dont think that today these former donkey trails are interstate highways with 4 lanes going and 4 lanes coming... Tourists busses and Mercedes Sprint truck hotel passenger vehicles go up and down these roads with ease nowadays and that is with sharing the roads with rented cars from tourists and the local yokels. But there is quite the difference with muscle cars and land yachts with these modern busses and Sprinter vans. The turning radius of these Sprinter vans and Volvo and Mercedes busses are just incredible. Its a great thing to see how tight these things turn. And its needed... American busses need a lesson from their European counterparts in that regard. But maybe our busses dont need to turn that tight. Lets not also forget that American cars of that era didnt really handle any kinds of twisties. They wallowed and dipped and dived. But then again, these cars were designed to go fast in a straight line and ride in comfort on our straight, long highways. I dont know how clear the idea it because looking at these pictures below to see how tight those roads are That is a vigil. A person died there going off the road. There are plenty of these vigils. Id say hundreds of them if not thousands in totality in all of Greece... Yes, drunken young adults going too fast for the most part in motorcycles, but adding classic American muscle cars to that mix and things get worse, not better. And lets talk about Athens... A typical Athenian street in an old area. Modern, new areas of the city are more or less engineered to accommodate cars, but that above photo depicts how impossible it is to have a whole population driving big American cars of the 1960s and 1970s...

Im glad that American Muscle is being enjoyed outside North America!

pleasantly generic, but also hopelessly forgettable is what I could also agree to. I will also agree that it does not have any Mopar cues on it, which is a shame. It does however have modern French styling and it will probably do well in Europe. Hopefully it can do well here in North America too.

My wife cuts the little hair I have left. Yaah...with a Wahl clipper as well. No hot shaving cream either. One word. Lacordaire. And yeah...the barbershop was between Lacordaire and Langelier. LOL. You most definitely passed by it if you say "and beyond". "Too Guido!" LOL There is like 20 boroughs within the city of Montreal... I forget what legal entities that entails though since I dont live on the Island anymore. Sometime in the 2000s, these 20 boroughs merged with the city of Montreal. Before, these boroughs were separate cities withith the city of Montreal on the Island of Montreal. I dont remember how the civil responsibilities are administered since the merger. Responsibilities such as snow removal and garbage collection and the like.

Once upon a time ago, when I had hair and was a young adult, I too, got my haircuts from a family business that happened to be a bunch of older, crusty but funny Italian guys. Right in the middle of Saint Leonard. On Jean-Talon street. A borough of Montreal on the island. Saint Leonard in the '70s was Montreal's Italian mafia headquarters. Never occurred to me then, that these guys might have clipped some mafiosos back in the day. And yes, I do mean clipped with a double entendre.... But I do miss the hot shaving cream and straight blade when they shaved my neck hairs and that cologne they would dab on me after.

If Im to be answering SMK's question about what General Motors SUV/CUV and pick up trucks are capable off roading vehicles, Id be saying that historically, General Motors hasnt really engineered segment busting off roading vehicles. For the military, yes. And currently they have a huge military contract to supply troop vehicles for the military that seem to have awesome off roading chops. Colorado pick-up truck based. And they are working on a Silverado truck based model too. And most radically speaking, these will also be battery electric. But to return to the question, nothing in history that GM has made over the years that captures awards for off roading quite as often as a Jeep. There were a handful over the years though. But currently nothing in the civilian market. But does it matter that GM has no Wrangler or Bronco competitor? Ill repeat, GM hasnt quite offered a Wrangler competitor in its history... The K5 Blazer was a response to the original Bronco which was a response to the Wrangler, but the K5 Blazer was fullsized. The Bronco failed in the market place and Ford went with a full sized Bronco thereafter to compete with the fullsized Blazer. The small Blazer/GMC Jimmy was a competitor to the Jeep Cherokee. To which Ford introduced the Bronco II to compete with both the Jeep and the GM twins to which later became the Explorer. But nothing serious offroading for GM. Those became lukewarm soccer mom SUVs later on and then transformed into full time soccer mom SUVs because the public decided for them to become that. Same with Ford's SUVs. In the 2000s, with the rights to Hummer, GM came close to offering a real Wrangler competitor, but we all know what happened with that... Ill repeat, did GM miss out on anything? Not really. The Nissan Pathfinder, which was Nissan's answer to the Hilux based 4Runner, which was a capable off roader became a soccer mom CUV. Nissan introduced the Xterra to compensate for the Pathfinder's new found vocation with the soccer moms but soccer moms also bought the XTERRA so Nissan ended up nixing it. Toyota brought back the FJ Cruiser. A little bit bigger than the original. Which was a reversed engineered military Jeep... But the FJ Cruiser failed in the market place. It was an awesome off roader, but it failed in the market place... GM did own Suzuki, and Suzuki did build decent off roader SUVs. Yeah, they were of the small variety, they were cool little off roaders, but, those little off roaders never really became anything big here in North America. Proving my point that GM, then and now, havent really missed out on anything. We could talk about Subarus, but we could also talk about AMC Eagles as well. Offroading Subaru Outbacks are as popular as those AMC Eagles were. Outbacks and the other AWD Subaru CUVs are just being driven by folk that supposedly need AWD to drive on the wintery snow to get to their Costco destination. The only thing GM shoulda made was a competitor to the Raptor. It should not have waited for Dodge to build the TRX... Ill answer the other question tho before SMK does. Im surprised that he did answer it without mentioning the G500... (Yeah, he answered as I was typing and before I got my post in) Even though 99.9% of G500 buyers dont take their rides off road, the G500 is a purpose built, military troop transport especially made for off roading. If Im not mistaken, its a more rugged, better performing off roading machine than the Wrangler is. Im surprised SMK didnt proudly tell us that....

The LED screen is not curved...

And there is another choice: the choice to NOT to buy if the consumer deems the price is too high or not worth it... Also, there is a choice to buy used to weather out a market adjusted price storm... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market In economics, a free market is a system in which the prices for goods and services are self-regulated by buyers and sellers negotiating in an open market. In a free market, the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government or other authority, and from all forms of economic privilege, monopolies and artificial scarcities.[1] Proponents of the concept of free market contrast it with a regulated market in which a government intervenes in supply and demand through various methods such as tariffs used to restrict trade and to protect the local economy. In an idealized free-market economy, also called a liberal market economy, prices for goods and services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand and are allowed to reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by government policy. https://study.com/academy/lesson/capitalism-and-the-free-market.html Capitalism and the Free Market Meet Tanya, the founder of a small tech company in the United States. She recently formed her company to design and build a smart watch, which is a miniature computer tablet that you can wear on your wrist. She dreams of making piles of money, which is one of the rewards of success in free market capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system that is organized around the principles of private property, freedom of exchange, competitive markets and limited government intervention. An economic system is simply a way that society structures how economic decisions will be made and resources will be allocated. Now, let's take a closer look at what a capitalistic system entails. Most property in a capitalistic economy is private. This means that individuals, instead of the government, own the factors of production. Factors of production are the things that we use to make goods and services and include land, labor and capital. You also get to keep the profits from your economic activities. Since you get to keep what you earn, this tends to encourage risk-taking and innovation. If Tanya didn't have the right to the profits generated from sales of her smart watches, she may not bother to invest time, energy or money to take the risk and innovate. A second important feature of capitalism is freedom of exchange. An exchange is simply trading one resource for another. Nobody can force Tanya to sell her company. Moreover, nobody can be forced to buy Tanya's smart watches. And Tanya cannot force anyone to work for her. Instead, everybody in a capitalistic economy has the right to engage in exchanges or not engage in exchanges. People make exchanges according to their self-interest. If the deal isn't worth it to one of the parties, then the deal won't go through. In other words, if a potential customer doesn't think Tanya's smart watch is worth the price, he will not exchange money for it. The third primary feature of capitalism is competitive markets. A market is a place where buyers and sellers come together to engage in economic exchanges. A perfectly competitive market is characterized by a large number of sellers that offer identical products for sale and everybody has information that they need to make a rational decision regarding a potential exchange. If all products are the same, businesses must compete on price. Perfectly competitive markets seldom exist. Most markets are competitive markets and are characterized by a large number of businesses selling similar products with all participants having pretty good information. For example, Tanya isn't the only, or the largest, company coming up with smart watches. Limited government intervention in the economy is also a major characteristic of capitalism. This type of competitive market is often referred to as a free market. The government generally does not set the prices of goods or services - the market sets the price. And the government's regulatory role is pretty much limited to ensuring that there is a level and fair playing field. In other words, the government sets up the rules, so that no one has an unfair advantage in the market.

The fact that dealerships are businesses and in a free market system, there is no cap on how much money and profit could be made and it seems to me that you wanna whine for nothing. Are you denying the right for a dealership to make money? Even if its hand over fist profits, we live in a system where we do not put a cap on profit. Wouldnt be 'Merican if we did. Would be communism if we did... Also...in a free market system, NOBODY forces a consumer to buy anything either... Unless we are stuck with a monopoly but those are illegal in a free market system. Also, price fixing is also illegal so unless you and David could prove that ALL dealerships work together to price gouge its customers, you are shyte out of luck with whatever you wanna whine about. And I think, that some of those price hikes are warranted. Certain expenses that the dealerships had to deal with have skyrocketed. And unless you know what the dealerships have to go through to make it through the month, you and David cant cry about market adjusted pricing on cars. There is only one thing you and David could do. And its your God given right (if you believe in such an entity) as an American (OK...its in the Constitution rather than God giving you this right) to choose NOT to buy a new car at this moment in time. So do not buy a new car and pay no market adjusted price hike... and if all Amercians do that, maybe market adjusted price hikes cease? But if there is one willing red blooded American to pay such a thing, then guess what? Then whatever vehicle is bought at whatever market adjusted price it was bought at, then THAT is what THAT car is worth and its THAT new price that what THAT car's new market value is... Dont be pissed at the dealership, be pissed at whoever is paying these prices. Its quite simple... There is no need to crack down on anything. Free market system... Simple supply and demand. The fundamentals of capitalism.

Well...not exactly. In advertisements, usually and mostly, dealerships will showcase the least expensive model with the least expensive monthly payments to entice you to enter their dealerships. Its usually the base model with a lease option with the most favorable (the lowest possible) amount of money per month. And again... *PHOQUING SIGH* M SUGGESTED R P does NOT mean its a SOLID price cemented in cement drawn up with blood that the OEM will FORCE upon the dealership to sell the car. Its SUGGESTED. Its a PRIVATE phoquing business.... An owner of a PRIVATE business has the RIGHT to sell its products at whatever price HE/SHE wants...and deems necessary to make...you know...MONEY. We DO live in a country that practices the free market system, do we not? Its up to the CONSUMER to decide for HIMSELF if its WORTH IT! You know, we have the PHOQUING FREEDOM to NOT buy... You could call it grand larceny if you want to. Does NOT make it so. Bait and switch is NOT what you have described. Bait and switch and a whole 'nother ball game. THIS is bait and switch: Like I said above, the ad in the newspaper is of a base model with the least expensive options and monthly payments to entice you to enter the dealership. There is fine print at the bottom of the ad, LEGAL fine print that a consumer NEEDS to read and THAT protects the dealership from ANY hurt feelings like how you express just in case there is litigation... And in that fine print explains ALL that there is to know about how the pricing will probably be if you want to buy a more elaborate model... Abusing? maybe... But YOU also do NOT know what expenses the dealerships have incurred because of this covid mess and chip shortage and shipping lane bottle necks and whatever other shyte thta has happened since covid hit. I know. I own a business. Certain things have skyrocketed and I also had to market adjust certain items on my menu. There ARE options out there to weather out the expensive sticker prices of new cars. There is no need to buy a NEW car right about now. One could exercise their right to buy a used car. Although those are crazy high too, still cheaper a option than buying a crazy market price hike. The price hike itself just about costs as much as a used car... So yeah...

And that thread and similar videos like in that thread was what I was referring to. And I didnt know that Hyundai recalled that many for engine failures/fires. Thanx for the info.

Tesla delivered nearly 1 million cars in 2021. They also recalled nearly half-a-million due to some major safety flubs regarding cameras and their sensors of their Model 3 and S that, over time due to wear and tear, the cables of the camera harness might damage over time and hinder the functionality of, causing accidents. As we know, electronics today play a wildly huge percentage of our accident avoidance awareness and that seems like an expensive fix for Tesla, due to the fact that there is a chip shortage and all. Wires and cables and chips involved in this recall. 500 000 cars... They have a hard time producing these things to begin with, now they are laced with repairing half-a-million of them ON TOP of trying to produce the same amount cars sold... Ive said this before in this thread. Tesla is mostly Tesla's biggest threat for survival... The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is just about Tesla Model Y money. Just about the same size too, Im guessing. Dont really care too much for either vehicle so Im not about to compare their sizes. But no matter how shytty I think Hyundai is, I think its safe to say that Hyundai has got its shyte together well enough NOT to be recalling half-a-million EV vehicles barely a decade in from now... Besides, Hyundai CAN mass produce more efficiently and more quickly than Tesla can. Even though Hyundai was utter garbage JUST 15 years ago. The rabid-ness of these Tesla fanbois might just wane off when others start producing better EVs? GM had the same rabid-ness going for them. It disappeared faster for GM for less shyte it seems...

There goes another transport vehicle manufacturer for the masses that will cease, immediately mind you-how immediate? December 23rd of last year >HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL, BTW!!!<...their development of new internal combustion engines to concentrate their time and money on electric motorvation. Way of the future is what they, and the others that stopped their ICE development call it. I know you guys could read, you guys didnt need me to re-hash the OP, but I wanted to repeat the message. Stoppage of new development does not mean stoppage of production, however. That means that if consumers dont buy into EVs, there will always be an option to buy an ICE because production hasnt ceased... But...since development of new internal combustion will cease to evolve and remain with early 2020s tech, and electricals WILL evolve and revolve and be improved and innovated, and by the time 2035 rolls around, electricals will be sooooo THAT much more ahead with improvements made from just about the entirety of the industry, improving and copying and innovating and improving and copying and innovating from all the manufactures EV development, I personally dont think the masses will care too much about IC engines come 2035... Another point I wanna make: Generations, as in the newer generation of consumer... the Gen Y, Gen Z and whatever Gen will succeed the Z Gen, these consumers, dont really give a shyte about engine noises and gasoline fumes. These guys, these guys are already used to batteries and battery levels and chargers and most importantly, cordless charging and streaming and all that. All the phobias us old fogeys fear about electricals, these guys dont have ANY of that B.S. Boomers? These guys by the time 2035 rolls around, the older of these guys will already have 1 foot in their grave. The younger of these guys, well, some of these guys were muscle car hatin' hippies anyway. Some of these guys LOVE their V8 muscle cars...but...by the time 2035 rolls around, there wont BE any V8 muscle cars to buy. Oh...they COULD continue to hang on to their Hellcats, but either these Hellcats will be trash or they will be garage queens. You wont be seeing Hellcats on the roads too much. Gen Xers? These guys are into SUVs and CUVs mostly today. And if they arent, they are used to shytty 4 cyclinder cars when they were teenagers, even shyttier turbo 4s while they were family men. Their Gen X wives? Soccer mom SUVs and CUVs is what they gobble up as their main transport pods. Meaning...Boomers and Gen Xers, the MAIN voice of EV denial will NOT be a relevant factor in the deciding force of whether EVs will succeed in the market place or not. Price? That Hyundai Ioniq 5 that is pictured above is 50 000 dollars plus Canadian. Yeah...a tad on the expensive side. But its also well equipped and has features that beef up the price to be that high. Features that have been brainwashed in our heads that we need when we dont need. Blame the boomers who eventually became yuppies and their Gen X counterparts that have been spoiled rotten for these kinds of useless gimmicky tech in our vehicles. Granted, most of that useless tech is also offered in less expensive ICE cars...but the message here is that EVs do NOT NEED to be THAT expensive. Those high prices are not entirely because of EV tech being expensive to produce and manufacture... What DID I wanna say at the end of the day? I dont know really. I just wanted to get that of my chest. Again, what is it that I wanted to get off my chest? Dont really know. But it is one view on how Im thinking about our EV future.

These past few days hadnt been kind to my free time. Alright... about the Colonnades in general. I prefer the first Colonnades over the later year models across all brands. I do like the fact that the later year models had T-Top options. I love T-Tops. My favorite Colonnades. The first car posted being the most liked and in descending order after that. '73 Cutlass Hurst 455 '73 Grand Am 455 And yeah, the Monte Carlo actually makes the list at #3, but like the other two above, its a '73. I prefer the single round headlight front end rather than the square, stacked headlight front end of the MC's later years. I do have to tell you that the Colonnades are not my favorite style of '70s car though. The F-Body comes first. And then the full sized cars (coupes or sedans) from GM both pre-downsized and downsized full sized before anything Colonnade. Mind you, I wouldnt mind a nice restomod Cultass or Grand Am with a mild 300-400 horsepower and equal torque LS swap to daily drive. But I wouldnt dump too much money into one either. Id reserve stupid money re-builds to restomod its predecessor. The A-Body from '68-'72. Or even '64-'67.

Just doing what I do best! In all honesty though. The EMF thing was kind of a mistake post. I really did think it was EMF that sang Tubthumping and when I youtubed searched EMF for the song, I quickly realized that I done goofed with the connection I wanted to make. So I course corrected and came up with the rest of the joke. The really funnny thing is that when I realized I had forgotten and mixed up the groups, the Antonio Banderas reaction gif was EXACTLY how I reacted. So it all fit perfectly...

The bolded part... Whatever anybody does, do NOT highlight, right click and perform a google search if the wife is around. Things might get weird really really quick. Questions WILL be asked...

I find it appealing to have Buick name one of their EVs as Electra. It is a name from their past so its a no brainer for them to use it. But...many folk dont even know its a former Buick name of the past so maybe using Electra could be seen as cliché, tacky and cheesy. Maybe folk that KNOW its a Buick name of the past will also think its cliché, tacky and cheesy. Like it was pointed out though by @Robert Hall, Electra fits Buick's current (yes, pun intended!!!) naming scheme. Buick could make it work if they hired this lovely and very sexy lady to peddle it. Just replace the tri-star logo in the background with the tri-shield and voila! A marketing campaign has been born!!! @balthazar asked what other names we could we dream up of for EV Buicks. I got one! As with Electra, and its related to the Electra, its a Buick name of the past. And as Robert mentioned, put the Ultra tag on it for EV if you wanna!!! With a twist though. Park (Electric) Avenue. The Avenue Avenir Ultra for the really really upscale EV from Buick. Call up Eddy to have the rights to the music and voila! Marketing campaign #2! And Im not joking. Im serious. The Buick Avenue has a nice ring to it for an urban sized EV CUV. For a less serious take. If Buick was to go alphanumeric on us...I think a Buick EMF would rock it! EMF for Electromotive Force and also know as English Motherphoquer! Now wouldnt THAT kick ass???!!! Get the rights to EMF's I get knocked down but I get up again and it could be Buick's battle cry in making a comeback! How can the song NOT bring back Buick from the dead???!!! Lyrics like "Pissing the night away" is almost CERTAIN to hit consumers in the heart with feelz!!! 'Xcept the song is not from EMF... They sang "You're Unbelievable" Oh well, I didnt say I was a marketing genius...

Yeah... Not a good look for Buick... What Im looking at, and find it REALLY interesting: Cadillac, Sept 2021 : $81.9K Mercedes, Sept 2021 : $75.3K I think Cadillac should stop being timid and should start producing and selling today's equivalents of some of those high end concepts we got from them the last 20 years. The hand built, built to order, boutique level Escala halo EV that is about to be launched in the next 2 years is a great way to prove that Cadillac is on its way in re-capturing what they had lost the last 20-40 years. And they shouldnt be afraid to delve into that 1%er luxury market often with limited production run halo EVs. Dream machines is what Cadillac should be offering the public. Run of the mill, down market stuff should be relegated to Chevrolet and Buick...or...Mercedes. Hey, its not as if Mercedes hasnt been on that down-market road in the North American market for the last 20-30 years.