CARBIZ

Okay, but what causes more damage: bad news or the prediction of bad news? Look at the run on the banks in England right now. So, a few mortgages have defaulted. Those banks who were about to show a bad 3rd quarter are now on the brink becaue the MEDIA has fanned the flames into a conflagration. The sheeple cannot see past the BS in the media ( and the fact they they will distort or outright fabricate news to sell their damned papers) and are now lining up to take their cash out of those banks. So GM was having a couple bad quarters back in 2005: how many people's buying decisions were altered toward Japan Inc. because so-called people in the know had written the General off? I can't stand the media more than I distrust Japan Inc. They blow everything out of proportion and I've witnessed the outright lies that that they perpetuate. So, you are saying that because Roger Smith and his cronies made some serious management and financial blunders in the '80s (that are still to some degree haunting Detroit's decisions to this day), GM should be written off because nothing they say can be trusted? It's the Chicken Little Syndrome that is sinking American/Canadian business everywhere. If you want to head for the exits and treat it as 'every man for himself,' that is your perogative. I am betting my mortgage that Wagoner & Lutz have a handle on things and despite having to put out several fires at once, are the right team at the right time. The 'truck bubble' is over and I think Detroit 'gets it.' GM-DAT and the Fiat mis-step were two attempts at making amends for decisions in the late '90s that were put off. I wonder, five years from now, which company will look more stupid: Toyota for spending a billion dollars in 2006 to open a truck plant just as the market tanked, or GM for letting Toyota test the waters (and fall on its face) with the early hybrids while GM waited in the wings getting the right product to market. The Volt has me excited. I would buy one. The Prius is an eye sore, and I can't wait until their batteries start polluting land fill sites everywhere.

This is why I am dead-set against 'multiple-store ownership,' especially when the owner team owns cross-brands. There is too much conflict of interest. Toyota has largely ridden on the coat tails of GM in North America because many cash-rich Chevy franchisees bought Toyota franchises when they were a song, then taught them how to sell and market vehicles in North America for FREE. Now that Toyota is on the way up, and GM on the way down, those same dealers could give a $h! because their (older) stores are paid for, probably sitting on real estate that is worth a fortune anyway, and their retirement fund is assured due to the monies rolling in from their Toyota/Honda franchises. Not exactly a business model for future success at GM, is it?

So, GM has two choices: sit back and let Toyota take all the limelight for being lucky enough to have the (almost) right car at the right time. Let's face it: without Katrina and all the insurgents in Iraq, oil would still be at $50 a barrel and Toyota would look pretty stupid now. Or, GM can come out swinging with a car they have commited to having to market in the next 2-3 years. It makes a certain degree of PR sense to build some momentum on this thing. I agree that GM has f$@d up a lot in the past, but things have definitely been on the mend since they brought Lutz on board. I, for one, am willing to give him some benefit of the doubt. If GM has licked this lithium-ion thing, they sure as hell won't be telling you and I about it. If they haven't, then I am optmistic that they learned something from the EV-1 program and have an ace up their sleeve. Getting all pissy about it accomplishes nothing. In two years, a lot can happen. TWO YEARS AGO, MOST PUNDITS HAD WRITTEN GM OFF AS BANKRUPT.

Sounds to me that someone's mommy had a '83 Citation and they still haven't gotten over it yet..... Frankly, if I had nothing to do in life, I suppose I could just haunt ToyotaNation and piss over everything everyone said there, but I admit I don't like Toyota and, therefore, can't be bothered even to listen to the mewling on that site. It would be too exhausting. I don't care if the Volt is here in 1st quarter '10 or first quarter '11. Just build it and get it right the first time. The fact that Toyota is cranking up its PR machine against the Volt is good enough for me.

BUT THE $64,000 QUESTION IS: When are Canadian car prices going to come down? We're still paying $65k for a Corvette coupe; $55k for a LTZ Silverado; $21k for a LT Cobalt. That's the same prices as 4 years ago when the $C was .67

Like I said in an earlier post, rather than taking the first job at a dealership that said yes, you should have done the interviewing back. It sounds to me like you've worked at the worst dealerships in New England. Otherwise, if that is representative of what happens in the U.S., I am glad to be a Canadian! There are two or three 'inexperienced' (read: old school) salespeople in our dealership right now, but they won't last. We've only had two real 'scumbag' sales people ever work here in the ten years I've been here and they were both fired. We have had lots of lazy, stupid and bi-polar sales people over the years, but none of them have last more than a year or so. It all depends on the management, which is why you should be doing some interviewing back. I do know of dealerships where the management thrives on creating tension and competition on the show room floor, but those dealers are also at the bottom of the satisfaction scores AND volume, not coincidentally. Apparent digression: I remember when I opened my first video store in 1985: I was a 24 year old kid with no experience at having my own business, but I did have access to a lot of money, and so when we signed a $25,000 franchise Agreement with National Video (that used to have 1,000 stores in the U.S. when Wayne Huizenga [blockbuster] was still organizing garbage trucks), I turned to my (17 year old) sister and said,"This reminds me of that old joke about not wanting to join a club that would allow anyone like me to join!" I should have heeded my own advice: National Video's subfranchisor in Canada went bankrupt 6 months later and I had basically pissed away $50 grand that I had wasted on that store that I could have put to better use. The moral of the story: the fact that they would take me showed how desperate they were. I kind of realized that then, and I guess I did show them, because I ran my (two) stores for 11 years AFTER National Video ceased to exist. You can be successful at whatever you put your mind to. Sometimes that may mean just outlasting the fools that hired you; other times it means outsmarting the burnt out, jaded customers who have been abused at other places.

And I'm going to Vegas and L.A. in two weeks!!!! Last time I was in the U.S., I cashed in $1,000 Can. and got back $650! This time it will be par.!!!

For the record, Toyota is the LAST with innovations that other manufacturers jump on. I was hit by a stupid woman in a '01 Corolla who tried to start her POS while it was in gear. She pinned me between her car and another. After I finished limping around, swearing every word under the sun, I berated her for driving a Toyota in the first place: the Cavalier for years had the clutch lock out on the starter. So, if it is a mechanical flaw that is causing this problem (and not the fact that the average IQ of a Toyota driver is somewhere between a canal horse and an eggplant), it is probably for lack of a $5 switch.

Keep it up, SixtyEight, you're on a role insulting just about everyone that has a job that you couldn't succeed in............ You don't have to be a jerk to sell cars, just know how to read the customer and figure out how much honesty they can handle.

Not since Buickman have I heard such naysaying. It reminds me of Monty Python's Argument Clinic. Here, let me try an experiment.....GM builds quality vehicles, representing solid values in each of their target markets.........................

Religious control of marriage is all about subjugating women and children in a time when men ruled the roost and women were nothing more than chattel. Remember: the Bible, Koran, Torah - whatever your flavor, were written BY old white men FOR old white men. But the biggest over-riding factor in all of this is the fact that it is no longer necessary to be MARRIED by the age of 14, have six kids by the age of 20 because we are going to be DEAD by the age of 30. MOst of the problems in the world today are directly derived from the fact that in nearly all 'Third World Countries,' their religious leaders and governments have not come to grips with this fact. You don't need to have 10 kids because 7 will die before the age of 5. Since we in the West have so graciously brought modern medicine to those countries, we have indirectly allowed a whole new batch of problems to fester. Most Western countries are pushing EIGHTY as the AVERAGE life expectancy. What fifteen year old (or even 25 year old) is fully capable of making decisions that are going to effect the next 60-70 years of their life? When I look at the person I was 25 years ago - what my priorities were, my hopes, my dreams, and I look at where I am today, would I want myself bound 'til death do us part' by a decision that I made one horny night 25 years ago? This is the rub of the matter. We are going to enter into a 'social contract', IMO, over the next twenty or thirty years. We can laugh or cry at the idea, but many so-called 'marriages' break up because they stay together for the kids, but when the kids are gone the spouses look across the table breakfast table at a stranger. If polygamous relationships are what works for a group of people, who are all on equal terms, then so be it. I know of two gay couples who had a third live with them for 3 or 4 years in a symbiotic relationship and it did not seem to strain or effect anyone. Jealousy basically goes back to the concept of 'ownership' and the biblical concept of gluttony and greed. So whether Churches (of Mosques) want to admit it or not, marriage is basically dead. Educated, liberated women do not want to stay at home and cook any more - why else is Islam fighting women's liberation with every ounce of its being? They don't want to go down the path of 'decadence' and 'decay' that they believe the West has. The sooner we as a society figure out how to deal with this new reality, the better off we will all be. Gay marriage is the LEAST of our problems.

Well, it's going to get ridiculous where a couple from Canada who are LEGALLY married move to Maryland and suddenly their marriage is not recognized? I personally could care less, (my partner and I have been together 5 1/2 years and don't need a piece of paper to keep us together), but eventually it's going to get silly as some states allow gay marriage and others don't. Either a law is a law everywhere in an enlightened society, or anachy will result. Already large chunks of the population abuse laws because there are so many asinine, unfair or generally unenforceable laws on the books.

Yeah, but since it is below zero most of the time up here, it isn't hot wearing a ski mask most of the year - which is what you would have to do SO AS NOT TO DIE OF EMBARASSMENT FOR BEING CAUGHT DEAD IN ONE OF THESE RIDICULOUS LOOKING VEHICLES.

"It also said the state has a legitimate interest in promoting opposite-sex marriage" Yeah, like having babies is going out of style! What are there - 300 million Americans and climbing? Still, since marriage doesn't seem to be working for you guys, why would it work for us?

I thought this was a problem with earlier production units and it was fixed. It has recurred again?

When I was in grade 8, our class gained a reputation throughout the public school board. We actually had a French substitute teacher run crying from the class. I later heard that she quit teaching. I am ashamed to say I was one of the ringleaders. Since I was a grade A student (and often) the teacher's pet, none of the faculty ever suspected me of being involved in the daily tortures of our teachers. We had a perfect combination of bratty (rich) kids, a school system that was starting to succumb to its own liberal (failing) ideals, and a handful of class clowns who would egg each other on. The few good kids in the class would under no circumstances rat the rest of us out! The stuff we got away with, included actually destroying one of those 'portable' class rooms that had been installed at the back of the school because a teacher didn't show up for class. Even the girls used to help out: we shoved one skinny girl, whom we affectionately referred to as 'dog' through a window to break into the aforementioned portable, so about 10 of us could trash it. I am surprised I did not end up in jail at some point. I know why I was acting up (I was gay and rebelling), but I can't explain why the other kids were such monsters.

I cannot believe 130 postings over a minivan interior! You guys HATE minivans anyway, so all of your opinions are suspect.

If that is the case, I am doomed! My Brazilian BF can't stand anything bigger than a Cobalt. If you've ever been to Brazil, you'd understand why. Recently, while we were walking the dog, I spotted a '64 Caddy convertible in pristine shape. While I was pacing around the car, creaming in my jeans, the BF looked from afar in horror. He jokingly referred to 'divorce' if I ever bought a car like that.

Nothing beats 0% financing. If you take $30k cash (remember: there is no such thing as cash - it should be working for you, not just sitting under a mattress) and reinvest it at 4% or so, you will make $4k or so in 5 years, thus saving another few grand off your purchase. Since the manufacturers are no longer offering 'cash rebates' up here (thanks to the government plugging a loophole a couple years ago) there is no incentive to paying CASH. Yes, payments are a bother, but most rich investors made millions on the 'spread' of investments. Even a lowly $20k can make you back a goodly chunk of cash. Let the manufacturer's money work for you. So what if you have to have $450 available in the bank at a certain time every month. I never understand why anyone would want to pay cash for such a large (and bad) investment as a vehicle. I could have paid cash for my Optra 5, but with 0% for 72 months, why would I?

If the engine could just be 'dropped' in the bay, it would have been done a long time ago. I am sure some money had to spent for testing, reinforcing engine mounts, etc. I mean, how many SS Silverados did GM sell? It's all fine and great to pander to the enthusiasts, but there has to be a business model for it, which is why there are no 5 spd manual Malibus or Impalas - nobody wants them, really. I would sooner GM have spent the money appeasing the whiners about the 'cheap' interior plastics and chintzy seat fabric, then throw in an engine that MAYBE will sell 2%? 4%?

So when are you buying one?

The Quest is the best looking van from the OUTSIDE, IMO. I never said I liked the interior. Chrysler knows how to build a decent interior: the T&C is a very nice interior to live in. However, 80% of their sales will NOT be the T&C with the Nav system, but will be the much crappier base unit. How many people's impressions of the Dodge minivans will be made when they rent the el-cheapo one at the airport? This is where Chrysler is making a mistake: by offering such a base unit that many bad impressions will be based on. For better or worse, the Uplander only offers one interior, with only the cloth/leather or leather upgrades available on the seats. Mercifully, GM dropped the gawdawful "valu van' vinyls seats that were available in the Venture. The look and ride of the current Uplander is actually quite nice; however, the seating arrangement in the back is a joke - even a step back from the Venture. I've had many Venture customers balk at the new seats. GM sacrificed leg room and utility for extra padding and feel. However, having said that, I have also had a lot of customers comment that the interior of the (2007) base Caravan is uglier than sin and bought the Uplander as a result. I'll have to trundle next door and look at the '08 Caravan and see what I think in real life.

He's in Canada: we don't have 'Red Tag Sales.' If he is buying, the clearance on the '07s is as good as it gets. Xmas is usually a better time to lease because the residuals are still higher, but the deals are as good as they get right now.

What's good for the gander is good for the gander?

Chock up another victory under the category of Tyranny of the Enthusiasts. At $4 a gallon, I am sure this will be a big seller. The development money would have been better spent on gussying up the interior.