CARBIZ

Congratulations! You found one GM vehicle that the hp rating dropped. YOu must have a good memory. On the other hand, more than a dozen Lexus and Toyota models dropped - some by more than 20 hp. That's more than a coincidence and more than an accident. Nearly all of Ford's and GM's numbers stayed the same or even went UP.

Sorry, but it's grossly unreasonable to expect a 15 year old vehicle to be pristine. Seriously. Unless the vehicle was undercoated, hand waxed a couple times a year and washed frequently, there is just no way. Or parked inside and never driven! Nobody - not Mercedes, not BMW, nobody warrants their sheet metal beyond 6 or 8 years. In the north-eastern States, Ontario and Quebec it is worse, due to our damp winters and the tons of salt the municipalities dump on the roads. The Aerostars I've seen around here had serious rust issues almost from the outset.

I dunno, my father's '69 Chrysler 300 had the words THREE HUNDRED actually spelled out on the rear fender. I've always found that kind of classy. Some of the early '60s and late '50's vehicles had stylize writing on the vehicles. Some vehicles pull it off more tastefully than others. I don't think car logos/tags are any worse than people who run around wearing T-shirts or ball caps with company logos on them. I guess it depends on whether you are proud of the vehicle you bought, or bought it because it was all you could afford.

They were plastic-bodied, so they better not rust! Rust is a big problem here, but I've always found that Chrysler bodies hold up pretty well. We still see alot of old K-cars, Caravelles and vans from the '80s that are holding up okay. I even see some of those old New Yorker RWD beasties around.

And the Mercruiser guys who don't want to get stuck in the middle of Lake Michigan with a overly complicated Honda outboard...

But the REAL danger here is that those proponents of CHOICE will, ironically, end up losing their choices. Try buying an American TV. Can't. Japan Inc. saw to that. Sears (the powerhouse of the '60s) helped drum out all the American companies by demanding lower and lower prices from its American suppliers, who in turn could not compete with the Japanese manufacturers. I tried to buy a North American made air conditioner recently. I went to all the major retailers up here: The Bay, Future Shop, Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart - they all carried units Made in China. It does not take a rocket scientist to see where this will end up. Inevitably, Carrier and others will go under. Did I mention I just threw out my father's 35 year old Chrysler AirTemp? I can just tell that this $220 Chinese made crap will be lucky to last me 5 years. WHERE IS THE SAVINGS IN THAT?

Time is money, my friend. The last thing I want to do is burn $5 in gas making two trips to the auto parts store, fighting traffic both ways - twice. If you "enjoy" working on your car and know what you are doing, then great for you. Most people cannot open the hood. Sad, but true.

And a Bentley would go for even more, I am sure............................

Keep in mind that Toyota/Honda, etc. are the "new kids on the block," and as such were able to train a whole new set of customers to service the vehicles "their" way. The Big Three never had that luxury. Having grown up with the good 'ol boys, if you'd told my father in the '70s that he could not do his own oil changes, he would have told the dealer to F-off. The imports had a clean slate, and trained their customers differently. Fast-forward 30 years when opening the hood of an average car is a daunting experience, and the imports are already set up for it. Forensic accounting being what it is, and the power of new tracking software at the manfacturer's level makes a good argument for dealer servicing; however, I would warrant that the percentage of new domestic owners who service at their dealer is lower than for the imports. Our Toyota store gets to fix a lot of issues that the owner never even knows about when he drops by 4 times a year.

The Fusion in the pics shown before looks pretty awful, I agree. I had a rental Fusion with the graphite interior, and based on the look of the interior alone, I would buy it. The materials, fit and finish, the luxury look of the dark grey (black?) was definitely above average. HOWEVER, (and this is a big however), the 4 cylinder was noisy and clunky. I have not driven an Accord in a while, but the base Fusion's ride and power is not going to cause GM engineers any loss of sleep. We all know that the interior of the Malibu (except maybe the SS) is the weakest of this group, but then it has been around for 4 years. Having lived with the Malibus off and one for 5 or 6 years, I gotta say that the package works well, especially when you live with one. The real world gas mileage of both the 4 and 6 cylinders is simply stellar - and I drive hard. First impressions may be a different matter, and seems how superficiality seems to win the day, I am looking forward to the new Malibu in the Fall.

I don't know if the rules in Toronto are universal for all large urban areas, but it is illegal here to dump motor oil or any chemicals/solvents in the sewer system. Proper disposal of hazardous chemicals is expensive and time wasting. Of course, many people probably do still just dump their used motor oil in the sewer, but since many streets sewers still dump directly into the lake/river/ocean, that is just irresponsible. Most (if not all) apartment buildings and condos prohibit you to work on your own vehicle in the underground or the back parking areas. They usually hide behind safety/insurance regulations, but let's face it, who wants to spend $300k for a condo and look down to see 2 or 3 wrecks up on blocks with the hoods up? If you own your own single family residence, then you can work on your car, but what do you do with the mess once you're finished? Would it not be easier to pay $29 at the local Quick Lube or dealer to have it done for you? Just wondering.

I missed all of this. Just read it now. Totally sucks. Don't waste your energy thinking about them. I know, easier said than done. When my partner of 9 1/2 years left me 6 years ago for a younger guy (kid, really), I had all sorts of evil thoughts. It took me 18 months to get over it. I jokingly refer to the year 2001 as the Year That Never Was. I was consumed with fantasies of what I would do when my ex came crawling back to me, as I was sure he would. However, by the time he did come crawling back to me, I only felt sadness and sorry for him. Around the same time, I had met someone else (my current partner) and wanted to explore that avenue. Perhaps the good karma of how I handled my ex's moving back to Canada from Salt Lake City (very long story) dropped my Brazilian partner in my lap. And after all the fantasies, and all the revenge dreams, the day my ex asked to see me and we walked the dog in a city park and he cried about how much of a mistake he had made, I only felt like $h! because I didn't want to hurt HIM. Wierd, eh? He is still single, lonely and drifting. He calls me up at least once a week. He is a lost soul, and I feel bad for him, but he left ME and he would not listen to me when I told him that he and the other guy were not made for each other. Having gone through a train wreck of a "divorce" once before, the thought that THIS TOO SHALL PASS got me through the first lonely nights. And my current partner is a much better person. I am just glad that the only entanglements we had was the dog and cat, both of which he had to leave with me because he was transient for the first few months.

Time is money. That is something you will learn eventually. Not everyone has time to tinker with their cars. Most new cars are not tinker friendly. Most people today can barely fill their own washer fluid. In the Toronto area, more than 50% of the people live in condos or apartments. It is prohibited to work on your car in our garage, even if you knew how or wanted to. I used to work on my '67 Polara, but that was 27 years ago, and I haven't had the time to bother since. For most people, a car is an appliance and it should never require maintenance and work flawlessly for 8 years and then merely be replaced. Toyota's dealers are getting fat and lazy. Their time will come, too.

You're missing the point: my argument all along about the superiority of GM products is that the COST OF OWNERSHIP is better. Maintenance (breakdowns - and time is money for the fleets) and the DIFFERENCE between the buying price and the selling price are what matters to fleets the most. Otherwise, they will not make a profit. It cannot be more black and white than that.

Honesty sometimes comes with a price. I would rather be honest and ostracized than live a lie. My sexuality is my business and I don't run around in a dress (I don't have the legs for it anyway!), but I am out at work. I had a low profile for the first year or so - let them get to know ME, then I told them who I am. When I worked at a P-B-Cadillac dealership in the early '80s, I was out to everyone I worked with. I got "outed" to my parents when I was 12 (I denied it) and then again when I was 15 (I confronted it head on.) Perhaps it was easier because I was a kid. My father was a brown belt and made Archie Bunker look like a liberal, but I hated the BS of dating girls and all the pressure that brought on. Now, I have been bringing my partner to every Xmas party at our dealership for 5 years. (My ex was an idiot and I wouldn't have wanted to embarass myself with him in the years before that.) Believe me, the few in the dealership who didn't know I was gay did after all the salesguys grabbed me and my partner and we all did a congo line on the dance floor! There is absolutely nothing to be ashamed about with your sexuality. If you are a good person, an honorable person, even the rednecks will come around. I have been there. We have one big Jamaican guy who claims to be a church-going believer and used to shoot his mouth off all the time about grabbing a gun and going down to Church Street (the gay ghetto around here) and lobbing off a few. Now, he asks after my partner all the time and whenever I remark about a cute guy in the show room he jokes that he will tell my partner on me.

I don't know how fleet works in the U.S., but up here they aren't offered any special deep discount. The fleet department of the dealership usually charges a couple hundred dollars over invoice. As to the rentals, they are sold back in about 8 months. Here is the real question that we should be asking about Fleet: IF TOYOTA AND HONDA ARE SO SUPERIOR. IF THEY HOLD THEIR VALUE BETTER. WHY ARE THE RENTAL AGENCIES NOT CLAMORING FOR TOYOTAS AND HONDAS? That is the $64,000 question. If They buy a "crappy" Impala for $22k, then sell it back to us for $15k 8 months later, why wouldn't they be doing that with the Camry and Accord instead? GM offers the fleets no special favors, at least not here. They still have to buy through the dealer. GM does not "whore" the vehicles out. But yet the fleets still prefer GM.

Strange things you've seen in the past two days? Are you kidding me? It was Pride weekend up here. I live in downtown Toronto. You don't wanna know the strange things I've seen in the past two days! From Queen Elizabeth to Rue Paul does Divine. My stomach is still hurting from laughing. Oh, I did see a phat '63 Chevy convertible that was nearly rubbing the ground. I got pics. Maybe I'll figure out how to post on this thing yet!

When I leased my '87 Shadow, I also looked at the Regal 2 door. The Regal was a bit out of my price range at the time. When the Dodge lease was nearly up, Chrysler was off the radar: two head gaskets, rack and pinion steering, PCM, two water pumps, ignition linkage, a/c condensor...I could go on - all in 4 years. No Chryslers, for sure. It was January 1991. My heart wanted the Thunderbird SC - midnight blue, navy leather. She was a beauty. Even at 29 years old (the first time I turned 29), and single, the thought of a 2 door scared me. What's the point of a sexy car, if nobody will ride with you? Now many of you are going to laugh (even gag), but my (then) local full-line dealer (that's right: Chevy-Pontiac-Oldsmobile-Buick-Cadillac-GMC under one roof!) had a brand new white on white Pontiac Transport on their front lot: white mags, white trim, white everything. Yes, the highly revered, old dustbuster. My mother had just bought the new 2nd generation Chrysler minivan and I had driven it and was drawn to the utility nature of the minivans - but no Chryslers! I went into the show room to ask about the Pontiac, when I stopped dead in my tracks: there was a silver and burgundy all new Caprice in the middle. I really, really liked the look of that car, especially from the front. I never liked the way they finished off the back, though. The rear quarter window and the wrap-around tail lights didn't do it for me (the Roadmaster was better). I asked the salesman if the car came in a wagon. He said they had just started production (the '91 sedan had been in production for quite a while already). I saw a picture (they didn't have one yet) of the wagon and I was smitten. There was a snag because you could not get alloy wheels on the Chevy - only on the Buick. I hated the fake whire wheel covers, so I went with the basic pie plates. I considered the Roadmaster wagon, but again, too much money. And I didn't care about leather. Now, my friends at the time thought I'd flipped when I factory ordered the wagon. However, once I had the windows nearly blacked out, put American Racing mags on it and ripped the (awful) Delco Cd out of it, replacing it with Apine speakers, bazookas under the floor at the back and a Panasonic Cd - my reputation was restored.

Interesting point about the credit worthy thing, and I don't entirely disagree with you, but this would have an interesting consequence that I have long observed. Let's just suppose this more "educated" consumer makes a conscious choice to buy a Corolla over, say, the Cobalt. Given that the Corolla is more money up front, parts or more money, servicing is probably more (our Toyota shop rate is $10 higher than Chevy's), service demands are higher (3 months, versus 6), insurance probably higher, etc. - could it not possibly serve that this "educated" consumer is then goingn to baby his purchase, because he consciously paid more for it? It is a "premium" choice. He will wash it, wax it, and in general look after it. Contrariwise, college kid buys the Cobalt because it is cheaper, drive the $h! out of it, never washed it, barely makes the 6 month maintenace schedule - in fact, he goes to his uncle for oil changes! After 3 years, the Cobalt falls apart from misuse. Said college kid bad-mouths Chevrolet to all his friends. Voila! Self-fulfilling prophecy. Something to think about!

You'd like to believe that, wouldn't you? A televison producer who used to produce for one of your major network's top people just bought a Tahoe this week. He makes more money than God. Perhaps loyalty factors in. I know in my case, that is true. People don't get so agitated when they've already bought/leased 2 or 3 vehicles from me. Two of the guys who left here said that Honda drops their pants right away to get the deal. They also bash GM a lot, which I suspect turns a lot of people off. Around here, many of the Honda and Toyota dealers have undergone major renovations and are undoubtedly feeling a financial pinch to pay for them; whereas, the GM dealers are paid for. The cost of doing business in Canada is far higher than the U.S., for sure. Many companies have found that out the hard way. Toronto's market is just as diversified as the California market. The last figures I saw has GM at 14% share in this city; 26% nationally. None of that bothers me. It was inevitable, IMO. Let's face it, a Hyundai was a joke when I got into the business 10 years ago and they didn't even have a SUV - now they have a couple SUVs, and their car line is at least interesting. But if we keep carping on what was and what GM DID wrong and the consumers pick up on our public squabbles; well, I believe that is where the damage is done. The nitpicking over soft plastics and which magazine said what has little do with the real nuts and bolts. We both know that. And we both know that GM has made huge strides, with the one black cloud being the upcoming labor talks. I think the 2nd weakest link in GM's chain (the first being their spotty advertising!) is the transient nature of salespeople. GM gives us a lot of tools to battle the import humper and to slow down the confused "clipboard shoppers," but most salespeople just want to get a quick deal and can't be bothered to get educated or challenge the misconceptions that are out there. Why should they - in 6 months they will be working at another store anyway, right?

EXACTLY! The lowly J-car outsold both the Civic and the Mazda 3 in its last year, so obviously there will be more of them dumped in trades over the next few years. But as Toyota continues to whore out the Camry in their quest to be #1 in the World, resale will have to drop, too. We've already seen a marked decrease in the amount of Impalas and Malibus at the auctions these days, and the wholesale prices have risen over $800 because of that. As GM and Ford recover their product lines (finally) and Toyota/Honda arrogantly push their own prices upward, demand for used Toyota/Hondas will temporarily increase, as import humpers realize they can't afford to buy new any more. It is a pendulum, my friends.

I agree that the last two generation Camries have gone downhill. I, too, liked the late '90s styling the best, for whatever that means. I've driven the new Camry and never had any quibbles about noises. I don't find their trannies as smooth as GM's, though. And PLEASE, don't compare a 5 year old Impala to a new Camry, it's just sad. My 5 year old 17" CRT screen isn't as nice as my new LCD laptop's

There is the kind of holding back when you don't laugh out loud when a fat lady falls on a puddle of coffee, goes flying in the air, her tray of food goes straight up and she lands on her back.....not kidding on that one, I saw it happen one time - I actually let out a short burst of laughter before I caught it, then crawled under my table. (In my defense, it didn't help that she was dressed to the nines, pearls, expensive dress suit, nice hair, like Richie Rich's mother) Then there is the holding back when a customer calls you a fag. Oh, sorry, I didnt' hold back on that one. An older, black woman came screaming into the show room about two weeks ago, and straight away started badgering the receptionist. I have an appointment with the business manager, she declared. The receptionist explained that there were clients in with him at the moment and that she would have to wait. I don't know what this woman's problem was, but she started angrily shouting at the hapless receptionist, straight away. She was here to co-sign for her sister's loan (why is it always the people who have the worst credit who have the biggest chips on their shoulders?) and she had to sign papers, have her license photocopied, etc. She was creating quite a comotion. My co-worker whose desk is beside mine (and happens to be black, too) went over to her, said soothing things, brought her to his desk (3 feet behind me) and tried to help her. She was cussing and swearing. F%$k this and f&^k that. Why should I have to wait, etc. I started to seethe when she loudly declared that her sister should have bought a Honda. I bit my lip. I kept my head down. Off went my co-worker to photocopy and gather stuff, while she continued to swear and cuss. When he came back, she demanded to know why he was doing what he was doing and she wanted to speak to a manager. He finally lost his cool and said,"Don't you raise your voice to me. I can raise my voice at you!" She nearly knocked her chair over when she stood up and stormed back over to reception, shouting at her again. On the way over, she proclaimed again that her sister should have bought a Honda. That was the final straw for me. Since there were no managers around, I stormed after her and told her to keep her voice down, or I would have to ask her to leave. She turned on my like a snake: hissing and spatting. What is your problem, I demanded. Are you a manager, she retored. No, we are trying to help, but you will have to go if you don't keep your voice down. This is a place of business. She was alternately shouting at me and the receptionist when, finally, the used car manager showed up. NOt having a clue what has just gone on, he called her into his office. She was mumbling things under her breath all he way. His office is about 5 meters from mine. I had sat back at my desk and just glanced over my shoulder as his door swung shut to see that woman pointing at me, saying,"That FAGGOT..." and pointing at me as the door shut. I totally lost my cool. Now I know she has no clue that I am gay, but I realize that she is just angry at the world and the "worst" thing you can call a man is a "faggot," right? So I flung open the door, got right in her face and snapped,"What did you call me?" Right to my face, she declared,"I called you a faggot. What are you going to do about it?" I reared back. I would never have hit her, that much sanity prevailed, but it was only the sheer look of panick on the manager's face that kept me from grabbing her by the lapels and ejecting her from the building. I also have to add that the N-word was on the very tip of my tongue. Instead, I somehow managed to say,"Listen, lady, you don't know me, and you have no idea what I am capable of, or who I know." The manager had stood and tried to smooth things over. I left his office and busied myself elsewhere in the dealership. Later, I discussed this with the manager, and he said that she had said she was going to hit me with her shoe. I told him that I would have hit the bitch right back, and she would have deserved it. He said you can't do that. I demanded to know why not. There are cases appearing before the Ontario Human Rights commission right now where people have said less. The trouble is, being gay, I have an immunity shield to women that most men don't possess. I see them for the evil, conniving witches that they CAN be. This woman clearly is used to getting her way by intimidating straight, white men into getting what she wants, and I doubly got under her skin because I wasn't having any of that. Although violence is always the last refuge of the incompetent, her cursing and swearing was uncalled for. Somebody should have ejected her. That was no lady and she deserved to be dealt with kind for kind. So, yes, I held back and won. The business manager later told me that the woman was mortified when she told the woman that I was, in fact, gay. Perhaps the bitch will watch her mouth next time.

I hope this won't affect your sense of balance...I can't imagine losing my balance and becoming MORE unstable Get well soon.............. Hey, does this mean you won't be wearing a grass skirt and on your usual float this year? HAPPY PRIDE EVERYBODY.........................................................