Re: Ripe For Disruption!

1

At least you can play them off each other. Or could, once they get their acts together.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 03-27-19 12:52 PM
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Maybe you made it too easy. On the veldt, car dealers were adapted to persue their customers for miles.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-27-19 1:00 PM
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3

My brother can sell you a 2009 Prius, which is basically the same thing.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-27-19 1:13 PM
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4

I bought a car last year and was added to a "targeted" ad list on Facebook for well over 1000 car dealers- every make, a dealer in every state. It's the archetypal idiotic online ad- "Oh you just bought this thing that most people buy once every 10 years? Let me try to sell you another dozen of them!"


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 03-27-19 1:21 PM
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5

You've read Nicole Cliffe on this, right? (I'm sure plenty of dealerships are nebbishy enough to not seize on your business the way they did hers. Also possibly the state of the economy.)


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 03-27-19 1:24 PM
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But think of all the poor Little League teams who will be left shirtless if they can't grift you like this!


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 03-27-19 2:41 PM
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7

Isn't car salepersons' commissions mostly made from selling to the 10% of car buyers who don't or poorly negotiate the price? Maybe you are signaling you won't be a sucker and so aren't worth their time to pursue?


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 03-28-19 12:28 PM
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8

If the entire email was asking to be let know when a certain car was in stock, I don't think that's enough for a sales person to judge. But who knows, maybe he has an elaborate email signature.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 03-28-19 1:25 PM
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9

I suspect emailing a car dealership like that at all shows a level of initiative that's likely inconsistent with being the kind of sucker car dealers like.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03-28-19 1:29 PM
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10

"I wish Elon Musk weren't such a bozo, because I'd love to buy a car outside of the established channels."

I would be interested to know on what grounds you have concluded that the CEOs of Ford, GM, Toyota, Nissan etc are not bozos.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 03-28-19 2:18 PM
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11

Especially, given recent events, Nissan...


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 03-28-19 2:20 PM
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This is more or less exactly me. Went on an actual test drive a month ago--not in the car I wanted, but a used version close enough to confirm I was right--and never heard from these bozos again. Another (closer) dealer knows I'm looking, called me once, and never since. Not even to say, "We got your model in, wrong color, wanted to double-check you're not interested." Mind you, that car's been on their lot for 2+ weeks now.

Meanwhile, here's how VW works: dealers have neither a say in what cars they're sent, nor any advance notice. When I talked to this guy, all he could tell me was that they expected cars in a few weeks, but they wouldn't know what was coming until it was on the truck en route. Furthermore, the exact car I want? not available at any dealership within 200 miles, including Cleveland area dealers. But SE PA, from Harrisburg to Philly? 6 different dealers all have the exact car. I'm not really interested in traveling across state to buy from a dealer who'll never see me again, but it's tempting!


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 12:18 PM
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13

Have they started telling the truth about the emissions?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 12:22 PM
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14

If I wanted a used diesel, I'd have my pick.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 1:18 PM
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14: I beg your pardon. There is only one of me. And you can't have me.


Posted by: Opinionated Vin Diesel | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 1:36 PM
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16

My last new car purchase was four years ago. I did my research and started emailing and calling dealers. All except two kept trying to sell me some other model and one of the two that would actually sell me what I wanted gave me a quote which I said I would accept. I then started to make plans to go get the car and told the dealer I was going to pay cash at which point he told me the price was only good if I financed the car through him. I told him to go fuck himself and bought one from a dealer 300 miles away. After 150,000 miles with no problems I would drive that far again.


Posted by: Out West | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 1:40 PM
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16: You're not going to tell us what kind of car it is, are you?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 1:56 PM
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18

Probably a Humvee.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 2:25 PM
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19

There's three helicopters slowly circling the neighborhood. That doesn't seem good.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 2:32 PM
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O.K. It's wasn't good, but there's also nothing moving anymore so no reason to make so much noise while I'm trying to eat.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 2:51 PM
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21

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who chase criminals, and the retaining walls who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 2:56 PM
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22

That was too soon.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 2:57 PM
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23

Also, I'm off topic before comment #40. So, let me add that if you want to drive at speed into a wall, maybe don't buy a Hyundai Elantra.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 3:04 PM
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24

I guess we don't have enough freeways to do a L.A.-style freeway chase event.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 3:11 PM
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25

I guess he shot himself. My apologies to the Hyundai corporation, Korea, and megapolitian Seoul.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 3:24 PM
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26

So, if you know the person whose house this happened in front of, should you send a card or something? I don't think it will hurt the price of the house, but they've got to be a little nervous about parking or using their driveway from now on.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 4:03 PM
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17; 2014 Honda CR-Z, 40 mpg at 80 mph. 40 mpg in the city. I love it. Too bad they quit making it. I live in the intermountain west where it is 30 miles each way to get a pizza.


Posted by: Out West | Link to this comment | 03-29-19 10:47 PM
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Talks at science fairs are much more interesting if you picture "Science" as an easily angered deity. Also, apparently, betting on which adults at the podium can pronounce a South Asian name is unseemly.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-30-19 7:03 AM
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29

27: Is this a remote unpopulated place or a last vestige of Real America unsullied by exotic ethnic foods?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-30-19 1:24 PM
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29: I wouldn't say it is remote, it is only 30 miles to pizza not 70 miles like some places. There is also good sushi just down the street from the pizza place.


Posted by: Out West | Link to this comment | 03-30-19 1:43 PM
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31

I used to go to school with people who were 30 miles from a high school. It's a big empty country.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-30-19 1:45 PM
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32

Tomato sauce was literally American before America.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 03-30-19 1:46 PM
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33

Somebody put a single red rose in a vase right where the kidnapper died. I'm kind of wondering if the neighbors are going to leave it.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-30-19 1:48 PM
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34

"Hawaiian pizza" (a cheese- and tomato-based pie, topped with pineapple and bacon) is apparently Canada's gift to pizza cuisine. On behalf of my Canuckistani fellow citizens, I'd like to offer my sincere apologies for this affront to the very idea of taste.


Posted by: Just Plain Jane | Link to this comment | 03-30-19 4:33 PM
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That was probably the most exciting thing anyone's ever live-blogged. Any yet Moby made it seem perfectly mundane.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2019/03/29/suspect-from-Munhall-woman-kidnapped-at-gunpoint-slippery-rock-butler/stories/201903290096


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-30-19 4:38 PM
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32: Surely, you know that Real America has no connection with pre-Columbian North America.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-30-19 4:44 PM
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37

I didn't liveblog it. I didn't see anything in person except for helicopters until the next day.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-30-19 5:03 PM
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38

the only time I've ever bought a new car (several lifetimes ago in Illinois), we used this approach (it was called "fax attack"). And it worked pretty well. I generally buy used, though, because I resent those thousands in value evaporating as I drive off the lot.


Posted by: simulated annealing | Link to this comment | 03-30-19 11:52 PM
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