DRIVE

one more on odd car sale practices… there’s a dealership in my region, let’s call them “crazy bob’s.” there’s a crazy bob’s ford; a crazy bob’s chrysler/dodge; a crazy bob’s hyundai; even a crazy bob’s MINI. so browsing the used car websites, i found a pretty good deal on a car. let’s say it was a 2009 ford pinto with 20,000 miles. looks new. let’s say the sale price on that pinto was $10,000 and an identical new one goes for $18,000.

where would it make sense to sell that car in crazy bob’s family of dealerships? ford, right? so a guy comes in looking for a 2010 pinto; checks out the new one (which the dealer is making a pretty low profit on, since the invoice is like $16k and in this market any holdback benefit has been exhausted). dealer can say “well, take a look at this used pinto (which we bought at auction for $5k and get to keep all the profit on); it doesn’t have the extra 5 horsepower of the model you were looking at, and you won’t get the same warranty on it, but it probably meets your needs (and you’ll probably still come back to us for all of your out-of-warranty repairs, which is where we make most of our income).”

nope, crazy bob in his infinite wisdom has decided to sell the pinto at the hyunai dealership. instead the dealer has to either find a way to get the guy financing, sell him a new ford escort which he doesn’t really want, or show him an ’02 honda CRX they’ve got sitting in the back. best case, he likes the Honda and takes it away, only to bring it to Honda dealers for service and eventual trade.

side note: according to will smth of the new orleans sants, most professional football players own at least one auto dealership. interesting, huh?

on a sort-of related note, i’m honestly amazed nobody’s making kitcars for the Prius. half of the entertainment jerks in Los Angeles traded in their luxury sedans for that crayon tip of a car, and not one of them decided it could use some real style? lame.

i’m thinking about replacing the 200sx/atlima. maybe replacing isn’t the right word, given that both are doing laps on the sky-autobahn. i’m thinking of finding a car which would be mechanically and financially feasible to drive out of town.

i love the truck, but it’s not that… and while it wouldn’t take much to turn it into a show-quality 35MPG biodiesel/WVO high-horsepower monster, i’d have to have that cash on hand.

anyway, i’ve been poking around the dealership websites and occasionally clicking the buttons for more info. it’s very empowering to look for vehicles when a) you don’t actually need one anytime soon; b) it’s so clearly a buyer’s market; and c) there’s a glut of the car i’m most interested in.

anyway, i got this email today after getting an “internet price” that was about $4000 off list, but still more than i’d ever pay:

sparklekitten29,

The telephone number you gave us seems to be incorrect. The number that we recieved is 504-555-1212.

Please send us your telephone number and the time of day it would be best to discuss your Internet purchase request or feel free to give us a call.

…I think it shows a profound lack of initiative not to a) take the hint and b) personalize the communication to show some interest in making the sale. I mean, if the positions were reversed, these days I’d be showing up at the potential buyer’s door with a stack of brochures, the keys, and a plate of home-baked cookies… and if they’d filled out an address line, “i do not want your cookies,” i’d be trying to close via skype, telegraph or astral projection if that’s what they preferred.

the one thing i absolutely wouldn’t do is call ‘em up and say, “your address is wrong, i couldn’t find “i do not want your cookies street.”

i’ve been asked to build a pet door for a friend. or more accurately, replace a current door with a new one which integrates pet access.

there’s a surprisingly substantial budget for the project. so the question is, do i give the client what she wants, to wit, a plain door with a hole in it covered by a flap…

or do i build an RFID/arduino-based automatic self-opening pet-sensing internet-enabled door which collects entry/exit data and can send text message updates on where the dog is at any particular moment?

serious question. and if you’ve ever installed either flavor, i want to hear from ya.

a guy in my neighborhood died on january 10 and last week the city put notes on two of his cars- a 60′s VW Squareback and a 89 Cadillac Brougham- saying they were going to tow them and sell them for scrap. i spent three days tracking down contact info for the family (and discovered in the process just how much you can find out about someone if you try- scary). i wanted to a) alert them that the cars were getting taken and b) if they were okay with that, see if i could get either to restore and drive. nobody ever called me back.

meanwhile i spent most of the day today pulling parts out of the atlima, which i’ve given up on. it turns but never catches, and the mechanic who wandered by and stopped to help (gotta love NOLA) says it’s probably the fuel pump. internet says distributor. either way, add that to the EGR valve & radius arm that need to be replaced and we’re talking about $600 in parts: enough to totally get the truck running like new with a little left over for upgrades. i’d rather part out what i can, take the $100 for scrap, and stop paying the insurance on 2 vehicles.

thanks to the barter section of craigslist, i’ll be fixing a laptop in exchange for meeting with an ACE mechanic instructor to finish up the last little mechanical issues on the f150; and will be building a website in exchange for a complete paint job when it’s ready.

really the whole point of this entry is that i signed onto a nissan forum i used to check out occasionally in order to post a classified ad, and rediscovered my user name there, which is probably my favorite to date. on nissanclub.com my name is: “musty ruffler.”

update: i was on fire when coming up with nissan forum names! at altimas.org apparently i am known simply as: “x.”

update 2: because i’ve apparently run out of things to Internet about, i decided to see if “ruffler” is actually a word. guess what? not only is it a thing, but it’s accurate!

1. One of a class of vagabonds prevalent in the 16th century. Obs.
2. One who makes much stir or display; a proud swaggering or arrogant fellow.
1. An attachment to a sewing-machine, for making ruffles.