When I went to Edmunds to read the '01 Lightning review I ran across this article:
http://www.edmunds.com/editorial/fea...962/index.html
I thought it was pretty interesting.

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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

'84 Alan Record Carbonio, Aerospoke wheels, Campy brakes.
'00 SVT Lightning, silver, built 2/9/00, #133 of 4966, G-tech Pro, JBA headers, 4.10 gears, Swanson chip, Pro-M, NGK plugs, carbon drive shaft, Roadmaster suspension kit
13.39 @ 102.5
2001 Kevlacat 2400, twin 115 Evinrude FICHT, Raytheon VHF, radar, autopilot and GPS chartplotter/fishfinder.

gmvye@pacbell.net

 

That wasn't bad. I plunkered down and read the whole damn thing. I learned a little bit too. Then at the end it seems like....Well, I wont spoil it. Triple Agent, I like that

 

Great article, it sucked me in and I had to read it all the way through. Thanks for pointing it out.
Brian

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2000 Lightning, PSP filter/chip, svo throttle body, Bassani, 4.10's
2000 super duty v10
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My vehicles http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4293160925

 

alphadoggy, thanks for pointing out the article.

One summer, about 15 years ago during college, I sold cars here in Sacramento. One of my fishing buddies was a “closer” at a Jeep dealer and he wanted to spend his spare time at work talking about fishing, so we did.

This article sounded just like my experience. The description of the dealerships even sounds like the Roseville Automall. It’s nice to see nothing has changed. The only thing the author didn’t mention was using the “Would you. . . if I could. . .?” phrase. Otherwise, it was dead on what it was/is like here. It sure brought back old memories of “closers” and guys getting “blown-out”.

The author is dead-on about one other thing, it’s the managers and owners that make the car business what it is, not the sales people. The crap rolls down hill from the top and there is a lot of crap in this town. To this date, I won’t buy a truck in Sacramento because of the owners, if I can avoid it, and I can walk to one of the biggest Ford dealers in California from my house. The small town dealers in Northern California maybe just as bad, but at least I don’t know them!

By the way, that summer has saved me more money on the cars and trucks I have purchased than I made selling cars. It was educational to say the least.


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BOB
97 F150 Lariet 4X4 SC Everything except ESOF plus Line-X Bed Liner, Power Rear Slider, 16X8 Chrome Centerline Starfires, 305-70 Goodyear AT/S, Alpine Alarm, Deflecta-Shield Sportrends Running Boards, Edelbrock IAS Shocks, a new "no piston slap" 5.4, a new "no-crack" door, a Better Built tool chest and a WWW.F150Online.com sticker.

 

Good article. I read the whole thing. I think everyone in my office is reading it. Even the Colonel. Thanks.

 

I really really liked that. I started it at work today and just got a chance to finish it.
CA

 

Alpha, thanks for the tip. That is a very interesting article. Plus, it only confirmed what a lot of us know already.

That is, get on the Internet and do your homework. It helps out when you probably know as much about the real price of vehicle as the sales person including special incentives and dealer hold back. Might know more than they do.

It is interesting too that the author points out that car sales people are suckers for other sales people. An old acquaintance of mine, who was a dealer sales manager, told me that 25 years ago. I guess some things never change.

 

Glad you folks enjoyed the article. I love expose stuff like this. The best I ever read, besides "Don't Get Taken Every Time" was "Who Really Pays the Taxes" by Bartlett and Steele. The whole tax structure in this country is rigged in favor of the big corporations and the very wealthy while us little folk take it in the shorts. And its only going to get worse with The Shrub in charge, he's already trying to do away with a tax that only the wealthiest 2% of the people pay, and even they don't think its a good idea.

 

Alpha, you meant the Estate (Death) tax?

That tax is ridiculous. First,it has low ceiling to be tax exempt (less than first four or five hundred thousand, or something like that)and, second, a high 37.5% tax rate.

If people have to sell the business or the farm just to pay the estate tax, then something is wrong.

Also, which rich people do not approve of it? The only one I saw was Bill Gates(!) father, who was even fuzzy about the math.

The Democrats say Bush's new tax plan favors the rich. Bull! It discrimates against the rich and near rich because it is sliding scale tax rate change, with the richest people getting the smallest percentage of tax rate decreases.

A question to all those who think rich people should pay more taxes. If the top one percent of tax payers are paying something like 30-plus per cent of all the income taxes, just what are they getting in return?

Are they getting better service, protections, etc., from the government than the rest of the population in proportion to the taxes they pay? I don't think so. So what is in it for them?

What has happened is that a majority of the voters, and accommodating politicians, have found a way to raid the public treasury and to soak the rich and near rich to pay for the raid.

And, this is written by a non-rich person.

 

I was not clear in my previous post.

Bill Gate's father was against repealing the Estate Tax. He would like to raise the minimum exemption level, but had no real idea what that would be. Maybe, he said, three million bucks or so. That ain't much these days.

 

I agree that it should be be restructured. $650,000 will hardly buy a cuppa java these days. But eliminate it entirely and just watch college endowments drop precipitously, for example. If that happens you better make a ****pot full of money if you have kids that want to go to college.

 

Alpha,I think people should not have to make charitable contributions just to save some money from the tax man, money that their heirs should rightfully receive.

If they do it for that reason, then it seems like the are victims of a form of extorion.

 

GREAT ARTICLE!!! Alpha...that completely reminds me of the experience I had when I bought my Lightning. The first dealer I went to was Bill Kolb Jr Ford in NY. What a bunch of sleazy scumbags.
I wanted to A-plan the truck, they wanted to sell me at 5k over sticker!!! I told them where they could stick that. So they offered to let me test drive the owners wife's red 99 L and then they could work out a deal. I figured hey if its cheap enough...maybe I would consider getting a used L.

Well the day came..there were gouges on the wheels and scratches on the back...but it was the only SVT dealer nearby and I really wanted to drive one...so I decided to try it. Drove it and absolutely loved the car. Went back inside...the salesman (who was an ok guy) went back to his sales manager after I insisited that I would only buy an L on aplan. This manager was the epitome of disgusting car salesmen. I mean every stereotype in the book. Greacy, gold , slicked hair. Well they came back with a peice of paper....and beleive it or not..they had the tenacity to write this.

$28,900(for the used 99 scratched L)
and under it in huge letters they wrote 'WOW!!!'

I could not beleive it...I was so insulted..I just laughed and left. Never to return. They actually wrote wow...on the paper. Unreal. And they wanted to charge me 2 1/2 grand more for a used 99 than i wanted to pay for a new 00.

What did I do....found another dealer...ordered it by phone 1 hr before I left for a trip to europe...and paid A-plan for a new '00.




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2000 Red Lightning
95 Saleen S-351 Convertible/Triple Black
97 Kawasaki Vulcan 800 Classic