Mr Weeze

For the GTI it was the opposite - about 3 colours and 4 options to choose from. Plus I told the VW dealers I was looking at the GTI or the Focus ST too.

When we were replacing Weeze's Canyonero I did the same thing with Ford, Nissan and Toyota. Some of them replied with a "let us know your best other offer and we'll see what we can do". I thanked them but said owing to their failure to be able to abide to a pretty basic set of instructions I had lost any ability in them being able to handle something as complicated as actually buying a vehicle to my satisfaction and they were no longer under consideration.

Steerpike

I used the Costco program recently and it was very simple. Basically, you tell Costco what make/model you are interested in; they give you a specific name (the Costco contact) at the dealership. You go to the dealership and ask for that person (be careful not to get engaged with other sales people, or there could be inside tension ... not directly your problem but could get awkward). They show you the 'costco price', which is a base price plus a markup. They will let you test drive the car and you can buy it if you wish, with no haggling over price. They won't give you the price over the phone or in writing - they literally 'show it to you' at the dealership (that was my experience).

I compared the price to the 'Edmunds' price (a fairly similar service) and also, to many websites; it seemed like I got a competitive price that others were getting.

I paid cash, so there were no tricky bits regarding financing, but they did still try to sell me extended warranties, and the like. I calmly said 'no thanks' and the car was mine at the agreed price. I did do a trade-in, and that was 100% negotiated, of course. I went in with a 'minimum' in mind (based on Kelly Blue Book), and when they went over that I accepted.

Now, in my case, I was buying a Honda. Honda have very well-defined 'packages' with few options (you can buy the LX, EX, EX-V6, etc - all of which are clearly priced). BMW, by comparison (and possibly the Mini?) have 1,001 a-la-carte options and I don't know if you can predict the price of every conceivable option. I would expect it to be a bit more tricky buying a car like that with such a program.

Steerpike

I personally only use Yelp for restaurants, and for that, it seems fairly reasonable - though I can't say I rely heavily on it. I tend to pay attention to posters with long memberships, and high post counts, rather than looking at the overall score.

The only experience of issues I have is that a friend of mine had a terrible experience at a daycare center, so he signed up and posted a bad review - which never showed up - this is when I did the research into their practices. I think it's reasonable to limit bad reviews from new posters, but of course it does open the door to all kinds of skewing based on factors you mention. It was probably a much better service when it first started, and before the influence of advertizing took hold.

Michael

In my opinion, except for Consumer Reports which doesn't accept money or products from businesses and does their own reviews, all the others are rigged.

Yelp and the BBB get their revenues from businesses so unless there is an advantage for businesses to pay, they wouldn't subscribe or advertise.

Angie's List gets it's revenue from subscription fees from both businesses and consumers. Like Yelp and the BBB, businesses wouldn't subscribe unless there was an advantage. If Angie's List didn't accept subscriptions from businesses, it would likely be a little better but then I'd suspect that businesses might pay the subscription fees for their employees to write good reviews for them and bad reviews for competitors (some are probably already doing that).

I doubt that there could ever be a review filter designed that could do much better than 50:50 in determining real reviews from fake reviews. Even if someone reads each of the reviews and tries to make judgments, there is no way to know if the reviews are real or fake.

Michael

Volkswagen China Owners Protest Nationwide Over Recall - Bloomberg

The automaker will call back 581,090 New Sagitar and Beetle vehicles in its biggest market to affix metal plates to the rear torsion crank axle, which will stabilize the vehicles and emit warning noises in case of cracks, it said this month. The axle is safe and installing the metal inlays is like “providing a double assurance,” Soh Weiming, Volkswagen China’s executive president, said Oct. 24.

Most Volkswagen cars that have problems with rear suspension weren’t involved in accidents or hadn’t been hit as the company described, Jingsh, which represents at least 340 New Sagitar users, Jingsh said in the statement.

“Our clients found Volkswagen’s explanation unacceptable,” Jingsh said in an e-mail yesterday.

Volkswagen also is recalling cars in the U.S. to fix the same suspension issue, for a total of 1.02 million vehicles in the two countries, it said Oct. 17.

VW recalls 1.1 million cars in North America, China over suspension issue | Reuters

The company said Friday the recall covers about 442,265 cars in the United States and 126,000 in Canada, including 2011-2013 VW Jettas and 2012-2013 VW Beetles.

If the affected cars are involved in a rear or side collision, they may suffer a cracked suspension arm which, if undetected, could lead to a crash, the company said.

scrubbedexpat091

I don't know much about cars, and didn't really have too much choice in the model or make we got since we needed financing and most dealers would not deal with us because we have lower income, and part of our income is disability but one dealer did work with us, got us a decent payment, and interest rate and loan through a normal bank, but we had to choose something from their lot, which didn't have much in what we were approved for.

We basically had 2 choices Mazda 2's of various years (2011, 2012, 2013) and Ford Fiesta (2013 I think) or a 2006 VW something or other, but it was too old for my liking.

We went with the newest Mazda 2 on the lot in the end (even though I didn't like the color) as it had the lowest mileage as well.

So far so good, gets really good gas mileage, we can go 2 weeks on 1 tank (our old 1998 Sunfire only went a week and our driving is the same) and even at 1.50/liter this summer, was still under 50 bucks to fill.

The Ford Fiesta had better options on it though, just didn't drive as well compared to the Mazda. The Fiesta looked nice, just felt like it didn't have as much power when we drove it, but I really have no idea, not like you can tell much on a 4 minute drive around the block...lol

Only downside is it's a little small for a tall guy and I have some minor visibility issues from the drivers seat, but my GF who is short loves it....

The only cars in our price range are small hatchbacks, but if I could, I'd buy something a tad larger for sure.

tennesseestud

What is it with Mini's? My wife insists I should have one with a union jack on the roof. I did see on the interstate once a convertable mini with the license plate "Mr Bean" ... we thought that was kinda cool.

There was a DeLorean driving around Nashville too

Pulaski

I saw a "proper mini", (which looks tiny compared the BMW mini, and which has its proportions completely wrong) a couple of times on the interstate near me. It was green, with the NC tag "MR PLOD".

Michael

United States

Between 1960 and 1967, BMC exported approximately 10,000 left-hand drive BMC Minis to the United States. Sales were discontinued when stricter federal safety standards were imposed in 1968 and the arrival of the larger and more profitable Austin America. Mini sales fell in the 1967 calendar year and the U.S. importer was expecting the forthcoming Austin America to find a larger market. However, the America was also withdrawn in 1972 due to slow sales and the introduction of bumper height standards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini

The few I remember and if I remember correctly, weren't allowed to drive on the Freeways in California. If I remember correctly, it was because it didn't have enough pickup to merge safely.

S Folinsky

When I was in the Army on the East Coast, I took a trip with a buddy between Boston and Virginia in his Austin America. When I lived in San Francisco, we babysat a friend's 1967 Morris Minor coupe.


The 1968 safety regulations was the cause for the importation of many cars from Europe to cease. I had a 1967 Sunbeam Tiger. When I look back in think of a single cylinder brake system I want to cringe.

Michael

Ferrari to split with parent company, Fiat Chrysler - Oct. 29, 2014

MostlyYank

Sounds like huge amounts of fun!

I've been taken with the idea of retiring to the Yorkshire Dales lately, an old farmhouse with a barn, and a 'proper' mini being slowly renovated inside

Pete

Pulaski

This is about a car, a Toyota Camry (of sorts ), but this post might equally well belong in the WTF thread. But I'm putting it here - a story about an 850hp Toyota Camry.

Toyota unveils 850-horsepower Camry - Nov. 4, 2014

Michael

But these are real road cars.

Dodge has announced that its new supercharged V8 will be rated at an astonishing 707 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque when it debuts in the 2015 Challenger SRT later this year, making it the most powerful mass produced American car ever. The 6.2-liter Hellcat HEMI engine features an iron block, forged alloy pistons and is fed by a 2,380cc supercharger blowing at 11.8 psi. It will be available with either a 6-speed manual or 8-speed automatic transmission.

Not only does the Hellcat put the Challenger SRT at the top of the American muscle car list, besting the 662 hp Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 by a fair amount, but the monster motor is also the most powerful V8 in the world and the car third among all non-electrified autos sold by major automakers, trailing only the 16-cylinder Bugatti Veyron and V12 Ferrari F12.

707 hp Dodge Challenger SRT is the most powerful American car ever | Fox News

Nutek

That's gonna look awesome doing 25mph in my neighborhood, or 40mph out by the highway, or 55 or even 65mph (ooooo!) on the highway.