To The Metal

So I lost my credit card 9 days ago.  I tell my fiancee, she says ‘pray to St.Anthony every day to help you find your card.  If you haven’t found it after 9 days, you never will.’  On Monday,  day 6 – I call my credit card company and report the card lost.  Still, I say my little prayer, and wonder where it went.  Yesterday, we had an appointment to keep – she was going to catch up in her car after I started off with the kids.

She calls me right after I get to the Church, ‘my car won’t start, I need you to jump it.’ So I drop the kids off, head home, wire her car up to mine, let it idle – and when she tries to start it – ‘clickety clickety click.’

We try again after a few more minutes, no luck.  We leave the car there, we make our appointment – I head off to Walmart to get a portable jump starter.  I get home after picking everyone up, and on my first attempt the car won’t start.  I then put the jump starter directly on the terminal clamps for the battery (after cleaning off a ton of corrosion) – car starts right up and stays running.  I let it idle for a good 20 minutes, come back out and the battery light is on.  The car is effectively running off the alternator.  I confirm this when I shut it off, and it won’t turn back on.

So my favorite yellow plaid shirt came back from the laundry yesterday, and I decide to wear it today.  Not sure why, I just felt like wearing it.  I take the battery out, head off to NAPA – they run a load test and its fully charged.  Second load test, it doesn’t work.  He squeezes down hard on the terminal clamps – and it works.  So I pick up a terminal cleaner brush, and head home.  I clean the terminals and terminal clamps off.  That’s when I notice that the terminal clamps are cheap, thin copper – and have been eaten away by the excess corrosion that has built up in the 2 years since the battery was installed.  By this point I”m sweating profusely.  It’s hot and humid, and I’m standing in direct sunlight.  I head back down to NAPA and buy a new pair of terminal clamps.  I install the clean clamps on the clean terminals, car starts right up.  I then put everything back together – still sweaty, covered in acid,  and generally feeling nasty.

Go inside, clean up – realize I should change my shirt since it is absolutely soaked in sweat.  I change my undershirt – go to put on the same yellow plaid shirt (my current favorite shirt) – and it is also soaked.  I look in my closet and grab my old favorite yellow plaid shirt, throw it on, and head out the door.  I haven’t worn the shirt in oh… 9 days or so.  Hop in the car, get to the office, and after awhile I need to run outside and make a phone call.  I throw my phone in the front pocket of the shirt and head out.

As I reach into my pocket to pull the phone out, a small blue plastic card falls out with it.  Yeah, it was my long lost credit card, found 9 days later.  Doy.

So the salesperson I dealt with at Dawson called me back yesterday, apologized again for the deal going south.  I explained I didn’t blame him at all, he mentioned the car had sold 20 minutes after I left, was currently ‘waiting on financing’ – I mentioned just as passing conversation what my next offer would have been, he said if anything fell through he would be in touch and run my offer past the owner.  My ears perked up a bit on this one.  Could the car have sold?  Sure.  Was this maybe a little slight of hand to gauge my interest in the car,and perhaps get me to ‘up the ante’ – I kind of feel like that is the case.  I’d still buy that car if the opportunity arose.

He mentioned that he would keep an eye open for another Fusion with similar options *cough* – and is hoping he can find one before I do.  We’ll see.

So after the rather crappy experience I had at Dawson Motors yesterday, I decided to expand my search for a Ford Fusion AWD from model year 2007, as well as give Subaru another try.

Over the past 14 years that I have been driving, I’ve purchased 6 vehicles, 2 of them privately, and the other 4 were from large dealerships with a more established business. With exception to my current ride, I’ve used the same methodology from day one – start with an offer that’s well below what I’d actually pay, which is usually well below the asking price, and force the salesman to sell me the car.

Yesterday, after making my first offer – the price of the car immediately dropped by $900. Was I flexible? Yes. Was the first offer good enough? Nope. Was I going to raise my inital offer? Yep… until both my initial and their counter was laughed at by the owner. They were $500 away from making a deal, but I’m not going to get laughed at by someone who doesn’t know how to sell a car.  I’m giving you my money, I worked hard for it, and you’re going to EARN it.

Am I hard to deal with? Absolutely. I’m in the minority though. For every person out there who knows what they want, what they want to pay, and force the salesperson to make the deal – there are dozens of idiots who walk in and either pay asking price or take the first offer without question.  Could someone come along and make a better deal on that same car?  Sure.   Is it worth leaving a car out to rot for 6+ months in the hope that some rube will show up and pay asking?  For some dealers, I guess so.  I’m not going to hold any sympathy for a business that behaves in such a manner, if they can pull it off their way and stay profitable – God bless them.

In the time that they’ve had that car on the lot, I’ve seen Warwick Dodge unload at least 2 Fusion AWD’s, same model year and option package.  They’ve got one on the lot now with higher mileage and a lower asking price, but I’m willing to bet that will also leave their lot before the one I test drove leaves Dawson.

So far I’m communicating with 4 dealerships that hold various Subarus and Fords I’m interested in – I’m hoping by the end of the week to seal the deal with a more sensible outcome.  I’ll keep you all posted!

For the past several months I have been doing gobs of research on my next car. It has to be a sedan, have all wheel drive, great reliability, and be within a certain dollar amount so my payments are actually less on the new car than on my current.

I tend to research big purchases, exhaustively. Whether it is a car, a computer, etc… If I am going to invest a large portion of my income to something – I’m going to make sure it is worth it. About a week ago I decided to settle on a 2007 Ford Fusion AWD with the V6. Once I made that choice, I did my research.

First I checked the ‘black book auction price’ for the car, took the number down and tucked it away. Then I asked the dealer how much it cost to refresh the car I was looking at (new tires, a good detail, etc…) and cut that number in half. Then I add $2k to that price, and make it my initial offer.

So I took it for a test drive, two in fact. The second one, I showed it to the fiancee as well as my folks. Very nice car, great ride, good power, but the asking price was a little too high. NADA guides listed it at the price they were asking – but we all know the only people who use that book are the consumers, so they can believe that the asking price is fair (when it is actually inflated by a minimum of $5,000).

So I get to the dealer today, title is in the glovebox, checkbook is in my pocket. I’ve already had them appraise my trade-in (they were willing to pay about 800 less than I owed, but I was going to negotiate that up). I also made my initial offer (the aforementioned price which covers the dealer costs and also allows them some profit). Immediately my offer was shot down as too low – that’s fine. I do have an actual price in my head which was about halfway between their asking price and my offer.

I make sure to point out that the car hasn’t moved off their lot for over 6 months, that there’s some cosmetic damage on the vehicle, etc… That’s when the salesman breaks out the NADA guide price (which I immediately pointed out that I don’t use, then quote the black book wholesale auction price to him). We’re still fairly jovial at this point, and he makes his first counter offer (900 off the asking price) but he reinforces that he must ‘check with his manager on that.’ I say flat out that the price still is not low enough (he’s actually getting close to where I *really* want to be) and that I am minimally flexible. He crunches some numbers and quotes me the monthly payment at his new price – which is also still well off of what I’m looking for.

This is when things get downright silly. Manager comes out, salesman tells him what I’m looking to spend on the car, and he laughingly says ‘no way.’ Salesman mentions his counter offer – still getting push back from the manager. He wants his asking price, no less, stating that the current price has been active for two weeks (which is when I remind him that the car has been on the lot since February). That was pretty much it – no further counter offers, I effectively had the door slammed in my face and the manager walked off.

The salesman was pretty flustered as well, as his hands were tied by the manager, he couldn’t budge – and I wasn’t about to go on the defensive and increase my offer after being dismissed so quickly. I got up, the salesman apologized for not being able to help me out, and I walked out of the dealership.

I didn’t even get to the trade-in negotiation, in fact negotiations broke down so quick my head spun, I’ve never had the sales door slammed in my face that hard before. Still, there are ’07 Fusions on other local lots (every single other local lot) so I’m going to talk to a few other dealers in the mean time and see if I can land a similarly equipped model and hope I get some more flexible people to talk with.

Next week though, I may just stop back at the small lot and add another $500 to my initial offer if the car is still there.

I tell you, nothing pisses me off more than those idiotic SOB’s who don’t pull over for an emergency vehicle. I’m on the way in today, I see a State Trooper, then I hear a siren. I look around and see an ambulance headed towards me. I’m already in the intersection, so once I clear it I pull off the road and let it pass. Really simple thing to do, right?

Continuing on my way, I’ve got this gray Mazda wagon behind me driven by the aforementioned moron. Behind him, I see a Mercury SUV with the blue flashing light on the dash approaching. What can I say, after 4 rear end collisions, I pay attention to my mirrors. Anyhow, I see the SUV coming up on the wagon, and pull over. The wagon starts to pull over too, then proceeds to pull out and pass me with the SUV close behind.

All the way up into Goshen, the SUV is still behind the Mazda, who is either willfully ignorant or voted for Obama (wait… nm) and eventually the SUV pulls off towards the fire house while the Mazda continues on its merry.

Now I’ve dealt with both ends of the spectrum – the emergency worker who is conscious that they may not drive like a tool just because they have a light on their dash and somewhere to go – and then I’ve got the redneck trailer trash SOB’s that will fly up on my rear bumper with more flashing lights than a Vegas casino, high beams on, and just about force me out of the way to proceed on their merry.

Both cases, even though the latter generally TICKS ME OFF, I get out of the way. Is it REALLY that hard to do?

As a Conservative, I find it a little hard to swallow when some folks who wave my ideological banner do something completely stupid. The topic of conversation today being the construction of a Mosque at ground zero.

Many are taking the knee jerk position of decrying the construction of a Muslim house of worship on the site where nearly 10 years ago, terrorists – Muslim extremists – killed 3000 innocent people in the name of their “holy war.”

These people forget that we were attacked due to religious intolerance. These people forget that right now we have brave Americans fighting an unpopular war (was there ever a popular war?) to defend amongst other things – the American constitutional definition of religious freedom and tolerance.

Now I won’t overlook the fact that the Imam who is building this Mosque is completely fucking insane, or that the sources of the money being used to fund this project are questionable, but at the root of this action is the very freedom of religion that we are all guaranteed in our founding document, the very freedom that we were attacked for having on 9/11.

I agree, that the location isn’t the best for two main reasons. First, it is ground zero. You put a bunch of Muslims, good or bad there, the average New Yorker/American that doesn’t stand to benefit financially (I am talking to you, Michael Bloomberg…jackass) is probably going to take issue with it one way or another. The second reason? It’s been nearly 10 years since the attack and for all intents and purposes, ground zero is still a well maintained and wholly undeveloped crater. As a proud American capitalist, I find that completely fucking retarded. So if you are really upset that the first new construction at that site is a Mosque, maybe you should stop bitching about it long enough to ask WHY NOTHING ELSE HAS BEEN BUILT THERE IN TEN FUCKING YEARS!

My friends, religious extremism is a problem which has faced our species and planet for a very very long time… and it won’t be resolved within our lifetime… so how about we get off our collective asses like we did on 9/12/01 and rebuild the freaking world trade center already?

Assholes.

So NY now has the highest tax on cigarettes in the nation, the average cost of a pack outside of NYC is $10.  This is for your own good says the Government – just ignore the millions of dollars in revenue they are using to fund anything BUT campaigns to stop smoking, cancer research, etc… you know, things to actually HELP smokers.  So smokers are quitting, as they always do – there will always be a very SMALL contingent that actually quits due to price.  These pale and pasty fuckers now walk out into the sunlight and realize, ‘hey, I’m a pale and pasty fucker’ so they decide to go tanning.

Today I go to renew my tanning pass, and find a 10% tax has been placed on it.  That’s right folks, New York State is taxing light.

Only in New York would a blind man place a tax on LIGHT.

Sure, it’s due to all of the links between skin cancer and tanning (editors note: radiation causes cancer, it doesn’t matter where the fuck it comes from) – and if you believe that tale woven by the bankrupt gaggle of idiots in Albany, have you heard about the tax on cigarettes?

Stopped at the post office in Goshen to mail out our ‘save the date’ cards and had a chance to chat with one of those people who run the Impeach Obama stands. When I pointed out the irony/lunacy of putting up a sign that supports the “Seize BP” campaign right next to a big sign that says “Impeach Obama” they didn’t get my point… would not be surprised if the stands were run by Democrats trying to boost support for their Dear Leader by manufacturing uninformed dissent.

Took a little trip up to Bear Mountain State Park today, decided to try out the camera on my HTC Incredible… In short, HOLY @!#$. Enjoy the gallery!

Decided to finally cave in and join the smart-phone crowd… I’d had an iPhone 3G through my office for some time but I generally do not use it since AT&T’s reception is utter crap unless you happen to live somewhere OTHER than where I need the phone. Contract was up on my Moto flip, and while I did like the iPhone, and Verizon will likely have one soon… I generally root for the underdog and consider Steve Jobs to be an even bigger peckerhead than our current presidential administration, but I digress…

Initially I planned on a Motorola Droid, but had to put that off due to a PITA sales person who put commission above customer satisfaction at the Middletown, NY Verizon store. I ended up using the Goshen, NY Verizon store which didn’t hesitate to help me. I checked out the Motorola, then I checked out the new Incredible by HTC, picking that one in the hopes that the newest, fastest android phone may get me a few more miles than the Motorola version which has been around for some time.

Since I’m already used to an iPhone interface, it took a bit to get used to the interface of the Incredible, but thankfully I can still flip back and forth with my finger through various apps and widgets. The thing that threw me off to start though was that the home screen is the central page, and then I can scan 2 or 3 pages left and right.

I prefer the email application on the iPhone over the Incredible, as standard email (which is synced with my office Exchange server) and gMail are 2 different applications, and I can’t get one page that just tells me what is going on with all 4 of my email accounts… maybe there’s an app for that, who knows.

All of the apps are very responsive, the camera is quite nice (built in camcorder is spiffy too) – not too thrilled about the storage but I can always put in a bigger SD card if I need it.

I figure I’ll be continuously tweaking this thing – but so far I’m pleased with the purchase. It cost me $150 ($250 up front, waiting for my mail-in rebate to come back).