No joke. White is the most common car color now. Mine is silver, and seemingly so is every other car that isn’t white. Although I saw a very high-end Mercedes the other day that was neither of those colors. It was some nameless repulsively unnatural color resembling radioactive puke, thus preventing someone from accidentally mistaking it for a common car such as is driven by the riff-raff.
I’ve never bought a car myself.
When my mother had to stop driving, she gave me her car. It’s the only car I’ve ever owned, a 2006 Chevrolet Malibu.
I haven’t driven it in a long time. I’m not so sure it still works. I hate driving, anyway, so I never did much of it, and don’t have plans to go back to it anytime soon.
Mooommmm let us know what FCDaughter winds up getting.
I had a Publix sub for lunch. I have an interview at 2pm then I’m gonna run for a smoothie. I found a place that makes a good one called Rock it fuel. I have a vendor I have to escort in later to update his paperirk so he can get paid for the fishing trips we sell.
I am fighting on Facebook with an asshole from Maryland that came down here and attacked a pelican. Criminal charges are being filed as they are federally protected. As Karma would have it Florida just made all animal abuse a felony. It is easy enough to find the video as it is viral. Folks down here don’t take kindly to outsiders or anyone messing with our wildlife.
Why would anyone molest a pelican?
**Butters **- she’s getting a Nissan Rogue - 2018, dark green with black interior. **FCD **looked it over and said it’s in really good shape. It should have remaining warranty on it also, plus the dealer offers 6 month/6K miles in case someone surfaces. We’ve got an appointment at 10 tomorrow to get it done.
I’m guessing for the same reason some people will go out of their way to run over a turtle - they’re assholes.
I looked up pics of the Rogue because I wasn’t quite sure what it looked like. Very nice! I like it. It also underscores the fact that these days when one talks about “buying a car”, one almost always really means “buying some kind of truck-like/SUV sort of thing”. 
Actual cars are more or less going extinct, like the woolly mammoth.
I bought a Ford Ranger so that I can take a lawnmower out to my place in the woods. Well, that and bring home larger aquariums.
And most important of all, bring home increasingly larger large-screen TVs! Fortunately everyone I know owns some kind of truck-like/SUV sort of thing. 
Don’t get too invested in a car, be ready to walk out politely but firmly if they don’t play ball. There are many places to get most common vehicles, comparison shop and play them against each other, this is a major purchase.
Negotiate on “out the door” price. This a price that includes, tax, title, tags, processing fees, and whatever other fees the dealer tries to throw in. Because otherwise you might negotiate a decent price and then they get you in the office and start adding taxes and processing fees which can easily be a couple thousand dollars more!
Say the car was $21,000, you might offer $19,500 out the door and go from there. They have big margins on the cars, don’t feel like you’re going to take food from their mouths. They won’t accept any offers that don’t benefit them. The salesman will probably act sorta hurt and doubtful but be persistent and they will go “talk to their manager” and will either accept it or come back with a counter-offer. If they say no thank them for their time and walk out. If your offer was reasonable you will usually get a callback from them. Usually you will just a get a counter-offer and you can go from there. Point out anything that you don’t like about the car or that’s defective on it. If it doesn’t have floor mats, say that, if there is only one key, point that out.
Pelicans are assholes? 
Jan 2002 - Going to buy a new car; have test ridden & got it down to the specific make, model, color, & options. Now it’s time to go to the dealer & haggle it out.
It’s a cold night, but the car’s warm & it’s only a few steps into the dealership; therefore, I don’t need a particularly warm jacket. Go into the dealer, tell the salesman what I want, very specific, model, color, & options. He wants to show it to me on the lot. When someone comes in like that one would think that they don’t need to be shown the car, outside, in the dark, on a cold January night, but out we go. He can’t find the car but then tells me not to worry, that they have two additional inventory lots & it’s probably there. Then why did we come out here, on a cold, dark night, to walk around if you didn’t even know if it was here. As we’re walking back in, I realize why - He’s got gas! :eek: (I hear him busting ass, over the wind, & the cars roaring by on the street.)
We now go back inside, I again tell him what I want, make, model, color, & options. He tells me it doesn’t come that way. Ummm, the website says it does. He then tells me that all of those options are available, collectively, but not on that model, & that the website isn’t correct. I reply that the website seems rather smart to me, turning on/off options that are either required or mutually exclusive. For example, if I want to but the $100 sunroof wind deflector it adds $1300 to the cost because it requires a sunroof to get that piece of optional equipment & if I uncheck sunroof, it also unchecks the sunroof wind deflector.
Great, I’ve got a gassy salesman who knows less about the car than I do. :rolleyes: He does the usual going off to talk to the manager/get coffee/ice me. I give him a 10-15 second head start & then follow him into the back room. I stop in the doorway. He eventually turns around & sees me & turns white. “Wha-what are you doing here?”
Well, if you’re discussing my car w/ the manager, shouldn’t I be here for the discussion? He walks me back to his desk & goes to get me a brochure. He’s literally shaking when he hands it to me. “Here, have you seen the brochure; why don’t you read it until I come back.”
Clearly, I’ve rattled him; this is going to go well for me. I guess the manager realizes too because now they take me back into the finance guy’s office. Shake hands, sit down. His first comment to me is what do you want your monthly payment to be. I respond $12.56. he laughs. He asks me that question again. (I gave him a serious answer, that’s what I wanted it to be; never said I expected it to come to that, but hey, that’s what I wanted.)
He asks me that question again, what do I want my payment to be. I cock my head to the size, like a confused dog. He asks me what’s wrong. I respond that I don’t know how we can calculate monthly payments when we don’t know what the cost of the car will be & we both know I’m not paying MSRP. :
: - shot across the bow. Don’t eff with me, a-hole.
Needless to say, I ended up getting the car I wanted - make, model, color, & options I wanted somewhere else.
I just bought a new (used) truck myself. The transmission in my 2004 F-150 started acting up in January, just before a three week vacation. Replacing the transmission fluid got it back to being driveable, but it seemed clear that a new vehicle was in order. So after I got home from Vacation, I started looking.
Well, it seems as if the used truck market around here is dominated by 4x4s, and sometime in the last decade, all the manufacturers have also been messing around with the size of the truck cabs. Every one I tried was jacked up too high off the ground to even get into (meaning my mother would never be able to get in it), and when I did manage to get up, there was zero head room (I’m a big guy, I need headroom). I eventually found a RWD 2013 F-150 about a 45 minute drive out of town, and bought that one. Nice red color.
But here’s the funny part: after three weeks of trying all sorts of “large” vehicles (trucks, SUVs, and minivans), on a lark, I tried on a Nissan Cube that I saw at one dealership, and damn if that little thing didn’t have more space in the driver’s seat than anything else I tried, including the truck I ended up buying. Only problem was, it was a 2009 being sold as-is, which seemed like a bad idea. But now I’m kicking myself for not buying one new when they were still being made. I took it for spin around the parking lot, and damn that thing was just fun to drive.
I bought my first car (an end-of-year “new” Dodge Daytona - well, a Chrysler Laser, but aren’t they pretty much the same car?) in late 1984, as I needed it to commute and couldn’t just keep using my mother’s car. However, I let my mother do the haggling for some reason, and the dealer promised her a decent payment schedule for 36 months - then used the 36-month payment amount on a 48-month plan, which jumped the interest rate to almost 20%. Ever since then, every car I have bought (a 1989 Ford Probe; a 1992 Saturn SC3; a 2000 Toyota Camry; a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid - all of them new, from the dealer) has been cash up front.
I think I caved in too soon on my last car; the sticker price, after my trade-in, was something like $30,000, but the dealer’s first offer was more like $37,000 (“well, we do have to add mark-up”). I didn’t think I was supposed to counter with something as low as $23,000, and ended up paying a little more than I wanted.
For anyone interested in a Cube, check out the Kia Soul. I think they are actually better vehicles and still have that surprising amount of room inside.
Congrats to FCDaughter on new car.
Didn’t get much done today.
Went to dog park, Ripple is wiped out. He was too tired to get into the truck, and other than to eat something, has been sleeping since we got home.
He’s still a little bit of a wussie, but he is getting bolder.
I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am at how many people stare at their cell phone the whole time they are there instead of paying attention to their dogs.
Called gas company. Somebody is going to give me a call the day before they are scheduled to do my house.
I didn’t get a ‘raise’, but I should make more money with the new payment structure.
I finished the shrimp and broccoli for lunch, heated up meatballs for dinner.
I agree. Since compact pickups are no longer being manufactured and sold in the US, I’ve been driving cars and damned if they aren’t getting harder to find.
swampy, if S10s or Rangers were still being made and the Tacoma were still small, I would have purchased another pickup when I bought this summer.
nut, when I bought my car last summer, my color choices for immediate delivery were white, silver or black. I wanted a lipstick red one, but would have had to wait another week while driving a rental to get it. I just wanted my own wheels under me again.
Moooooom, there’s a good chance your daughter’s Rogue was manufactured down the street at the Nissan plant here in Smyrna and even the power train in Dechard, TN. 
Thanks for helping to keep my fellow Tennesseans gainfully employed.
control, I test drove two Souls (one with the small engine and one with the 2.0L) and hated both of them. The one with teh small engine never did get up to 70 mph and the one with the 2.0 took four miles. :eek: That would get you vaporized on the freeway around here. I bought a Hyundai Elantra with the same 2.0 in it that had waaaaaaaay more zip. The interior of the Soul looked like it had been designed by Dollar Tree too. For something akin to the Cube, the Scion (yeah, they have been debranded for a couple of years now but Toyota still has a few on the pre-owned lot) Xb. My sister bought one four years ago and loves it.
My last car purchase, I let my sister do the dealing. I was ouchy from the accident (the reason that I was needing one) and I just didn’t feel up to it. She knew what cash was available and that it would be up front. All I had to do was test drive the cars.
My first brand new car, my ex went with me to deal. It was a 1990 Honda Accord. His grandson has just primered it to repaint during spring break and is driving it to college. The second one was my 2003 S10. I loved that truck! I retired it at 300K miles and my BIL dropped a big engine in it, messed with the hydrolics, gave it a paint job and made a dancing truck out of it. Everything else has been second hand or hand me down.
Evening all. I see this has become the car-buying thread today. Welcome to the drop-in visitors, if you like the environs, stick around awhile.
Rain dried up about 1pm and it cleared, but the fields were still too wet to practice, so back to hoping for tomorrow (no rain in the forecast…). Drove around a little bit and got a burger at Jack’s (local chain) because I like their crinkle-cut fries. Quarterly bill for Termite control came as is being paid, and Sports Illustrated wanted me to renew by mail, which I considered until I checked on-line and my current subscription is good until March 2020–damn near as sneaky as car dealers, these magazine people…
FCM, I like the Nissan brand too, if I hadn’t gotten the deal I wanted on my Dodge, I was going to try the Nissan Murano.
Spidey, you are diabolical–which is a very good thing when negotiating for a car.
Butters, not going to look it up, but hope the guy gets what’s coming to him. What is said asshole saying; that he didn’t do it or that it wan’t anything and he doesn’t know why he’s being persecuted, since it was the Pelican’s fault…
Good evening all y’all.
I think I would be afraid to mess with a pelican.
He clearly lured the bird with a fish and pounced on it and it’s all over video. Then he posted that he’s so hungry he could eat a pelican. Trolling and now someone maybe he has posted a Go Fund Me asking for $20K of which he will donate half to wild bird org and buy a boat with the other half. I feel certain that Go Fund Me will shut it down. There were two felony animal abuse charges filed against him today. And the Feds are looking into a photo of him holding a baby Key Deer purportedly. Endangered.
If you see the video the Pelican did beak him in the face. Too bad it didn’t put his eye out. Punk.
Howdy Y’all! I defilthyfyed da cave today, made and et sup and went to Vestry meetin’. I adulted big today! Tomorrow I get to meet the folks who installed the floorin’ in the Parish hall to talk about some discoloration noticed and what to do about that. Fortunately the floorin’ is still under warranty. This Junior Warden gig is just never endin’ fun. I have scheduled a work day at the church house (Sattidy April 6 in case any y’all wanna come) to do some purtification stuff like trim hedges and assorted other fun things. The back forty mowin’ crew is also about to get cranked up for the year. I need to do some mowage around da cave as da yahd looks right shabby.
A hyuuuuuuuuuuuuge tstorm moved through the area around six this evenin’. May be more on the way. WooHoo.
I read all but retained little so yays, boos, hugs, noogies, trouts, chittlin’s, smooches, and how you doin’s all around as needed.