Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Prospect Hill, North Carolina

Prospect Hill, NC Car Consumer Discussions

Leaving China

by vchiu on Wed Jul 16 05:14:47 PDT 2008

I will leave China end of August and I will put the Fit for sale. Local Gas prices have been around 4 USD/ Gal for regular. We bought an electric bike that helps us go around. The gas prices always looks cheap in comparison to the European prices I am used to. The prospect of coming back to France (Paris Area) brings a mix bag of feelings. The 9+ USD per Gallon make me think about solutions. I am considering buying a trailer to attach to my bicycle and take the 2 young kids to school. Although it is not too far away ( 3 miles) I am worrying about the few hills in the area that will kill my pace. I will probably use my 1978 ami-8 for some commuting job. I have a Peugeot 605 V6 that returns 16 mpg in urban area and I don't plan to use it often. High gas will definitely have an inpact on my life, expecially because the closest mass transit station is 15 minutes drive away.

Re: Lease 08 or buy leftover 07? [dwynne]

by bonvivant on Sun Jun 22 13:11:48 PDT 2008

Many thanks for your comments. I've been trailing this discussion and can identify with many points of view. Yeah, the Porsche dilemma. Cost of owning a new S 2000 after five years is said to be ~ $60K and the Boxster about half again as much. For an old guy facing declining income and maybe one last roadster, the Porsche seems like too steep a hill. I haven't spent enough time behind the wheel of any open car lately to know which would be the easiest to live with. A Miata looks like the default ride if I can't make a low to mid $30K deal on an S2000 as described. I lived with an MGB and Alfa Spyder in the 60s, but I was in my 20s. The SF Bay Area, I think, may still be one of the stronger regions for the S, so it'll be a test to see if I can find a dealer who wants to make a quick sale at low profit. I bought an M3 in '99 from a dealer group which owns the local Honda store, and they screwed with the money factor in the fine print of my lease. I didn't pick up on it till I went home and ran the numbers. They were dinking me for about fifty bucks a month by claiming the disparity in what was quoted verbally and what emerged in writing was the result of mysterious fees, and that it would somehow be made up with lower residual. (My first lease: I was a babe in the woods.) The good news is that after some internal churning and several spirited talks with the GM and a letter to the CEO, they reissued the lease with the correct figures. I was lucky, I guess, but needless to say the prospect of buying from this closest outlet gives me pause. I intend to see who'll work with me by email and phone, because I just can't do the on-site dealer dance one more time.

Sorry for the long post...

by benderofbows on Wed Apr 30 15:07:18 PDT 2008

I've told stories here before, from back when I sold cars years ago in another city, for 4 months. Now, enough time has passed that I can tell some of the story of working for another dealer for only 2 days! When my wife and I relocated, she had a good job lined up, and I had none. So I went out looking several different places in different fields. My previous experience selling cars had been OK, I had only left because I was lured away by a former boss who wanted me to come back and work for him in a much greater role, in sales. As I was looking around at all options in the new city, I got hired on at the local Ford store, on the spot. It was part of a big chain, and they tried to act very high volume although they really were not that much bigger than my first store. Maybe 300 cars a month, but too many salespeople to count. The experience at this dealer was completely different right from the start. In the interview, the hiring manager explained they have two types of salesmen, "Consultants" who get full share (25% and up) commissions, and "Representatives" who only got 10% and had to work with a Consultant to close deals. He said everyone starts as a Rep and has to work their way up. I knew I wouldn't be able to survive long on 10% of every deal, so I tried to negotiate with the manager right there. He even played the "I have to check with my boss" game, with me, the prospective employee. Eventually, I heard "Great news! My manager says that because you have previous experience, you can start as a Consultant! We don't usually do this." Weird. It was all down hill from there. First day on the job started at 8AM and happened to be the day of a big sales meeting. Everyone had to project how may cars they'd sell in the new month, under great criticism from the general manager. Management was really giving one guy a hard time, he hadn't sold many cars the month before, and they were telling everyone that it was because of a nasty divorce. The poor guy didn't think they were funny at all, and kept honestly saying so, but they kept right on harassing him about it. "A whole month? Get over it already," "Channel your anger into closing some deals!", "Are you going to have another lousy excuse this month?" and so on. When the meeting was finally over, they decided to call me out to see what I could do. I was volunteered to demonstrate an F-150 to the entire staff. It was my first day, and it had been 2 years since I was in sales, but I talked about the boxed frame rails, low end tourque, all the features and benefits. I think it went OK, didn't hear anything positive or negative from anyone, even the managers. After that, no one would take the time to show or tell me anything I wanted to know. My team leader, the sales manager who had interviewed me, who now wanted to be called "Chief Slapahoe, cause every five minutes I slap a hoe," just told me to wing it. I went out on the floor not even knowing where the blank paperwork was should I need it. Had there been any buyers, I would not have known what do do with one, meaning how to go the whole process and give the customer the impression that I had the slightest idea what I was doing. At least I had observed where the sales tower and key machine were. The day went slow. One of the managers introduced himself to me and learning that I had no children, told me to buy a picture frame from Wal-Mart, one of the ones that comes with a sample photo. "Use the picture to close deals, it really works." I tried to play it off as a joke, but he was dead serious. "We do what it takes." Wow. At my previous job we had rotating shifts, each day one team stayed to close and one went home at 5. At this place it seemed like everyone was expected to work bell to bell, 9 to 9. One of my only "ups" wanted to see a "BRAND NEW" Ranger the store had advertised on a billboard for $9,979. Of course, we had nothing even close. You can imagine how that went. Nearing the end of the second day, after about 23 hours on the job in 2 days, I walked up to my manager and quit. Back when I'd left my previous dealership, I had gone straight to the GM, who had seemed like I was wasting his time. So this time I just told my manager and left. He tried to talk me into staying, but everything I had seen and heard so far just gave me a really bad feeling. I'm an honest guy, and like to do business a certain way, and just didn't feel like I was fitting in on these front lines. Here's where it got interesting. The next day, while back on the job hunt, I got a call from the General Manager, and this was the first time he had spoken to me. "So, I heard you had a problem here," he said. "No sir, I just decided that a sales position in your organization was not for me," I responded. "What? Why?" he demanded. Instead of telling him that his dealership was ten times sleazier than the other one I had worked for, I just said I wanted to be in more of a customer service oriented role. After a long speech about how much they value customer service, and while I was still wondering what this was all about, he stated that he wished I'd have seen him before I left, he'd have told me about another job in the dealership. He wanted me to come back in for an interview. Curiosity was killing me, so I went back in. He explained that he had just lost his "Personalization Manager" and said that if I read the newspaper, I would see why, but that he couldn't go into it. Evidently the guy had some major personal issues? I never found out exactly, although I really wanted to know. The position came with a nice office, was "Quasi-Management" and would involve working with customers who have bought or were about to buy, and who were interested in any kind of dealer installed accessory. The position would also entail coordinating inventory with parts dept. and installation with service, plus generate some managerial type reports on vehicle sales for the GM. It was salary plus commission but we never got to exact figures. He wanted me to come back later in the week when thier corporate computer guy would be there to talk further about my MS Excel knowledge, and then we'd "Iron out all the details." Well, during the interim, I heard back from a different company in another field, non-sales related, which I had interviewed for several weeks before. I had the other job, and it payed OK, so I took it. I called the GM back to explain and apologize, but as soon as he heard I wasn't coming back, he just hung up on me! Which pretty much confirmed (again) my gut feeling about the place anyway. Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I still wonder how the job would have been. I think I'd have rather enjoyed the job itself, and possibly would have made quite a bit of money. I know many customers ask for things to be added to their cars. In a big dealership, what would you guess the salary of a "personalization manager" be? Would it have been a good job? Thoughts?

more 2007 Sonata fuel economy info.

by targettuning on Mon Mar 24 10:51:24 PDT 2008

Well, we have had the occasion to re-rent the same 2007 GLS V-6 Sonata I used and wrote about in a previous post. This time our Civic has been sent to the body/paint shop for repairs and since we have a rental clause on our insurance policy this is the car we have had for a few days. Since the Honda was just delivered to the body shop today we will probably have it for the duration. I have had the opportunity to take it on a trip to Cherry Hill NJ over Easter week-end from our home in south central Pa via the Pa Turnpike to the "Shurekill" expressway through Philadelphia across the Walt Whitman bridge and on to Cherry Hill. A few comments on the car, the trip, and the EPA sticker. As before when we had it I found myself driving faster than my normal 70-72 mph instead driving 75 with several stretches of nearly 80 mph. At those speeds the onboard fuel economy ave.readout was 27.6 mpg. The few times I drove slower at about 72 mph it crept up about .1-.2 mpg. I firmly believe after driving this same car twice now for a total of nearly 1000 miles that 28+ mpg is possible at 65 mph but as speed increases economy drops....duh!! I always knew that but there are some on this and another forum who absolutely insist they get fabulous fuel economy at extra-legal speeds of 80 on up mph. I believe that if you expect to achieve 30 mpg you will be disappointed with the V-6 unless you drive much slower than 65 mph. So, from my experience about 27-28 mpg would be the norm on the highway at speeds ranging from 70-80 mph. I find it incredible that so many drive so fast with the price of fuel hovering around $3.30 per. Even driving at 75-80 mph I was passed with regularity AND like I was parked. Once I accelerated to catch up with one of those passing drivers and found them to be traveling 90+ mph!!! Unreal... Finally, I am coming to believe the current EPA window stickers are about dead on as far as the posted numbers. I won't go so far as to say that ALL vehicle stickers are so close but between our 2006 Civic EX sedan automatic (the original EPA sticker had it at 30/40 city/highway) that in actuality gets about 24/35 city/highway as compared to the new EPA sticker (25/36 city/highway) and now the Sonata that seems to get a consistant 27.6 or so mpg highway as compared to 28 mpg on the new EPA sticker...city mileage to be determined. I would now advise a prospective customer for a new car to be confident the posted numbers will be about what you will get as opposed to the "fantasy land" the old stickers promoted.. Of course there will ALWAYS be those who drive slower or significantly faster than "normal" or prudent and their numbers will vary.

2001 E430 - considering buying one

by davexpert on Mon Mar 24 07:26:58 PDT 2008

Hello, I am thinking about getting a 2000-2001 E430 4Matic - ideally something that's had one owner and probably has between 75,000 and 100,000 miles. My simple question is, would I be crazy to do this? First, a little bit about me... I have always been in love Mercedes cars since my dad had a turbo diesel in the mid 80s. (Probably my favorite car ever for various reasons.) I am in my mid 30s and have a family - including two small kids and one on the way. My wife drives a large SUV crossover, which is what we normally drive when all of us are together. So, my car is mainly for my personal use -- the majority of it spent in my 5-day-a-week, 40-mile round trip commute to and from work. (Mostly highway miles.) I have a professional job that requires me to entertain (and impress) clients and prospective clients on occassion, so I need something with some "image" -- as superficial as that sounds. I live in St. Louis, MO - so while our winters are not as bad as they are in the northern states, we do get our share of snow and ice. This winter, we had about 10 days that were difficult driving conditions - 2 of them absolutely horrible. I also live on a hill. So, I do need something that can handle weather. (I actually had to walk about a half mile in swirling snow carring my 3-yr-old daughter because my current car couldn't make the climb. Never again.) Maybe you're asking why a nearly 8 year old car, then? Mainly, I'm trying to remain budget conscious in these uncertain economic times... getting something within my means - while being able to enjoy the benefits of a well-made luxury car. In my research so far on my needs -- and my wants -- this seems like an option. As I am a few months away from actually purchasing one... I'm trying to focus on what would be the likely cost of ownership and maintenance environment of something like this. Would it be a reliable car that can run and run as long as it is maintained with routine "grooming" and careful driving? Or this car at this age be ready to hit a spat of serious maintenance issues and be prone for many expensive trips to to the shop? To that end, as I scout potential sellers in my area... what kinds of things should I be on the lookout for - regarding maintenance? Are there any tell-tale signs that the car is due for some expensive replacements, or other issues? Or is just really the luck of the dice? Thanks. I really appreciate any insight you can share and your candid responses.

$1000+ cost to customer - Q7 DEFECTIVE Cupholder DESIGN

by kerryjth on Sat Feb 23 14:20:18 PST 2008

CAREFUL.... if you drink coffee or water while you drive and have ever spilled some it may cost you $1000+ to fix your MMI... The electronics are stored below the cupholder between the driver and passenger seats!!!! If you have nay questions ask the dealer or sent a note to the president .... His staff is hiding this MAJOR customer sat issue from him and of course new and prospective Q7 customers !!! :mad: ... Johan De Nyssch 3499 West Hamlin Road Rochester Hills, MI