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Smoot, WV Car Consumer Discussions

2008 MDX with Tech+PTG

by austinpower on Wed Oct 01 08:06:46 PDT 2008

Thank you all for your very valuable suggestions and sharing the experience. I finally pulled my trigger for 08 MDX in Houston area yesterday (sept 30th) and I think it was an excellent deal compared to what I had beed receiving for last 1 month (texas somehow is little more expensive that others...so funny!). Tech+Ptg cost me $36,455+$50fee+6.25%state Tax+2.9% financing! The price also included tinted glass, wheel locks and mats (no added cost). The whole process was very smoot as I mostly did thru email/phone. Very nice people to deal with as well. As I heard that special incentives will be good thru October as well for all 08s- the only problem could be finding the color you like. Here is my two cents: 1. Please check the inventories of all the dealers. This is important. Tech and base is most common and easy one to make a deal. 2. As part of first negotiation, check invoice price - rebates - 2% hold back. This should your first point to start with. 3. If the price cannot get lower anymore (and you are more or less happy) ask to add some accessories. That's how I did. My asking price was 36,050 and they couldn't go below $36,400..so I asked them to add those accessories. Most of the time, to have a good reputation/relation they will do that. I just requested them if they can help me and they seem to do that w/o haggling anymore. Also they had to get rid of one of their 30+ MDX tech from their lot! 4. Once you made the deal, always do your own calculations of monthly payments and OTD price (if you finance like I did!) yourself. Don't rely on their finance manager. They also try to sell you so many things at that time. I ignored them all. Those who are looking in Houston and sorrounding area..all the best! I got similar deal in San Antonio delaership as well but glad I didn't have to drive that far:). They have 40+ 08 MDX with all color choice:)

Re: rock [dieselone]

by jimbres on Sat Sep 06 19:34:24 PDT 2008

The Great Depression is only a few lines in the US History books in school. Unfortunately, I think most believe it was caused by the stock market crash. By itself, the 1929 stock market crash wasn't enough to cause the Depression. What transformed a garden-variety economic downturn into a full-blown depression was the passage in 1930 of the Smoot-Hawley Tarriff Act, which jacked up tarriffs on thousands of imports. Our major trade partners - Canada, France, Great Britain & Germany - retaliated with their own tarriffs, & world trade dried up within 3 years. As a result, millions of jobs were lost & the Depression lasted until the beginning of WWII. This is why almost all economists, whether Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, oppose tarriffs.

Re: rock [rockylee]

by dieselone on Sat Sep 06 07:43:50 PDT 2008

Wow, Rock, I understand your anger and frustration, but what you suggest would be economic suicide. I do like your idea of mandatory military service. But such drastic tariffs and protectionism policy would kill our economy. It might help GM, probably not since very few would be able to afford any car. Any US company that exports would probably die. If we raise tariffs 100%, what do you think our trading partners would do? They would reciprocate, which is what happened in 1930 with the Smoot-Hawley Tarrif Act. Unemployment was at 7.8% in 1930 when the Smoot-Hawley tariff was passed, but it jumped to 16.3% in 1931, 24.9% in 1932, and 25.1% in 1933. It alone nearly killed farming as Ag was one of our largest exports. Now the causes' of the Great Depression can be argued all day, but protectionism didn't help.

Re: black smoot on paint job [rsj]

by vanhalen2000 on Sun Mar 23 17:19:19 PDT 2008

I get this too. I have a 2000 Dodge Caravan, coincidentally it's white, after it rains, black streaks, mainly under the rear side windows, also rear hatch door, also some other places but less noticeable (like under the front headlights). I used a wax/polish on the entire vehicle, plus I did the roof rack and all black rubber/plastic trim on the vehicle just in case the black streaks were coming from that, but surprisingly I still get streaks. I can't get in the crevice around the middle side windows because they are "floating glass", but I don't think the streaking is coming from there because then every Caravan on the road would have streaks. I've seen this same streaking on a sedan in a parking lot recently, strangely enough it was white. The van looks absolutely terrible, don't know what to do.

Re: If you weren't [grbeck]

by rockylee on Wed Jan 16 15:45:40 PST 2008

1. Currency manipulation - given that the domestics have continued to lose market share, regardless of the relationship of the yen to the dollar, I doubt that this will help much, or that any "fix" will cure what ails the auto industry. Continue to lose market share ??? Last time I checked GM, is doing mighty fine against Toyota. They sell a helluva alot more cars than toyota here in the U.S. and are still #1 worldwide so please don't give me any of your crap because like marsha7, you will be wearing depends adult diapers. :P Just think what a level playing field would do ??? You would see Ford, rebound as they are no longer under cut by the Japanese !!! ;) 2. Tariffs - there are two problems here. One, the adoption of tariffs by the U.S. would encourage retaliation from other countries against U.S. products. This would hurt those companies that export products. (If you doubt that, research what the Hawley-Smoot tariff of 1930 did to turn what should have been a recession into the Great Depression.) Obviously you do not understand economics and can't comprehend (like others I know ;) ) their is a economic problem with a trade deficit. Our trade deficit with China is $150 billion and rising. We have a trade deficit with almost every country because they are allowed to "dump" on our market for free while they protect theirs. Wonder why your money is becoming worthless and inflation is on the rise ??? Some economist are predicting a major recession that could be worse than the Great Depression. The world feels the U.S. has lost a lot of its finacial security borrowing so much from China, thus they are buying the Euro. ;) If that isn't like looking through a crystal ball then I'm not sure what is ? Why are the most wealthiest in this country buying physical precious metals ??? ;) Again, you need to think beyond Michigan. Oh I have and I can see all these sub-prime mortgages destroying the economy's of more than michigan. imidazol97, said it's not just a one state recession. He lives in Ohio, and they are facing similar conditions. :( Two, the Big Three are getting beaten by companies building products right here in the U.S., so tariffs on imports would not provide any real long-term relief. It would only encourage Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai to shift even more production to the U.S. Toyota, still imports 51% of their products into the U.S. Honda, imports 49% into the U.S. and Toyota, is expected to manufactor their future small cars outside the U.S. ;) I welcome them coming here. Atleast they wouldn't be getting the manipulation advantage but wouldstill be able to ship the profits back to Japan. 3. Trade barriers similar to those set by Japan - there are three problems here. The first I've mentioned above - the main Japanese companies already build a large percentage of their products here, so that wouldn't work. If you are talking about discouraging foreign investment in U.S.-based facilities, that is nothing more than cutting off your nose to spite your face. We benefit from when companies build plants here. Maybe Michigan, the UAW and the Big Three don't benefit, but the country is much larger than those parties, and any legislator worth his or her salt is going to look at the much larger picture. OMG, you really have not looked at the numbers have you ??? :confuse: For every three big 3 jobs lost only one transplant job replaced it and granted those jobs that replaced it made half the money in terms of pay and benefits. Hyundai, only pays $13 or $14 an hour, offers no pension or retiree healthcare benefits meaning those folks are headed to medicare and living off of your nickle. ;) I like you grbeck, but man you are spreading incorrect information. Second, foreign companies can sell vehicles in Japan - the Germans are quite successful in this regard, because of the status and prestige enjoyed by BWM, Mercedes and Porsche among the Japanese elite. If the Big Three produced more vehicles that actually appealed to Japanese customers, they would have better luck selling to them. Yes, the Germans are able to sell their high dollar vehicles to the wealthy in Japan. That isn't GM's intended market. The bottom line it's not a equal playing field and when I point this out and "prove it" some of you can swallow facts and try to spinit saying they wouldn't buy our stuff so it doesn't matter. That's a flat-out poor excuse !!! :mad: Third, the Japanese economy has not been too healthy for years, so a rational observer would conclude that any barriers to entry have hurt, rather than helped, them in the long run. Well they are having to compete with China and India for our business. We are headed down the same path. It's not like Sony TV's are made in Japan, any more and since they became a pseudo-capitalist society their businesses off-shored and they now have a "surf n' elite" society. I know that's silverfox5's and marsha7's golden eutopia but it's not mine and many others. Man you guys both sound alot like brightness04 and socala4 :surprise: -Rocky

Re: If you weren't [rockylee]

by grbeck on Wed Jan 16 13:22:46 PST 2008

1. Currency manipulation - given that the domestics have continued to lose market share, regardless of the relationship of the yen to the dollar, I doubt that this will help much, or that any "fix" will cure what ails the auto industry. 2. Tariffs - there are two problems here. One, the adoption of tariffs by the U.S. would encourage retaliation from other countries against U.S. products. This would hurt those companies that export products. (If you doubt that, research what the Hawley-Smoot tariff of 1930 did to turn what should have been a recession into the Great Depression.) Again, you need to think beyond Michigan. Two, the Big Three are getting beaten by companies building products right here in the U.S., so tariffs on imports would not provide any real long-term relief. It would only encourage Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai to shift even more production to the U.S. 3. Trade barriers similar to those set by Japan - there are three problems here. The first I've mentioned above - the main Japanese companies already build a large percentage of their products here, so that wouldn't work. If you are talking about discouraging foreign investment in U.S.-based facilities, that is nothing more than cutting off your nose to spite your face. We benefit from when companies build plants here. Maybe Michigan, the UAW and the Big Three don't benefit, but the country is much larger than those parties, and any legislator worth his or her salt is going to look at the much larger picture. Second, foreign companies can sell vehicles in Japan - the Germans are quite successful in this regard, because of the status and prestige enjoyed by BWM, Mercedes and Porsche among the Japanese elite. If the Big Three produced more vehicles that actually appealed to Japanese customers, they would have better luck selling to them. Third, the Japanese economy has not been too healthy for years, so a rational observer would conclude that any barriers to entry have hurt, rather than helped, them in the long run.