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General Discussions Car People talking about something other than the Car Business – Is there life outside of the Dealership? |
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02-16-2015, 02:56 PM | #1 |
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Photos from the weekend Car Show...
I had a chance to attend the annual car show that my Dad's Retirement Community holds this past weekend and thought I'd share a few pictures.
I'll add a separate post for each photo since that will make it easier for me to caption the photograph. |
02-16-2015, 03:09 PM | #2 |
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Dodge Challenger pays tribute to the Plymouth Superbird
I've heard of these cars before but this is the first time I ever saw one in person:
I didn't get the full story but it appears Richard Petty may have played a role in converting a number of Dodge Challengers so they'd be reminiscent of the old Plymouth Superbird. I can be pretty fussy when it comes to paint finish, panel gap, etc. and the car I looked at was good but it wasn't great. It looked as good as a production car but it didn't look like a SEMA show car. |
02-16-2015, 03:19 PM | #3 |
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A good example of Service Department Advertising
I saw this sticker under the hood of a mid-90s F-Body Camaro:
It's been so long that I had actually forgotten about the old 8/80 Federal Emissions Component Warranty. I have to hand it to Delillo Chevrolet - that's a clever way to advertise your service department and do it in a way that benefits the customer. |
02-16-2015, 03:31 PM | #4 |
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Polaris Slingshot draws a crowd....
If you're wondering why I didn't take a better picture of the new Polaris Slingshot, it's because the vehicle drew such a crowd there was never a chance to get a clean shot.
I spoke with the sales rep and he told me they've only had the Slingshot for the past month or so and they've been selling them as fast as they can get them. I asked about licensing and he indicated that Arizona does require that the driver have a motorcycle endorsement but they don't have to take the license test using a motorcycle. He elaborated that people who buy the Slingshot can take attend a driving school that's sponsored by the dealership and they receive a certificate that they can take to DMV to get their endorsement. Concerning the Slingshot, you can see that it dwarfs the BRP three-wheeler in the background. To me the BRP three-wheeler looked like it was intended for someone who was too old to ride a motorcycle - the Slingshot, by contrast, looks like it's suited for someone who wants to drive fast without paying a fortune. I have no idea what a Slingshot sells for - I haven't looked it up yet. |
02-16-2015, 03:47 PM | #5 |
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Slammed Mercedes Station Wagon
As a general rule I don't really care for "slammed" vehicles and I almost always despise station wagons. That said, there was something about this slammed Mercedes Wagon that really captivated me.
I think the part that intrigued me the most is I really think there's a market for vehicles like this and there's money to be made. In this area old Mercedes are dirt cheap because young people don't want to be seen in one and old people either have enough money to buy a new one or they're so worried about money that they won't buy one because of service/expense concerns. I was talking to the young guy who owned the Mercedes Wagon and the said the bag kit is about $3,000 retail and it's relatively easy to install. In fact, he said it's possible to remove the bag kit and restore the vehicle to stock and then install the bag kit on another car. |
02-16-2015, 03:53 PM | #6 |
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Same concept - this time on a Mercedes E55
Here's another car that captured my attention:
While I've always been more of a BMW M5 fan, I thought this Mercedes E55 looked awesome. As before, maybe I'm wrong but I think there's a market for cars like these. The only downside, perhaps, would be getting them financed since the modifications would likely bring the selling price way over retail book. |
02-16-2015, 04:14 PM | #7 |
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Why make it any harder to sell a car....
There were thousands of people who attended this car show and I'm positive I'm the only one who found this image interesting:
The sticker was on the side window of a 2015 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid that had a Monroney of almost $49K. It appears that Ford left some of the required information off of the Monroney so they included this sticker with the verbiage "TO BE REMOVED BY THE CUSTOMER ONLY." In this case the sticker discloses that the vehicle was built in Mexico and 50% of the components were sourced from Mexico. Given Lincoln's demographics, the fact that the car was built in Mexico is just going to make it harder to sell the car. If the disclosure was buried on the Monroney, like it should have been, most customers would never pay much attention to the fact the car was built in Mexico. Is it a huge deal? No, of course not, but my point is why do anything that makes it harder to sell a car. Maybe there's a reason why Ford didn't include the information on the Monroney but I'm guessing someone at Dearborn just dropped the ball. |
02-17-2015, 06:59 AM | #8 | |
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Quote:
. Last edited by XDCX; 02-17-2015 at 09:45 AM. Reason: Added quote tags to make the post easier to follow |
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02-17-2015, 09:50 AM | #9 | |
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Quote:
It's been my observation that as a general rule the higher up you go in an OEMs Executive Ranks the less real world experience you'll find. By the time someone reaches the Vice President level at an OEM it's a fair bet that it's been years since he/she has interacted with customers or spent the time to fully understand the concerns of their dealers. On a different note, I realized because I cropped the picture it's impossible to know how big the sticker is. Well, the sticker is about 8" x 10" and it's on the right rear door window - no one is going to miss it. |
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02-19-2015, 10:39 AM | #10 | |
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Quote:
The base Slingshot has a MSRP of $20K and the higher end model has a MSPR of $24K. Most surprisingly, I read that the engine, transmission and many of the front end components are sourced from General Motors and were used in the old Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice - two seemingly good cars that died as a result of GM's bankruptcy. |
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02-19-2015, 10:42 AM | #11 |
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More Slingshot trivia.....
One more piece of Slingshot trivia....
Apparently the vehicle has a 65/35 front weight bias. I'm thinking with all of that weight up front and only a single wheel in the back that an inexperienced driver is going to have trouble if they apply too much power in the curves. |
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