CARBIZ

Plasma's lamp life is 50,000 hours. That is 17 years if you watch your TV 8 hours a day - more than most people do. My last TV was a 50" Hitachi that I bought in 1994. It was a rear projection and although the lenses got dirty and the colors faded a little, it has played flawlessly. If you seroiusly plan to get 10+ years out of year TV, don't compomise. DLP is just a mid-step. With Plasm and LCD, you can go with a bigger screen (42"+) and not have it dominate the room. When I bought my 50", it sat in a 22X14 family room; now I live in a condo. The TV cabinet is just too big. It dominates the room. Buy as much as you can afford. You will be living with it for more than a decade.

I think GM is being market-selective with respect to their trucks. In the land of $2.50 a gallon gas, Tahoes and Trailblazers reign. Up here, where we hit $1.10 a litre again (damned near $5 a gallon), Uplanders and Equinoxes are the big sellers. I think GM is shrewdly pushing what they can sell where they can sell it. I have no problems selling the Uplander against the Chrysler. None. For those who need the fold flat seat, 19 litre smaller tank (4.5 gallons, guys!) smaller standard engine, then the Chrysler is fine. In the Toronto area, we do very well with the Uplander. It has a host of standard features that the Chryslers don't have. Against the Sienna and Odyssey, it is more challenging, but at the end of the day $10,000 is a lot of dough. A base Odyssey is $32,000 in this area; the Uplander is $18,999. Not necessarily a fair comparison in terms of features, but for many families who are paying $4.50 a gallon AND $2,000 a year insurance they don't have a choice. A lot of the weight falls upon the sales people to prove why the Uplander holds its own, but it is a lot tougher now than it was 6 years ago when we had the Venture versus the old Sienna or Odyssey.

*Shakes head* The U.S. (and to a lesser extent, Canada) are an anomolies in all the world. At two and three dollars a LITRE there won't be many takers for Tahoes in Europe. We are one hurricane or terrorist attack away from paying $100 a barrel of oil. Europeans are ready for that. Are we?

Paolino, don't be so sure your family won't learn to accept you for who you are. My parents found out I was gay when I was 15 - 1976. My father, who made Archie Bunker look like a liberal, was pretty freaked. I was living with him at the time. He made lots of threats (like throwing me out when I turned 16), but truthfully, he was all bluster and no action. My mother thought she could turn me. Her main contention was that at 15 I had no idea who or what I was. Although I absolutely knew I was gay, my arguments were weak and lame. There was no immediate resolution. I tried living with my mother for about 18 months, but when she discovered a girl I had been dating was actually bisexual and had gay friends, she freaked and grounded me. Like, I was 17 and my curfew was 9:00 and she would phone where I said I was going, or show up at the library to make sure I was there. I couldn't live like that, so as soon as my grade 11 exams were done, I found a job and an apartment and moved to Toronto. I never looked back. My mother came around when I had been living with my first boyfriend for a year. She met him, realized he wasn't a child molester (he was 19 - I was into older men then!) As she later said to me: she knew absolutely nothing about homosexuality, except the dirty stories. She educated herself. It was the late '70s and there wasn't much info out there. She became very supportive. When my first boyfriend and I broke up (after 5 years) she tried to play marriage counselor. That was funny! She really became attached to Bob. My father was another story. My mother expressed suspicions about his sexuality. He took it worse. He always made fag jokes, but then he was an alcoholic anyway. Ironically, when he took his own life in 1985, he was just starting to come around. He had become civil with my second boyfriend, Paul. The real challenge about homosexuality is that it makes people confront their own sexual feelings and frustrations. As my mother put it, most of her peers can't handle their own sexuality, let alone mine. Sex has been such a dirty secret in North America. It gets to the core of people's neuroses and hang ups. Very few people can just engage in a sex act without getting into feelings of guilt, remorse or shame. We have to fight the 2,000 years of propoganda that sex can only happen within the sanctions of a God witnessed marriage between two people in love of the opposite sex. Until Society gets beyond that, we have our work cut out for us.

Recently when I was walking through a large parking lot, I spied an Element and then 3 vehicles over was an Aztek. I asked my partner, who is Brazilian and really knows nothing about North American cars, if he liked either one. He stood about 15 meters from the two, looked them over and declared that he thought that one might be a newer version of the other. When I explained that critics absolutely loathed the Aztec but heap praise on the Element, he expressed surprise. I have a Husky and I wouldn't be caught dead in an Element. It isn't fit (no pun there, either) for a dog to pooh in. The entire interior of the HHR can be easily wiped down. But since when is an old carpet or towel not easier to clean? I've had dozens of different vehicles and never had a problem with my dog hopping in the back.

Southern Ontario has the WORST WEATHER IN THE WORLD. We used to get nice, fresh Spring days in May, but now it goes from 10 C to 34 C with nothing else in between! Where else on the planet do you just get used to 34 degrees (with a humidex of 43) and then get doused with -20 C ??? The Great Lakes create this Gawdawful heat sink that just drapes southern Ontario with this soupy crap for 3 or 4 months. Oh, I suppose it could be worse: Buffalo seems to get 40 cm dumps of snow every other day in the winter. I guess they are on the wrong side of the lakes, too. The storm streamers hit west and east of Toronto (London and Peterborough). Well, at least we don't get hurricanes or earthquakes.....oh, okay, so we don't have the WORST WEATHER IN THE WORLD.

Yeah, the Canadian exchange has risen to almost par, from 63 cents just 18 months ago, thanks to our petro dollars. BUT car prices haven't dropped. We pay $70k for a Corvette Convertible; $66k for a LTZ Tahoe. $475 sounds high for an SS lease, though. If your RSX is a factory lease - forget about it. They won't even talk to your Chevy dealer and if you've only been driving the car for a year or so you are BURIED. To buy out the lease or buy out the car, either way you are probably in the hole by $6-10 GRAND. I've tried to get people out of HOnda, Mercedes or whatever leases in the first two years and it is impossible. Those contracts are nasty and they won't budge a dime. At least with GMAC they will discount what you owe if you want to break the lease.

Newbiewar, your going to split a gut when you hear this: we, too, had a great month. I think we may have hit 70 - for the month. LOL! That is the best month since last July. I personally wrote 11 deals and got out 9. You guys would probably starve on that! However, I would think that our grosses/pay plans are more aggressive because on 7 or 8 deals I can make a good living. Our top guys make 6 figures and I think 3 of them hit that. After 15-18 years in the biz, of course. The Impala, Cobalt, Uplander are all doing well here. I sold a 2004 Monte Carlo for $6,000 under cost. We have 4 of them kicking around! All new. I still haven't sold a single '07 Tahoe! LOL

My friends are all gay. I am out at work, but frankly these guys (even the married ones) are girl crazy all the time. It is kinda gross seeing a 55 year old guy carry on like he is 25 - hitting on girls half his age and thinking he is cool. As is typical of the stereotypical straight male, all they talk about are sports and girls. Hell, my manager actually got into a bar brawl a month ago over making an anti-French remark during a hockey game. How is that for stereotyping! He's in his late 40's, for Gawd's sake! At the Detroit Auto Show last year I just had to leave them behind: all they were doing was gawking at all the models handing out flyers. They didn't give $h! about the cars. I ditched them. I came out in the late '70s and at that time is was harder to get straight people to accept you, let alone understand. As my straight friends got married they all morphed into these Stepford families: robots that existed only to care for their kids. Their own personal interests and needs simply vanished. I guess that can be one of the downsides of being gay: the Peter Pan syndrome. For kids now, they can hang out with their gay or straight friends in either the gay or straight clubs. I read an article recently that talked about the dying club scene in Toronto and they mentioned that the "twinks" can go to the larger, glitzier straight clubs and are accepted. I guess it is only the old warhorses like me that don't want to have to guess if a guy who is talking to me is gay or just making conversation. I haven't had any female friends in decades. It was too much trouble. They would want to be more than just friends and it was too complicated.

Great video clips! I am a huge fan of Chrysler's "fuselage" styling. My father had a '69 300 4 door hardtop. The 300s always looked a little cleaner inside because they had none of the fake wood grain that was all the rage back then. These cars were amazing on the highway. The 300s and Imperials were very clean and uncluttered looking for their era. It has always puzzled me as to why the Imperial was always (except in '57) such a long distance third in the Big Three luxury wars. At that time, chrysler's engineering was second to none. The 3 spd Torqueflite was a legend. Torsion bars on the front suspension. But Cadillac ruled the roost................

Well, I am really going to throw fuel on the fire of this one. Specifically, Ford used to offer an incentive card in Canada through CIBC - they axed it completely about 4 or 5 years ago. GM may have annoyed a few customers when they modified the program 3 years ago, but at least they kept it in place. As I read through the steps above, I do see where most of it does appear to be Michigan-centric. Although I sell nowhere near the # of vehicles BM does (in fact most GM dealers in Canada don't sell as many cars in a year as BM! LOL), I have observed that perhaps what is needed is for the Big 2.5 to get back control of their dealers. From what I can see, most of the dealers are being run by second generaton burn-outs who are spoiled, silver spoon fed brats that know nothing about the car business. Having said that, as the business has become so complex, I believe the consumer and the manufacturers would be better served if dealers were set up as boutiques, and salestaff were salaried advisors. The high pressure/get-the-next-deal nature of many dealerships is not conducive to fostering long term relationships with the clients. At least in this area, GM has been trying to assist in training the sales staff, including setting up expensive events with the competition's vehicles for us to touch and inspect. This is one area where GM should have the upper hand; after all, GM has 80 odd years experience in selling to North AMericans; Japan Inc does not. However, as I sit and (try) to watch King of Cars, I cringe when I realize there are some dealerships that are like that.

I am not sure about Flint, but I know up here GM employees are the HARDEST people to sell. I run when I hear a GM employee coming. They whine and bitch about everything and they shop COST. They claim the dealers are all a**holes, but I wonder which came first: the chicken or the egg? I even had one who bought a Venture at cost on a program of no payments for a year (GM did that 3 or 4 years ago at Christmas) and then he expected to sell the vehicle back to us 10 months later and not lose anything!!! Yikes. If Buickman can sell a few hundred GM employees a year, my hat is off to him.

This reads like a press release from Honda. Missing from the article is the fact that Indiana is kicking in $40 million in incentives to Honda, another $45 million on infrastructure improvements, and $55 million in road improvements not "directly" related to Honda. This is all appeared in the Business section of the Toronto Star today. Of course, it will be pointed out that the hundreds of millions in spin off jobs are worth it, but aren't we really pitting Indiana against Michigan? If it costs Indiana $100 million or so to buy these jobs while 30,000 jobs are being lost at GM - how is this benefiting America? I am not an economist, but it isn't rocket science to see that every plant that Japan Inc opens is another nail in the coffin of GM and Ford. The irony of it all is that American taxpayers are footing the bill! Am I crazy? Why aren't more people concerned about this? Are we so short sighted that we will whore out our neighbor just so we can save a few bucks or drive a fancier car?

Imagine that, on a GM fansite people poke fun at Toyota and Honda. I suppose it would be more fun to do it on ToyotaNation.........? We get bombarded with hyped, dramatised and exaggerated articles and news at every turn. It is a little refreshing to spend some time with people, who for the most part, are a little more informed than the average Joe and at least have some gleening of an idea that the media doesn't just print the unbridled truth, that media organizations do have axes to grind (New York Times, Toronto Star) and that next to politicians, news media in general are the most untrustworthy sources of information out there. I don't think anyone here is laughing at Honda or Toyota's foibles, but somebody has to ensure that it gets proper attention.

Evok - why don't you do some reading and then get back to me. Toys R Us - railroaded at every turn. Houdaille in Texas had their legal team's visas cancelled by MITI Toshiba, Sanyo, etc. receiving sugar beet import quotas to offset their losses in North America. You are only talking about the auto industry, specifically. I am talking about Japanese trade practices in general. Why is it that a Japanese company can set up here and be a wholly owned subsidiary of Tokyo, yet when an American company tries to set up shop in Japan they have to form a "partnership?" I am intrigued, aren't you? As I've said, buy what you want. I don't feel I should have to apologise for supporting American and Canadian companies. Whenever possible, I will buy what is made here, even though when it comes to textiles, electronics and other manufactured goods it is getting harder and harder to come by.

Ford opened its first factory in Windsor in 1908.................. The first American car factory to open in Japan was...........................? GM sold nearly a half million vehicles in Canada in 2005................ GM sold nearly, what 20,000 vehicles in Japan?....does anybody know? Does BMW or Audi build any vehicles in North America....................? At least with the Germans there is some parity because GM and Ford sell a lot of vehicles in Germany; it is, after all, a free market. This topic has wobbled like a drunken sailor. It is a free world. Buy what you want. I, for one, will only buy what GM, or Ford have to offer. EVER. (I'm still debating about DCX). I studied Japanese trade practices in University. What they did to the American electronics industry and what they tried to do to the tool & dye business is shameful. Canada and the U.S. have been friends for 165 years. We share the same culture, language and business ethics (for better or worse.) As the future unfolds, it will be the foundation of intellectual property (patents) and the ownership of IDEAS that is going to determine which culture controls the future. I think Japan Inc has figured this out. Too bad Washington hasn't (or Ottawa, for that matter!)

I see, attempt at humour: Impala = bunch of logs strung together BMW= Hatteras yacht How about GM = your kids get to go to school BMW = they work at 3 jobs to pay the taxes that have built all the transplant factories in America

Wow. The #1 store in Canada can barely sell 100 retail a month now. One of our leasing managers told me a few years ago that when she started (in the late '70s), we would routinely sell 50+ vehicles on a Saturday. We only sold 45 units last month! Of course, now we have about 12 salespeople total and back then there were 22 NEW salespeople and about 5 managers. Losing Oldsmobile hasn't helped. We've lost a lot of customers because Chevrolet just doesn't have anything for them. ( I mean, what would you do when your Aurora lease is up? Impala?????) GM has 41 dealers in the GTA; Toyota has 12 or 13. We are selling the same number of vehicles. I saw an ad from one of the local dealers yesterday, advertising the Malibu LS for $16,999. The GM ads have been calling for $19,999. There are some temporary "under the radar" credits on the car, but instead of trying to make some money this dealer (who sold 38 vehicles last month) is panicking and trying to cut everyone else's throat. This is not good for the customer, not good for GM and certainly not good for the dealers. I read that GM is shedding 30,000 jobs. Equally importantly, GM needs to shed about 30% of its dealers. In Canada at least, all brands should be under one roof. There just isn't the market to compete against Pontiac when there are 5 Pontiac stores in a 4 or 5 mile radius. I don't know how GM can do that. Olds cost them billions. There are a lot of fat, rich dealers out there who won't go away easily. But it has to happen. Nobody is making money up here. Our sister Toyota store sells more on a Saturday than we do in a month.

We could debate this all day, Pontiac. GM sold a half million cars in Canada this year. The Auto Pact goes back 40 years. McLaughlin goes back 80 years in Oshawa. How many non-Japanese cars were sold in Japan last year? What's that...tens of thousands, maybe? It is only fitting that GM engineer, design and build cars in Canada (Equinox, Impala). Japan INc. does just enough to convince people like you (and Washington that they are as American as apple pie....and it's working, apparently. Read about Japanese trade policies. Educate yourself. Then buy a Lexus.

Boy, some people on this board have a real elitist view of what people should buy and not buy. "BOTTOM FEEDER?" I'll let the 3 families of the Uplanders I sold this month know that they are "bottom feeders." Tell me, why would you deliberately throw away $5,000 on a van? If you HAVE $5,000 and WANT to throw it away, that is one thing, but if you are working 2 jobs to keep a roof over your head, have 4 kids and your '93 Caravan just crapped out - what are your choices? A lot of you guys down south are going to get a rude awakening when one more banana boat country goes nuts (Venezuela? Sudan? How about Isreal invading the Gaza again?) and oil hits $100 a barrel. Try living with $4.50 a gallon gas, like we are now. How about $10 a gallon like they are in Brazil? A Tahoe is NOT daily transportation. END OF STORY. NOBODY ON THE PLANET NEEDS 240 HP IN A MINIVAN. Believe me, I am not a huge fan of the Uplander. We should have had an all new minivan in 2003 and it SHOULD have been better than the Sienna, but we don't. Lutz and Wagoner have a lot of fires to put out just now. Sure, I wish the Uplander was so much more, but in the meantime, for $18,999 BRAND NEW, with OnSTar, ABS, 17" wheels, 4 wheel discs, power everything, keyless remote, oil life monitor, etc. - it is a far better value than a $32,000 Sienna. Is the Sienna better? Yes. Can I sell a lot of Uplanders? Damned right.

Oh, and BigPontiac: BUYING A JAPANESE OR GERMAN CAR, NO MATTER WHERE IT IS "BUILT" IS NOWHERE NEAR THE SAME THING AS BUYING A FORD OR GM PRODUCT. PERIOD. END OF STORY. We have debated this to death on C&G. Others more learned than me can haul out the quotes, magazine articles, etc. We gotta keep the technology, the R&D, the tool & dyemaking and the patent ownerships in North America or we are all going to be working for Wal-Mart in 10 years. If you can't see that, then I hope your kids learn to speak Chinese......

OC, the point I am making is that sitting in traffic, driving to work - you would be happy to have a smooth, quiet Allure or Fusion and save the ten grand. Sure, the once a month you get to open it up on a back road makes a BMW seem worth it, but at the end of the day, I'd rather have the ten grand in a retirment investment or put it towards a boat. And LT...where to start... It is late and I am at home, so I will try and address from memory what you are saying. Doc fees of $150? You are high. EVERY dealer (at least in southern Ontario) charges between $3-500 in hidden crap: PPSA, admin, registration, PDI (the Japs love that one) and all of it is taxable. Ever see the Hyundai ads in Toronto for $169 and ZERO down? They want $2,000 on delivery. I stand by my numbers. Sure, you can put the up front stuff in the payment (like we do) and I showed you what would happen to our numbers if we matched the way Honda does it. The Honda website states that "certain fees" may not be included and at the ver least the $784 they list is TAXABLE, so that alone becomes $901. NO MISINFORMATION. YOU CAN'T READ. $1,000 off a Civic in Toronto. Now? Keep on smokin', baby. I called my friend at Roadsport Honda (he used to work at our dealership) and he laughed. Of course, if you are shopping by phone, they will tell you anything to get you in the door. Whip out the credit card, honey - now we're talking!!!! DX-G DOES NOT HAVE FOLDING MIRRORS OR SPLIT FOLDING REAR SEAT. I picked the DX-G, not the LX because that is what they sell. Just like our LT is popular. I only picked leather, etc. on the Cobalt just to show how much MORE equipment you can get for $50 a month less. 30% less fuel economy? DO YOU DRIVE LIKE MY GREAT AUNT? Press both of these cars to the floor and the real world numbers will be much closer than you think...flatter torque curve...more usable torque...why do I bother???? FOUR YEAR OLD CAVALIER FOR $6-7K? WOW! Considering we were selling 2005 Cavaliers for $11,999 a year ago, that makes the Cavalier, like - 50% residual after 4 years? I'd say that was damned good, wouldn't you? Oh, and yeah, one more thing: the crappy J-cars still outsold the Civic in Canada in their last year. A 6 yr/120k GMPP warranty with zero deductible is probably around $2k. As I said, I am at home now, but the dealers make a lot of money off the warranty so the price spread probably is pretty big. Anyway, I don't know why I bother. Import humpers have been drinking the kool aid for far too long. I can get more from memory at midnight in my underwear than you can come up with all day..... Oh, and I sold an Equinox today BECAUSE I used all this factual information when the customers were in two days ago and THEN they looked again at the Xtrail and went onto the websites that I directed them to...after signing the woman said she was happy to buy a vehicle that was designed, engineered and built in CANADA.

Well, BigPontiac, thanks for doing your bit for the economy. I care about what happens on this side of the Pacific. And for my money, the Cobalt SS is every bit the car as the Mazda 3 GT. Bully for you that price doesn't matter, again, for those who can't read I AM TALKING ABOUT THE AVERAGE PERSON HERE. The problem is that so-called enthusiasts rule the roost and tell the consumer what they want. Confused, people end up listening to their BS and end up buying/leasing a BMW when, in fact, a Fusion or Impala or Allure would have been fine. Then the poor sap is into $1,200 for set of tires, $200 oil changes and premium gas. (This happened when a friend of mine leased an Acura TL a few years ago.) Who gets to drive these vehicles at anwhere there capabilities? With the frost heaves/pot holes taking over the roads, I would rather drive a Buick than a BMW any day, but that is just me. And I do drive what I sell. Personally, in stop and go traffic a manual shift is a waste of time; however, that is your choice if you want to crawl along the freeway at 10 mph and have to shift every 4 seconds.

Wow, things must be worse down there. I had my best month in 4 years during employee pricing. The Aveo is certainly not our highest grossing vehicle, but if we can hold to sticker we do okay. I would kill to sell one Vette a year. The Vette market is dead up here. $70,000 is too much money. Our dealer has to survive on Aveos, Malibus, Cobalts and Uplanders. We've sold 2 Tahoes since they came out! We sold maybe 5 Corvettes this year. That is our reality. Dealers that used to sell 60 vehicles on a Saturday are now selling 50 in a MONTH. I missed the good ol' days when having a Chevrolet/Olds franchise (in Canada) was a license to print money. Now, with the Buick/Pontiac dealers having the Vibe (we never did) and getting the Aveo (Wave), Cobalt (Pursuit) and even the Torrent, plus having 2 convertibles to sell and the entire Buick line - we are getting crucified. Thank God for the Aveo and Uplander because I have lost many customers who had Olds Intrigues and Aleros. Some of them went to Buick, but most just bought out their leases. I don't know what salesmen make in California, but up here NOBODY is making 6 figures any more. I know salepeople who have been in the business 20 years who used to sell 20 Olds/Chevs a month and now sell 8. Cars and insurance are very expensive up here. I have been told by several insurance agents that due to the losses from "new Canadians" we now pay the highest insurance premiums in North America, too. $2,400 for a Cobalt would be a good rate. $5,000 is not unheard of. Take them apples!

Just to add my two cents to the fray: Since MOST people lease these things, I've priced out (Canadian) the Mazda 3 GT with automatic ( 5 spd) and added their leather heated seats and sunroof. I see no mention on Mazda's system of side air bags. The rain sensing wipers and heated mirrors are cool. Block heater is optional at $42.50 (reasonable) and fog lights are listed at $366, spoiler at $400. This brings the Mazda to $27,015, including freight. Hmmm. The similarly equipped SS lists at $26,610, but we can sell it for $24,142. Their lease is 3.9% to the Cobalt's 2.0%. Their buy back is $11.937 versus the SS' $9,846. Now, to the payment, again from the Mazda website, $378 plus taxes = $435 for 48 months. They don't say how much they want on delivery, but most of the imports want first payment, PDI and admin, so let's say they want $1,000 up front. The Cobalt SS with sunroof, heated leather seats, XM radio, 220W Pioneer system, 2.4 engine, etc. etc is $337+txs=$388. A WOPPING $47 A MONTH CHEAPER THAN THE MAZDA. Again, back to the reality of the average Joe who has 2 screaming brats and bills to pay - $47 would break someone like that. Fun factor? Well, that is subjective, but I have XM and that counts for a helluva lot and the Cobalt sound system is the best in the small car biz - that alone could save some young guy/gal $1,500 in aftermarket junk that they'd have to rip out when they return the lease. The point of this exercise is: GM delivers, but the challenge is to tackle one customer at a time and educate them to what we have. If people on this board, who are supposedly more informed, take the attitude that Mazdas and Hondas, or anything IMPORTED is better than everything GM has to offer, then all is lost.