The Real Bridge to Nowhere Loan

Ah, Detroit. Ah, the UAW. Ah, the American automobile industry. May as well throw Michael Moore in there- Ah, Michael Moore. Gee, I just wouldn't know how to rank those on a list of things I like the least.
So here we have the arrogant auto industry- the ones that in the 70s were TOLD to retool and make cars more energy efficient so we would never stand in gas lines again. You know, those same people who were told by consumers to price their cars fairly so that purchasing a car was not right up there with root canals in things you'd like to spend the day doing.

Think of how many times you left a car dealership feeling like you were getting screwed. Think of how many times you wondered how they could post those mileage estimates on a car and you never got within 5 mpg of that. Think of how many times you were optioned to death with over priced options just to get a floor mat.

Who likes the American auto industry? No one. Oh, it was cute enough that my father thought it was treasonous that my college roommate was bought a Toyota corolla instead of a Plymouth Fury. How could her parents, who were Louisianians AND Catholic, buy her a Japanese car? THE JAPS for crissakes. The people who tortured my uncle at Bataan. Well, those sneaky little people brought it ON and the auto industry was SERVED. My car, after my used 1965 Plymouth Fury named maroon mary, was a VW beetle (named baby blue). The main advantage was that it had a 4/40 air conditioner (all four windows open and 40 mph), and the one time I hit a dog by accident, the dog was merely stunned and the car had a dent. BUT it was so reliable. In all the time I owned it, even in a brutal Atlanta winter in which the car was so covered in ice that even a cigarette lighter couldn't melt the ice to get the key in the door, it NEVER broke down. My friends with American cars spent most of their time in the dealership being screwed for repairs.

But as the Japanese and Germans and Italians came into the market, the UAW insisted its workers be the highest paid in the world. And they'd go on strike to prove it. They eventually were paid almost double what auto workers in the rest of the industry were paid. And still they whined. The UAW developed the reputation of being thugs. In the contemporary world, unions are doing far more harm than good. And the UAW is an example of that.

My pet peeve has been the way you are treated at a dealership. As a woman, I can honestly say nothing made me madder than being treated like crap at the dealership. I always go prepared- I know the actual price of the car, the dealer incentives that are not being passed on to me, the "I'll ask my manager" line, and the complete insistence on the part of the saleman that I have no idea what I am talking about. I have to say the ONLY honest dealership I have ever been in was Tejas Toyota in Texas, where the dealer agreed with my figures, just smiled and asked for $300 more, and he threw in the window tint. What did I do? I bought my NEXT Toyota from them also. Too bad I moved from Texas or they would have sold us the next two Toyotas we currently own.

There was a car dealership near the Astrodome that gave me the non-English speaking saleman who sat me in the BREAKROOM and left me there for a half hour. At the end of that time, I saw him chatting with a salesman. I walked up to him, demanded he take me to the manager, and I said that I would never set foot in their salesroom again, and I said "THIS is my checkbook- today I was going to buy THAT car-(pointed to the car on the lot)- and now I have to drive to Humble Texas to get that SAME car from someone else." And in a bit LOUDER voice- I looked at the people on the sales floor and said "SHAME on all of you for putting me in the breakroom and ignoring me for 30 min while you chatted- you are in a SERVICE industry and you should NOT treat your customers so poorly".

It is not unusual to be treated like that in any showroom in the country. BUT not today. TODAY you can go into any showroom, wave your checkbook around, and BAM you will have a car. Name YOUR price.

But they are 30 years too late for my sympathy. If you have never had a bad experience at a dealership, I'd like to know how you did it. I still remember the disdain at the Ford dealership when I told them I didn't WANT financing, that I would pay cash for my car. Not coincidentally the worst car I ever owned. They wouldn't discount the car based on cash because, as they said, "it's nothing to us- we get the cash anyway". WELL, I guess it wasn't "nothing" since no credit is now their biggest problem.

Too damn bad. Boo hoo. Go bankrupt- then form some mergers and stop cheating people. Make a car that is safe AND energy efficient. Then we'll talk. If they are still there when THIS Rav 4 (The Twinklemobile) needs replacing.