Had this problem recently at a roundabout with heavy traffic from one direction. I’m usually aggressive enough and drive a small car, so no problem finding space to squeeze in. This time however, I had someone following me that didn’t know how to get where we were going. After close to 5 minutes of sitting, I finally…

Or GM. They manage with the Cruze, Sonic, Spark, etc.

And you are a better man for it!

I do the same for the buying process, point out I’m a purchasing agent for a Fortune 100 company and have been doing it for 8 years. But I’m also open, honest, and straightforward. Most salesmen are receptive and some even relax a bit knowing they are working with a professional buyer.

Anyone reasonable expects a dealer to make a reasonable profit so they can cover their expenses and pay their employees. It’s the sleezy behavior and outright lies that pisses buyers off. I’m gonna be open, honest, and straightforward and I expect the same of the salesman, manager, and F&I guy.

The Pontiac Vibe would be the one that was built by Toyota (technically built by NUMMI, a joint venture of GM and Toyota).

And that’s why I avoid Carmax like the plague. Anyone who can negotiate worth two shits should too. They overcharge, plain and simple.

You can do it in a less dickish manner. At least give them a chance to be non-sleezy first. I just emailed 9 local dealers with exactly what I was looking for, stating price was the deciding factor. Played them against each other and waited them out.

Adequate followup is part of everyone’s job, in any company or industry. You or someone at the dealer can make time to do it if it was a priority to you. Good relationship management is not a strong point for many of the crappy dealers.

I’m sure car payments are included, I’m wondering if that number only includes people with car payments or some statistical crap like that. 

Yeah, the engine choices were what ruled it out for me. 1.4T had no torque and was a huge pain to drive in the city (stick shift). The 2.4L got horrible mpg, and was not even remotely on my list. I wanted to like the Dart but was horribly disappointed.

When it launched, there were a ton of ads on TV. I recall being honestly surprised and hopeful that Dodge had finally made amends for foisting the Caliber upon this country.

Depends on location and cost. If finding parking takes a ton of time, costs a ton of money, and you have that problem everywhere you go, waiting 1-2 minutes and not paying out the nose sounds pretty good.

I shopped a 1.4L turbo manual dart against a 1.4L turbo manual Cruze. Ended up with the Cruze. The Dart’s engine had 0 torque below 3k RPMs, then it would slam into the redline immediately. Getting it going from a stop was maddening, which made city driving unbearable. The Cruze also was cheaper, better equipped, and…

My point was that seems high, so it’s either a poor statistic or people are bad at managing their money.

Also, $9000 a year? I have 5 cars, all costs combined are below $6k a year.

Yeah, no. The average car is on the road for 9 years. The cars being sold today will just be hitting that 9 years in 2025, so unless he can pull it off next year, there’s going to be plenty of years worth of existing privately owned cars on the road come 2025.

This. It was better in shape than my winter beater is. I would have traded them and they could have beat it to hell then junked it.

When VW has issues they seem to make an effort to make things right for the customer.

Nah. I’m 29 and I pay $42/mo for full coverage on a CTS-V.