Yeah, this. I bought a 2008 LR3 with 15k miles back in 2015. 7 years of sitting caused all the normal consumables to come up early. All the known failure points: Control arm bushings, air compressor, cracked dash, etc... all happened at 18k miles rather than the normal 40-50k which leads me to believe that on certain…

So, perhaps not apples-to-apples, but I did a comparison once when Volvo was offering their vehicle subscription/leasing program which included maintenance and insurance for the XC40. It comes out to about $50-$100 more per month when you go straight through Volvo versus haggling the same deal with a local dealer and…

Of course not, but I think that has to do more with the fact that your question is flawed. The raw cost of a vehicle is not the cost of raw materials and labor, right? Gotta include R&D, advertising, corporate salaries, etc... It all gets lumped in there. I believe I read a few years ago that Porsche can produce the…

The problem is, again, the consumers are uninformed. What is “A little more”? Is that MSRP? Is it some arbitrary figure determined by the OEM? Is that invoice? Is it something in between? Removing a franchise from the system also removes transparency. I’ve been in the industry for quite a while but I haven’t worked…

I’m sorry - maybe I’m dense, but I don’t understand your comment. Decreased profits from maintenance would affect the dealer, not the OEM. Taking away service revenue may cause plenty of dealers to actually go defunct. Shit, most dealers already don’t make much (if any really) on new car sales. The bulk comes from…

Couldn’t give you a percentage, but I guarantee a very large number are. Tesla initially didn’t have inventory, but they’ve been forced to carry stock and purchase vast plots of land to store inventory because *GASP*, not everyone want’s to order a car and wait 3 months. 

“I’ve dealt with more than 20 different dealers to quote and buy cars and the constant hidden costs are so frustrating. Undercoat protection, door edge guards, extended warranties in the finance office. The number of times my very clearly-defined “out the door” price has changed in my discussions with a salesperson is…

“You admit it yourself, in that you value the ability to negotiate certain deals to your benefit. Well, the only reason that’s possible is that the dealership is screwing over someone else. If the dealer is really taking a loss on a car, they have to make it up elsewhere through higher MSRP, financing, extended…

Can you provide me with a link to that source? $8,000 sounds awfully high. I can’t even begin to fathom how that number is correct. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’d love to verify. 

I’m going to say that GM’s decision to go with direct sales for the Hummer has more to do with gauging demand and avoiding the dealer markups that would inevitably come with allowing the dealers to sell the product. Furthermore, the Hummer is a far more upscale and unique product when compared to anything in the GMC…

You’re not alone. 

Gonna go ahead and disagree with you just because I have evidence to the contrary.

Ok, but you just said it... the Ecoboost Mustang. Trim/tier matters, and the Z isn’t going to have an entry level powertrain - it’s going to be 400+ HP in the cheapest guise available; that puts it squarely in Supra/5.0 territory. The Z isn’t competing with a car with half the horsepower. I’m sure people will cross…

So basically the early 90's? Sounds good to me!

“The pole-winning LMP2 at Silverstone last time only had about 13 seconds of per-lap speed over the pole-winning GTE Pro car. There’s no way in hell GTE Pro is going to be okay with slowing down accordingly, so Porsche, Corvette, and Ferrari are going to be right up LMP2's ass the whole race. It’s safe to say that…

I guess X eventually did give it to him?

Assuming there’s a HIPAA issue and nobody else was hurt, I highly doubt this would’ve even any gotten coverage. It would’ve been a blip on your local news as “traffic delay”

Eyyyy! A wild Ray Wert appears

“It’s unclear if the “porosity,” as GM describes it, impacts the wheels’ structural integrity.”

I’m not sure how the gender reveal portion of this actually caused the accident. Something went wrong here, and I’m not certain you can blame it on the gender reveal smoke/powder. It’s very possible that this failure would’ve occurred if they were flying elsewhere on that particular day, so...what gives?