Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2008 > October > 04 > Entry
Battling the auto-sales slump
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last month, Jeff Burg sold eight cars at the Ed Voyles Acura dealership off Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.
In a good month, the Norcross resident sells 15 or more. But sales are dwindling.
“It’s tough man,” said Burg, who’s sold vehicles for six years. “The pressure is on.”
Nationwide, auto sales have plunged. Dealerships have closed, including Bill Heard Chevrolet, the Columbus-based firm that shut down 15 locations and laid off 2,700 workers.
Major automakers reported a 26 percent drop in U.S. sales for September; the Detroit Three reported a double-digit decrease in sales.
The headlines reinforce what Burg already knows.
“There is not much traffic,” he told me. “I know people who have been doing this for 20 years, and they say they’ve never seen anything like this.”
He runs through the usual factors offered as explanations for the decline in automobile purchases. High gas prices. The credit freeze. Stricter loan financing. For Burg, all translate into fewer deals.
“People don’t have money for a down payment,” he said. “Banks are looking for people with pretty strong credit. If you’re a little shaky, they are saying, ‘no.’ It used to be you could work with Bank of America or Wachovia or whatever for a better rate. Now they say, ‘Nope, we’re not doing it. If you don’t like it, too bad.’ “
How’d it get to this point?
First, let’s tone down the volume from the economic experts and analysts with pedigrees. View the economic meltdown, instead, through the eyes of a common man with common sense. One root cause of the crisis stems from the fact that capitalism has been hi-jacked by a five-letter word.
G-R-E-E-D. Corporate greed. Political greed. Materialistic greed — in which many of us pine for items, products and stuff that we really can’t afford, yet feel entitled to. The party had to come to an end, had to crash at some point. The housing market collapsed first, and now it appears banks and the auto industry will suffer domino effects. Who knows what sector will tumble next.
Burg has faith the current financial crisis will rebound sooner, not later.
After all, he said, gas prices and the local supply already appear to be stabilizing. We’ll elect a new president in 31 days.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he told me. “I don’t know what the time table is, but I hope in October, [the auto industry] springs back. People need cars, and we have a great inventory and a great manager.”
I talked to Burg on the second day of October. His month had started off on a positive note.
He’d already sold one car.
Fourteen more to go.
Permalink | Comments (46) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Comments
By townie
October 4, 2008 11:14 AM | Link to this
“People don’t have money for a down payment”
Even though my retirement funds have been hit very hard, I am glad to see that perhaps this culture of easy living may be coming to a close.
I am sick of being made to feel like an idiot because I pay my bills and living within my means.
By Analchord
October 4, 2008 4:41 PM | Link to this
I am a car salesman who has been fired or has quit from every job I ever had. Y?
They’re pirates, and I cant sleep at night.
Y R they pirates? Y would I say that?
People, if they dont get you one way, the way you were warned to watch out 4…then they’ll GET YOU another way….in fact, they will change the contract numbers you already signed…you think you got a $1K rebate? WRONG!!
There’s a little known, hard to spot shell game that all car salesmen play to rob you of that rebate. I refused to play that shell game.
I got fired for refusing to play that shell game. It’s piracy.
I ask perfectly respectable auto sales colleagues Y they performed this magic act with the rebate. Do U know what they all replied? “business”.
I said, “that’s not business, that’s dishonesty”.
They told me to go Fook myself, and that if I didn’t shut the F up, they would “Fiddy Cent my Tupac-lite Jamie Kennedy patoot”.
Muff said.
Dont buy a car until you learn this shell game from me. If I see a real honest reply from a real honest car sales prospect, then I will tell you how it works, but trust me, I had to be shown this gag five times before I spotted it myself, and I’m a CarSalesMan. I’ve sold cars in every decade from the seventies till now.
‘muff said.
By Steve
October 4, 2008 4:53 PM | Link to this
What’s with the stupid advertising stickers they put on cars here in GA at the dealerships? Sometimes they are completely crooked or don’t even match the color of the car. I’ve never seen anything like it before. If you have one of those on your car, you’re a complete idiot. Make them take it off before you buy it and make sure they didn’t ruin the paint.
By Analchord
October 4, 2008 5:27 PM | Link to this
The stickers R there to confuse the numbers. You see a $21,995.39 sticker price and then later $18,395.21 doesn’t seem so outrageous, even though the car you just bought is on the internet for 16,995.99. FACT!
but I dont want to hurt car sales. i want everyone 2B happy.
I have to tell U all about the shell game that ALL car dealers play against you concerning the 1000 dollar rebate. They steal it. You dont get it, they do.
Trust me, you wont spot it.
It’s a gag. A slight of hand. A bit.
I know it. I was trained. I’m a slow learner. I had to be showed this grift over and over and over five times B4 I said, “WOW! THAT’S DISHONEST!”
No, they said, that’s business.
You folks want to learn how they’re stealing the rebate from you or not?
Up 2U.
Your call.
Just reply, so I knows you want justice.
Ize gotz ta know……
By Cindy
October 4, 2008 7:59 PM | Link to this
Uncle. I give. Tell me. Please.
By BW
October 5, 2008 3:17 AM | Link to this
The very fact that of, you interviewing a foreign car-dealer is a little off base and insulting.
Right here in Doraville we made a product far superior than most inports, did “The People” buy American, heck no. What did you think killed the plant, buy cheap, not many here were feeling patriotic when working a car deal.
Where was Sonny during this? South Korea making deals that were shady from the start. He gave Millions in tax breaks and we took the land.
Thank you Governor and our Senators for helping us out.
By Stone
October 5, 2008 7:59 AM | Link to this
Cindy have you left us over at the Lt’s blog?
By reader
October 5, 2008 9:04 AM | Link to this
BW —- We believed in supporting the local economy. We bought a vehicle that was built at that Doraville plant, and it was nothing but trouble. My husband brought it in for transmission problems 3x. By the third time, the 3 year new car warranty had expired and a salesman (where had he come from, my husband had been conversing with the shop manager) had offered to sell him a new one. WTH?…they could not even fix the first one we bought, why would we have faith in them enough to purchase another? My husband, an easy-going guy, politely told him that he would never buy another vehicle from that dealership, nor one that was built at that plant. And, if they did not get the problem fixed, he would stand in the salesroom and advise potential buyers of the inferior service and how they did not stand behind their inferior product.
In the end, we wound up with a “re-conditioned” transmission and the dealership paid for half of it, but that was only after getting GM headquarters involved. That is why “the people” are switching brands…value/quality for price paid. Needless to say, the last new car we purchased was not a GM, but not from S. Korea, either. Prior to that, we had owned five GM cars.
By SDL
October 5, 2008 9:21 AM | Link to this
I believe that at least part of the problem was buyers willing to purchase more car than they could afford - thinking that being upside down in debt - was somehow OK because so many did it. There is enough blame to go around in this crisis. There aren’t too many out there complaining who have truly clean hands in this. Townie got it exactly right.
By Lee
October 5, 2008 9:39 AM | Link to this
For years, the automobile industry has been running a gigantic Ponzi scheme. Long term financing (84 months now?) on a quickly depreciating asset, 100%+ financing, leasing, rebates, holdbacks, extended warranties, “Gap” policies, upside down financing, dealer prep fees, documentation fees, etc, etc, etc.
Like all Ponzi schemes, they depend on a new sucker walking in and playing the game. When that doesn’t happen, they come to a crashing halt.
Ok. I’ve vented enough. I’ve got to go take my 15 year old truck with 260,000 miles to get the oil changed.
By Ragmop Duty
October 5, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this
Not you, Cindy. You have no credibility. You’re a blog-rat troll, which is like a mall-rat, but without any chance of ever getting laid.
Wrong, Lee, a Ponzi scheme is not the appropriate grift to describe the auto industry.
I’ve seen my managers change the numbers on a contract AFTER the deal is over and the customer is home. If the customers doesn’t smell it, and complain, then the doctored contract sticks.
You have to call the better business bureau and scream bloody murder. it works.
The shell game played with the $1K rebate is very hard to spot. But you can see that nobody cares. I’ve tried to expose this thing a thousand times, and people’s eyes glaze over.
But know this: If you bought a car in the last 20 years that had a $1K rebate, you didn’t get the rebate, instead, the dealership got it by tricking you with a hard-to-spot grift at the point of sale, when the salesman goes over the numbers right before you sign. this occurs before you go into the finance dept. to sign the legal contract, this occurs with the more informal sales deal sheet, you know, that incomprehensible hen-scratching the salesman does as he explains the final price, with tax, tag, and title.
If you horrid morons dont care, then F you. I mean it. F you all to hell in a hand basket. I hope you get ripped off by the devil himself when St. Peter calls you name. I hope he has a phony pearly gates and says, “right this way for heaven” and you all end up in HELLLLLLL!!!
jklol
By Michael H. Smith
October 5, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this
You said it all my friend: “Ponzi scheme”.
Unfortunately, our government decided to get all of us (we the taxpayers) into the scheme at the very last. As in all Ponzi schemes the last ones that buy in to the scheme are the ones who get stung the worst and usually suffer losing everything.
By "Spank" the monkey
October 5, 2008 2:25 PM | Link to this
Ragmop Duty is really Political Foreskin, aka Po Fo, analcord, Oz, Post Haste, gaybait, Harry Willis, pundit wannabe. So transparent as to be laughed at.
By Ragmop Duty
October 5, 2008 3:28 PM | Link to this
Dammit, Smith, a ponzi scheme cannot be used to describe the auto industry.
You clowns really are blog-simple. This country really is divided between the haves and the half-wits.
And for the last time, Stone, you POS, I’m not trying to fool anyone by changing ID’s. I do that as a favor to other bloggers so that they’ll get read too. People only tune in here for me. But because I switch ID’s constantly, they have to read at least one sentence of your comment before they move on after realizing what a cheekwad UR.
But at least you get a shot.
You’re welcome.
moron.
jklol
By "Spank" the monkey
October 5, 2008 5:07 PM | Link to this
Everyone is a moron, huh Po Fo? and people only tune in here for you? Your really not trying to fool anyone but change your IDs so other bloggers will get read? Huh? You have delusions of grandeur my sick friend. The simple fact is you really change IDs frequently because you’re worried, rightfully, that once people see your ID they will pass over your drivel right away without bothering to read it. Come on tell the truth for once POor FOol.
By Analchord
October 5, 2008 7:21 PM | Link to this
No, Stone, everyone is not a moron. But this is true: Everyone falls for the rebate shell game with which auto dealers grift the consumers.
I’ve called the consumer advocates. Their eyes glazed over. “Yeah, it’s a crime, isn’t it? Well, no, we dont think we’ll look into that. Yeah, they do lots of bad things.”
Fine. then I’ll tell you, Stone, just for being a jerk: the shell game starts when you’ve already agreed on a price. You’re sitting down alone with just the salesman with a desk between you. He turns the paper upside down and shoves it under your nose, and, with a pencil, starts to touch the numbers as he narrates down the price points…..Now, here’s the crux….here’s where they steal the rebate back….listen for these words: “We have to add the rebate back in to determine the tax…..(right here folks, this is where they do it)…..but we subtract it out down here at the total…..(the grift just happened. did you spot it?)
I’ve left out one detail, because I want to give you all a chance to deduce what they do in this instance of robbery….
…give up? Okay here it is…the price at the top of the page is not the one in the ad, or the one you agreed to. they add in the rebate to start with already, and trust you dont notice it, (but even if you do notice it, they say, “We added the rebate back in at the top here, because we have to tax the rebate”) and then they gloss over the fact that they’re adding it in again in the middle of the page by continually pointing out that they subtract it back out at the bottom of the page. That’s where they get you. Few can spot that they’re adding it in twice. It’s a scam for the ages, and easily accomplished by a novice salesman.
SO they constantly use the pencil to point all over the page, and focus on the “add in the rebate” line, down here because “they have to figure it in for taxes”, so in effect, they’ve added back the rebate twice, so that when they subtract it back out at the bottom after the tax is figured, it’s still in the price.
it’s impossible to spot when your being stressed out and crowded by a salesman talking fast and shaking a sharpened pencil in your face. It’s so subtle that I had to be shown the grift FIVE times before I realized what they were doing.
They add the rebate in twice, once at the top then again in the middle but they only subtract the rebate back out one time at the bottom.
ANd that’s how salesmen in the USA have ripped off, lets see, each year about 16 million cars sold, and if they all had $1K rebates then that’s 16 billion dollars a year.
Of course they all dont have rebates, so the number is a fraction of that, but, even a fraction of 16 billion is too much.
Have your eyes glazed over yet? Mine have.
By Cindy
October 5, 2008 10:05 PM | Link to this
Stone, Yes, I admit it, I’ve forgotten to check Steve’s blog. Not purposely…so I’ll check it out and try to participate more. :)
Analchord, Anybody ever sent you a message on here asking where you’ve been? Nah?…didn’t think so. Apparently your pearls of wisdom don’t elevate your existence here. Think about that before you worry too tough about my credibility. Fact is, I really don’t care what you think.
oh and p.s. … your little rebate story…old news.
By BW
October 5, 2008 10:14 PM | Link to this
reader, Doraville did not make the transmission or most pieces of the van, it was their job to put all the pieces together.
Management made the deals, designed the cars or in your case van, marketed the product and never saw the Japsnese invasion coming?
Sorry you ended up with a lemon, but Doreville won awards for quality, it was one of the best of GM plants. But it was old, the heck with the employee’s, it would just cost too much to retool.
Look in your driveway, how many of you can say ‘Buy American’.
By Cindy
October 5, 2008 10:46 PM | Link to this
3 American made cars in my driveway.
By Sloan
October 6, 2008 12:09 AM | Link to this
I’ve only bought GM cars in my lifetime. Do I do it to buy American? Naw. I just like their products best. In my driveway right now, you’ll find a TransAM a Silverado and a ‘64 Impala in the Garage I picked up at an auction about 15 years ago. I can’t leave it outside, I’ve already had to replace stolen tail lights. On the otherhand, I will not support GA businesses. I will continue to buy my cars at my trusted dealership in CA as I do with all other high priced items. As far as I’m concerned, when I’m done here, GA can sink back into nothingness as far as the rest of the country is concerned. Besides, I’m tired of explaining to everyone that Atlanta is not the same as Atlantic City with all the casinos. You don’t know how difficult it is to describe where Atlanta, or GA is to people who don’t live in the South. They just don’t ever show anything about it anywhere else in the country.
By Michael H. Smith
October 6, 2008 9:15 AM | Link to this
American made car? PuhLease! No such animal exists! American assembled car maybe.
Example: A Mazda pick-up assembled in Flint Michigan by Americans is for all practical intents and purposes a Ford Ranger, where Ford motor company owned 70% of Mazda. Ford Rangers are assembled by Mexicans in Mexico. Moral of that story: Buy the Japaneses label and you get more of an American made vehicle.
Don’t be fooled by the label game.
Oh I guess you could say shamefully in brag that only one has the UAW label. Yeppie…. A fat lazy arse union boss that never lays a hand on a wrench got a big cut of the action, in turn endorsed Democrats and sent contributions to the DNC. WOW!
As long as an American assembles the next car I buy I don’t give a rats butt whatever label goes on that heap of nuts and bolts if the value for the money is built into the product. Especially if some union boss doesn’t get a cut of the action, including the DNC too.
By Michael H. Smith
October 6, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this
Reality check: DOW goes below 10K. Nine straight months of increased job loss.
By Cindy
October 6, 2008 11:31 AM | Link to this
Michael, you’re right about that. My Toyota was assembled here. My Corvette was probably made in Indonesia, like about half of my shirts were.
By Robert
October 6, 2008 11:40 AM | Link to this
It’s a well known fact in the business world that if you have a product thata target market is a low intellegent demograhpic, GA is the place to go. You all are getting ripped off daily, and don’t even realize it. Take for example the title loan companies for your vehicle. A modern day scam that has found it’s way into the southern markets. It preys on the desperate and gullibile, and it’s so popular here you can’t go an hour with watching television without seeing one of their ads. You may think this is a national thing, and you’d be naive to do so. Nope folks, it’s just for you. Nobody else will fall for this junk. Don’t believe me? Just google it. You’ll see all the companies are based in the Atlanta area. Coincidence? The same thing goes for “chat lines”. People elsewhere in the country wised up to this scam in the 80’s, but here in GA it’s going full force.
It’s not only businesses you are taking advantage of the uneducated here in the south, it’s also your very own government. Panic comes easy here. This is the sky is falling capital of the country. Drought problem? Gas shortage? Horrible road designs? Most outsiders look in and wonder how can the government here be so blatantly stupid to not be able to solve these trivial problems. But then you visit here and get a look at the people. Thier behaviors. Attitudes. It all starts to make sense.
By Michael H. Smith
October 6, 2008 11:59 AM | Link to this
Toyota has a plant in Kentucky, Hyundai a plant in Alabama, Kia will have one in Georgia. What’s the difference, non union American workers.
For all those good born again believers in Free Trade, China has a mandate that cars made in China must have 40% of the parts that go into making that automobile made in China.
Oh we might see good UAW union turncoat GM starting to make some cars actually made in America, now that a Democrat controlled Congress seen to it they, Ford and Chrysler got $85 billion in low costs loans underwritten by we the American taxpayers in another bailout.
What a load of crap. Congress should have mandated any U.S. auto maker receiving any of that loan bailout money to bring back all of their offshore money back to the U.S., cap CEO pay and use only U.S. Citizen labor (with or without union membership) to produce these new cars 100% inside the U.S. compliments of those Congressional low cost bailout loans.
Very simply stop using foreign labor to make things Americans can make. The high cost of cheap labor whether the job is exported or the worker is imported, is a financial disaster we cannot afford.
By Jais
October 6, 2008 12:51 PM | Link to this
I support the above poster in his claims. There are no honest car dealerships, that’s fact. I too, sold cars at gwinnett place for for a year. I will back up everything he says.
Point 1: This caught my eye first. ALL auto manufactureres with the exception of only a few italian brands build cars for around $6000 dollars off the factory line. They then wholesale to dealers, who add a 400% markup. How does that work? A dealer will say this isn’t so. Check your facts, they roll a ford mustang off the line for around 7 grand and sell it for 35. Steel still costs the same and plastic does, too.
point 2: Dealerships are inherently dishonest and untrustworthy. In my training at gwinnet place ford, the main emphasis was always “get more money from them any way you can”. This meant asking them to pawn titles, rings, jewelry, heirlooms, take out lines of credit they weren’t good for…the list goes on and on. I was asked to disguise the truth in whatever I did, and to misrepresent the value and cost of each vehicle to any extent possible, every time. Most of my good sales were skated by other salemen anyways, who would wait till I finished up and redo the paperwork with their names instead of mine.
Point 3: Most cars suck, anyways. The designs in this country are all wrong- just totally fubar for what we need. Now I love a musclecar and many american designs very much. Love mustangs. But, I am now a grown-up and realize that cool isn’t usually practical. Rules of thumb are:
Gas guzzlers only when needed. (construction work, light moving)
Anything american should be rear wheel drive or ignored. MAKE SURE. (Americans never understood FWD cars, and front drive is only so that the car can be mass produced cheaper. It’s not a saftey option and not for performance. Front drive is to make the car able to move with less metal and ‘car’ behind it.)
Resale value does not really exist. Cars are cars and I trust nothing that I havent broken in myself. People rag them out, run over curbs and yadda yadda. ANY dealer will give you far less than your car is worth, period. (Dealers know you’re getting rid of your car because it sucks. The idea you can have value in selling your old car is ignorant. Nobody in their right mind wants it after you’ve run it into the ground.)
and that's the real deal. It doesn't have to be special or cool or even fast. It just needs wheels, stops safely and goes forward. It could be any car, but you want efficiency and reliability. You get most of these traits with hondas, nissans and toyotas, although some are better than others. Me? I'm a honda man, they are reliable and effiecient. Some of these suv drivers need to get with it as well.By BW
October 6, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this
Cindy it’s easy to find out where your car was made, look at the tag in the drivers side door.
Strange concept, a car will be better if it was built by a non-union worker? The last time I heard reasoning like that it came from a bloated manager.
By Michael H. Smith
October 6, 2008 2:06 PM | Link to this
Even stranger abstraction Cindy, is that a car built by a union member with bloated union overhead buried in the price is better than a more competitive product built by a non-union American worker. Good reasoning from union bosses sold to union stooges.
By Cindy
October 6, 2008 2:14 PM | Link to this
Uh-Oh. I see this landing you and Bruce at odd’s in the union “discussion” again.
I don’t know enough about unions to have a seat at that table.
By Michael H. Smith
October 6, 2008 2:36 PM | Link to this
They suck, period. I’ve been in two unions, one a very big union. I’ve made more money outside the union and had better working conditions doing the same work, including better employer relations. Union memberships have fallen drastically in recent years and rightly so; they bring nothing to the table but added costs to the consumers.
Many Americans workers and companies have began to realize these things and have opted for a new non-union model that profits interests of both company and worker.
By BW
October 6, 2008 2:42 PM | Link to this
Maybe the Union didn’t work out for you because you suck, Unions have standards, looks like you didn’t quite measure up.
By Michael H. Smith
October 6, 2008 2:57 PM | Link to this
I would never have held membership if I did not meet the, what did you call them, standards?
I’m still around so where are your unions? Looks like they didn’t measure-up to the private sector and they continue falling fast across the country by the standards.
By Cindy
October 6, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this
I called that one in advance didn’t I guys? Saw it coming…
By Stone
October 6, 2008 3:17 PM | Link to this
MHS- we finally agree, unions do blow. I always found them undemocratic and in most cases useless. I was in one for, oh five minutes ,when I first started out in the work force packing shelves with diapers at Kroger’s. Some smooth talker from the union with eight rings on his fingers wanted me to give up part of my lame paycheck to protect my working environment. Please!
By Stone
October 6, 2008 3:30 PM | Link to this
Cindy- what a delight to hear from you old friend, didn’t know if you were THE Cindy. You “sound” different on this blog. 4 Fords in the driveway, though my wife and her live-in mother are foreign.
Jais- no offence dude, but whenever I see you posts I’m reminded by all the racist crap you’ve written in the past and usually skip over what could very well be a well thought out piece that is interesting and informative for worry that it will devolve into another racist rant. Too bad you shoot yourself in the foot when you expose your bigotry. Just my two cents.
By Cindy
October 6, 2008 4:02 PM | Link to this
Thanks Stone! I’ll bite…how do I sound different? Don’t worry, whatever you say, I can handle it. :)
By Stone
October 6, 2008 6:09 PM | Link to this
Please don’t bite, I get a little nervous when a woman says that to me. (redhead, St. Louis, ‘86) You seem more opinionated here, which is fine, than over there.
By Cindy
October 6, 2008 8:29 PM | Link to this
Stone, Michael, Bruce and LT kinda trained me up a little…well, ALOT since I’ve posted on Steve’s blog. They’ve taught me to stand for something, say what you mean and don’t be scared to present the facts. Mine might not always be the popular opinion but they still let me come back tomorrow. :)
I don’t see the sense in being mean or insulting anyone. Sometimes I still do but it doesn’t mean I like it. I just can’t be anyone’s doormat. At first, when someone jumped on me, I said to hell with it, if I’ve got to argue on blogs, I’d rather sit it out. Then I thought “nah!” if all that’s left is mean people, what’s the use. So I came back.
I do believe Badie’s is my favorite of the blogs.
By BW
October 6, 2008 9:06 PM | Link to this
Stone, I have no idea what Union you may be speaking of, like most in the South you maybe ignorant of whar Unions do, many are, they listen to the many horror stories.
Let me give you a very quick background. A Union, is just a group of workers organized to protect their rights. Something (the right to organize, which IS in every free trade agreement with foreign governments) we have but never enforecd.
Certain Unions, the real trades, offer apprentice programs were you have to pass a test to move up to finally reach the level of Journeyman. Heck, all I had to do was pass a Civil Serice exam to move up to being an officer.
Course our residen blowhard, the one that see’es all and knows all, blows off the Police and Firefighters Union as nothing more than Civil Servants. Tell me Mr. Blowhard, when a cop on the street has to pull his weapon or a firefighter has to enter a buuning building, where is the Union? Are you suggesting that we hsve a corrupt system in Gwinnett?
By BW
October 6, 2008 10:07 PM | Link to this
Sorry about the typo’s above, small keys and big fingerts just do not make it.
By Michael H. Smith
October 6, 2008 10:24 PM | Link to this
There he blows and blows and blows again! The real trade I’m in has apprenticeship programs suck@ss. The resident jerk that knows nothing, speaks again about things he knows nothing about at all.
Which came first in this country apprenticeship programs or unions, gasbag?
By Michael H. Smith
October 6, 2008 10:49 PM | Link to this
Can’t believe Obama. This guy has the best economic advisers in the country and he is as clueless Carly “No American is entitled to a job” Fiorina, John McCain economic guru.
By Stone
October 7, 2008 10:16 AM | Link to this
BW- I don’t know what you are talking about, so I guess we share something in common. I’m not from the South, know very well what a union is, what they have done for and against the working man in this country, never mentioned anything about a corrupt system in Gwinnett (where did that come from?) and your beef seems to be with MHS, not me. Hurling names at someone who might disagree with you is juvenile and petty. It hurts the point you are trying to make. Explain where someone is wrong and skip this “Mr. Blowhard” stuff, you’ll get a lot further in life.
By BW
October 7, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this
Stone, I was answering our resident Blowhard and you with one response. Now as far as Unions, to quote you, “was in one for, oh five minutes”, you must be an expert like the Blowhard.
The Blowhard thinks police and firefighters are just civil servants milking the system, I jusgt want to know if he thinks the Unions in Gwinnett are also corrupt?
By Stone
October 7, 2008 12:10 PM | Link to this
You are confused yet again. Dowes BW stand for backwards? I never said I was an expert on unions (lowercase) or anything close to one, wow, where did you get that from? Nor are you I’m sure. All unions (lowercase) aren’t perfect and to defend them as if they are is futile. Continue this asinine argument without me.
By Jordana
November 8, 2008 11:27 PM | Link to this
Analchord, believe it or not I caught this rebate scam! Thought I had seen everything. The whole “we have to tax it you know” is what gets most people. They had me for a full minute before I “GOT IT”. We had the paperwork signed and everything and I made them start over. PEOPLE!!!! Negotiate the price of the car without the rebate being involved first (this is the taxable amount -period).Then have the rebate subtracted at the end. This is not complicated but almost everyone falls for it. DO NOT let the dealer +add the rebate onto the negotiated price of the car or tell you that the negotiated price includes the rebate in it. That means they added it onto the price of the car. You basically get no rebate!! States Attorney should be involved on all these scams where the dealer is swallowing the rebate.