Randomness XVII: The Madness of the Quorum

[sumbloke]

Happy Star Wars Day, everyone. 

[Sylverthorne]

Well. That was fun. So, we're in the market for a new car.

Day didn't start that great, because I woke up with the kind of headache that comes with faint nausea and cold sweat. I /hate those/. I got it slapped down, though and out we went car shopping ... not entirely a rant, but it gets a little ranty, and for me, long-winded...

 

And I put that bit under spoiler. Not really looking for advice, for the record. ^.~

Spoiler

 

We have a short list. It's a really short list, it had four cars on it before we started.
Hit the Volvo dealer in Seattle, like you do. Got one option off the list on account of can't get one (I honestly expected this). Other is delayed, because they didn't have one handy to be tested. But the guy we spoke to was super helpful, and really seemed focused on getting us into the car we wanted. And we got to stick our noses in a couple of similar vehicles (I admit, their plug-in hybrid variant was cute, and had a nice layout. Although getting out of it was a bit like falling off a cliff for me and my short legs. Still, it was laid out more or less exactly like the one we want),  so not a total loss. We go back Wednesday to test drive the remaining option, they're going to dig one out for us so we can look it over and drive it and stuff.

At this point, we're down to three cars.

So, Subaru in Seattle. Did have one. Sales guy tho... Oofh. We had a printout of what we wanted, just like the Volvo. Options, drive train and so on. Guy immediately wants to offer us a variant. A variant he's got a lot of, as he mentioned. Ah huh. We test drive one, that being the point, and come back cautiously interested. There were a couple of things about it we liked, but we're not making any decisions now.
Guy promptly shoots himself in the foot; twice. Once, trying to rush us, two on hearing that one of the other cars on our short list is a Volvo, bad mouthing the competition and pointing us at Consumer Reports, which lists his car as being more desirable. Now, as we both had said, 'we've done our research', and, hey, we're not spending money today; by this point, we were pretty sure he hadn't actually been listening to word one.
So, we come home, eat a food, Andi does some more research and, gee. CR left some bits out. In point of fact, CR has left a /lot/ of bits out, comparing CR's reports to a couple of others (including Germany's variant of the AAA; Andi gets pretty thorough).  Subaru does not come out of this looking good. At all.
Between that and Subaru Sales Guy, unless the Volvo is a completely defective Elekk turd, we're probably going with the Volvo... and with Option four, if the Volvo doesn't work out.

 

 

We'll find out Wednesday. 

In the meantime, I'm slowly assembling my new desktop, because the current box is starting to show the time. Can't upgrade the graphics card yet though... can't /get/ one. So, my poor, long-suffering GTX 980 is staying in service for a while longer... and if you value your ears, don't mention bitcoin mining anywhere in my vicinity, because I admit to being touchy on the subject. :/

 

And, I get my second shot Friday. I expect to be DoA most of the weekend. Fun!

 

[Cranky Dog]

7 hours ago, redambrosia said:

Ten hour shifts are going to take a little getting used to, but having 3 days off should be worth it. I can actually get business things done without missing a days pay. I just have to remember to do meal prep ahead of time.

I've done those sort of schedule for years. They're not that bad with their own pros and cons.

 

Depending on your commute time, you'll find your evenings very short. But on the flip side, it's easier to schedule any sort of appointment on your day off without missing work.

[ManvsMini]

Trivia of the Timeline for May 4th:

• 1626 – Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrived in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw after becoming the third director of the Dutch colony.

• 1904 – The United States began construction of the Panama Canal.

• 1961 – Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather attained a new altitude record for manned balloon flight ascending in the Strato-Lab V open gondola to 113,740 feet (34.67 km).

[Chaoswolf]

I'm really not a fan of pushy car salesmen.

[Cranky Dog]

6 minutes ago, Chaoswolf said:

I'm really not a fan of pushy car salesmen.

FIFY.

 

Introverts get it; even when we do need one.

[Cygnwulf]

6 hours ago, Sylverthorne said:

not entirely a rant, but it gets a little ranty, and for me, long-winded...

You were a lot nicer in your not-rant than I'd of been about that second guy, lol.

 

26 minutes ago, Cranky Dog said:

34 minutes ago, Chaoswolf said:

I'm really not a fan of pushy car salesmen.

FIFY.

Introverts get it; even when we do need one.

Fair point.  Last car we bought wasn't so bad, I think the salesperson knew after the first few minutes of talking to us that she should just get out of our way and let the car sell itself to us, and just hang out to answer questions.  Probably won us as repeat customers that way.

[Glitterwolf]

Making the treaty between WOOF and M.E.O.W. work isn't always easy.

 

 

[Froggy the Great]

40 pages left on my screen, and it's time to start thinking about naming the next thread.

 

Post your suggestions, but please make sure "#XVIII" is included somewhere in the post since that's going to be my search term.

[OneBoot]

2 hours ago, Chaoswolf said:

I'm really not a fan of pushy car salesmen.

 

We actually had an extremely pushy salesman trying to sell us cars when we were at the dealership to see if they could figure out why our minivan's transmission was doing weird things. He trailed along in our wake both into and out of the building and followed us almost back to our car, gabbling at us the whole time. I finally took his card to make him shut up, and when that didn't work, I got quite snappish with him, and when THAT didn't work, simply turned on my heel in the middle of his word waterfall and left. He practically reeked of desperation, and while I get things are tough for commission salespeople right now, dude should have used the ears on his head when we said "We literally just bought a building WE ARE NOT READY," and the eyes in his face to see we have two well-cared for older vehicles i.e. these are not customers who are likely to rush into a purchase. 

 

Having done a bit of sales myself, I do have a bit of sympathy, but I also have a lower tolerance for bad sales tactics. 

 

Huzzah! 

--OneBoot :D 

[TGP]

#XVIII

 

Ex-Vee-Triple-Eye

[TripleH]

10 hours ago, sumbloke said:

Happy Star Wars Day, everyone. 

 

[Glitterwolf]

#XVIII

 

• Where Metal, Plastic and Resin meet Paint.

[TGP]

22 hours ago, CaptainPete said:

looks like we're all having interesting, weird, or scary dreams

 

On 5/2/2021 at 9:27 AM, Inarah said:

I dreamt of a strange, profane altar and a hazy gargantuan figure on the horizon with wings that reached into the sky.

That sounds like an album cover Inarah. 
 

I had some bizarre/freakish ones a few days ago. But today the trend improved: 

 

I was in a hotel. It was an upscale sorta place. I was in a lobby, or lounge, or the restaurant area — some place with chairs and small tables. Beverages were being served; there may have been snacks. 
 

There were lots of books on the little tables. There was a Bookfest or a Bookfair going on. And guests were invited to examine and take any titles they liked. The books were all paperbacks but of several sizes. Many were illustrated and there was me happily rummaging through books, deciding which would become mine. 
 

~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

 

After I woke up I made myself some eggs and toast. It’s been a decent day so far. 

[Sylverthorne]

2 hours ago, Cygnwulf said:

You were a lot nicer in your not-rant than I'd of been about that second guy, lol.

 

Fair point.  Last car we bought wasn't so bad, I think the salesperson knew after the first few minutes of talking to us that she should just get out of our way and let the car sell itself to us, and just hang out to answer questions.  Probably won us as repeat customers that way.

 

I.. might have been less charitable had I not had a three hour car ride to get most of the vitriol out of my system.

I really was not amused; Subaru Guy was not reading the room at /all/, and I'm pretty sure we were both bristling a little by the time we left the dealership. 

Ah, well; we were looking for reasons to shorten the list further, and that counted. Going through the new information and double-checking it against a couple of new sources just put the nails in. 

 

I'm sort of looking forward to tomorrow, even though the bit where we're gonna be on the road for half of forever, and I'm not actually going to get to drive it (yet), because HECK CITY DRIVING ... *sigh* Seattle... Seattle is a *redacted* hillside disaster. I really don't like city driving; and I've done more of it than I like to think about. ^^;

It's mostly an anxiety thing; I can do it, but it's generally better for my stress levels if I /don't/. The handful of times I haven't been able to get out of it, I've been deeply grateful for my driving gloves.  

 

I cannot more strongly recommend taking a couple of weeks to do some deep research into the car (or truck) you want, and the options you're interested in. Every time we haven't done that (once!), we ended up not entirely happy. Mind, I wouldn't actually trade Grendel, for all the trouble she's been, but dang if we couldn't have side-stepped some epic problems if we had done some actual research before sniffing around in person.