Draco-REX

Sweet.

Any rumblings if it will be at NAIAS or not?

20% give or take. I used to deliver, so I see it as an incentive to the driver. I get my food hot and fast because they know they'll get a good tip.

No helmets, loose belts..

Much the same as other products today. There's no haggling in retail, and that's how things may turn out. Perhaps with a no-haggle market pricing MSRP will start to look more like what people are getting now. No argument here. It's surprising how many hoops some people will jump through just to get a deal on a $20 purchase, let alone a $20,000 purchase. But I think those people are not the majority. I believe most people would prefer a more retail-like shopping experience. And factory stores could deliver that better than any traditional dealership. This is why I think Factory stores are inevitable. Every dealership now has their own inventory. They have to keep a supply of fast-selling cars on-hand, plus a display inventory. But unlike a retail store that also has on-hand inventory, a dealership's product may not move for months. Ford has to be able to supply all these dealerships with full inventories every year. It's a massive production roll-out that they then have to balance with customer orders and continuing production of the bulk inventory. Now imagine if they could warehouse the cars. Dealerships would only have to be supplied with display models and a flatbed or two. Customers could buy their car and have it delivered to them in an hour or two. Ford could simplify production as they'd only have to fill out maybe 50%-60% of the inventories they have to now. Small-production models could get greenlit because they wouldn't have to supply a massive number of inventories and there would be more production availability in the plants. Special orders could be completed faster as well. The factory dealership model is a win for the manufacturers as well. And they have a lot more money to throw around than the dealerships. Tesla has already shown that the model works; that genie is already out of the bottle and no amount of lobbying is going to put it back. Will we end up with a car salesman that's just another retail employee? Very possible. Though I think the future car salesman will probably be more like one you see at a Verizon store. Somewhat knowledgeable and commissioned, so not much different from today's car salesman. The big difference is that if MSRP becomes RP, there will less need for a salesman that can wheel and deal, and more for one that makes the customer want to buy now. Incentives, rebates, etc., a.k.a. Sales, are going nowhere. If anything I think they will become more important because people will see the sales are actually coming off the price rather than getting buried in the number-juggling. So the big question here is, how can Ricart profit from all of this? It will probably be somewhere in a franchise model with set prices and manufacturer promotions along with an on-demand inventory model that puts the new MY ramp-up costs and year-end overstock losses on the manufacturer's shoulders.

Damn , wish I could. But I'm going to be driving back from MA that day.

I'm pretty sure the Unimog is still being produced. I just happened to pick an old picture.

Unimog. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/S404-300TDI-erg-chebbi.jpg

Looks like his "affluenza" is about to be cured. http://kfor.com/2013/12/16/victims-families-file-multimillion-dollar-lawsuits-against-affluenza-teen/

Define "unorthodox". As the industry sits, the Tesla S is pretty unorthodox, and high on my "want to own" list.

A modern Dime? Very nice. But if they make it FWD or CVT, no thanks.

I used to race Jeeps. But then I took a Barbie to the knee...

Sounds to me like there're external factors since Toyota is saying it's having issues too. IIRC, Austrailia has rather high import taxes, and their current government is making a bit of a mess of things overall.

Reminds me of a girl from Cape Cod. Shortly after getting her license, she went head-on into the opposite lane and killed someone. Her license was revoked for 10 years. People said she should lose it entirely, but the argument was made that her life shouldnt' be ruined for one mistake. (No mention of the lives she ruined) 10 years later, her license was reinstated. Shortly after that she went head-on into the opposite lane again, killing two. I *hate* that having a license in this country is treated like a right. It's a fucking privledge.

CC Wheels http://www.ccwheel.com/wheels.php

But haters are how you can tell you're doing something right. :gabe:

I think I'm going to have to see a good wrap to make up my mind.. I have until spring to decide, so it's not a big rush, just some thoughts I was kicking around. Thanks for the responses.

So I was looking at some dress up parts for the S5. There's some nice stuff out there, but there's nothing that I feel looks complete. So I was thinking of wrapping certain pieces in a carbon fiber look. But I'm worried it'll come across as just faking it. What's the consensus on cf wraps? The parts I'm planning are: Center front "splitter" Rear "diffuser" Side "rock guards" along rocker panels Trunk spoiler (likely Charactere) While there are real CF versions of these parts, not all are available. And mixing real cf and cf wrap would just look bad I think.

Up and back. The GF isn't coming this year, so I'll have an open seat. Too bad working at a dealership won't get me in on the industry days.

I plan to go. Haven't chosen a date yet.

2015 Mustang seen in the wild! http://www.imcdb.org/i002176.jpg

Definitely check out the garage. Doc's collection is not like anything you've seen before. Every car has a story, and is chosen for its character instead of its price tag.

I may come by tonight. If there's dinner happening, I'm up for that too.

Start up and rev(at the end). I think there's some louder cars nearby that are also running, but what is definitely the GT sounds surprisingly good for a stock exhaust.

Oil and/or fuel filters.