CARS Program

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My friend happened to come visit last week and pulled up in a new vehicle. I’m not a “vehicle” person, but her wheels were so sharp, that I couldn’t help but take notice. They weren’t sporty or flashy, but stylish and effective for the job she needed them for. I have to admit it, we’ve been friends since we were in second grade, and she’s always been the trailblazer of the two of us.

So when she left, it was natural for me to check out her purchase. I’ve been toying with the idea of changing my wheels and when I read about her vehicle, I was sold. It was exactly what I had been looking for, but didn’t know existed. I need tow power, but do not want to drive a truck or a clunky vehicle, and this was a perfect option!

Vintage toy car

Read moreSo I started checking online for pricing and called some dealers. I didn’t know anything about the CARS program, so I did some reading on it and found my old vehicle qualifies for the program (though in the end, I found mine will get more money on the used market than for CARS). If you go through the government website, it will tell you if your exact vehicle qualifies and how much you will receive. I then called dealers to talk about it, and the first salesman I got on the phone told me I didn’t qualify.

To convince me, he showed me a statement online for class 2 vehicles, knowing full well that I had a class 1. He made me doubt my vehicle qualified. It was clear he wanted to get rid of me. Either he thought the paperwork for the program wasn’t worth his time, or he knew they had no inventory to sell (since lots are basically empty and pre-ordered cars are all sold already), so why bother? When I verified my vehicle qualified, I called back and had him paged, and you can guess, he didn’t ever pick up. He wasn’t interested no matter what. He knew he gave me a line of crap!!

Needless to say, I was annoyed.

When money changes hands, be careful. People will tell you anything!

Next we went to CARMAX and test drove the vehicle. By the way, CARMAX verified my vehicle qualified and they wanted it! Of course, I didn’t want to give it up. It wasn’t worth it for me.

Anyway, CARMAX didn’t have exactly what I wanted so we came home and I got more price quotes. The prices seemed high for the vehicles (even at CARMAX), so I did some more research. What I found was a pricing guide online that took actual sales and charted them out, for my exact vehicle. It averaged 1200 sales records. With that, you can see what others paid and what is a fair price. You can see an example here (click on Get Pricing Analysis).

Low and behold, the dealerships where I was calling or visiting were all charging on average around $3,000 more than the sticker price, which was, you guessed it, $3,000 higher than what most people had purchased this vehicle for. You can assume that the statistics are from sales prior to the CARS program.

I was like what the hell?! I tried to negotiate, but hit a dead wall. The dealerships are taking away all the incentive and those who don’t even want to participate in the program will be paying top dollar, if they buy a car now. It’s supply and demand, and the dealerships know people will pay, because they think they are getting a deal, even though the reality is, they are not! The dealership and salesman are!! They are realistically giving you $500, but I wouldn’t doubt that gets sucked in somewhere, too!

Do you think this is honest?

The CARS program should have taken this into account as we the citizens, are getting hosed again, if you want my opinion.

I’m delaying my purchased until the CARS program ends. Maybe then they will have ramped up production on the vehicles and they won’t have buyers, which will hopefully drive prices down to near factory invoice again, which will save me thousands!! Literally.

There is always a catch, if you do your homework. Money doesn’t come for free often, and when it does, you can be assured the sharks will come out and feed big time. It’s a feeding frenzy, at the expense of the average citizen. No surprise, for me, sadly.

Sam Parker Trial: Update

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From the Rome-News Tribune:

A former policeman testified this morning that Sam Parker told him he shot his wife and buried her.

Ben Chaffin, who worked with Parker, said Sam told him in a phone call, “I really did it this time” and that he had shot Theresa Parker through the head.

Sam Parker’s trial began Monday in Walker County Superior Court in downtown LaFayette before Judge Jon ‘Bo’ Wood. It is expected to last three weeks…More

To read my original thoughts of Sam Parker back on December 21, 2007, click here.

Thanks, Pat, for the story tip!!

Michael Vick

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Watch CBS Videos Online

I have to confess: I did not watch the entire CBS 60 Minutes interview with Michael Vick, because I don’t care to hear about the cruelty to animals. However, I did watch a few segments online, and what I saw was contradictory. Vick seems to be saying whatever comes to mind at the moment.

Read moreOne minute, Vick tells 60 Minutes, “The first day I walked into prison, and they slammed that door, I knew, you know, the magnitude of the decisions that I make, and the poor judgment and what I allowed to happen to the animals….”

Another time, James Brown asks (above), “Why couldn’t you understand what you were doing and what you were allowing then versus now?” Listen how contradictory Vick’s answer is. In the middle of his answer, Vick says, “You know, your mom teach you right from wrong from day one so you know, and I didn’t have the strength to move on or say, ‘This is not me. This is not what I want to do.’ You know, I continued to let it happen and you know, for certain reasons, I don’t know, or for what reasons, I don’t know.”

Does that answer make any sense? He flat out admits he knew right from wrong from day one!

Much of what Vick says, if you want my opinion, is just ramble, not his true feelings, and hence why I see the contradictions. If Vick knew right from wrong from day one, the only “magnitude” that would hit him when the prison door slammed wasn’t what he “allowed to happen to the animals”, it was that he was caught and being held accountable! It doesn’t take any talent to see this.

I also don’t think Vick feels sorry for the “animals” either, as they come as an afterthought it his sentences. And he uses the word “animal”, too, which is removed from the “dogs” he is responsible for killing.

I am sure many of you also noticed that Vick has this smile throughout. It’s downright arrogant, if you want my opinion. It feels as if Vick thinks he is getting away with it again–perhaps because the NFL is handing him another contract after he was indefinitely suspended from the NFL?

I also find it ridiculous that Vick says he doesn’t know why he continued to let it (the dog fighting) happen. Give me a break! He bankrolled the whole operation. There was obviously a handsome payback for Vick or he wouldn’t have risked the millions he made, but he obviously doesn’t want to admit THAT.

Vick just wants to skirt the issue and ramble on about rubbish. If Vick was sincere, he would admit he knew it was wrong all along, but didn’t want to stop it. He thought he could get away with it. It was profitable on some level for him. Period. But that wouldn’t go over so well, would it?

The Millionaire Fraud

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Johana posted this on my Topic Suggestion page and I thought you might enjoy it, if you haven’t seen it.

Johana wrote:

Charles Ingram

This isn’t the usual type of suggestion, but I thought you might find it as fascinating as I did 🙂 Back in 2001, a man named Charles Ingram won a million pounds on the British version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.You can watch the video of the whole episode on YouTube, starting with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUHz2RSsS1k&feature=related. The actual episode starts at 5:00 (before that, it’s documentary footage concerning the situation), and he starts answering questions at 6:40. It starts getting really interesting in the next section (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q0K_I4DMX4&feature=related). The whole thing is on the long side, unfortunately. You might want to just start with the second-to-last segment (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYJuxC1TDro&feature=related) and the end (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLm-oL-LuQA&feature=related), which are by far the best parts!

You’ve said before that people give the most clues to deception when under pressure, and this is by far the best example of that I’ve ever seen.

Thanks, Johana!

My Thoughts: Darlie Routier

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I’ve seen Darlie Routier years ago on 48 Hours or Dateline, and while I always had an opinion, I wanted to see video of her again before I made my opinion public. Seeing this video of Darlie confirms my original beliefs: I do not trust Darlie Routier.

Her emotions are chilling and cold. When Darlie talks to the reporters eight days after her two boys were murdered, she talks without an ounce of sadness in her. She is truly happy from the inside out, which defies logic for her situation, if a stranger killed her children. More than that, you would think Darlie would have been scared to go on TV, if an unknown stranger/killer lurked out there, but she obviously had no fear of that, either.

In the video, Darlie says, “If you knew Devon and Damen……you would know that they are up in heaven…and their up there having the biggest birthday party… that we could ever imagine, and they wouldn’t want us being down and being sad, even though our hearts are breaking.”

What is fascinating about her speech here is that you can clearly see she is thinking as she speaks. She isn’t talking from her heart, likely I suspect, because she feels no emotions. Then when she talks about their “hearts breaking”, Darlie tries to act sad, but clearly it comes across as an act, not genuine emotion. It’s interesting that when people fake sadness, they often do it when they talk of sadness, as Darlie does her. It’s like the words remind them that they are supposed to react in certain ways. People who feel genuine sadness do not do this. The grief is written all over their face throughout their conversations. It typically does not come and go like it appears to with Darlie. Darlie does it again below at the end of her next statement, too.

Darlie continues, “I didn’t feel anything because I was in shock. But I wasn’t thinking about me. All I could think about was trying to save the babies, and Darren and I tried to save the babies…but it was too late, my babies were gone, but we tried. We tried and we have to live with that forever.”

I find it fascinating how on the worst night of Darlie’s life, she says she didn’t feel anything, because she was in shock. What is her excuse for not feeling anything eight days later in this interview?

Ironically, her mugshot shows that she is feeling a lot of emotion when she is arrested. Did she finally wake up that no one was buying her story? Is she feeling sorry for herself all of the sudden? Why the sudden expression of emotion when Darlie’s neck is on the line?

I also find it interesting how she says, “But I wasn’t thinking about me.” Who would think of this unless they do think of themselves first all of the time? This was very intriguing to me.

I personally think the jury got this case correct.