Various press releases/stories are saying Summer '08. To me that means late Summer in Canada and mid-Fall in the US.

 

That's such a tough thing to find -- at my dealership it took the sales manager about two weeks to come to grips with the fact that I was going to buy a 2009 Ralliart at list price, and that I knew more about the vehicle than he did. He's a good enough guy, and luckily his boss didn't have any issues with a customer wanting a specific vehicle before they were officially on the order sheet.

Sales staff really have to come to grips with the fact that customers are way better informed than they used to be -- also, I wish the manufacturers would just fix the prices and sales commissions, so that sales people could actually focus on sales instead of bargaining.

 

+1 on that man. It gets so old haggling. I'm just going to walk to 6 shops. And hand them my business card with my car specs and a price on it. And say call me when you can do this. And let them know I'm going to each dealership... first one that calls is the winner.

 

Instead of starting another thread about the RalliArt pictures taking by AMS

Here is the link:
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=339767

 

thats works

 

You guys want to take all the fun out of it for the dealers. Does Saturn even do no-haggle anymore? I think it will happen one day b/c, as you note, the internet is leveling the playing field. But it'll be awhile. You can take the rug trader out of the bazaar, but you can't take the bazaar out of the rug trader.

 

Actually, the internet is slowly making dealers completely irrelevant -- why do I need to buy my car from someone when all they do is try to fool me about features (that I read about online) and their real cost (that's easy enough to find online)? I mean, I talk to salespeople at dealers because they work there and sell the cars, but it's been over a decade since I walked away from a salesperson at a dealer feeling that I got anything useful out of talking with them (before the internet, the pamphlets usually gave more info than the sales guys). It's all about as fulfilling as talking to a telemarketer.

At least the managers are still often worth talking to, when they're not protected by an impenetrable layer of sales staff.

You are right that we'll have to deal with this crappy system for a while longer, but no harm in making it clear to dealers that we're fed up with it. Worst part up here in Canada is that it's the dealers who are keeping prices artificially high to cover their bad lease deals (made when our dollar was lower). At least dealers used to be mostly harmless, now the dealers are annoying and they cost a ton of money to support.

 

Wow this thread took forever to read through. I'd like to just insert my 2 cents on the manumatic transmission. I am actually looking forward to this for a few reasons. 1. Having been of legal age to drive for almost 15 years now, and never owning an automatic, I think that for once it would be nice to just enjoy the DRIVE instead of concentrating on gears all the time. I think it's a great option to be able to shift through the gears when you want to, or to just sit back, relax and look pretty while you enjoy buzzing along in your new ride. I welcome a quick shifting automatic after having probably upshifted and downshifted a million times over my lifetime. 2. I recently read an article in SCC about the TC-SST and the driver, who was a well known professional and name escapes me right now, said that it was one of if not the finest transmission that he had ever used. Not a bad endorsement if you ask me. I'm sold on being lazy.

RA for me!

 

^^^^prolly never driven a DSG lol

 

im hoping all the hype will settle down come winter 2008....hopefully i can get one around then

 

Im hoping it comes out soon there are pics of the RA's in CA in the testing place

 

There REALLY needs to be an announcment or something about this car soooooon. Going nuts.

 

agreed. i'm getting anxious too. hopefully we hear some pricing info and some actual power figures instead of all this "est. business soon.

 

I doubt you'll have to wait much longer. It's almost May and the release date is supposed to be early summer.

 

i sure hope it is soon