In a world filled with Hellacious (with a capital-H) customer service stories, I wanted to pass-on to you my positive experience today….
cars
Babes on Top of a Matchbox
By 6.2.06
The way to sell cars is to drape hot models over them. Should work for a matchbox car just the same way…
Toyota Recalls A Million Cars for Faulty Steering Wheel
By 6.1.06
If you own a Toyota Prius, you may want to bring it into your local dealership. Just pray that the steering wheel doesn’t break off in your hands on the way.
USAA Continues to Rule
By 5.31.06
In all the the various shenanigans and nightmare-drenched, neo-Kafka retellings of financial institution experiences, one company swoops to the top among Consumerist readers.
DeLorean is Back to the Future of the Now
By 5.30.06
If you’ve got $42,500, Tony Ierardi would like to sell you a DeLorean. A car enthusiast, Tony bought the rights to the DeLorean name, as well as all the leftover parts he could find. Now he’s set up shop in Naples Florida and is churning out orders. There’s currently a two-month waiting list.
Buy a Sentra or a Cobalt?
By 5.25.06
“What’s better, a Nissan Sentra or a Chevy Cobalt?” queried a reader, noting they could get a fully equipped Sentra for $14,500 and a comparibly tricked-out Cobalt for $13,600.
80’s Chevy Cavalier: Live It!
By 5.19.06
Live today’s Chevrolet with Cavalier! Plus, an interior that comforts your very soul.
Congress Moves To Protect Honest Car Mechanics, Chupacabras
By 5.18.06
Congress is considering a “Right to Repair” bill. The idea, basically, is that car manufacturers’ proprietary systems give them a monopoly on many types of car repairs, making that walking, oil-covered ass crack at your local garage impotent in gouging you twice as much money for a simple repair than its actually worth.
Enterprise-Rent-A-Car Eyed For Placement on Teeny Cement Blocks
By 5.16.06
Into Jeremy’s mailbox came a letter inviting him to join a class action lawsuit against Enterprise-Rent-A-Car.
Hawaiian Gas Cap Bleeds Customers Even Drier
By 5.15.06
Now that we are all paying for gas not with money (who can afford it?) but priceless, non-inflationary currencies like our daughter’s virginities and healthy human livers, you might start thinking that the government should get involved. “They should regulate, control and cap gasoline prices for our nation’s motorists!” you might cry.
O. Henry Gets a Flat
By 5.9.06
Drew writes in what surely has to be one of our more literary, if not in style, at least in structure, stories we’ve received to date.
Stone = Dealership. Blood = Fair Deal.
By 5.8.06
Dana sent in her tale of buying a car and nearly being hoodwinked at sale, but thanks to her dogged persistence and detective-like compendium of evidence, she finally got the deal she deserved, the deal that had already been agreed upon in writing. The deal that, for some reason, wasn’t sitting at the dealership when she walked in to pick it up.
Find Cheap Gas
By 5.8.06
Two tools for finding cheap gas teats nearby are Cheap Gas and MSN Autos. The first integrates Gas Buddy with Google Maps. Bill Gates’ offering displays pricing info from over 90,000 gas stations nationwide using data from the OPIS Price Index.
Enterprise’s Cheat Sheet For Snookering You Into Car Insurance
By 5.4.06
What’s Enterprise hiding under that big brown bag their cars are wrapped in? According to this report, it could be their intent to humiliate you into buying car insurance.
A Tale of Two Gas Stations
By 5.4.06
It’s like that scene in Steinbeck’s The Pearl where the pearl buyers are all lined up in a row, giving the illusion of competitiveness but they’re really in cahoots with one another. Except the pearl is your car and the peasant wins, temporarily.
UPDATE: Buying a Car and Getting Away With It
By 5.3.06
2006. It’s called, “The Financing Fell Through Scam.”
Sympathy For The Devil; Oil’s Makeover
By 5.3.06
As of late, the oil industry finds itself suffering an image malfunction. Petrol makers have hired Blue Worldwide, the advertising wing of PR giant Edelman. Another one of Edelman’s clients is Wal-Mart. But is that enough? McCain attacked major oil companies last week over reckless profiteering: “Outside of satanic cults, these people have the worst P.R. of anybody in the world.”
