Volkswagen @ MindSay

With GM's Onstar an operator can remotely disable your car. Or unlock the door for you when you left your keys in the car.
It's pretty cool if you think about it. If someone steels your car, you can call the GM Onstar guys and they can just shut off your car.
Pretty cool. I heard that the cell based system might go down soon though because everything is going digital now.

Dear Katrina,

Thank you for visiting our website, and for sharing your thoughts about
our safety advertising.  The comments you provided will be forwarded to
the appropriate staff member for further consideration.

The television ads to which you referred depicted actual crashes. It was
our intent to underscore the importance of automotive safety when
considering an automobile purchase. The profound implications of vehicle
crashes are precisely why Volkswagen is constantly striving to further
enhance the safety of our products.

Thank you again for your interest and for sharing your concerns.

Ivan
Volktalk

GM who relies on Trucks and SUV is really feeling the squeeze. THey are planning lay offs. This is sad because some jobs will be loss. It's just bad for US companies to make trucks that really most people buy just as commuter cars. But there are many reasons to buy a truck. Buying Hay for your horse, taking crap to the dump, towing a boat, etc...
I recently bought an old truck, my 3rd vehicle for the household. cost 2500 dollars used and I only use it when I need a "truck".
The insurance is very cheap since the value of the truck is not much I only insure it for the bare minimum. The cost is $200 to in sure for the entire year.
Of course if you're in construction or home remodel business then you'll want a newer truck, but for a lot of people having a truck that gets 14mpg as a primary vehicle just doesn't make sense financially unless of course you can afford to have 2 vehicle. Then you just rent the truck as needed.
I feel bad for GM but at the same time I'm angry at them for not investing more in smaller more compact cars and making cars which are more fuel efficient. I also think the unions have alot to do with the poor state of American car companies. But calling Ford, Chrysler, GM "American" really isn't all that true these days. What is American? IS Honda, Nissan Toyota really Japanese? They employ thousands of Americans because they actually make cars and trucks in America. And VW in the time of this recession is planning to open a plant right here in America. Maybe they're American too.

Last night we dropped Maria off with Soter's parents and went to test drive the first car in our "possibilities" list.  We went to VW to drive a Touareg.  It looks like this:  

 

It's a nice looking car (IMO) and I love the safety features and the fact that it's got all wheel drive.  But it's alot wider than my Liberty.  And the front end is alot longer, too.  It would take some getting used to.  But I guess any car would.  Does anyone have any information about the Touareg?  Do you have one, or have you driven one?  Anything?

 

So, I've decided one thing I dislike about car dealers is that they try to sell you the car based on what features they think you would want.  So, to Soter he explained the engine and brake stuff, he directed the safety stuff to both of us, and then what was directed to me?  The reverse camera.  The camera that shows you how to alighn your car and whatnot to back up or parallel park.  Yeah, thanks.  It's a nice feature, but it's not why I'd buy your car.  I can parallel park and reverse just fine.

 

And here's a question.  Why is there so much "stuff?"  I mean I know they want you to test drive the balls out model, so they can show you the features, but why are there so many?!  I just want to drive my car.  And a sun/moon roof or would be cool...I've never had one.  But I'm not really needing a GPS navigation system, I don't want tvs and dvd players for my kid, I'm not interested in your reverse camera, a "touch screen" anything isn't necessary.  And that keyless entry thing is kinda creepy, what if you get kidnapped (is it still kidnapping if your an adult?), then you don't even have to give him the keys, the door will open and the car will start just by having the key in your pocket, in your purse, whatever.  I don't know if I like that.

 

Ugh, we've got 2 more cars to test drive that we've already looked at.  For each of those 2 we already spoke to a salesman but didn't test-drive because I wasn't interested in switching Maria's carseat between cars in the rain that night.  Soter's working again today, but if he gets home early enough we might head over and check out at least 1 other car place today.  Have I ever mentioned I don't really love the process of finding a new car?