tommcparland
Tom McParland
tommcparland
Tom is a contributing writer for Jalopnik and runs AutomatchConsulting.com. He saves people money and takes the hassle out of buying or leasing a car. (Facebook.com/AutomatchConsulting)

It really all depends on the car. That is why I always like to have a consult with a client before they pay the fee so I can let them know our likelihood of success.  Sometimes I tell them that I can’t help and to check back with me when the market cools. Sometimes I will offer an retainer agreement that is a partial Read more

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I would be curious on what grounds the dealers would have case. Dodge made these terms from the start so the dealers knew the deal from day one and made the choice to sell at MSRP or not. Let’s say Dodge can only make 2000 cars for whatever reason, all the MSRP orders got built...some don’t and the ones that charged Read more

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He admits that some dealers are working around this, but based on the research I have done the bulk of MSRP deals are legit MSRP deals sold to customers that have been very loyal to that dealership. Read more

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I was telling my Jalop collegues that I worked on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ during the 90s’ and a good chunk of my teenage paychecks were spent on these arcade games. VF was by far my favorite. Read more

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No love for Man of Tai Chi? Reeves directed this Hong Kong style action flick and plays an excellent villian.

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That is why I am suggesting posting a screenshot of the highest offer from Carmax etc.. that way the potential buyer can see what their competition is. Read more

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I’ve had tons of customers sell to Carvana and Vroom and they have always honored the online offer. FWIW from what I have been told neither brand does any “reconditioning” they just churn the cars into their system and if the next buyer doesn’t like the condition it just gets sent back and re listed...this is perhaps Read more

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It all depends on the circumstances. I’ve had a lot of clients had success with Lightstream. Read more

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You are absolutely correct, dealers can often match or beat the rates the CUs and banks offer. However, I’ve seen many instances where folks with sub 700 FICO scores go to a dealer and the salesperson says “Well your credit isn’t great the best we can do is 9% APR.” Then the customer says “Ok well I have 5% from my Read more

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This is a good question and a tough one to answer because the ratios you bring up correlate to the APR which is dependent upon someones credit score. If the best APR someone can qualify for is 10% that’s going to throw the ratios off a bit. Read more

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Interesting...the way the dealer explained it, Hyundai was using it as a direct rebate, but this makes way more sense. Read more

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LOL, this was a story about my experience in 2008 renting a Spark in South America which is a very different car than they sell today.  It wasn’t actually a review. Read more

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I grew up in martial arts culture as well and we were engrained to address adults as Sir or Ma’am or Mr. or Ms. based on who was running the class whether it be an adult or an older teen upper rank. When I got myTae Kwon Do Black Belt at 15 (we can discuss the legitimacy of a 15 yr old black belt some other time) Read more

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So none of the Iron Man villians or even The Abomination made the list? And if we are including the X-Men, William Stryker is a pretty compelling villian. Read more

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Baloon Keepy- Uppy (you know this game if you were either bored as a child and or have kids under 10) Read more

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Sure when strikes and weapons are invloved that changes the game completely but I would argue that someone that particpates in this sport would be more prepared for that scenario since they have performed techniques under pressure. Read more

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