i have done nearly this. We decided which car we wanted, but went to a dealer to test drive it and check for comfort , fit , etc. We told the salesman what our plan was, so he just gave us the keys and told us to check it out. A few weeks later we made the decision, had a deal in hand, and went back to the guy that treated us right and told him the deal we had. Let him know that if he could match what we had, or give us reason for something better, then the sale was his, and that we returned only because he had treated us right on the first day.

Customer service can still win a sale, because as you say, there is a need for the consumers to actually see and touch the car in many cases.

the last car i bought, 5 or 6 years ago, i considered a GM car. I had just gone through a great experience buying a honda for my wife, then GM came along to show me how miserable a shopping experience could be. There were a couple of options that made me want this car, but then I couldnt figure out how to get them. The salesman just wanted me to pick one off the lot, but they were over priced with options i didnt want, or didnt have what i came for. We looked at how to order the car, but the items all came in bundles... piles of bundles. One might have a sunroof, a certain radio, upgraded rims, and memory seat adjustments. of these I wanted the sunroof. Then you pick a different engine, and it changes the rims and radio and carpet, and you arent sure which set of overlapping choices would end up on the car. No one could figure that out. This happened for every option i wanted.

I then tried to configure on a website. again the options were a joke of complexity. At the end, I got to choose which dealership would contact me with a quote. I could choose 1, and only 1. I wanted to see what competing quotes might get me, but I had to start the entire order process over. This was going to take too much time, so I bought a Nissan.

I dont think it is necessary to consider citizens of other countries enemies by default either. There is a view of us against them, but that is from the controlling few inside of the NSA versus everyone else, no borders required.

you are exactly right. The US is not more evil than other countries. The problem is that there has always been a myth pushed to the world that the US has a government of, by, and for the people, and because of this there will not be the same types of threats possible from the US that could come from a tyranical dictator. It is starting to appear that the government is opposed to its own people in many ways, and it is completely obvious that the government no longer reports to the people.

you might be right that the supreme court could be an appeal location to FISA. Unfortunately there is a requirement to prove that a person has been harmed in order to bring any case to a court. You cant sue because of harm to someone else, and you cant sue if you cant prove you were harmed. Since it is illegal to possess or make public the information that would be required to prove that you have been harmed in a material way by a decision that was made at the FISA court, there is no way that you can even bring a case that a judge at any level would be legally allowed to hear. This fully and completely negates any chance for the supreme court to hear an appeal.

Please explain to all of us again, exactly how you can have oversight when you are not allowed to have any sight?

there are also people like me, who try to play games with people not paying attention. If I see that someone beside me is looking at their phone in a line of cars ( multiple lanes ) , I may just leave some space in front of me, and at a time when all is quiet, hit the gas to accelerate and slam on the brakes. The phone user sees cars around them moving and begins to drive, but the car in front of them isnt moving.

I also like to weave over just a touch , while staying within my lane, when moving down the road beside someone who is looking down more than up. They realize suddenly that a car beside them is creeping over, and because they havent been paying attention, they dont know the rate that the car is coming. This can lead to sudden corrections that cause all kinds of chaos. Call me an asshole all you want, but staying within my lane doesnt cause people who are paying attention to panic.

this is most likely based on the idea that no one would ever get a ticket for using a phone if they claimed they were using navigation. " nope, no sir, not texting, maps!" every time

285 doesnt go into Gwinnett. I live ITP , and avoid the suburbs as much as i can for the reasons you state. Intersections are scary as hell when 5 and 7 lane roads cross, add in multiple left turn lanes and idiots not paying attention, and you are taking risks. I am glad this cop is doing this. Hopefully this lets people know to put the damn phone away.

you may want to stop using your real name, Rosco. The first step to secrecy is a pseudo-anonymous presence on forums.

sometimes it is nice to have a book from a class for a while after the class is over. This will also end borrowing books, or buying really cheap used books. And want to retake a class for a better score... buy the book again. Everyone pays full e-price for access to the online content for this semester.

There is a large segment of people that will say things like " running causes arthritis in your knees". This is what I was directing my comment at. Running, on its own, does not cause your knees to become weak or necessarily damaged. There is a chance of an injury occurring, but that does not mean that people should not exercise in general.

there is nothing different from "exercise over time leads to injury" and "being alive for a long time leads to injury" . Sitting at a bus stop has risks, sitting in your house has risks, walking anywhere can have one bad step that can do absurd amounts of permanent damage. None of this means that exercise will cause injury.

I have a permanent injury to a shoulder, so I somewhat understand your perspective .It happened from several odd falls, and then one day it came out while lifting a bucket and tore things up when it slid back in. I will never be able to do a pullup unless I can nearly one arm it with the other side.

My statement is not ignorant, it was targeted at people who are misinformed and loud, and the opposite of ignorant. Like I said, because of science. If it is arrogant, it is only because of the number of times I have to hear the nonsense about the cause (not risk) of injury being exercise.

that sounds like cocaine. all of the fun of a high heart rate, none of the bother of getting off the toilet.

most exercise doesnt really have wear and tear. that rumor gets consistently rebuffed by scientific methods.

lavabit apaprently stored everything encrypted, but they had to be able to deliver an unencrypted message. As the sender/receiver did not use full encryption of the message, lavabit was trying to provide that , in a fairly broken way. If you wanted true full encryption, end to end, you would have to do it yourself. If you wanted to think that large portions of the transaction were encrypted, then Lavabit held a partial answer.

Infosys was told to fight for the contracts, and many vendors were allowed to present candidates. We had a time period were no infosys candidates were considered. The logic behind the single source was to have managers spend a lot of time with a recruiter or firm so that they could understand exactly what we were looking for. This was supposed to allow less time spent in the hiring process with more targeted candidates, and not have the managers have to constantly update and inform recruiters with exactly what we needed. It obviously failed with the vendor not looking at customers needs as a priority.