So. CA waiting list news. My Experience

[daniel]

Originally posted by djfrugal
Another update:

Toyota of Glendora:  \"A Year wait, want a camry?  They are almost zero emmissions\"

Paul B:  \"No thank you, I need to get  a Prius\"

Toyota of Glendora:  \"Need?  Why do you need?\"

Paul B:  \"Thanks for all your help and support.  Have fun with your camrys!!\"

"Need" and "want" are often confused. It's part of the consumer society. Madison Avenue has succeeded in convincing us that our wants are needs.

I was window-shopping with my sister a decade ago, before we had money, and we saw a big-screen TV. "I need one of those," she told me. "No, you don't need it," I told her, "you want it." She looked at me like a wild animal and replied, with fire in her eyes, and a fierce intensity in her voice, "No! I need it!" The thing is, her apartment was not large enough to be able to sit far enough back from a big-screen TV for the individual pixels to merge into a coherent image.

I need food and air and water. Living in ND I need clothing and shelter. I didn't need a Prius. I wanted it. I would not have traded in my Civic for any other car, but I wanted the Prius badly enough to give up a perfectly excellent car that probably had another 150,000 miles left in it.

[djfrugal]

Daniel: Air, Food, Water, Prius

Needs

[bruceha_2000]

Originally posted by LeVautRien
Oh I absolutely did make sure, but I'm not all that worried about it, as my father's doing the actual picking up (he gets to drive it a day before me!  Ahh!), and I know of no more intimidating person.  I'd be willing to bet my Prius that they won't be charging over MSRP  :mrgreen:

And you DID get "The price will be MSRP" in writing, yes? And you DID get a specific list of what will be on the car (i.e. they can't chuck in the fabric protectant and locking lug nuts if you didn't requst them), yes?

[rydot]

Originally posted by daniel
\"Need\" and \"want\" are often confused. It's part of the consumer society ... I need food and air and water. Living in ND I need clothing and shelter.

I think that, for those living in public-transportation deprived Los Angeles, a car is as much a "need" as clothing. You *could* do without, but society says you gotta have it.

[daniel]

Originally posted by rydot+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rydot)</div>

I think that, for those living in public-transportation deprived Los Angeles, a car is as much a "need" as clothing. You *could* do without, but society says you gotta have it.[/b]

Granted. Also in rural America, where there is no public transportation at all. However, a late-model econo-box is a lot cheaper than a new car. The person who bought my old '89 Civic got a 100% reliable, 35-mpg car with 50,000 to 100,000 miles left in it, for $2,000.

I spent those $2,000 plus $22,353 more, for the best new toy I can ever remember.

The Prius is a luxury, not a necessity.

[LeVautRien]

Originally posted by bruceha_2000

And you DID get \"The price will be MSRP\" in writing, yes?  And you DID get a specific list of what will be on the car (i.e. they can't chuck in the fabric protectant and locking lug nuts if you didn't requst them), yes?

Suuuure did, had it faxed over a while back, now that I think about it further.

[DaveinOlyWA]

Originally posted by daniel

Sorry, but that should be \"no problema.\" Problemo is not a word. Not in Spanish anyway, which I presume was the intention, being as you're in So. Cal.

who speaks spanish in So Cal??

its Chicano. always was and always will.

problemo is most definitely a word!!

[daniel]

Anyone who says "problemo" is not Mexican and probably could not speak Spanish if his life depended on it. Take away his green card and give him a U.S. passport instead because he's nothing but a garden-variety estadounidense. (I think it's telling that there is no word for that in English.) I worked for several years with migrant farm workers (nearly all from Texas) and I never heard "problemo."

[LeVautRien]

Originally posted by DaveinOlyWA

its Chicano. always was and always will.

What exactly is Chicano? Me being from New Orleans and soon going to California for college, I saw a Chicano studies major and I don't know why exactly the call it that, since I don't know what the word specifically means...

[DaveinOlyWA]

chicano is americanized mexican culture.

i dated a girl when i lived in riverside and she used to talk about the fact that when she visited relatives in mexico that she had a hard time understanding them although she could speak chicano (which i always thought was spanish) fluently.

basically it can be looked at as a sort of street slang that came about simply because several of the things we experience in the US dont happen in mexico so new words had to be added in order to communicate. also most of the kids although both parents were mexican nationals, were born in the us. so the language becomes diluted because they are in an english speaking environment everywhere except at home.