11/03/2006

German Tax Income

The German government have learned that this year's tax intake will be more than expected, there will be an additional 23 bn Euro. So far the good news.

The bad news is that now everyone seems to be arguing where to spend this money. But wait a second! Let me make a more down-to-earth example:

If my salary was 2.200 Euro and I had a debt to my bank amounting to 150.000 Euro, and all of a sudden I get an unexpected gratification from my boss amounting to another 2.200 Euro, what do you think I should do with this money? What would my bank manager tell me to do with it?

Now if you multiply the numbers in my example by 10 bn, you have exactly what the German government numbers are. So why do they argue at all?

11/01/2006

Skoda Car Dealer

Recently we had gone to a Skoda car dealer to test drive and bargain a bit. This is our experience.

At the first dealership we visited, we were greeted very professionally by the owner, and when we asked for the model we wanted to test drive the answer was: sorry, but we don't have exactly this car available, can we give you another with a weaker engine? Well, we weren't exactly delighted, but accepted.

Then we were handed over to some assistant. All of a sudden the car was available, but was a used one. Well, who cares for a test drive. So they unloaded the vehicle - apparently the owner had been using it for grocery shopping - so why exactly did not he offer us this car? So we took the test drive with this car and were pretty excited with it.

Back at the dealership (and the assistant) we asked to speak with the owner, but the assistant assured us that he could handle this. OK. So we asked for the list price of a new car with some extras and the colour that we had chosen. The offer that we got was this: the used car we had just tested, which was neither new nor was it the colour we wanted, not did it have the extras we had asked for. They guy though that he was showing deep consideration when he offered to add some of the extras at his own cost (wow!), but we would not be able to get all of them. I told him that I had got to leave now, and he insisted on printing this awkward offer and hand it over.

The next day he even had the guts to call my home, when I told him that if this is what he called an "offer" he didn't have to call. And he did not any more.

But we still wanted this car so we went to three other dealerships, in one I was not served even after having waited (with my unpatient child) for half an hour. The other two were OK, we played bargain with both of them until we got a 10% reduction on the list price, which is not a lot, and boy did we have to bargain for this little!

At this final rate, the new car, with the colour we had chosen and all the extras we had asked for, was cheaper than the original offer of the used car, in a different colour and missing most of the extras we had gotten at the first dealership!

So we were quite satisfied until we had some repairs. Even though they were on warranty, they tried to make us pay for the rental car, which I downright refused. We had chosen a garager further away from home, because this is were we had finally bought the car, so we wanted them to have the additional income from all inspections. But this way - no way! We switched to a closer garage and do not need a rental car now if we have our car inspected.

My bottom line: despite the high quality and comfort of Skoda cars, the service attitude is lacking so much that this definitely was my first and my last car of this make.
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