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| I just posted the following on an Altima Coupe forum, thought I'd post it up here as well since it was such a long post:
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ok...so here's my story on how I ended up with the Altima Coupe...it's probably gonna be a long post so bear with me!
earlier this year (I think it was probably February or March), my coworker was looking at getting a new car. She was looking at cars in the Civic class, like the Mazda 3, Corolla and Lancer. At that point, the lease on my current car (a 2005 Toyota Echo) still had just under 2 years remaining, so I wasn't really thinking of getting a new car at that point. In any case, while she was still doing her research, she told me how the Lancer had been completely redesigned for this year, so I went to the website to take a look at it, and I was really impressed. I mean, the paddle shifting on the CVT (since I can't drive manual), the proximity activated keyfob, push button start, auto climate control, integrated bluetooth system...
A couple weeks later, she ended up getting an 08 Civic EX, and passed along the Lancer brochure she got from the dealership. Of course that was a bad idea, cuz it got me wanting it more, and I started looking for and reading a lot of reviews of the car on the web. I went to a couple of Mitsubishi dealerships to get an idea of their pricing, and test drove it once too, and just knew I had to have it.
At this point, I still had a year and a half left on my current lease, so I asked a couple of Mitsubishi dealerships how much my car would be worth if I used its trade-in value towards the Lancer; in most cases I would end up losing $3-4k on the Echo (which would be added to the cost of the Lancer). This, of course, wasn't appealing to me, so I figured, hey, I'll just wait it out until my lease is over, and then get the new car. Then one day after work, I decided I'd go to the 401-Dixie auto mall with my coworker to ask the Dixie Mitsubishi about their pricing, and to also test drive some of the other cars in the same class (Mazda 3, Sentra, Corolla; I already drove my coworker's Civic for a bit). We went to check out the Mazda first, I test drove it, and I thought, hmm, it's not bad, but doesn't have any of the bells and whistles that the Lancer has. Next, we went to the Mitsubishi dealership, and just asked if they could offer me a better deal on buying out my Echo. They couldn't, so I left. I went out to take a look at it in the parking lot, they had it in red, my 1b colour choice (my 1a choice was the blue). While looking at it, I was thinking...damn, can't wait to be driving this car!
After that, we decided to stop by the Nissan dealership, since it was on the way out of the automall anyways, I figured, maybe I'll test drive the Sentra, and see how it is. Of course, at this point, I still had my heart completely set on the Lancer. So I walked into the Nissan dealership, and the first thing I saw was the back of a red 08 Altima Coupe. I was thinking "WOW...what is THAT car?" It was like love at first sight hahaha...but at the same time I was thinking that it was probably way out of my budget. So I went to look at the Sentra first, and I thought it was very average, although it was cool that it also had the proximity keyfob. Then I figured, might as well ask about the price of the Altima Coupe, just for kicks. The salesman told me it started at $27k, and I was thinking, "well, hmm...a fully loaded Lancer GTS ends at 26k, and for only 1k more I can get something like this?" It even had all the same features as the Lancer (I didn't think too many cars would have the proximity keyfob and push button start so I was surprised). And from then on, it was all about the Altima Coupe. Of course, it didn't end up just being 1k more, since I got the CVT, and also the premium package, but I don't care - I love my Coupe! It still brings a smile to my face to walk to the parking lot and see my car, and then that smile gets even bigger when all I have to do to open the door is press the button on the handle, and I can start the car with the simple push of a button.
I ended up finding somebody to take over my Toyota Echo lease (via Craigslist - which is gold!), so I didn't have to take any loss on it at all, well, other than paying the lease transfer fees. And it's also funny, I actually ended up getting the exact same red Coupe that I first saw in the showroom (I know because when I picked it up, it still had the same dealer vehicle # tag hanging from its rearview mirror). And the day I picked up my Coupe was 07/07/07...how crazy is that!
Anyways, I apologize if any of you were bored by my long post, but just thought I'd share my story. Here are some pics from the dealership that very first day, and also a few months later, next to "what could have been" hahaha..
at the dealership (one of my other coworkers came along too):
And my Coupe, next to "what could have been":
If you want to see the full size pics, here's a link to my pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91066473@N00/tags/altima/
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| so I've already put over 3k clicks on my car in about 6 weeks...quite a bit, and at this pace I'll be over my lease limit...
anyways, just wanted to rant about some TO heavy traffic points that I'll never understand:
1) 401 at Yorkdale - this is one of the biggest mysteries to me...you'd figure that the traffic here is heavy because there are a lot of people going in and out of the mall, but the traffic here is always in the express lanes, where THERE IS NO ENTRANCE/EXIT TO THE MALL! The collectors lanes are usually actually pretty good around Yorkdale, which really makes no sense to me.
2) Finch, at Vic Park - for some reason, eastbound traffic on Finch always slows down at this intersection, sometimes to the point where I'll have to wait for 2 or 3 lights before I get past Vic Park! and why? It's not like the # of lanes changes on either side of Vic Park...and there aren't any major shops/malls/restaurants in that area...so why does traffic always slow down here?
3) 404 around Lawrence and Eglinton - again...for no reason at all, traffic seems to slow down here, and then after Eglinton it clears up again. I'm pretty sure the # of lanes doesn't change here either...and it's already past the merging point of the 401, so why's it so damn slow here?
4) 401 East after work - when I drive to work in the mornings...I leave my house around 9, and traffic's usually pretty good, I can get to work in about 25 mins or so. But, when coming home, traffic's usually brutal and it takes me 45-50 mins...why? Where are all these extra people coming from? Shouldn't the people who are going out west in the mornings be the same as those who are coming back east in the evenings, hence the traffic should be relatively the same? I'd figure, most people leave for work in the mornings anywhere between 6:30 and 9:30...traffic's probably worse before 9, but I'll be generous and say there's a 3 hour window for rush hour traffic in the mornings. Then at night, why is traffic bad anytime between 4 and 8pm? Where are all these extra people coming from?
I really don't get it.
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| got my new ride today...and, like Mickey D's...I'M LOVIN IT....
here are a lot more pics, big thanks to BMo for taking them:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91066473@N00/tags/altima/
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| Got back from the Lake Placid/Montreal mini-trip this week. Lake Placid was amazing, we got like 2 feet of snow the night before our first day of boarding, so the first day, we were boarding through powder the entire time...it was so fun, every time you'd fall, it wouldn't hurt at all cuz there was so much powder. But, it was actually pretty hard to board through powder cuz it required a lot more work, you'd have to keep turning all the time or else you'd sink...so after the first day, the 3 of us (me, Tom and Mike) were sooo exhausted. The next 2 days they groomed the mountain so it was a lot smoother, but cuz of the first day, we couldn't do as many runs. Pretty much no lineups for the entire time we were there, so we were basically going up and down whenever we wanted. Definitely a good way to end off the season...
...mmmmm...gotta love Schwartz's Montreal smoked meat sandwiches...
I've uploaded the pics from the trip here.
I've also uploaded some pics from Carmen's birthday (last year) here.
It's kinda annoying how flickr won't let me create more than 3 photosets unless I go to their 'Pro' service...so now I gotta group all my pics based on tags. I have a bunch of misc photos that I was gonna upload too, but they don't really fit into any groups, just a bunch of random pics that I take whenever, just cuz I always have my phone with me...
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| been awhile since my last update again...
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today we had a town hall meeting scheduled from 2:30-5pm...then around noon, we got an email from the executive assistant in our department saying that there was some problem with some of the statements that our customers receive, and that about 29,000 of them hadn't been sent out, and that in place of our town hall meeting, we might need to help out, since these statements needed to go out ASAP. Then 5 minutes later, we got an email from our director saying that we'd be helping out, and be prepared to work with paper and envelopes.
At first, I thought it was all a big joke, that maybe we'd be going down, and they'd be giving us an extra bonus or something like that...then when everybody was gathered in the caf, our CEO was there, and he told everybody what had happened...basically what was said in the email, and that they needed all of us to help out as much as we could, to put the statements in the envelopes and then seal the envelopes. They organized us into teams of 3, with one person doing the folding, one person stuffing envelopes, and the last one doing a QC check and then gluing and sealing the envelope. Luckily they gave us glue sticks to use to glue the envelopes...I had visions of that Seinfeld envelope poisoning thing happening...haha.
Anyways, yeah, it was pretty crazy, I mean, we had project managers, directors, everybody sitting around stuffing envelopes...people that are probably getting paid like $100/hr...and they were stuffing envelopes! Ridiculous...
here're a couple of pics from the scene..
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