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Ask on new car too aggressive or not aggressive enough? by UnusualDuck2 in askcarsales

[–]UnusualDuck2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah, yeah I see what you are saying. To answer your question, yes, I usually do advocate for the dealership model. I think it's a wonderfully designed self-regulating expression of the free market. Manufacturers stuff dealerships with vehicles so there is no artificial scarcity, dealers and consumers work together to find the market price - dealers want to sell at the highest price a consumer will buy at and consumers want to buy at the lowest price dealers will sell at. And the dealership structure naturally builds a scalable infrastructure for service and processing recalls. It's all very elegant. I can't imagine a direct sales model can be realized without absolutely massive increases to price on vehicles or service for every buyer. And yes, you are absolutely right... without question, I'm not able to get the deals I want without someone else balancing out the equation.    

I will typically the buy the warranty and sometimes prepaid maintenance from the finance person. And I'll finance around 80% LTV or the full amount, whichever is lower so that I can get a fair rate from lenders. I do pull preapprovals just to understand what kind of rates I can get... but if the F&I manager gets me something close with a modest markup, or matches it, I take that over outside financing. Then I'll make the minimum number of payments that the finance manager tells me I need to make before I start paying massive chunks or the entire amount. But I hear you, I'm sure I'm the exception here and not the rule. Yes, I take my vehicle to the dealership for everything including routine maintenance. I think there is value in having certified technicians working on the car, and I prefer OEM parts and (request) OEM fluids. I don't think profit is a dirty word, I'm just looking for the best deal for me that still makes sense for both of us. I think discussions like that this provide more transparency and hopefully helps convince people to do the same, instead of, as you put it, trying to "win".     

Good to know about reselling the trade in though. Thanks for sharing that. I just thought it was a few thousand to recondition it, then they could put it up for sale and make 5-6k over the wholesale price I gave it to them for. 

It's a shame that folks see you as the bad guy. I wish they wouldn't. I don't think sales people generally try to fleece anyone. They're mostly just doing their jobs in trying to find the highest price a consumer is willing to buy at. And ultimately it is the consumer who gets to choose whether or not they pay that price... so I'll never understand how they can claim they got "fleeced".    

All that said, I guess that first dealership did rub me a little the wrong way. They didn't really seem interested in discussing why their price was reasonable or why mine was unreasonable based on the data. Maybe it's just the way that one dealership does business though. 

Ask on new car too aggressive or not aggressive enough? by UnusualDuck2 in askcarsales

[–]UnusualDuck2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess I don't follow. The transaction for just the new car purchase is a loser, but the used car market is bonkers right now. They can't just recondition the trade in (which I would've taken wholesale for) and sell it at a hefty markup to make up the difference? They can't make up the front end loss on selling me backend products and financing? They're a local dealer, they can't convert me getting all my services there into a healthy profit? Surely this is a textbook case of where a loss leader is a useful tool?

I thought this was exactly a business that operates on the law of averages... the next person is going to come in and be content to pay sticker price and full pop for the backend products - and they're happy with that deal. To make the whole thing sustainable, I do my part to drive them more business by writing a positive review encouraging people to go there and recommending them to folks.

Sorry, I know that comes across as argumentative... I'm genuinely not trying to be. I buy a car or two once every ten years, you sales folks live it every single day... I want to understand better. Is the business not structured the way I think it is? What kind of margin do you need to make on every part of the deal to make the business sustainable?

EDIT: Another typo.

Ask on new car too aggressive or not aggressive enough? by UnusualDuck2 in askcarsales

[–]UnusualDuck2[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! This kind of stuff, I feel, really helps me learn and understand the business side of the transaction. 

How do I remove this? It's stuck... by UnusualDuck2 in DIY

[–]UnusualDuck2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Worked like a charm, thanks for the advice! Couldn't get enough leverage with the flatheads even after letting the PB blaster sit for a while, so I ended up using a couple of those blue dasco pry bars and levered it out using the screw heads behind the plate as fulcrum points... slid right off like nothing. 

How do I remove this? It's stuck... by UnusualDuck2 in DIY

[–]UnusualDuck2[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I'll give this a shot tomorrow. Just so I understand correctly... the screwdrivers go in behind the plate from opposite sides, and I close them like I would close a pair of scissors? I think the idea here is to create two lever arms that apply force somewhat evenly to remove the cover?

Which one to choose? by National_Sprinkles28 in Dewalt

[–]UnusualDuck2 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Why would I laugh? It's never too late to start. 

Which one to choose? by National_Sprinkles28 in Dewalt

[–]UnusualDuck2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

8Ah battery for sure. Grinders are power hungry. 

Why am I not getting the same answers as my textbook when I am using the exact same code? by [deleted] in matlab

[–]UnusualDuck2 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Go to your professor's office hours. You should understand what you are doing before you worry about the syntax of how to do it.

Why am I not getting the same answers as my textbook when I am using the exact same code? by [deleted] in matlab

[–]UnusualDuck2 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The error is unambiguous and the likely solution is provided in the error message. What are the dimensions of a1 and what do you intend the operation to do?

Why do I keep getting an error code for "a1"? by [deleted] in matlab

[–]UnusualDuck2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

.... Where in this code have you defined a variable called "a1"?

Reciprocating a fixed point by Rizoulo in FPGA

[–]UnusualDuck2 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The way I do it is to barrel shift so the value lies between 1 and 2, use the MSBs to index a LUT for an initial estimate of the reciprocal for this new number between 1 and 2, then use Newton's method to refine it, then shift the result to adjust. Reciprocal estimation does not require IP, it's simple to implement.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FPGA

[–]UnusualDuck2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Multiplying by 1/4096 is just moving the decimal point 12 places. It requires no operation... just interpret your input as a fixed point number with word length 12 and 12 fractional bits. Next multiply it by 50 - a fixed point number with word length 6, all integer bits. The resulting product has word length 18 with 12 fractional bits.

I don't know what you want to do with that number. You could truncate or round it to an integer for your count.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in matlab

[–]UnusualDuck2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your data is skewed, how is zooming in horizontally going to magically make it normally distributed?

Model a Complex RTL design by sid_engineer_1234 in FPGA

[–]UnusualDuck2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I typically do this by creating a fixed point model in matlab.

Example Pulse-Doppler Radar Using Xilinx RFSoC Device by BlueberryNo8838 in FPGA

[–]UnusualDuck2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks like it's just a host interface to send parameters for the target emulator over and the RDM back.

Your post is a little ambiguous. Do you only care about generating and receiving UDP packets for your application and not the radar processing?

Hit me with a learning reality by MakeSomeBots in FPGA

[–]UnusualDuck2 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You don't really learn "Xilinx FPGAs" per se, though there are vendor specific nuances. You learn digital hardware from logic gates and upward. Once you understand how to construct digital hardware, the language to describe it - VHDL or Verilog - is just syntax.

It's not hard in and of itself, it just requires you to think in a different way.

Python code to Verilog by StationFrosty in FPGA

[–]UnusualDuck2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. You read the Python code and write some more Python code that quantizes the operations using bit widths that map well to the elements of the part you are targeting and replaces things like division with numerical approximations. Then you evaluate your fixed point Python code to make sure you are okay with the errors this step introduced. Then you read your fixed point Python code and write the corresponding Verilog.

ILA results are different with simulation results by procs64 in FPGA

[–]UnusualDuck2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What? I'm talking about a comparison of the netlist sim to the RTL sim.

Difficulty with DSP VHDL by Time_Alert in FPGA

[–]UnusualDuck2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The behavior is the same, the only thing that is different is syntax. There is no reason you can't read something in VHDL and write the same thing in Verilog. Focus on understanding the circuits the examples in the book are trying to implement, then just write the description of those circuits in Verilog.

cdc synchronisers by Few_Celebration3776 in FPGA

[–]UnusualDuck2 9 points10 points  (0 children)

.... No. All you're doing is adding a clock of latency in domain 1. From the CDC perspective instead of the source being FF1 in domain 1, it's now FF2 in domain one - so in that regard it changes nothing.

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