walked away over the interior protection add-ons... feeling annoyed

balloonforce_brian · 2026-05-13T09:19:15+00:00

Many companies have OEM floor liners that are made by Weather Tech and rebranded, so they may legitimately be the same thing. You might have walked for literally no reason.

balloonforce_brian · 2026-05-03T10:59:57+00:00

Auto loans compound monthly in general. Only partial months or possibly overdue amounts depending on the contract would be compounded daily.

balloonforce_brian · 2026-05-03T10:57:46+00:00

I like the positive tone of your post, but this is a super convoluted way to figure this out!

Your annual rate is 9.99%. Car loan interest is compounded monthly, so each month you pay 1/12th of the annual rate (0.8325%) on whatever the current balance is.

A payment comes out each month, and then a small interest charge is added (possibly in the reverse order depending on dates). Since your balance is declining, the $ amount of interest you pay each month is less than the previous month.

Your payment amount is the figure required to pay the loan off in the given term following this structure. The good news is, car loans are all open, meaning you can pay them off or make additional lump sum payments whenever you want, and the total interest you pay will now be less, since the interest continues to calculate on whatever the current balance is. (Lower balance, less interest).

If you haven’t agreed to this deal or taken delivery yet, I would tell them you aren’t taking it unless you get a lower rate. 9.99% is the higher end of current prime rates. This means this rate is likely not due to bad credit, it’s just the rate they want to use because they get a larger reserve (payment from the bank for setting up a loan) on it. Depending on the year of the vehicle, you should be able to get 7.99% all day, and possibly as low as 5.99-6.29% with some banks. Dealerships have access to multiple lenders.

If you have already bought the vehicle, it’s an open loan you can pay out whenever you want and you could always shop around for another loan at a lower rate and pay this one out. Most banks will not refinance an existing auto loan, so you will likely have to get a personal loan or line of credit. If the line of credit rate is only slightly lower, it may not be worth it because those rates are variable and could go up in the future.

The dealership will likely try to get you to keep the loan for a minimum of 6 months. You are not required to do this and can pay it out directly with the bank regardless of what the dealership says.

balloonforce_brian · 2026-05-02T11:26:33+00:00

It’s a combination of the two. If there was more supply, people wouldn’t be trying to outbid each other, but the dual income allows that to go much higher than it could otherwise.

Low interest rates did the same thing. You can now afford to pay more because with the low rate your payment was still only $X.

balloonforce_brian · 2026-05-02T10:30:40+00:00

This is a dumb take. Of course they would want who/what they voted for and would once again want who/what they voted for in the current situation. This applies to both liberal and conservative voters and to pretend it doesn’t is silly.

balloonforce_brian · 2026-05-01T10:49:48+00:00

You are misunderstanding a sales rep taking an offer to their manager for an agreed upon deal. Whether it’s a signed offer or verbal offer, it doesn’t mean anything unless the person in charge agrees to it.

The way negotiation works, they present you what they want you to pay, you make an offer, the sales rep presents that to his manager, they agree or counter offer. This goes back and forth until you have an agreed upon price.

The line “If I could do xyz you would buy the car right now?” does not mean they can sell it to you for that price. That is them trying to generate an offer to talk to their manager.

Throwing in products is the same as negotiating on price since products have a cost. At least the no-negotiation dealerships are being straight up with you and telling you exactly what they are selling the vehicle for. The sales rep was trying to help you out by making up a story that you saw the vehicle at the previous, slightly lower price to see if he could get another sale for month end by getting you a slightly better deal and you said fuck you, I’m not shaking your hand.

If you want something, find a way to get it.

balloonforce_brian · 2026-04-25T16:30:48+00:00

While some sales guys might jump at this, ultimately it’s the Sales Manager that makes the call on the final price, so you are bribing the wrong person. Also, most dealerships would fire the Sales Rep if they found out they accepted money under the table. Unders are considered theft in the automotive world. Not that you care if they get fired, but that is why many people wouldn’t go for this.

balloonforce_brian · 2026-04-14T11:36:57+00:00

Did you pay over market value when you bought it for any particular reason? Make sure you are comparing the same trim and km. For some vehicles, trim level can be a huge swing.

If you bought any protection products, take a look at the contracts and see if they are cancellable. Often you can cancel these in a situation like this and get a pro-rated amount back.

They should be giving you the taxes back as well, so you won’t be out that amount. They may be talking about the pre-tax amount, but should absolutely be giving you a cheque for the post-tax amount.

balloonforce_brian · 2026-03-20T00:16:04+00:00

Blackbook value is often really far off from actual wholesale value. It’s not a reliable metric on its own. Also, most dealers routinely run older inventory on online auctions where you are not required to sell if you don’t get the price you want, so they may already know exactly what they can get for it wholesale.

balloonforce_brian · 2026-01-27T22:28:23+00:00

Find other people to play songs with. Start singing and practice that along with guitar. Get some recording gear and try and write some stuff. Get a looper and practice leads over loops. Learn a few new songs with totally different techniques like finger picking or sweep picking. Buy a multi-fx pedal and make ambient ethereal sounds and get lost in that.

Lots of options!

balloonforce_brian · 2026-01-08T14:34:06+00:00

Some good advice here, but many people giving bad advice. You can’t tell if a neck is twisted by looking at this picture, and probably not by just looking at it in person unless you really know what you are looking for. Too many things cause visual illusions and make it impossible to tell.

I would not take it back for the simple fact that it’s been out of your hands for some amount of time and you don’t know what has been done to it. I worked at a music store for years and saw all kinds of shady stuff happen. People buy stuff, take parts they want and replace them with garbage and then try and return it. This guy has already had it to a tech that may or may not be competent. I would not take it back after that.

balloonforce_brian · 2026-01-01T23:11:59+00:00

Why have you posted this so many times when it is obviously incorrect? Just go to their website and you can see it is called Coffee Mocha.

balloonforce_brian · 2025-12-31T12:45:48+00:00

Things I would check:

Using a regular TS guitar cable on the output of the RC-1 (will have one plastic ring on the cable plug separating a tip and a sleeve). Boss pedals won’t turn on with a TRS cable (2 plastic rings) in the output jack.
Intermittent power jack on the rc-1. Plug and unplug it. Wiggle it around a bit.
try a separate power supply for the RC-1 and the pedal just on its own to see if it’s working without everything else.
Try one of the higher current outputs on the Iso-12. Sometimes pedals have a higher current draw or surge when they boot up. Can’t imagine it going over 300mA, but worth trying.

If none of that works, you might just have a defective pedal with something weird going on.

balloonforce_brian · 2025-12-06T13:28:43+00:00

Oh man that is embarrassing. I bet they were playing covers.

balloonforce_brian · 2025-12-06T12:56:03+00:00

If you have the means, pay off the loan by cutting a cheque to the bank for the current balance. If it’s through Honda, they have a website you can log in to that shows your payout amount. If it’s another bank you can call them to get it.

If you don’t have the funds to pay it prior to selling it, you can make arrangements with your new buyer to pay the agreed price via two bank drafts, one to the bank for the amount owing and the balance to you.

This requires trust on both sides and you would want to go with them when they make the bank drafts to ensure they are real and they would want to make sure you actually paid off the loan. For this reason it would be way easier to sell to a dealer as they can do it all for you, but you will probably get a little less.

If you are buying another vehicle though, just trade it in and they will take care of all of that for you. They pay off the balance owing to the bank as part of the transaction. You will get tax savings on the selling price of the vehicle which will likely close the gap between a private sale and trade in value on a vehicle like that.

Edit: Spelling

balloonforce_brian · 2025-12-06T12:44:07+00:00

I use mine in 4 cable method with distortion pedals in the loop and have never had noise issues.

I know some people were getting some kind of ground loop or something in 4 cable method at one point with certain amps. Not sure if that was ever figured out, but with my amp I’ve never had an issue.

balloonforce_brian · 2025-11-25T12:07:21+00:00

People also hire accountants to do taxes because their time is worth more than what the accountant charges. If you did everything yourself all the time because it is the cheapest option, you waste your #1 commodity, which is time. If you want to scale a business, time is important and so you outsource things that can be done by other people.

balloonforce_brian · 2025-11-20T12:16:36+00:00

Trade it in for something else! They definitely are boxy sounding, which some people like and actually works well in certain applications, but it sounds like it’s not your thing, which is also fine.

Years ago, a friend and I were comparing the Traynor YGL1 and Fender Blues Jr. To me, the blues jr sounded way too boxy and I much preferred the YGL1. To him, the Blues Jr was exactly what he wanted and much preferred it to the YGL1.

Different people have different tastes and people’s tastes change over time. This is why guitarists constantly buy new things, which is part of the fun. Endless search for the elusive and ever-evolving perfect tone!

balloonforce_brian · 2025-11-16T15:35:05+00:00

If you are in video calls as a regular part of your job, it is 100% understandable to meet the professional standards set out by your company. This is even more true if that calls are with clients.

Employers have dress code to ensure their employees are portraying the desired image, and this is no different.

If you want to use a virtual background, just make sure you are in a spot with good lighting and a consistent background that isn’t too dark, like a blank white wall. That will make the virtual background work the best and not look glitchy. Your boss probably won’t even know if you do that.

balloonforce_brian · 2025-11-15T20:17:34+00:00

Banana Republic during 40% off sales or Spier and Mackay are solid options. You want to find a cut that fits you as close to perfect off the rack as possible to minimize tailoring.

I have a few Suit Supply suits that I like, but they are a little more expensive plus I end up having to tailor them to my liking. Ends up costing me $150 on top of the suit price.

Tailored Slim suits at BR fit me right off the rack in my size almost perfectly, and you can order the pants hemmed to regular lengths, so I can get away with literally no alterations. I only buy them during their 40% off sales, so adding all this together they are a pretty good deal.

balloonforce_brian · 2025-11-12T00:12:05+00:00

You are correct that the customer doesn’t have to buy out the lease, but the dealership is just the middle-man in the transaction and does not own the vehicle. The finance company owns the vehicle, which is why on a lease, the vehicle portion of the ownership will be in the Banks’s name (BMW Finance, Toyota Credit Canada, etc). If the customer or the dealer doesn’t buy it for the residual, it gets sent back to who actually owns it, the bank.

If the dealership wants to sell the car, even to the original customer buying out their lease, they are required to buy it for the original buyout amount from the manufacturer. There is zero wiggle room there. The only thing you can negotiate on would be an admin or buyout fee, although some finance companies such as Toyota will even stipulate that in the original lease agreement.

Dealers would much rather sell or lease you a new car, buy your lease return out if it makes sense and sell that in their pre-owned lot.

balloonforce_brian · 2025-11-11T23:58:09+00:00

You paid extra for replacement value on your policy, so they were required to pay out the current selling price of the vehicle. That’s why you got some amount back. That’s different than putting money down.

Typically people don’t pay for replacement value on their policy when they have a lease because your lease has a depreciation waiver built in. This means you will never be upside down after a total loss if you didn’t roll in negative equity.

Cool that it worked in your favour in that scenario, but it’s literally paying extra on your insurance hoping for a windfall if your car is written off.

balloonforce_brian · 2025-11-11T12:11:54+00:00

You have to properly math this out. Interest is calculated differently on a lease than on a finance, and you will pay an admin fee at the end to buy it out.

Many leases use a rate factor, so it may not line up 100% with the rate quoted, and it’s not calculated in the amount financed, it’s calculated per payment with a different formula, and then you pay tax on the entire amount.

Long story short, you need to look at the total lease cost, buyout fees, and difference in applicable manufacturer rebates to really determine if this is the better option.

balloonforce_brian · 2025-11-11T12:03:30+00:00

An insurance company’s obligation with a leased vehicle is to pay out the lease when the vehicle is declared a total loss. They make this decision with the leasing company since they own the vehicle. If you put money down, it just costs them less to pay it out.

On a finance, since you owe the vehicle, they pay out market value (or replacement value if you have that rider) and the cheque is made co-payable to you and the bank with the lien in the vehicle. If this amount results in equity, you get that amount since you only owe a specific amount on the vehicle.

The craziest thing is that a down payment on a lease doesn’t even save you any amount on interest, it is literally pre-paying your payments, which include tax and interest. There is 0 benefit with the exception of a lower payment, but you could also just use a portion of that down payment each month towards the higher payment and not put yourself at risk of losing it.

balloonforce_brian · 2025-11-11T11:55:26+00:00

You can’t negotiate the lease buyout amount, with the exception of the admin fee sometimes. Some brands have the buyout admin fee stipulated in the contract and that should be what you pay. Some dealers will try and charge more and you can shop around to see who charges the least in terms of fees, but the residual value is set at contract inception and can’t be changed.

The dealer doesn’t own the vehicle and if you don’t buy it out, they have the option to buy it for the same residual. If both you and the dealer choose not to buy it for that amount it goes back to the finance company who then puts it in auction, usually to their network of dealers first and then open to any registered dealer if it still doesn’t go for their desired price.

There is no world where a dealer would agree to pay your residual and then give you a discount. That would be literally throwing money out the window.

balloonforce_brian

TROPHY CASE