I understand your point, VDC, but such a broad statement cannot be made with addictions. There’s an extremely wide variation in ability to quit addictions. Some can quit cold-turkey at will, others, like myself, require numerous tries, and some cannot do so without help.
Ase, it isn’t that simple. Addiction is a complicated issue and involves physiology as well as behaviors.
I find the comment about “tar dripping” cars funny. I have seen plenty of computers like this and when I go on service calls, I see houses where the walls are yellowish-brown and tar is slowly creeping down the walls in streams. Yes, I can’t imagine what this does to the body. And people wonder how I know they smoke just from working on their computers???
I have a couple friends who have tried and tried to stop but it isn’t possible for him. They are very addicted and going through the motion of smoking is part of the deal. Both of them knew it was bad. One finally got throat cancer but still couldn’t kick the habit.
Well the two of them decided to take up eCigarettes/vaping. This is a much cleaner and somewhat healthier habit for them. Since they can’t quit this seems to be the next best thing. Of course there is a HUGE variance in quality in the equipment and juices. Some of the cheaper formulas are filled with nasty chemicals and can turn a person off real quick. You obviously need to get a better grade for enjoyment and health reasons, otherwise you aren’t really getting anything. While this isn’t the perfect solution, it is definitely better for them than smoking the real thing. They both swear by these.
The smell and residue from vaping isn’t offensive at all to me.
I did buy one old truck that had been smoked in but I got it cheap REALLY dirty with lots of problems. I had to end up disconnecting the battery and using a pressure washer on the interior. I removed the carpet and trim panels and shop vacced out like 100lbs of mud with included leftover fast food, dead mice, mouse droppings/urine, cigarette butts, shell casings, beer bottle tops, and much more. The rocker panels were just packed with mud and all the drain holes were blocked so rust had started. I treated this as best I could and it seems to have done the trick. Cigarettes were the least of the issues with this truck but it doesn’t stink anymore.
Being a smoker doesn’t mean you have to be a slob. There’s no reason for the tar dripping off your car windows (I see that from time to time) or burn holes in the seats and carpet or your house stinking like an ash tray. That’s just basic housekeeping.
I grew up in a house where both parents smoked. But every year all the drapes came down and went to the cleaners, the walls got scrubbed and washed, the carpets were steam cleaned. Every few years the walls were painted, furniture that was fabric was replaced, etc.
The cars were kept clean, windows cleaned, interiors wiped down before any ugly residue could settle in. My mother still has the 1975 Buick she bought new and other than the ash tray being worn you’d never know the car was smoked in.
Yes, I know a few people and you would never know they smoked. They always go outside and won’t smoke inside their home or cars. One of them is an electronics nerd too and he realizes how nasty it is for everything so figures he will only dirty up himself.
As far as how tough it is to quit. I had to try two times to quit. I finally did it in 1976, after having reached a 2.5 pack a day level. Plus, the price of ciggy butts had climbed to $1 a pack and I simply couldn’t afford it anymore.
That was 39 years ago. But I’ll tell you who think it’s “just quit and be done with it” that to this day, if I’m walking down the street and someone coming the other way is smoking, and I catch a whiff of the smoke as they pass by because I didn’t see it until it was too late to hold my breath? To this day, my body and brain just immediately “light up” and tells me “Oh, baby, you want another one of those, don’t you???” To this day.
That is how powerful the addiction can be.
How much does CLEANING a vehicle before you sell it . . . .
How much does REPAIRING a vehicle before you sell it . . . .
@“ken green”, I find that cleaning and repairing cars make them a lot more attractive to prospective buyers. I first learned this when I detailed a late 1970s VW Rabbit before selling it. They guy that bought it said that two things pushed him to buy: the well executed paint job on the rear wheel well and the exceptionally clean trunk. Since that time, I’ve repaired and cleaned cars before I sold them. I also get the state safety inspection done and show the certificate when asked. Then all a buyer has to do is register it and drive on.
In 1960 9 out of 10 doctors recommended smoking some brand of cigarette or other. Non smokers were the exception to the rule it seemed.
My wife smoked and developed emphezema. She died at age 56. I had smoked most of my life and found it a difficult habit to stop but cutting back in stages, taking more than a year, I had quit before she died. I haven’t smoked in 13 years now but I can smell a Marlboro from a car ahead of me and have a momentary craving. The smell of stale smoke is somewhat repulsive these days but it’s rare that I run accross that odor.
In the '60s, while I was in HS, I worked for my dad at his retail store. Part of my job was to sweep the floors every evening after the store closed. Always, without exception, there was a good size pile of cigarette butts that I swept up. People would walk around the store smoking and put them out on the floor. Nobody thought anything of it. It was completely normal.
People would walk around the store smoking and put them out on the floor. Nobody thought anything of it. It was completely normal.
Look at the ground while stopped at any red light…you’ll ALWAYS see butts.
CLEAN a vehicle. . . REPAIR a vehicle, before you sell it. . . once its cleaned and repaired, why sell it? Now you’ve got a nice vehicle 
Good point, Ed.
In the past I’ve occasionally been approached by a car dealer when at a dealership for some reason who tells me he can save me thousands, and my stock response is "I can save thousands more… by NOT buying a new car! They don’t like that response. But it’s true.
There is no qualification or education standard to be a car salesman. Most of the car salesmen I’ve dealt with were NOT very intelligent. They are trained to be deceptive. Some will say it’s just a small bunch who are deceptive…and they do it on their own. The ones I’ve come across aren’t intelligent to come up with some of the deceitful practices on their own. Plus it’s the same one from dealer to dealer. I remember when leasing was first becoming popular. And every dealer was pushing leasing. …saying how it’s going to save us money. I even showed the arrogant salesman how much money I’d loose by leasing. He still didn’t believe me because he was TOLD by his management that Leasing is cheaper for the customer. Since he couldn’t understand the 5th grade math…I knew that arguing the point was moot. I walked out and bought elsewhere.
They’re just people trying to pay their rent by selling cars. Most are (trained to be?) pushy and tricky, but few IMHO are actually outright dishonest. But, unfortunately, the dishonest minority coupled with the pushiness and trickiness of the honest ones creates an unsavory reputation.
Lots of good people in bad sales jobs.
There are few experiences I hate worse than buying a car at a dealer. You just feel like they are trying to slime you and I hate the whole haggling thing. I just want to walk in and buy a car, not have to figure out how to get them to come down or go multiple places to get the best price. One thing I do no matter what is let them know that the longer they want to dicker on the price, the cheaper I expect it to be.
Owning my own business has gotten me to be more efficient about weeding out the time wasters. Haggling is just wasted time in my opinion so don’t have a lot of tolerance for it. I tell potential customers no to any haggling offers right upfront when they start.
I once bought a new truck. I went in to the local dealer after getting a price quote from a dealer like 100 miles away. The local place wanted $2500 more for the truck than the out of town dealer. I told them this and they didn’t seem to believe me but I went and bought the truck somewhere else. Not long after I got a deal where if I test drove a vehicle they would give me a $25 gift card to Applebees or someplace like that. I went and test drove a vehicle and ended up getting the same salesperson I had talked to about the truck before. They asked if I was still in the market and I said no. I told them the weekend after I called and they weren’t willing to budge on the price, I drove to the other dealer and bought the truck and pointed it out in the parking lot.
The only type of salesperson worse than car salesmen are those who sell cell phones. There also seems to be a high turnover rate. You never see the same people working in the stores twice. They will just lie to get your business and I assume commission.
I just want to walk in and buy a car, not have to figure out how to get them to come down or go multiple places to get the best price.
If you want the best price, only one way to do that- you have to go to multiple places otherwise you’ll never know if it was the best price.
I circumvent most of the bull by first doing all my research online. Then, when I’m ready, I pick a dealership. I make it known I’m paying cash (no need for credit checks, lease options or loans), I’m buying today (i’m not wasting your time, don’t waste mine), I’m not giving you my keys, blank checks or any other delaying tactics- let’s go test drive the actual vehicle I will be buying.
When done, I offer a FAIR price and make sure they understand it’s OUT THE DOOR price. No add ons, no fees, this is what my check will have on it when I return to pick it up. It’s not the best price, it’s a fair price take it or leave it.
I only had one time that a salesperson decided to play games. I walked. Most realize immediately that it’s best for everyone. They make some money and are done in minutes, free to pursue the next sales opportunity rather than wasting that time trying to eek a few more dollars out of me and risk a sure thing…
I get the sense a lot of these commissioned sales jobs go to middle-aged people who were downsized out of their chosen career fields, unemployment runs out, they get desperate for a job. . . and the employers will pretty much hire anyone for commission sales because if you don’t make any sales, they don’t have to pay you. I’ve heard stories about car dealerships firing the lowest producing sales person or persons every month, stiffing their salespeople out of commissions because the lot didn’t “make the numbers” for the month and so on. Car salesperson must be an awful high pressure job, but of course I’m not a salesman by nature anyway. . .
An encounter I had at a dealer about a year ago, middle aged guy comes out wearing a baseball cap that identified him as a Vietnam Veteran, so I was rooting for the guy from the start. He was more nervous and awkward than I was, obviously talking from a script he had memorized. The cars were packed in so tight 2 cars needed to be moved to get to the car I wanted to test drive, and he couldn’t find the keys. All the while, some young, just-out-of-college looking guy in a suit is glaring at him, from a distance, the longer he fumbled to find the keys, the more this guy scowled at him. It got so awkward I just had to get out of there. God, I felt sorry for that poor salesman. I hope I never find myself in a situation like that. The guy got my phone number but never called me back to follow up, which tells me he either doesn’t know sales AT ALL, OR, he didn’t last very long in that job. . .
For buying a car, I like the approach mentioned previously by, I think it was @Triedaq ? “I have a pile of money, YOU have a car. How much of my pile of money is it going to take to buy your car?”
We often give our used cars away, @“Ed Frugal”. Stand back… Ed is going to run screaming from the room!
I sell the car because I have 150,000 or more miles on the car in 12 or more years of ownership. I’m ready for another new car. I do it because it pleases me and I can afford it.