Appreciating your Acura CL...I just got reminded
12-07-2004, 05:53 PM
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Appreciating your Acura CL...I just got reminded
At work today I had three female visitors in from China and I had to take one of them named "Doris" to a place where they apply coatings she is interested in doing also in China.
The Chinese usually adopt colorful and flashy American first names so we are spared the difficulty of pronouncing their true first name which more often than not don't contain any vowels.
Doris barely has a command of the English language, and I really was a little queasy about meeting her in person, as all of the instruction I had given her so far had been by conference call and communication was difficult at best. A 14 hour time zone difference didn't help things out, neither did the stupid now American citizen project leader who hails from India and occassionally chirped in comments to her with five and six syllable words so we would all be impressed with how smart he was. I think the biggest problem now that I look back was the poor quality of the infintile Chinese telephone system. I knew there was going to be a lot of technical talk, so I hedged my bets and brought along Tom who is fluent in both Chinese and English, so we set out just after noon, the destination was about an hour away.
Doris is from Shanghai, very populated, so not many cars there. Bikes and buses are the standard fare. It's not that cars are banned or unaffordable, its the lisencing fees over there. Get this: Acording to her, plates and tags are $4,700 per year. Every year. Doris told me she had been in a car about a half a dozen times in her life, and most of those were taxis. We all know how well they are kept up.
Anyway, out to the car. As soon as she figured out which was the car, she said "Very pretty. I like the color very much." (anthricite, with a spoiler and navi). I opened the passenger door for her, did the seat thing for her to get into the back seat, and she basically squealed with delight as the powered seat moved forward than back after she got in. (Note: the Chinese MAN sits in FRONT of the Chinese WOMAN.) Selecting reverse, she caught the passenger mirror moving down, squealed again, and asked why that was, so I explained for her. Before we had even moved, she commented on the wonderful leather and the tastefullness of the interior trim. You gotta realize at this point, this was music to my ears as my job involves the quality of paint and trim for others.
Now I enabeled the preloaded trip into the navi, and her eyes got like saucers. I had her in the rear view mirror when the trip finally loaded, and she started looking around and looked suprised when the announcement "please proceed on the highlighted route" message came on. As we were to have lunch along the way, I asked her what type of food she would like to have. "American. I love French fries." So I poked through the menu until I came up with a place where the cuisine is excellent but the fries are king. She was REALLY WOWED.
During lunch, as all women do, she visited the washroom, and I convinced Tom to swallow his pride and take the back seat for one way of the trip. Without telling Doris, I flipped on her seat heater. That really wowed her, after I convinced her she wasn't getting sick from bad food and was developing a fever but only in the lower half of her body. I also pointed out the moisture on the mirrors outside the car, and showed her how the heated mirrors will evaporate the water/snow. BTW, my company makes those seat and mirror heaters.
She was quite impressed by the power of the car. I was in third, six speed manual, when I had a necessary opportunity to "punch it" due to a bone headed lane change by another driver. I didn't give it all it had, just enough to get out of trouble, the pavement was wet. Even though it was drizzleing, she noticed the sunroof, and said "Nice. A window on top so you can see the sky." I took this as an opportunity to show how it tilts and retracts. While open, as we were going South on the East side of O'hare, a B747 crossed overhead by about 100 feet, drawing gasps from her again.
Then, she discovered the stereo (at this point, I was encouraging her to "play" with everything, and she did.) She couldn't believe there were six CD's stored in the dash, so I had to have here eject a few to make her a believer. She was also stunned to see me change volume/tracks without touching the radio control knobs.
When we got to the destination, I put her in the drivers seat, made her adjust it for her, mirrors included, pressed "memory 2" and asked her to get out. Then I pressed memory 1 (me), and had her get back in and pressed memory 2. She was absolutely amazed.
On the way home, she asked a question I hardly expected she would ever ask: how much money does this fantastic car cost?
I explained $34,000 less taxes, not cheap but certainly not exorbitant, about 272,000 yuan (I hope I got that right; it is about 8:1) Chinese. Doris said (and she is highly paid, by Chinese standards) it would take her about 10 years to make that much money, less food, less rent, less expenses.
So, there is some a lessons to be learned here:
Some people can't drive even if they could afford to.
Some people can't drive a car like we have, simply because it is not offered to them; not would they be able to service it.
Some people who can drive get offered a four door econobox, no A/C, no luxury features, and no comfort and high gas prices (not that ours are what I would consider reasonable.)
Moral of the story: Appreciate what you have. Others covet it.
Out.
The Chinese usually adopt colorful and flashy American first names so we are spared the difficulty of pronouncing their true first name which more often than not don't contain any vowels.
Doris barely has a command of the English language, and I really was a little queasy about meeting her in person, as all of the instruction I had given her so far had been by conference call and communication was difficult at best. A 14 hour time zone difference didn't help things out, neither did the stupid now American citizen project leader who hails from India and occassionally chirped in comments to her with five and six syllable words so we would all be impressed with how smart he was. I think the biggest problem now that I look back was the poor quality of the infintile Chinese telephone system. I knew there was going to be a lot of technical talk, so I hedged my bets and brought along Tom who is fluent in both Chinese and English, so we set out just after noon, the destination was about an hour away.
Doris is from Shanghai, very populated, so not many cars there. Bikes and buses are the standard fare. It's not that cars are banned or unaffordable, its the lisencing fees over there. Get this: Acording to her, plates and tags are $4,700 per year. Every year. Doris told me she had been in a car about a half a dozen times in her life, and most of those were taxis. We all know how well they are kept up.
Anyway, out to the car. As soon as she figured out which was the car, she said "Very pretty. I like the color very much." (anthricite, with a spoiler and navi). I opened the passenger door for her, did the seat thing for her to get into the back seat, and she basically squealed with delight as the powered seat moved forward than back after she got in. (Note: the Chinese MAN sits in FRONT of the Chinese WOMAN.) Selecting reverse, she caught the passenger mirror moving down, squealed again, and asked why that was, so I explained for her. Before we had even moved, she commented on the wonderful leather and the tastefullness of the interior trim. You gotta realize at this point, this was music to my ears as my job involves the quality of paint and trim for others.
Now I enabeled the preloaded trip into the navi, and her eyes got like saucers. I had her in the rear view mirror when the trip finally loaded, and she started looking around and looked suprised when the announcement "please proceed on the highlighted route" message came on. As we were to have lunch along the way, I asked her what type of food she would like to have. "American. I love French fries." So I poked through the menu until I came up with a place where the cuisine is excellent but the fries are king. She was REALLY WOWED.
During lunch, as all women do, she visited the washroom, and I convinced Tom to swallow his pride and take the back seat for one way of the trip. Without telling Doris, I flipped on her seat heater. That really wowed her, after I convinced her she wasn't getting sick from bad food and was developing a fever but only in the lower half of her body. I also pointed out the moisture on the mirrors outside the car, and showed her how the heated mirrors will evaporate the water/snow. BTW, my company makes those seat and mirror heaters.
She was quite impressed by the power of the car. I was in third, six speed manual, when I had a necessary opportunity to "punch it" due to a bone headed lane change by another driver. I didn't give it all it had, just enough to get out of trouble, the pavement was wet. Even though it was drizzleing, she noticed the sunroof, and said "Nice. A window on top so you can see the sky." I took this as an opportunity to show how it tilts and retracts. While open, as we were going South on the East side of O'hare, a B747 crossed overhead by about 100 feet, drawing gasps from her again.
Then, she discovered the stereo (at this point, I was encouraging her to "play" with everything, and she did.) She couldn't believe there were six CD's stored in the dash, so I had to have here eject a few to make her a believer. She was also stunned to see me change volume/tracks without touching the radio control knobs.
When we got to the destination, I put her in the drivers seat, made her adjust it for her, mirrors included, pressed "memory 2" and asked her to get out. Then I pressed memory 1 (me), and had her get back in and pressed memory 2. She was absolutely amazed.
On the way home, she asked a question I hardly expected she would ever ask: how much money does this fantastic car cost?
I explained $34,000 less taxes, not cheap but certainly not exorbitant, about 272,000 yuan (I hope I got that right; it is about 8:1) Chinese. Doris said (and she is highly paid, by Chinese standards) it would take her about 10 years to make that much money, less food, less rent, less expenses.
So, there is some a lessons to be learned here:
Some people can't drive even if they could afford to.
Some people can't drive a car like we have, simply because it is not offered to them; not would they be able to service it.
Some people who can drive get offered a four door econobox, no A/C, no luxury features, and no comfort and high gas prices (not that ours are what I would consider reasonable.)
Moral of the story: Appreciate what you have. Others covet it.
Out.
12-07-2004, 06:01 PM
#2
Team Owner
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Yeh, I'm from Trinidad and there are a lot of cars that come off a boat from Japan, and they suck as far as having power and all the good stuff. My mom's car has a freaking 1.6 liter 4 cylinder and that's normal. I'm going home in a week. And I will be appreciating a lot when I get back behind the wheel of the CL.
We're spoilt in America. This is why I have taken my car back to Acura because the all too improtant memory seat doesn't work no more.
My cousins are blown away when I told them how much it cost, and all the features the car has. That car is about 5 years salary down there.
Anyways, thanks for the reminder.
Oh yeh...as for the Asian chick....
We're spoilt in America. This is why I have taken my car back to Acura because the all too improtant memory seat doesn't work no more.
My cousins are blown away when I told them how much it cost, and all the features the car has. That car is about 5 years salary down there.
Anyways, thanks for the reminder.
Oh yeh...as for the Asian chick....
12-07-2004, 06:09 PM
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In Hong Kong a Pint of milk is aleast $7, if your lucky
Its very expensive there, considered flying for Cathay Pacific, until i found out it just did not make financial sence.
Its very expensive there, considered flying for Cathay Pacific, until i found out it just did not make financial sence.
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12-07-2004, 08:39 PM
#8
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[QUOTE=
Oh yeh...as for the Asian chick....
[/QUOTE]
MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY!!!!
We live in America, where cars are relatively inexpensive. When my parents lived in Singapore, around 7 years ago, my dad paid $125K for a new Camry. Pretty sad, huh?
Oh yeh...as for the Asian chick....
[/QUOTE]MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY!!!!
We live in America, where cars are relatively inexpensive. When my parents lived in Singapore, around 7 years ago, my dad paid $125K for a new Camry. Pretty sad, huh?
12-07-2004, 11:41 PM
#10
Safety Car
Originally Posted by F900
In Hong Kong a Pint of milk is aleast $7, if your lucky
Its very expensive there, considered flying for Cathay Pacific, until i found out it just did not make financial sence.
Its very expensive there, considered flying for Cathay Pacific, until i found out it just did not make financial sence.
12-07-2004, 11:52 PM
#11
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True that, the price of cars in china is more than one half of what it is here... a BMW 325 is about $35K here, over in china, it is like $50k or $60K, or more than 400,000 chinese yuan. In addition to the price of the car, you still gotta pay another at least 80K chinese yuan for the license plate. Yes, us Americans lucky to get licence plate for few bucks, over there, the government limites the number plactes. I even heard of story licence plate getting autioned off reaching price of a real BMW car!
Anyway, on the other hand, there are loads of rich chinese people as well. I was walking down streets of Shanghai early this year, not only I saw Porcshes, Bentleys (BMW is actually common), also actual dealers, one with Porche 911 GT3!!!
Yes, I do appreciate what I have in the states
The best is to make same amount of money but live in China
Anyway, on the other hand, there are loads of rich chinese people as well. I was walking down streets of Shanghai early this year, not only I saw Porcshes, Bentleys (BMW is actually common), also actual dealers, one with Porche 911 GT3!!!
Yes, I do appreciate what I have in the states
The best is to make same amount of money but live in China
12-08-2004, 12:25 AM
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You should have mentioned the tranny, that woulda shut her oohs and aahhs up! haha! j/k...I love my car and appreciate that it's faster than most cars on the street.
12-08-2004, 11:45 AM
#13
Race Director
Nice story. 
The Vietnamese whores that frequent my car usually react the same way. For all of the five minutes that is.
Is there a problem with the 6 speeds? 
The Vietnamese whores that frequent my car usually react the same way. For all of the five minutes that is.
Originally Posted by TypeS_boi
You should have mentioned the tranny, that woulda shut her oohs and aahhs up! haha!
Originally Posted by dfreder370
I was in third, six speed manual.....
12-08-2004, 11:50 AM
#14
GEEZER
I couldn't hear EXACTLY what she said...but I think it was "Me love him long time" 
12-08-2004, 01:36 PM
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I was driving this girl home once and she started complaining that the car is so low and the ride on the 19's felt a bit rough. The exhaust sounded too loud and I played the radio too loud. I dropped her off at the subway.
12-08-2004, 03:20 PM
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Hey you guys:
This was just a couple hour business trip there and back. I never flaunted the CL for one minute. I didn't want to perpetuate the "ugly American syndrome."
She was just taken aback about what a nice car the CL is. Although I know I/we have a somewhat "upper tier" car, sometimes we forget what we have and take it for granted. To see someone uninitiated to a navi, heated seats, etc, was just mind blowing.
I think Doris put more time on the electric motors on the passenger seat in a little less than two hours than I have put on the drivers seat in 18 months. She changed the position every five minutes or so, just because she could. She had a choice.
To me, what was interesting to me, is that while the Chinese people by no means live anymore in the stone age, she was absolutely amazed that this kind of luxury, convience, performance and the nice little extras are available to Americans, as long as they can afford it, and not all of us can. Just like I can't afford a Mercedes S500.
All I'm trying to say is that I could almost hear the fuses blowing in Doris' head at what was surrounding her, the level of comfort and technology she was being conveyed in. It was sensory overload for her. It showed her what is possible, and she was overwealmed by it.
It just made me appreciate more what I have for a daily driver, even though I am itching to trade it for a new, next generation CL. In general, I don't drive anything that is out of warranty.
My point: we have a very nice, highly engineered car, so appreciate it while you have it. That's all!
This was just a couple hour business trip there and back. I never flaunted the CL for one minute. I didn't want to perpetuate the "ugly American syndrome."
She was just taken aback about what a nice car the CL is. Although I know I/we have a somewhat "upper tier" car, sometimes we forget what we have and take it for granted. To see someone uninitiated to a navi, heated seats, etc, was just mind blowing.
I think Doris put more time on the electric motors on the passenger seat in a little less than two hours than I have put on the drivers seat in 18 months. She changed the position every five minutes or so, just because she could. She had a choice.
To me, what was interesting to me, is that while the Chinese people by no means live anymore in the stone age, she was absolutely amazed that this kind of luxury, convience, performance and the nice little extras are available to Americans, as long as they can afford it, and not all of us can. Just like I can't afford a Mercedes S500.
All I'm trying to say is that I could almost hear the fuses blowing in Doris' head at what was surrounding her, the level of comfort and technology she was being conveyed in. It was sensory overload for her. It showed her what is possible, and she was overwealmed by it.
It just made me appreciate more what I have for a daily driver, even though I am itching to trade it for a new, next generation CL. In general, I don't drive anything that is out of warranty.
My point: we have a very nice, highly engineered car, so appreciate it while you have it. That's all!
12-08-2004, 07:12 PM
#19
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I SECOND THAT EMOTION 
I NEED TO HEAR THIS STUFF AGAIN AND AGAIN. WHEN IT COMES FROM ME I FEEL LIKE I AM BRAGGING..FROM SOMEONE ELSE IT KEEPS ME IN CHECK
I NEED TO HEAR THIS STUFF AGAIN AND AGAIN. WHEN IT COMES FROM ME I FEEL LIKE I AM BRAGGING..FROM SOMEONE ELSE IT KEEPS ME IN CHECK
it was a joke man
12-08-2004, 11:39 PM
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Originally Posted by Dan
F--K Cathay Pacific! Worst airline I have EVER been on! Hong Kong to LAX. Don't think they could have crammed one more seat in the plane if they had used a hydraulic press to do it.
Well i dont fly for them, relax lol
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