PRICING
That's why I was happy when cost plus buying opportunities arose and you didn't have to negotiate.
TEST DRIVES
You can do all the research online that you want, but an extended test drive is the only way to truly figure out if a car is right for you. Car dealers will offer you a test drive, but other than those test drives you see on funny TV commercials that last for days, a regular test drive isn't enough.
RENTAL CARS
Recently I've relied on rental cars for my extended test drives.
My most recent rental was a Mercedes C250.
I liked it.
Then I saw the Mercedes CLA.
Casey Neistat is producing a nice movie project for The Mercedes CLA.
In his first video, Casey talkes about his history with cars.
MY HISTORY WITH CARS
The first car I drove around a lot was my dad's Pontiac Tempest. It was hte four door version of the Pontiac GTO.
I loved that car. It had a V8 engine and was a lot of fun to drive. I had a sweet deal. I'd drive my dad to work, then have the car for the day, then pick him up when he was done with work.
This was the first car that I owned. A Ford Torino. I bough it off a used car lot with low miles.
The problem was, it didn't really have low miles and the engine needed to be replaced. The dealer did that for me. Then it had problems starting. Overall, it had a lot of problems.
I got rid of that and then bought a Toyota Celica. Lots of people at work had the same car, so I bought one too. The salesman took me on a test drive like that current viral YouTube video. Although in my test drive, he drove me around like he was racing. Turns out he was a New England racing champion. ;-)
This car was awesome. Wish they made something like this today. It was a sporty hatchback.
My current car is a 2000 New Beetle, that isn't so new any more. In fact, at over 12 years, it's the longest that I've ever owned a car.
This brings me to the Cadillac ATS.
The wasn't even on my radar until I went to #SXSW this year and met some representatives from GM at the All Hat party.
Image: With @mayhematusios Calvin Lee (Not a GM rep) at #Allhat
They sponsored the party, but did it in a great way. No overt sales pitches. So I thanked them for that and we got to talking about cars, and I told them about my driving history and how I was considering a Mercedes CLA.
They offered to get me a Cadillac ATS for a week to try out. No strings attached. They just want to see what I think about it.
Cadillac ATS Arrives
The Cadillac ATS arrived today. I'm looking forward to trying it out.
DISCLOSURE
I'm very interested in the social media space and the efforts that the FTC is making to help guide bloggers in how to best disclose any commercial involvement, when they share content on social media sites.
I'm so interested in it, that I have invested and am advising a company that it trying to help make things a lot easier, cmp.ly.
So I'm going to be using the cmp.ly tools when posting about the Cadillac ATS to test them out too.
I've set up a campaign at cmp.ly and this URL points readers to my disclosure: http://disclosur.es/9ROsJA.
Here's how it looks in the wild:
Cadillac ATS is here for my test drive. disclosur.es/9ROsJA instagram.com/p/XsCbVNBCtM/
— Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) April 4, 2013
Direct Link
Cadillac ATS is here for my test drive. disclosur.es/9ROsJA instagram.com/p/XsCbVNBCtM/
FB
Direct link
FLICKR
Direct Link
FULL DISCLOSURE
GM provided me with a 2013 Cadillac ATS to test for a week. The car came with a full tank of gas and insurance coverage. I was not asked to write anything about the car in exchange for the opportunity and was not provided any other compensation of any kind. All opinions I express regarding the Cadillac ATS are my own.