Mr Johnson

Oh, you mean dumb people?!?

Oooo.... Ahhh..... say that again big boy

None at all. It's a free country. Just to be clear in my first comment, I'm not entirely serious. Buy what you like and you should not give a d*mn about what others think. Above all I can appreciate personal preferences, likes and dislikes. But.... People *****ing and moaning or freeloading or just being poseurs is another matter in my book

As you say the anticipation is probably over half the fun of it all. I honestly believe that people that never look forward to things and/or don't have to save and scrounge to get things don't appreciate them half as much as those who do.

Manaray: Did you like Reagan as Prez? I'm curious as I've found commonality in the answer to that question among many that hold similar opinions on this type of topic.

Tangential answer to question: No I don't think the ice cream sales in NYC correlate to the crime rate.

SandRock

I can vouch for manaray being poor back in the day, we closed down a thread on that sheeaat. It was a nice battle if I do say so myself. You just have to understand where he is comming from. I did not at first. I was a new dude and all I saw was everyone hoppin on his nutz everytime he posted something. I am a "against the grain type of cat" myself, so I decided to test "the rocket launcher". All I can say is he has his own views AND DO NOT POST ANY WACK SHEEAAT or prepare to have the dynamite lowered on you.

Manaray

Peter - Great idea! We should have a mini ClubLexus meet there!

Mr. Johnson - I was too young to even care about politics when Reagan was pres...

Sandrock - yeah, that was quite a thread...wonder how many people learned something from that thread though?

As for going against the grain, we're ALREADY going against the grain...fixing up high dollar Japanese cars is not "normal" in America...compare the # of fixed up Lexus/Infinitis to Porsche/BMW/Merceds and Hond/Acura/Nissans...

See, the way I see it, every modded Lexus car out there respresents "us". Especially if it's running a ClubLexus sticker on it. The last thing I want "us" to get labeled is "ricers". All those Honda ricers ****ed up their own market....I don't think ANY of us want that. That's why I'm all about doing it "right".

There are MANY ways to do it right, but cheap knock-off kits and wheels with crappy "low end" mods (pointless lighting like Neon, stock calipers painted red, chrome stickers, excessive bling, etc., etc.) is NOT the right way.

What's gets me are all these people that cry about how they don't have the money and whatnot...well if that's the case, just don't fix up your car. A stock car is 1000x better then some jacked up ricer ride. Just some people are SO desperate for attention that they'll do anything to make their car "look like" it's something special...when in reality, it's just a riced out POS....

And I laugh when people accuse me of not even owning a Lexus or whatnot... ...anyone who knows me knows that I practice what I preach.

Mr Johnson

Ouch! That hurts.... The body of a middle-ager the mind of a youngin. Reality Bites.

SoCalSC4

A BS Session at SEMA... I have a few stories to tell... we can all meet at the HRE booth.

Yep, even a 5% closing ratio is high these days- perhaps it's really 1%.

So, if you made, just for argument's sake, $600 on a wheel deal, but it took talking to 100 people to do it, at 15 minutes each, you've invested 25 hours of total selling time to make $600 GROSS (and I mean Gross) profit.

Then subtract the time on phone calls to vendors, customer service & follow-up, coordinating payment & delivery schedules- probably another 3 hours for this one sale.

So, you're in it 28 hours= $18/ hour...

That's $36K/ year... not even enough to own a new IS300 (unless you live w/ Mommy & Daddy)!

Heck, Mercedes Sevice Technicians make better than $30/ hour on many jobs... my friend (a Tech at Fletcher Jones Mercedes in Newport Beach) just bought a $380K home and he drives an E-Class- he'll clear $80K this year...


543R in 20"... Manaray, you know you're getting Set #1, right ? !
I shall now wave my magic wand... (LOL).
Patience, my boy, patience!

retrodrive

Lol, looks like 3 people are in for a little meet already.

Manaray

Bob, I want my wheels to be STAMPED with "SERIAL No. 001" Hey, when can we get it started? If July 1 is the official release date, shouldn't I have it before July 1? John mentioned something about getting a 2" lip to fit (with my brakes), he had some concerns with where we can "gain" some space...

Meeting at the HRE booth sounds cool...we'll have a few ClubLexus members there this year...including Richie all the way from Neatherlands! What hotels are you guys going to stay at?

Mr. Johnson - Hehehe...sorry about that! Didn't mean it that way! I am an avid Pro-Gunner so I would have probably liked him since he's Republican and most Rep. are pro-gun...

Manaray

Oh yeah, the Grosser wheels are made by a company called Carving (know for their Stark wheels). Pretty decent wheels. I would consider doing a set. They have 18" available now, and 19" is coming soon...

LexusRules

manaray i just wanna say, i agree with everything u said except along the lines of asking questions when you dont have money in hand.. well sometimes its good to know all thats out there and have every spec of every wheel you are looking at... in my situation i like to know about the wheels i am planning on, even if im not getting them at that exact time.

I think its stupid to drop out of a group buy if you say "FOR SURE IM IN" but asking information about wheels and then not buying should not be considered wasting time, it is just researching the market and deciding what you like most..

although i do see your point of people that are all talk no action, however spending 7000 on wheels is A LOT of money... u have to know what your getting, and what you could be getting INSTEAD.

just some different angles for you to look at, not trying to prove you wrong, besides I agree with your thoughts for hte most part in this situtaion anyways.

Richie

Wow, Sema is going to be awesome, meeting a lot of CL members and seeing some great cars, I can't wait !!

Manaray

Sasha, I sorta agree with what you're saying but some people ask questions just for the sake of asking questions...like they might hit up a vendor and bug them about HRE's when they only have $1000 TOTAL to spend on wheels.

It's like having $600/month to spend on rent and going down to Beverly Hills to look for an apartment when you know DAMN well the rent is over $3000/month there...why do research on crap you can't not POSSIBLY buy? Why waste other people's time? Doing your OWN research is one thing...

As for dropping out of group buy when you say you're DEFINITELY IN...that is whole 'nother subject...the only acceptable excuses are:

1) You died.
2) You knocked up 10 girls (or you're a girl and you got knocked up by 10 guys!)
3) You loss your job.
4) You got thrown in jail for murder one.
5) You got abducted by aliens.
6) The mob has a hit out on you.
7) You sold the car.
8) You donated that money to ClubLexus.
9) You're in a coma (but as soon as you wake up, you better have the cash ready...)
10) You're a POW in some foreign land.

I don't think anyone has issues with helping out SINCERE people. But we get a LOT of "big talkers" here...

J.P.

Well if you ever been in sales, you get use to the talkers. When I started my first company I had to do cold call sales, and you always had the talkers. You had the IT Manager with big dreams but the CFO wouldn't sign off on it. Even now, a close ratio of 3% for my sales people is pretty good, but that’s after 12 months of sales training in a program that I hold in high regard. NOW I cannot even imagine what it is like for the wheel vendors and after market companies in terms of big talkers. I am sure you get a pile of people asking for info, but maybe in the club Lexus case, once we get(are we?) some sort of wheel DB or other parts DB online, you can point people in that direction. I mean I even ask for price quotes once in a while, some information is hard to attain on the web.

Just reading this one late, but around where I live you see many of the “living beyond your means” people, but as I said in another post, I respect the guys rolling around in Civics who own homes and have a money market account. They one day hope to have an IS300, after some a$$ kissing and climbing the ladder, but I would rather be in a civic with some money in the bank working towards an IS300, then being broke with an IS300 and working towards a house.

LexFather

I would like to add that we are some of the O.G.s, In other words Manaray said he does not want to see us looking crazy and wants us to potray a image as the ROOK Porsches, HAMMAN BMWs, Lorinser Benzs etc.

Seeing as those cars have been sold for over 50 years and performance parts have been made for them say 25 years, well they KNOW how to do it. O'G's did it for them years ago. They KNOW what to add and not add today.

Since Lexus has only been aroung 13 years and besides rims for the first 8 years, what was there to offer a Lexus enthusiast in the U.S.?

In other words we are all relative Lexus newbies and many or most people that have a Lexus that want to hook it up "right" may not know where to start.

So we have to be careful of what we say as it may discourage someone who just does not know.

LexFather

About BSing, well let us not forget this is an internet forum. People do not see each other face to face nor shake hands. In a world where "honor and repspect" are seemingly lost IN PERSON, ***** BSing on the internet ain't ***** to most people.

It takes an amount of HONOR to say you will do something on the internet and fall through with it. A lot of people are full of
***** in person, so they are even MORE FULL OF ***** on the net.

Being this is an internet forum, besides those that have posted pics of their car or have someone to "vouch" for em, people in on group buys may not EVEN OWN A CAR. Maybe they get sick kicks outta that.

Not defending anyone, but I like to play "devil's advocate". If a "ghetto" person never steps foot outta the ghetto, no interaction with people that have made it and know better, does that make him "ghetto" of does he just not know?

And we can talk about people that have a new 60k car with 30k worth of mods, just cause he LOOKS rich does not MAKE him rich. That dude could be neck-deep in debt, no 401k savings, a killa mortgage, the most expensive clothes, but no savings at all. But he "looks like a millionare" and "buys the right things".

LexFather

I got on this late but it is a great subject. This is another example of ClubLexus at it's best.