Sir, the car doesn't have feelings. It can't get hurt.

[sld72382]

Another one from my dad's job as quick lube manager. This actually occurred some years ago, but it still kinda funny.

Backstory: Before Infiniti started making cars that were totally unique to the brand, many of their cars were rebadged Nissans. Like the G20, which was a Sentra with an Infiniti badge and leather seats (for several thousand more).

Guy comes in looking for an oil change with his G20. As his car is rolling into the bay, SC asks if the shop carries the oil filter his car needs. This is the sucky part....

Dad: Sure we do.

SC: Mind if I see the box?

*Dad gets the box and shows it to him.*

SC: Why does it say Nissan and not Infiniti?

Dad: Because this filter is designed to fit both Nissan and Infiniti vehicles as they share the same engines.

SC: Um my car's not a Nissan, it's an Infiniti! SLD's note: He apparently drank the kool-aid.

Dad: I hate to break it to you but your G20 is a Sentra with an Infiniti logo and leather seats, and it has the same engine. That's why this filter fits.

SC: How dare you! My car is not a piece of crap econobox, it's a luxury car! SLD's note: The same people who bought a Cimarron said the same thing.

Dad: I'm sorry but I honestly don't know what to tell you other than the filter will fit.

SC: You can start by giving me the corporate phone number after we do the oil change! You insulted my car!

Dad: Sure, here it is.... *Gives him the DM's phone #.*

Dad warns the DM about this guy. The day after, dad's boss phones him....

DM: The guy with the G20 wanted to lodge a complaint against you for calling his car a Sentra with leather seats.

Dad: And what did you tell him?

DM: I told him to go to a Nissan dealership and park his G20 next to a Sentra and look at both interiors. He hung up.

I don't know if the guy ever came back.

[Bandit]

Hope that guy never buys an Acura CSX or an Acura EL

They are Honda Civics with some gadgets and a $10k premium for the badge.

Both the Civic and EL/CSX are built on the same line.

B

[Shalom]

Years ago, in my previous existence as a locksmith, I had to change the ignition on a Mazda 626. I ordered the lock and installed it, and when I handed her the key she flipped out. Why? Well, the key had a Ford logo on it. (This was because the Ford Probe, being essentially a Mexican-built Mazda 626 with different sheetmetal, used the exact same ignition lock, and it cost us half as much from the Ford dealer as as it did at the Mazda dealer.) She was screaming at us "I don't have a Ford, I have a Mazda, how dare you use inferior parts, yada yada bla bla woof woof" (thanks Jimi) I tried to explain to her that it was the same lock which both manufacturers bought from Toyo Kogyo (Mazda's parent company at the time), but she wasn't having any of it. She had a Mazda, not a "cheap ford", and by $DEITY she wanted a Mazda lock, and that's all there was to it. If I remember correctly, we told her we'd fix it and she should come back in another hour, and when she left, I recut the key on a blank with the Mazda logo on it and threw away the Ford one...

[Caffienated_Caramel]

lol high fives to ur dad! And corporate

[Jetfire]

Hope that guy never buys an Acura CSX or an Acura EL

They are Honda Civics with some gadgets and a $10k premium for the badge.

Both the Civic and EL/CSX are built on the same line.

B

My mom (and my Uncle apparently; she got it from him) whenever they see an Acura in a lot or on the road, have a habit of pointing to them and shouting "Honda!" for just that reason.

[Argabarga]

My mom still doesn't belive that the Lincoln Navigator is really just a Ford Expedition, or the Town Car is just a Crown Vic, or the Mark VIII was just a Thunderbird... and on and on it goes.

[Sightings Reporter]

My mom still doesn't belive that the Lincoln Navigator is really just a Ford Expedition, or the Town Car is just a Crown Vic, or the Mark VIII was just a Thunderbird... and on and on it goes.

I used to own a 1995 T-Bird. My uncle owned a Mark VIII and yep, identical. I sort of knew that, but what I didn't know was that the Mustang of that era had the same interior too. The first time I got in to my friend's Mustang, I knew where everything was because it was set up just like mine...

[trunks2k]

Now I wish I got the leather seats option on my Sentra (which is not a crap econobox btw).... coulda had me a luxury car.

[BaristaTrav]

Reminds me of an argument from almost 20 years ago trying to convince my friend his Eagle Talon was, in fact, a Mitsubishi Eclipse. He just wouldn't believe me... until my dad leased one and I parked it in front of him.

[Argabarga]

It got even more confusing when Chrysler axed the in-house chassis they build the Omni/Horizon on and opted to just import and re-name the then current Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback and put thier name on that, ending up with THREE cars on the same chassis different in name only with one obstensibly being an import,and two others domestic.... INSANITY!

[Andara Bledin]

SLD's note: The same people who bought a Cimarron said the same thing.

Oh, god... the memories... *shudder*

If I remember correctly, we told her we'd fix it and she should come back in another hour, and when she left, I recut the key on a blank with the Mazda logo on it and threw away the Ford one...

And charged her the premium Mazda price, I hope, since she didn't want the "cheap Ford" one.

My mom still doesn't belive that the Lincoln Navigator is really just a Ford Expedition, or the Town Car is just a Crown Vic, or the Mark VIII was just a Thunderbird... and on and on it goes.

Or the Dodge Aries, Plymouth Reliant, and Chrysler LeBaron...

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

I had a long, rambling post typed up, but deleted it. The point, though, was to make a distinction between "these two model cars are *essentially* the same, and the mechanical parts are interchangeable" and "this car is *just* that car." Yes, it's stupid to act all insulted to hear that your new oil filter or ignition switch or whatever is the "wrong" kind, or to argue that your fancier-name car is great and its cheaper twin a junkbox, but rarely is the name the *only* difference.

The looks of a car matter to a lot of people, for instance; even if they don't anymore (I don't know), as I understand it, for many years Volkswagen sold both the Golf and the New Beetle despite their being the same other than looks. That doesn't mean the buyers of either are stupid. The differences in appearance aren't usually that strong, but they're rarely completely absent either.

Also, the more expensive name usually has features the other doesn't; some people may even want them. For instance, and I'm using this because there's one of each in the family and I know both cars very well: the 1994 Town Car has four cigarette lighters instead of the Grand Marquis's one. A nearly useless feature then, perhaps, but it's great now that everybody has at least one device of some sort that needs to be plugged in. On the other hand, the Mercury has half as wide a panel between the back door and the back window, making it easier to see to back up or change lanes safely. It also, unlike the Lincoln, has seats that don't give me a backache on long trips. If you often load down the trunk with very heavy stuff, you'd want the load-leveling suspension of the Lincoln; if you want the car's back end not to drop to the ground suddenly when that nearly-impossible-to-find-parts-for-and-boy-are-they-expensive system breaks, you definitely don't. Etc, etc. (for the record, I prefer the Mercury version to the Lincoln, though I also prefer my own car to either, unless I need the extra room in either the back seat or the trunk.)

And here I've replaced one long, rambling post with another, but this one at least appears to make more sense

[dalesys]

I remember the 1st generation Ford Mustang:
A Falcon.

And the second:
A Pinto.

Edit: I loved my '76 Pinto wagon... Especially hauling (19) 28-32 foot tipi poles on the roof rack...

[mikoyan29]

Years ago, in my previous existence as a locksmith, I had to change the ignition on a Mazda 626. I ordered the lock and installed it, and when I handed her the key she flipped out. Why? Well, the key had a Ford logo on it. (This was because the Ford Probe, being essentially a Mexican-built Mazda 626 with different sheetmetal, used the exact same ignition lock, and it cost us half as much from the Ford dealer as as it did at the Mazda dealer.) She was screaming at us "I don't have a Ford, I have a Mazda, how dare you use inferior parts, yada yada bla bla woof woof" (thanks Jimi) I tried to explain to her that it was the same lock which both manufacturers bought from Toyo Kogyo (Mazda's parent company at the time), but she wasn't having any of it. She had a Mazda, not a "cheap ford", and by $DEITY she wanted a Mazda lock, and that's all there was to it. If I remember correctly, we told her we'd fix it and she should come back in another hour, and when she left, I recut the key on a blank with the Mazda logo on it and threw away the Ford one...

Umm....Ford has owned a share of Mazda for a while. In fact, many of the smaller Fords are/were Mazda designed (Escort, etc.). If I remember correctly the Mazda 626 was built in Flat Rock for a while. But hey whatever.....

I bet they'd go apeshit if they found out that Lexus and Toyota are basically the same....

[crashhelmet]

Toyota and Lexus has the same relationship that Nissan and Infiniti do. In fact, Lexus, I believe, is actually owned and operated by Toyota. It's just their "luxury" car line like Lincoln is to Ford

CH