Dude, where’s my car – Long, Epic, Ongoing

[eltf177]

Translated to : I've sowed so much bullshit I could fertilize the Sahara Desert AND Death Valley and therefore can't recall what I told to who when.

I'd say somebody's about to sink his battleship . . .

And this is the part where I go Who in their right mind doesn't think for one moment that everybody involved takes notes on what was said and when. And that (horror of horrors!) all these people ACTUALLY TALK TO ONE ANOTHER AND COMPARE NOTES!

Mr. Wheresmycar needs to pick one lie and stick with it. Well, little late for that now...

[aulocksmith]

How does the old saying go? - "A liar needs a good memory".

And fireproof underpants.

[Marmalady]

Translated to : I've sowed so much bullshit I could fertilize the Sahara Desert AND Death Valley and therefore can't recall what I told to who when.

How does the old saying go? - "A liar needs a good memory".

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Seriously, "confused"? He's had _how_ long to try and explain the situation and that's the _best_ he could do? Utter FAIL!\

Translated to : I've sowed so much bullshit I could fertilize the Sahara Desert AND Death Valley and therefore can't recall what I told to who when.

I'd say somebody's about to sink his battleship . . .

[eltf177]

I've been off work for a few days with a nasty flu, got back today to the following:

1) A recording of the interview where he immediately starts to try to change his story, then gets confonted with the IP data and basically says 'I must hav been confused when I spoke to you before'

2) 300+ pages of informataion from (Bank 2).

Waiting for the report from the investigator before we go to the next step - building the cast for a decline.

Now TimmyHate, I warned you about this earlier. You simply did _not_ give Mr. Wheresmycar enough time to get his lies story straight. You have no one to blame but yourselves.

Seriously, "confused"? He's had _how_ long to try and explain the situation and that's the _best_ he could do? Utter FAIL!

And 300+ pages from Bank 2? Boy, going through that much paperwork will take a while. But I feel it will be _well_ worth it as I strongly suspect it will show Mr. Wheresmycar is being a bit "liberal" with the truth...

Please keep us updated, this thread is EPIC!!!

[sms001]

mixed with salmiakki

Interesting. Does it taste like ouzo?

[Chromatix]

FWIW, Mißt-stück would transliterate roughly as "piece of s***".

If we are still recommending brands of vodka, meanwhile, I feel honour bound to at least mention the Finnish local choice - Koskenkorva. It is sometimes served mixed with salmiakki (another local delicacy) as salmiakkikossu.

[Kittish]

Come for the drama, stay for the etymology lesson.

[Jester]

Am I correct in assuming that you believe Canadian Mist meets truth in labeling regulations when sold in Germany?

Honestly? No. It's not utterly undrinkable crap, like some liquors are. But as whiskeys go, it's pretty low on the totem pole.

General Motors had a difficult time back in the 1970s selling the Chevy Nova in Mexico. They couldn't figure out why until someone pointed out that Nova (No Va) was Spanish for 'No Go'.

How true is that story?

Not at all. I went to snopes, which may not be the be all and end all of such things, but oftentimes, they are pretty right on, and very often, when they can't absolutely confirm or refute something, they say so, even if they doubt it's veracity. Such was the case with the Pepsi in China story you mentioned.

But with regard to the iconic Nova in Mexico story, snopes didn't just shoot holes in that story, it dropped a thermonuclear warhead on it, basically destroying any shred of credibility that story or any of its various alternative versions had.

[Tama]

I expect he will not like that at all. Not one bit...

[TimmyHate]

Update? Is there one?

I've been off work for a few days with a nasty flu, got back today to the following:

1) A recording of the interview where he immediately starts to try to change his story, then gets confonted with the IP data and basically says 'I must hav been confused when I spoke to you before'

2) 300+ pages of informataion from (Bank 2).

Waiting for the report from the investigator before we go to the next step - building the cast for a decline.

[Akasa]

Update? Is there one?

[Argus]

How true is that story? I don't know

One answer to that question is at http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

[ADeMartino]

General Motors had a difficult time back in the 1970s selling the Chevy Nova in Mexico. They couldn't figure out why until someone pointed out that Nova (No Va) was Spanish for 'No Go'.

How true is that story? I don't know - I read it in an issue of one of those motorhead magazines (HOT ROD, CAR CRAFT, etc) many, many years ago.

Another story of poorly-translated marketing hails from China, where the old Coca Cola advertising slogan, "Coke Adds Life", translated badly into a particular dialect as 'Coke brings back your dead ancestors", or something to that effect.

No idea how true THAT one is, either. Forget where I heard it.

Another example of poor naming, again from General Motors. GM had developed their first electric car, named the EV-1, and was test-marketing it. It was pricey and limited, and eventually all the leased cars (none were actually SOLD) were recalled and scrapped, but had the project been successful and the car brought to general market, the name GM was planning for the car was the IMPACT.

Some manufacturers don't realize how creative people are with the pronunciation of things. I've seen classified ads in the paper for the Isuzu Ass-Ender (Ascender), the Ford MavWreck (Maverick), and the Ford Grenade (Granada).

[eltf177]

Small update (that is hopefully the harbinger of doom for Mr Wheresmycar...

My claims manager sent him an email on Friday with some VERY general outlines of what we will be asking. This interview is going on as I type.

Any update as to how things went? I'm guessing not very well on the part of Mr. Wheresmycar!