I love the site, as it’s informative and funny. It’s been especially enlightening when I apply lessons from submitted stories to events I see in my own life. For example, tonight when I was watching television, a commercial for the new Dodge Dart came on. But it wasn’t the ad I’ve seen multiple times before, it was a new one. For a car registry.
There is a website which I will quote from, “NEW RULES FOR BUYING YOUR CAR. Pick out the features you want in your new Dart and then invite friends and family to sponsor individual parts of the car. You can raise a portion of the cost of a new Dart or the full price. Then all you have to do is go to a dealership and pick it up.”
This is basically the commercial in 3 sentences. While watching it, my mouth dropped open in surprise, and after the initial shock wore off, I thought, “I better send this to Ehell!”, because of all the stories concerning registries. Anyway, you might’ve already heard about this, but I thought I would submit this just in case.
P.S. Go to the website. At the bottom of the first page, there’s actually a live feed, telling visitors, “So-and-so received funding 5 hours and 4 minutes ago,” or “So-and-so created a new registry.” At least they didn’t list the amount given to the special so-and-sos. 0210-13
I deliberately edit out the URL of this registry because I have principled rejection of promoting web sites that prey upon people.
If anyone had doubts that registries have not morphed into structured gimme opportunities, this should dispel that notion. It used to be that one mark of adulthood was that you took ownership of your responsibility to provide for yourself and your ability to move into adult society without mooching off of friends and family. The concept of buying what you can afford, namely a used car, seems to be lost on people who want what they want NOW. I routinely watch real estate “reality” shows such as “House Hunters” and am often struck by the impatient greediness of some couples who want extravagant features in a house they cannot afford. Granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, jetted bathtub, etc. are some of the “must have” amenities the budget cannot accommodate. The young couples most notably often do not appear to be willing to wait and work over years to eventually acquire those desired features. So Dodge is capitalizing on that impatience and assisting people who have no business buying a brand new car they cannot afford by offering them the means to solicit their friends and family to fund the purchase of a new Dart. In my family and circle of friends, this kind of registry would elicit the immediate reaction of,”Is this a joke?”, followed by a firm decline to have anything to do with such an obvious attempt to use family and friends to assist in buying something the person clearly cannot afford by themselves.
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I saw this commercial and immediately thought of eHell. Then I spent a few seconds hoping they were kidding.
My first comment is ‘you are kidding!!!!’, then I thought about it and it doesn’t sound surprising.
Cars, heading for college with an aid package and dad was waiting for me to tell what I wanted for a graduation present. He was FLOORED when I said a $65 10speed bike from (big box store) so it would be common and I could get parts. He had picked out a new small car on the order of 100X more. I got to explain to him in small words about he could pay for my entire college experience as the college considered a car worth more than X to have all the value over X available to pay for tuition and expenses. Wiping out my aid package (which was some grants, some workstudy and some loans). After nearly two years of me testing and applying, doing all the paper work; jumping the hoops, etc, he was well aware of all the bounds of the aid and such process and their requirements.
AND how was I going to pay for upkeep, licensing, tags… AND. Biggest kicker. Remember how I could have sent my info in at the end of Driver’s ed and gotten my license back right about my 16th bday, and you nixed it because I wasn’t 16 (YET) at that time, and holding two permits and scheduling the tests and something always came up so it had to be canceled, about three times each per permit. I don’t even have a DRIVER’S LICENSE! (I got it after I left home, he saved on insurance is my only thought of his warped reasoning). I would never dream of taking the hat off and hold it out begging for a car, then or now, through a registry or otherwise!
I’ve never had a new car. I recently bought a nice used luxury car (over a decade but under two old) and it is a very nice car. It was well cared for, it looks good, it runs well, and. It’s paid for, I can afford to insure and tag it; and I should have it for several more years easily. I didn’t have to make payments either. That was the nice part. Didn’t need a registry.
My house isn’t the best, and yeah it’s nice if you can turnkey walk into the picture perfect with all the touches. It’s paid for too. I’ll get new countertops when I learn to pour concrete ones, it’ll get hardwood floors a room at a time when I finish laying a floating floor… and I’ll get nice bathrooms when I gut them and start putting in new fixtures (both are overdue, the one with odor issues is up for July this year). On a lot of those homeshows, the hidden they don’t tell you is the cost to the people that participate, afterwards. Okay they got their dream anyways, but that still costs in TAXES. They never mention all that bit. That show donates, not always is everything paid by the homeowners/ recipients, and they still have the taxman to deal with. They never mention that part.
Registry? Snort! I’ll be glad if I can get a friend with a decent back to help me shift the flooring plank boxes for the master bedroom in March… I have a date with a floornailer. No I didn’t have a wedding registry either. People seemed to know what we needed anyway, we certainly could and did use all those towels! (and it didn’t matter if they didn’t match, they still worked)
What happened to Reality? Oh yeah, that’s right, the TV people got ahold of it and it will never be the same again.
Before the Make A Wish and Elder Star holiday help program got killed, here, people that truely needed, got help with christmas for their children; and on the elder star, I bought utility bill credits and grocery store gift certificates for someone. Going into the utility offices, explaining why and what you wanted to do, they would accomodate you even though it wasn’t the normal thing-and issue a certificate the recipient could bring in to pay on their bill. If that was a registry, that was a good one. I’m just waiting for those not living on fixed income in rent control; to have registries too. After this car thing, that’s about the only thing left.
Library Diva said: “I also agree about House Hunters. The people on that show are so ridiculously picky about the wrong things. They will veto a home because they don’t like the tile in the kitchen, but never once do they ask about the roof, the foundation, the type of heat it uses, how old the windows are, or other things that actually have long-term relevance.”
As someone explained earlier, they are really not considering two of the three homes shown, since they’ve already bought one of them. But even if that weren’t the case, don’t assume people aren’t asking those questions just because you don’t see them on the show. Obviously a lot of the more “boring” aspects of house hunting would have to be edited out.
Sugaryfun said: “I can understand clubbing together to help someone buy a car if they can’t afford one and need one, but not a brand new luxury car!”
A Dodge Dart is not exactly a luxury car! 🙂
I also saw this commercial and was completely appalled. Wedding registries, baby registries, birthday registries, and now car registries? What’s next, “Finance My Mortgage?”
Well this is timely…my 16 yo daughter has been saving up for a used car for nearly a year now. We were watching TV together when this ad came on. Needless to say she thought it was a great idea…I just chuckled and told her to keep saving. I keep telling her how proud she will feel when she has that car that she paid for, and how much more it will mean to her when she has it. That’s real life.
In response to the story of the high schooler who is tired of his mom dropping him off at school…When my niece turned 16 my sister and her husband bought her a car. Not a new car, but it wasn’t exactly a beater and it ran fine. Niece refused to drive it. My sister, in her infinite wisdom (cough, cough) gave the child her SUV and started driving the car that was originally intended for my niece. I couldn’t believe it. If I had pulled that stunt with my parents (and if I had a child do the same to me) the response would have been, “Fine. I’ll sell the car and you just won’t drive.” It’s not like the child had a job and had contributed anything to the purchase of the car in the first place. Seems like kids these days don’t appreciate anything.
From a marketing perspective, the ad is ingenious. It got your attention, didn’t it?
Would I ever actually donate to finance someone else’s car? Um, no. This isn’t about a car registry – it’s about an attention-grabbing ad campaign.
Admin, I watch those House Hunter shows, too, and I can’t help but sit there and wonder “what ever happened to ‘starter homes’??? And they all want the Holy Trinity: Hardwood Floors, Granite Countertops, and Stainless Steel Appliances! I have none of those, and I’m very happy with my home. $600,000 budget for a first home? Really, folks, get real!
I have to add that I completely agree about House Hunters. I live in a very low-cost-of living area, where the median house price is only $149,000. An episode was filmed here a year or so ago, and the house purchased was $1.2 Million. The couple dismissed the other option that was $900,000. :-\
Okay WWW here (again). I know several people already mentioned it, but I know for a FACT that House Hunters is completely fake. I once briefly dated a very well to do (very arrogant- but that’s a whole other story) doctor that had recently purchased a house of the beach. A few weeks later his realtor CONTACTED HIM asking if he would be interested in doing the the show. At first he was confused because he had already chosen a home and was already buying things to furnish it, but she explained to him how it worked. They show you two homes that you are pretended to be interested in and the home you already purchased. And, of course, all the “will I actually get the house I really want” drama is totally scripted. He jumped at the chance to be on TV (I did mention he was arrogant, the fact he was outright lying never crossed his mind). Also, I know not all doctors are arrogant, but for him that really was the case. Also that was what made his realtor think he would be perfect for the show. He was very handsome too, which probably worked in getting in cast as well. Just a theory. We stopped seeing each other before filming began. I never did see the episode though, but he showed me the contracts he was reviewing to sign for program, so I know he wasn’t lying about it. I was floored. I had no idea that’s how it worked. But I guess, I shouldn’t have really been surprised. Also I recently read and article about the show Extreme Home Makeover. Most people end up selling the homes because they can’t keep up with the taxes, up-keep, ect., because after filming is done, the actual family is really not their concern anymore.
http://www.cracked.com/article_20299_5-depressing-realities-behind-popular-reality-tv-shows.html
(warning: some language may be offensive to some, but it really, really gets down to the nitty gritty!)
Okay, a little off topic, I know but I think it goes to show you that the “reality” that tv is not anywhere near reality and the entitlement it leads to, maybe what is to blame for the younger (and even older) generations “gimmie” attitudes. Very interesting stuff, IMHO.
And FYI- I’m still reading some of the registries for the Dart. It’s like a train wreak I can’t look away from. Some of them are downright ridiculous and I’ve LOLed more than a few times. A few actually say, “I want a new car. Buy it for me.” At least they are being honest.
I love luxury cars, I adore Maseratis and really want an older one one day, I also want to buy the house my dad built and I spent my childhood in. I did not sook and cry that I could not afford these things right away, I worked hard got into law school and when I get work I will save for a deposit for both. All up this will take approx 13 years to achieve but they will be MINE and I would have earned them. How to people enjoy all these things they get for nothing? To truly appreciate something you need to have worked for it I think… (lottery I think is ok, I mean you work for the money to buy your tickets and if you happen to be that lucky then good on you lol)
I have had people walk into my house and comment about my nice furniture and how they cant afford things like this and how we must be rich. No. It takes a lot of explaining for them to understand that I either buy things second hand, fix them up myself with hard work to make them look like the came from a boutique, or I laybuy/save. These people are the same age as me (26) and they complain they dont have nice things and yet they spend their money out drinking of a weekend and going places, I stay home and study or do volunteer work. They turn up their nose at garage sales and cry over boutique prices, I go to garage sales and op shops and spend time sanding/polishing/painting. Then I listen to them tell me how I have nice things they have nothing and it must be SO easy for me… makes my blood boil.
I’ve seen the cracked.com article about House Hunters, too, and I’m not surprised. It always seemed incredibly fake to me even before I read that, but I wasn’t about to bust anyone’s bubble. However, even though the reality doesn’t match what’s filmed at all, the finished product still influences people to think these superficial things are more important than whether or not there are major expenses looming unseen with the home, such as a 20-year-roof that is 19 years old, a crack in the foundation, or a poorly maintained boiler. No one literally thinks “well the people on House Hunters don’t ask about this stuff so it must not matter,” but I think it does shape people’s perceptions somewhat.
When I attended high school, there were a lot of students whose parents bought cars for them. Now a cheap beater car I could probably understand, but most of them were brand new cars! To this day, I am still flabbergasted that they did that! I am glad that my parents set the example for us that if we wanted a car, we could get an afterschool job and work to save up to buy it, which is exactly what we did. It’s called teaching your children work ethic.
One other “begging for money” deal I see is on Facebook, where some people will create events that aren’t anything more than a plea for money for things they apparently don’t want to work for or think they’re entitled to. And their family/friends contribute to it!
@Jess – isn’t it amazing how resentful people are when you are more successful than they are? And usually because you worked for it?
A couple years ago, I had both a boyfriend (now ex-boyfriend) and a friend (now ex-friend) watch me work my tail off through college, work my tail off at my job post-college, and then had the nerve to say to me at one point, “Well, we don’t ALL have the luxury of a salary job!” Right. Because someone just handed it to me. What really floored me about these two individuals was they were right there beside me for all the work leading up to my having a decent job, so they couldn’t even claim ignorance.
This reminds me of that old email chain letter pyramid scam. You put your address on a list and mailed off one dollar in an envelope to someone else on the list, who in turn mailed a dollar to someone else etc. The gist was that you only sent out one dollor but many other people would mail you a dollar when your name was next on the list. It was slanted like some sort of We’re-All-In-This-Together-Pay-It-Forward-Give-a-Penny-Leave-A-Penny friendly money sharing thing.
I haven’t seem this commerical but does it have this slant? Your friends chip in a little bit here and there to buy you a car and one day you’ll chip in for their dream car?
@Waitress Wonderwoman- If I had ever said that I was tired of my parents driving me to and from school they would have smiled and pointed to the bus. Good grief!
@Chocobo- I have actually heard of people setting up registries through banks where people can donate so they can but a house. Not the same level as the Dart but getting close.
I honestly do not get it. My first car was acquired through a loan and car payments. I paid it off early. My second car (may my first one rest peacefully in auto heaven) was used and within the pay out from the insurance. Though I did get a loan with my first car and my second was gotten through a pay out neither were out of my budget, no one helped me pay off the cars and I never begged others for payment help. I WORKED for it.
On the subject of House Hunters, I like to use that show only to see what are the current trends in updating our house. Our current house is vacuum sealed out of the 197os, but meets and EXCEEDS our wishlist, which was good schools, enough room for guests (we frequently play hotel to friends nad family) and a small yard. Our realtor had heard the first two requests but never for a small yard so I can say we rejected a few houses outright because they had yards that were too big. When we put the offer in on our current house it had been viewed atleast four times a day every day for 45 days! People got turned off by the decor, wallpaper and dated rooms, things that are easily changed! We saw the space we needed, a good school district and the chance to personalize a house without ripping out brand new items. We could not believe such a gem was still on the market. So, I guess in that way I am gratefull for the instant gratification some feel they need because our home would have been taken if not for that!! 🙂
This is just a perfect landscape for a new string of lawsuit abuse