I visited the Toyota Canada website.  I filled out a credit application for pre-approval to purchase a Toyota Vehicle.  I received this response from the website:

Pre-Approve Me for Credit

Thank you, your credit application has been sent for processing to Toyota Financial Services.  Your application will be reviewed and a decision reached within 24-48 business hours. To view the decision, please return to www.toyota.ca after 48 hours, enter the financial services section, click on the “Application Status” button and enter the following code in the space provided.  Your application code is:  E1143A00Axxxxxxxxx78Dxxxxx

Upon return to the site on several occasions and from three different computers and three different web browsers to check the status, I received a page loading and no response to my inquiry.

I contacted Toyota Financial Services @ (905) 513-8200 to inquire as to the status and let them know the site is down.   I was informed that I would have to visit a dealer to find out the status of the application.  They adamantly refused to provide any information or answers.  They claimed they do not deal with the public and a dealer could provide an answer.  This is not what I signed up for!

I did not indicate any dealer preference or permission for my information to be shared.  I expected a response directly that could be accessed by a dealer once I gave permission upon purchase of a vehicle if I so chose.

A Little over a week after my application, I received a message from a Toyota Dealer that I did business with 4 years go inquiring about my visit to the Toyota Website.

So if I want an answer to my credit inquiry I must visit and dealer?  I have no concern about approval, however from a consumer point of view, this could is unacceptable.  They loured me in by promising an online response and then the website convienently does not work, and they refuse, rudley I maight add) to provide any assistance.

Is Toyota a little to big for it britches??

Squinty McGuinty has done it again!!   HST applies to the resale of vehicles.  However, traditionally only RST/PST @ the rate of 8% was applied to the private resale of a vehicle.  HST does NOT apply to private resales of vehicle, however, to make it fair for the Automotive Industry, a 13% RST/PST will be applied withing the HST.  This means you will no pay 5% more for your vehicle when purchasing at a fair price from a private seller.

There is a note attached to this on our government website:

Private Resale of Vehicles (including Registration)
Ontario will maintain the PST on private transfers of used vehicles at a rate of 13 per cent to help ensure a level playing field between sales by dealerships and private sales.
Tax changes to 13% (Was 8%)

ARE THEY SERIOUS???  Level playing field????  WTF are you talking about???  So do we get a rebate on the vehicle we sold to effectively “trade in”?  If so, then you have a level playing field.  Private sellers have always had a disadvantage as the tax savings form the trading of the old vehicle was not there.

New Car Dealers traditionally mark up used/pre-owned vehicles by 20% with a minimum of $3000 profit.  So when trading in a vehicle you are given a value that is 20% below market value plus the estimated cost on reconditioning.

I recently purchased a new vehicle.  The trade value of my old vehicle was so low that I was be better to sell it privately.

Let’s do the math on an example:

New Vehicle outright purchase $42,000plus GST & RST 13% ($5460) = $47,460

Trading an old vehicle: New Vehicle $42,000, Trade-in value $14,000 plus GST & RST 13% ($3640) = $31,640 (for the purpose of comparison New vehicle plus tax, plus value of trade = $45640) a savings of  $1820 (basically taxes on the value of the trade)

OK, now let’s sell the old vehicle privately!!

Take the outright purchase price total of $47,460 (including taxes) and then subtract the selling price of the old vehicle minus any expenses.

Selling Price:  $17,000 ($3000 difference compared to trade-in value)
Costs: Advertising $0  Ontario Safety Certificate and Emissions test: $500
Net Value for old vehicle: $16,500

Now lets do the math:  $47,460 – $16,500 = $30,960

Difference:  $30,960 (net cost of new vehicle considering sale of old vehicle – $28,000 (net value of new vehicle minus the trade in value) = $2,960

Add to this the fact that prior to July 1, 2010, the purchaser of my private sale vehicle did not have to pay GST, 5% savings for him, plus the vehicle price was likely less than a dealers sale price.  A savings of $850 GST

In the last scenario that saved the consumers an estimated $6,525,  our governments were paid:

GST:  $2,100 New Vehicle Purchase + $25 for vehicle repairs = Total $2,125

RST/PST: $ 3,360 on new Vehicle purchase + $40 tax on repairs + $1,360 on the old vehicle sale = $4760

Total TAX paid:  $4,760, none of which is recoverable due to the trade clause a dealer has.

So, lets see the tax revenue from the dealer sale: (Considering a trade value of $14,000)

GST:  $1,400 New Vehicle Purchase

RST/PST: $ 2,240 on new Vehicle purchase

Resale of trade @ $17,000 = GST $950  PST $1,360 = $2310

Total TAX paid:  $5,950

Dealer Profits on trade: $17700 – trade value $14,000 – repairs $500 = $3200*

This does not include the dealer administration fee which is nothing more than added profit margin.  This “fee” ranges from $99-$699

So let’s review:

We needed to make this a level playing field for dealers??  Or the dealers need to be able to gouge consumers more then they do today?  This is ALL about increased tax revenue for the Ontario Government.    McGuilty promised no additional taxes!

Remember this when you vote at the next provincial election!

This an email from the NDP.  The link to click on is at the very bottom:

Friend,

Dalton McGuinty’s unfair tax grab will make life less affordable for people like you – raising the price of everything from gasoline, hydro, home heating, haircuts and more by eight per cent. More people are learning about this unfair tax grab every day and the movement to stop the HST is growing. But we need to keep up the pressure.

Premier McGuinty said the HST is about ‘tax fairness” – even while a report says the HST will hit consumers hardest.

Dalton McGuinty needs to know that you are opposed to his HST. I encourage you to write your local newspaper, whether it’s a big city daily or a local community weekly. Let the premier know that you don’t support the HST and that you want it stopped.

If there is a call-in show on a local radio or television station – call them and make it clear that you are opposed to the HST.

In addition to writing your local newspaper or calling your local radio station, you can even write the Premier. Simply click on this link and you’ll be taken to an e-mail form which will let you tell Dalton McGuinty that you don’t want the HST.

The Premier says he hasn’t heard an outcry against the HST. Sounds like it’s time to raise the volume a few decibels.

Together, we can stop this unfair tax grab.

Sincerely,

Andrea Horwath, MPP
Leader, Ontario’s NDP

PS – Encourage your friends and colleagues to join the fight. Visit our website at www.unfairtaxgrab.com

https://www.premier.gov.on.ca/feedback/ … sp?Lang=EN

St. Paul’s Midtown Riding sends message to Liberals, HST is OK!  They send message to Ontarians, Screw you!

Dr. Eric Hoskins, a former adviser to Lloyd Axworthy, won the by-election in the midtown riding of St. Paul’s which was held by former cabinet minister Michael
Bryant for a decade before he left politics in June.

Protest vote hopes were crushed on Thursday as residents elected instead to maintain the status quo,  voicing support for the HST.

This time around, Hoskins beat out Progressive Conservative candidate Sue-Ann Levy, a feisty city hall columnist at the Toronto Sun, and NDP candidate and lawyer Julian Heller.  Maybe the PC and NDP could have given St.Pauls a choice!

Labatt Breweries of Canada Ltd. gave the largest donation of $10,300 to the Liberals. Other contributions included $6,500 from Bruce Power L.P., which operates a southwestern Ontario nuclear power plant, $5,000 from Paul Martin and $250 from former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Janet Ecker.

St. Paul’s has a population of 112,449 including 82,505 eligible voters, the majority of which are stupid people.  We can only compare them to Floridians. The riding has a mixed-income population with some high-end neighborhoods and some middle-class to low-income residents as well.  Unfortunately is has a high immigrant population who do not understand that “Liberal” does not stand for freedom.

Many grocery stores in Ontario have started charging a five-cent fee for single-use plastic bags.  The City of Toronto has mandated a five-cent fee for plastic bags at retail stores in an effort to cut down landfill volumes. The city has said it wants to reduce plastic bag use by 70 per cent by 2012. The retailers get to keep the nickel under the Toronto law.  However, there is no Ontario law and the retailers are charging because they make 400% return!  Actually its 500% because it was an expense with no direct revenue.

Metro, Loblaws and Sobeys  have instituted a five-cent charge for all of Ontario (some national).

Loblaws has reported that 75 per cent fewer plastic bags than normal have been used since it started charging fees nationwide on April 22.

Many regions in Ontario recycled stretchable plastic, including grocery bags.  Many of the “single-use” bags are used multiple times for all kinds of household uses including;

1 ) Re-Use as a grocery bag
2 ) Sorting recyclables
3 ) Re-Use as packing material. Wad the bags up and pack around the materials to be packed.
4 ) Re-Use them as trash bags.
5 ) Storage bags. Simply store and hang items you need to put away.
6 ) Shoe Liners for those wet days
7 ) Emergency Rain hats.
8 ) Emergency Diaper (nappy) cover. In a pinch a plastic grocery or bread bag makes a nice emergency disposable cover!
9 ) Dog poop picker uppers

This is a classic case of big business gouging the consumer disguised as a corporate good citizen.  If they truely wanted to help, they would offer paper bags for free.  The same ones they changed from when they found plastic bags for a fraction of the price.

So yet another company feels that they have the unconditional right to charge your credit card over and over. They call it the convenience of auto-renewal, when in truth it is customer retention by force. I do not think the auto-renewal feature is bad, providing I am asked if I would like to enable it when I subscribe and I have an easy, convenient way to disable it.

So without my knowledge (probably found in fine print) Globalstar held my credit card info, including my CVV code and was ready to renew me for another year of service. Fortunately I was able to put a bogus expiry date in the billing information section. By entering incorrect information I have saved myself the painful time consuming phone call to Globalstar Customer Service.

Is this not the same as the banned practice of negative billing? Is this not a tactic used by porn sites and other internet based services that border on fraud and often have the term scam associated with them?

I say yes!

Globalstar’s SPOT is for the active outdoor enthusiasts such as hikers, boaters, snowmobilers, pilots, riders, remote workers and travelers. I highly recommend this service, although take caution for undesirable billing practices.