Crazy Toyota Previa Lady at Walmart

[RamblinDMC]

So my mom and I were at our local Walmart earlier today, and as we were walking to the entrance, a Toyota Previa van drove by in the parking lot. As it was sorta next to us, I pointed to the middle of the car and said to my mom, "You know that thing is mid engine." A moment later, after we had both looked away from the van, the lady in the passenger seat rolled down the window and yelled angrily at me, "Hey! You got a problem with our van?" I quickly replied, "Oh no, I was just telling her that your van has a mid mounted engine, that's all." I can't remember if she apologized or not but overall it was a weird experience.

So anyway, that got me thinking. If I were out driving my DeLorean or really anything else like a Corvette, Camaro, ect. I wouldn't get all offended if somebody pointed at my car, I'd see it as a compliment. Even if I was driving something normal like our Ford Escape or Focus, I still wouldn't have a problem if somebody pointed it out. What about you and your relationship with your car makes you instantly offended if somebody singles it out, regardless of their intention or reason. I guess people are too easily offended these days.

Well, then again this was at Walmart, what do you expect? :tongue_stick:

This is a Previa if you haven't seen one.
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[davidc89]

I hate when people say my car is not a real DeLorean, its just a kit car. Then I get really defensive...

[Jonathan]

Christmas shopping time + Walmart = my guess.

And I'd bet they were leaving and not coming too. The greeters are always saying hello on the way in. They wouldn't dare say hello to someone on the way out.

Someone said to me they thought a nice idea would be to have greeters at our national coffee chain, Tim Horton's. Like to welcome people in the morning and give them a big hello. I think the suggestion was met with "are you crazy?" "Have you ever tried to say hello to someone at one of our stores BEFORE they get their morning coffee?"

Post-Christmas shopping experience at Walmart might be about the same thing.

[DMCVegas]

It's Walmart, and this is par for the course. Trust me. Though interestingly enough, when I used to drive the DeLorean to places like Walmart, the thrift store, 99 cent store, Big Lots, or other low-end retail places, I never had a problem with people bothering my car. It was always at the mall, and the high-end stores I would come back to find finger prints and whatnot. Go figure.


Even if I was driving something normal like our Ford Escape or Focus, I still wouldn't have a problem if somebody pointed it out.

Respect! Bought a '14 Focus SE and love the hell out of it!

[dustybarn]

So anyway, that got me thinking. If I were out driving my DeLorean or really anything else like a Corvette, Camaro, ect. I wouldn't get all offended if somebody pointed at my car, I'd see it as a compliment. Even if I was driving something normal like our Ford Escape or Focus, I still wouldn't have a problem if somebody pointed it out. What about you and your relationship with your car makes you instantly offended if somebody singles it out, regardless of their intention or reason. I guess people are too easily offended these days.

I've gotten used to people pointing, and I can almost always read their lips saying, "That's a DeLorean!!!". In contrast to many other owners' experiences, I have never had a negative encounter with a member of the public and the response has been uniformly positive.

[RamblinDMC]

It's Walmart, and this is par for the course. Trust me. Though interestingly enough, when I used to drive the DeLorean to places like Walmart, the thrift store, 99 cent store, Big Lots, or other low-end retail places, I never had a problem with people bothering my car. It was always at the mall, and the high-end stores I would come back to find finger prints and whatnot. Go figure.



Respect! Bought a '14 Focus SE and love the hell out of it!

Ours is a 2012 Focus SE with a 5 speed and the sport package. I've driven it to Michigan and back a few times, never skipped a beat.

[sdg3205]

Ours is a 2012 Focus SE with a 5 speed and the sport package. I've driven it to Michigan and back a few times, never skipped a beat.

We had a 2008 focus ses. It was a pile of crap. Complete garbage. The electrics kept failing. Burnt out light bulbs like it was trending on Twitter. Valve cover gasket had to be changed every year or it would fill the spark plug wells with oil. Oh yeah, it also leaked like a sieve!! Rear footwells filled with water when it rained, doors filled with water, trunk filled with water. The door locks were terrible and got stuck either locked or unlocked. I needed to keep pliers in the car to pull up on the nub that sticks out of the top of the door to escape sometimes. Also terrible in the snow. I was very happy when I sold that car.

Great fuel economy though :)

[DMCVegas]

We had a 2008 focus ses. It was a pile of crap. Complete garbage. The electrics kept failing. Burnt out light bulbs like it was trending on Twitter. Valve cover gasket had to be changed every year or it would fill the spark plug wells with oil. Oh yeah, it also leaked like a sieve!! Rear footwells filled with water when it rained, doors filled with water, trunk filled with water. The door locks were terrible and got stuck either locked or unlocked. I needed to keep pliers in the car to pull up on the nub that sticks out of the top of the door to escape sometimes. Also terrible in the snow. I was very happy when I sold that car.

Great fuel economy though :)

Yeah, some of the hatchback 1st gens were pretty decent, like the SVTs, but otherwise I would skip them and the 2nd generation of that car all together. Especially with those intake manifolds.

Honestly, I can't even believe that it's a Ford. I had been burned pretty bad by them over the years, but after a killer deal on a used '07 F150 and how well built it was, we took a chance on the '14 Focus and it paid off pretty well. The '10-'12's had a problem with the oil seals on the automatic transmissions soaking the dry clutches, so all of those automatically got their powertrain warranties extended to 100,000 miles. Ford just doesn't advertise it for some reason. This might also apply to later models as well according to the Service Advisor, but she wasn't sure. Plus they finally got their shifting maps straight and it's smoother than ever.

We have an automatic, and it is the weirdest damn car I've ever driven. It doesn't have a traditional automatic transmission, it's an automated 6-speed manual. There is NO torque convertor. It uses two separate clutch packs with a telescopic input shaft that divides between odd and even gears. And rather than linkage, the shifting of gears is accomplished with spinning cams that slide the forks back and forth. So you always have to goose it when you start out because it's a digital clutch meaning it's either on or off. It doesn't slip. Otherwise the clutch will chatter to keep you from stalling the engine, and when it shifts you can hear the clanking like a normal stick shift. Which are both why so many people complain about them. Yet if you drive a stick and listen to the engine to where you unconsciously give it gas when you hear the engine lugging, you'll never have a problem with it.

Thing handles like a go kart.

[FABombjoy]

Honestly, I can't even believe that it's a Ford. I had been burned pretty bad by them over the years, but after a killer deal on a used '07 F150 and how well built it was, we took a chance on the '14 Focus and it paid off pretty well.
I have a '13 Focus ST and totally agree. I never would have considered a previous chassis Focus but they really upped the total package.

After the amount of times I've heard "You bought a Focus? Really?" I think the car should have been given a different name. I've had a few owners of previous gen Focuses try and talk to me about, I dunno, Focus-person stuff, and I have to let them down easily. "Sorry but I know very little about the previous years. Ford didn't have my attention until this iteration."

[DMCVegas]

After the amount of times I've heard "You bought a Focus? Really?" I think the car should have been given a different name. I've had a few owners of previous gen Focuses try and talk to me about, I dunno, Focus-person stuff, and I have to let them down easily. "Sorry but I know very little about the previous years. Ford didn't have my attention until this iteration."

You too? Glad to hear I'm not the only one. On one hand I've got the hardcore Focus people that want to talk to me about the old SVT and 5-pot RS's from Europe, and I'm just totally out of the loop on those, or I already had bad experiences with them. I'm just not interested in hearing about those. Then I get the other people who act totally confused that as someone who knows about cars, that I somehow made an uneducated and/or bad decision to buy a Focus.

Totally jealous of your ST though. They had one on the lot for $2K less in Tangerine Scream with the normal seats than the SE we got, but I couldn't talk the wife into it since it was a stick shift.

The biggest problem physical problem I've had with this car has just been perception by other people. Which if I cared about, I wouldn't even have bought a DeLorean.

But the biggest overall problem has just been Ford's communication. Had 1 recall so far for the fuel pump (bad zinc plating), and then a TSB for a final transmission reprogramming. After that last updated programming, the car is just totally smooth. Not a problem, no. But Ford never sent me any letters. Only way I found out was through their Owner Service website about those items when I was doing a SYNC update. Not a problem for me since I'm more comfortable going on line than other people, so that's how I prefer things. But for the average dinosaur out there that only uses paper mail, and never understands that TSBs are product improvements rather than indicative of defects, the perception issue hits them the worst.

[88KPH]

Americans and Walmart......... I reckon you got off very lightly! :biggrin:

[ssaleen]

Well I totally understand, they were in a Toyota, that's a whole different breed of people. But I'm not even gonna start.
:banghead: