Tom McParland's discussions

It all depends on the circumstances. I’ve had a lot of clients had success with Lightstream. Read more

You are absolutely correct, dealers can often match or beat the rates the CUs and banks offer. However, I’ve seen many instances where folks with sub 700 FICO scores go to a dealer and the salesperson says “Well your credit isn’t great the best we can do is 9% APR.” Then the customer says “Ok well I have 5% from my… Read more

This is a good question and a tough one to answer because the ratios you bring up correlate to the APR which is dependent upon someones credit score. If the best APR someone can qualify for is 10% that’s going to throw the ratios off a bit. Read more

Interesting...the way the dealer explained it, Hyundai was using it as a direct rebate, but this makes way more sense. Read more

LOL, this was a story about my experience in 2008 renting a Spark in South America which is a very different car than they sell today.  It wasn’t actually a review. Read more

I grew up in martial arts culture as well and we were engrained to address adults as Sir or Ma’am or Mr. or Ms. based on who was running the class whether it be an adult or an older teen upper rank. When I got myTae Kwon Do Black Belt at 15 (we can discuss the legitimacy of a 15 yr old black belt some other time)… Read more

So none of the Iron Man villians or even The Abomination made the list? And if we are including the X-Men, William Stryker is a pretty compelling villian. Read more

Baloon Keepy- Uppy (you know this game if you were either bored as a child and or have kids under 10) Read more

In fairness that could be an oil change indicator Read more

Sure when strikes and weapons are invloved that changes the game completely but I would argue that someone that particpates in this sport would be more prepared for that scenario since they have performed techniques under pressure. Read more

The new TLX is actually an awesome choice Read more

Lol #buttscootin’ Read more

He had a car...I guess he needed more bids.  Read more

Totally agree...and while this seems common sense to Jalop readers keep in mind a lot of my articles on car buying end up reaching an audience beyond the Jaloposphere and are sometimes targeted to consumers that aren’t as savvy.  Read more

Of course...but tax varies big time from state to state  Read more

Some dealers will budge on this stuff...others won’t. It doesn’t hurt to ask.  Read more

But that $40k buyer may be swayed into buying an EV due to the tax break that reduces the net cost verus buying a gas crossover in the low 30k range. The average car goes for about $36k-ish so having the tax credit get EVs closer or below average is smart for the typical buyer.  I agree there needs to be more EVs in… Read more

They won't becuase A) most inventory listings are automated and B) they hope to sell you something else. Read more

Fair enough...and you do see that stuff in some of the Crouching Tiger type films. Read more

Martial arts dork rant incoming....the OG Obi-Wan v Vader from EP IV is probably the most “realistic” of all the scenes as it doesn’t look like a pre-programed set. Obviosly all of these are “coreographed” but that one had the awkward pacing and more direct/simple attacks that you would expect actual sword fighters…