Here's more for you. 1. Which country can boast that their brands occupy 2 of the top 3 spots for long-term reliability? Answer: United States. Per J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study, Mercury and Cadillac are in the top 3, along with Lexus. And in 2007, Buick was tied with Lexus for the top spot. http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/new...spx?ID=2008115 2. As of August 2007, which manufacturer had the most recalled vehicles in the U.S. for that year? Answer: Volkswagen. According to Bus iness Week, Volkswagen had the most recalls at this time a year ago. The second worst w as Toyota. http://www.businessweek.com/autos/co...810_455098.htm 3. Pick the brand from each group that has the highest initial quality. a. Answer: Cadillac (better than both Acura and BMW) b. Answer: Mercury (better than both Honda and Nissan) c. Answer: Chevrolet (better than Acura, BMW, and Mazda) This is according to J.D. Power's Initial Quality Survey. http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/new...spx?ID=2008063 4. Which midsize sedan has the highest initial quality? Answer: The Chevrolet Malibu has better initial quality than any competitor, including the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima. The Ford Fusion also beat all 3 Japanese competitors. This too is fr om the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey, which also reveals that above average are American brands Mercury, Ford, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Lincoln, and Buick. Below average are import brands Acura, Kia, Nissan, BMW, Mazda, VW, Subaru, and Scion (and several others). http://www.jdpower.com/autos/article...and-Large-Cars http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/new...spx?ID=2008063 5. Which large sedan has the highest initial quality? Answer: Again per J.D. Power, the highest quality large car is the Pontiac Grand Prix, beating the Toyota Avalon. Two other Detroit cars that beat the Avalon are the Mercury Sable and Mercury Grand Marquis. http://www.jdpower.com/autos/article...and-Large-Cars 6. Which midsize pickup has the highest initial quality? A nswer: The Dodge Dakota has the best quality for midsize pickups, proving that Chrysler too can beat the imports. Both the Dakota and the Ford Ranger beat the Toyota Tacoma. http://www.jdpower.com/autos/article...ckups-and-Vans 7. Which car is the most economical overall? Answer: Per Edmunds.com, the premier automotive analysis site, the most economical car in America, taking into account not only mileage but all costs, is the Chevrolet Aveo. The Honda Fit is #3 and the Toyota Prius is a distant #34. http://jbrlsr.com?aid=5336118839&bid=3196492&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edmunds.com%2Fhelp%2Fabout%2Fpress%2F127806%2Farticle.html 8. Which car did the Los Angeles Times describe as "a better car than BMW or Mercedes or Lexus or Infiniti"? Answer: "Cadillac makes a better car than BMW or Mercedes or Lexus or Infiniti, and that car is the 2008 CTS. No other car in the mass market dares so much as this expressive and audacious bit of automoti ve avant-gardism." Dan Neil, LA Times. http://www.latimes.com/classified/au...3.photogallery 9. Which company makes the winner of the 2008 "Green Car of the Year" award? Answer: The Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid is the winner of this award. How could a full-size SUV defeat the media darling Toyota Prius? Read the link below and you will discover, "What's equally eye-opening is that the Tahoe's 21 mpg city fuel efficiency rating is the same as that of the city EPA rating for the four-cylinder Toyota Camry sedan." Did you catch that? A huge, full-size SUV from Chevrolet that gets the same city mileage as a 4-cylinder Toyota Camry!! Chevy obtained this remarkable achievement through the use of its 2-mode hybrid system, a technology that Toyota does not have. http://www.greencar.com/features/2 008greencar/ 10. Which car was selected by the North American automotive press corps as the "North American Car of the Year" for 2007? Answer: Not only was the Saturn Aura picked by the automotive press corps as better than the Honda Fit and the Toyota Camry, "When a panel of 47 journalists named the Saturn Aura the North American Car of the Year over the Toyota Camry, the vote wasn't even close, 205-89." Chicago Tribune, 1/15/07 http://www.northamericancaroftheyear.org/news.html 11. Which car won the same award for 2008? Answer: GM again crushed the Japanese competition in 2008 when the Malibu received 190 votes to the Honda Accord's 95. The Accord actually came in 3rd since GM's other finalist, the Cadillac CTS, received 165 votes. http://www.northamericancaroftheyear.org/news.html 12. Whic h company had a luxury vehicle, a midsize sedan, and a large truck removed from the Consumer Reports recommended vehicles list in October 2007 because of mounting quality problems? Answer: Toyota's much publicized quality problems resulted in Consumer Reports actually removing from their recommended vehicles list the Lexus GS luxury car, Camry V6 sedan, and Tundra pickup. This demotion occurred in October 2007.

The gray granite was installed on existing cabinetry. All went well enough so shortly after we decided to expand the kitchen into the eating area. We asked to purchase another slab from the same lot. It took awhile for the new cabinets because the cabinet maker the granite man recommended took our money and went out of business. When the granite man finally brought the granite it was cut wrong. He won't return our money because he says we asked for a slab from the same lot, not matching granite. I have heard of slabs from the same lot being lighter or darker, but not a different color. Has anyone ever seen or heard of this?

Quote "I put a stop to our order and told our GC that I expected the plumber's prices to be below retail (his wholesale, plus a fair markup should still be a savings to us)." First of all, it must be understood that no matter what "Wholesale price" the plumber pays for the parts, when he or she delivers those parts to you he or she is technically "retailing" those item to you as the ultimate consumer and he or she is required to collect and report all applicable sales taxes as a retail sale. In some states they regulate how much we may discount the parts below MSRP,by example, in my region I may discount the total invoice by not more than 10% below MSRP. In turn, the manufacturers offer the contractor some substantial discounts on the "nuts and bolts" items such as pipe and fittings, but the contractors discount on the end items, sinks, tubs, faucetts, shower mixers and trim parts if very limited, often as little as 5% to 10% and some manufacturers require that we deliver the item at full MSRP. Now, when you compare the quality of the product offered by your contractor to what appears to be an identical item from the big box store check the SKEW number very closely. quite often you will find an extra digit or two in the SKEW number from the big box store. This is because the big outfits contact the manufacture and dictate what they are willing to pay per unit or extremely large orders. Quite often to meet the price the manufacturer will very slightly deminish the quality of the internal components then assign a separate SKEW number to indicate that is a proprietary item for that particular retailer. I will not even attempt to compete with online pricing because at best online purchases are a buyer beware venture. Not long ago I offered a shower mixer for a fair price and i was told by the customer that they could get it online for less than 1/2 the price I quoted. Obviously they ordered online but when they received the item they discovered the mixer they received had been a defective store return that was shipped to them with a rebuild kit packed with it. It must also be understood that when your contractor supplies an item he or she will insure that they also have all the required fittings or adapters required to make that item work in your installation, whereas often when the homeonwer elects to order the material direct we find we don't have all the required parts to install it. In regards to warranties. When the contractor purchases the item the warranty is register to the contractor who in turn passes it on to the customer. If the customer buys the item directly the warranty is extended directly to the customer therefore the contractor is not covered under the warranty and will not warrant the labor for change out if a problem occurs.

Most stores are not going to tell you the markup and if they did you would not believe them anyway. I give my best price upfront the first time and normally do not go down from there very much. for example i just finished a quote for a custom kitchen tonight that has a dealer cost of $19,428. I gave a price of 30% higher $5,828.48 higher. $25,256. If I give her a discount of 10% I lose half the profit. It would cost me close to $1,000 with shipping if I order 1 cabinet wrong. The cabinet company charges 50% extra for rushed items. So If I mess up 1 little thing and give 10% off I could make less then $1,000 on $22,500 transaction. I will never be able to maintain a nice show room with margins like that. Which is why to date I do not have a show room I want to have. It is a hard cycle to break. Anyways you the way you find out if you got a good deal is by inviting competition. You need to see if local dealers of kraftmaid offer lower prices then Home Depot. According to Kompy on here the independent dealers get it at a lower price. Remember that companies pay a lot of money to achieve brand name recognition and you pay for it. Americans like franchises from the perspective we generally know what we will get based on the name of the business. You can say you have a budget of a certain amount and ask what is the best cabinet and corresponding design they can offer for the price. That puts the burden on the seller to be motivated instead of you picking out a door style and then asking for a quote with certain options. You will not get a true feel for prices untill you get quotes from multiple sources. Get a quote from Lowes or Home Depot and take it everywhere. Show the price of each company to the others. You will be taken more seriously for price negotiation when you have in writing what prices you are offered. Otherwise people will think you are just lying to get a low price and do not know what you are talking about. After you see the pattern that no one will go below a certain amount that tells you the bottom has become apparent. Then you have to judge the company to see if you can trust them. When I tell people I have a certain profit in the quote and that is as low as I can go it is pretty clear no one ever believes me directly if I do not know them thru mutual friends to have more trust by. Also dealers are willing to negotiate a little more on the fly if they feel you will commit if they give you a lower price. Another way to look at it is in my area most town homes are worth $200k - $500k (suburbs of Washington DC) I can do all inclusive remodels for starter quality cabinets standard overlay american with no options or any import you can find, new black and white appliances, tile or wood flooring, and 15 colors of granite for 5-7.5% of the homes value. Full overlay american made cabinets with options (semi custom), stainless appliances with more features, more expensive flooring, and add another 15 colors of granite to chose from I can do it for 7.5-10%. Change the cabinets to custom and appliances to Viking and the like with any countertop you can think of and I can do it for %10 - 12.5%. That would include all labor as well. Add 2% to the values for homes with values under 200k. As the value of the house goes up after 500k the % can come down and I can still make it work. You should be able to make those percents work if you are in charge or if you hire everything out to one or more companies. You have to shop around to get a sense of what is a good deal. I saw a post on here a day or so ago about countertop prices in Chicago. I could not believe how many people suggested lowes or home depot because they had a sale on there countertops. They are the highest around most of the time. Their cabinet prices are very good countertops are a rip off. There are countless fabricators who will do it for less. I offer my tops at dealer cost to people who buy my cabinets to make my package deal the most competitive when people are asking me for products only prices. People never seem to jump at it. I am constantly amazed by that. I sell silestone for $50 something / sqft that was going for $90 something in Chicago. Look around and you will get a sense of who is low/ reasonable and who is high in general.