Runde Auto Chat

So you are planning a two-week visit to your mom's house this winter and she has welcomed you to bring your pet for the visit? Great! Mom lives 5 hours away, a no-sweat trip for most, and your family is all excited for it. Your 6-year-old son can't wait to sink his original baby teeth into Grandma Betsy's world-famous chocolate chip cookies, yum!

But what about Peaches, your 3-year-old rottweiler? This is your first long trip with him coming along and you are worried about how to go about the whole process. Well, let us help get you, your family, and Peaches allready for the excursion.

• Some folks might say consult your vet before taking your pet on a trip. I'd just say make sure that you remember to take along plenty of pet food. What you don't want to happen is that you get 3 hours down the road and realize you forgot to feed the pooch and, moreover, you forgot to bring a bag of his/her food. I remember we took our beagle, Mittens, on a 7 hour trip across Iowa when I was a kid and my folks forgot to bring the dog food. Dad made the mistake of stopping at McDonald's and bought a cheeseburger for Mittens. About thirty miles after that, dad pulled over to clean dog vomit off of the back seat carpet. That was before the invention of Fabreeze, and it made the rest of the trip very pleasant (not!) on our noses.
• Also bring along a good stock of any medication that your pet might take. It's a good idea to bring along some of the more common medications, including flea and tick control as well as heartworm medicine.
• Take along important documentation, including: license numbers, tattoo numbers, microchip numbers and vaccination records. It's best to be prepared for anything.
• You might take along a kennel or carrier for your dog to ride in on the trip. Some vehicles, especially SUV's, have a "dog fence" you can put in the cargo area (see picture to right). Whatever you go with, be sure that you can protect your pet and keep him/her under control when needed. My sister takes her current Beagle wherever she goes and transports him in his kennel that sits in the back of their van.
• If you're planning to stay in a hotel, call ahead to make sure that the town that you're planning on stopping in overnight has a hotel that takes dogs -- many don't and you don't want to be stuck driving around Po-Dunk, Nowhere at 11pm looking for a hotel that'll lodge you and your four-legged friend.
• Say bacon-cheese-burger! Take a picture of your pet before you go and print it out in case Fido runs away. An up-to-date photo will help you describe him to others.

There you have it, you should be ready to go! Gotta love the holidays, gotta love it even more when everyone you love, including your pets get to share it together. Stay tuned next week for some practical tips you can use to be safe on the roads as winter starts to approach us. We'll make sure you get to see Grandma Betsy instead of a ditch this winter! :)

Thomas, Shelia and their daughters: Hannah, Hailey and Heather Hinman (the triple H's) from Hazel Green, WI came in the other day to upgrade to a more spacious vehicle. While the girls played, the parents took care of business. Soon they were ready to roll out with their new set of wheels, but I couldn't let them go without letting the world hear their story! Hey guys! Thanks for waiting up to do an interview with me.

What brought you into Runde's today?

We needed a car that would fit our family and wanted to stay local for the purchase.

What led you to Runde's instead of a different dealership?

Shelia: I've lived around this area my whole life and know Runde's to be a good place by reputation.

What vehicle did you end up buying?

We got a 2008 Chevy Impala. We needed a family car and it'll work out great.

Your sales person was Al Kloft, what did you think of Al ?

He was great, very helpful and nice to the kids.

I see that they got some goodies to play with while they waited.

Yeah, Heather loved playing with the stuff. They gave us monkey’s, footballs, coloring books, coffee mugs, free hot chocolate...

Hailey: I want some hot chocolate tonight!

That sounds really good, actually... If you were to rank your experience on a scale of 1-10, what would you give it?

Probably about a 9.

You guys ready for Christmas?

All three: Oh yeah!

Got your Christmas list all done?

Hailey: I haven’t done that yet!

Tom: I'm heading back to Iraq and won’t be back ‘till January so I guess I'll be missing it this year.

Hannah: We'll have to have grandma help us with the Christmas tree...

What do you like to do as a family?

The girls and I have been hunting for the last week. We like camping, playing ball, going to water parks.

Where do you go camping?

Just in the area. Galena, Potosi, Blackhawk, Governor Dodge Park --places like that.

Are all of you in school?

All three: Yep!

Where do you all go?

Shelia: Hannah is still in preschool. Hailey: 3rd grade! Heather: 5th grade at the Southwestern Elementary School.

You like going to school?

Hailey: Sure do!

Tom and Shelia, what do you do for a living?

I work at Cuttingham and Butler and she works at B.L. Murray just down the road from here. Hailey: I work at school!

Do you have a favorite movie Hannah?

Yeah... High School Musical (Hannah gave a big smile with her answer).

That’s all I had for you guys, I don’t want to keep you waiting any longer, do you have anything else you’d like to add?

Shelia: It was a great experience. I don't like buying cars, it gives me a headache, but this was a good experience.

In the car business you often get a mixture of old school thought vs. new school. Yesterday, this really seemed really apparent when we asked one of our senior salesmen to help provide us with a customer of his that we could interview for the blog. His response was: "No. Actually, I can't wait 'til that thing (the blog) goes away."

In the past couple years, social media has become what it is and at Runde's we have tried to embrace it for the positive. We run a good business and word of mouth has always been one of the cheapest and best forms of advertising. So we figure, we'll interview customers and ask them what they thought of their experience at Runde's. It's been good for Runde Auto Group and we get to discover a little more about our customers -- facets of their lives that may not have normally come to the surface during a normal visit here. Posting the interview has also been a postive for our customers. We've interviewed many people who don't know their way around the internet too well. However, once their interview pops up online -- so does their picture and all of the sudden they're getting calls from friends or family who saw them online. It's a positive for everyone involved. Social media has quickly become a staple of our society and even though some of the old schoolers around here may not like it, it's quite evident that social media is here to stay.

Small vehicles are starting to become mainstream. What's not to like about them? They are cute, fun, and best of all - great on fuel economy. But before you go and give your kids one of these for their graduation gift, take this video into consideration:

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 It's true that smaller cars generally get better gas mileage but like the man says near the end of this video: there are larger vehicles out there, like the Ford Fusion Hybrid, that get as good, if not better gas mileage than several smaller vehicles. Remember: just because you might be saving some money on gas doesn't mean you are investing in you, or your families health. Be sure to do research before buying a vehicle to make sure they get great safety ratings and are proved to be reliable in case the worst scenario happens.

Girls, you gotta admit that you care, to some sort of degree, about what kind of car your man, date, or fling drives. At first glance what he drives gives a little insight into what kind of guy he is. Maybe he's the hot jock with no brains, the nerd hopeing to meet his princess Leia, the shut-in who's really a sweet guy, the perfect man, the man who has a secret life... there's so many possibilites.

When it comes down to it, though, it's all about what we percieve as good features in a guy... and his car. Judging from a car, maybe one girl would think that a Camaro means the guy is really exciting where as girl 2 might think he's a total sport car freak, it's all about opinion. I found these following videos to be interesting. Seems like a lot of the girls have varying opinoins about a person based on which kind of car they drive - this is how it is with my group of friends as well, so hard to decide what to think of a person, but a car can help with first impressions! Enjoy the videos!