Dollar Parity + eBay = Drop in Canadian Prices?

With the Canadian dollar at par with the US dollar, will this result in lower prices on goods in Canada? As you guessed, we likely won’t see prices drop too fast up here as a result.

But with online shopping malls like eBay.com and Amazon.com (notice I said .com not .ca), what would stop Canadian shoppers from online shopping across the boarder in order to take advantage of the exchange rate?

So I decided to test it out… Yup, the book Wikinomics is 15% cheaper on Amazon.com than Amazon.ca, taxes and shipping included! However, you would receive it a lot faster by ordering from the Canadian site. Time to invest in FedEx.

Though here is one example of an immediate price drop… Canadian price of a 2008 Porsche Carrera 4S Cab. down 8% from 2007!

What a steal! … My wife unfortunately wasn’t convinced.

Machines will take over Canada!

As the Canadian dollar heads closer and closer to parity with the US dollar, the Canadian manufacturing industry is sweating buckets.

What are experts recommending? With the dollar so high, the recommendation is to take this as an opportunity to buy technology to streamline processes and reduce manufacturing costs, resulting in competitive products produced up north. Even more competitive if the dollar then drops.

Simply put, they are advising to buy machines to replace human labour… Leading us right into the hands of the machines’ evil plans! :)

We own a new car!.. or do we?

We just purchased… a new car! [Price Is Right music plays in background]

For the first time in my life I own a brand new car (vs. used). The new 2007 Nissan Altima 2.5S. Stylish, affordable family car that’s good on gas.

Well… I don’t own it per se… it’s being leased. Ah yes, finance vs. lease, the age old car buyer’s dilemma. Well according to the saleswomen that sold us the car, over 90% of the Nissan’s sold at that dealership are now being leased. She then went into the her explanation of the advantages of leasing over financing.

To summarize, when you lease:

• you don’t pay tax on full amount of car
• if you get into an accident, as long as its fixed relatively well, you don’t lose money. Vs owning a car where the car depreciates on impact
• you have lower monthly payments
• money saved each month can then go towards mortgage or loan with higher interest rates
• you have the choice to purchase (finance) the car at the end of the lease

Logically it made sense. Personally, after buying used car after used car, and driving them to the ground (approx 10 years), although you get the most out of your money, I’m tired of the last 5 years of the cars life where you don’t know what will go wrong this month. So if all goes well in my leasing experience, I will likely lease again once my term expires.

Back to the car… cool features include: push button ignition, and an “intelligent key”, which allows the car to use a radio frequency to determine if the owner is near or in the car, allowing them to unlock and start the car without a key! Yup.. no mechanical key provided.

Hold on… what happens if there is interference??

Just checked the manual. Said interference may occur under certain operating conditions like parking near parking meters?!? Solution provided is to resolve the operating condition (what, bust the parking meter!?) or circumvent by using the mechanical key… but there is no mechanical key!

Hm.. this will be stuck in my head for a while… feeling chest pain. Oh wait, shouldn’t place next to pacemaker ... d’oh!