What brought you into Runde’s today?
Mostly the internet. We searched online for a vehicle and found one that we liked here. I bought from here before so we decided to come here for our vehicle.

Where are you guys from?
We’re from Wyoming, IA. Between Maquoketa and Anamosa, IA.

Who and what is the vehicle for?
Phyllis: It’ll be for me, just for general purposes.

What vehicle did you end up with today?
We bought a Buick Enclave – it’s a very nice SUV.

What do you guys do in Wyoming?
Dennis: I’m a farmer.
Phyllis: I work at the University of Iowa.

Oh, I’ve been to their dentistry school, very nice campus.
Neat, I work in philosophy, linguistics and rhetoric. I’m in the administrative department.

Dennis: She likes to psycho-analyze people, I’m waiting to see what she says about our salesman, Al Kloft.
Phyllis: I do. And I like Al!

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by petercastleton

How was your overall experience at Runde’s?
It was excellent.

On a scale of 1-10 what would you give your experience?
Dennis: A 10. Al was really good and honest and you guys have a great selection of vehicles. Everything was very straight forward.

You say you’ve bought a vehicle here before. What did you buy?
We got a ’03 Chevy 2500HD, mostly for my farming.

How has that been through the years?
Super. I’ve never been back because there was never anything wrong with it. It has been wonderful.

How long have you two been together?
Since 1977.

Remember the first Date?
Phyllis: Yeah, it was New Year’s Eve. We went to a dance together during a snow storm.

Any family around where you live?
We have four daughters. All of them are out of the house. Our youngest one is at Mount Mercy in Cedar Rapids. All of them are within 25 miles of where we live.

Do you have big get-togethers?
For Christmas and Thanksgiving we get together if they don’t have to go to their spouses families.

Do you guys like going on vacations?
Once in awhile we like to. We got this plan so now we go more often. It’s kind of like a time-share, where you can go to these various places to visit. Last year we went to Pennsylvania. We also went to New York and stayed in a great place.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Scott Hudson **

Any ambitions to go outside of the country?
Dennis: Oh, I don’t know. Maybe someday, but not yet.
Phyllis: Yeah, I do want to go outside of the country. I watch Rick Steves on public TV and he’s always talking about these neat places. But I don’t like water and I don’t like flying.
Dennis: It’s hard to go anywhere overseas with fears like that.

If you were to win the lottery, what would you do with the money?
Dennis: I’d keep farming. I love the farming life.
Phyllis: I don’t know. I guess just travel more. Maybe we could buy our own plane or boat.   I’d feel like I have control over it.

That’s all the questions I had for you, anything else you’d like to add?
It was a good experience, we enjoyed Al Kloft.

Thank you very much for your time. We appreciate great customers like you!

Ford Keeps creeping up and surprising people with their impressive technology, safety and power they offer in their vehicles. The DSFL program is yet another thing that Ford pleasently surprises us with. If you were like me, you don’t have a clue about what this program involves or that it has been around for 9 years. If that is the case, it’s time to get educated, as this program is important for the safety of future generations and everyone on the road.

These people didn't take Ford's class...cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by thienzieyung

Ford, In conjunction with the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) are now in session of their 9th year of the DSFL. Globally, the program has trained over 500,000 drivers in various age groups. In the United states there is an emphasis on teen driving.  The program will visit 30 high schools over 5 states to promote safe driving with specially equipped vehicles and professional driving instructors.  The program focuses on helping teens with speed & space management, driver distraction prevention, hazard recognition and vehicle handling over the course of a day. Last year, DSFL reached 35,000 teen drivers while on the high school tour and they hope to meet or exceed that number this year.

“By immersing ourselves in high schools for a day, the Ford Driving Skills for Life program seeks to leave a lasting impression on teens and ultimately make them safer drivers,” said Jim Vella, president, Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services. “Inexperience is the leading cause of crashes in young drivers, and this program delivers the key skill sets that increase their knowledge and confidence.”

Thinking back to Drivers Ed in high school, I remember being scared of things like parallel parking and certain situations where there were several vehicles around me. Programs like DSFL are great as they are reaching these future drivers right as they are learning and adapting their driving habits. Reinforcing good habits and precautions would make any driver better, not just teens.  Maybe it’s time for a little refresher in proper driving technique? Check out https://www.drivingskillsforlife.com/ to see the online part of the program and learn some useful tips.

Where are you from?
I’m from Ossian, Ia, It’s just South of Decorah, IA. It’s about a three hour drive. My boss and I made the trip.

What led you to Runde’s?
I’m a veterinarian and I needed a truck for work. I needed a 3/4 ton regular cab, long box truck which was actually really hard to find, but you guys had four or five of them here. Runde’s had the a great selection and options we were looking for so we decided to make the long trip to go here to get the truck from you guys.

How did you find us?
Well I was car shopping for over a week and I found out about Runde’s online through AutoTrader.com. So we called in and got Al right away. He made sure that everything was at the shop and ready to go for us and made sure we didn’t get lost on our way to get here.

On a scale of 1-10, what would you rank your experience at Runde’s?
A 10, it was perfect.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Emmett Tullos III

You say you are a veterinarian, and you needed the truck for work, what kind of veterinary service do you provide?
It’s actually a mobile clinic basically for us. So we will put a very large insert in the back that has a lot of drawers for all of my tools and medicine. And I’ll drive that from farm to farm.

Are there particular animals you work with?
I mostly work with cows, Dairy and Beef Cows as well as horses. From time to time I go around and see small animals a couple of days a week, but I mostly work with the bigger animals.

How did you get into that industry?
I had horses when I was younger and I thought I always wanted to be a horse vet. So I went to school down in Florida where I grew up. But then I had to move to where the cows are so I moved here.

You’re originally from Florida?
I was born in in Peoria and my family is originally from the Midwest but I grew up in Florida.

How do you like the transition from Florida to the Midwest?
Pretty good, except for the ice… ice is the whole reason why I’m here today.

Over the River and Through the Snow -- Ossian, IA to Runde's

Oh?
Yeah, I hit a patch of ice and went sideways on my old truck then the ditch caught an edge of the truck and made it roll a bit. Not good, but I was wearing my seat-belt!

Glad you made it out of that situation alright!

Are you a farmer yourself?
No, I just go around the farms and take care of the animals.

How far out do you guys go to help out the farm animals?
Within a 25-30 mile radius of our South Winn Veterinary Clinic base.

What do you like to do around the area?
I do a lot of hiking and camping and that kind of stuff. But I’m also kind of a home-body too.

Married? Kids? Pets?
Nope, Single. I have a big old mutt of a dog.

What breed of dog?
They told me she was a Lab and Dalmatian mix when I got her but I think she’s got a little Pitbull in her. She’s about 55-60 lbs.

What’s your favorite movie?
That depends on what category we’re talking about. But for Horror, (which is my favroite type of movies) one of the few movies that actually freaked me out was the first Paranormal Activity. I actually lost sleep over that one which is surprising to say considering how many horror flicks I’ve seen.

Favorite band?
The Drive-By Truckers. They’re a Southern rock band.

What would you do with the money if you won the lottery?
I’d probably buy a farm and raise some horses and just invest the rest of it and live off of that.

What would you say made your experience unique at Runde’s?
The selection. All of the options and everything available were just fantastic. Al Kloft and everyone we worked with were really nice and knowledgeable. It was just good all around. Everything we looked at here was clean, which was really nice too.

Here is the winning entry:

And here were some of the top runners-up:

Also from Ford, the 2013 Ford Escape is now live on their website giving you the chance to deck out your own Escape. The prices aren’t final, and the vehicle isn’t on sale quite yet, but you can see how slick the vehicle is looking and the impressive options list. Go to http://www.ford.com/suvs/escape/2013/ to check it out!

In other great news, Team Pentastar plans on producing the the Dodge Dart in their  Belvidere, Illinois plant. They want to bring 400-500 workers on board to produce the vehicle. Belvidere is just 2 hours away from our Chevy Store in East Dubuque Il., so if you’re in the area and are looking for a gig in the auto industry you might want to look into this!

GM is toying with the idea of changing some of those long-distance drags you may have experience as a passenger into something that is quite entertaining. Imagine the rear passenger windows being a translucent digital display, giving you access to fun visual, entertaining and educational apps.

Enter in the Windows of Opportunity (WOO). The WOO will enable backseat drivers to interact with their windows in a variety of ways through various applications, the applications thus far conceptualized: (Information below provided by Official GM Press Release)

• “Otto - an animated character projected over passing scenery that responds to real-time car performance, weather and landscape. With Otto, passengers can learn about their environment in fun, playful ways.
•  Foofu - an app that allows passengers to create, explore and discover through finger drawing on window steam.
• Spindow - an app that provides its users a peek into other users’ windows around the globe in real-time.
• Pond - an app that allows passengers to stream and share music with other cars on the road, downloads favorite tracks, and share messages with other passengers on the road.”

The project was brought to life by researchers and students from the Future Lab at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel. They were confronted by the General Motors Research and Development team with the task to conceptualize new ways for backseat passengers (geared more towards children) to have a richer, more satisfying experience on their trip.

GM does not currently have plans to fully develop the interactive display windows, the researchers and students were given full reign (without concern of mass production) as far as development goes. But if the concept were to go into production, it would likely be in the form of charged “smart glass” which has the ability to reflect projected images while still maintaining transparency.

Omer Tsimhoni, lab group manager for human-machine interface, GM Advanced Technical Center in Israel said;”Projects like WOO are invaluable, because working with designers and scholars from outside of the automotive industry brings fresh perspective to vehicle technology development. WOO is just one of many projects underway at GM that could reinvent the passenger experience in years to come.”

If that statement is any indication of developing this fantastic idea, I think we may have finally found an answer the un-answerable: “How to keep the kids behaved in the backseat.”

What brought you guys into Runde’s today?
My daughter, Danielle, wanted a used vehicle before she went back to college.

Have you bought from us before?
I bought my Chevy Cruze through John Leibfried in Cuba City who was an excellent salesman. We initially called John to see what they had when we started our search for Danielle’s car. He referred us to Al Kloft to show us some vehicles in Hazel Green that might suit her better so we went there.

It was really neat to see that as soon as we left John on our way over to the Hazel Green location, Al had already left a voicemail saying he’s excited to see us. I really like that professionalism.

Is the car mostly for college, Danielle?
Yes. I go to college in DeKalb, IL. which is about 2 hours away. I didn’t have a car so my mom would always have to drive me when I needed to get there.

Which college do you go to?
Northern Illinois, I’m a sophomore going for a marketing major.

Well that works out better for you to have that transportation capability!
Yeah, it’ll be really nice.

Are you from the area?
We’re from Galena, IL. which is about 20 minutes away from here.

What’s there to do in Galena?
We’re big skiers and snowboarders.

Danielle: Yeah, and I work out at Chestnut Mountain.
How has it been this year for skiing with the initial lack of snow?
It was “alright” and warm at first.  But now that it’s getting colder and they’re predicting snow, it’s getting better.

If you were to rank your experience on a scale of 1-10, what would you give us?
We’d give it a high eight.

What vehicle did you end up with?
The 2004 Oldsmobile Alero.

What made you want the Alero?
It’s small which is what I wanted. I drove an Oldsmobile Intrigue when I was in high school, so I was kind of familiar with it. I also like the two-door and it was in my price-range.

What do you guys like to do as a family?
Julie: I have a son who is a junior in High School so the kids are at their ages now where we all just kind of do our own thing. We go on special ski trips together and things like that.  Personally, I work at Prudential, I sew and make things and I’m a runner.

How about you Danielle?
I like to run also. I’m an art minor so I like the artsy thing as well. I like to make things outdoors.
Julie chimes in* and Party!
Danielle: We’ll, that’s not really a hobby but yea…

Do you have any aspirations for after college?
I’m close to Chicago with where I go to school in DeKalb so I’m sure I will have some opportunity there. But I kind of want to move somewhere and see what I can find outside of the United States before I settle down anywhere.

How was your Holiday Vacation?
Great. It was just the three of us. We went skiing, it was fun.

That’s all the questions I had for you guys, anything else you’d like to add?
Everything was great. The thing that impressed me the most (because I know that salesmen have a lot going on and have a lot to remember) is that he followed through. He always made sure that if he said he was going to call me, he did. Those are the kind of things that you look for in a good salesman – commitment to the deal, and he had it. He had great follow-through.

Thank you very much for taking the time out to let us get to know you better!