Sunday, October 30, 2005

The Easiest $125 I Ever Made

I just got back from participating in a new vehicle focus group at the Anaheim Convention Center (right across the street from Disneyland) where I got $125 simply for offering my opinions on a bunch of SUVs. Not bad, eh?


Not a bad payoff for just over two-and-a-half hours of my time. (10/30/05)

Since we drive a GMC Envoy (our other car that you seldom hear about on the blog) they identified me as a target user and called to see if I was interested. At first I wasn't until I heard I would be compensated. Being out of work at the time, I signed up. After all, a little extra money never hurt anyone, right? :)

It was really interesting. Basically they handed me a touch screen device where I had to look at new and present vehicles and rate things on a scale from 1-10. How do I like the hood? How do I like the fog lamps? How do I like the rear hatch? How easy is it to get in the driver's seat? Etc. Etc.

Anything that would explicitly identify each car was either stripped or concealed, so I couldn't tell what anything was. They also asked me to put a price on what I think the car would cost. Later on they revealed the real prices. I was way off!

When they finaly revealed the makes and models at the end, the one I liked best turned out to be a Lexus. Go figure.

Well, the Lexus was my favorite until I saw the MSRP of $69,000! That's kind of out of my price range.

My next favorite was the Lincoln Navigator. And with an MSRP of $55,000, it sounded like a bargain. Finally, at the end, they showed me two Fords, which were around $45,000. Both of those were pretty nice for the money.

Altogether I reviewed six SUVs, with probably 50-60 questions on each. There was no attempt to sell me anything. They were just collecting opinions. At the end, they handed me $125. Pretty cool huh?

Sorry I couldn't get any pix. They were really security conscious. They wouldn't even let people bring in cell phones. But no one said I couldn't take pictures of the money they paid me! :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two things: why are you out of work? and why are you driving a GMC Envoy? Need to negotiate those steep parking garages at the mall? Sorry, I have no patience for those supersized gas guzzlers. Hey, it's Scottie writing from NYC. Just saw Patti in Sweeney and the girl is great. And did you EVER in your life think you'd ever see Patti LuPone play the tuba? 'nuff said. Also saw "The Light in the Piazza" and bawled my eyes out. Of course, I do that during tampon commercials so take that with a grain of salt. Hope to see you guys soon -- either at the E-W Players upcoming production of Sweeney or if there's something good at the Bowl in summer 06. Love and kisses, Scott. e-mail me at scott-van@rcn.com

Laura said...

That seems a lot easier than the way I earned $125 when I was out of work...lol

Anonymous said...

But I bet Laura's $125 was MUCH more fun! :)

Laura said...

I do tend to have a LOT of fun making my cash...

and whats the deal? You think that both of you having jobs makes you exempt from posting? :-/