Pickup

I like the idea of in-store pickup that Best Buy and other retailers offer. When you're in a hurry to get a product that's available at a retail location near you, you can go online, buy the product just as you normally would, if it was getting shipped to you, but opt instead to pick it up at your local retail outlet.

You don't typically save money over retail, but you do ideally get the product in your hands right away. You don't have to deal with looking for it at the store or standing in the register lines, since you've paid online already. Plus, you guarantee that when you get to the store, the item will be there for you, not sold out. In theory, at least.

In practice, it's a disaster. I've used in-store pickup at Best Buy more than once, and it hasn't worked. The first time, the site said my item (a camera) was available for in-store pickup, so I paid online, selected the in-store pickup option, and ran down to the store a couple hours later.

I went to the pick-up counter, explained why I was there, and waited a good 10 minutes before the representative came back and told me that the store had no record of me purchasing that product with in-store pickup.

A few weeks later, I purchased a product online for in-store pickup, and when I got to the store, it had a record of my purchase but couldn't find the item. One last time (in the name of research), I did everything the way it should be done through the site, only to find that it was sold out when I got to the store.

Explaining my issue and the fact that the Best Buy Web site told me the device was in-stock and that I had already bought it, I was told to come back in "a couple of days," and they should have one for me.

I'm not alone.… Read more

When he bought a 5-year-old pickup truck with 41,000 miles on it, Frank Oresnik had no idea how long it would last him. That was in 1996. On a Friday evening in February 2008, he was still on the road with that 1991 Chevrolet Silverado, speaking on the phone with National Public Radio's Robert Siegel and watching the odometer roll over the 1 million mile mark. And, he told Siegel, he has the oil change and other maintenance records to prove it's legit.

To hear the full report on NPR, go here: "Wisconsin Man Drives Millionth Mile in '91 Chevy&… Read more

Think you're safer in an SUV? Think again.

Cars topping the Forbes "Top 20 Most Dangerous Vehicles" list include a crossover-SUV and two pickup trucks.

While Forbes gets too much into the methodology on how its list is compiled, it makes the good point that frequently crashed cars are not necessarily the most dangerous. (They could simply be the most popular among young and inexperienced drivers.)

And boring does not automatically mean safe. The No. 1 car on the Forbes list, the 2007 Buick Rendezvous crossover SUV touted by Tiger Woods in commercials, got only a three-star … Read more

It's difficult to imagine what customer segment the designers at GM had in mind when they came up with the idea of the Cadillac Escalade EXT. The 2007 model that just arrived into the CNET Car Tech garage boasts a dazzling array of tech features: heated and cooled front seats, a factory-installed DVD player, DVD-based touch-screen navigation, as-standard XM Satellite radio playing through an eight-speaker Bose surround-sound audio system and...an 8-foot cargo bed.

With all-wheel drive and a monstrous 6.2-liter engine, the EXT could theoretically be used to haul around stacks of 50-gallon drums or to tow … Read more

Hip Tech Blog is showcasing a particularly interesting exhibition from last week's X Prize Cup in New Mexico: a 2,750-pound thrust nitrous oxide rocket that fits neatly in the bed of a pickup truck. Here at Crave, we like versatile technology, and wow, this truck rocket really takes the cake. Imagine the possibilities!

1. Clearly, now you can catch up with that elusive deer. Unfortunately, since the rocket takes up the entire truck bed, you'll have to find somewhere else to put the animal when you drive it to the taxidermist's. And a rocket can't … Read more