Would you buy a new car from these folks?

I wouldn't. Got a piece of junk mail from Ford today, with an offer for $400 back if I buy a Ford by the end of June. Well, I presume it's to me, although according to them, my first name is "Jhn". The offer that gives me that "cash bonus" is the 2004 Ford College Undergraduate Purchase Program, and it tells me that "Your undergraduate years spent at Duke University will be some of the most exciting and challenging of your life"; therefore, I should buy a Ford. As I recall, my undergraduate years were spent about 1000 miles to the southwest of Duke, and I didn't graduate this spring from there, either.

Yes, I understand: Ford bought a list of names of people who started at Duke in 2000 and made the silly presumption that all of those names represented undergraduates who are getting out of school this year. But it's incredibly sloppy work by their marketing folks to call all graduate students "undergraduates" and to miss their actual graduation dates by two years. I guess Ford's marketing department doesn't practice the slogan, "Quality is Job 1."

Theirs wasn't the only stupid junk mail I got today. I also received something from some mortgage refinancing organization. Big letters saying that it's from the "Veterans Information Department" with a "New VA Benefit" just for me, as they have identified me as "a U.S. veteran who may be eligible for a congressionally authorized home loan finance program." I'm curious as to how they identified me, as I sure don't remember being one. And elsewhere, in large capital letters, they tell me that I am "ELIGABLE" for a rate of 4.25%. Just not eligible, I suppose.