Today we’d like to bring awareness to the DBQ Multicultural Family Center (MFC). With a great new place and offering even more activities for the members of the community, the MFC is always a great place for people to expand their education, skills, and bonding time with the family. Several people may not be aware of this great resource in Dubuque and others might not know how or where to make a donation. So please take the time to read the interview below and find it in your hearts to support this, or other great charitable organizations.

In continuation of our Raising Awareness series, Runde’s would like to bring awareness to the St. Steven’s Food Bank. The organization has helped countless non-profit organizations over the years by delivering food to those in need. If you find it in your heart to donate to the Food Bank, please use the information at the bottom of this post to contact the appropriate party. St. Steven’s Sue Davis, Finance Director at St. Steven’s in Dubuque, IA explains how the bank is helping out some charitable organizations — not only this holiday season, but all year-round: In your words, what does your organization do? Our food bank receives quantities of food from the food bank in Moline and distributes the food to about [...]

Happy Holidays  Note: No one at Runde Auto Group was harmed during the making of this video.  Hopefully your ears won’t be harmed by our “not-so-harmonious” voices as you view it. Our intention is merely to wish you a happy holidays in hopes that this holiday season will be your best one yet!

If you have driven a vehicle equipped with the New Ford Sync Technology– then you’re probably well aware that it effortlessly syncs up your phones, mp3 players and other gadgets via Bluetooth or USB input. Now how about this for a little bonus: Internet.  Yep.  Not a misprint — I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T. That’s right, internet wherever you may go and internet wherever you are… internet high …. internet low … internet at home … and now internet on the go… just as long as you have a 3G compatible wi-fi card (note: monthly fees might go with it).  The Sync, version 2.0, will have internet compatibility integrated into its USB ports. So on top of all of the cool things the Sync already does (like transmitting your phone calls though vehicles speakers) your passengers can now surf the waves of the digital age in your car on their laptops as you cruise down the highways and byways [...]

The holiday season is here and spirits are up for most especially at the East Dubuque Giving Tree organization. It’s a time of reflection and giving thanks as they say. But when is the last time you really thought about how you could give back to those who aren’t as fortunate as yourself? I would like to introduce to you the Runde’s Raising Awareness Series. The goal of this series is to bring awareness to various non-profit organizations around the Tri-State area that provide truly selfless services for those in need of help. These organizations run mainly through donations and volunteer work and are almost always in need of contributions or further assistance. We ask only one thing if nothing else is gained through this series: that you realize and acknowledge that these good deeds are being done in our very own community. Our first organization is The City of East Dubuque:  

Motor Trend recently announced the 2010 Truck of the Year. And, maybe not so surprisingly, the Dodge Ram took home the title for the king of trucks. Up against some pretty fierce competition, like the popular Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado, the Ram out-contended the best from every make out there. And judging from what it can do in the video below, it seems pretty well deserved. Based on the following criteria, taken from Motor Trend’s website, the 2010 Truck of the Year out-performs the competition in most categories. DESIGN ADVANCEMENT Quality execution of exterior and interior styling; innovation in vehicle packaging; good selection and use of materials. ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE Integrity of total vehicle concept and execution, clever solutions to packaging, manufacturing, and dynamics issues; use of cost-effective technologies that benefit the consumer. INTENDED FUNCTION How well the vehicle does the job its designers and product planners intended. EFFICIENCY [...]

Today we’ll try to provide readers with some tips after an accident or what to do after a car accident has occurred. It’s something we all fear on the road: getting into an accident. We look for signs of potentially dangerous situations and try to dodge them and avoid injury to ourselves and the people around us. During winter driving it’s on our minds a bit more: “what if I slide and hit something” or “uh-o, I don’t think my car is going to make it up this hill… what if I start slipping backwards…” As much as you try to be a cautious driver, sometimes it’s impossible to avoid an accident. Regardless of whether: your car skidded on ice, or you were text messaging and didn’t see that truck in-front of you, or [...]

Michelle Tranel and Dustin Dura are very nice people from East Dubuque, IL  who came into Runde’s today to shop for a used Chevy truck. Their salesperson, Al Kloft, told me that they were some of the nicest people that he had ever met. So I decided to head up to our PreDriven store to see if they’d oblige me with some of their time and an interview.  They did. We chatted.  Then they drove off into the non-sunset of lukewarm, overcast day in their sweet newly purchased Colorado truck.  Al was right — they are really nice. So what brings you into Runde’s today? We just bought a truck. What vehicle did you end up getting? A Chevy Colorado. How did you hear about Runde’s? We grew up in East Dubuque so we’ve always known about it. You two are a couple, I assume? Yep. Any kids? Dustin: I have [...]

Here’s what some recent customers of Runde Auto Group has to say about their experiences at Runde Auto Group – a dealership located near Dubuque. We had shopped around a lot for a vehicle.  Of all the dealerships we visited, Runde Chevrolet treated us the best and worked the hardest for us.  I have already recommended this dealership to other people.  Runde was a very pleasant experience for purchasing a car. The whole time was very professional, caring and easy people to work with through the whole process. Steve Kness – Pearl City, IL   First class operation.  Enjoy doing business with them in all departments. John Roeder – Roeder Implement Inc. – Dubuque, IA    I am very pleased with my purchase from Runde Chevrolet. Gary Bonnet [...]

Environmentally friendly vehicles … not sure if I know what that is.  Can you go into more details please? If you are familiar with the show: Top Gear, you know that the boys, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond are in charge of completing a mission in every episode. In a recent episode they were challenged to create their own answer to the Chevy Volt. And boy, did they.   With an elegant plywood and sheet-metal exterior and an interior packed with lawn-chairs, semi-detached radio and rotatable windshield the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust gives the Volt has some fierce competition.   The thing almost runs 30 mph, has absurdly oversensitive steering and whoever drives it seems to appreciate the value of safety and life to a whole new level after [...]

Recently we got to interview Chuck Webster who came in to purchase a Malibu. Chuck was excited to give his wife the Malibu as special little gift. Hello Chuck, thank you for doing the interview with us. We hope your experience with Runde’s was great. Oh yes it was. How was he? Fantastic. We actually used to be neighbors in Chicago for years and didn’t even know it!  We lived about two blocks away from each other in Lincoln Park. Where is the first place you’ll take your car? I’m going to drive it to Washington D.C. to give it to my wife. It is a two-day drive, but it’s worth it. Is she excited to get the car? Oh, yeah, funny story, actually. She [...]

Mike Lawler worked for Runde’s full-time while he went to East Dubuque high school.  After graduating, Mike went off to college, but he still comes back to work here when he comes back home.  While Mike was here for the Thanksgiving weekend, we took a few minutes to chat with him and find out what college life is like. RAC: Where are you going to college? ML: Western Illinois University — It’s about two and a half hours away. RAC: And do you have your own car? ML: Yeah, a 2000 Cavalier Z24. RAC: Nice.  Aluminum wheels?  Air Conditioning?  Cruise Control? ML: Yes sir. RAC: Sounds like a great car!  Do you like college so far? You’re going to the school in Macomb, IL right? ML: Yeah the school’s nice.  Macomb’s a smaller town – I think it’s about 20,000 people.   RAC: Runde’s sells a lot of vehicles to people from Macomb.  Do you [...]

Happy Thanksgiving From Runde Auto Group! It’s that time of year again where we give thanks… thanks to the people we love, thanks for all of the nice things we have in life, and thanks to the ones who guided our lives in the right direction. (I remember in the fourth grade at St. Anthony elementary school in Dubuque, Tim Earle and I were fighting on the playground during recess — probably over who got to be quaterback next or something like that…  Our teacher, Mrs. Jane Stanton, had witnessed this and when we came back inside — she made us both stand up in from of the whole class and hug each other.  Sounds weird to be thankful for a teacher who used public humiliation as a deterrent, but I went to school with Tim for 12 years and I don’t [...]

Over the last couple of weeks Runde’s had a Sesame Street contest called “Seek and Find” running in the Telegraph Herald. The contest recently ended and some kids are going home as happy as can be with free tickets to Sesame Street Live! We gave out a total of 8 free tickets for some lucky children to see the show with their families. In addition to the free tickets, Runde’s gave away $3.00 off coupons at all four Runde locations. Each of our four locations had contest winners, we had two great kids come in for the tickets at our Chevrolet store:   Catherine from Dubuque was the first lucky winner who came in to claim her tickets. Who’s your favorite character Catherine? (whispers) Elmo.     Emily and her younger brother Michael were the next Sesame Street fans to stroll through our front doors that day.  We’d like to [...]

The 2010 Ford Fusion has won the 2010 Motor Trend Car of the Year award! This is no easy task to accomplish mind you. With vigorous testing, scrutiny from the media, and competition with the best cars from all over the world, to win this award really must mean that it is the best of the best. To go into a bit of detail of how tough these judges are and how extensive the tests of each vehicle competing for the top spot check out the video below. These guys do not skip a detail about what they don’t like about any of the vehicles and they rarely give praise.   The following video is the unveiling of the car of the year and some comments from the Ford Team [...]

The 2010 Ford Raptor was build for the true off-road enthusiast.  Check out this video that shows the dynamic capabilities of the truck.  Jamal Hameedi, chief engineer of the Ford SVT comments on the truck’s ability to jump (the truck was actually built to jump) and he also touches on the trucks Hill Descent Mode.   Runde Auto Group’s customer, Brian Hauber, took this footage of his new 2010 Ford Raptor going down a hill in the Hill Descent Mode. I think it’s safe to say that he loves his new Raptor so far.     If you’d like to check out a new Ford truck in person, please give our sales staff at our Ford store a call at 888-927-2630. If you’d like to check out our entire inventory, go to www.RundeAutoGroup.com — Or call us at 866-735-5200.

For those of you who think that social media is just a fad that will disappear in the years to come, well … uhhh … you might have another thing coming.  In the car business you often get a mixture of old school thought vs. new school.   Yesterday, this really seemed really apparent when we asked one of our senior salesmen to help provide us with a customer of his that we could interview for the blog.  His response was: “No.  Actually, I can’t wait ’til that thing (the blog) goes away.”  In the past couple years, social media has become what it is and at Runde’s we have tried to embrace it for the positive.  We run a good business and word of mouth has always been one of the cheapest and best forms of advertising.  So we figure, we’ll interview customers and ask them what they thought of their experience at Runde’s.  It’s [...]

Aside from the 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350 and the very first 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 ever made, Jay Leno has lots of toys that do things that you probably never even thought were possible … especially his new 3D scanner. What if I told you that I could clone almost any object under the size of about a yard? Better yet, what if I told you that I could, without any sort of assembly, make the cloned object fully functional as soon as I cloned it? “Bust out the straight-jacket and lock him away?” you say?  Well, FYI, all of this is possible and is actually happening at Jay Leno’s garage. Jay has this nifty little scanner called a Faro 3D Scanner which will scan an object based on thousands of points and create a 3D model of it on your computer. From there, the Dimension 3D Printer takes the image data given to it by the scan [...]

Thomas, Shelia and their daughters: Hannah, Hailey and Heather Hinman … basically the Hinman family in its entirety from Hazel Green, WI came in the other day to upgrade to a more spacious vehicle. While the girls played, the parents took care of business signing all the paperwork at the Runde PreDriven store.  Soon they were ready to roll out with their new set of wheels,  but I couldn’t let them go without letting the world hear their story! Hey guys! I’d like to thank the Hinman Family for doing this interview with me. What brought you into Runde’s today? We needed a car that would fit our family and wanted to stay local for the purchase. What led you to Runde’s instead of a different dealership? Shelia: I’ve lived around this area my whole life and know Runde’s to be a good [...]

We’re talking about Sesame Street at Runde Auto Group today. “Sunny day – Sweepin’ the clouds away,  On my way to where the air is sweet.  Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street… “Sure, it’s right across the Julien Dubuque bridge!  Assuming your coming from Dubuque, just take the first right after you get off the bridge, take a right at the stop sign then go until you see Runde Chevrolet  to your left and you are there – where all the happy people meet. Runde’s has been all about Sesame Street – especially recently. The production 123 Sesame Street Live is coming to the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, IA. November 24th and 25th and Runde’s is supporting the production along with the Telegraph Herald. To get in the atmosphere of Sesame Street and to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, I went around our Chevrolet store to see who everyone’s favorite [...]

So you are planning a two-week visit to your mom’s house this winter and she has welcomed you to bring your pet for the visit? Great! Mom lives 5 hours away, a no-sweat trip for most, and your family is all excited for it. Your 6-year-old son can’t wait to sink his original baby teeth into Grandma Betsy’s world-famous chocolate chip cookies, yum! But what about Peaches, your Boxer puppy? This is your first long trip with him coming along and you are worried about how to go about the whole process.  Have you thought about traveling with pets? Well, let us help get you, your family, and Peaches already for the excursion. Some folks might say consult your vet before taking your pet on a trip. I’d just say make sure that you remember to take along plenty [...]

Please please please do not consider bringing this anywhere near the Tri-State area. You are more than welcome to pimp out your ride how you see fit, but I enjoy sleeping in instead of waking up to this “alarm clock” WHOO WHOO.         I love how they filmed the car going on the wrong side of the road then proceeding to blaze through a stop sign… And in case you needed more here is the whistle tip Whoo Whoo remix video:    

My mom hates him, my dad thinks he’s ok, I think he’s a great comedian. I guess you could guess who I’m talking about from the title of the post, but for those who don’t read titles and just want to get to the meat and potatoes … I am talking about the love-him-or-hate-him talk show host Conan O’Brien. In a recent segment he tried to defend his 1992 Ford Taurus SHO vs. the new 2010 Ford SHO in terms of style, safety and features (“That’s actually factory installed bird crap”). I really must say, as a former ’98 Taurus owner, I have respect for any celebrity who drives around in a ’92 Ford Sho. Watch and love …       

We were outside and Carl got out of his old truck… Unlike most people, however, Carl didn’t go running to his New Ride from Runde Chevrolet in excitement. Instead Carl slowly got out of the driver’s door and gave the truck a sentimental final farewell before heading into the Runde Chevrolet building to finish up the paperwork. I was particularly busy before the interview with Carl Denlinger who was with his mother, Louise Denlinger (both born and raised south of Dubuque) but our chat seemed to put me in a great mood, read on to find see why. Hey guys, while your salesman, finishes up the transaction would you mind sharing your experience at Runde’s with the rest of the world? Sure… and [...]

The twenty-sixth of October with kids roaming all over. Main Street was all cluttered with folk. Coming down the street was a royal fleet and the diesel was-a-blowing smoke. Yeah them smokies were holding back the traffic. They even had a cop on a bike. Those Jacksons were-a-dancing for quite a spell. And they were showing an abundance of heart. “Cause we gotta great big convoy, rocking through the night. Yeah we gotta great big convoy, ain’t she a beautiful sight? Come on an’ join our convoy, ain’t nothing gonna git in our way. We’re gonna roll this trucking convoy, cross the USA. Convoy.” Well that’s what it seemed like.  Ok.  [...]