How the country’s top 3 Suzuki dealers — No. 2 was in Orlando — went from boom to bust

In June of 2007, Suzuki of Lakeland sold 310 new vehicles, and its sister store, Suzuki of Orlando, sold 251, making them the No.1 and No.2 Suzuki dealers in the country.

I f anyone knows how to get a message across loud and clear, it’s Nancy Argenziano.

Charlie Fitzgerald, 48, is a financial planner and principal in Maitland-based Moisand, Fitzgerald & Tamayo. He recently received a distinguished service award from the national Financial Planning Association for his work with the Florida chapter. He talked recently with Sentinel staff writer Richard Burnett.

A irTran Airways made a move last week that could increase its appeal to business travelers when it brokered a deal to secure more slots at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C.

O rlando fell in line with the nationwide average for other U.S. cities when it came to second-quarter business vacancies, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Prices at the gas pump are starting to flatten, following the lead of crude oil prices, which fell last week.

T hanks to iPhones, BlackBerrys and mini-laptops, the demand for wireless Internet access is soaring. And if you’re like me, you expect Wi-Fi to be free and get upset when it’s not.

If you own one of the easy-to-use Flip video cameras, there’s now a new way to share your videos with your friends and family members. You must have the FlipShare software (which comes loaded on the camera) installed on your computer.

D ear Greg: You should get a kick out of this. I called Carl Sandefur of Economy Painting and Home Improvement to dismantle and haul away the twisted deck he built, and to deliver my $2,000 refund as he promised in your July 14 column. He gave me the death-in-the-family line. I told him I was sorry and would call him July 31 — time enough for him to go to Indiana for his uncle’s funeral. So two weeks later I call and say, “I need to know when you are coming back for this deck and bringing me a $2,000 cashiers check.” And Mr. Sandefur says, “I’m not. I only said that under coercion. That guy from the newspaper scared the hell out of me. Do you want my attorney’s number?” I told him no, and hung up. Since then I have called him three times to no avail. I leave messages which go unanswered — probably a good thing, as I am getting very annoyed.

T he hits just keep on coming for the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS, the program that everybody still calls “cash for clunkers.” Just last week, for instance, Ford announced that it is ramping up production of two of its models, the Ford Focus compact and the Ford Escape SUV, because demand is outpacing supply.