Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

stickguy

ADM stickers don't bother me. Like the saying goes, just exercising their first amendment rights! Though I seem to be less bothered by the dealer usually than most people. Just figure out what you are willing to pay for it, tell them what it is, and if they want to sell for that fine. If not, move on.

Though sounds like you lost interest anyway, so just stick with BMW.

stickguy

the TLX financing is in lieu of an extra cash incentive. so if you want that the car is going to cost more.

driver100

Ab, sorry to hear about that terrible tragedy....one crazy person can do so much damage. I remember your friend who moved to the country...probably to get away from city life.
17 killed including the gunman and a lady police officer who tried to stop him. He was a successful denture maker....was a millionaire. They are still piecing it together, but first he killed his ex and her new partner. He liked to make police cars, and he used one of them to stop people on the road, and shoot them. What I hate is these cowards could just kill themselves, but they kill innocent people...life is hard enough without these creatures.

imidazol97

So sad to hear about another crazed killer in Canada overnight.

We suffered our mentally ill killer in Dayton. People are still trying to figure
out why.

driver100

So Jip, a day off....what are your thoughts today?

oldfarmer50

roadburner said:

I posted on my Facebook page that I bought a car at a Mecum auction- with pictures to follow later tonight. And I actually did; here's the car:

I built stuff like that as a kid. The ones I remember best were a couple of concept cars that visualized what Packard and Stutz would look like if they had survived until 1966.

graphicguy

suydam said:

No, it’s not like the flu.
https://www.vox.com/covid-19-coronavirus-treatment-prevention-cure-vaccines/2020/4/1/21203242/coronavirus-flu-covid-19

Yeah...I don’t get where “it’s just like the flu” came from. It’s not. And, it’s vitally important people understand that. It’s not going to just go away.

graphicguy

@ab348 ...I did see the news about the shooting. Tragic and senseless. I’m always appalled and amazed at the rage that exists in some peoples’ hearts.

graphicguy

roadburner said:

I posted on my Facebook page that I bought a car at a Mecum auction- with pictures to follow later tonight. And I actually did; here's the car:

Nice.....I loved building those plastic models as a kid. I was pretty meticulous. Noticing brush strokes when I painted them, I finally started spray painting them in my parents garage, which sometimes lead to mysterious hues on the garage walls.

I even started to create my own stencils to paint flames, rats, etc on the cars after I built them.

As a side note on the Stinger you found, my dealer, when I first started test driving the Stinger over a year ago, had one all customized up. It was the ceramic grey. But, they rebadged it with the Korean KIA logo (which was just a logo and did not spell out KIA), aftermarket wheels, some tacky body additions like exaggerated fender flares, complete with the visible bolts.

Rode poorly, drove poorly. Stiff as a brick and the new tires/wheels they put on it made it feel quite twitchy.

I don’t know what the young green pea sales person must have thought when he put me in THAT Stinger, given I was a grey haired, probably Father figure, to him.

I think the ADM was somewhere north of $7K.

Wrote it off my list (as I had seen it at the auto show, and liked it up until that point).

When he asked if I wanted to make an offer, I demurred. A couple of days later, he called and said they had a red one with black interior. It was a GT2...all stock. Test drove it. Night and day difference. Again, end of year. It was a 2018 and the 2019s were rolling in. I started asking questions the green pea didn’t have answers to, and he turned me over to the Sales Manager. We were talking numbers and even then they were willing to knock $12K off the MSRP.

That’s when I got interested, only it would take another year before I went in again. Green Pea was gone, though.

oldfarmer50

This might give Jipster some hope:

https://youtu.be/VCj9vFT4yug

roadburner

stickguy said:

ADM stickers don't bother me. Like the saying goes, just exercising their first amendment rights! Though I seem to be less bothered by the dealer usually than most people. Just figure out what you are willing to pay for it, tell them what it is, and if they want to sell for that fine. If not, move on.

Though sounds like you lost interest anyway, so just stick with BMW.

It’s not the ADM so much as the fact that the car is listed online for $39,xxx but when you get to the dealer the price is actually
$39,xxx + $2,000. The GTS has been on their lot for 215 days; it might be there for another 215 days.

roadburner

oldfarmer50 said:

I built stuff like that as a kid. The ones I remember best were a couple of concept cars that visualized what Packard and Stutz would look like if they had survived until 1966.

Those concept car models were produced by Renwal. There was also a Duesenberg concept.

abacomike

Oil at $11.12 a barrel? What the heck is going on? I know demand is way down, but $11 a barrel? Not very good for world economies.

Besides, even if gasoline drops to $.79 (RUG) and $1.10 (PUG) a gallon, who can take advantage of those low prices? My tank is full and has been for almost 2 weeks.

stickguy

Well, watch the video up above. figure out what the price you can’t turn down is, and present it to them, telling them to call when they want to accept it. If they won’t, no big deal. If they go all GraphicGuy on you, it works out with a great deal!

explorerx4

Filled up my truck on 3-16. Have driven 250 miles and the DTE is reading 380.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

This might give Jipster some hope:

That was a great video. He said if you are buying a car today you should get a minimum of 10% off on it. He said if you can wait longer prices will fall even more. He said the market will have a glut of leased return cars and the rental car companies are going to sell off their excess inventory....prices will really fall. A tank of gas lasts me a month. People are on unemployment insurance.........not many are buying. Makes sense!

28firefighter

PUG up here at Costco was $2.59/gallon when I filled up this weekend - I put a tank of PUG through the Outback periodically and since it has been sitting, now seemed as good a time as any. It was last filled up 7 weeks ago and it has gone 275 miles in that time.

roadburner

graphicguy said:

roadburner said:

I posted on my Facebook page that I bought a car at a Mecum auction- with pictures to follow later tonight. And I actually did; here's the car:

Nice.....I loved building those plastic models as a kid. I was pretty meticulous. Noticing brush strokes when I painted them, I finally started spray painting them in my parents garage, which sometimes lead to mysterious hues on the garage walls.

I even started to create my own stencils to paint flames, rats, etc on the cars after I built them.

I have a few dozen unbuilt kits- aircraft, armor, cars, and science fiction. I built a couple of kits that won trophies at the BMW CCA Oktoberfest. Right now on my workbench I have an Aurora monster kit, a Revell 3 Series Compact, and the Lindberg T. The Lindberg kit is huge; it should be impressive when finished.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

28firefighter said:

What you have to lose is being blacklisted as a time waster at dealers that may actually have the car you want. It does happen. I’m not speaking from personal experience or anything.

I still think it is legitimate and fair. He has told his dealer what he is willing to pay. If he has given them his best price, has waited a reasonable time, then he is free to take his price elsewhere. I am saying to blast a few dealerships within 100 mile radius.......not all of them. Find a comparable model from their stock, see if a realistic low price works. He is being fair and he legitimately wants to buy....just at a price he wants to pay....doesn't want to do the dance and have to sit around eating a submarine sandwich. They can turn him down....but, if they really do have to sell a car this is a guy who wouldn't have bought a car from them anyway.
I don't think they are going to send his email to other dealers and warn them.
I think it is a special circumstance......he isn't desperate, he has a budget he doesn't want to go over, he is stretching his budget a bit....that is the most he really wants to pay.......why would a dealer that wants to move a car ignore him?

They might ignore him if they thought the deal was a loser.

I’ve revised my belief about dealer desperation a bit. True, there’s not much business these days but dealers may be taking the long view that when this is all over there will be a shortage of cars. They might not be willing to deplete their stock on skinny deals.

That is an unknown. As someone said, they aren't building too many cars now...so any in stock might be precious. But, it could go either way...don't know if there will be a shortage (good possibility) or if they want to get rid of inventory.

Also you might run into a dealership that is in need of some quick cash for operations and would willing to let a few cars go for really good prices. Got to keep the lights on.

pensfan83

We cheated and went for a drive to a state park about an hour north of us yesterday.

suydam

Sounds like appropriate social distancing to me.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

This might give Jipster some hope:

That was a great video. He said if you are buying a car today you should get a minimum of 10% off on it. He said if you can wait longer prices will fall even more. He said the market will have a glut of leased return cars and the rental car companies are going to sell off their excess inventory....prices will really fall. A tank of gas lasts me a month. People are on unemployment insurance.........not many are buying. Makes sense!

His comments on rental companies dumping massive amounts of inventory rings true. We parked a ton of cars just before the layoffs.

jipster

@benjaminh The financing on Honda certified is 3 years at 2.99%. If I go that route. Have to look into what if I want to finance 4 or 5 years. I did send an email to my TLX saleslady saying I would be interested in the silver TLX with tech package if they could give me a crazy number. They haven't
responded back, so I guess their sanity is still intact. Just don't want to spend that much on the tech pk car, and I didn't like the leatherette in the base car.

@driver100 Yes. Need to take the day off and recharge my batteries. Had planned on going out to look at the Mazda 6 and Accord EX-L today. Think I'll wait a day or two. My wife liked the Accord EX-L, tells me to get off the pot and buy something. But, there really is no hurry. Mrs. Jip works from home. We can get by with 1 and 1/2 car fairly easily. I like the Accord Hybrid, but the certified Accord EX-L would be it's equivalent. The perfect car would be the interior of the Mazda 6 in the Accord...making it the TLX, LOL, but it's not an option.

@oldfarmer50 Interesting video. Sounds good for my side. But, does he address dwindling new car dealer inventory? That will negate the drop in consumer buying. To what extent is the question.

Thanks for all the comments guys, and remember to subscribe.

oldfarmer50

28firefighter said:

PUG up here at Costco was $2.59/gallon when I filled up this weekend - I put a tank of PUG through the Outback periodically and since it has been sitting, now seemed as good a time as any. It was last filled up 7 weeks ago and it has gone 275 miles in that time.

I filled with top tier PUG on Friday for $2.77. I think the stations are all colluding to maintain prices. There are a few indie stations selling regular for $1.99 but most of them are stuck at about $2.15.

Some of the prices can be blamed on high NY taxes but at $11/bbl. the prices aren’t anywhere near the sub $1 prices of the 1990s when oil was around $12/bbl.

jipster

NEWS FLASH! My Acura saleslady is having her sales manager send me some new numbers on the TLX with Tech Pkg.

Let's see if that 6 foot sub sandwich and the Jipst Method is sucessful.

benjaminh

jipster said:

NEWS FLASH! My Acura saleslady is having her sales manager send me some new numbers on the TLX with Tech Pkg.

Let's see if that 6 foot sub sandwich and the Jipst Method is sucessful.

Again lease is probably better with the Acura TLX. Lease incentives of $7350 plus your $750 extra incentive means that this $38k car with another c. 2k discount from the dealer might actually be a c. 28k car. But then you do have to add back in tax, title, lic, lease fees, etc.

driver100

jipster said:

NEWS FLASH! My Acura saleslady is having her sales manager send me some new numbers on the TLX with Tech Pkg.

Let's see if that 6 foot sub sandwich and the Jipst Method is sucessful.

Sorry you are taking the day off Jip. There goes my main source for amusement until at least tomorrow.

It is true the car companies will be cutting back production....but, they always keep ahead of demand...must be a 40 or 50 day supply sitting out there now. With more added to it...car leases coming up and rental companies selling off inventory....you are the man!

stickguy

Even rodo, which seems to be stuck in the past, has some good deals now on the TLX. Though just went back, and not as low. Just one for 24 months that wasn’t horrible.

If you want another option (I’m sure you do, 😇) a new legacy might actually be a good fit for you. Super nice interior, and come well equipped. Can also get all the safety goodies without extra luxury items like moonroof.

jipster

Yeah, tax and fees ($699) is the deal breaker on the tech lease. Not that crazy about the idea of leasing.
$31,400 OTD. Pass.

imidazol97

pensfan83 said:

We cheated and went for a drive to a state park about an hour north of us yesterday.

Beautiful...

Michaell

Gas prices - I filled up our Outback last week. Last fill up was early March.

I paid $1.52/gal for mid-grade, which is 87 octane here in CO.

tommister2

jipster said:

NEWS FLASH! My Acura saleslady is having her sales manager send me some new numbers on the TLX with Tech Pkg.

Let's see if that 6 foot sub sandwich and the Jipst Method is sucessful.

Good luck!

stickguy

$31,400? That must mean sale price is no more than $29-29.5k. So looking at a good $8,000 off sticker which is about $37,500ish.

Maybe more than you want to spend, but sounds like a strong offer at least.

28firefighter

I would think a lease-then-immediately-buy would get you closer to $29k OTD on the TLX. Assumes a 2500 dealer discount, 7350 lease incentives, and 750 first responder bonus.

jipster

driver100 said:

jipster said:

NEWS FLASH! My Acura saleslady is having her sales manager send me some new numbers on the TLX with Tech Pkg.

Let's see if that 6 foot sub sandwich and the Jipst Method is sucessful.

Sorry you are taking the day off Jip. There goes my main source for amusement until at least tomorrow.

It is true the car companies will be cutting back production....but, they always keep ahead of demand...must be a 40 or 50 day supply sitting out there now. With more added to it...car leases coming up and rental companies selling off inventory....you are the man!

LOL..Well, if it helps any, I'm having a guy from,"We Clean Green", come out and give me an estimate for a "House Wash". They do not pressure wash, uses a soft brush and safe chemicals or something. Probably shop him against this pressure washer guy who's had good reviews.

Good to hear dealerships have a 40-50 day supply, plus leases coming in.

abacomike

$4.00 a barrel for oil? This is a significant and ominous occurrence as it relates to the world economy. Something serious is about to happen and it ain't good!

Michaell

abacomike said:

$4.00 a barrel for oil? This is a significant and ominous occurrence as it relates to the world economy. Something serious is about to happen and it ain't good!

I saw a screen shot that showed the Alberta shale oil trading for -.69 - yes, the company would pay you to take their product!

oldfarmer50

abacomike said:

$4.00 a barrel for oil? This is a significant and ominous occurrence as it relates to the world economy. Something serious is about to happen and it ain't good!

I just checked. WTI which is the benchmark for American oil just hit $2.50 for May delivery. June delivery price is $22.xx. I’m assuming this represents a storage capacity issue rather than some catastrophic economic thing.

jwm40517

I saw a picture of a grass field full of rental cars on fire near a FL airport , it said 3500 cars were destroyed. Wonder if that was real, as I saw nothing about it here . About two weeks ago.

jipster

stickguy said:

$31,400? That must mean sale price is no more than $29-29.5k. So looking at a good $8,000 off sticker which is about $37,500ish.

Maybe more than you want to spend, but sounds like a strong offer at least.

Only $500 less than the last proposal. Maybe time to break out another sandwich?

$8,220 discount
Price.of.car $29,504
OTD. $31,440

oldfarmer50

jwm40517 said:

I saw a picture of a grass field full of rental cars on fire near a FL airport , it said 3500 cars were destroyed. Wonder if that was real, as I saw nothing about it here . About two weeks ago.

There were a couple of posts here when it happened. A few hundred belonged to my company but the bulk belonged to Hertz.

I’d say someone torched them for the insurance but the big rental companies are self-insured.

abacomike

Oil is now selling at -$1.43 a barrel - in other words, oil producers will pay "you" $1.43 to take a barrel of oil off their hands. Never seen this before.

jipster

Just emailed sales manager $30k otd would do it.

bwia

stickguy said:

I have an N95 but that sucker is wildly uncomfortable. not sure if it is just a too small size or because it is designed to fit snuggly. But it hurts.

I wear a fabric one my wife made. I would prefer it was a big bigger and more comfortable, but gets the job done, though I really don't care for how hot it gets under there. and it does muffle!

Down here in the Caribbean we have some high quality masks but it seems more trouble than it's worth. The fit is uncomfortable, but more importantly in the Caribbean's hot sun, the mask is stifling.

And for that reason we stay home and enjoy the wonders of nature, for example: why does the cock crow at dawn, why do doves coo, and why do tropical plants drop their leaves in late spring?

driver100

abacomike said:

Oil is now selling at -$1.43 a barrel - in other words, oil producers will pay "you" $1.43 to take a barrel of oil off their hands. Never seen this before.

Stock up while you can

driver100

jipster said:

Just emailed sales manager $30k otd would do it.

Smart.....good move! Nothing to lose!

stickguy

Acura dealer was already at 22% off, but can’t hurt to ask for more. At some point they will say no.

28firefighter

I don't see them taking $30k OTD but who knows. If they do, it is a screaming deal - there is only about 7-8% profit margin in Acuras and you know they aren't selling gazillions of them.

driver100

I have faith in Jip....sandwich or no sandwich.

Michaell

Question is - if the dealer splits the difference and comes back at $30,700, will Jip take it?