Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

stickguy

Red one looks clean but weird lifted without off road style wheels. It sure what they did but if just spacers could always take them out.

But very odd modification to me.

jmonroe1

@driver100 said:
What about a 1999 Nissan Sentra Nismo?

$24000 25000 miles

————————————————-
That’s not even a thousand bucks a mile. Oh wait, never mind, that’s not the formula @oldfarmer50 uses.

Sorry.

Jmonroe

iluvmysephia1

I don't think the owners of the 2 black cars really want to sell. The lady that owns the black TT raised her price $750. Scratched that one off quickly.

And this black '99 Mazda Miata from Odessa is owned by a guy who's in the military and his wife is selling it for him. For some reason she's either really crappy at selling or really...distant. I can't figure it out.

Oh well. The red Miata's just a 70-mile bus ride away for me plus I trust the mechanicals of that car more than the other two.

stickguy

Finally a nice day. Mid 40s and sunny so got my truck and the daughters Mazda CX30 washed. Had to take mine to a car wash (found a touch less not too far away) to hopefully get the undercarriage cleaned off from the salt. Those always leave some slime so drive home and hand washed it and wiped it down good. Now nice and shiny again and put away in the garage.

Michaell

stickguy said:

Finally a nice day. Mid 40s and sunny so got my truck and the daughters Mazda CX30 washed. Had to take mine to a car wash (found a touch less not too far away) to hopefully get the undercarriage cleaned off from the salt. Those always leave some slime so drive home and hand washed it and wiped it down good. Now nice and shiny again and put away in the garage.

A quick storm blew through the area last night. Local news said we got 5" but it seemed like that was a conservative number. Plowed a path for the doggos in the backyard, and finally got the driveway done, all the way out to where the plow came down our street.

As Sgt. Murtaugh used to say, "I'm getting to old for this s**t!"

jmonroe1

@Michaell said:
A quick storm blew through the area last night. Local news said we got 5" but it seemed like that was a conservative number. Plowed a path for the doggos in the backyard, and finally got the driveway done, all the way out to where the plow came down our street.

As Sgt. Murtaugh used to say, "I'm getting too old for this s**t!"

———————————————
I’ve heard that age is just a number. OK, but sometimes my knees are big numbers.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

spent some time at the Mazda dealer yesterday, getting the Princesses CX-30 serviced while it is visiting for a week while she is out of town. They actually have some inventory now. No clue if they are still asking for ADMs (at least there were no stickers on the windows of the 6 cars in the showroom). Really liked the new CX-50 interior. Though the wife like the seats in the CX-5 more.

I really wanted to at least sit in, but hopefully test drive, a Miata but they did not have even one on the lot (new or used). those are really hard to come by around here now (unless you go to Carvana who seems to have lots full of them)

I don’t think I’ve ever sat in a more cramped car and that includes a C4 Corvette. You’d definitely have to be on the small side to be comfortable. Sadly, it will have to go on the list of cars I like but can never buy along with such vehicles as the Mitsubishi GT 3000.

oldfarmer50

jmonroe1 said:

@driver100 said:

What about a 1999 Nissan Sentra Nismo?

$24000 25000 miles

————————————————-

That’s not even a thousand bucks a mile. Oh wait, never mind, that’s not the formula @oldfarmer50 uses.

Sorry.

Jmonroe

I think you’re mixing my rule with driver100’s. He calculates value according to price divided by years of use while I calculate value by how many miles you get per thousand dollars spent. For hoopties it used to be 10k miles of use for every $1k you spend but current market conditions have shot that rule of thumb to heck. I doubt that you could buy a car that would make it ten thousand FEET for $1000 these days.

oldfarmer50

iluvmysephia1 said:

I don't think the owners of the 2 black cars really want to sell. The lady that owns the black TT raised her price $750. Scratched that one off quickly.

And this black '99 Mazda Miata from Odessa is owned by a guy who's in the military and his wife is selling it for him. For some reason she's either really crappy at selling or really...distant. I can't figure it out.

Oh well. The red Miata's just a 70-mile bus ride away for me plus I trust the mechanicals of that car more than the other two.

Wow, that selling for a distant veteran story is a big red flag. If he’s deployed how is he going to sign the title. Ohhhh, it’s already signed? Not suspicious at all.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

iluvmysephia1 said:

I don't think the owners of the 2 black cars really want to sell. The lady that owns the black TT raised her price $750. Scratched that one off quickly.

And this black '99 Mazda Miata from Odessa is owned by a guy who's in the military and his wife is selling it for him. For some reason she's either really crappy at selling or really...distant. I can't figure it out.

Oh well. The red Miata's just a 70-mile bus ride away for me plus I trust the mechanicals of that car more than the other two.

Wow, that selling for a distant veteran story is a big red flag. If he’s deployed how is he going to sign the title. Ohhhh, it’s already signed? Not suspicious at all.

Good point oldfarmer.
When I sold my snow tires on a site that is like CL I got a call from a veteran who happened to be overseas and he had a friend who would be an intermediary. I called customer service to see how I could complete the deal safely. They said don't even try, it sounds like a scam.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:

@driver100 said:

What about a 1999 Nissan Sentra Nismo?

$24000 25000 miles

————————————————-

That’s not even a thousand bucks a mile. Oh wait, never mind, that’s not the formula @oldfarmer50 uses.

Sorry.

Jmonroe

I think you’re mixing my rule with driver100’s. He calculates value according to price divided by years of use while I calculate value by how many miles you get per thousand dollars spent. For hoopties it used to be 10k miles of use for every $1k you spend but current market conditions have shot that rule of thumb to heck. I doubt that you could buy a car that would make it ten thousand FEET for $1000 these days.

Exactly;
oldfarmers rule; a $24000 car should last for 240000 miles (10000 miles for every $1000s)...I wouldn't bet the Nisimo will last that long.
Drivers rule, a $24000 car should last for at least 6 years, approx 6 years ($4000 a year divided into $24000= 6 years of driving pleasure. If you can get money out of it at the end that is a bonus and brings the cost of ownership even less.

The 2014 C250 has cost us $25000 and we've had it for 6 years.....$4000 a year is pretty good, and if we consider the trade-in value of $12000 then it has cost a little more than $2000 a year to own.

ab348

Hopefully this isn’t a sign of senility creeping in…

My brother asked if I have a camera tripod. I do, a Christmas gift from close to 50 years ago, which I almost never used even when new. I have a mental image of it being in the basement, where I thought it ended up when I moved in here 25 years ago. He wanted to use it to calibrate a sight for his target shooting, so I told him I’d take a look.

It seems nowhere to be found, along with my slide projector which I seem to recall being with it. Just no idea where. However, in searching the deepest corners of my storage, I found a box containing a pristine Pioneer CT-F650 cassette deck I apparently bought on eBay 15 years ago when I was building a collection of silver Pioneer components. I have no memory of doing that, ever using it, or if it even works. It sure is pretty though. Bizarre.

henryn

Last year, an old friend gave me some components when he was cleaning out a closet. Some of it was strictly junk, but there was an Adcom GFP-555II preamp and a Yamaha KX-800U cassette deck. The Adcom had one bad input, but the Yamaha checked out with no errors, and between the two I netted over $400.

People are paying insane prices for old hi-fi equipment these days.

stickguy

now that I have a nice finished basement I am unearthing some of the pieces I boxed up and moved. Might even get the turntable out, even though I gave my son my albums. Probably can skip the tape deck (yes I still have the cassette player) since all those got tossed. I can set up one of my CD players though! and I do need to find that subwoofer.

I would have set up the small system I had in our bedroom at the last house but I don't have a place for that, so some more extra parts. Some of which I will put in the family room upstairs.

if nothing else it will empty a few boxes. and I probably should get rid of the rest of the stuff I will never have a use for.

ab348

stickguy said:

if nothing else it will empty a few boxes. and I probably should get rid of the rest of the stuff I will never have a use for.

I could ship you at least 3 storage bins worth of records, and 2 or 3 boxes of books that I found in that dark corner of storage.

stickguy

I’d take the records but shipping cost from up there might bankrupt me!

Michaell

Couldn’t you wait until spring and meet in the middle? That way, you get a nice road trip out of it.

snakeweasel

oldfarmer50 said:

sda said:

When my 13 Accord approached the 100k mark, the dealership suggested not only changing the spark plugs, but changing the water pump, adjusting the valves as well as a transmission service. It was a costly service though I don't recall exactly how much. I had already had the cooling system serviced about a year before. Also, in the previous year I had replaced the brakes front and rear, alternator, T-belt and idler pulley and starter. I knew if I committed the money for the 100k service I'd better have the mind set of keeping the car for at least another 12-24 months. Time to move on.

I know that as my old vehicles get more milage I tend to get more neglectful towards upkeep. I never could justify a $2000 repair for a $1000 car. I guess I’ll never make 500,000 miles.

Well if it keeps the car going a $2,000 repair is cheaper than a $500/month car payment.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

jmonroe1 said:

snakeweasel said:

Well Christmas is over and I have cornered the market on wool watch caps. Seriously everyone gave me a wool watch cap, At least my head will be warm.

————————————————
You must be bald or close to it.

jmonroe

Politically incorrect. Hair challenged would be better

Nope, I just grew so fast I went straight through my hair.

snakeweasel

sda said:

jmonroe1 said:

roadburner said:

benjaminh said:

A Toyota with an engine failure at 180k, even though the car got regular oil changes at the dealership at 10k intervals. This car care guy blames the 10k oil change intervals promoted by Toyota, and says yet again to change your oil more frequently if you really want your engine to last. Customer decided to get a new/rebuilt engine, because four months ago new car prices were so high.

The cost of the new/rebuilt engine is about $6000.

But according to this guy, this all could have been avoided if he'd changed the oil twice as often. That would have cost about $1000 more than the 10k oil changes that he did. So obviously a savings of about $5k.

This again highlights how a $20k cost for batteries for a new EV is way more than even a new engine on a Toyota or Honda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJhFAwFv-O0

The correct oil change interval(OCI) depends on the engine, the oil, and the driving conditions. Blackstone advised me that I could go with a 10k mile OCI using Mobil 1 5W-30, but I used a 7.5k OCI so it would sync with the rest of the maintenance schedule.
My son's 328i has only had 15k mile oil changes(using BMW 0W-30 synthetic) and is going strong at 140k miles- here's how it looked when we changed the valve cover gasket at 108k miles:

————————————————-
When Mrs. j’s ‘05 XG 350 blew its engine in November of 2012 it had something around 42K miles IIRC. I was at the dealership when it was towed in. I opened the glove box and got out my now infamous oil change log sheet showing all of the oil changes that were done on that car and gave it to the Service Advisor. As the SA was looking at my log sheet the tech showed up and the SA said to him, “look at all the oil changes that car has had”. The tech glanced at my log and said, “that doesn’t surprise me because that engine is immaculate” (those were his exact words). I didn’t see the engine but it couldn’t have been any cleaner than your sons engine.

It’s almost amazing how clean an engine can be when you change the oil on time (and sooner in my case) with quality oil.

jmonroe

I don’t remember the end result but didn’t Hyundai tell you to pound sand or did they help you in any way?

Hyundai replaced my engine no questions asked.

tjc78

@snakeweasel
I forgot you had a bad Hyundai engine as well.

If I had been keeping the Genesis long term I would have been a little concerned with the engine. The 3.8 has a top mounted oil filter cartridge that drained back overnight and cold starts clattered like nothing I ever heard on a new car. It was “normal” according to the dealer.

snakeweasel

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

actually, of that bunch, I would vote for the VW cab. if it was a stick I would not mind having it!

Even with the 2.slow engine?

I had that combo in our '99 New Beetle.

Why not, who really needs a street racer? I look at it this way, in the city and suburbs there is always someone in front of you. Out in the country getting up to speed isn't as important as your ability to maintain your speed.

snakeweasel

I saw a Rivian in the wild the other day. Nice looking vehicle for a pickup.

fintail

iluvmysephia1 said:

I don't think the owners of the 2 black cars really want to sell. The lady that owns the black TT raised her price $750. Scratched that one off quickly.

And this black '99 Mazda Miata from Odessa is owned by a guy who's in the military and his wife is selling it for him. For some reason she's either really crappy at selling or really...distant. I can't figure it out.

Oh well. The red Miata's just a 70-mile bus ride away for me plus I trust the mechanicals of that car more than the other two.

Miata military thing is 99.9% a scam. Bin it and move on.

snakeweasel

fintail said:

iluvmysephia1 said:

I don't think the owners of the 2 black cars really want to sell. The lady that owns the black TT raised her price $750. Scratched that one off quickly.

And this black '99 Mazda Miata from Odessa is owned by a guy who's in the military and his wife is selling it for him. For some reason she's either really crappy at selling or really...distant. I can't figure it out.

Oh well. The red Miata's just a 70-mile bus ride away for me plus I trust the mechanicals of that car more than the other two.

Miata military thing is 99.9% a scam. Bin it and move on.

I had a friend of mine sell my car when I was sent up to Alaska, but I signed over the title to him so technically he had ownership of the car and the buyer dealt directly with him. I let him keep a percentage of the sales price to compensate him for his time and effort.

fintail

There are exceptions to every rule, but the "deployed soldier scam" is big enough to be referenced in several sources as something to beware of:

https://www.army.mil/article/204759/caution_same_old_scams_making_the_rounds_again

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2017/military-scams-fd.html

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

iluvmysephia1 said:

I don't think the owners of the 2 black cars really want to sell. The lady that owns the black TT raised her price $750. Scratched that one off quickly.

And this black '99 Mazda Miata from Odessa is owned by a guy who's in the military and his wife is selling it for him. For some reason she's either really crappy at selling or really...distant. I can't figure it out.

Oh well. The red Miata's just a 70-mile bus ride away for me plus I trust the mechanicals of that car more than the other two.

Miata military thing is 99.9% a scam. Bin it and move on.

I had a friend of mine sell my car when I was sent up to Alaska, but I signed over the title to him so technically he had ownership of the car and the buyer dealt directly with him. I let him keep a percentage of the sales price to compensate him for his time and effort.

snakeweasel

fintail said:

There are exceptions to every rule, but the "deployed soldier scam" is big enough to be referenced in several sources as something to beware of:

https://www.army.mil/article/204759/caution_same_old_scams_making_the_rounds_again

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2017/military-scams-fd.html

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

iluvmysephia1 said:

I don't think the owners of the 2 black cars really want to sell. The lady that owns the black TT raised her price $750. Scratched that one off quickly.

And this black '99 Mazda Miata from Odessa is owned by a guy who's in the military and his wife is selling it for him. For some reason she's either really crappy at selling or really...distant. I can't figure it out.

Oh well. The red Miata's just a 70-mile bus ride away for me plus I trust the mechanicals of that car more than the other two.

Miata military thing is 99.9% a scam. Bin it and move on.

I had a friend of mine sell my car when I was sent up to Alaska, but I signed over the title to him so technically he had ownership of the car and the buyer dealt directly with him. I let him keep a percentage of the sales price to compensate him for his time and effort.

I know the deployed military man is a scam. All I am saying is when I went "overseas" I took myself out of the equation so that it was a normal transaction between two people face to face. I don't even know if the buyer new I was in the military.

stickguy

JRGO just did a video on a scammer trying to sell someone else’s Car. It was a riot. IIRC he got screwed out of a small deposit ($150 maybe) which I guess was the whole point of the scam.

driver100

stickguy said:

I’d take the records but shipping cost from up there might bankrupt me!

Few things weigh more than LP albums! I remember moving them around...whenever I moved. That and my books!

driver100

snakeweasel said:

oldfarmer50 said:

sda said:

When my 13 Accord approached the 100k mark, the dealership suggested not only changing the spark plugs, but changing the water pump, adjusting the valves as well as a transmission service. It was a costly service though I don't recall exactly how much. I had already had the cooling system serviced about a year before. Also, in the previous year I had replaced the brakes front and rear, alternator, T-belt and idler pulley and starter. I knew if I committed the money for the 100k service I'd better have the mind set of keeping the car for at least another 12-24 months. Time to move on.

I know that as my old vehicles get more milage I tend to get more neglectful towards upkeep. I never could justify a $2000 repair for a $1000 car. I guess I’ll never make 500,000 miles.

Well if it keeps the car going a $2,000 repair is cheaper than a $500/month car payment.

Usually, once you get a $2000 repair bill on a $1000 car....you will face a few more $2000 repair bills shortly after. When one major thing goes, other things soon follow, in my experience.

driver100

snakeweasel said:

sda said:

jmonroe1 said:

roadburner said:

benjaminh said:

A Toyota with an engine failure at 180k, even though the car got regular oil changes at the dealership at 10k intervals. This car care guy blames the 10k oil change intervals promoted by Toyota, and says yet again to change your oil more frequently if you really want your engine to last. Customer decided to get a new/rebuilt engine, because four months ago new car prices were so high.

The cost of the new/rebuilt engine is about $6000.

But according to this guy, this all could have been avoided if he'd changed the oil twice as often. That would have cost about $1000 more than the 10k oil changes that he did. So obviously a savings of about $5k.

This again highlights how a $20k cost for batteries for a new EV is way more than even a new engine on a Toyota or Honda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJhFAwFv-O0

The correct oil change interval(OCI) depends on the engine, the oil, and the driving conditions. Blackstone advised me that I could go with a 10k mile OCI using Mobil 1 5W-30, but I used a 7.5k OCI so it would sync with the rest of the maintenance schedule.
My son's 328i has only had 15k mile oil changes(using BMW 0W-30 synthetic) and is going strong at 140k miles- here's how it looked when we changed the valve cover gasket at 108k miles:

————————————————-
When Mrs. j’s ‘05 XG 350 blew its engine in November of 2012 it had something around 42K miles IIRC. I was at the dealership when it was towed in. I opened the glove box and got out my now infamous oil change log sheet showing all of the oil changes that were done on that car and gave it to the Service Advisor. As the SA was looking at my log sheet the tech showed up and the SA said to him, “look at all the oil changes that car has had”. The tech glanced at my log and said, “that doesn’t surprise me because that engine is immaculate” (those were his exact words). I didn’t see the engine but it couldn’t have been any cleaner than your sons engine.

It’s almost amazing how clean an engine can be when you change the oil on time (and sooner in my case) with quality oil.

jmonroe

I don’t remember the end result but didn’t Hyundai tell you to pound sand or did they help you in any way?

Hyundai replaced my engine no questions asked.

You should have coached JMonroe.
Actually, they were a little different if I recall correctly, yours was because of a recall or faulty parts....his was, well, because he made a booboo.

driver100

snakeweasel said:

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

actually, of that bunch, I would vote for the VW cab. if it was a stick I would not mind having it!

Even with the 2.slow engine?

I had that combo in our '99 New Beetle.

Why not, who really needs a street racer? I look at it this way, in the city and suburbs there is always someone in front of you. Out in the country getting up to speed isn't as important as your ability to maintain your speed.

Then you haven't tried to enter Highway I-75 near Tampa or Bradenton. You'll never get onto the highway safely if you have a car that is too slow, going from 30 mph to 80 mph.

driver100

fintail said:

There are exceptions to every rule, but the "deployed soldier scam" is big enough to be referenced in several sources as something to beware of:

https://www.army.mil/article/204759/caution_same_old_scams_making_the_rounds_again

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2017/military-scams-fd.html

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

iluvmysephia1 said:

I don't think the owners of the 2 black cars really want to sell. The lady that owns the black TT raised her price $750. Scratched that one off quickly.

And this black '99 Mazda Miata from Odessa is owned by a guy who's in the military and his wife is selling it for him. For some reason she's either really crappy at selling or really...distant. I can't figure it out.

Oh well. The red Miata's just a 70-mile bus ride away for me plus I trust the mechanicals of that car more than the other two.

Miata military thing is 99.9% a scam. Bin it and move on.

I had a friend of mine sell my car when I was sent up to Alaska, but I signed over the title to him so technically he had ownership of the car and the buyer dealt directly with him. I let him keep a percentage of the sales price to compensate him for his time and effort.

I like how they exposed that first scam. The thing is, if you are in the military, why would you put that in your ad? If you are advertising something legitimately, then you would just post your ad....and not look for extra consideration because you are in the military.

driver100

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

There are exceptions to every rule, but the "deployed soldier scam" is big enough to be referenced in several sources as something to beware of:

https://www.army.mil/article/204759/caution_same_old_scams_making_the_rounds_again

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2017/military-scams-fd.html

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

iluvmysephia1 said:

I don't think the owners of the 2 black cars really want to sell. The lady that owns the black TT raised her price $750. Scratched that one off quickly.

And this black '99 Mazda Miata from Odessa is owned by a guy who's in the military and his wife is selling it for him. For some reason she's either really crappy at selling or really...distant. I can't figure it out.

Oh well. The red Miata's just a 70-mile bus ride away for me plus I trust the mechanicals of that car more than the other two.

Miata military thing is 99.9% a scam. Bin it and move on.

I had a friend of mine sell my car when I was sent up to Alaska, but I signed over the title to him so technically he had ownership of the car and the buyer dealt directly with him. I let him keep a percentage of the sales price to compensate him for his time and effort.

I know the deployed military man is a scam. All I am saying is when I went "overseas" I took myself out of the equation so that it was a normal transaction between two people face to face. I don't even know if the buyer new I was in the military.

Exactly.....why do they even mention they are in the military if they are selling a car?

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

oldfarmer50 said:

sda said:

When my 13 Accord approached the 100k mark, the dealership suggested not only changing the spark plugs, but changing the water pump, adjusting the valves as well as a transmission service. It was a costly service though I don't recall exactly how much. I had already had the cooling system serviced about a year before. Also, in the previous year I had replaced the brakes front and rear, alternator, T-belt and idler pulley and starter. I knew if I committed the money for the 100k service I'd better have the mind set of keeping the car for at least another 12-24 months. Time to move on.

I know that as my old vehicles get more milage I tend to get more neglectful towards upkeep. I never could justify a $2000 repair for a $1000 car. I guess I’ll never make 500,000 miles.

Well if it keeps the car going a $2,000 repair is cheaper than a $500/month car payment.

Usually, once you get a $2000 repair bill on a $1000 car....you will face a few more $2000 repair bills shortly after. When one major thing goes, other things soon follow, in my experience.

That's a chance you have to take, however I have dropped a few grand in miled up cars and didn't have a major repair for at least a year and a half,

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

actually, of that bunch, I would vote for the VW cab. if it was a stick I would not mind having it!

Even with the 2.slow engine?

I had that combo in our '99 New Beetle.

Why not, who really needs a street racer? I look at it this way, in the city and suburbs there is always someone in front of you. Out in the country getting up to speed isn't as important as your ability to maintain your speed.

Then you haven't tried to enter Highway I-75 near Tampa or Bradenton. You'll never get onto the highway safely if you have a car that is too slow, going from 30 mph to 80 mph.

I have entered expressways here in Chicago that are very short getting into fast moving heavy traffic with little issue with so called weak engines.

kyfdx

Slow cars require a higher level of driving skill. If you can't do it, then you don't have it.

henryn

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

actually, of that bunch, I would vote for the VW cab. if it was a stick I would not mind having it!

Even with the 2.slow engine?

I had that combo in our '99 New Beetle.

Why not, who really needs a street racer? I look at it this way, in the city and suburbs there is always someone in front of you. Out in the country getting up to speed isn't as important as your ability to maintain your speed.

Then you haven't tried to enter Highway I-75 near Tampa or Bradenton. You'll never get onto the highway safely if you have a car that is too slow, going from 30 mph to 80 mph.

Several decades back, there was an entrance to I610 that was ... how should I put this? "Suicidal" is a good word. There was a stop sign, followed by a short, steep uphill ramp and no merge lane. I joked at the time that entrance ramp was justification for the existence of the HemiCuda.

henryn

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

if nothing else it will empty a few boxes. and I probably should get rid of the rest of the stuff I will never have a use for.

I could ship you at least 3 storage bins worth of records, and 2 or 3 boxes of books that I found in that dark corner of storage.

At some point back in the 90s, I gave away all of my record albums. Several hundred, no real count. I kept the books for a lot longer, but finally gave away the great majority 2 years ago. Funny thing with that, I had a hard time finding an outfit that would accept books. No one wanted them, claimed they already had too many. The main Goodwill donation location agreed to accept them, but I had the feeling they were probably going to throw them away.

One guy who ran a big used book store told me he had a warehouse full, and was going to throw away the majority. Contrast that with how much it costs to actually buy a book these days. When I was a kid, I could buy paperback books for 25 cents. Just as a comparison, a pack of cigarettes from a vending machine cost 35 cents. These days, that pack of cigarettes is around $7, and most of that $7 is in "sin taxes". While the paperback book costs $7, $8, or $9, with no tax other than sales tax.

andres3

henryn said:

oldfarmer50 said:

roadburner said:

When I was in college I had very large very loud parties at my house when my parents were on trips. The thing was, my house is located over 1/2 mile from the nearest house. No complaints, no police visits. When I was a judge in juvie court I'd occasionally have a case where some kids had a party with lots of underage drinking when their parents were gone- but of course it was a house in the middle of a subdivision so the invariably the police were called. I wanted to(but never did) tell the kids I was finding them guilty- of rank stupidity-for attempting to pull off a wild party in a quiet subdivision...

We did that once, got busted and henceforth moved our celebrations to the woods where the hazards were limited to rolling down a hill or getting bit by wildlife.

I grew up in a small town, and most everyone lived outside of town, in the "boonies". So naturally, all partying was done far away from prying eyes. I suppose life must be very different for an inner-city kid.

As someone with a bit of experience in a college town with quiet subdivision homes next to each other, the secret to a house party is to discuss the party with the neighbors in advance, and probably invite them! If you have an uncool neighbor, that prefers sleep to partying, then at least you know it beforehand so your not surprised when the cops show up.

I remember the old fuddy duddies in town actually proposed a 1984 law where homeowners would be responsible to "card" people to make sure they were 21 and over if they were to be drinking. I don't think it passed; but not really 100% sure.

andres3

Just because something expensive breaks doesn't mean the car is unreliable; case in point my 2015 S4 which has been flawless before and after the $20K repair. You have to take a car's engineering, quality, and history into account.

For instance, the Neon was unreliable from Day 1 and mile 01. Yes, it got worse with age, but it had a long history of needing something every 3 to 4 months without fail.

A good used car is a great value as long as your engine or transmission doesn't blow up. IF one of those 2 things happen, then you'll really wish you bought those extended warranties from Nigeria.

stickguy

my son is leasing an S4. IIRC he got it about April 2021, so I guess it is a 21. Bright blue. at this point he intends to buy out the lease but will have to see what the financials say a year and few months from now.

andres3

stickguy said:

my son is leasing an S4. IIRC he got it about April 2021, so I guess it is a 21. Bright blue. at this point he intends to buy out the lease but will have to see what the financials say a year and few months from now.

I'd be curious to get your son's take on the prior generation S4 comparing to his current one, if he's driven a B8/8.5 S4.

For me, the newer ones are too grown up, and kind of "old man" designed. A bit more like an S8, which is a good thing in some ways, but not great for sport.

No one is tracking S8's... except this one guy.

andres3

venture said:

Remember I opened a savings account with Vanguard at 3.5% about a week or two ago?

They sent an email today that it has increased to 3.9% Now I'm losing money slower.

BEWARE - I was seeking the highest yielding money market or online savings accounts earlier this year and have run into a scam at 2 different banks, doing the same scam, so there might be others.

The scam goes like this:

1. Advertise on the web a top tier rate (and Bankrate picks them up too). Savings and MMA have variable rates, and of course, they don't have to NOTIFY you of changes, and that's fair.
2. As interest rates have shot up over the last 4 months these accounts naturally advertised what started in the low or mid 2's, up to the high 2's, into the low 3's, mid 3's, to now 3.75 or 4.11% interest respectively.
3. So even someone doing their due diligence to make sure it wasn't just a teaser rate that never went up was happy and satisfied that they kept themselves constantly at the top of the market for a good while.
4. However, it was not to be, it was a huge scam. The variable rates never moved; they never went up.
5. What they did, is advertise higher rates, but change as little as one word in the title or terms and conditions without any other changes or notifications they were inventing "newer savings or MMA account products." For example, one week, it's a Savings account, the Next its a Savings account Plus, the next it's a Savings Account Plus+, the next it's a High-Yield Savings account, the next it's a High Yield Savings Account Plus, then High Rate Savings, and so on and so forth.
6. Therefore, they are deliberately concealing the fact that they are changing account products, not raising your rate on the website (even for people looking at the disclosures and actively monitoring rates), and they are intentionally trying to trick people by being deceptive and fraudulent. Most definitely false advertising.
7. The newest name is "Best Savings Account" so I guess that means it can't get any better right?

I've put in my complaint letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; apparently the right agency to complain to about banks doing shady things. The initial response has been canned letters. I don't feel my tax money is being spent fruitfully by the Gov't regulators.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

sda said:

jmonroe1 said:

roadburner said:

benjaminh said:

A Toyota with an engine failure at 180k, even though the car got regular oil changes at the dealership at 10k intervals. This car care guy blames the 10k oil change intervals promoted by Toyota, and says yet again to change your oil more frequently if you really want your engine to last. Customer decided to get a new/rebuilt engine, because four months ago new car prices were so high.

The cost of the new/rebuilt engine is about $6000.

But according to this guy, this all could have been avoided if he'd changed the oil twice as often. That would have cost about $1000 more than the 10k oil changes that he did. So obviously a savings of about $5k.

This again highlights how a $20k cost for batteries for a new EV is way more than even a new engine on a Toyota or Honda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJhFAwFv-O0

The correct oil change interval(OCI) depends on the engine, the oil, and the driving conditions. Blackstone advised me that I could go with a 10k mile OCI using Mobil 1 5W-30, but I used a 7.5k OCI so it would sync with the rest of the maintenance schedule.
My son's 328i has only had 15k mile oil changes(using BMW 0W-30 synthetic) and is going strong at 140k miles- here's how it looked when we changed the valve cover gasket at 108k miles:

————————————————-
When Mrs. j’s ‘05 XG 350 blew its engine in November of 2012 it had something around 42K miles IIRC. I was at the dealership when it was towed in. I opened the glove box and got out my now infamous oil change log sheet showing all of the oil changes that were done on that car and gave it to the Service Advisor. As the SA was looking at my log sheet the tech showed up and the SA said to him, “look at all the oil changes that car has had”. The tech glanced at my log and said, “that doesn’t surprise me because that engine is immaculate” (those were his exact words). I didn’t see the engine but it couldn’t have been any cleaner than your sons engine.

It’s almost amazing how clean an engine can be when you change the oil on time (and sooner in my case) with quality oil.

jmonroe

I don’t remember the end result but didn’t Hyundai tell you to pound sand or did they help you in any way?

Hyundai replaced my engine no questions asked.</

Kia has also had engine problems since they are supplied by Hyundai. I’ve read the horror stories and worry my car will be next. One of the things I’ve heard is a problem with early oil burning. My personal car is 4k miles into a 5k OCI and hasn’t burned a drop so far.

I wonder if it’s because all Kia Souls are made in Korea rather than in North America or Mexico. There’s a rumor that the Korean made cars are better built. Has anyone heard that story?

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

iluvmysephia1 said:

I don't think the owners of the 2 black cars really want to sell. The lady that owns the black TT raised her price $750. Scratched that one off quickly.

And this black '99 Mazda Miata from Odessa is owned by a guy who's in the military and his wife is selling it for him. For some reason she's either really crappy at selling or really...distant. I can't figure it out.

Oh well. The red Miata's just a 70-mile bus ride away for me plus I trust the mechanicals of that car more than the other two.

Miata military thing is 99.9% a scam. Bin it and move on.

I had a friend of mine sell my car when I was sent up to Alaska, but I signed over the title to him so technically he had ownership of the car and the buyer dealt directly with him. I let him keep a percentage of the sales price to compensate him for his time and effort.

There’s a first time for everything I guess. Two cars I bought were actually owned by little old ladies so not all seller’s claims are bogus….just most of them.

driver100

kyfdx said:

Slow cars require a higher level of driving skill. If you can't do it, then you don't have it.

Yes, you need skill to do it or you will have big time problems. I had to do it with the 2013 Passat which was about as slow as a fairly modern car could be. But, if possible, why have all that stress, if you can eliminate it and make life more enjoyable, by buying more horses?
Interestingly, the new manual Passat was the same price as the 3 year old 2014 C250 with 12k miles on it at the time..........there is no comparison in my mind which car is better.

stickguy

I will have to ask if he did drive a prior generation. he had an A3 2 cars prior (maybe a 2015?). I really liked that one. probably should have bought it when he traded it in on a Genesis G60, but I think I had recently leased something at that point.

I drove his S4 a couple of times. And had a very "spirited" ride along. It might not be track ready but it is a wicked beast on the road.

oldfarmer50

henryn said:

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

if nothing else it will empty a few boxes. and I probably should get rid of the rest of the stuff I will never have a use for.

I could ship you at least 3 storage bins worth of records, and 2 or 3 boxes of books that I found in that dark corner of storage.

At some point back in the 90s, I gave away all of my record albums. Several hundred, no real count. I kept the books for a lot longer, but finally gave away the great majority 2 years ago. Funny thing with that, I had a hard time finding an outfit that would accept books. No one wanted them, claimed they already had too many. The main Goodwill donation location agreed to accept them, but I had the feeling they were probably going to throw them away.

One guy who ran a big used book store told me he had a warehouse full, and was going to throw away the majority. Contrast that with how much it costs to actually buy a book these days. When I was a kid, I could buy paperback books for 25 cents. Just as a comparison, a pack of cigarettes from a vending machine cost 35 cents. These days, that pack of cigarettes is around $7, and most of that $7 is in "sin taxes". While the paperback book costs $7, $8, or $9, with no tax other than sales tax.

For some reason people don’t want used books. I once approached a used book store to sell a bunch of novels we had paid $6-$10 for new. His offer: 10 cents apiece.

sda

driver100 said:

kyfdx said:

Slow cars require a higher level of driving skill. If you can't do it, then you don't have it.

Yes, you need skill to do it or you will have big time problems. I had to do it with the 2013 Passat which was about as slow as a fairly modern car could be. But, if possible, why have all that stress, if you can eliminate it and make life more enjoyable, by buying more horses?
Interestingly, the new manual Passat was the same price as the 3 year old 2014 C250 with 12k miles on it at the time..........there is no comparison in my mind which car is better.

No question they are a different caliber of car.