Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

jmonroe1

@roadburner said:
I'm glad to be back behind the wheel of the Clubman again; as I mentioned in the CCBA topic, an intermittent misfire had become constant. Thanks to FCP Euro, I was able to replace all four coils and spark plugs for $125. The fix took all of 45 minutes and the car is back to averaging 40 mpg or more to and from work.

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Most folks would have put up with waiting for the car to be scheduled for service then living without the car for a day while it was being worked on. Might even have to take it back to have it worked on again. And only the car gods know what the bill will be.

I don’t know if you’re just impatient or cheap.

jmonroe

imidazol97

driver100 said:

A neighbor brought home one similar to that in all white last summer. I think he kicked out the wife and her school age daughter and got a replacement car since she took the suv.

How can I tell the year on this Lincoln without having to ask him?

jmonroe1

@qbrozen said:
that wet primer color has been around for more than a century. Long before Audi was even a thought.

Here are a few examples I mostly found on another discussion on the topic. I've ordered them from newest to oldest.

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Kinda gives credence to the saying, “what old is new again”.

jmonroe

ab348

jmonroe1 said:

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Assuming your neighbor can’t do it himself, he could have hired a few local teenagers to yank off some of the more valuable pieces and parted them out. He could have gotten a lot more money than 300 bucks for it.

The only thing local teenagers around here might do would be to steal it. Maybe he could have pulled a Seinfeld and accidentally left the keys on the seat and then filed a stolen car claim, but that might get messy. There is no market here for used ‘98 Honda parts since there are no ‘98 Hondas left on the roads. Rust, y’know.

jmonroe1

stickguy said:

jmonroe1 said:

@ab348 said:

Posted originally in the wrong place so moving this here.

Noticed my neighbor across the street no longer seemed to have his 1998 Acura CL (Canadian Acura version of a ‘98 Civic sedan with nicer trim inside and a different grille). He had inherited from his late mother’s estate 7 or 8 years ago with about 50000km (30k miles) on it and had been using it as his DD ever since. I got talking to him and he told me that on Super Bowl Sunday he went to the supermarket and on his way home the brake pedal started going almost to the floor. He took it to his favorite shop and they diagnosed a corroded brake line, but after it was up on the hoist they noticed that the rear suspension and unibody parts that it attached to was badly corroded to the point where they would have had to revoke his vehicle inspection certification, meaning his registration at DMV would be voided. He got over 100000km out of it, so it didn’t owe him anything. He says he might buy something brand new to replace it. Scrapyard gave him $300 for it.

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Assuming your neighbor can’t do it himself, he could have hired a few local teenagers to yank off some of the more valuable pieces and parted them out. He could have gotten a lot more money than 300 bucks for it.

To keep this on topic with the tax discussion here, if he didn’t need the money he could have donated that money to a charity then claimed that as a tax deduction for next year. Yes, there is still some hassle parting out a car but to claim a 15 grand deduction it should be worth it

Most yards around here will come and take the shell left after the car was stripped and still give you some money for the steel alone. Too late for him now, I guess.

jmonroe

there are a lot of people without the tools, space, or abilities to do that kind of dismantling of a car. Plus, if it is that far gone from the rust devil, you are going to be taking it apart with a torch and grinding wheel.
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I did say get some teenagers to do the work. Of course you’re not going to part out suspension parts but there are such things like the radio, power window motors, glass (that never shows signs of rust), under the hood items and stuff like that.

jmonroe

qbrozen

@stickguy said:
storm is just to annoy me. We are getting snow/ice and Friday it is supposed to drop into negative temps again.

at the old house in New Jersey, it was 75 today and supposed to be in the 50s Friday.

Must have been quite a difference from your house to my house today. Morning wasn’t awful. Maybe mid 40s but by noon, we had freezing rain.

stickguy

had my days off from watching the forecast. supposed to be 71 Thursday there, and 51 Friday.

High here of 31 Thursday and 28 Friday.

a 4 hour drive shouldn't have a 40 degree drop!

henryn

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:

jmonroe1 said:

@ab348 said:

Posted originally in the wrong place so moving this here.

Noticed my neighbor across the street no longer seemed to have his 1998 Acura CL (Canadian Acura version of a ‘98 Civic sedan with nicer trim inside and a different grille). He had inherited from his late mother’s estate 7 or 8 years ago with about 50000km (30k miles) on it and had been using it as his DD ever since. I got talking to him and he told me that on Super Bowl Sunday he went to the supermarket and on his way home the brake pedal started going almost to the floor. He took it to his favorite shop and they diagnosed a corroded brake line, but after it was up on the hoist they noticed that the rear suspension and unibody parts that it attached to was badly corroded to the point where they would have had to revoke his vehicle inspection certification, meaning his registration at DMV would be voided. He got over 100000km out of it, so it didn’t owe him anything. He says he might buy something brand new to replace it. Scrapyard gave him $300 for it.

————————————————

Assuming your neighbor can’t do it himself, he could have hired a few local teenagers to yank off some of the more valuable pieces and parted them out. He could have gotten a lot more money than 300 bucks for it.

To keep this on topic with the tax discussion here, if he didn’t need the money he could have donated that money to a charity then claimed that as a tax deduction for next year. Yes, there is still some hassle parting out a car but to claim a 15 grand deduction it should be worth it

Most yards around here will come and take the shell left after the car was stripped and still give you some money for the steel alone. Too late for him now, I guess.

jmonroe

there are a lot of people without the tools, space, or abilities to do that kind of dismantling of a car. Plus, if it is that far gone from the rust devil, you are going to be taking it apart with a torch and grinding wheel.

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I did say get some teenagers to do the work. Of course you’re not going to part out suspension parts but there are such things like the radio, power window motors, glass (that never shows signs of rust), under the hood items and stuff like that.

jmonroe

Judging from all of the news articles about catalytic converter theft, I would expect the catalytic converter alone would have been worth more than $300.

tjc78

@imidazol97 said:
A neighbor brought home one similar to that in all white last summer. I think he kicked out the wife and her school age daughter and got a replacement car since she took the suv.

How can I tell the year on this Lincoln without having to ask him?

The one on top is a 98-02. Virtually impossible to tell what year without the door tag or vin

Bottom one is 03-11. You can tell an 03-05 from the steering wheel but 06-11 is more or less identical. I can’t remember what year the door switches changed to the pull up style … maybe 08? So again very tough to tell the differences

tjc78

Edit on the TCs. At some point they changed the trim levels so if you can see the script you can narrow it a bit further.

qbrozen

@stickguy said:
had my days off from watching the forecast. supposed to be 71 Thursday there, and 51 Friday.

High here of 31 Thursday and 28 Friday.

a 4 hour drive shouldn't have a 40 degree drop!

Curious what app you are using. Because, coincidently, my wife mentioned this morn that her weather app was showing 70s, and we know that’s not true. Son said his doing the same thing. Both then said app had them in Columbia. They changed the location but it still said 70s. Weird.

stickguy

The Weather channel. But local news showed same thing a couple days ago on their look ahead map

stickguy

They now show upper 60s. The other phone app though says high around 58. Still better than high of 34 here. And the 4 inches of snow and ice I have out there to shovel this morning.

kyfdx

Low 70s here today. Broke a record yesterday with a high of 73. Very windy, though

Michaell

0 at the moment here. Was -4 last night.

Sandman6472

Another day in the 80's here and supposed to hit 90 later in the week. Night's are around 67 to 70 so the a/c hardly comes on. We've had a few cold snaps this winter but think for the most part, we're done with winter as a whole. Has been a long time since we've had a cold winter as most are a bit cool but nothing to write home about. Now the early 80's were different. I remember on christmas day being invited to a co-workers house and it was in the low 40's outside and they had no heat. We all were wearing coats during the meal & remember it being quite cold in there. But seems the past eight to ten winters have been on the cool side which is a shame as it's nice to have more days in the 60's and nights in the low 50's. The a/c isn't needed and ind the house keeps the cold a few days. Not bad when it says the family room is at 72 degrees to be honest. And when we do get cold weather, nice to put my robe and towel into the dryer for a bit. A warm towel after a shower is a joy to behold!
Guess it's all relative, as we all know what we're getting into when we move to certain areas. It's like perpetual summer down south here but just would like some more of that cooler weather.

stickguy

about 32 here. seems to have stopped precipitating so time to go drag out the shovel and clear off the pavement.

still have not dragged the snow blower out of the shed. I really need to unearth that and start it up to burn the old fuel out of it. All my neighbors used machines this morning so I am guessing that this is heavy stuff since it is not very deep.

once I get rid of my truck I will have room to keep the snow blower in the garage (it is not very handy in the shed at the far back of the property in the trees!) though my neighbor has the same storage location and they actually blow a bath all the way across the yard to use it. Interesting method, I was just going to push it.

laurasdada

37 here by the sea (SE MA). And rain, constant, mind-numbing rain.
I miss snow.

jmonroe1

stickguy said:

They now show upper 60s. The other phone app though says high around 58. Still better than high of 34 here. And the 4 inches of snow and ice I have out there to shovel this morning.

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I instituted a new snow removal rule for my driveway (as flat as your dining room table) about 3 years ago. I don’t fire up the baby snow blower unless we get more than 7 or 8 inches. Therefore, I don’t even know if that sucker works anymore.

Mrs. j’s Subie has done all I’ve asked of it since my new rule.

jmonroe

stickguy

I have only had enough to need it once early in the season. and since at that point I had never actually touched the machine (it was buried in the shed) and had no idea how to use it, I just shoveled. since then it was low enough, and/or too wet and icy, to make it not worth pulling the machine out (especially since I don't have room to keep it in the garage now).

Driveway is also pretty short and relatively flat. Sidewalks are a bit of a pain though (extra square footage).

I am sure the Acura could make it out even without snow tires. Or the truck even with FWD. Both have decent ground clearance and pretty good sidewalls.

cdnpinhead

The salt devil claims another soul!👹👿

Off topic, but . . . what are your thoughts on your Hamster-mobile (my daughter reminds me often that advertising appears to work), now that you've had it for awhile? I see them everywhere here in AZ. They are incredibly popular. Is it a solid vehicle? What have been your experiences? The word appears to be out: they're good. Do you agree?

stickguy

I don't have one, but always liked them and thought a manual version could be a fun cheap car, and incredibly practical, being a square box and all. But any time I mentioned it to the wife she gave me "the look". And I think she said don't expect her to be seen in one!

qbrozen

cdnpinhead said:

Off topic, but . . . what are your thoughts on your Hamster-mobile (my daughter reminds me often that advertising appears to work), now that you've had it for awhile? I see them everywhere here in AZ. They are incredibly popular. Is it a solid vehicle? What have been your experiences? The word appears to be out: they're good. Do you agree?

my sister loves hers

Michaell

stickguy said:

I don't have one, but always liked them and thought a manual version could be a fun cheap car, and incredibly practical, being a square box and all. But any time I mentioned it to the wife she gave me "the look". And I think she said don't expect her to be seen in one!

Someone either told me or I read on the internet that the space behind the rear seat is actually quite small. @oldfarmer50 - can you confirm?

henryn

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

I don't have one, but always liked them and thought a manual version could be a fun cheap car, and incredibly practical, being a square box and all. But any time I mentioned it to the wife she gave me "the look". And I think she said don't expect her to be seen in one!

Someone either told me or I read on the internet that the space behind the rear seat is actually quite small. @oldfarmer50 - can you confirm?

A few years back, I came very close to buying a Kia Soul. And yes, the space behind the rear seat is quite small, but the room for the driver was very good for a small car.

stickguy

at least the space is square and tall, if not deep.

I look at it as a 2 person car really, and with the rear seat folded, tons of room for cargo. but still enough space in the back seat for a couple of normal sized people.

you just can't have the 4 people, and the cargo, at the same time!

stickguy

2nd round of shoveling done. Got the layer of ice on the bottom cleared off. sliced it up a bit with the blade, and let the pavement underneath help soften it for a couple of hours, and not too hard to scrape off.

a little sun will take care of the remaining wetness tomorrow I hope.

imidazol97

stickguy said:

2nd round of shoveling done. Got the layer of ice on the bottom cleared off. sliced it up a bit with the blade, and let the pavement underneath help soften it for a couple of hours, and not too hard to scrape off.

a little sun will take care of the remaining wetness tomorrow I hope.

It's hard to believe we're in the same state. Today has been warm and 60 or so. Yesterday was about same but windy IIRC. I'm happy to have missed out on this storm. The ground here has warmed from several days of above average temps and a snow on warm ground melts and then refreezes as it covers. Leaving a mess.

Michaell

imidazol97 said:

stickguy said:

2nd round of shoveling done. Got the layer of ice on the bottom cleared off. sliced it up a bit with the blade, and let the pavement underneath help soften it for a couple of hours, and not too hard to scrape off.

a little sun will take care of the remaining wetness tomorrow I hope.

It's hard to believe we're in the same state. Today has been warm and 60 or so. Yesterday was about same but windy IIRC. I'm happy to have missed out on this storm. The ground here has warmed from several days of above average temps and a snow on warm ground melts and then refreezes as it covers. Leaving a mess.

Uh, hold on.

You're in Ohio, and stick is in upstate NY, last I checked.

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

jmonroe1 said:

————————————————

Assuming your neighbor can’t do it himself, he could have hired a few local teenagers to yank off some of the more valuable pieces and parted them out. He could have gotten a lot more money than 300 bucks for it.

The only thing local teenagers around here might do would be to steal it. Maybe he could have pulled a Seinfeld and accidentally left the keys on the seat and then filed a stolen car claim, but that might get messy. There is no market here for used ‘98 Honda parts since there are no ‘98 Hondas left on the roads. Rust, y’know.

Interesting story from my coworker who also drives for the Mercedes dealer.

It seems that someone came in and wanted to test drive a very expensive sporty MB (he told me which but I forget). The guy had no drivers license or ID but they let him test drive it anyway. Of course it never came back.

However….

The dealership had a tracker in the car and they traced it to a chop shop in Queens NY. When the cops raided the place they also found 23 other high end cars in various states of being stripped.

While I’m sure the salesman got fired at least he can list his help in recovering 23 stolen vehicles on his resume’.

driver100

stickguy said:

2nd round of shoveling done. Got the layer of ice on the bottom cleared off. sliced it up a bit with the blade, and let the pavement underneath help soften it for a couple of hours, and not too hard to scrape off.

a little sun will take care of the remaining wetness tomorrow I hope.

Sounds like fun. 85F in Tampa today. A little too warm, but better than snow and ice and cold

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

ab348 said:

jmonroe1 said:

————————————————

Assuming your neighbor can’t do it himself, he could have hired a few local teenagers to yank off some of the more valuable pieces and parted them out. He could have gotten a lot more money than 300 bucks for it.

The only thing local teenagers around here might do would be to steal it. Maybe he could have pulled a Seinfeld and accidentally left the keys on the seat and then filed a stolen car claim, but that might get messy. There is no market here for used ‘98 Honda parts since there are no ‘98 Hondas left on the roads. Rust, y’know.

Interesting story from my coworker who also drives for the Mercedes dealer.

It seems that someone came in and wanted to test drive a very expensive sporty MB (he told me which but I forget). The guy had no drivers license or ID but they let him test drive it anyway. Of course it never came back.

However….

The dealership had a tracker in the car and they traced it to a chop shop in Queens NY. When the cops raided the place they also found 23 other high end cars in various states of being stripped.

While I’m sure the salesman got fired at least he can list his help in recovering 23 stolen vehicles on his resume’.

The salesman should switch careers, those stolen cars are hard to find.

oldfarmer50

cdnpinhead said:

The salt devil claims another soul!👹👿

Off topic, but . . . what are your thoughts on your Hamster-mobile (my daughter reminds me often that advertising appears to work), now that you've had it for awhile? I see them everywhere here in AZ. They are incredibly popular. Is it a solid vehicle? What have been your experiences? The word appears to be out: they're good. Do you agree?

My Kia will be 4 years old next month and I’ve only put 20k miles on it. Not enough time to have any weak points show themselves. So far it’s been trouble free, only needing oil changes every 5k miles. The 2.0L in the + trim has more than enough power even if it won’t win any races. My only concern is the continuing stories about the Theta II engines blowing up which is not likely if you change the oil regularly.

I bought mine because the seat height is perfect for my mobility impaired wife. It’s an ugly car but you get used to it because of the good ergonomics. Visibility is very good and all the switchgear easy to use. The trunk is a little too small (2 suitcases max). Gas mileage is 25 city 35 highway. Not bad but not great.

I bought a 19’ instead of a 20’ because they changed over to a CVT transmission in 2020 and I didn’t quite trust the technology.

The Soul is good for what it is, a nice little grocery getter that handles moderately well, has adequate power and is cheap to run. So, yes, until mine breaks down I’d say it’s a good car.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

at least the space is square and tall, if not deep.

I look at it as a 2 person car really, and with the rear seat folded, tons of room for cargo. but still enough space in the back seat for a couple of normal sized people.

you just can't have the 4 people, and the cargo, at the same time!

I managed 4 people and 2 suitcases pretty well in mine. Rear leg room is good for such a small car. For just hauling you can fold the rear seats and get lots of storage.

laurasdada

Picking up dinner, saw a white Lincoln MKZ with a white, "Lighthouse Edition" fake convertible vinyl top. Too each, of course.

I've got an appointment for the A7 to get Lighthoused this weekend!

sb55

This is mostly for @oldfarmer50. Friends flew up from Atlanta on Tuesday night and wanted to experience winter, which just showed up after too many warm days. They reserved a car from Enterprise and were expecting a small SUV. They ended up with an Audi A5 with the Sportline trim. Not exactly an SUV even though it has AWD. Is that an upgrade from a small SUV?
Fortunately they made it up to VT before the snow storm. It is so low that it bottomed out on a dip on my driveway. They are going up to ski today at Smuggs today. Fingers crossed that they make it OK. They've never skied or driven on snowy roads!

sda

oldfarmer50 said:

cdnpinhead said:

The salt devil claims another soul!👹👿

Off topic, but . . . what are your thoughts on your Hamster-mobile (my daughter reminds me often that advertising appears to work), now that you've had it for awhile? I see them everywhere here in AZ. They are incredibly popular. Is it a solid vehicle? What have been your experiences? The word appears to be out: they're good. Do you agree?

My Kia will be 4 years old next month and I’ve only put 20k miles on it. Not enough time to have any weak points show themselves. So far it’s been trouble free, only needing oil changes every 5k miles. The 2.0L in the + trim has more than enough power even if it won’t win any races. My only concern is the continuing stories about the Theta II engines blowing up which is not likely if you change the oil regularly.

I bought mine because the seat height is perfect for my mobility impaired wife. It’s an ugly car but you get used to it because of the good ergonomics. Visibility is very good and all the switchgear easy to use. The trunk is a little too small (2 suitcases max). Gas mileage is 25 city 35 highway. Not bad but not great.

I bought a 19’ instead of a 20’ because they changed over to a CVT transmission in 2020 and I didn’t quite trust the technology.

The Soul is good for what it is, a nice little grocery getter that handles moderately well, has adequate power and is cheap to run. So, yes, until mine breaks down I’d say it’s a good car.

Good move on getting the 19 instead of a 20. I understand the CVT is giving trouble in the Seltos and Soul. Is the CVT homegrown or outsourced to like Jatco, which would explain a lot. Though Honda makes one of the better CVTs and I never had an issue with it in my 13 Accord, I still prefer a conventional automatic. I do not have any experience with DCTs or DSGs, so can’t comment on those other than they may require more expensive and frequent maintenance.

oldfarmer50

sda said:

oldfarmer50 said:

cdnpinhead said:

The salt devil claims another soul!👹👿

Off topic, but . . . what are your thoughts on your Hamster-mobile (my daughter reminds me often that advertising appears to work), now that you've had it for awhile? I see them everywhere here in AZ. They are incredibly popular. Is it a solid vehicle? What have been your experiences? The word appears to be out: they're good. Do you agree?

My Kia will be 4 years old next month and I’ve only put 20k miles on it. Not enough time to have any weak points show themselves. So far it’s been trouble free, only needing oil changes every 5k miles. The 2.0L in the + trim has more than enough power even if it won’t win any races. My only concern is the continuing stories about the Theta II engines blowing up which is not likely if you change the oil regularly.

I bought mine because the seat height is perfect for my mobility impaired wife. It’s an ugly car but you get used to it because of the good ergonomics. Visibility is very good and all the switchgear easy to use. The trunk is a little too small (2 suitcases max). Gas mileage is 25 city 35 highway. Not bad but not great.

I bought a 19’ instead of a 20’ because they changed over to a CVT transmission in 2020 and I didn’t quite trust the technology.

The Soul is good for what it is, a nice little grocery getter that handles moderately well, has adequate power and is cheap to run. So, yes, until mine breaks down I’d say it’s a good car.

Good move on getting the 19 instead of a 20. I understand the CVT is giving trouble in the Seltos and Soul. Is the CVT homegrown or outsourced to like Jatco, which would explain a lot. Though Honda makes one of the better CVTs and I never had an issue with it in my 13 Accord, I still prefer a conventional automatic. I do not have any experience with DCTs or DSGs, so can’t comment on those other than they may require more expensive and frequent maintenance.

I forget who makes Kia’s CVT. It might be Jatco. All I know was that I was transporting a company Soul with a CVT that had only 5k miles and the transmission blew out in less than 10 miles. Made me glad I have the 6 speed.

oldfarmer50

sb55 said:

This is mostly for @oldfarmer50. Friends flew up from Atlanta on Tuesday night and wanted to experience winter, which just showed up after too many warm days. They reserved a car from Enterprise and were expecting a small SUV. They ended up with an Audi A5 with the Sportline trim. Not exactly an SUV even though it has AWD. Is that an upgrade from a small SUV?
Fortunately they made it up to VT before the snow storm. It is so low that it bottomed out on a dip on my driveway. They are going up to ski today at Smuggs today. Fingers crossed that they make it OK. They've never skied or driven on snowy roads!

Vehicles are still in short supply so that was probably all they had. Not bad of an upgrade. An A5 is usually a premium car costing a lot more. If it’s AWD it will probably be ok as long as they realize that it only gets going quicker but doesn’t help in stopping or cornering.

I hope you gave them the Vermont snow driving tutorial.

henryn

I know there are some diehards on here who don’t have a smartphone, for various reasons. I just ran across this deal, and I thought it was worth sharing. HSN (Home Shopping Network) will sell you a new Moto G smartphone, with a year’s worth of very limited service, for $49.99 plus sales tax.

The Moto G is a decent smartphone, not by any means outstanding. And Tracfone is not whom I would normally recommend for cell phone service. Add to that only 1500 minutes of talk time, spread over a year, is very thin for most people.

So why am I recommending this? If you don’t have a smartphone, and you think you might want to check it out, see what you’re missing, I don’t think you could possibly get in any cheaper than this. Bear in mind the price of $49.99 requires a coupon HSN2023 that only works if you’re a new customer to HSN, otherwise add $10 to the price.

I just ordered one, to keep around as a spare for emergencies. This might be a great deal just to throw in the glovebox and forget about until / unless you really need it some day.

https://links.d.slickdeals.net/z/wsdlizmgz?uid=9d63ffed-a339-4d30-bc2f-c6576f533469&mid=a15542f5-a8a6-4487-b985-90391f32c120&nsid=556654&email_hash=OsvumS9u_Jms6XBhoIxffBQ-2D0&linktype=deal&posnum=4&sponsored=0&url=https://slickdeals.net/f/16466074&utm_term=16466074&bsencid=3acbee992f6efc99ace97061a08c5f7c143ed83d&bsft_mime_type=html&bsft_tv=818&bsft_lx=10&bsft_ek=2023-02-23T18:30:40Z

driver100

@henryn
Make sure you cancel next year before they automatically charge your credit card $1000 a year.
Does that include wi-fi? I have a phone only, $3 a month with Ting. I only use it to make about 4 calls a month....total time on the phone 10 minutes a month max. I hate phones.

imidazol97

I've had good experience with Tracfone. I've always picked phones that are Verizon based, even before Verizon bought them in 2016 or thereabouts.

They are going to reduce their various other names under which they market phones and plans by 2024, including Net10 which son used at The OSU.

After the 1 year, 1500 minutes of talk (a lot for me and for my wife even), 1500 text messages, and 1500 mB of data use, you have to repurchase talk minutes and air time to keep on keeping on. They charge $10 for 1 GB of data if you are a heavy user (we aren't). The texts can be purchased at $5 per 1000 texts if you need more before you year is up. That last my wife about 2 months, LOL.

Tracfone is good about picking up variants of phones which have a good reputation and have made slight modifications to their phone. Carefully analyze to compare phones. It's like comparing BMW's to my thinking.

You can transfer your tracfone minutes to a new phone along with, of course, your phone number.
My last plan purchase was a 1 year plan with unlimited talk, unlimited texts, and 12 GB of data use. I've used about 30% in half a year. My wife is at 50% on her data.

Yes, it uses WiFi for internet when available, saving your data bits.

henryn

After 60 days, you can unlock the phone and use it with another carrier. For regular phone service, I like Mint and RedPocket, but YMMV.

As an emergency backup, just activate it and then leave it alone for the next 11.5 months.

roadburner

oldfarmer50 said:

ab348 said:

jmonroe1 said:

————————————————

Assuming your neighbor can’t do it himself, he could have hired a few local teenagers to yank off some of the more valuable pieces and parted them out. He could have gotten a lot more money than 300 bucks for it.

The only thing local teenagers around here might do would be to steal it. Maybe he could have pulled a Seinfeld and accidentally left the keys on the seat and then filed a stolen car claim, but that might get messy. There is no market here for used ‘98 Honda parts since there are no ‘98 Hondas left on the roads. Rust, y’know.

Interesting story from my coworker who also drives for the Mercedes dealer.

It seems that someone came in and wanted to test drive a very expensive sporty MB (he told me which but I forget). The guy had no drivers license or ID but they let him test drive it anyway. Of course it never came back.

However….

The dealership had a tracker in the car and they traced it to a chop shop in Queens NY. When the cops raided the place they also found 23 other high end cars in various states of being stripped.

While I’m sure the salesman got fired at least he can list his help in recovering 23 stolen vehicles on his resume’.

That's insane; I can't believe any salesman would allow a test drive without an ID. Although one Saturday the GM asked me to take a guy on a 7er drive who was radiating a gangsta rapper vibe. He made a drug deal during the test drive.

tjc78

@imidazol97 said:
I've had good experience with Tracfone. I've always picked phones that are Verizon based, even before Verizon bought them in 2016 or thereabouts.

They are going to reduce their various other names under which they market phones and plans by 2024, including Net10 which son used at The OSU.

After the 1 year, 1500 minutes of talk (a lot for me and for my wife even), 1500 text messages, and 1500 mB of data use, you have to repurchase talk minutes and air time to keep on keeping on. They charge $10 for 1 GB of data if you are a heavy user (we aren't). The texts can be purchased at $5 per 1000 texts if you need more before you year is up. That last my wife about 2 months, LOL.

Tracfone is good about picking up variants of phones which have a good reputation and have made slight modifications to their phone. Carefully analyze to compare phones. It's like comparing BMW's to my thinking.

You can transfer your tracfone minutes to a new phone along with, of course, your phone number.
My last plan purchase was a 1 year plan with unlimited talk, unlimited texts, and 12 GB of data use. I've used about 30% in half a year. My wife is at 50% on her data.

Yes, it uses WiFi for internet when available, saving your data bits.

It’s funny how everyone uses things differently. I’m at 5 GB use this month with only 10 days into the billing cycle.

Used 19GB (just me) last month. Wife was about 10

snakeweasel

@roadburner said:
I drove the C43 on a 112 mile round trip to a county where I'm the special prosecutor in a serious assault case. It returned 30 mpg,which I think is more than acceptable.

What had you driving so slowly to achieve such efficiency?

Down hill with a tail wind both ways.

snakeweasel

@ab348 said:
Posted originally in the wrong place so moving this here.

Noticed my neighbor across the street no longer seemed to have his 1998 Acura CL (Canadian Acura version of a ‘98 Civic sedan with nicer trim inside and a different grille). He had inherited from his late mother’s estate 7 or 8 years ago with about 50000km (30k miles) on it and had been using it as his DD ever since. I got talking to him and he told me that on Super Bowl Sunday he went to the supermarket and on his way home the brake pedal started going almost to the floor. He took it to his favorite shop and they diagnosed a corroded brake line, but after it was up on the hoist they noticed that the rear suspension and unibody parts that it attached to was badly corroded to the point where they would have had to revoke his vehicle inspection certification, meaning his registration at DMV would be voided. He got over 100000km out of it, so it didn’t owe him anything. He says he might buy something brand new to replace it. Scrapyard gave him $300 for it.

————————————————
Assuming your neighbor can’t do it himself, he could have hired a few local teenagers to yank off some of the more valuable pieces and parted them out. He could have gotten a lot more money than 300 bucks for it.

To keep this on topic with the tax discussion here, if he didn’t need the money he could have donated that money to a charity then claimed that as a tax deduction for next year. Yes, there is still some hassle parting out a car but to claim a 15 grand deduction it should be worth it

Most yards around here will come and take the shell left after the car was stripped and still give you some money for the steel alone. Too late for him now, I guess.

jmonroe

there are a lot of people without the tools, space, or abilities to do that kind of dismantling of a car. Plus, if it is that far gone from the rust devil, you are going to be taking it apart with a torch and grinding wheel.

———————————————— I did say get some teenagers to do the work. Of course you’re not going to part out suspension parts but there are such things like the radio, power window motors, glass (that never shows signs of rust), under the hood items and stuff like that. jmonroe

Judging from all of the news articles about catalytic converter theft, I would expect the catalytic converter alone would have been worth more than $300.

Just make sure no one is sleeping in the car when you take it off.

jmonroe1

sb55 said:

This is mostly for @oldfarmer50. Friends flew up from Atlanta on Tuesday night and wanted to experience winter, which just showed up after too many warm days. They reserved a car from Enterprise and were expecting a small SUV. They ended up with an Audi A5 with the Sportline trim. Not exactly an SUV even though it has AWD. Is that an upgrade from a small SUV?
Fortunately they made it up to VT before the snow storm. It is so low that it bottomed out on a dip on my driveway. They are going up to ski today at Smuggs today. Fingers crossed that they make it OK. They've never skied or driven on snowy roads!

————————————————
Before they left you should have installed chains for their trip. When the got back I hope you had extra heating pads and hot water bottle’s for their aches and pains. You know, Northern Hospitality.

jmonroe

ab348

tjc78 said:

It’s funny how everyone uses things differently. I’m at 5 GB use this month with only 10 days into the billing cycle.

Used 19GB (just me) last month. Wife was about 10

I am in that group that barely uses any mobile data unless there is a power outage or something else that knocks out my home internet. But when I am out - assuming I have remembered to take the phone with me, which is hardly a sure thing - I use it very rarely then as well. I see people who are constantly staring at their phones or pecking at them and wonder WTH they are doing that is so important. I guess it is like the people I see who are wearing headphones or earbuds when they are out and cannot understand why they feel the need to listen to something when they are grocery shopping or whatever. I can understand listening when you are out for exercise, walking or running, but don't get doing it every single time.

kyfdx

Planning a kitchen remodel. Anyone have a spare $75K?