Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

oldfarmer50

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

I would agree on the house to basically do a good detail. Fresh paint, clean carpets. Maybe some fixtures. Make it look superficially fresh. But avoid major expensive remodeling.

This assumes of course you are in a hit market with a desirable property.

I get an update from Zillow each month on their value of mom's house. It's been trending down, but I suspect everything is, in this market.

It's in a decent neighborhood, however. We've been taking care of problem areas the last few years. When one's ex-wife is one's tenant, it makes for some interesting conversations.

• Tankless water heater replaced
  
• Service doors have been replaced (total of 2)
  
• Plumbing issues addressed
  
• New furnace a few years back
  

Mechanically, the house is sound. Like I said, it's mostly cosmetic. Original vanities in both bathrooms is probably the biggest issue. We will deal with it when the time comes.

Zillow sometimes doesn’t know how to value non-standard houses. For example they estimate my house to be worth only about half of it’s actual value because they don’t consider the 7+ acres of buildable land surrounding it. I’ve had offers for just the land at 150% of what they estimate the whole property to be worth.

oldfarmer50

henryn said:

Sandman6472 said:

Do you use much data? I personally use about 3 gigs/month of our 6 gig plan. The girls hardly use any. But that one month we tried the unlimited plan, I went nuts & used 8.9 gigs. But sitting in the chase van at work gives us a lot of free time to surf the web. Now that we went back to 6 gigs/month, I have to watch my usage as they charge $15/gig if we go over. Sure, we have rollover with AT&T and we usually rollover at least 1 or 2 gigs, so I just hold myself back. Luckily we have wifi at home where we use it mostly so all is good.
If you use more than your monthly allotment, how do you get more? Guessing you either have to call up or go on your computer to buy more gigs. I know some folks at work are on their smart phones 24/7 but most have unlimited plans. Trying to get the girls to switch to another company that has better unlimited plans but waiting a bit after the cluster f-ck we had with AT&T! They weren't truthful about what I was signing up for so we got to go back to our previous plan but, it left a bad taste in me. So, in a few months, I'll see about us all changing companies to something more user friendly. Until then, I'll throttle back my data usage.

This Tracfone isn't intended to be used as a primary phone, so very little use at all. And on my primary phone, I have never (to the best of my knowledge) exceeded 2 gigs in 1 month. Usually less than 1 gig. And my plan with RedPocket gives me 8 gigs of data for a little less than $20 a month, paid annually ($219.41 all in). That's on the Verizon network.

Sheesh! 15 minutes after activating the Tracfone, I get my first spam call. And they know my name, which means Tracfone sold the information immediately. Doesn't matter, this phone will be turned off as soon as it finished getting updates.

I use my tracphone for all my work activities and my landline for everything at home. I only had two spam calls on the cell. One was because the car dealer where we bought my son’s Fusion sold it to the warranty spammers and another where Chinese spammers would call and threaten to deport me in Mandarin unless I send them gift cards.

The landline is 90% spam.

ab348

laurasdada said:

I occasionally get the Chinese lady yelling at me SPAM voicemail. I believe that I read somewhere that it's related to an immigration threat scam for the intended audience.

I just had a new variation on the Amazon fake mystery order phone scam a few minutes ago. I was in my office and the caller-ID landline phone there rang with the name and number of a guy I know both from the golf club I used to belong to and as a vendor to where I used to work. I still see him occasionally as he lives just a few blocks up the street, so it seemed legit and I answered it. Then the recording began to play about the call being from Amazon about an order I never placed, on a credit card etc etc before I hung up. I've never had one of those where the bad guys spoofed a legit name and number before. Those items are not in my contacts list anywhere AFAIK.

stickguy

I have gotten spoofs from my doctor's office and other places I knew. But my favorite is when they spoofed my own number so it looked like I was calling myself.

kyfdx

We unplugged our landline. We only needed it for two elderly relatives to call us. We are much happier without it ringing ten times per day

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

We just got a foot of snow dumped on us between about 6PM last night and sometime overnight while I was sleeping. Thankfully not much wind and it is sunny this morning but too cold to do much good. Still waiting for my street to be plowed, I suspect it might not be until tomorrow.

Funny, we got snow Tuesday but I can’t imagine it taking that long to get up to you. Another storm is set to give us maybe 8” tonight. Seems winter waited until almost Spring to give us a taste.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

I didn't realize there was still a 2 door Mustang available...even going into 2024. It's a bit confusing having the 4 door E-Models and a completely different V8 Model....still called a Mustang:

Calling a SUV EV a Mustang is an affront to humanity. Since they also slapped the Charger badge on the Dodge Charger 4 door I believe that are doing this to deliberately cheese me off.😤

28firefighter

@henryn - if you want something to do, you should review tracfone's privacy policy that you agreed to when you activated the phone. Unless it specifically informs you that they are (1) selling your data to third parties, or (2) sharing it with third parties such as the white pages, you should file a complaint with their privacy team. I'm guessing it is in there somewhere but would be interesting nonetheless.

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

laurasdada said:

I occasionally get the Chinese lady yelling at me SPAM voicemail. I believe that I read somewhere that it's related to an immigration threat scam for the intended audience.

I just had a new variation on the Amazon fake mystery order phone scam a few minutes ago. I was in my office and the caller-ID landline phone there rang with the name and number of a guy I know both from the golf club I used to belong to and as a vendor to where I used to work. I still see him occasionally as he lives just a few blocks up the street, so it seemed legit and I answered it. Then the recording began to play about the call being from Amazon about an order I never placed, on a credit card etc etc before I hung up. I've never had one of those where the bad guys spoofed a legit name and number before. Those items are not in my contacts list anywhere AFAIK.

I once got an email from my 85 year old uncle’s account advertising sex enhancement pills. I let him know that his email list had been hacked and we had a good laugh.

stickguy

I got my new garage (formerly shed) queen ready to go today. As OF noted we are supposed to get snow again tonight into midday Saturday. Once again forecast is for 8-12+ inches. Hopefully once again they guessed high (we have been getting the bottom of the guesstimate range or much less so far this year).

but just in case, I made sure I have plenty of gas for the snow blower, the oil is full, and I pumped up the tires. That should pretty much guarantee I won't need it!

I plan to go out after lunch and push it out onto the driveway to see if it will at least start. Unless the prior owner did it in July for some reason, it has not been run since this time last year since I never tried it at the beginning of winter.

stickguy

question for all you experts. Is it better to store seasonal equipment like that with gas (apparently ethanol free is available locally and that is what the prior owner has in it) plus staybil in it, or to try and run the engine out of fuel and store it with an empty tank? I always tended to leave fuel in my lawn mower over the winter and it never seemed to bother it (and that was 10% without gas stabilizer).

sda

My pressure washer I run the tank dry. I had to have the carb rebuilt some years ago because of white scale build up from ethanol gas. Ethanol free wasn't available until the last few years. I use only ethanol free in the lawn mower. As our climate is fairly mild, even during winter months the yard gets cut every so often, so the lawn mower isn't idle for too long.

kyfdx

I always try to run my mower dry, each Fall.

henryn

stickguy said:

question for all you experts. Is it better to store seasonal equipment like that with gas (apparently ethanol free is available locally and that is what the prior owner has in it) plus staybil in it, or to try and run the engine out of fuel and store it with an empty tank? I always tended to leave fuel in my lawn mower over the winter and it never seemed to bother it (and that was 10% without gas stabilizer).

I have never followed the "run it completely out of fuel" regime. I only have problems with 2 cycle equipment, the 4 cycle engines don't really seem to have any problems with just using the Stabil.

henryn

qbrozen said:

@henryn said:

This Tracfone isn't intended to be used as a primary phone, so very little use at all. And on my primary phone, I have never (to the best of my knowledge) exceeded 2 gigs in 1 month. Usually less than 1 gig. And my plan with RedPocket gives me 8 gigs of data for a little less than $20 a month, paid annually ($219.41 all in). That's on the Verizon network.

Sheesh! 15 minutes after activating the Tracfone, I get my first spam call. And they know my name, which means Tracfone sold the information immediately. Doesn't matter, this phone will be turned off as soon as it finished getting updates.

Remind me why you would need a backup phone?

Our plan with Visible has been great. Unlimited everything for $25/mo per line.

==============end quoted material from qbrozen=========================

There are several reasons. I have had my phone stolen and needed a temporary use phone. I plan to stick this phone in the glove compartment of my new truck, just in case. I have had occasions where I left the house without my phone, and wished I had it. On one occasion, I ran down to the local coin operated car wash and my truck dropped dead on the spot, and me without a phone.

On several occasions, I have forgotten to pick up the phone when leaving the house and then wound up really wishing I had access to google maps to find my way back home.

If you're the kind of person who feels naked without a cell phone in your pocket, this probably won't happen to you. But I grew up without a cell phone, and lived most of my life without one. Running around the house, doing yard work, etc, I never carry the phone. So sometimes I forget it when leaving the house.

YMMV

SIDE NOTE: I have heard good things about Visible from Verizon. When my current RedPocket yearly plan expires, I'm going to look into Visible. But I've heard that new customers are no longer getting the $25 rate?

henryn

tjc78 said:

@henryn

You ok down there in TX? Colleague of mine just sent a pretty scary picture from the storms.

Nothing much happened here in Houston. I was watching the line of thunderstorms moving my way late last night (watching on radar), and they just dissipated right before they got here. Not even any rain.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

ab348 said:

laurasdada said:

I occasionally get the Chinese lady yelling at me SPAM voicemail. I believe that I read somewhere that it's related to an immigration threat scam for the intended audience.

I just had a new variation on the Amazon fake mystery order phone scam a few minutes ago. I was in my office and the caller-ID landline phone there rang with the name and number of a guy I know both from the golf club I used to belong to and as a vendor to where I used to work. I still see him occasionally as he lives just a few blocks up the street, so it seemed legit and I answered it. Then the recording began to play about the call being from Amazon about an order I never placed, on a credit card etc etc before I hung up. I've never had one of those where the bad guys spoofed a legit name and number before. Those items are not in my contacts list anywhere AFAIK.

I once got an email from my 85 year old uncle’s account advertising sex enhancement pills. I let him know that his email list had been hacked and we had a good laugh.

Did the pills work?

driver100

Here is a Dennis O'Sullivan for today (240000 kms is about 150000 miles)
QUESTION

I purchased a car privately simply because I could not afford to buy from a used car dealer. The car was a 1999 Honda that had just over two hundred and forty thousand kilometres but was in excellent condition. The person from whom I bought the car was great to deal with and told me that he had maintained the car well over the years that he had the car so I believed him. He took me to the Service Ontario to get the ownership changed over and also put twenty dollars of gas in my gas tank. Two weeks after I purchased the car, the engine quit on me while I was travelling to school in Kitchener. My parents purchased CAA for me and I had the car towed to a service garage in Kitchener. My heart sank when the garage told me that my engine was, in their words “shot”. I tried to contact the person who had sold me the car and after about two weeks, I was able to reach him. His name and phone number is enclosed. He told me that I must have driven the car low on oil because it was running fine for him over the years that he had it. The car is now sitting in my parent’s driveway and I cannot afford to get it fixed. Can you do anything for me?

Martha from Simcoe

ANSWER

You purchased this car from a curb sider, which is a term used when someone sells you a car pretending that they own the vehicle when they might not and/or are selling it on behalf of someone else for a profit. In a case such as this, you do not have any recourse especially when you have paid fifteen hundred dollars for the car and only paid tax on five hundred dollars. This person went to Service Ontario with you so that you would not see that the vehicle was not in his name. The person, that the curb sider purchased the vehicle from, knew that the engine was bad and sold it for a scrap price of two hundred and fifty dollars to the curb sider. The curb sider then sold the vehicle to you for fifteen hundred dollars. I was not going to pursue this for you because I have over the years warned my readers that if their hands are not clean, I will not help. I have also warned my readers about buying privately without doing their homework or at least having your own technician look at the car before you purchase it. You did neither but it just so happens that I know this curb sider so I have decided to help you. I can do nothing about the cost of transferring the car in your name. I have however, suggested to him that it is in his best interest that he return the fifteen hundred dollars back to you because this transaction was not above board. If he has not corrected this with you in one week, contact me again.

UPDATE: Martha has had thirteen hundred dollars of her fifteen hundred dollars returned to her on February 23, 2023 and the car is no longer on her parent’s driveway.

I told Martha that she could call an auto recycler to get the other two hundred dollars for scrap price but she did not want to do that and was glad that she got most of her money back.

stickguy

set up my family room stereo finally. Can't call it a home theater system since it isn't connected to the TV.

Very retro. dug out a cheap Sony receiver and small Tivoli speakers I used to have in our bedroom (no real place for it in new house master, plus I used it maybe 1 time per year). And the "rack" is a cheap 2 tier wood shoe shelf from Target (hey, gets it off the floor!). I was planning to use a compact DVD player I have with it (to play my CD collection). But turns out that is new enough to only have an HDMI output. And the receiver is old/cheap enough to only have old school AV (red/white plugs) jacks. Oops.

so back to the basement, to pull out of the archives for my ADC CD player. That I bought in 1987. That had the right kind of jacks! Plugged that in, turned everything on, and it works like new. Even had a burned copy of Layla in the tray.

the 80's never really left, they just got put on hold!

we are looking for a side cabinet to serve as a stereo stand/bar cart. Once I get that I will break out a newer receiver (I think I brought along my beast of a Denon) and smaller CD player, and get a bluetooth dongle of some sort to use to stream to the system. And the nice speakers I bought a few years ago for my basement that I never took out of the box because we moved instead!

should also get some wireless phones that can plug into the headphone jack too. Or one with a long cord.

tjc78

I use this BT adapter. Works great. There are also some cheaper ones on Amazon that look exactly the same.

Logitech Bluetooth Audio Adapter for Bluetooth Streaming https://a.co/d/4XJ9Awu

tjc78

Bluetooth Audio Adapter for Music Streaming Sound System, Esinkin Wireless Audio Adapter Works with Smartphones and Tablets, Wireless Adapter for Speakers https://a.co/d/0TxWnh2

stickguy

thanks. once I know what equipment (receiver) I am going with I will get something that works with the jacks/plugs I have.

qbrozen

henryn said:

SIDE NOTE: I have heard good things about Visible from Verizon. When my current RedPocket yearly plan expires, I'm going to look into Visible. But I've heard that new customers are no longer getting the $25 rate?

Probably not. But we wouldn't have gotten that rate if not for having enough lines. I believe it was maybe $40/line if by myself? I forget. But then you got $5/line off for line 2, $5/line off for line 3, and then the final $5/line off for line 4. No more discounts past that.

isellhondas

Just checking in! Anything new that I should know about? Everyone staying healthy?

After never putting as much as a scratch on any car I have ever owned in all of my years of driving. Used to drive 35,000 miles a year on trecherous California freeways....never a scratch.

Until.....October 5th. Making a U-Turn. Stopped mid turn and looked for traffic...none. Got distracted by a pedestrian for a second....should have looked again.....didn't....WHAM! Totalled our 6000 mile Honda CRV EX! Side airbag replacement alone was.....9000.00! Car didn't look that bad BUT the crash actually twisted the firewall. The KIA that hit me was driving WAY too fast I think BUT the accident got blamed on me!

Neither of us was hurt. Two cars totalled! State Farm must not be happy with me but no rate increase and they didn't drop me. I guess 40 years of loyality must count for something!

They paid me more than I paid for the car 2 years ago. Car prices are through the roof as never before!

explorerx4

@isellhondas,
You certainly came back with a bag!
Glad nobody was hurt.

cdnpinhead

isellhondas said:

Just checking in! Anything new that I should know about? Everyone staying healthy?

Good to hear from you, but sad to hear about the accident. Most of us have had one or two (or more).

sda

Glad no injuries, certainly scary. What did you replace the CR-V with?

roadburner

@oldfarmer50 said:
Calling a SUV EV a Mustang is an affront to humanity. Since they also slapped the Charger badge on the Dodge Charger 4 door I believe that are doing this to deliberately cheese me off.😤

And Chevrolet, not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to destroy the image of a decades-old icon, will soon be building a Corvette SUV.

roadburner

@isellhondas said:
Just checking in! Anything new that I should know about? Everyone staying healthy?

After never putting as much as a scratch on any car I have ever owned in all of my years of driving. Used to drive 35,000 miles a year on trecherous California freeways....never a scratch.

Until.....October 5th. Making a U-Turn. Stopped mid turn and looked for traffic...none. Got distracted by a pedestrian for a second....should have looked again.....didn't....WHAM! Totalled our 6000 mile Honda CRV EX! Side airbag replacement alone was.....9000.00! Car didn't look that bad BUT the crash actually twisted the firewall. The KIA that hit me was driving WAY too fast I think BUT the accident got blamed on me!

Neither of us was hurt. Two cars totalled! State Farm must not be happy with me but no rate increase and they didn't drop me. I guess 40 years of loyality must count for something!

They paid me more than I paid for the car 2 years ago. Car prices are through the roof as never before!

Glad you weren’t hurt.

driver100

@isellhondas Bummer but be glad you are OK!

andres3

roadburner said:

@oldfarmer50 said:

Calling a SUV EV a Mustang is an affront to humanity. Since they also slapped the Charger badge on the Dodge Charger 4 door I believe that are doing this to deliberately cheese me off.😤

And Chevrolet, not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to destroy the image of a decades-old icon, will soon be building a Corvette SUV.

Guess Blazer SS or Equinox SS didn't light their pants on fire.

fintail

isellhondas said:

Just checking in! Anything new that I should know about? Everyone staying healthy?

After never putting as much as a scratch on any car I have ever owned in all of my years of driving. Used to drive 35,000 miles a year on trecherous California freeways....never a scratch.

Until.....October 5th. Making a U-Turn. Stopped mid turn and looked for traffic...none. Got distracted by a pedestrian for a second....should have looked again.....didn't....WHAM! Totalled our 6000 mile Honda CRV EX! Side airbag replacement alone was.....9000.00! Car didn't look that bad BUT the crash actually twisted the firewall. The KIA that hit me was driving WAY too fast I think BUT the accident got blamed on me!

Neither of us was hurt. Two cars totalled! State Farm must not be happy with me but no rate increase and they didn't drop me. I guess 40 years of loyality must count for something!

They paid me more than I paid for the car 2 years ago. Car prices are through the roof as never before!

At least the insurance worked out!

What's next? Another Reatta?

stickguy

pushing a foot of snow already, and going to snow pretty heavily until near lunchtime.

Dodged bullets all winter but got hit hard this time!

mjfloyd1

VW with child inside was stolen. VW delayed using tracking system until they were paid $150.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/volkswagen-atlas-suv-stolen-child-inside-gps/

oldfarmer50

roadburner said:

@oldfarmer50 said:

Calling a SUV EV a Mustang is an affront to humanity. Since they also slapped the Charger badge on the Dodge Charger 4 door I believe that are doing this to deliberately cheese me off.😤

And Chevrolet, not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to destroy the image of a decades-old icon, will soon be building a Corvette SUV.

That reminds me, they turned my beloved Eclipse into a SUV as well. The Corvette makes 4 cars I’ve owned that they ruined.

kyfdx

@oldfarmer50 It's just a name. If your cat has kittens in the oven, do you call them biscuits?

driver100

mjfloyd1 said:

VW with child inside was stolen. VW delayed using tracking system until they were paid $150.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/volkswagen-atlas-suv-stolen-child-inside-gps/

That's a tough one, and it isn't really VWs fault. For one thing how do they know who is asking for this information? For another, you can't plan for this type of situation.....a 3rd party was handling the call. For another, does law enforcement need to get permission to get this information. This is new technology, laws and rules have to be defined. At least the child was OK....thank goodness.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

roadburner said:

@oldfarmer50 said:

Calling a SUV EV a Mustang is an affront to humanity. Since they also slapped the Charger badge on the Dodge Charger 4 door I believe that are doing this to deliberately cheese me off.😤

And Chevrolet, not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to destroy the image of a decades-old icon, will soon be building a Corvette SUV.

That reminds me, they turned my beloved Eclipse into a SUV as well. The Corvette makes 4 cars I’ve owned that they ruined.

Once an iconic name has been retired you should only be able to use it again on a vehicle that is similar to the original, Thunderbird, Barracuda, Mustang, Eclipse, etc........Maverick should have been a Ranger II. Sorry Stick

stickguy

Actually a courier.

mjfloyd1

driver100 said:

mjfloyd1 said:

VW with child inside was stolen. VW delayed using tracking system until they were paid $150.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/volkswagen-atlas-suv-stolen-child-inside-gps/

That's a tough one, and it isn't really VWs fault. For one thing how do they know who is asking for this information? For another, you can't plan for this type of situation.....a 3rd party was handling the call. For another, does law enforcement need to get permission to get this information. This is new technology, laws and rules have to be defined. At least the child was OK....thank goodness.

Looks like they had a procedure in place and there were breaches

"Volkswagen takes the safety and security of its customers very seriously. Our thoughts are with the victims and their family. Volkswagen has a procedure in place with a third-party provider for Car-Net Support Services involving emergency requests from law enforcement. They have executed this process successfully in previous incidents. Unfortunately, in this instance, there was a serious breach of the process. We are addressing the situation with the parties involved."

stickguy

The cub cadet fired up after a years hibernation without too much fuss. Electric start helps. Took some practice to figure out the controls and technique but I got the hang of it. Still gives you a pretty good workout!

stickguy

Michaell

stickguy said:

Nice job!

kyfdx

@stickguy And, you didn't want the snowblower... lol

stickguy

by the time I got it figured out and wrestled around probably would have had it all shoveled anyway. But I can see why people like them!

my across the street neighbor is about my age and moved last spring from N. Carolina. he said they wanted to have 4 seasons again. I asked if he still felt that way. He was out with a corded electric snow shovel (one of those baby snow blowers). Fine for NC. Not so fine here though it did a surprisingly good job on this deep, very wet and heavy, stuff. He plans to go out in the spring and buy a big one for next year if there are any left.

ab348

stickguy said:

Bah! A mere dusting...

Aren't you glad I talked you into getting that machine? You're no spring chicken any more, especially now that you're retired, sort of...

The worst thing about owning a big snow blower in a development like that is that there is always an expectation after a big snowfall that you will clear the driveways of those who do not have one. If you don't, then there is an undercurrent of resentment, especially if you do some and not others, god forbid.

andres3

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

Bah! A mere dusting...

Aren't you glad I talked you into getting that machine? You're no spring chicken any more, especially now that you're retired, sort of...

The worst thing about owning a big snow blower in a development like that is that there is always an expectation after a big snowfall that you will clear the driveways of those who do not have one. If you don't, then there is an undercurrent of resentment, especially if you do some and not others, god forbid.

I'd argue there might be some "go ahead and use my machine" obligation for being neighborly, but doing it myself for you... BAH HUMBUG!

laurasdada

Torrential rain and wind here in sunny, coastal SE MA!
We've not seen real snow yet....JINX!

We moved in on Jan. 28 2022. The next day, 24" snow. Condo HOA did a nice job of plowing and shoveling including our driveway and front walk to front door (a long walk from front of house, through a gate/courtyard to door).
Of course, that wasn't done as a courtesy...!

jmonroe1

venture said:

If I push the talk button on my BMW and say, "lower driver's window", the window goes down. Same for the passenger side. Why? My hand that can operate all the windows is 6" away, at the most.

It had to take some time, effort, and brain cells to come up with that.

Yet there is no place to keep my sunglasses near the rearview mirror like other cars have had for years. I keep them in a cupholder on the door.

I don't get it! Priorities are messed up.

————————————————
Car manufacturers are notorious for fixing things that ain’t broke. More time should be given to real problems… like batteries that erupt for apparently no reason and paint that doesn’t stick like it should. It’s easy to fix non-problems but it takes work to fix the real ones.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

henryn said:

The story about Ford and electronics reminded me of something I read a long way back. I just did a google search, and couldn’t find it, but the story went something like this.

When they were ready to introduce the new Edsel, some executive at Ford Motor Company took Henry Ford II for a test drive in the new Edsel. The new Edsel was equipped with all of the latest electronic gadgetry, including power door locks and power windows. During the test drive, the electronics went wonky and they were unable to unlock the doors or lower the windows. They would up going to the nearest dealership to get themselves released from their lockup.

The fact that a google search can’t find any reference to such a story may mean the whole thing was just a myth, I don’t know. I can’t remember where I read the story.

————————————————
That’s strange. The internet I know is full of myths.

jmonroe