Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

snakeweasel

@stickguy said:
I watched a really good video on the aging wheels channel. He does a lot with EV stuff and did an update on his ownership experience (I think 2 year mark) on his polestar. Which much to drivers amazement he road trips all over!

Anyway he talked about the battery situation and what is normal and IIRC it was in the 10% range for degradation over 100k miles. And oddly the drop is steeper early on then slows down over time.

So yes you will lose some range but it is not excessive. And most people aren’t likely to put big miles per year on one.

The thing about batteries is that when they do start to loose their capacity it's faster as time goes by. In other words while it might have taken 100k miles to lose the first 10% range but the next 10% of range will go a lot quicker. And so on.

ab348

oldfarmer50 said:

Michaell said:

May be behind a paywall, but the Malibu is being retired.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/business/general-motors-chevy-malibu-electric-vehicles.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Yeah, paywall but I had heard about 2024 being the last year for Malibu several years ago. To be honest I thought that they were only making them for fleet sales now. I know the company has a bunch of them.

Having said that, I also heard commercials from a local Chevy dealer touting their abundance of Malibus for sale. Maybe they bought up a bunch cheap before production stopped.

In my opinion, I think discontinuing an affordable sedan to concentrate on less affordable EVs on the cusp of a possible recession is a dumb move that they will regret.

I read that the Malibu will stay in production for a while before the plant in K.C. switches to building the new Bolt and some Cadillac model in the last quarter of this year.

Michaell

Another article on the Malibu - more of a cultural retrospective;

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/style/chevy-malibu-culture-cool.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

jmonroe1

mjfloyd1 said:

Look what you can buy at O’Reilly auto parts

https://www.oreillyauto.com/flux-500.html?q=121g

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They promised they would ship mine. They just have an overwhelming backorder wait list.

jmonroe

explorerx4

They should one to go back in time and start producing more earlier.

graphicguy

I did miss all of you, actually. Great to see familiar faces still here.

Just got busy doing other things.

Just saw an article yesterday stating Acura TLX's are piling up. No surprise. Looking at MSRPs, they've raised the price on them by at least 20% across the board for essentially the same car as I had 4 years ago.

Drove past my Acura dealer....sure enough, they have a whole bunch of them sitting on their lot.

$50K-$56K for a well equipped one is hard to swallow given what you can get from their competition for that amount of money.

This dropped down about 10 miles from me earlier this week.

graphicguy

I've seen some CRAZY leases on EVs.

$200/mo on Toyota BRZ4s. I think another $50/mo for the Lexus counterpart.

BLAZER EV was advertised locally for about that same lease amount.

Seeling purchase discounts of $15K+.

Almost makes me want to buy one........ALMOST!

stickguy

TLX is overdue for a remodel. They can move them if they go back to killer subsidized lease programs!

I would get an EV if we were needing a new car to replace the RDX. We have my truck for taking on vacation which is about our only long traveling at this point. So much of our driving is no more than 20-40 miles in a full day and maybe 100 miles total in a busy week, that I could probably charge once a week and be fine. Maybe every other week.

tjc78

We really have done well with one EV in the fleet. Wife uses it for taking my daughter to gymnastics, nail appointments, quick runs to the store etc.

Charge it maybe once every two/three weeks.

I’m a bit more daring and take it up to my office once in awhile (120 miles each way) and now that we have charging on the island I’ll take it to the shore even through even at only 80% charge it makes it up and back with range to spare.

Not sure I’d own one if the lease deal wasn’t awesome but it’s a seriously nice car electric or not. Wife told me the other day some commented to her they loved it.

kyfdx

I was behind an EQE SUV, the other day. (he was headed to the nearby dealership). When the light turned at the end of the freeway ramp, he took off. The acceleration is impressive and immediate.

You get a lot of reactions like that, when driving a Porsche.

oldfarmer50

jmonroe1 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

explorerx4 said:

Hertz can't seem to get out of their own way sometimes.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/hertz-charges-tesla-model-3-renter-277-fee-for-gas-won-t-back-down/ar-BB1m3CCA?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6939dd60c6934852a447f3de4dafe8e5&ei=22

That’s quite odd but my buddy at Hertz indicated that their rental agreement for EVs has a provision that the car be returned fully charged. If not the customer is charged for the electricity and the time the vehicle is out of service.

That doesn’t explain why they would offer an option to not fill it up. Maybe that’s where the error occurred.

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What a contract.

If the customer has to pay for the time the EV is out of service, I guess Hertz has no incentive to plug it in. Nice work if you can get it.

jmonroe

I’m just guessing but otherwise it doesn’t make sense to charge for fuel for an EV. I know Enterprise has an option of prepaying for a fill up at a lower rate or bringing it back unfueled and pay the company for someone to fuel it for you at a higher rate. I suppose that higher rate represents me driving it somewhere and getting it filled.

oldfarmer50

kyfdx said:

Yeah, because the sedan market is really hopping..

As I said, just my opinion but think about it, if the economy goes belly up next year which car would you be able to afford? The sedan market might be in the doldrums now but circumstances can change quickly.

Michaell

If the economy goes belly up, the entire domestic auto industry will be in trouble, as they've spent the past 5 years building only their most expensive and profitable vehicles.

And, I doubt that folks will suddenly starting pining for sedans. Small, FWD based CUVs (like the Trax) will become even more popular.

You can always shop at the Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai or Kia stores if you still want a sedan - they all build both compact and mid-size versions.

explorerx4

I saw that last month the Accord was #18 on the best seller list.

sda

It seems most local dealers have more Accord EXs than other models. The Hybrids are in short supply and the price is typically marked up. It is too bad Honda doesn't offer an EXL non hybrid model.The current EX is disappointing. It no longer has rear ac vents, etc. and the rear interior door panels are basically hard plastic. It gives a cheap vibe.

stickguy

That’s why I don’t sit in the back seat. It could be cop car spec and I would not even notice!

tjc78

@kyfdx said:
I was behind an EQE SUV, the other day. (he was headed to the nearby dealership). When the light turned at the end of the freeway ramp, he took off. The acceleration is impressive and immediate.

You get a lot of reactions like that, when driving a Porsche.

Ours is only a “350” but it moves along nicely.

I had a little fun with an Audi and I think I surprised him a bit.

One of the interesting things about an electric is how linear the gas pedal is to acceleration. You just roll your foot forward and it’s like a volume control to the speed (if that makes any sense).

kyfdx

Pretty sure he would have dusted me, if I'd been trying to match him.

tjc78

For $2000 you can buy a “performance upgrade”. Picks up about a second 0-60. If I owned it of course I’d do it lol

kyfdx

Interesting tidbit about credit score.

We had several large purchases in the last two months that used up about 40% of the credit limit on two different cards. Because of the timing, it was about 40 days before any payments were made.

On the day before the first big payment was made, got a notice from my bank that my credit score had dropped by 52 points.

It's irrelevant for me, fortunately, but a lesson for those that might have a big purchase coming up, that depends on their credit score.

pensfan83

Same thing over here. We take advantage of the grace period and have seen some wild swings in credit scores some months. If we know we have a large purchase coming up then we'll hold off our use a card with a billing cycle that won't adversely impact us when we have a credit pull.

venture

kyfdx said:

Interesting tidbit about credit score.

We had several large purchases in the last two months that used up about 40% of the credit limit on two different cards. Because of the timing, it was about 40 days before any payments were made.

On the day before the first big payment was made, got a notice from my bank that my credit score had dropped by 52 points.

It's irrelevant for me, fortunately, but a lesson for those that might have a big purchase coming up, that depends on their credit score.

Sometimes they drop, or rise, without much prodding it seems. A few months ago mine dropped about 24 points for some odd reason. I got my monthly notice from my credit union a few days that it had been updated. I just looked and it was back up where it was. I didn't do anything weird.

I rarely look at it so maybe it does that all the time.

That reminds me - I don't know why. When I bought the Legacy last week I wanted to put $5,000 on my credit card just to get the cash back. The sales manager said they didn't want to do it I found out after leaving the F&I office. I said that I would just write another check for the $5,000.

He relented and said they would do it. They didn't want to spend the 3% they would be charged. Heh heh.

roadburner

My credit score dropped after paying off one of my cars a few years early...

stickguy

I think mine has yoyod a bit recently as I did stuff around collecting funds for the house. Short term loan paid off early, some big card purchases for the kitchen, stuff like that. Also had a couple of credit lines expanded on some cards.

Still hoping to avoid any mortgage when we buy the new one though that will require some short term shenanigans to cover the transition (with intent to get a HELOC set up quickly to fund some of the after purchase updates. And a wedding in August!)

stickguy

Really hope to hit new years debt free entirely. Though might not quite make that on the HELOC. That might linger until late spring depending on how well I can reign the wife in.

roadburner

I'm hoping to stay debt free for a while; we are putting new flooring in the basement and a guest room next year along with a minor kitchen update. We should have enough set aside by then to pay cash.

qbrozen

I’ve also noticed big swings recently. You’d think the longer your credit history, the less impact changes should have. I’ve been around the 800 mark for many years. As I was doing things like flipping leased jeeps and taking out a home equity loan to build a garage, I saw mine dip as low as the 760s and, after doing nothing for the past year or so, it has quickly bounced back over 800. That’s some pretty wild swinging, IMHO.

kyfdx

I agree.. We have zero debt, except what is on the cards, and they are paid off, every month. Have a substantial HELOC, which also has a zero balance.

Specifically, went from 832 to 780.

tjc78

I did a monster purchase for work (15k) and forgot to pay it back before the statement flipped. 25 point drop.

Still wouldn’t have mattered as IMO an 820 to 795 means very little.

As Q notes a one month utilization hit shouldn’t kill you with a long history.

driver100

kyfdx said:

Pretty sure he would have dusted me, if I'd been trying to match him.

Do you mean in your car?

oldfarmer50

Mine goes from 813 to 803 if I exceed $1000 on credit cards. Yet they still encourage me to take out loans to get a better “mix” of credit.

tjc78

Another good way to take a hit is to let a credit card go dormant. I had an account that I opened for a 0% deal with a 10k line. Haven’t used it in years.. they reduced the line (without telling me). Score dropped for that too

venture

tjc78 said:

Another good way to take a hit is to let a credit card go dormant. I had an account that I opened for a 0% deal with a 10k line. Haven’t used it in years.. they reduced the line (without telling me). Score dropped for that too

Agreed.

I have an American Express card that I only use about once a year so they won't screw with me about it. I forgot to make a payment once about 4 or 5 years ago and they wanted to charge me a late fee. I called and complained and they removed the charge. That's when I stopped using it.

Did I tell you about the watch I tried to return to Rite Aid?

oldfarmer50

tjc78 said:

Another good way to take a hit is to let a credit card go dormant. I had an account that I opened for a 0% deal with a 10k line. Haven’t used it in years.. they reduced the line (without telling me). Score dropped for that too

Chase Visa did that to me because i wasn’t using the card which angered me and now I use it even less. They lowered the Visa 50% so I upped the Mastercard 100%.

I would cancel the Visa entirely but it has the longest history (40 years) so i’m sure i’d take a hit.

stickguy

that is the weirdest thing. they get upset if you are using too big a % of your credit line, so the solution to raise your score isn't to lower the amount borrowed, but to raise the limit you can go to.

jmonroe1

driver100 said:

kyfdx said:

Pretty sure he would have dusted me, if I'd been trying to match him.

Do you mean in your car?

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Do you really think he was talking about dusting his coffee table.

jmonroe

ab348

I had an American Express card for many years that they offered me way back when after they created an Air Miles Amex card. I never used it much for regular purchases but had a few automatic charges set up with it. I actually liked the way they sent you email messages about your balance, when a payment was due and acknowledged receipt of payments.

Oddly, last year they didn’t advise that they were dropping the Air Miles card. I found out when a new green (basic, no useful rewards) card arrived, so when I investigated I found out what they had done. Without rewards I didn’t need an Amex card so I never activated it. They still send me reminders once a month or so to activate it which I ignore. The experience really soured me on them.

I’ve been doing some house upgrades (insulation, new HVAC, new siding and windows shortly) and all of those outfits put a proviso in their quotes that they charge a 3%+/- fee if you pay by card. Not worth it on big-ticket items. I got a chuckle out of one contractor yesterday when I got an email advising they were doing a special promo of a $200 discount on all the quotes they had issued this spring. I had one from them for $21K, so $200 was less than 1%. Luckily I went with another company who offered the same equipment for $6K less.

nyccarguy

@venture said:
Sometimes they drop, or rise, without much prodding it seems. A few months ago mine dropped about 24 points for some odd reason. I got my monthly notice from my credit union a few days that it had been updated. I just looked and it was back up where it was. I didn't do anything weird.

I rarely look at it so maybe it does that all the time.

That reminds me - I don't know why. When I bought the Legacy last week I wanted to put $5,000 on my credit card just to get the cash back. The sales manager said they didn't want to do it I found out after leaving the F&I office. I said that I would just write another check for the $5,000.

He relented and said they would do it. They didn't want to spend the 3% they would be charged. Heh heh.

I don’t understand how dealerships don’t take more money on credit cards. The 2% ish hit you take is nothing in the grand scheme of doing business. It is a legitimate business expense that goes toward your operating costs. The money is IN YOUR ACCOUNT the next day. No wasting time at the bank depositing checks. I regularly take credit cards for house accounts that are over $10K and I don’t charge my customers extra. I only charge an extra fee when I have to manually key the numbers in.

There is a plumbing supply I do business with in Dunn, NC. Last month I paid him over $21,000 on my American Express. He didn’t charge me an extra fee.

qbrozen

Depends on the deal, IMHO. When the buyer squeezes for every drop, 2% can be a big deal.

stickguy

I suspect some of it is they hope you don't have cash to use instead, so will finance it with them instead.

Michaell

The cooking studio we own does about 98% of its business via credit card. We just switched providers a couple of months ago and the fees we pay went up.

Still can’t beat the convenience of not having to go to the bank all the time.

oldfarmer50

nyccarguy said:

@venture said:

Sometimes they drop, or rise, without much prodding it seems. A few months ago mine dropped about 24 points for some odd reason. I got my monthly notice from my credit union a few days that it had been updated. I just looked and it was back up where it was. I didn't do anything weird.

I rarely look at it so maybe it does that all the time.

That reminds me - I don't know why. When I bought the Legacy last week I wanted to put $5,000 on my credit card just to get the cash back. The sales manager said they didn't want to do it I found out after leaving the F&I office. I said that I would just write another check for the $5,000.

He relented and said they would do it. They didn't want to spend the 3% they would be charged. Heh heh.

I don’t understand how dealerships don’t take more money on credit cards. The 2% ish hit you take is nothing in the grand scheme of doing business. It is a legitimate business expense that goes toward your operating costs. The money is IN YOUR ACCOUNT the next day. No wasting time at the bank depositing checks. I regularly take credit cards for house accounts that are over $10K and I don’t charge my customers extra. I only charge an extra fee when I have to manually key the numbers in.

There is a plumbing supply I do business with in Dunn, NC. Last month I paid him over $21,000 on my American Express. He didn’t charge me an extra fee.

You’re a rare business these days. My mechanic charges 3.9% extra for cards and I’m seeing more businesses do the same. Most gas stations charge a dime more for credit. Fortunately, I pay cash for almost everything.

I’ve had a few negative experiences using cards. Once when I tried to make a several thousand dollar purchase my card kept getting declined. It turned out Mastercard had instituted a new “security” feature without notifying me where they would text an inquiry to you to verify that it was you making the purchase. The only number they had was my land line so I had no idea what was going on until I got home and called them. I know I’m a dinosaur but I’m offended by the assumption that everyone has a smartphone.

ab348

Don't try to make a major big-$ purchase by walking into a business with a sack full of cash. These days you will immediately be flagged as a suspicious character, possible launderer of ill-gotten gains and likely a criminal for having such a large amount of currency on your person. The consequences will make the problems you had trying to use a CC small potatoes by comparison.

venture

oldfarmer50 said:

nyccarguy said:

@venture said:

Sometimes they drop, or rise, without much prodding it seems. A few months ago mine dropped about 24 points for some odd reason. I got my monthly notice from my credit union a few days that it had been updated. I just looked and it was back up where it was. I didn't do anything weird.

I rarely look at it so maybe it does that all the time.

That reminds me - I don't know why. When I bought the Legacy last week I wanted to put $5,000 on my credit card just to get the cash back. The sales manager said they didn't want to do it I found out after leaving the F&I office. I said that I would just write another check for the $5,000.

He relented and said they would do it. They didn't want to spend the 3% they would be charged. Heh heh.

I don’t understand how dealerships don’t take more money on credit cards. The 2% ish hit you take is nothing in the grand scheme of doing business. It is a legitimate business expense that goes toward your operating costs. The money is IN YOUR ACCOUNT the next day. No wasting time at the bank depositing checks. I regularly take credit cards for house accounts that are over $10K and I don’t charge my customers extra. I only charge an extra fee when I have to manually key the numbers in.

There is a plumbing supply I do business with in Dunn, NC. Last month I paid him over $21,000 on my American Express. He didn’t charge me an extra fee.

You’re a rare business these days. My mechanic charges 3.9% extra for cards and I’m seeing more businesses do the same. Most gas stations charge a dime more for credit. Fortunately, I pay cash for almost everything.

I’ve had a few negative experiences using cards. Once when I tried to make a several thousand dollar purchase my card kept getting declined. It turned out Mastercard had instituted a new “security” feature without notifying me where they would text an inquiry to you to verify that it was you making the purchase. The only number they had was my land line so I had no idea what was going on until I got home and called them. I know I’m a dinosaur but I’m offended by the assumption that everyone has a smartphone.

If I charge anything over $1,000, I send a message to my card holder, my credit union, that I will be doing it. No problems so far. The most I have charged is $5,000 so I don't know what the limit is.

I did find out that my limit for depositing a check remotely is $100,000. (They only allow $10,000 to be accessed right away). Hopefully I get to try that some day.

kyfdx

The one that gets me: Restaurants that have an added charge for using credit. (3%, usually). When you see how embedded credit cards are, it's crazy to draw attention to extra charges. Just raise your prices by $0.50. Or, go cash only.

My 30 year old son never has a single dollar on him. Which I think is ridiculous, but is typical for someone that age. The restaurants that cater to old people will soon be out of business.

laurasdada

I've been getting mailers from Amex lately for one of their colorful cards, screaming, "You're pre-approved!" Then, in the body, something like, "...you are not yet approved for the Amex Shocking Blue card..."

kyfdx

Turning down that Platinum card for $695/yr is really hard.. lol

stickguy

Dada, what they mean is you are pre-approved to get the junk mail asking you to apply.

Vanguard will take a check from your phone for well over 100K. I learned this last year when I finally cashed out all my old 401Ks and rolled the money over into an IRA. It felt strange taking a picture of a check that large and sending it off through my phone.

I still carry cash and use it mostly in restaurants. They are happy to take it. I especially like it when they charge less! My kids (son especially) do the whole have almost no cash on them. Drives me nuts. especially when we would end up someplace that required cash and I would have to pay!

I always paid cash for gas when I lived in Jersey since you had full service and paid the attendant anyway. Up in NY, to pay cash I guess it requires going into the building, waiting on line, prepaying, then going back in to get change. Not doing that nonsense, so I stick with Sunoco or Mobil (both of which are common up here) and I have their own credit cards. Not worried about those getting hacked, and I get a discount off the cash price on top of it. Much more convenient.

explorerx4

@stickguy,
My wife is going ot be doing that with a check soon rolling over to a Vanguard IRA.

pensfan83

@kyfdx said:
Turning down that Platinum card for $695/yr is really hard.. lol

That actual net someone pays for the annual fee is dependent the perks they use. For example, one of our cards has a high annual fee but offers a $300 travel credit.