Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

thebean

"...if Fiat can ever get their act together with fit/finish/assembly quality, etc....they'll sell some vehicles. They are certainly competitive with other like for like vehicles I've driven. As it stands, I wouldn't put my own money into a Cherokee, however."

I agree GG, but I doubt they ever will.  Ever since the 80's, my experience with Chrysler vehicles has been very disappointing.  Very different from the late 60's, when the Dodges my grandparents drove were solid and well built.

+1 on the 4 Runner - hard to beat them for reliability and robustness.

ab348

My '02 Intrigue I bought as a GM Certified used car was an ex-rental, Avis I believe. The only issue I found was a residue of spilled soda pop on the horn pad of the steering wheel that was not immediately visible but was there - it scrubbed off easily enough. It was a good car, no sign of abuse over 6 years of owning it. .

oldfarmer50

henryn said:

Thanks for the feedback so far, more would be welcome. I cleaned up the Cadillac this morning, and posted it for sale on Craigslist. I have not fully decided to make a move, but I decided to see if the Cadillac would sell easily. If it does, then I will make up my mind about whether or not to replace, or just get along with only the truck.

houston.craigslist.org/cto/5553134553.html

Love that color! I would love to have it. If I start in NY and drive really fast I could probably be there is a couple hours, right?

Seriously, you might try some more upscale sales listings for a car over $10k. I had my Eclipse on CL for a while at about the same price and got zero calls. When I listed my son's junker 1993 Caddy for $500 I was deluged.

houdini1

henryn said:

Thanks for the feedback so far, more would be welcome. I cleaned up the Cadillac this morning, and posted it for sale on Craigslist. I have not fully decided to make a move, but I decided to see if the Cadillac would sell easily. If it does, then I will make up my mind about whether or not to replace, or just get along with only the truck.

houston.craigslist.org/cto/5553134553.html

Great ad Henry. I am tempted to buy the darn thing myself !!

jmonroe

'bwia' said:

My daughter at one time worked for Enterprise. And what I was told the bulk of Enterprise's business are through car dealers and insurance replacement rentals. As such, car owners tended to take better care of their rentals than the holiday and joy riders.

So based upon the above observation an Enterprise car probably will be less abused than the others.
___________________________________________________________________________

The 2015 Black Altima rental that I had when Mrs. j 's Subie was in the dealer body shop having the right front fender replaced was from Enterprise. It was very clean when I picked it up and that's the car that I got compliments about when Mrs. j and I went to breakfast one morning. So I can attest that Enterprise does keep their cars clean enough (well at least one) to satisfy me and 2 guys who liked it.

Remember ? "NICE ALTIMA" ?

jmonroe

abacomike

Neighbors of mine gave me a gift - a bottle of Macallan 25 year old Sherry Cask Scotch.  The husband said that if I sipped the scotch each night for 30 days, it would cure me of all my ills.  They are a lovely couple from London who have lived next door to me for many years.  They know I haven't been feeling well and felt that this would make me feel better.  They said they received the bottle as a gift from their son last year - but they don't drink alcoholic beverages any more.

I never heard of Macallan Scotch before - I really do not like scotch - but I sure don't want to disappoint them.  Any of you guys know anything about the brand?  I'm going to open it tonight and "do some sipping" as they suggested.  Let me know if any of you are familiar with Macallan. 

houdini1

Take it easy on that scotch. It costs about $1,000. a bottle ! Google it.

abacomike

houdini1 said:

Take it easy on that scotch. It costs about $1,000. a bottle ! Goggle it.

You've got to be kidding! 

henryn

oldfarmer50 said:

henryn said:

Thanks for the feedback so far, more would be welcome. I cleaned up the Cadillac this morning, and posted it for sale on Craigslist. I have not fully decided to make a move, but I decided to see if the Cadillac would sell easily. If it does, then I will make up my mind about whether or not to replace, or just get along with only the truck.

houston.craigslist.org/cto/5553134553.html

Love that color! I would love to have it. If I start in NY and drive really fast I could probably be there is a couple hours, right?

Seriously, you might try some more upscale sales listings for a car over $10k. I had my Eclipse on CL for a while at about the same price and got zero calls. When I listed my son's junker 1993 Caddy for $500 I was deluged.

Good point. I just posted a free ad on cars.com, and tried to reach autotrader, but they seem to be offline at the moment. Anywhere else I can post for free?

ab348

Oh yeah Mike - that is among the best scotches around. I had an 18 years ago, all gone now. The price of Macallan is in excess of what comparable scotches cost because of the demand and brand cachet, but that one is outstanding regardless of the price. Savor it like a fine cognac, with literally no more than a few drops of water.

explorerx4

@abacomike,
If this scotch is so good, why don't your neighbors drink it? Are they in perfect health?
Do you know these people very well?
I'd tell them you are going wait until you have someone to share it with.

abacomike

explorerx4 said:

@abacomike, If this scotch is so good, why don't your neighbors drink it? Are they in perfect health? Do you know these people very well? I'd tell them you are going wait until you have someone to share it with.

They don't drink at all.  As for their health, I think the are healthy - they are in their 70's.  They've lived next door for 10 years.

As far as waiting for someone to drink it with, my children don't drink, my grandchildren are too young to drink, and I sure am not going to have it sit in the liquor cabinet until I die.  That leaves one option - tonight I sip scotch!  Let's see, $25.00 a sip - wow that's going to be an experience. 

abacomike

I just Googled it - $1499.00 a bottle on one site.  Why would anyone spend more than $18,00-$25.00 for a bottle of liquor?  That's a lot of money.  I wonder if the neighbor's know how expensive this stuff is.  I'm going next door to offer to return it after I print up the page I Googled.  I'll let you know what happens.

driver100

Henryn said:

Thanks for the feedback so far, more would be welcome. I cleaned up the Cadillac this morning, and posted it for sale on Craigslist. I have not fully decided to make a move, but I decided to see if the Cadillac would sell easily. If it does, then I will make up my mind about whether or not to replace, or just get along with only the truck.

That is a great looking Caddie, and the ad is classy. That would have made a great Florida car, I'd fit right in.

carnaught

abacomike said:

I just Googled it - $1499.00 a bottle on one site.  Why would anyone spend more than $18,00-$25.00 for a bottle of liquor?  That's a lot of money.  I wonder if the neighbor's know how expensive this stuff is.  I'm going next door to offer to return it after I print up the page I Googled.  I'll let you know what happens.

Another option is to sell it on Ebay for $800-1000. You can hit up one of your favorite restaurants, like the one at the casino, for a few dinners. You are then being kinder to your liver .

driver100

abacomike said:

I just Googled it - $1499.00 a bottle on one site.  Why would anyone spend more than $18,00-$25.00 for a bottle of liquor?  That's a lot of money.  I wonder if the neighbor's know how expensive this stuff is.  I'm going next door to offer to return it after I print up the page I Googled.  I'll let you know what happens.

Yeh Mike, see what they say. If they don't want it back put it on CL.

driver100

Maybe you can make that Caddie into a van:

abacomike

driver100 said:

I just Googled it - $1499.00 a bottle on one site.  Why would anyone spend more than $18,00-$25.00 for a bottle of liquor?  That's a lot of money.  I wonder if the neighbor's know how expensive this stuff is.  I'm going next door to offer to return it after I print up the page I Googled.  I'll let you know what happens.

Yeh Mike, see what they say. If they don't want it back put it on CL.

Well, I went next door and they invited me in.  I showed them the copy of the googled page and said to them that it was much too expensive a gift for me to accept.  They were somewhat surprised by the high price.  But they insisted that I keep it as a token of our friendship - neither of them drink anything alcoholic except for an occasional glass of wine - at least that's what the just said.

So, I thanked them immensely for their thoughtfulness and just got back home.

As for being kinder to my liver - I only sip spirits - i don't drink enough of anything alcoholic to cause me to feel woozy - that would be like committing suicide.

abacomike

driver100 said:

Maybe you can make that Caddie into a van:

That looks more like a locomotive than a car or a van.

explorerx4

@abacomike,
I didn't realize you knew these people for quite a while.
That is a heck of a bottle of scotch!

abacomike

explorerx4 said:

@abacomike, I didn't realize you knew these people for quite a while. That is a heck of a bottle of scotch!

Like I mentioned before, I do not drink scotch - I prefer to "sip" bourbon.  But from what I've heard here and found in my research, this is one of those really rare scotches.  To open or not to open, that IS the question! 

abacomike

When I got into my car this morning to run a few errands, it was like day and night compared to the C300 I was driving all week.  I guess it's sort of like driving a Cadillac Cimaron and a Cadillac CT6 - both are/were made by Cadillac, but that's where it ends.

ab348

abacomike said:

Like I mentioned before, I do not drink scotch - I prefer to "sip" bourbon.  But from what I've heard here and found in my research, this is one of those really rare scotches.  To open or not to open, that IS the question! 

Well, you could get some bubble wrap, put it in a box, and mail it to me. I'll even pay the postage. Just label it as olive oil.

abacomike

ab348 said:

Like I mentioned before, I do not drink scotch - I prefer to "sip" bourbon.  But from what I've heard here and found in my research, this is one of those really rare scotches.  To open or not to open, that IS the question! 

Well, you could get some bubble wrap, put it in a box, and mail it to me. I'll even pay the postage. Just label it as olive oil.

I am still pondering the question - to open or not to open.  I sure hope if I decide to open it that it's as good as they/you say.

isellhondas

houdini1 said:

henryn said:

Thanks for the feedback so far, more would be welcome. I cleaned up the Cadillac this morning, and posted it for sale on Craigslist. I have not fully decided to make a move, but I decided to see if the Cadillac would sell easily. If it does, then I will make up my mind about whether or not to replace, or just get along with only the truck.

houston.craigslist.org/cto/5553134553.html

Great ad Henry. I am tempted to buy the darn thing myself !!

Wow, that is one great looking Cadillac and a great color too!

tjc78

Yes great looking DTS it should sell quickly.  If I needed a ride Id think hard about it.  

Michaell

tjc78 said:

Yes great looking DTS it should sell quickly.  If I needed a ride Id think hard about it.  

I'm not a big Cadillac fan but that is a nice looking ride. Good price, too. Too bad I'm 1000 miles away.

driver100

abacomike said:

ab348 said:

abacomike said:

Like I mentioned before, I do not drink scotch - I prefer to "sip" bourbon.  But from what I've heard here and found in my research, this is one of those really rare scotches.  To open or not to open, that IS the question! 

Well, you could get some bubble wrap, put it in a box, and mail it to me. I'll even pay the postage. Just label it as olive oil.

I am still pondering the question - to open or not to open.  I sure hope if I decide to open it that it's as good as they/you say.

Or sell it on Craigs list and buy 30 bottles of the brand you usually buy.

abacomike

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

Like I mentioned before, I do not drink scotch - I prefer to "sip" bourbon.  But from what I've heard here and found in my research, this is one of those really rare scotches.  To open or not to open, that IS the question! 

Well, you could get some bubble wrap, put it in a box, and mail it to me. I'll even pay the postage. Just label it as olive oil.

I am still pondering the question - to open or not to open.  I sure hope if I decide to open it that it's as good as they/you say.

Or sell it on Craigs list and buy 30 bottles of the brand you usually buy.

I don't usually buy anything!  But, I am 30 minutes from decision time.  I'll let you know what I decided - if I am able! 

stever

I think you should open it and enjoy a sip (with a nod to the neighbors). Then post a review.

"Rinse" and repeat. I'm not a scotch fan either but I'd love a taste just for the experience.

Today was more music at the patio bar on the plaza with wine margaritas with an old friend. Sometimes it's the ambiance as much as the cachet of the liquor. So put some Prince on and imbibe.

abacomike

stever said:

I think you should open it and enjoy a sip (with a nod to the neighbors). Then post a review. "Rinse" and repeat. I'm not a scotch fan either but I'd love a taste just for the experience. Today was more music at the patio bar on the plaza with wine margaritas with an old friend. Sometimes it's the ambiance as much as the cachet of the liquor. So put some Prince on and imbibe.

Thank you sensei!  I shall do as I am commanded! 

explorerx4

@stever,
I wonder which one s older, the bottle of scotch or Party like it's 1999?

abacomike

explorerx4 said:

@stever, I wonder which one s older, the bottle of scotch or Party like it's 1999?

The bottle of scotch is older! 

oldfarmer50

abacomike said:

Neighbors of mine gave me a gift - a bottle of Macallan 25 year old Sherry Cask Scotch.  The husband said that if I sipped the scotch each night for 30 days, it would cure me of all my ills.  They are a lovely couple from London who have lived next door to me for many years.  They know I haven't been feeling well and felt that this would make me feel better.  They said they received the bottle as a gift from their son last year - but they don't drink alcoholic beverages any more.

I never heard of Macallan Scotch before - I really do not like scotch - but I sure don't want to disappoint them.  Any of you guys know anything about the brand?  I'm going to open it tonight and "do some sipping" as they suggested.  Let me know if any of you are familiar with Macallan. 

One sip a night for 30 days will cure you? The Irish would drink 30 sips in one night and definitely feel better.

oldfarmer50

abacomike said:

I just Googled it - $1499.00 a bottle on one site.  Why would anyone spend more than $18,00-$25.00 for a bottle of liquor?  That's a lot of money.  I wonder if the neighbor's know how expensive this stuff is.  I'm going next door to offer to return it after I print up the page I Googled.  I'll let you know what happens.

$1500 a bottle and they just gave it away? Maybe you live next to the king and queen of England. See if they will knight you.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

abacomike said:

I just Googled it - $1499.00 a bottle on one site.  Why would anyone spend more than $18,00-$25.00 for a bottle of liquor?  That's a lot of money.  I wonder if the neighbor's know how expensive this stuff is.  I'm going next door to offer to return it after I print up the page I Googled.  I'll let you know what happens.

Yeh Mike, see what they say. If they don't want it back put it on CL.

Yikes! Don't put it on CL, you'll be deluged with homeless alcoholics wanting it for a dollar and asking for a test sip.

explorerx4

We are passing on the 2013 Escape to one of the kids. We looked at some possible replacements last weekend are going to look at some more tomorrow. We just like having a 3rd vehicle around.

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

abacomike said:

Like I mentioned before, I do not drink scotch - I prefer to "sip" bourbon.  But from what I've heard here and found in my research, this is one of those really rare scotches.  To open or not to open, that IS the question! 

Well, you could get some bubble wrap, put it in a box, and mail it to me. I'll even pay the postage. Just label it as olive oil.

Why not mail it to each member of this board? You recieve the bottle, have one sip in Mike's honor and then mail it to the next person.

oldfarmer50

stever said:

I think you should open it and enjoy a sip (with a nod to the neighbors). Then post a review.

"Rinse" and repeat. I'm not a scotch fan either but I'd love a taste just for the experience.

Today was more music at the patio bar on the plaza with wine margaritas with an old friend. Sometimes it's the ambiance as much as the cachet of the liquor. So put some Prince on and imbibe.

I stepped up from my usual light beer with dinner to a glass of nice red wine. The brand is Bully Hill Walters Red. I know nothing of wine put it tastes good to me. Look up the winery, interesting story about the late Walter Taylor.

stickguy

I went to the Bully Hill winery many years ago (close to 30 at this point). It was a neat place, and fun story.

oldfarmer50

I just started looking at the cars from Hertz that Stick mentioned. The oldest was a 2012 Fusion with 41k miles for $10775. Wonder how that car stuck around on a rental lot so long.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

abacomike said:

I just Googled it - $1499.00 a bottle on one site.  Why would anyone spend more than $18,00-$25.00 for a bottle of liquor?  That's a lot of money.  I wonder if the neighbor's know how expensive this stuff is.  I'm going next door to offer to return it after I print up the page I Googled.  I'll let you know what happens.

$1500 a bottle and they just gave it away? Maybe you live next to the king and queen of England. See if they will knight you.

Probably someone regifted it to them.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

ab348 said:

abacomike said:

Like I mentioned before, I do not drink scotch - I prefer to "sip" bourbon.  But from what I've heard here and found in my research, this is one of those really rare scotches.  To open or not to open, that IS the question! 

Well, you could get some bubble wrap, put it in a box, and mail it to me. I'll even pay the postage. Just label it as olive oil.

Why not mail it to each member of this board? You recieve the bottle, have one sip in Mike's honor and then mail it to the next person.

I like that idea!

andres3

isellhondas said:

The Indy Shop I use in town has five star Yelp ratings and they are always busy. They will no longer work on European cars because of past problems and constant comebacks. Like I heard one shop owner say about Audis " They don't stay fixed"!

Sounds like a guy and a shop that doesn't know the first thing about German automobiles. The space shuttles would have been more unreliable if I had worked on them

andres3

qbrozen said:

andres3 said:

qbrozen said:

So the VW $5k payout thing came up on the RWTIV board. I posted this there but then decided to delete and move it here...


What really bugs me about the whole thing is that $5k to the owners still doesn't mean diddly in comparison to what they did. What about me? I never owned one but me, my family, and all my descendants suffer with all that added pollution their 11 million cars put out? I was thinking about this on the way to work this morn... what would I want them to do about it? Putting them out of business doesn't help. Getting money from their pockets to everybody else's doesn't help. The only positive outcome I could want, I believe, would be to order them to now apply all of their money and resources to producing nothing but zero emissions vehicles from now on. Put on the road vehicles to offset all the damage they have done.

I would argue Chrysler has done far more damage to me than VW has to you. You'd have a hard time proving VW TDI's have polluted anything of significance to the real-world, and it would be much easier for me to make my case than yours.

If companies were forced to pay for all the damage they've ever caused anyone they'd all probably be extinct.

I'm not sure what chrysler did to you, but as far as proving what VW has done, I don't think there is any more proving needed. The testing has shown they are polluting 40x more than they should times 11 million vehicles. That means 11 million vehicles are out there and have been out there putting out the pollution of 440 million vehicles! Significance is not even a question. This isn't a comparison of one company over another or one wrong over another wrong. We can't say "well, Exxon has done more damage, so VW should get a pass." It just can't work that way.

Up to 40x at the maximum and rare limit of their tests. Often much MUCH below that, and certainly within legal limits as little as a decade ago. Also, it's one form of pollution, while many others are much less. It's all a farce. I've long suspected smog checks were a scam to make a select few money being overcharged for nothing, and this case has proved that true.

If you are really concerned, you should look at trucks, semi's, airplanes, trains, ships/boats, and more that pollute far more than little 4-banger VW's.

What Chrysler did was build a lot of lemons leading to failure and bankruptcy at the end of the 70's, where they got bailed out the first time, which kept them in existence to sell me another lemon in the 90's; only to be bailed out a second time in 2008/2009 due to those unreliable piles of manure made previously. The second bailout was outright theft from my wallet, which I've already swore they wouldn't see another cent from, but they stole it!

fezo

Party at Mike's! Man....

Driver - yeah the Volt batteries take up what would otherwise be decent hatch space. To me the Volt is very interesting from an engineering standpoint but, other than the fact that being an actual electric car so they accelerate quickly I don't see why one wouldn't but a Prius and pocket the change. The Prius gets better mileage even after factoring in the electric miles and is a very practical car. It's not small. I know the new ones are supposed to be quicker and acceleration would be the downside of ours, though if you run the electric and gas at the same time it takes off all right. Not roadburner all right but not a slug.

Henry - love the DTS. A bit of a drive but I love it - especially in that color. My dad in his later years became a DeVille nut. Would lease a new one every few years. For his last car he decided they were too big. Was toying with a BMW and ended up in a Buick Century that he immediately regretted. Had his last one been a DeVille I'd have bought out the lease and would likely still have it. No use hanging onto a car he hated.

Buying rentals. I bought a 98 Sebring convertible that had been a Florida rental from a Dodge dealer up here. It was fine. No issues at all other than the wheels that started shedding whatever was on them. Chrysler replaced all four no questions. Mechanically all I did was routine maintenance. No rental car issues.

andres3

roadburner said:

I thought it was his parents' car. Twice abused!

No no no, it was a joint venture/purchase between my father and I, however, I easily put well over 90% of the miles on the Neon from 0 to 65,000 as the driver.

I think I could better argue that Chrysler pollutes more than VW because of all the diesel tow trucks driving around with their vehicles on the hook that wouldn't even be needed with a reasonably well-made car.

Neon tow truck trips = about 1 every 15,000 miles of travel.
VW TDI tow truck trips = 0 so far in about 12,000 miles.
'06 A3 = 1 due to faulty dead battery at 3 years, total 106,000+ miles.
'14 S4 = 1 due to faulty dumb driver crashing into it, total 47,000+ miles
'03 Honda Accord V6 Coupe = (do I even have to type this, of course, zero in 60K miles).

stickguy

nice color combo on the Caddy. Too big for my taste though!

funny thing, I would hate not having a console. I like to have something to lean my knee against! Just can't be too close, or hard in the wrong spot.

andres3

graphicguy said:

For all intents and purposes, I think it depends on who you buy an ex-rental from. Hertz seems to take car of their cars the best, followed closely by Avis. No surprises there....they're the two biggest in the industry.

All the ones from Enterprise I have rented have been OK. But, a 1/2 step "less" well cared for than Hertz and Avis.

I've rented some real dogs from Budget and Dollar....check engine lights on, trim falling off, scuffs and scratches, etc.

National has been hit an miss....some are quite nice. Others look like they just came out of a chop shop.

Am renting a Jeep Cherokee AWD/4WD from Hertz right now. Nor sure what these sell for, but it rattles like crazy....with only 3K miles on the odo. Good suspension. Soaks up rough roads well while managing to go around corners with little body lean....surprising for an SUV. Steering was surprisingly precise and communicative, too. Brakes stopped reassuringly with a firm pedal.

I'm sure that the UConnect feature was the base version as the screen was small. Had a back up camera, though. And, it was simple to use and pair my iPhone to.

Still using the Mercedes type key.

Lots of big gaps where there we seams of any sort, both inside and out.

Assuming it was a 4 cyl, as this motor doesn't remotely resemble the Pentastar I drove a couple of months ago in a Grand Cherokee. Don't know if it's too much weight, or the motor is that anemic, but it made way more noise than power. Trans shifted smoothly though.

I will say, if Fiat can ever get their act together with fit/finish/assembly quality, etc....they'll sell some vehicles. They are certainly competitive with other like for like vehicles I've driven. As it stands, I wouldn't put my own money into a Cherokee, however.

I'd probably go the 4-Runner route if I was writing the check.

The rattles in Chrysler FIAT products are standard equipment for no extra charge. Always reminds me of the scene in Jim Carrey's comedy movie "The Mask" where he is left holding the steering wheel as the car falls completely apart around him.

andres3

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

The rental sales lot do seem to have good prices. And as noted, if you buy one that came from an auction, it was probably a rental anyway. At least buying direct, they can supply service records.

One of them (I think Hertz) now has "rent to buy" units (I stumbled upon their ad while cruising the cars.com listings). IIRC, they are current rentals available for sale. You can test drive for 2 hours for free, or rent for a day at a low price. if you want it, they credit the rental fee. So gives you a chance to take a long, free test drive.

Here is the link.

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/productservice/index.jsp?targetPage=rent2buycarsales.jsp

That's cool. The 2 hour test drive would be enough time to take it to a mechanic. I wonder if the computer stores info on abuse type activity like how many times the motor hit the rev limiter. If your mechanic could access that it would tell a lot.

The rev limiter is there to prevent any abuse whatsoever. As long as you aren't doing it from a cold start the car should be fine. With newer cars, like the last rental Chevy I might have taken on the track, it goes into a "limp" mode where the car has about 25 HP and let's itself cool down before it self destructs. This was on a recent model newer V6 Auto on a normal temperature day, sometimes only half way through a 30 minute session. My A3 used to do the same thing with the DSG oil, but with much higher limits, after it was 90K miles old, with some Stage 2 upgrade tuning, and on days over 90 degrees and after 20+ minutes of a session only. This kind of thing is why I have my low opinion for Chevy.