Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

28firefighter

houdini1 said:

Some futurists are saying that in 5 or 6 years no one will own a car. Electric self (computer) driving cars will have been perfected and you would just call one up. It would take you where ever you wanted to go and bring you home again. You pay by the mile or hour, etc.

Benefits would include:

Few if any traffic deaths. Maybe save a million lives a year. No insurance costs. No gasoline costs. Work (sleep) while you are commuting (if you have a job). Millions saved on infrastructure because of fewer cars, etc. Better air quality. Completely change cities because there would be 90% fewer cars. Parking lots could be made into parks, etc. No speed traps, no tickets at all.

He further stated that most current car mfgs. and auto insurers would go the way of buggy whip mfgs. and that they are scared to death of this scenario.

Keep in mind that I read this in an email so it must be true !

Back to the Future predicted flying cars. We can see how that panned out.

driver100

henryn said:

driver100 said:

henryn said:

driver100 said:

sda said:

driver100--has your Passat been listed for sale yet? Curious minds need to know

Keep reminding me to check. I have checked about every other day and I haven't seen it listed within a 200 mile radius. Autonation doesn't have a VW store in a 200 mile radius, but I suspect they wouldgive it to a Toyota or Nissan store possibly....just on price point.

The do show a 2014 model (ours was a 2013), it has about 2500 more miles but under 10k miles, it is automatic and diesel, listed at $14995. That sounds like a great deal if you don't mind the poorer than posted mileage. At $14995 for that car ours should fetch maybe $14k....so the $11200 wasn't too bad in spite of what JM says.

Say what? A diesel VW for sale, at this point in time? And you didn't immediately buy it?

lol...but, a used deisel Passat for $15k and with 9200 miles on it is a steal. I wouldn't care if my mileage wasn't as advertised or it polluted too much...it will probably last for 400000 miles and it will probably be a classic rare car one day

You missed the point, entirely. A 2014 Passat TDI, with 10k miles, is worth $30,107 on the buyback. Exactly twice the number it is being sold for. At this point in time, I don't think this could possibly be true, no one is that badly out of touch.

I may have been mistaken about it being a TDI....diesel. In the description of the car they do talk about diesels, but that may be a general description of Passats. Still, it seems to be a pretty good price considering.

2014 VW PASSAT $14995

They have a 2014 model, 8200 miles, V6, navigation, automatic, $22300, so $14 or $15k selling price on a 2013 manual seems fair.

2014 Passat V6

driver100

houdini1
Some futurists are saying that in 5 or 6 years no one will own a car. Electric self (computer) driving cars will have been perfected and you would just call one up. It would take you where ever you wanted to go and bring you home again. You pay by the mile or hour, etc.

I don't care....I want my own car and I want to drive it myself. When they don't let me drive I will call up for one of these self driving cars.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

jmonroe said:

dino001 said:

driver100 said:

henryn said:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a23877/car-maintenance-costs-mileage/?src=nl&mag=pop&list=nl_pnl_news&date=112916

How car maintenance costs increase with mileage. Some interesting conclusions.

henryn, I found that information very interesting. Some things I noticed were that VWs weren't that bad, just below the best cars........another myth exploded.

The most costliest cars at 100k miles included Mustang at #1 which I never would have expected, plus quite a few Fords on the list, bmw 328 was number 2 so I am glad we didn't end up with a bmw which was also on our list, and Audi A4 was number 8.....glad we dumped the A4 for the GLK. Mercedes did OK over the long term.

If someone was really good at math (snake or JM for example), it would be interesting to know, if a Mustang costs say $30000, and costs $27000 to keep on the road for 150k miles...and at that point it's value would be almost nothing, what would be the sweet spot for trading in the Mustang......before you hit major repairs and while it is still worth a decent amount as a trade-in.

This "article" is not a real article, it's an advertisement for extended warranty, masking as an article. I wonder if the author is even a real person. I'm almost sure the "data" is completely made up, just made plausible, as there is no source listed, other than "Your Mechanic". The internet, especially Yahoo is littered by those plugs.

Once again you and I agree. I didn't want to comment first because @driver100 would think I was picking on him.

BTW, does this mean you can't trust "Yourmechanic". Maybe you can trust "Mymechanic" or "Hismechanic' or "Bestmechanic" or maybe even ...There has to be a mechanic out there that CAN be trusted. Which I think is easier to find than a lot of articles on the internet with credibility when they talk about cars.

I don't know about the others in here but I'm tired of reading all the articles like the subject one that wants to "help" me.

jmonroe

True JM, If you said anything I would have taken it as a personal insult

As I studied it more I did find some things that couldn't be true......like the cost of repairs on a BMW that is covered for 3 years bumper to bumper. It seemed the dependability numbers could have been in the right order.

When we had the clutch problem with the Audi I wrote to AutoMD.com and you post your problem and hope a real mechanic will reply. I got back some excellent information and there was no selling as far as I know. I suppose they could have got my email address or something, but, I didn't have any problems as far as I know. I guess it would be easy to go on an nscrupulous site, leave your email information, then get hacked. I was told sometimes those pop ups come up, and if you press "CANCEL" or "X" then that just tells them you are there and a live one. Best to use the arrow icon and back out....slowwwwwwwly.......

Unless you click on the Toyota ad on Edmunds and it freezes your screen unless you agree to allow access. Then there's no backing out.

oldfarmer50

jmonroe said:

sda said:

We live in some tough shade-tree car repair days now. so true

I still have feeler gauges, a dwell meter multi-tool and a Sears Best timing light. Those were used often in keeping my cars running smoothly. I did most work that didn't need a lift or engine/transmission stand. Now I limit myself to air and cabin filters, washing, waxing, vacuuming and general detailing. Everything else I pay to have done.

I may have had the same timing light that you had. It sure was a nice bright light compared to some of the cheaper ones back then. I can't tell you how many times I used it and loaned it to friends because they needed a flash light to see the strobe light of the timing light they had.

I've already mentioned that I worked with some pretty cheap guys back then. My philosophy was to buy the good stuff. Therefore, I only had to buy tools and such one time. Like I always told those guys, "only a rich man can afford to buy cheap tools". They finally learned that the hard way. Maybe I had a part in their learning process.

I don't have that timing light or my old dwell meter anymore. I gave them to my youngest Brother when he inherited his MIL's '68 Impala back in the early '90's. I had to show him how to use them but he's a pro now. It sure was easy to adjust the points on V8 GM cars with a dwell meter back then because of the sliding door on the distributor cap. Nobody else had that feature, no feeler gauges were needed. Man, that was almost too easy to do.

Yeah, those were the "good old days" alright.

jmonroe

I remember that little door. Always thought it was clever. Funny the stuff you remember.

28firefighter

driver100 said:

henryn said:

driver100 said:

henryn said:

driver100 said:

sda said:

driver100--has your Passat been listed for sale yet? Curious minds need to know

Keep reminding me to check. I have checked about every other day and I haven't seen it listed within a 200 mile radius. Autonation doesn't have a VW store in a 200 mile radius, but I suspect they wouldgive it to a Toyota or Nissan store possibly....just on price point.

The do show a 2014 model (ours was a 2013), it has about 2500 more miles but under 10k miles, it is automatic and diesel, listed at $14995. That sounds like a great deal if you don't mind the poorer than posted mileage. At $14995 for that car ours should fetch maybe $14k....so the $11200 wasn't too bad in spite of what JM says.

Say what? A diesel VW for sale, at this point in time? And you didn't immediately buy it?

lol...but, a used deisel Passat for $15k and with 9200 miles on it is a steal. I wouldn't care if my mileage wasn't as advertised or it polluted too much...it will probably last for 400000 miles and it will probably be a classic rare car one day

You missed the point, entirely. A 2014 Passat TDI, with 10k miles, is worth $30,107 on the buyback. Exactly twice the number it is being sold for. At this point in time, I don't think this could possibly be true, no one is that badly out of touch.

I may have been mistaken about it being a TDI....diesel. In the description of the car they do talk about diesels, but that may be a general description of Passats. Still, it seems to be a pretty good price considering.

2014 VW PASSAT $14995

They have a 2014 model, 8200 miles, V6, navigation, automatic, $22300, so $14 or $15k selling price on a 2013 manual seems fair.

2014 Passat V6

Header of the ad says its a 1.8T S. My guess is the description using some boilerplate that includes an assessment of all models.

Mr_Shiftright

houdini1 said:

Some futurists are saying that in 5 or 6 years no one will own a car. Electric self (computer) driving cars will have been perfected and you would just call one up. It would take you where ever you wanted to go and bring you home again. You pay by the mile or hour, etc.

Benefits would include:

Few if any traffic deaths. Maybe save a million lives a year. No insurance costs. No gasoline costs. Work (sleep) while you are commuting (if you have a job). Millions saved on infrastructure because of fewer cars, etc. Better air quality. Completely change cities because there would be 90% fewer cars. Parking lots could be made into parks, etc. No speed traps, no tickets at all.

He further stated that most current car mfgs. and auto insurers would go the way of buggy whip mfgs. and that they are scared to death of this scenario.

Our posts here will be talking about that great little self driver that we used recently. Keep in mind that I read this in an email so it must be true ! Just keep in mind that just as our ancestors would never dream of what our current world is like, someday we will be in the same boat, as things do change.

Bah humbug. There won't be fully autonomous cars until there are "closed road" systems in place.

snakeweasel

cdnpinhead said:

That repair cost article is, as others have pointed out, pure steaming feces.

I drive most of my cars well beyond 100K miles and some past 200K, and the incremental cost per mile drops for every mile past the warranty expiration.

The best theory put forward so far is that this cretin posted the thing in order to support the notion that add-on warranties make sense. P.T. Barnum was and is correct.

There is something to the idea that repair costs go up as a car (or ant piece of equipment) ages. Things wear out and break down and as a car ages and miles up it will happen with more frequency.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

henryn said:

driver100 said:

henryn said:

driver100 said:

sda said:

driver100--has your Passat been listed for sale yet? Curious minds need to know

Keep reminding me to check. I have checked about every other day and I haven't seen it listed within a 200 mile radius. Autonation doesn't have a VW store in a 200 mile radius, but I suspect they wouldgive it to a Toyota or Nissan store possibly....just on price point.

The do show a 2014 model (ours was a 2013), it has about 2500 more miles but under 10k miles, it is automatic and diesel, listed at $14995. That sounds like a great deal if you don't mind the poorer than posted mileage. At $14995 for that car ours should fetch maybe $14k....so the $11200 wasn't too bad in spite of what JM says.

Say what? A diesel VW for sale, at this point in time? And you didn't immediately buy it?

lol...but, a used deisel Passat for $15k and with 9200 miles on it is a steal. I wouldn't care if my mileage wasn't as advertised or it polluted too much...it will probably last for 400000 miles and it will probably be a classic rare car one day

You missed the point, entirely. A 2014 Passat TDI, with 10k miles, is worth $30,107 on the buyback. Exactly twice the number it is being sold for. At this point in time, I don't think this could possibly be true, no one is that badly out of touch.

I may have been mistaken about it being a TDI....diesel. In the description of the car they do talk about diesels, but that may be a general description of Passats. Still, it seems to be a pretty good price considering.

2014 VW PASSAT $14995

They have a 2014 model, 8200 miles, V6, navigation, automatic, $22300, so $14 or $15k selling price on a 2013 manual seems fair.

2014 Passat V6

That ad verges on false advertizing. They go right from talking about a gas direct injection engine to talking about a Diesel without mentioning that's a different car.

snakeweasel

houdini1 said:

Some futurists are saying that in 5 or 6 years no one will own a car. Electric self (computer) driving cars will have been perfected and you would just call one up. It would take you where ever you wanted to go and bring you home again. You pay by the mile or hour, etc.

Benefits would include:

Few if any traffic deaths. Maybe save a million lives a year. No insurance costs. No gasoline costs. Work (sleep) while you are commuting (if you have a job). Millions saved on infrastructure because of fewer cars, etc. Better air quality. Completely change cities because there would be 90% fewer cars. Parking lots could be made into parks, etc. No speed traps, no tickets at all.

He further stated that most current car mfgs. and auto insurers would go the way of buggy whip mfgs. and that they are scared to death of this scenario.

Our posts here will be talking about that great little self driver that we used recently. Keep in mind that I read this in an email so it must be true ! Just keep in mind that just as our ancestors would never dream of what our current world is like, someday we will be in the same boat, as things do change.

Never going to happen, to many people want their very own car and prefer a type of car (if not we would all be driving the same car).

But if it did happen it wouldn't result in 90% fewer cars. Any city would fall apart during rush hour if all the people trying to get home were doing it with only 10% of the cars out there. I would say that the majority of the cars on the road today would have to be replaced with these self driving cars. Parking lots would have to stay because when demand dies down all these cars need to be parked somewhere, otherwise all these cars driving around empty in the middle of the night are just going to waste energy.

As for insurance costs someone has to insure these things. What happens if one of these cars driving down the expressway at 60 MPH hits something blows a tire and goes into a spinout? There will be some damage and maybe injuries to passengers.

I'll tell you whats going to happen, self driving cars will start entering the streets and when they do they will be privately owned all hell will break out as it will make the roads a lot more congested. Think about it, Joe goes to work and then either sends his car home or to a mall parking lot 15 miles away so he doesn't have to pay $20 at the local parking garage. Or the idiot who just pops into the local store and has his car drive around the block as it waits for him.

stever

One other benefit of not having a car is enjoying all the room you'd free up in your garage.

Assuming anyone else here besides me actually parks a car in their garage.

jmonroe

stever said:

One other benefit of not having a car is enjoying all the room you'd free up in your garage.

Assuming anyone else here besides me actually parks a car in their garage.

I park two of them in our garage. To me, it doesn't make sense to park your car outside when you have a garage that can handle them. Of course it is a real feat of knowing how to do it in my garage. It's not the size of my garage when we built our house in SC where I could get both my radial arm saw and table saw in the garage along with the 2 cars. Since a table saw would require constant moving to use it, I gave it to Son #1 and the radial arm job stays put on the side of the garage where I park the Genny.

Yeah, I'm now down to one wood working saw, but to be honest, I don't do too much of that any more. However, I still do some daily driving and I have a place for both cars when I get back home.

jmonroe

stickguy

both my cars go in the garage. That is non-negotiable.

I am amazed by how many people in my neighborhood (good sized colonials with 2 car garages of decent size) park out in the driveway, with garages usually full of crap. At least get 1 car in there, along with all the bikes and stuff!

and it is the only place in the house my wife isn't "allowed" to clutter up.

fintail

If one has a garage, use it for the car rather than $200 worth of garage sale rejects,

And I agree, the 5-6 year claim for autonomous vehicles taking over is an insane pipe dream. Another elephant in the room - traffic revenues. Many scummy locales depend on them as a revenue stream, will the compensating move be more taxes?

oldfarmer50

houdini1 said:

Some futurists are saying that in 5 or 6 years no one will own a car. Electric self (computer) driving cars will have been perfected and you would just call one up. It would take you where ever you wanted to go and bring you home again. You pay by the mile or hour, etc.

Benefits would include:

Few if any traffic deaths. Maybe save a million lives a year. No insurance costs. No gasoline costs. Work (sleep) while you are commuting (if you have a job). Millions saved on infrastructure because of fewer cars, etc. Better air quality. Completely change cities because there would be 90% fewer cars. Parking lots could be made into parks, etc. No speed traps, no tickets at all.

He further stated that most current car mfgs. and auto insurers would go the way of buggy whip mfgs. and that they are scared to death of this scenario.

Our posts here will be talking about that great little self driver that we used recently. Keep in mind that I read this in an email so it must be true ! Just keep in mind that just as our ancestors would never dream of what our current world is like, someday we will be in the same boat, as things do change.

When that day comes I'll pull the grass up over my head and take that long dirt nap.

fordfool

oldfarmer50 said:

Cool dad or child abuse. You decide.

http://www.powernationtv.com/post/using-doorknobs-to-pull-teeth-is-the-old-method-now

I'm calling shenanigans. Someone wants to go viral on You Tube and is faking a video.

stickguy

5-6 years is nonsense.

the other elephant? What do you do with the millions of cars out there that people own? Who is buying all of those?

Michaell

Both the Outback and the MINI fit in our garage.

stever

Yeah, but at the same time?

driver100

28firefighter said:

driver100 said:

henryn said:

driver100 said:

henryn said:

driver100 said:

sda said:

driver100--has your Passat been listed for sale yet? Curious minds need to know

Keep reminding me to check. I have checked about every other day and I haven't seen it listed within a 200 mile radius. Autonation doesn't have a VW store in a 200 mile radius, but I suspect they wouldgive it to a Toyota or Nissan store possibly....just on price point.

The do show a 2014 model (ours was a 2013), it has about 2500 more miles but under 10k miles, it is automatic and diesel, listed at $14995. That sounds like a great deal if you don't mind the poorer than posted mileage. At $14995 for that car ours should fetch maybe $14k....so the $11200 wasn't too bad in spite of what JM says.

Say what? A diesel VW for sale, at this point in time? And you didn't immediately buy it?

lol...but, a used deisel Passat for $15k and with 9200 miles on it is a steal. I wouldn't care if my mileage wasn't as advertised or it polluted too much...it will probably last for 400000 miles and it will probably be a classic rare car one day

You missed the point, entirely. A 2014 Passat TDI, with 10k miles, is worth $30,107 on the buyback. Exactly twice the number it is being sold for. At this point in time, I don't think this could possibly be true, no one is that badly out of touch.

I may have been mistaken about it being a TDI....diesel. In the description of the car they do talk about diesels, but that may be a general description of Passats. Still, it seems to be a pretty good price considering.

2014 VW PASSAT $14995

They have a 2014 model, 8200 miles, V6, navigation, automatic, $22300, so $14 or $15k selling price on a 2013 manual seems fair.

2014 Passat V6

Header of the ad says its a 1.8T S. My guess is the description using some boilerplate that includes an assessment of all models.

That sounds possible....all the descriptions I read were basically the same info for every Passat.

Michaell

stever said:

Yeah, but at the same time?

Not a lot of room beyond the cars, for sure. I miss the oversized garage we had at the old house.

stickguy

one (of many) reasons I would love to custom build when we finally move. I can make the garage oversized.

Might have to compromise and just get a place with enough room to build a stand alone spare garage.

berri

If you move to Florida Stick, you'll be surprised how fast that garage becomes a basement - sunbelt living

stickguy

My wife would freak out not getting a basement. I would be quite happy to not have one. As long as there is a decent amount of storage (a walk in attic deal maybe) for dry stuff. and a workshop off the garage for the workbench and my stuff!

jmonroe

stickguy said:

one (of many) reasons I would love to custom build when we finally move. I can make the garage oversized.

Might have to compromise and just get a place with enough room to build a stand alone spare garage.

@stickguy, you've mentioned that you would like to move down South someday. The housing costs down South are very reasonable compared to where you are in Jersey. I was amazed at what a dollar would buy in SC in '92 when we built our house and the construction quality, in general, is much better than here in the Burgh. Which is not bad by any means. While, fortunately, we did not have a very limited budget, I went a little overboard with some extras and the garage was surely one of those overboards.

If you do move down South, house wise, you're going to like it, a LOT.

jmonroe

murphydog

driver100 said:

The best site for doing car repairs is youtube, or almost any repair. A friend said his key FOB has lost it's juice for keyless etc and you can't replace the battery. He looked in the manual, no information given on how to do it. He has a 2013 Hyundai Elantra.

I found it on youtube and sent in on. The battery opening is well hidden, but once you see how to do it it is easy. I have fixed toilet flappers, a toilet tower thing, just found out how to set up Homelink on the C250, fixed the black screen of death on my laptop....all with youtube, for FREE!

Driver, I can't agree more - I have replaced several sensors on the washer and dryer using YouTube and Amazon. Parts total, maybe $30 for a thermal fuse, a door sensor, a flame sensor and a few other odds and ends. Crazy savings when the minimum appliance repair is like $125. It is impressive the video's you can find out there of people repairing things...

stickguy

This I know. Convincing the wife has been an issue. I was hanging onto hope that our daughter would stay down there after graduation (she is at college in NC now), but at this point, if things go according to plan, she will be moving back up this way (Delaware) instead.

so I may actually end up moving south, but just to the bottom of PA (southern Chester county). Not what I was expecting, but you get an acre of land, so room for extra garage(s)!

nyccarguy

stickguy said:

My wife would freak out not getting a basement. I would be quite happy to not have one. As long as there is a decent amount of storage (a walk in attic deal maybe) for dry stuff. and a workshop off the garage for the workbench and my stuff!

I loved the idea of having a basement until about 2 weeks ago. I just put down a deposit today to have a company dig a trench around the interior perimeter of my basement: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p73xUELvsBU

My plumber and my painter have both told me that once this goes in along with a heavy duty dehumidifier, that my basement will be home dry and I won't have to worry about it anymore. $8,700 is just the tip of the ice berg. I've got to have the oil tank moved, the baseboard radiators taken out & reinstalled, the walls treated for mold, then painted & insulated. Some custom shelving I had put up needs to be taken down & hopefully put back up again. I'm going to have to re-tile my bathroom in the basement. Demo the walls 30" up, install a special type of Sheetrock made of fiberglass that is mold & mildew resistant. Have it taped, spackled, painted, then have new flooring installed, and baseboard heat installed in the main area.

I was talking myself into sticking with my underpowered, noisy Subaru for a long time on the drive home tonight. I've been dreaming about cars for as long as I can remember. I'm never going to ever come close to being able to afford a 911. Even a 718 Cayman, Macan S, & ///M2 seem out of reach.

stickguy

in my case, by the time I can finally afford the fancy sports car like that, I will be too damned old to be able to get in and out of it. Cruel fates.

and yes, that is a big reason I don't require a basement next time. At least my house is newer, and came with all that french drain and sump pump stuff built in.

oldfarmer50

nyccarguy said:

stickguy said:

My wife would freak out not getting a basement. I would be quite happy to not have one. As long as there is a decent amount of storage (a walk in attic deal maybe) for dry stuff. and a workshop off the garage for the workbench and my stuff!

I loved the idea of having a basement until about 2 weeks ago. I just put down a deposit today to have a company dig a trench around the interior perimeter of my basement: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p73xUELvsBU

My plumber and my painter have both told me that once this goes in along with a heavy duty dehumidifier, that my basement will be home dry and I won't have to worry about it anymore. $8,700 is just the tip of the ice berg. I've got to have the oil tank moved, the baseboard radiators taken out & reinstalled, the walls treated for mold, then painted & insulated. Some custom shelving I had put up needs to be taken down & hopefully put back up again. I'm going to have to re-tile my bathroom in the basement. Demo the walls 30" up, install a special type of Sheetrock made of fiberglass that is mold & mildew resistant. Have it taped, spackled, painted, then have new flooring installed, and baseboard heat installed in the main area.

I was talking myself into sticking with my underpowered, noisy Subaru for a long time on the drive home tonight. I've been dreaming about cars for as long as I can remember. I'm never going to ever come close to being able to afford a 911. Even a 718 Cayman, Macan S, & ///M2 seem out of reach.

It's amazing how home builders cheap out on basement drainage. When I built I installed perimeter drains under the slab in the basement and around the entire outside of the house. I was determined not to have to put up with sump pumps and mold.

As it turned out I put enough gravel under the floor that I really didn't need drains but the few hundred extra I spent on overkill gave me peace of mind.

For what it's worth I could never afford those cars either.

driver100

berri said:

If you move to Florida Stick, you'll be surprised how fast that garage becomes a basement - sunbelt living

I don't know how our place in Florida compares to the places you guys have, but here are some things to consider as you get closer to your golden years.

We live in a community of 76 homes, most are one story-some have lofts. Most have 1 1/2 car garages-half for the golf cart (we are not ready for that yet), some are 2 bdrm, some 3. Prices are up about 12% this year, probably up about 25 to 30% since the low point around 2010. Florida is booming, tourists are highest ever and construction everywhere. Traffic is growing by leaps and bounds...hard to get around.

Half the people in our community are here all year. As an example, our neighbors have a 3 bedroom home, they enclosed the lanai to have a family room with lots of glass, we have woods on one side, a golf course on the other. They could probably sell their home for about $175k. Taxes for them, homesteaders is about $1000 a year, for visitors like us, about $2100 a year. Electricity is about $60 a month. The grounds here are beautiful, lots of green including all kinds of palm trees. There is a clubhouse and a pool, kept at 86F.

It is beautiful and offers a fantastic way of life. It can get hot in July to September, but, people find a way to cope.

Not for everyone but many people start coming down for the winter, then they decide they may as well just live here.

Remember too, as you get older, you don't need as much room and as much stuff,

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

nyccarguy said:

stickguy said:

My wife would freak out not getting a basement. I would be quite happy to not have one. As long as there is a decent amount of storage (a walk in attic deal maybe) for dry stuff. and a workshop off the garage for the workbench and my stuff!

I loved the idea of having a basement until about 2 weeks ago. I just put down a deposit today to have a company dig a trench around the interior perimeter of my basement: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p73xUELvsBU

My plumber and my painter have both told me that once this goes in along with a heavy duty dehumidifier, that my basement will be home dry and I won't have to worry about it anymore. $8,700 is just the tip of the ice berg. I've got to have the oil tank moved, the baseboard radiators taken out & reinstalled, the walls treated for mold, then painted & insulated. Some custom shelving I had put up needs to be taken down & hopefully put back up again. I'm going to have to re-tile my bathroom in the basement. Demo the walls 30" up, install a special type of Sheetrock made of fiberglass that is mold & mildew resistant. Have it taped, spackled, painted, then have new flooring installed, and baseboard heat installed in the main area.

I was talking myself into sticking with my underpowered, noisy Subaru for a long time on the drive home tonight. I've been dreaming about cars for as long as I can remember. I'm never going to ever come close to being able to afford a 911. Even a 718 Cayman, Macan S, & ///M2 seem out of reach.

It's amazing how home builders cheap out on basement drainage. When I built I installed perimeter drains under the slab in the basement and around the entire outside of the house. I was determined not to have to put up with sump pumps and mold.

As it turned out I put enough gravel under the floor that I really didn't need drains but the few hundred extra I spent on overkill gave me peace of mind.

For what it's worth I could never afford those cars either.

Our homes here are built on concrete pads - no basements of course. Unfortunately water pipes break, and often they are under the concrete. When this happens they reroute the water through the attic etc. I know nothing about building, but, if I was building on concrete I would try to do it in a way so that you can get at all the pipes if necessary.

driver100

Those self driving cars in 6 years...reminds me of Popular Mechanics from 1951.

fintail

Or the Jetsons - flying cars that fold up into a briefcase. Mandated autonomous cars might never happen at all, or if they do, it's a long ways off.

Re: houses, do they have owners, or do they own people?

I agree that some parts of Florida look like a nice place to retire (although maybe not the best for normal wage earners). I was shocked at how nice of a house one can get from Daytona Beach northward (the mellow coast, as I call it) for around 200K. Even oceanfront there costs as much as an old tract house on a 7000 sq ft lot in a nicer area here.

Cheapest I have seen is still metro Atlanta. A friend of mine who moved there several years ago (and ran back, it just wasn't for him) worked and lived just OTP, rented for a pittance until he moved into a 3 year old ~1500 sq ft tract house on about 1/3 acre, it was well under 100K then and is worth about the same now. I don't know if it was the highest quality place - some of the developments there appear to be made of cardboard, but for the money, pretty crazy. Of course, his salary was also a bit lower than here.

jmonroe

nyccarguy said:

stickguy said:

My wife would freak out not getting a basement. I would be quite happy to not have one. As long as there is a decent amount of storage (a walk in attic deal maybe) for dry stuff. and a workshop off the garage for the workbench and my stuff!

I loved the idea of having a basement until about 2 weeks ago. I just put down a deposit today to have a company dig a trench around the interior perimeter of my basement: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p73xUELvsBU

My plumber and my painter have both told me that once this goes in along with a heavy duty dehumidifier, that my basement will be home dry and I won't have to worry about it anymore. $8,700 is just the tip of the ice berg. I've got to have the oil tank moved, the baseboard radiators taken out & reinstalled, the walls treated for mold, then painted & insulated. Some custom shelving I had put up needs to be taken down & hopefully put back up again. I'm going to have to re-tile my bathroom in the basement. Demo the walls 30" up, install a special type of Sheetrock made of fiberglass that is mold & mildew resistant. Have it taped, spackled, painted, then have new flooring installed, and baseboard heat installed in the main area.

I was talking myself into sticking with my underpowered, noisy Subaru for a long time on the drive home tonight. I've been dreaming about cars for as long as I can remember. I'm never going to ever come close to being able to afford a 911. Even a 718 Cayman, Macan S, & ///M2 seem out of reach.

Hang in there Bradd.

You said, "I'm never going to ever come close to being able to afford a 911. Even a 718 Cayman, Macan S, & ///M2 seem out of reach." NEVER is along time. You'll be surprised that if you still want those car years down the road, as long as you have your health, you'll be able to get one of those.

Good luck with the drainage stuff for now.

jmonroe

sda

nyccarguy said:

stickguy said:

My wife would freak out not getting a basement. I would be quite happy to not have one. As long as there is a decent amount of storage (a walk in attic deal maybe) for dry stuff. and a workshop off the garage for the workbench and my stuff!

I loved the idea of having a basement until about 2 weeks ago. I just put down a deposit today to have a company dig a trench around the interior perimeter of my basement: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p73xUELvsBU

My plumber and my painter have both told me that once this goes in along with a heavy duty dehumidifier, that my basement will be home dry and I won't have to worry about it anymore. $8,700 is just the tip of the ice berg. I've got to have the oil tank moved, the baseboard radiators taken out & reinstalled, the walls treated for mold, then painted & insulated. Some custom shelving I had put up needs to be taken down & hopefully put back up again. I'm going to have to re-tile my bathroom in the basement. Demo the walls 30" up, install a special type of Sheetrock made of fiberglass that is mold & mildew resistant. Have it taped, spackled, painted, then have new flooring installed, and baseboard heat installed in the main area.

I was talking myself into sticking with my underpowered, noisy Subaru for a long time on the drive home tonight. I've been dreaming about cars for as long as I can remember. I'm never going to ever come close to being able to afford a 911. Even a 718 Cayman, Macan S, & ///M2 seem out of reach.

I feel for you having to go to that expense and the inconvenience of getting the basement right. After watching shows like 'Holmes Makes it Right', and though I like the idea of a basement, they would be a source of worry unless I knew they were built and waterproofed correctly. True basements around here are rare. Typically a basement is available if a house if built on a sloping lot.

suydam

I feel your pain. We need to replace our furnace -- an expense I should have figured on, but didn't (out of sight, out of mind). At least in SoCal it's not as critical as in Ohio!

jipster

qbrozen

suydam said:

I feel your pain. We need to replace our furnace -- an expense I should have figured on, but didn't (out of sight, out of mind). At least in SoCal it's not as critical as in Ohio!

Do you even NEED a furnace?

suydam

HA! That's what I thought after living 30 years in Ohio! I have discovered, however, that the morning's are colder than I thought they would be in "winter" here. It just takes the chill off. So the question is really, how long can we limp by with the current one until it dies, since it only gets used a few weeks out of the year? Answer: as long as possible.

graphicguy

HVAC is imperative every season in OH. I think I have mine off maybe 4-5 weeks out of the year. It's either heating or cooling. That said, my furnace/AC units last about 20 years, ea. Not bad for year round comfort.

stever

We've mostly had crawl spaces but two houses had basements. I don't like them because I don't like stairs - one Boise house had a walkout basement that was okay, but it was a tri-level so there were only 8 steps down from the main floor.

If you build a house out here with a basement or crawler, people shy away, wondering what's wrong with the land that you had to dig deep. It's all on slab. One nice thing about slabs is that the snakes can't come up through the crawl space to nap in your utensil drawer.

When we wind up with a second car, the van is going to live outside. I like having some space in the garage.

And yeah, you don't own stuff, it owns you.

sda

A quick blast from the past. Hoping to get some use out of them again one day.

stickguy

Hey. Anyone familiar with LED headlight option (this would be on an Audi)? Wonderful feature or useless gimmick?

Son is debating a car with them. Pricey option though, so wants to make sure they are truly useful

ab348

suydam said:

I feel your pain. We need to replace our furnace -- an expense I should have figured on, but didn't (out of sight, out of mind). At least in SoCal it's not as critical as in Ohio!

What about a heat pump?

jmonroe

sda said:

A quick blast from the past. Hoping to get some use out of them again one day.

Well, that is not the Sears Timing Light that I had. I must have had the predecessor to yours because mine was not the "inductive" model. Mine was the old style where you had to remove the spark plug wire to attach the wire from the timing light. I think I bought it in the early 70's but like I said before, the strobe was very bright.

Also, I did not have the multi-function Hawk tester that you have. I had a dwell/RPM meter that I bought from Lafayette Electronics. My dwell/tach had a nice 6 inch scale and because it was large it was very easy to read between the markings (so, I got you on that one ).

I remember getting the timing light before I got the dwell/tach meter. Because I only owned GM V8's with the sliding door on the distributor cap, I could use the timing light to adjust the points with very little effort. I remember one guy I worked with who said that was IMPOSSIBLE. I told him if the timing did not change, which it never will unless the timing chain wears enough or the points are way off, the timing mark on the crankshaft can be used to set the points. He didn't believe me and came over one time when I was doing a tune up and he brought his dwell/tach to prove that I was all wet.

I first checked the timing to see where the crankshaft mark lined up with the saw tooth timing gauge index that was mounted on the engine block and I wrote down that mark. I then installed the plugs, put the points in the distributor right out of the package and then started up the car. I shined the timing light on the timing mark which was now off a little bit because the points were not adjusted with a feeler gauge. I then adjusted the points with an allen wrench watching the timing mark until it lined up with the index mark where it was before I started the process. When I was satisfied, my friend connected his dwell/tach meter to the points connection and low and behold the points were exactly at 30 degrees which was the midpoint for my GM V8 that had a points setting span of 28 to 32 degrees. He was very surprised but I wasn't because I had done this countless times before with success every time.

I told him, "when I know I'm right it's because I have checked and double checked what I have said, so you don't have to question me". Like I have said here before..."if I tell you a cow is going to lay an egg, go fetch a skillet...a big one".

FWIW, to check electrical stuff like volts, amps, ohms etc. I had a Simpson 260 Multimeter and it also had a 6 inch scale.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

What do you think of this?

http://www.onallcylinders.com/2016/11/22/ford-poised-to-axe-v6-for-2018-mustang-leaving-these-engine-options/

I guess it makes sense seeing that the 2.3L puts out more hp. & torque.

What about the 3.5L Ecoboost? That's a 6 cyl.

qbrozen

the v6 makes no sense. They should have axed it from the outset and saved some money.

Replacing the v8 with an ecoboost 6 could certainly be feasible in the future., although I really have my doubts it would improve mileage.

PF_Flyer

driver100 said:

Those self driving cars in 6 years...reminds me of Popular Mechanics from 1951.

Yea, and I'm still waiting for all the stuff I saw at the GM Futurama exhibit at the 1964 World's Fair

graphicguy

stickguy said:

Hey. Anyone familiar with LED headlight option (this would be on an Audi)? Wonderful feature or useless gimmick?

Son is debating a car with them. Pricey option though, so wants to make sure they are truly useful

Stick....I have LED DRLs on the CTS (a lot of them...they run nearly the entire vertical surface on each side of the grill) that stay on when I have the HIDs on at night. Gotta say, that combo offers the best vehicle ilimination I've ever encountered.

The down side? I get "flashed" with oncoming car lights even though I have my low beams on.

Coming in 2nd would be the LED rings around the HIDs on my former 335i. Those did a good job, too.

All LEDs? Had those on the ex's Accord. Not bad, but not as good as on the CTS or BMW.