Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

nyccarguy

Yes. As well as money you make selling things on ebay & craig's list

graphicguy

imidazol97 said:

For those still fighting the Camaro vs. Mustang battles, here's a definitive (grin) answer from MT.

", the performance pack-equipped 2015 Ford Mustang GT is deemed the superior car to sit in, but both yield that the 2014 Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE is still a tighter, more agile driving experience. The results of the two cars’ respective hot laps seems to back this up."

So if you just want to sit in the car and look good, buy a Mustang? Is that what they're saying? And if you want to drive the heck out of one buy a Camaro. Actually I'm amused by the article. Because it says it's actually NOT a comparison of the two cars but of the specific packages on the ones which they tested. In other words, for the rest of us, we have no information from them about which is better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTJPDurLEKw

Imid...good vid. Thanks.

Just was talking about this yesterday with my friend who just bought the new 'Vette. How many people really track their track worthy cars (like his Z51 equipped car)?. My guess, probably less than 1% track their cars.

It's been over a decade since I did any track work, myself.

So, that begs the question, is the Camaro or the Mustang the more satisfying drive day-to-day?

ab348

Neither, I suspect. The Camaro is sheer hell to drive in normal use due to lack of visibility. That is probably why MT said the Mustang is better to sit in. I drove the 2011-gen Mustang a couple of times and didn't mind the experience, but I imagine that nose-heavy RWD chassis would be sheer hell in snow and ice.

Michaell

ab348 said:

Neither, I suspect. The Camaro is sheer hell to drive in normal use due to lack of visibility. That is probably why MT said the Mustang is better to sit in. I drove the 2011-gen Mustang a couple of times and didn't mind the experience, but I imagine that nose-heavy RWD chassis would be sheer hell in snow and ice.

I test drove both a Mustang GT and a Camaro SS a couple of years ago - V8 and stick shift on both.

I much preferred the Mustang specifically because the visibility is better.

stickguy

To me the mustang is nominally a real car. The Camaro is a toy.

roadburner

Track capability is still a big plus for me, and at 57 my wife and I have yet to adopt the old coot hunched-over stoop, so low slung coupes are still on the menu. I'm just completely underwhelmed by the Camaro AND the Mustang. Maybe a Boss 302 version of the the new Mustang may change my mind, but I'm sure not enthused about the current cars. Ditto for most any car I've looked at lately. It seems everything bores me, save a Cayman S or an M235i with a proper diff and sans sunroof.

Mr_Shiftright

Watching this video and looking at the curb weights of these two very capable "porkers", I got to thinking about when Colin Chapman the founder of Lotus went as a spectator to the Indy 500. At that time the cars were all RWD, front engine monsters and they did indeed go blisteringly fast. Chapman looked at the race and said something like "I could beat these brutes with a car half the size".....which he did, with the mid-engine, Ford-powered Lotus 38....his entry not only won, but basically walked over all the other cars in 1965. His approach to automotive engineering was "add lightness". True, most of his cars were a tad...um...delicate...but he did make good on his boast nonetheless and there are no more front-engined cars at Indy anymore.

I was just wondering what a 2,900 pound Mustang or Camaro would drive like, and feel like, instead of the current 2-tonners.

isellhondas

When I was a very young Division Manager for a very large Sears store I caught, by accident a log term trusted employee stealing. Of course, we had to let him go. He was in his 40's at the time and I was about 23. I remember he cried.

The Store Manager was a great mentor and teacher. I remember what he said to me.

" Craig, I know this hurt you a lot but sometimes the people you trust the most are the ones who will steal if they think they can get away with it"

Actually, I got pretty good at catching employee theft and it was fairly common.

Michaell

Mr_Shiftright said:

Watching this video and looking at the curb weights of these two very capable "porkers", I got to thinking about when Colin Chapman the founder of Lotus went as a spectator to the Indy 500. At that time the cars were all RWD, front engine monsters and they did indeed go blisteringly fast. Chapman looked at the race and said something like "I could beat these brutes with a car half the size".....which he did, with the mid-engine, Ford-powered Lotus 38....his entry not only won, but basically walked over all the other cars in 1965. His approach to automotive engineering was "add lightness". True, most of his cars were a tad...um...delicate...but he did make good on his boast nonetheless and there are no more front-engined cars at Indy anymore.

I was just wondering what a 2,900 pound Mustang or Camaro would drive like, and feel like, instead of the current 2-tonners.

Shifty, I completely agree with you. Between the mandated safety equipment and all the in-car tech, cars are getting way overweight.

While I too would love to see what a sub 3000 pound pony car would be like, I doubt we'll ever see it.

As I understand it, Lotus' were engineered to do the job as designed, and not add one gram or ounce extra. Were they fragile? Some would say yes, but they have a great history of racing success to back them up.

Mr_Shiftright

There are absolutely some people who revel in stealing from others and enjoy it. I have met some professional con men and discussed this with them at length. It's not only a "game" for them (thrill of the hunt, challenge to fool people), but with the true gangster mentality, it blames the victims for being so stupid, as a rationalization for the amoral behavior.

isellhondas said:

When I was a very young Division Manager for a very large Sears store I caught, by accident a log term trusted employee stealing. Of course, we had to let him go. He was in his 40's at the time and I was about 23. I remember he cried.

The Store Manager was a great mentor and teacher. I remember what he said to me.

" Craig, I know this hurt you a lot but sometimes the people you trust the most are the ones who will steal if they think they can get away with it"

Actually, I got pretty good at catching employee theft and it was fairly common.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

Driver wanted more crazy car ads:

Here ya' go.

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/4722747480.html

You folks near Chicago will recognize where this "Albany NY" seller had his car serviced.

That one must have been too good oldfarmer, when I checked I got:
"This posting has been flagged for removal".
(The title on the listings page will be removed in just a few minutes.)

Find us another one!

Too bad, you would have loved it. It was an ad for a 2006 Accord with 39k miles for $2000. Of course the "owner" had a gmail address (probably in Nigeria) and claimed he had all his service done 1500 miles away in Chicago.


Those scam ads get flagged quick.

oldfarmer50

"...
One other thing, a question for oldfarmer. I was watching the review and I was thinking owning one of those cars would be a blast. Then, I thought, what will those cars be like driving them in the winter, and even worse....I thought, what would it be like getting in and out of them?

My back is aching just thinking about that..."

I don't drive my Eclipse in winter because of the salt so I wouldn't do that in a Mustang either. That's what the 20 yo Lincoln is for.

If I can get out of the Corvette and the Eclipse the Mustang should be a breeze.

ab348

Watching the video, I'm surprised by how well the Camaro performed over the brand-new Mustang. One assumes Ford would have had a fleet of Camaros available during the design/prototype stage to compare the new car against. It amazes me that it did so poorly on the track by comparison to the much older Camaro.

ab348

isellhondas said:

When I was a very young Division Manager for a very large Sears store I caught, by accident a log term trusted employee stealing. Of course, we had to let him go. He was in his 40's at the time and I was about 23. I remember he cried.

The Store Manager was a great mentor and teacher. I remember what he said to me.

" Craig, I know this hurt you a lot but sometimes the people you trust the most are the ones who will steal if they think they can get away with it"

Actually, I got pretty good at catching employee theft and it was fairly common.

The place I just retired from has very secure retail stores - it is not unusual to have 40 or 50 video cameras in an 8000 sq ft retail store. Each cash lane has full video coverage, usually from multiple angles. And yet people still steal. It is not the typical kind of theft where a sale is failed to be rung in and the cash pocketed, as that is easy to detect with the video and audit controls. It is more back-office fraud, where inventory gets miscounted and taken, or cash balancing fraud occurs. Sometimes you have 2 or more employees conspire to defeat the controls. Our environment was heavily unionized and the union was militant, so sometimes they even fought dismissals for theft if the employee had other issues like family illness or other excuses. Amazingly, sometimes they won those cases.

Our head of internal audit used to work for me and he had lots of experience and was a wise fellow. He had no mercy for those who just stole. But in situations where we had put temptation right in the way of someone he was more tolerant, saying that it was our fault for doing that while not installing the proper controls in the first place.

oldfarmer50

imidazol97 said:

For those still fighting the Camaro vs. Mustang battles, here's a definitive (grin) answer from MT.

", the performance pack-equipped 2015 Ford Mustang GT is deemed the superior car to sit in, but both yield that the 2014 Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE is still a tighter, more agile driving experience. The results of the two cars’ respective hot laps seems to back this up."

So if you just want to sit in the car and look good, buy a Mustang? Is that what they're saying? And if you want to drive the heck out of one buy a Camaro. Actually I'm amused by the article. Because it says it's actually NOT a comparison of the two cars but of the specific packages on the ones which they tested. In other words, for the rest of us, we have no information from them about which is better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTJPDurLEKw

From the video it sounds like the Mustang needs work on the shocks and tires at least for track work.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

To me the mustang is nominally a real car. The Camaro is a toy.

The guy who bought my old Corvette had a Camaro V8. He drove me home in it after the sale. Interior looked cheap and his brakes squealed like a dump truck. He said it was a design defect with them. Visibility was non existant.

I would go crazy driving a car that did that.

jayrider

My father had a supermarket back in the 50's and 60's. The checkers were neighborhood people and they would routinely forget to charge for meat purchases. His brother stole big time -- altered checks and accounts. Put him out of business.

driver100

Mr_Shiftright said:

There are absolutely some people who revel in stealing from others and enjoy it. I have met some professional con men and discussed this with them at length. It's not only a "game" for them (thrill of the hunt, challenge to fool people), but with the true gangster mentality, it blames the victims for being so stupid, as a rationalization for the amoral behavior.

isellhondas said:

When I was a very young Division Manager for a very large Sears store I caught, by accident a log term trusted employee stealing. Of course, we had to let him go. He was in his 40's at the time and I was about 23. I remember he cried.

The Store Manager was a great mentor and teacher. I remember what he said to me.

" Craig, I know this hurt you a lot but sometimes the people you trust the most are the ones who will steal if they think they can get away with it"

Actually, I got pretty good at catching employee theft and it was fairly common.

That's interesting to me. The last woman we fired for theft was a pretty good worker and very pleasant. But, she did feel she was owed big time, and that she was a very special employee, who was undervalued.

Once I had to cut back everyone's hours because our largest customer wanted us to stop shipping for a season. This same woman was very upset and told everyone she was going to look for another job. We went back to regular hours in about 2 weeks, but, she had no idea what we as owners had to do to survive...we couldn't keep paying her to come in to work when we didn't have enough for her to do. I am sure she stole because she thought she deserved the money.

driver100

Mr_Shiftright said:

There are absolutely some people who revel in stealing from others and enjoy it. I have met some professional con men and discussed this with them at length. It's not only a "game" for them (thrill of the hunt, challenge to fool people), but with the true gangster mentality, it blames the victims for being so stupid, as a rationalization for the amoral behavior.

isellhondas said:

When I was a very young Division Manager for a very large Sears store I caught, by accident a log term trusted employee stealing. Of course, we had to let him go. He was in his 40's at the time and I was about 23. I remember he cried.

The Store Manager was a great mentor and teacher. I remember what he said to me.

" Craig, I know this hurt you a lot but sometimes the people you trust the most are the ones who will steal if they think they can get away with it"

Actually, I got pretty good at catching employee theft and it was fairly common.

I know I have talked about my SIL and his business methods but this one was a classic...it should go in a business book somewhere - How Not to Run Your Business.

He does all the usual stuff, forgets to sign checks, puts the wrong year on checks, tells suppliers the check will be there next week, mails it at the post office on Fiday just before closing time.....every stupid trick possible.

We had one supplier who wanted payment on delivery. They had excellent merchandise but they had to pay for it immediately, so they wanted us to pay them right away.

SIL of course doesn't pay for weeks. Just when they call asking for their money there is a postal strike. SIL tells the supplier, if you want to be paid have UPS come by and I'll give them a check to take to you.

This was a bill he didn't pay on time, and he wants the supplier to have their money picked up. It cost us $5 to courier a check to them, and I told him to move his butt and to send them their check right away.

He is a person who feels better and thinks he made a smart move if he can top someone else!

driver100

ab348 said:

Watching the video, I'm surprised by how well the Camaro performed over the brand-new Mustang. One assumes Ford would have had a fleet of Camaros available during the design/prototype stage to compare the new car against. It amazes me that it did so poorly on the track by comparison to the much older Camaro.

It is possible Ford made the Mustang so it is more roadworthy for the average customer, while the Camaro is more trackworthy....for the few who will drive it on a track? Or is it an all out race to see who can make the fastest car?

Overall, people are buying way more Camaros than Mustangs, and Challenger is way down the list. For the fourth month in a row, Chevrolet sold more Camaros than Ford did Mustangs. With 9,961 Camaros finding new homes last month compared to 6,564 Mustangs, the Camaro was able to scamper ahead of the Mustang by 5,900 units for total 2014 sales. Chevrolet’s seven month total of 56,633 Camaros sold represents a 12 percent gain in sales over the same time period last year. The Dodge Challenger remains a footnote in the pony car wars, with a mere 4,294 units sold in July.

Not sure how the Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE and Mustang GT pp sales compare.

ab348

driver100 said:

He does all the usual stuff, forgets to sign checks, puts the wrong year on checks, tells suppliers the check will be there next week, mails it at the post office on Fiday just before closing time.....every stupid trick possible.

This reminded me of something else that I had forgotten about the owner at the company where I had my first job.

Since their bank account was often nearly empty if not overdrawn, they were constantly juggling payment demands from unpaid suppliers. He would tell them the usual lies about the cheque being in the mail, etc.

One way he came up with for covering those lies was with the postage meter. We had a Pitney-Bowes postage machine like a lot of companies. Often when he had just gotten off the phone after telling an irate supplier that he had sent their payment a week or two ago, he would get one of the clerks to roll back the date on the postage machine and run an envelope through showing a past date to "prove" he had sent the cheque a while ago. Or they would run a bunch of envelopes through the machine with todays date but then stick them in a drawer for future use. What a place.

imidazol97

driver100 said:

is possible Ford made the Mustang so it is more roadworthy for the average customer, while the Camaro is more trackworthy....for the few who will drive it on a track? Or is it an all out race to see who can make the fastest car?

As I read it these are not normal cars but are performance models. The magazine was clear that the results here don't really represent a typical Mustang vs Camaro matchup. But rather, they represent these two high performance models matched up.

mako1a

Multi post responses. I bought my Mustang because it sat 4 inches higher than the Corvette which was my second choice (not the Camaro). I just wish it had a touch more exhaust note.

I just got back from the grocery store. I got a $5 instead of a $1 in change which upon trying to tell the clerk she gave me the wrong change, she got a touch indignant for a second like I was trying to receive rather than give. When she realized I wanted to give her back the 5 for a 1 she got real quiet and corrected the mistake. My wife said that was nice to see even though I was fine just knowing it was the right thing to do.

Mustang will never see snow. That's what trucks are for.

graphicguy

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

To me the mustang is nominally a real car. The Camaro is a toy.

The guy who bought my old Corvette had a Camaro V8. He drove me home in it after the sale. Interior looked cheap and his brakes squealed like a dump truck. He said it was a design defect with them. Visibility was non existant.

I would go crazy driving a car that did that.

My "other" sister (the one who loves muscle, not the one who loves Benzs) has a recent vintage Camaro. It's a convertible. Fun car....EXCEPT, it's a slush box. And, I don't know how GM with their new found interest in interior design and higher quality materials, let her car out of the design room. Interior is terrible, and the materials in it even worse. It goes like castor oil through a goose, though.

driver100

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

He does all the usual stuff, forgets to sign checks, puts the wrong year on checks, tells suppliers the check will be there next week, mails it at the post office on Fiday just before closing time.....every stupid trick possible.

This reminded me of something else that I had forgotten about the owner at the company where I had my first job.

Since their bank account was often nearly empty if not overdrawn, they were constantly juggling payment demands from unpaid suppliers. He would tell them the usual lies about the cheque being in the mail, etc.

One way he came up with for covering those lies was with the postage meter. We had a Pitney-Bowes postage machine like a lot of companies. Often when he had just gotten off the phone after telling an irate supplier that he had sent their payment a week or two ago, he would get one of the clerks to roll back the date on the postage machine and run an envelope through showing a past date to "prove" he had sent the cheque a while ago. Or they would run a bunch of envelopes through the machine with todays date but then stick them in a drawer for future use. What a place.

It is funny to me...if these people put more effort into running their business honestly and efficiently, they could spend less time trying juggle their books.

I could still look at the bank records when we signed off on the company. In one 2 week period, the SIL had 10 NSF checks that cost $45 each. One NSF bill for $45 was for a $15 check. He also likes using ATMs even though he is at the bank a few days a week....cost $4 a withdrawal, and there could be 3 or 4 of those a week.

To me the waste of money, the inefficiency, the time wasted, is amusing to see, but is sad.

explorerx4

I'm sure if you look back at when the Camaro was released, the Mustang, despite being an older design was the better handler.
Since then the Camaro has had several years of development, which has improved how it handles, so now the Mustang is trailing in that department.
The Mustang is new and I don't think the track focused versions have been released, or maybe even developed, yet.
The 1LE handling package is a +1 over what is currently available in the Mustang.

oldfarmer50

roadburner said:

Track capability is still a big plus for me, and at 57 my wife and I have yet to adopt the old coot hunched-over stoop, so low slung coupes are still on the menu. I'm just completely underwhelmed by the Camaro AND the Mustang. Maybe a Boss 302 version of the the new Mustang may change my mind, but I'm sure not enthused about the current cars. Ditto for most any car I've looked at lately. It seems everything bores me, save a Cayman S or an M235i with a proper diff and sans sunroof.

Just watching that video showed how much better planted the Camaro was on the track. I wonder how that translates into drivability on the street. A good track car might be too rough for daily use.

stever

Haven't driven a Mustang but the rental Camaro I had last year in SoCal was a lot of fun to tool around in.

explorerx4

@oldfarmer, I know you looked at a bunch of tires for your Eclipse.
Here is a link to the tires the 1LE Camaro has:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Eagle+F1+Supercar+G:+2&leftTire=835YR0F1G2LV2&rightTire=835YR0F1G2RV2&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&autoMake=Chevrolet&autoYear=2014&autoModel=Camaro SS&autoModClar=1LE&tab=Warranty

imidazol97

stever said:

Haven't driven a Mustang but the rental Camaro I had last year in SoCal was a lot of fun to tool around in.

That was the white convertible IIRC? Nice.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

@oldfarmer, I know you looked at a bunch of tires for your Eclipse.
Here is a link to the tires the 1LE Camaro has:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Eagle+F1+Supercar+G:+2&leftTire=835YR0F1G2LV2&rightTire=835YR0F1G2RV2&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&autoMake=Chevrolet&autoYear=2014&autoModel=Camaro SS&autoModClar=1LE&tab=Warranty

That's more than twice what TireRack charges for the ones I bought. ($123)

What about the tires on the Mustang?

explorerx4

@oldfarmer. You are the one considering a Mustang, so you should look that up.

stever

imidazol97 said:

That was the white convertible IIRC? Nice.

Silver actually but it looked white in some of the pics.



I didn't have the top down that much and don't remember any extreme visibility issues. The HUD was really nice in it.

Mr_Shiftright

I wonder what the average age is of buyers for the performance level Camaros and Mustangs. My suspicion is that many are gray beards (the younger edge of the boomers) and really don't want a back-breaking suspension on an everyday driver.

I remember lending an older friend my MINI and he came back and said "damn skateboard!"

snakeweasel

robr2 said:

driver100 said:

IRS doesn't care how you obtain your money....just have to make sure you claim it on your taxes.

OK, Snake, what line on the tax form do you insert income from illegal sources?

Form 1040 Line 21 (other income) or schedule C - just like money earned from self employment.

You really wouldn't use line 21 unless your criminal activity is a hobby, otherwise I would put it in the schedule C. But be careful of what deductions you make.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

robr2 said:

driver100 said:

IRS doesn't care how you obtain your money....just have to make sure you claim it on your taxes.

OK, Snake, what line on the tax form do you insert income from illegal sources?

Form 1040 Line 21 (other income) or schedule C - just like money earned from self employment.

Thanks rob. I am not allowed to actually have an income from the U.S. (have to file an 8840 tax form these days stating that), however, if I do happen to receive some money through dubious methods I'll file a 1040 and include the amount on line 21.

Is that also where the world's oldest profession would state his/her income as well? Just curious!

It would be self employment income so schedule C.

stickguy

well Shifty, the problem is, the fancy models are so crazy expensive now, young folk generally can't afford them. The old goats have all the money to spend on these now.

snakeweasel

nyccarguy said:

Yes. As well as money you make selling things on ebay & craig's list

If you buy inventory for the expressed purpose of selling it then it is self employment income and would go on a schedule C. If you bought it for an investment with the hope of selling it later at a higher price then it is a capital gain and reported on a schedule D.

snakeweasel

isellhondas said:

When I was a very young Division Manager for a very large Sears store I caught, by accident a log term trusted employee stealing. Of course, we had to let him go. He was in his 40's at the time and I was about 23. I remember he cried.

The Store Manager was a great mentor and teacher. I remember what he said to me.

" Craig, I know this hurt you a lot but sometimes the people you trust the most are the ones who will steal if they think they can get away with it"

Actually, I got pretty good at catching employee theft and it was fairly common.

Several years ago where I work they were catching people with their hands in the til right and left. The strange thing about it was it quickly became common knowledge and people still kept stealing. Did people really think that they would be the one that didn't get caught?

roadburner

oldfarmer50 said:

Just watching that video showed how much better planted the Camaro was on the track. I wonder how that translates into drivability on the street. A good track car might be too rough for daily use.

It depends on the car; for decades BMWs had suspensions that were quite comfortable yet still suitable for occasional track use. Run-flats and poor design choices now negate that ability to a significant degree. That said, my goal with my Mazda was to make it considerably more track worthy without destroying everyday comfort and usability. I think I've succeeded- my wife says she can't tell the car has been modified at all. I think it rides and handles more like a classic BMW than 99% of new BMWs.

Unless you give it full throttle with the wheels turned to any significant degree...

murphydog

OK - Continued

So we found our unicorn - X3 35i, right year, low miles, M sport package and not black. Alpine White, Mohave leather - nearly all the bells and whistles

Negotiation was over in about 10 minutes. The offered 46,900 (from 48,900) and 16K for my trade in (exactly as I researched, and mirroring real world trade in forum posts)

Car is rare in the PNW and when one comes in they sell in a few days.

We wanted closer to 43,xxx - but given that this was a '14 with 8,000 miles on the clock there was no way they would go lower (and if I was the dealer I would not have gone lower either)

So we shook hands and took the car.

I am having them take the venture shield off - a white car with a dirty plastic film on the front is not my cup of tea.

Wife loves it, and I really like driving it as well. May not be a BMW of yore, but way more exciting to drive than an RX 350.

stickguy

sounds like a nice car. Enjoy it.

mako1a

Wow, I just looked up the price of the Pirelli P Zeros on my Mustang on the site posted by Mr Explorer. Maybe I'll cut back on the smoking burnouts.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

robr2 said:

driver100 said:

IRS doesn't care how you obtain your money....just have to make sure you claim it on your taxes.

OK, Snake, what line on the tax form do you insert income from illegal sources?

Form 1040 Line 21 (other income) or schedule C - just like money earned from self employment.

Thanks rob. I am not allowed to actually have an income from the U.S. (have to file an 8840 tax form these days stating that), however, if I do happen to receive some money through dubious methods I'll file a 1040 and include the amount on line 21.

Is that also where the world's oldest profession would state his/her income as well? Just curious!

It would be self employment income so schedule C.

Unless you're growing pot on your farm. Then it would be schedule F.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

@oldfarmer. You are the one considering a Mustang, so you should look that up.

This is what TireRack says is OEM with performance pack. Don't know if this is what was on that Stang in the video. Is there a difference between "extreme" performance tires (Camaro) and "max" performance tires (Mustang)? If so that might explain some of the Mustang's track deficiencies.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?tireIndex=0&autoMake=Ford&autoYear=2015&autoModel=Mustang+Fastback&autoModClar=GT+w/+Performance+Pkg&frontWidth=255/&frontRatio=40&frontDiameter=19&frontSortCode=57450&rearWidth=275/&rearRatio=40&rearDiameter=19&rearSortCode=57752&tab=OE&filterType=oe

driver100

murphydog said:

OK - Continued

So we found our unicorn - X3 35i, right year, low miles, M sport package and not black. Alpine White, Mohave leather - nearly all the bells and whistles

Negotiation was over in about 10 minutes. The offered 46,900 (from 48,900) and 16K for my trade in (exactly as I researched, and mirroring real world trade in forum posts)

Car is rare in the PNW and when one comes in they sell in a few days.

We wanted closer to 43,xxx - but given that this was a '14 with 8,000 miles on the clock there was no way they would go lower (and if I was the dealer I would not have gone lower either)

So we shook hands and took the car.

I am having them take the venture shield off - a white car with a dirty plastic film on the front is not my cup of tea.

Wife loves it, and I really like driving it as well. May not be a BMW of yore, but way more exciting to drive than an RX 350.

Sounds like a really nice car murph and the deal went down really well. 8,000 miles is like nothing, and the final price is reasonable. White looks great on the X3 and the Mohave leather compliments it perfectly. I am glad you didn't get hung up on the $43k vs $46,900 as you were probably hoping for a very low price (we all do) and in the big scheme of things that isn't going to matter since you got a great car at a good price.

I'd be really interested in hearing about the comparisons between driving the X3 compared to the RX350. if you get a chance.

houdini1

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

robr2 said:

driver100 said:

IRS doesn't care how you obtain your money....just have to make sure you claim it on your taxes.

OK, Snake, what line on the tax form do you insert income from illegal sources?

Form 1040 Line 21 (other income) or schedule C - just like money earned from self employment.

Thanks rob. I am not allowed to actually have an income from the U.S. (have to file an 8840 tax form these days stating that), however, if I do happen to receive some money through dubious methods I'll file a 1040 and include the amount on line 21.

Is that also where the world's oldest profession would state his/her income as well? Just curious!

It would be self employment income so schedule C.

Would a depreciation/depletion credit be allowable ?

driver100

houdini1 said:

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

robr2 said:

driver100 said:

IRS doesn't care how you obtain your money....just have to make sure you claim it on your taxes.

OK, Snake, what line on the tax form do you insert income from illegal sources?

Form 1040 Line 21 (other income) or schedule C - just like money earned from self employment.

Thanks rob. I am not allowed to actually have an income from the U.S. (have to file an 8840 tax form these days stating that), however, if I do happen to receive some money through dubious methods I'll file a 1040 and include the amount on line 21.

Is that also where the world's oldest profession would state his/her income as well? Just curious!

It would be self employment income so schedule C.

Would a depreciation/depletion credit be allowable ?

lol...and are things like make-up, clothes and other tools of the trade tax deductible?

jayrider

Mr_Shiftright said:

I wonder what the average age is of buyers for the performance level Camaros and Mustangs. My suspicion is that many are gray beards (the younger edge of the boomers) and really don't want a back-breaking suspension on an everyday driver.

I remember lending an older friend my MINI and he came back and said "damn skateboard!"

Don't forget the bald head with the graybeard -- add a pot belly and you hit the demographic on the head.

oldfarmer50

Sorry for that link to TireRack.

The Mustang tires listed as OEM with the performance pack were Perrelli max performance summer tires 235/40R19 front and 275s on the rear.