Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

abacomike

jayrider said:

Local dealer has a new ad. 2014 Jetta S stick for 10K. You have to register to buy it like a lottery. If they pull your name from the barrel, you are offered the car at that price. Don't want it ? No problem, contest is over and they keep the car. Wonder how many leads they will generate with this scheme.

My dealership did that once - a lottery for a brand new car - but it was a pre-paid 24 month lease.  It generated a tremendous amount of traffic in the showroom and we sold quite a few cars that month.

We used to provide a car for many non-profits in the area as a "hole-in-one" grand prize.  We just paid the insurance premium to the insurance company that insured that if someone got a hole-in-one on the designated par 3, the insurance company paid for the car at dead invoice.  I think the premium was like $750.00.  The odds of someone getting a hole-in-one are quite small - like a thousand to one.

roadburner

jayrider said:

Local dealer has a new ad. 2014 Jetta S stick for 10K. You have to register to buy it like a lottery. If they pull your name from the barrel, you are offered the car at that price. Don't want it ? No problem, contest is over and they keep the car. Wonder how many leads they will generate with this scheme.

That's how I bought a 1967 Buick Riviera for $5 back in 1979...

stickguy

OK Jay, where is the link or name of the dealer? I'll sign up, if it doesn't cost anything!

graphicguy

imidazol97 said:

graphicguy said:

I don't blame the sales people, but that entire dealer group's owner and management are notorious grinders.

"Cars, like eggs, are cheaper in the country." Jeff Wyler Chevrolet slogan circa 1980

Yeah...they haven't used that tag line in awhile.

Tried to buy a 370Z from them, and just to see if they had changed? They had the dreaded Additional Dealer Markup sticker added. I paid a visit to their Caddy store. They had one I was sort of interested in. They had one price on their WEB site. SM came back with a price $3K higher wben I visited their store. Then, after calling them on it, they wanted to grind me to the price that was already advertised.

Not interested!

jayrider

stickguy said:

OK Jay, where is the link or name of the dealer? I'll sign up, if it doesn't cost anything!

Sorry, the more entries, the lower my chances. Find your own cheap car.

stickguy

so, playing it like that I see.

Well, game is on!

Mr_Shiftright

oh, that's cold.

qbrozen

ha. well, I'd have to imagine they want the person there. They wouldn't want entries from anywhere in the country since that doesn't help their business.

murphydog

Michelin Pilot Sport AS Plus

Curious if any of you are running this tire on your car? I put a set of 4 on my 08 C350 when the OEM Conti's were worn out. This is an all season tire, with a warranty of 45,000 miles, perfect for the Pacific Northwest and my asymmetric wheel package. Got them in 2011 with 23,000 miles on the car, now have 41,000 miles and all 4 are "chunking" blocks of tread.

I called Discount Tire, and as soon as they pulled up my car he said "oh, they are chunking off tread, right?" before I had even described the problem.

I have an appointment tomorrow, and it sounds as if I am going to get the pro-rated mileage warranty - is that right? Seems like the tires have actually failed, not worn out early?

Any thoughts or experience within this group?

Mr_Shiftright

I have read numerous comments on the Internet about these tires chunking out. They are anecdotal references to be sure, but there are enough of them from various owners on various cars, to give one pause. Keep in mind we are talking about the "Plus" version.

jayrider

murphydog said:

Michelin Pilot Sport AS Plus

Curious if any of you are running this tire on your car? I put a set of 4 on my 08 C350 when the OEM Conti's were worn out. This is an all season tire, with a warranty of 45,000 miles, perfect for the Pacific Northwest and my asymmetric wheel package. Got them in 2011 with 23,000 miles on the car, now have 41,000 miles and all 4 are "chunking" blocks of tread.

I called Discount Tire, and as soon as they pulled up my car he said "oh, they are chunking off tread, right?" before I had even described the problem.

I have an appointment tomorrow, and it sounds as if I am going to get the pro-rated mileage warranty - is that right? Seems like the tires have actually failed, not worn out early?

Any thoughts or experience within this group?

I usually stick to cheap Chinese tires and have never had a problem.

qbrozen

aren't they all chinese these days anyway?

Seriously, though, I have had some good experiences with off brand tires. I've bought several of these Accelera tires from tires-easy and they've been good thus far. Not the stickiest, but they put up with a lot of abuse. Same was true of the first set of Sumitomos I bought back in I believe '06 or '07 (I think it is a more recognized brand now, but I could be wrong). Although I did have some Nankangs I wasn't keen on. 2 of them were on the volvo when I bought it and they wore out quite quickly.

oldfarmer50

murphydog said:

Michelin Pilot Sport AS Plus

Curious if any of you are running this tire on your car? I put a set of 4 on my 08 C350 when the OEM Conti's were worn out. This is an all season tire, with a warranty of 45,000 miles, perfect for the Pacific Northwest and my asymmetric wheel package. Got them in 2011 with 23,000 miles on the car, now have 41,000 miles and all 4 are "chunking" blocks of tread.

I called Discount Tire, and as soon as they pulled up my car he said "oh, they are chunking off tread, right?" before I had even described the problem.

I have an appointment tomorrow, and it sounds as if I am going to get the pro-rated mileage warranty - is that right? Seems like the tires have actually failed, not worn out early?

Any thoughts or experience within this group?

Forgive my ignorance but what is chunking? You mean chunks of the tread are flying off?

Mr_Shiftright

Yeah, like a bird has pecked holes in it.

driver100

murphydog said:

Michelin Pilot Sport AS Plus

Curious if any of you are running this tire on your car? I put a set of 4 on my 08 C350 when the OEM Conti's were worn out. This is an all season tire, with a warranty of 45,000 miles, perfect for the Pacific Northwest and my asymmetric wheel package. Got them in 2011 with 23,000 miles on the car, now have 41,000 miles and all 4 are "chunking" blocks of tread.

I called Discount Tire, and as soon as they pulled up my car he said "oh, they are chunking off tread, right?" before I had even described the problem.

I have an appointment tomorrow, and it sounds as if I am going to get the pro-rated mileage warranty - is that right? Seems like the tires have actually failed, not worn out early?

Any thoughts or experience within this group?

The way I see it, you got 23k miles on the first set of tires that came with the car. These tires have 41k - 23k = 17k miles on them, so not great, but not too bad. It is hard to believe a tire that wears out at about 20k miles can really last for 45K miles...I don't know if that happens these days. Maybe on a super light car that is driven at 30 mph.

Not sure what chunking is but I think they will give you a new set...pro-rated, which still means you will pay more than you think you should. Unfortunately, warranties are all written in favor of the manufacturer, as I found out with our Audi clutch. No human could read all the fine print, and pro-rated warranties will always benefit the manufacturer.

stickguy

Tires have really gotten expensive lately

dino001

stickguy said:

Tires have really gotten expensive lately

Also because wheels are often 45, 40 "fraction" even less. Low profiles, large rims. Take a look at a 10-15-year-old car and then look at its current version. Rims grew by one or two inches, at least, sometimes more. Wheel size is only marginally larger. It takes much more to support a wheel on 4 inches vs. 6 or 8 as it used to be.

ab348

True enough. In the last 15 years I went from 15" rims to 16 to 17 to 18 on my Regal. Back to 17" on the ATS.

stever

With the price of oil in free-fall, tire prices should be coming down.

Okay, y'all can quit laughing now. Tire prices went up an average of 70% between '09 and '12 per Dunn Tire.

stickguy

my new car has 17" wheels. I have no desire for anything bigger. 55 series tires which is OK.

the other 2 cars 16" 55s and 18" on the RDX but those are IIRC 60 or 65 series. Nice big sidewalls!

qbrozen

On compact and midsize cars, I think 17" is our sweet spot here in NJ. Even smaller on subcompacts like my Fit. Probably 16" at most. 18" for vans and SUVs and some larger cars. I'd probably never go bigger than that unless we're talking Unimog territory.

explorerx4

My wife and I both have 19" rims on our daily drivers. Mustang and Explorer both have 16's.
There is a good chance next vehicle will have 20's.

stickguy

Agreed QB. Plus I don't want lower than 55 series, unless it is a real performance car, and at least 225 section.

stever

My last couple of cars had 15s and I now I'm stuck with 16s (65 series) on the Grand Caravan. The sneakers look okay on it though and we may get rid of it before we need new tires. The Soul we've looked at comes with 17s but I'd try to negotiate a swap for the base 16s if that swap would work. Back in the day I could get a set of new 13" tires for my '82 Tercel installed for under $100.

explorerx4

The picture of the tire Shifty posted, shows one way tires have changed. They have wide channels between the tread rows. I'm sure this helps with water evacuation, but it also results in a 225 width tire that has the tread contact patch of an older 205 tire. Now it is 225 LRR.
Even between tires that are the 'same' size, there a lots of variations in actual size and weight. Most people focus only tread life rating.

oldfarmer50

Mr_Shiftright said:

Yeah, like a bird has pecked holes in it.

Boy, that doesn't look good. What causes that, bad manufacturing or something about the rubber compound? Aren't Pilot Sport ultra high performance tires? You'd think they could handle whatever you throw at them.

I never had a problem with the Goodyears on the Eclipse (18" wheels).

explorerx4

Michelin pegs their tire life at 6 years, although not sure if it is all their tires. I had a set of Michelin Cross Terrains on my Explorer. After having them for 6 years, a couple of them developed big cracks in the sidewalls. They had about 60k miles on them so I just replaced them and overall was pretty happy with them.
I swapped them out for some General HTS, which I still have. Hopefully, I will replace them with a new set of tires on something else.
It's supposed to snow tomorrow, so it will be a good test of how winter worthy the Explorer is.

ab348

oldfarmer50 said:

Boy, that doesn't look good. What causes that, bad manufacturing or something about the rubber compound? Aren't Pilot Sport ultra high performance tires? You'd think they could handle whatever you throw at them.

I never had a problem with the Goodyears on the Eclipse (18" wheels).

Even if those were used on a track car I would think that has to be considered a manufacturing defect. Hopefully Michelin will step up. I have been a devotee of Michelin tires for years and have gone through a number of different sets. My 2 former GM W-bodies (Olds Intrigue and Buick Lacrosse) came with Goodyear Eagles and I didn't like them all that much, though I didn't really have any problems with them other than some road noise.

I remember a car salesman telling me a few years ago that one of the ways he would determine how well a trade-in was taken care of was whether it had Michelins on it. He figured that was a sign the owners cared about the car and didn't cut corners.

roadburner

My fleet goes from 13"('02) to 15"(Wrangler) to 16"(ti) to 17"(X3 and 328i) and ends at 18"(MS3)- although if I do get the Challenger that bumps up to 20".

abacomike

We had several neighbors who were planning on going up north for Thanksgiving cancel their trips.  One family was flying up to LGA on Jet Blue tomorrow afternoon and the neighbors next door had reservations to fly to Newark and rent a car to drive up to the Woodstock area to celebrate Thanksgiving with family.

Both families just did not want to end up in a mess either waiting for hours at FLL or ending up at an alternative destination.  I sure don't blame them for canceling their trip considering the forecast on the metro NY area tomorrow afternoon.

explorerx4

@abacomike, One of my kids was going to drive from Ohio tomorrow, but moved their schedule up and is driving tonight instead. We all feel better about that.

abacomike

@explorerX4, That front that is going to cause that mess up north is causing severe weather across the central part of Florida and is due to hit us tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night.  Temps are going to drop into the low 50's Thursday morning and not get out of the 60's Thanksgiving Day.  Same for Friday.

But that's not bad considering what you northerners are expecting.

stickguy

I just got back from picking up my daughter at Philly airport. Man, what a zoo. Thankfully she was booked tonight and not tomorrow. A few of her friends were supposed to go home tomorrow and luckily were able to switch onto a flight tonight.

car related, she really liked the Sonata. And wants to get her hands on it. She seems to think it is too fancy for an old guy or some such.

stever

We have a friend flying in from Detroit Friday. Maybe...

Michelins - my experience has been meh. The current van came with them (don't suppose I can really blame my two flats on them since I'm prone to them anyway). My favorite brand since living in the UP is Nokian. Liked them (WR G2s) on the Outback so well I put a set on the last van. Hard to find in lots of places though. They didn't work wonders on the van in the snow, but the dry and wet performance was impressive. The old Outback handled the 200+ inches there last winter with aplomb.

venture

explorerx4 said:

@abacomike, One of my kids was going to drive from Ohio tomorrow, but moved their schedule up and is driving tonight instead. We all feel better about that.

My son and his wife were going to come home for Thanksgiving and were going to leave Baltimore tomorrow (Thursday) morning. They decided to drive up today after work instead. They should be here in a few hours. They said traffic was a mess trying to leave Baltimore.

Michaell

My boss - the one who is heading south for the winter - was in CT today. He originally planned to leave tomorrow night or Thursday morning, but decided to leave tonight to get clear of the weather heading that way.

All of you in the NE, stay safe this holiday weekend!

stickguy

Thursday morning would be OK. unless you are really NE Ct.

abacomike

What I did this year rather than go out for Thanksgiving dinner was to order a pre-cooked turkey with all the trimmings (stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, gravy and pumpkin and cherry pie) which I will pick up tomorrow morning at Publix (our major grocer).  It will be frozen - just needs to be thawed for 36 hours.  I just put it in the oven for about 2 hours until that thermo plastic thing pops up.  Then, carve and serve.  I hope it comes out OK Thursday evening.

It's a 10-12 lb turkey.  Should be good for a few nights of leftovers.  Dad likes dark meat and I like the white meat - perfect combination.

stickguy

your lucky. we host Thanksgiving, and everyone likes white meat. Dark meat doesn't move. I tell my wife we would be better of getting a couple of turkey breasts instead.

[Deleted User]

Exactly what we're doing, Stickguy. We picked up a couple of baked turkey breasts from Costco that we'll heat up. Our only true cooking will be rolls, mashed potatoes, and green beans. We hit the easy button this year, which will give me time to mud and tape our garage sheetrock before family arrives for food. Good times!

stickguy

gotta have your priorities! A lot easier to carve though.

nyccarguy

I'm only going to get maybe 4" or so. Temps here ave been mild for 2 days, so frozen ground isn't an issue. I think @explorerx4 is going to get hammered up where he lives.

stickguy

some of our family lives up near Albany. It will screw up their trip down. My BIL was planning to come Wednesday morning, but pushed that off to real early Thursday.

ray80

a

nyccarguy said:

I'm only going to get maybe 4" or so. Temps here ave been mild for 2 days, so frozen ground isn't an issue. I think @explorerx4 is going to get hammered up where he lives.

Got hit with a nice cooling breeze from the north as soon as I went outside this AM (not cold yet,,just cooler). Heard on the radio (Ct station) NY scheduled closing of I-84 in their state to truck and bus traffic at 7:00 AM before the first flakes fell.

Driving up to Vt tomorrow and hopefully VT makes an effort to clear the roads before we get there, they didn't on T-Day back in 1970 and wasn't pretty ride ( 10 or so hours for what should have been 5 hours, in our 66 Lemans that was not by any means a good snow machine)

robr2

We are expecting 3-6" overnight tonight but the road crews should have it cleared. We are hosting but have my parents coming up from Cape Cod and my in-laws coming down from NH. We have a football game (ok we really go to watch our kids in the halftime show) in the AM.

I will be putting the snows on the Explorer this evening.

nyccarguy

Always fun preparing for winter storms. Especially right before a major holiday. I was getting ready to leave this AM (running a little late at 6:30) and noticed a map light was on in my wife's Pilot. No problem. Push it out of the garage, jump it with the Legacy, let it run, pull it back in, start it up, shut it off, close the garage, & go to work. I get a call from my wife at 8:45 AM - "My car won't start!"

Told her to catch a ride with the baby sitter, call a cab, or take my Prelude.

driver100

My tennis got rained out in Tampa Fl area this morning. We got almost 4 inches of rain yesterday....average is 1.5 inches for November.

At least I don't have to put snow tires on.

imidazol97

Happy Thanksgiving to all the friends here. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving Day.

My son is driving all of 80 miles home from Columbus, all interstate. This year no flurries. The
usual weather is some flurries around T-Day.

fezo

stickguy said:

your lucky. we host Thanksgiving, and everyone likes white meat. Dark meat doesn't move. I tell my wife we would be better of getting a couple of turkey breasts instead.

You can send all the dark meat over here. Yum!

abacomike

Got up very early this morning in order to go to the super-market and pick up the pre-cooked turkey and trimmings and some pumpkin pie before the masses of retirees got there and the torrential rains started. Well, the retirees and the torrential rains had other ideas, needless to say.

When we got into the car, it was not raining, but very windy. Got the the super-market at 8:00 AM just as they were opening and the lines of people waiting to get into the store had to be a block long. We were sure they weren't all going to the Deli to pick up a turkey dinner, but as usual, I was wrong. They handed us a number (56) as we walked in and we stood, waiting for our number to be called for 35 minutes. As we were waiting, the skies opened up and the rains started - at least 2 inches of rain in 1/2 and hour - the parking lot was flooded in less than 10 minutes.

At least 80 people were waiting for their turkey dinner boxes. While we were waiting, several fights broke out among the folks who insisted they were in line ahead of someone else (like one or two places in line would make a major difference) and demanded to be taken ahead of the person in front of them. Now, I am 70 years old, but compared to the folks in line, I was a new born baby. Between the walkers, the canes, the wheel chairs and the crutches, I felt like I was in line to meet my maker instead of picking up a turkey dinner.

So they called our number and we gave them our name and order number. As expected, they had no record of our order or my name for the turkey and trimmings (they couldn't just give us a dinner as they had no extra turkey or trimmings, just enough for orders). I asked to speak to the manager of the store and 5 minutes later he walked over to us. I pulled out my receipt, my order number, the name of the person who took my order, etc., and handed it to him. It would seem that they had fired the employee who took my order the day after I placed the order because of incompetence. Go figure!!!

The manager told me that they did not have any extra turkey dinners but since the person they fired had ordered a turkey dinner, he gave me her order along with a free pumpkin and apple pie for dessert. So, at least we have our Thanksgiving Dinner in the refrigerator ready to be heated up (about 1-2 hours in the oven) for tomorrow.

Now, back to the rain. We waited about 10 minutes but the rains were not letting up - so we grabbed the box and ran for the car. By the time we got in the car, we were soaked right down to our undergarments (tried to clean this one up as best I could). We drove home and since we were already soaking wet, we just got out of the car and ran for the elevator.

Drama just seems to be a part of my daily life down here in the tropical "waiting room" of the good old U.S. of A. In case you don't know what I mean by waiting room, consider the average age of the residents in my neighborhood and you'll have figured it out for yourself!

EVERYONE, FROM MY FAMILY TO ALL OF YOUR FAMILIES, HAVE A SAFE, RESTFUL AND THANKFUL THANKSGIVING!