Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

suydam

nyccarguy said:

andres3 said:

Perhaps the forum should vote on a new punch vote system to lessen inflation of punches. I nominate a new scoring system of:

1 point for a new car purchase.
3/4 point for a CPO used car purchase.
1/2 point for a used car purchase.
2/3 point for a new car lease.

Is it majority rules, or is a 2/3 amendment super majority required?

A punch is a punch. new, used, leased, CPO

Agree.

breld

Yup - X5 was missing.  I knew someone would chime in!  

breld

Taking delivery of the clubman right now.  In fact I'm posting from the backseat while the genius goes over the features with my wife.  

Posted over at RWTIV too, but they came up to $8,000 on her trade, so we took them up on it.  Didn't bother us, but there was some minor damage to the car, like a couple dimples in the back bumper, presumably from another cars license plate, and a slightly misaligned front fender.  The car was also saying a service was due.  So just handing over the keys to the dealer certainly was easy, even with leaving perhaps $1,000 to $1,500 on the table from a private sale.

Mr_Shiftright

The only justifiable way I could see for modifying the punch score (not that I want to modify it, but...) would be based on cost of the purchase, the argument being that when @breld buys a new Ferrari, that should be worth 1.5 or 2 punches. In WW II, I've read, fighter pilots might be given 1.5 "kills" if they knocked down a particularly choice target.

suydam

We are all too busy car researching to keep different tallies anyway.

qbrozen

Too complicated.
A used $20k car should count for no less than a CPO $20k car or $20k new car. 

I could see an argument against a flip, however. Maybe 1/2 pt for that. 

breld

sda

breld said:

Very nice. How did turning in the Jetta go, hopefully without any unwanted surprises.

kyfdx

I like the current rules. A punch is a punch.

stickguy

I vote that buying out a lease also counts as a punch.

xwesx

Sweet, @breld! Congrats to your wife on the new car!

An aside, but the frequency with which we congratulate you on a punch must get old after a while.....

suydam

Very nice! Hope you both enjoy it -- for awhile.

fordfool

andres3 said:

fordfool said:

stever said:

Congrats @breld!

Seven cars in one year. My wife and I have had 8 cars since we moved in together. In 1980.

My wife and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in August. During that time we have owned a '63 Wildcat, '68 Cougar, '75 Pinto, '82 Fairmont, '93 Topaz, and currently an '04 Focus, usually two cars at a time.
All reached 150,000 miles except the Pinto which rusted to death after six years and 82,508 miles. The Focus has 137,000 miles on the clock, so I just might be ready for a punch in a year or two.

So, out of all those cars, which besides the Pinto was the most expensive to get up to the mileage you got them up to?

The Buick Wildcat by far. Routine maintenance was more expensive with tires, battery, brakes, shocks, etc. The Buick dealer in Louisville was expensive, but I found a reliable garage on 2nd St. The transmission was rebuilt twice, and that wasn't cheap. Otherwise it was fairly trouble free. But it was a very good highway cruiser as well as comfortable around town. I would have preferred bucket seats rather than the bench, but the fold down arm rest helped.

The current Focus has been the cheapest to maintain, especially with the extended maintenance intervals, and has been very reliable. Easy on gas, tires, brakes, etc. No major repairs needed. (Knocking on wood)

abacomike

@breld:

Congrats to the family on the new addition of the Clubman. Hope your wife enjoys the new Mini Cooper.

abacomike

"This is a very special time of the year when people gather together to celebrate times long past, but not forgotten.  Accept my sincerest wishes and hopes to all who celebrate those times past - may these next few days bring all of us Peace, Love and Happiness!"  

breld

sda said:

breld said:

Very nice. How did turning in the Jetta go, hopefully without any unwanted surprises.

Thanks! Yup, the Jetta buyback went extremely smooth - about a 20 minute process. Now I just wait for the e-mail to input my bank information for the transfer of funds.

breld

xwesx said:

Sweet, @breld! Congrats to your wife on the new car!

An aside, but the frequency with which we congratulate you on a punch must get old after a while.....

Thanks! Receiving the kind words of congratulations doesn't get old - I just hope my purchase stories don't get old!

breld

suydam said:

Very nice! Hope you both enjoy it -- for awhile.

Thanks!

breld

abacomike said:

@breld:

Congrats to the family on the new addition of the Clubman. Hope your wife enjoys the new Mini Cooper.

Thanks! She's certainly enjoying it - much to like over her previous ride.

Sandman6472

Happy Holidays folks! Stay well and drive safely if on the roads. Went to Stuart to pick up vehicles yesterday and doing a couple of runs back there this morning. Definite;y miss the long distance driving and by April 11th of this year, the 3 year period is up on my speeding incident so maybe I can get back with one of the companies that do this sort of thing. Do miss the open road and yesterday just made me realize how much I really do miss that fun!

The Sandman

carnaught

stickguy said:

I vote that buying out a lease also counts as a punch.

Respectfully disagree. Two punches from the same car (the lease, and the buy-out)....nah.

kyfdx

My vote says it counts.. When your lease is up, you have to make a transaction. Whether you buy that car, or another one, still a punch.

(just to be clear, I have A-Class voting shares, and each of my votes counts for 100)

qbrozen

Yeah, I Agree it should count AS LONG AS you did not plan that from the get-go to take advantage of special lease money.

Mr_Shiftright

Buying your lease car is like trading in your lease and then buying a used car. It's an extra committment so I think it should count twice. Two transactions. I have no idea how to prevent sneaky people from cheating, as Q pointed out. Perhaps we can review the posts they made prior to signing the lease and render judgment on the replay.

kyfdx

If you say you have a punch, you have a punch. I'm not checking with your Mom.

breld

@Michaell verifies my punches in person.

nyccarguy

Lease buyouts count as a punch! Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah!!

qbrozen

 I did not meam we check up on people. Code of honor here.
personally, if I leased with the intent to buy it out, I would not claim it twice. That would be like claiming a refinance as a punch.

henryn

@qbrozen , how are you liking that Infiniti you recently purchased? I'm thinking quite hard about an FX35, or even possibly a newer QX70. Still used, mind you, maybe a 2014 or 2015.

ab348

qbrozen said:

 I did not meam we check up on people. Code of honor here.
personally, if I leased with the intent to buy it out, I would not claim it twice. That would be like claiming a refinance as a punch.

I swear, I never intended to buy it out. I swear! I swear to God!!!

tifighter

Congrats @breld !

Was at Costco today (ugh, I know) and they had a $46k Clubman parked out front. This amused me to no end...

Merry Christmas CCBA!

Michaell

tifighter said:

Congrats @breld !

Was at Costco today (ugh, I know) and they had a $46k Clubman parked out front. This amused me to no end...

Merry Christmas CCBA!

I ended up at the mall yesterday. Was in and out in less than 15 minutes.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

abacomike

kyfdx said:

My vote says it counts.. When your lease is up, you have to make a transaction. Whether you buy that car, or another one, still a punch.

(just to be clear, I have A-Class voting shares, and each of my votes counts for 100)

Have to agree with you, kyfdx. Your logic is very sound - if you buy the car at the end of the lease, it's still a "buy"! I always agree with anyone who has "A-Class voting shares" - but it brings out in me one of the deadly sins - ENVY!

qbrozen

henryn said:

@qbrozen , how are you liking that Infiniti you recently purchased? I'm thinking quite hard about an FX35, or even possibly a newer QX70. Still used, mind you, maybe a 2014 or 2015.

I like it quite a bit. Great power, handles really well, roomier than I thought it would prove to be, AWD response is quite impressive, and it is comfy. I miss memory seats, adaptive headlights, and decent fuel mileage. Ha. Its actually not awful. If I baby it, I can average 22 in mixed driving and 24-25 highway. Still, I was doing that with a 420hp Caddy. Oh well. 

nyccarguy

@henryn - I really dig the FX35 - 37 - QX70

carnaught

abacomike said:

kyfdx said:

My vote says it counts.. When your lease is up, you have to make a transaction. Whether you buy that car, or another one, still a punch.

(just to be clear, I have A-Class voting shares, and each of my votes counts for 100)

Have to agree with you, kyfdx. Your logic is very sound - if you buy the car at the end of the lease, it's still a "buy"........

Okay, with that logic in mind, if one were to do a refinance, this too is a transaction, therefore could also count as a punch.

Also, with this logic, if someone actually had 9 cars, but either bought-out his lease or refinanced one, he could say he's had 10 cars instead of 9 .

Still disagree with this, but the majority have spoken.

stever

With or without a bunch of asterisks, @breld would still win.

carnaught

stever said:

With or without a bunch of asterisks, @breld would still win.

That sir is undisputable!

fintail

I think a lease purchase has more of a case for a punch than a refi. At the end of the least, you must make a move - either buy it, or move on to another car. A refi is voluntary.

I am still thinking I might buy my leased car at the end. The car has been faultless so far, and I enjoy driving it. I suspect negotiation might be a headache though, due to the inflated residual - it's higher than I can get 2 year old cars for right now, and prices will be that much lower when the car is 3 years old (and the prior body style) in another 2 years. I hope they don't use the residual as any kind of starting point, as it will not have real world relevance.

Michaell

fintail said:

I think a lease purchase has more of a case for a punch than a refi. At the end of the least, you must make a move - either buy it, or move on to another car. A refi is voluntary.

I am still thinking I might buy my leased car at the end. The car has been faultless so far, and I enjoy driving it. I suspect negotiation might be a headache though, due to the inflated residual - it's higher than I can get 2 year old cars for right now, and prices will be that much lower when the car is 3 years old (and the prior body style) in another 2 years. I hope they don't use the residual as any kind of starting point, as it will not have real world relevance.

Hate to break the bad news to you - especially on Christmas - but it's unlikely that you'll get anything but the residual value as the buyout price. MBFS is insured if the market value is less than the contractual residual, so there is no incentive for them to discount the buyout price.

ab348

Michaell said:

Hate to break the bad news to you - especially on Christmas - but it's unlikely that you'll get anything but the residual value as the buyout price. MBFS is insured if the market value is less than the contractual residual, so there is no incentive for them to discount the buyout price.

My brother leased a Ford truck a while back. He wanted to keep it when the lease ended but had the same situation, residual was well above market. He spoke to the dealer, they told him they would try to do a deal prior to the auction. I don't know what exactly happened but he got a call a while later to come in and buy it out at a reduced amount. He never had to give up possession of the truck either.

tifighter

@fintail Not original, but kinda fun anyway.

https://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/cto/5930766536.html

fintail

Oh yeah I've heard of that. Maybe I should check on the MB-specific forums and see if I can find any experiences. Looking at MB leases, it seems many residuals are inflated - who would insure something like that? Especially on final run W212s which are destined to depreciate faster than normal for the first few years, but MB propped up the residuals to move the inventory when the W213 was on the ground.. I'd like to believe there is some kind of compromise.

Michaell said:

Hate to break the bad news to you - especially on Christmas - but it's unlikely that you'll get anything but the residual value as the buyout price. MBFS is insured if the market value is less than the contractual residual, so there is no incentive for them to discount the buyout price.

fintail

Yeah the price there is amusingly optimistic, but the car looks a lot better than most I have seen. It could be fun for someone, if seriously discounted. That top speed though, can't do it, cars like that make the fintail look like a Veyron.

tifighter said:

@fintail Not original, but kinda fun anyway.

https://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/cto/5930766536.html

Michaell

ab348 said:

Michaell said:

Hate to break the bad news to you - especially on Christmas - but it's unlikely that you'll get anything but the residual value as the buyout price. MBFS is insured if the market value is less than the contractual residual, so there is no incentive for them to discount the buyout price.

My brother leased a Ford truck a while back. He wanted to keep it when the lease ended but had the same situation, residual was well above market. He spoke to the dealer, they told him they would try to do a deal prior to the auction. I don't know what exactly happened but he got a call a while later to come in and buy it out at a reduced amount. He never had to give up possession of the truck either.

Not sure if the same rules apply to leases north of the border.

toomanyfumes

The dealer we bought our Lincoln from said he lets lease turn-ins go to the Ford auction, and will buy them back there - cheaper that way. Ours was a lease turn-in from New York state, the colors and options we wanted and he certified it.

Mr_Shiftright

tifighter said:

@fintail Not original, but kinda fun anyway.

https://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/cto/5930766536.html

Pretty good price if the frame and inner panels aren't all ferrous oxide lacework. I recently saw an early 220 ponton that had a dent, also incorrect upholstery, filthy ( but solid) chassis underneath and non-running for two years, sell for $9000 pretty quickly.

Mr_Shiftright

toomanyfumes said:

The dealer we bought our Lincoln from said he lets lease turn-ins go to the Ford auction, and will buy them back there - cheaper that way. Ours was a lease turn-in from New York state, the colors and options we wanted and he certified it.

I think that's the only way it could be done---the dealer does not own the lease car so can't really negotiate with you.

tifighter

We've had family in town for the holidays, and I've made the mistake using some house time to look at craigslist. Searching using terms like original owner and classic is pretty interesting. Besides stuff like that Ponton, I've found other classic Euros, cool vintage SUV's and a JDM import or two of interest. My wife points out every R107 SL she sees. A woman down the street from me is selling her 330ci convertible- original owner, 70k miles in a nice dark blue with the factory hardtop for cheap. With sport pkg and manual tranny.

Save me from myself.

corvette

One of my Christmas gifts was one of those 120v inverter things to power my laptop charger or other small electronics from the 12v outlet. The JSW has one built in and I decided it was a neat idea to have in my permanent vehicle daily driver.