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Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)
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You sit up very high...the cabin seems too tall for the car's size. I still like the CVT, though.
My Civic is much better but after suffering a really bad day yesterday, feeling like I should've gone for the Volvo S40 for the seats alone. The extra 4.5k would've been worth it. If my health deteriorates much more, i just might have to reconsider swapping out the Civic for the Volvo and giving the kids my Civic.
The Sandman
The Sandman
You've gotta get out there and drive them. And start doing internet requests for the best prices, on sites like edmunds. I did a price quote on cars.com & it was quoting me $500 over invoice on awd Siennas as a "target price", so who knows.
Mileage....you want an awd vehicle that holds bikes & 4 passengers inside, plus skis, etc. So of course mileage will suffer from a Subie.
I like the '07 Pilot given a great price. I still think a 4runner is a good idea--darn good vehicles, last forever, lotsa cargo room, what's not to like? Just my own 2cents,
Oh, I'm realistic about the mileage trade-off. But if you check out some of the Pilot customer's reviews here on Edmunds, there are a number of people saying that they are getting 13-14mpg in town. :sick: Seems poor for a V6-powered, car-based SUV with no low range, but these people could be leadfoots, too.
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0 / 03 Montero Ltd
I've been driving my Pilot in Anchorage for 2 weeks now and the first tank was 16.5 mpg which was 70% city driving. The tank its on now is going to be lower, but not 13-14 mpg lower! I'm a major leadfoot, I'm guessing it will be around 15ish.
I have too much fun with the Pilot around town, its so responsive and fun to drive. Normally all my driving is highway so prior to this 2 weeks the worst I had seen was 17.5 mpg and that was mostly driving 80+ mph!
So, that said I've seen as bad as 16.5 mpg and as good as 22.6 mpg out of my Pilot. I'd say its all in how they are driven.
Seats alone wont cut it with bad back.. suspension plays a major role. Honda/Volvo wont absorb as much road irregularities as a buick would... If you dont like buicks, next best cushy car would probably be a toyota/lexus me thinks..
The Sandman
I can say this 'cuz weekend before last, we went canoeing with the neighbors, using their minivan, which has a great, and I mean *great*, roof rack with an official 150lb load limit.
The rack reaches much farther forward than on my wife's '03, and the structural supports are the size of my arms -- OK, that's not saying much -- and they supported an 18' Sawyer Cruiser and a 17' Old Town Penosbscot at speeds up to 85 mph without a hiccup.
Hey Mathias, the rack sounds good; do you recall if the tiedown points were good as well? For bow and stern lines?
Dealer has budged some to 20K on that used Sienna awd now; this puts it about $1100 above KBB retail, which is getting warmer for a factory certified car...
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0 / 03 Montero Ltd
I read those too a few months ago. Some people get horrible mileage with the RDX, & then the people getting good mileage think they're crazy. Who knows??
Have you asked about the deal on the used Sienna on the RWTIV board, to see what any of the dealers or salesmen think it's worth?
I got my Garmin NUVI 350 yesterday, & hate it already. Very difficult to use, & after 1/2 an hour of putting in different addresses, my eyes were bleary--very tedious. (Going to a lot of R.E. "open houses"). And many other issues. I'd have put this on the gps/nav forum, but everyone there is so into their gps units.
Sending the Garmin back to Amazon & ordering another "delorme atlas" for $10, for NH. Hey, if I moved to NH, no sales tax, even on cars. That used Z4 (or whatever) would be 5% cheaper in effect.....& the house I'm going to see has a 2 car garage.....would be a shame to keep 1/2 of it empty, right?
Go to steve's carspace page and see what he did with his Quest; that should work.
In desperation, I ran one line from the motor mount up to where the hood meets the grill, tied it in a loop, and ran two painter lines to it. It was OK.
-Mathias
There's a reason I give people pulling trailers and car topping stuff a wide berth.
My tie down pics are in the mods album
Is there a front tow hook you can use?
At least it did it with 35,250 miles on it, 750 miles left on the base warranty and towing assistance!
*Sniff sniff* I smell a new truck coming, lol, no, not really, but if it keeps this little trick up it could happen.
Poor hubby is lost without his big truck, me too, I had a riding lesson on Wednesday but can't tow the horse trailer now!
Maybe they'll get it fixed? If you keep it, can you buy a Chrysler ext. warranty? Anyway, Good luck with it.
Guess I should be able to afford to lease a "fun" car and own an "everyday" car or two when my lease is up!
We bought a 6 year/100k ESC for it the day we bought the truck. I'm sure he'll keep it until that's up unless it keeps this no start thing up, we cannot have that truck down for weeks at a time. We (and our business) depend heavily on it.
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2015 Kia Soul, 2021 Subaru Forester (kirstie_h), 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 (mr. kirstie_h)
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Real estate can be good too, when you start making the big bucks. At the very least, you'll want a nice garage to keep your toys in, maybe?.....
So, you'll now have two toys? A daily driver and a weekend "fun" car?
How very nice!
http://www.nneren.com/mls_num.php?state=&id=2655166&imageField.x=69&imageField.y- - =7
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Make it close enough that we can go up there for a weekend if we want. I can be in Burlington, VT in four hours or less from my house and that is about the maximum amount of time I would want to spend on the road for a weekend get away. Put it either kind of near the beach or kind of near a ski resort so we can rent it out for part of the year.
You can get a lot of house up there very cheaply.
My actual preference (for me) is for the Portland, ME area. But, twice as far for me to move as to S. NH, & given that A. I'm extremely lazy, & B. want to be able to drive back to the Boston area, easily......
VT is beautiful (duh). Woodstock has long been on "my list". For some reason I'm obsessed with living near the ocean, & lots of seafood restaurants, "shacks", "joints", etc.....
I would consider one of those as well. I would like a house by the ocean too but it is so much more expensive then one in the mountains and the insurance rates will be much higher too.
So now I am thinking a house near Burlington, VT would be good. I am near lake Champlain which is almost enough water to satisfy the ocean urge. Plus I really like Burlington it reminds me a lot of Blacksburg where I went to school. The granola/hippie factor is a little on the high side but I think I can deal with that.
Yes, I will practice in a small town in Kentucky.
I'm still toying with the idea of getting a junker, especially when the lease on the Audi is up.
The Sandman
On topic, I made the mistake of figuring out when our next new car purchase (for me or my wife, not used for the kid!) will be, and I came up with January, 2012!
Now that, of course, will never do. Although I came within about 6 inches yesterday of getting creamed from the rear by a Freestyle (rats...).
By 2012, the Odyssey will be over 90K, maybe even hitting 100K. Also not likely!
But, on th eplus sides, 3 more payments on that bad boy, and we are once again payment free for as long as I can resist the temptation.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
If I kept the Pilot that long by 2012 it would have approx 180k on it at the rate I'm driving now. Hmmmmmm, wonder if it would live that long.......
The Pilot is one type of vanilla ice cream I CAN eat every night for a long time!
I was not happy at all. They are saying that the reason it wouldn't stay running and then wouldn't start was air in the fuel rail system. They said it was because my hubby changed the fuel filter......um, he did that AFTER it quit and wouldn't run! So they wanted to charge $51.50 for something to do with that.
Then a year ago the truck had a broken vent on the driver's side, so they ordered a new dash piece and at the time it came in we couldn't get the truck in for them to replace it. So they gave us the part and said if we couldn't get it put on bring it in when we could and they would do it under warranty. Well, that didn't happen thus another $51.50 charge for them to install said part.
Then of course there was the issue of the $600 tow bill on the truck for having to be towed 100 miles. UGH!
In the end we are only paying for the dash piece to be put on, they are covering the rest and it makes me VERY glad I drive a Honda! I hate the Dodge dealer, they are the WORST I've ever dealt with!!
I stopped by the Honda dealer right after that to ask about the tire pressure sensors that are in my winter wheels, just to make sure there was nothing I had to do to make them work. Guess not, the car isn't fussing about them, business as usual. I also hugged my salesguy and thanked him again for selling me a Honda!!
(I better be careful what I said about him, he reads this forum, lol) :P
My wife mentioned yesterday that we have 7 more payments left on our Chrysler T&C, with 0% interest there has was no rush to pay it off. She has a little over 52k miles on it now, so at a thousand per month she should be good for 4 more years. I hope she does not get the itch because I am sure it's trade in is pretty low.
I don't know why but this mini-van seems to be the target of every shooping cart in the parking lot. I have been touching up the scrapes, but we are getting scrapes on top of scrapes. I am going to have to interogate the kids to see if mommy has is to blame.
My wife mentioned yesterday that we have 7 more payments left on our Chrysler T&C
Only 2 payments left on the L300 - those, too, are at 0% interest. Just turned 65,000 miles yesterday on the way home from work.
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That's how my wife's VUE looks in the parking lot of the school she works at. Sort of a rural area with lots of dirt roads still, so not many cars to be found .. lots of trucks and SUV's of the gargantuan variety.
Next smallest is a co-worker's Santa Fe.
Hey BR--
I really liked Burlington as well. Three of my high school friends and I rode our bikes from Detroit to Portland, ME in the summer after my junior year of high school (74). We crossed lake Champlain from NY on the ferry with our bikes squeezed in among all the big Detroit iron of that era. It started raining when we arrived in Burlington so we splurged and spent the night in a "Tourist Home". That evening, Burlington experienced its biggest fire in more that 100 years. The better part of a whole downtown city block burned. I still have the newspaper from sometime in July of 74. The cover photo was in color--a real novelty in those days.
Still can't believe my folks--or friend's folks--let us go.
Gogiboy
I have a AAA "Plus" membership, which includes towing up to 100 miles at no extra charge. Don't know if they have AAA in AK.
With some new car makes, like bmw, mercedes, volvo, I think towing to the nearest dlrship is included for the length of the warranty. Did the ext. warranty you bought not include that?
May be an excuse..... Not counting on it.
With some new car makes, like bmw, mercedes, volvo, I think towing to the nearest dlrship is included for the length of the warranty. Did the ext. warranty you bought not include that?
We do have AAA Plus up here, but I don't have a membership, should have though, lol.
The towing ended up being covered by the new car warranty (up to 36k miles, truck had 35,750 miles on it). The ESC only covers $100 for towing, ha, that's a joke!
sandman46, I haven't been to Exeter; it's supposed to be beautiful. If I move anywhere near Portsmouth, Exeter will be a 5-10 minute drive.
My considering coastal N.H. is kind of a "compromise position", maybe, as it would be so much easier to move there, an hour away, instead of to Portland, or Burlington VT, etc. But that house I posted here isn't exactly chopped liver; I think I could tolerate that quite nicely. Did I mention it's 5 miles to the NH beaches/ocean?
My current house is so decrepit, it's getting to that point where I "have to do something", soon. Kind of like the eternal car shopper who procrastinates until the current car is falling apart.
I may go up & see that house this week. Or: I could keep the eternal quest going, for the perfect town/area/house in N.E., while my garage collapses, my "back room" collapses, the gutters fall off, the chimney is crumbling, etc. etc.
Thanks to all for the feedback, Woody.
Whenever I have been up to Burlington I just go wherever my BIL takes me so I don't think we have been there yet. We have been to the Flatbread place which I like and to a little hole in the wall for Dim Sum(sp?) plus a few other places over the years.
Ideally I would rather have a spot of bare land in the one acre or so range to build either a log cabin style house or post and beam style.
I wouldn't want a place right in Burlington but something within 20 minutes of it would be good. I can drive in park wherever and walk around anywhere in the city pretty quickly. Maybe in Shelburne I don't know exactly as I haven't been to enough areas around the city to know for sure.