Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

28firefighter

Reading the reviews and on recommendation from you fine folks, I’m planning to take a look at the Accord Sport 2.0T. I’m also borrowing a friend’s 97 Mazda to reacclimate to driving stick. 

Seems like the Accord Sport is probably a buy car, not a lease....

xwesx

Michaell said:

Gives me a reason to continue shopping.

With sixteen months left, it is probably best to keep your options open... just don't get your heart set on anything!

xwesx

I finally swapped out the winter tires on all three of the cars this weekend. And, like clockwork, it snowed this morning. My summer tread isn't so bad that it cannot handle a little inclement weather, but the circumstances made me chuckle all the same!

suydam

16 month’s is nearing the end?! Is that even halfway?

stickguy

2 months past halfway. He is running behind!

Michael, we found the same issue the few times we have been down a car. It sounds good (on a spreadsheet!), but in reality, it gets to be a bit of a hassle. having to coordinate schedules. Messing up settings. Lots of things. You get so used to always having your car when you need it, you miss it. We would also be going to 1 car, since the kid won't be living at home long (and would be commuting by herself).

I could survive not having a car home most days. Just would not like it!

but, a cheap lease would work of course, or an older car for cash purchase, assuming the main car was what you want to use whenever together, or travelling.

Michaell

stickguy said:

2 months past halfway. He is running behind!

Michael, we found the same issue the few times we have been down a car. It sounds good (on a spreadsheet!), but in reality, it gets to be a bit of a hassle. having to coordinate schedules. Messing up settings. Lots of things. You get so used to always having your car when you need it, you miss it. We would also be going to 1 car, since the kid won't be living at home long (and would be commuting by herself).

I could survive not having a car home most days. Just would not like it!

but, a cheap lease would work of course, or an older car for cash purchase, assuming the main car was what you want to use whenever together, or travelling.

Exactly. I think about the savings in the budget, but I don't think it would really work.

Fortunately, I have friends here who are great enablers, so I never lack for company should I devise to test drive.

The path of least resistance is to get another VW - I'm sure I'll come around on the looks of the new Jetta. Or, perhaps, a Passat. And, I know I've bad mouthed the looks of the new Civic in the past, but the more I see them, the more they are starting to appeal to me. EX-L sedan, perhaps.

What I've test driven, so far:

Accord Sport
Elantra Sport
Maxima
Mazda 6
Used Q40

@breld and @jpp5862, have I missed anything?

Once I get settled into the new house, I'll try to get out and look at some other things.

tbirdmarco

 Sounds good to me Michael once you’re settled in the new house going to some more restaurants you touch drove quite a bit already 

ab348

Michaell said:

And, I know I've bad mouthed the looks of the new Civic in the past, but the more I see them, the more they are starting to appeal to me. EX-L sedan, perhaps.

Perhaps a better way of putting it would be "...the more I see them, the less offensive and eye-jarring they seem to me.".

nyccarguy

stickguy said:

2 months past halfway. He is running behind!

Michael, we found the same issue the few times we have been down a car. It sounds good (on a spreadsheet!), but in reality, it gets to be a bit of a hassle. having to coordinate schedules. Messing up settings. Lots of things. You get so used to always having your car when you need it, you miss it. We would also be going to 1 car, since the kid won't be living at home long (and would be commuting by herself).

I could survive not having a car home most days. Just would not like it!

but, a cheap lease would work of course, or an older car for cash purchase, assuming the main car was what you want to use whenever together, or travelling.

I'm thinking the opposite! I've got less than 2 years until my Infiniti is paid off. In the past 2 weeks, I've had a chance to re-bond with my Prelude. I really do LOVE driving a light (compared to the Q40) & nimble car with a manual transmission. I think I can convince my wife to drive the Q40 a few days a week & lease a Civic Si. Upping our stable to 4 cars.

stickguy

Ideally if I had garage space, I would like 3 for me and the wife. Some sort of small CUV for her, and travel use. I would like a toy of some sort for nice weather, and some sort of DD beater. Maybe a small PU. Or just a sedan. Cheap lease or something cheap and old.

stickguy

I did finally get the wife out Sunday to start the exploring some new areas and look at houses. So maybe someday will pull off a move!

au1994

Michaell said:

2 months past halfway. He is running behind! Michael, we found the same issue the few times we have been down a car. It sounds good (on a spreadsheet!), but in reality, it gets to be a bit of a hassle. having to coordinate schedules. Messing up settings. Lots of things. You get so used to always having your car when you need it, you miss it. We would also be going to 1 car, since the kid won't be living at home long (and would be commuting by herself). I could survive not having a car home most days. Just would not like it! but, a cheap lease would work of course, or an older car for cash purchase, assuming the main car was what you want to use whenever together, or travelling.

Exactly. I think about the savings in the budget, but I don't think it would really work. Fortunately, I have friends here who are great enablers, so I never lack for company should I devise to test drive. The path of least resistance is to get another VW - I'm sure I'll come around on the looks of the new Jetta. Or, perhaps, a Passat. And, I know I've bad mouthed the looks of the new Civic in the past, but the more I see them, the more they are starting to appeal to me. EX-L sedan, perhaps. What I've test driven, so far: Accord Sport Elantra Sport Maxima Mazda 6 Used Q40 @breld and @jpp5862, have I missed anything? Once I get settled into the new house, I'll try to get out and look at some other things.

I’d love to be in your position with a work from home job. I like my job but the 30 mile one way commute sucks. Took an hour and a half last night.

Anyway, if I ever find myself that type of gig, I’d love to get down to one car payment. Keep a nice SUV for my wife and find something fun I can pay cash for like another E46 convertible. Without having to subject it to DD duties I’d be less concerned about the inevitable mechanical gremlins but still get to enjoy that great platform when running errands.

suydam

stickguy said:

2 months past halfway. He is running behind!

Michael, we found the same issue the few times we have been down a car. It sounds good (on a spreadsheet!), but in reality, it gets to be a bit of a hassle. having to coordinate schedules. Messing up settings. Lots of things. You get so used to always having your car when you need it, you miss it. We would also be going to 1 car, since the kid won't be living at home long (and would be commuting by herself).

I could survive not having a car home most days. Just would not like it!

but, a cheap lease would work of course, or an older car for cash purchase, assuming the main car was what you want to use whenever together, or travelling.

When we moved we only had one car for the first six months as an experiment. We are retired so we thought it might work. It did not. We each have different projects and time commitments, and coordinating got to be a real hassle. We don’t drive either car very much — maybe 8000 miles a year each—but the convenience is worth the expense. One car is paid off so that helps. I don’t know what we will do when the lease on the Volt is up. I really love the car so we may buy it, or lease another Volt.

Michaell

au1994 said:

I’d love to be in your position with a work from home job. I like my job but the 30 mile one way commute sucks. Took an hour and a half last night.

Anyway, if I ever find myself that type of gig, I’d love to get down to one car payment. Keep a nice SUV for my wife and find something fun I can pay cash for like another E46 convertible. Without having to subject it to DD duties I’d be less concerned about the inevitable mechanical gremlins but still get to enjoy that great platform when running errands.

I have an office - which I will be closer to, after the move - but I don't go in that often. I should, though, just for the social aspects. My dogs are not great conversationalists.

But, I've been thinking about what I would want. Living in CO, I've always rejected, out of hand, any sort of RWD vehicle. But, with as few miles as I drive, I don't think it makes that big of a difference. Which opens up a whole lot of possibilities, if I decide to go the used route. And, it would be less expensive, since everybody else wants AWD.

Which then makes me think about what's important - features and toys, or performance. If I got something older, I'm sure I could retrofit a nice infotainment system into it. Or, invest in a nice exhaust system and enjoy that!

Decisions, decisions.

pensfan83

Living in the NE I've always rejected RWD cars for the same reason but for as little as I drive as well I could probably get away with it most days.

laurasdada

I've also been an FWD/AWD New Englander all my life (save for the Jag XK, which didn't come out to play at the mere mention of snow). I'd consider RWD, but absolutely with a set of winter tires for the possible snow months (ok, most all months are potential snow months in NE!).

stickguy

I would love a nice RWD car again. Just hard to find around here. We don’t get much snow, and my car never touches it when we do.

breld

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

2 months past halfway. He is running behind!

Michael, we found the same issue the few times we have been down a car. It sounds good (on a spreadsheet!), but in reality, it gets to be a bit of a hassle. having to coordinate schedules. Messing up settings. Lots of things. You get so used to always having your car when you need it, you miss it. We would also be going to 1 car, since the kid won't be living at home long (and would be commuting by herself).

I could survive not having a car home most days. Just would not like it!

but, a cheap lease would work of course, or an older car for cash purchase, assuming the main car was what you want to use whenever together, or travelling.

Exactly. I think about the savings in the budget, but I don't think it would really work.

Fortunately, I have friends here who are great enablers, so I never lack for company should I devise to test drive.

The path of least resistance is to get another VW - I'm sure I'll come around on the looks of the new Jetta. Or, perhaps, a Passat. And, I know I've bad mouthed the looks of the new Civic in the past, but the more I see them, the more they are starting to appeal to me. EX-L sedan, perhaps.

What I've test driven, so far:

Accord Sport
Elantra Sport
Maxima
Mazda 6
Used Q40

@breld and @jpp5862, have I missed anything?

Once I get settled into the new house, I'll try to get out and look at some other things.

I think that covers most of what you've looked at thus far, but OH! the possibilities!

That Mazda6 with the new turbo engine would be a hoot!
Used Kia Stinger?
And of course, no list of recommended cars on this forum would be complete without...the GTI!

qbrozen

Not sure what I'll be doing in 13 mos when the truck lease is up. If I continue freelancing or if I wind up teaching will of course be a huge difference in income, for one thing. Hopefully neither will require much driving. I may go with a cheap lease either way. It has crossed my mind, however, to buy a sub-$10k car for cash. But of course I'd probably want to swap in 9 mos.

ab348

pensfan83 said:

Living in the NE I've always rejected RWD cars for the same reason but for as little as I drive as well I could probably get away with it most days.

I've had FWD/AWD cars for the last 15 years until this ATS. Now that I'm retired it makes very little difference. I can pick the days when I go out, and the X-Ice tires are great when it's a bit slippery.

stickguy

Q, you are perfect for that, since you can wrench yourself. Find the right car with needs that are more time than parts cost, fix it up yourself, then drive to you are bored and flip for probably a profit, or at worst, what you have in it. So basically a little time investment in the garage, and drive for free!

pensfan83

Unless my father changes his mind he's going to downsize from an F-150 to a Ranger within the next 12 months. The thought has crossed my mind to buy his F-150 and have that be the winter vehicle and have something fun (RWD or FWD) as well. The advantages are the miles are relatively low, he's a fanatic about maintaining it mechanically and cosmetically, and I know its entire repair history. Disadvantages are it's big, a pain to drive in tight quarters, and my wife would want nothing to do with it, which would relegate her to her vehicle again since the other card would be a manual.

cdnpinhead

A remarkable (or not) number of people managed quite well with RWD vehicles for many decades, me among them. I lived in Edmonton and Vancouver, combined with thousands of miles driving back-and-forth between them, for a number of years with an MGB and a 240-Z, both RWD. Imagine.

laurasdada

Although my XF is AWD, in normal operation I believe the torque is split 10/90 f/r. So, I've got that going for me!
Pressing the snow button, 50/50 torque split. Neato.

nyccarguy

cdnpinhead said:

A remarkable (or not) number of people managed quite well with RWD vehicles for many decades, me among them. I lived in Edmonton and Vancouver, combined with thousands of miles driving back-and-forth between them, for a number of years with an MGB and a 240-Z, both RWD. Imagine.

For the better part of 8 years, my mother drove a RWD MB 300E with no traction control or stability control and a set of 4 snow tires plus 2 bags of sand in the trunk.

The parts guy at the Subaru dealer where I bought and serviced my former 2015 Legacy drives a RWD V6 Mustang with a 6-Speed stick and only 2 snow tires in the winter.

ab348

nyccarguy said:

For the better part of 8 years, my mother drove a RWD MB 300E with no traction control or stability control and a set of 4 snow tires plus 2 bags of sand in the trunk.

The parts guy at the Subaru dealer where I bought and serviced my former 2015 Legacy drives a RWD V6 Mustang with a 6-Speed stick and only 2 snow tires in the winter.

That last part of your post reminded me of something I thought I had long forgotten.

When I was in university in 1974 my parents bought the new '74 Maverick LDO as a second car. I got to drive it to and from campus. When winter rolled around we needed to get snow tires for it. But it had the new-fangled Firestone 500 steel-belted radials as OE. Dad had a brainstorm that he would buy 4 bias-ply tires for winter and save money over the cost of 2 radial snows for the back. He took it to the tire shop and came back with 2 bias-belted snows on the rear wheels and 2 cheap bias-ply summers on the front. Back them almost nobody ran snows on the front wheels around here. It just wasn't done.

How times have changed!

qbrozen

I've been saying for quite a long time that the best winter vehicle I had to date was a 190E with no safety nannies and just a set of snow tires. Seemed to be unstoppable, as my treks through blizzards that stopped much bigger vehicles would attest to.

stickguy

best I ever owned was the Horizon my wife had when we got married. Automatic, with whatever all seasons it came with. best part was the 3 speed AT had a straight line for all 3 gears. hardly ever had to touch the brakes, just used that to downshift. Skinny tires, FWD. dug right through the snow.

my colt, with a set of Yoko A008 tires, well, that was like driving on 4 toboggans.

kyfdx

My '77 Cobra II was terrible in the snow.. I put studded snow tires on the back, one year. It was great, if I needed forward motion on ice or snow.. But, it was like a drift car, in any other conditions.. wheeeee!!!

But, with four winter tires, I can go just about anywhere in my RWD BMW.. As long as the snow isn't higher than the air dam in the front.

Those Firestone 500s had real problems. We had them on two big sedans in the '70s, and I think we went through 17 of them, between the two vehicles. (evidently, we were getting them replaced for free)

ab348

kyfdx said:

Those Firestone 500s had real problems. We had them on two big sedans in the '70s, and I think we went through 17 of them, between the two vehicles. (evidently, we were getting them replaced for free)

They were great tires though, when they weren't blowing up or separating treads. Just a revelation in ride and handling compared to the bias-ply or bias-belted ones I was used to.

corvette

qbrozen said:

But of course I'd probably want to swap in 9 3 mos.

Fixed that for you!

andres3

breld said:

No surprise, but I think the longest I've owned a car is about 5 years. That was my 1993 Prelude coming out of college.

What's the shortest you've owned a car? Inquiring minds want to know.

ronsteve

andres3 said:

 No surprise, but I think the longest I've owned a car is about 5 years. That was my 1993 Prelude coming out of college.

What's the shortest you've owned a car? Inquiring minds want to know.

Shortest ownership was 16 months on a 1993 del Sol in 2001-02. Would have been longer but it was totaled in a tangle with a lumber truck. 

Next shortest was 23 months with my very first car, a 1982 Grand Prix I owned from 1991-93. 

Its replacement was a 1993 Sunbird that I traded in on a Saturn after 26 months, my shortest time with a new, or new-ish car.

suydam

I think @breld’s shortest ownership times are probably measured in days.

nyccarguy

I think 2 years is my shortest.  I leased a 1998 Ford Explorer Sport (a 2 door SUV) when I graduated college.  The lease ran from March 1998 - March 2000.  That didn’t stop me from buying other cars though.  

The Explorer was a 1 pay lease.  In December 1999 (3 month until turn in) I leased a 2000 Saab 9-3 for 3 years. The Saab lease ran from December 1999 - December 2002.  That didn’t stop me from buying other cars though.

In April of 2002, (8 months until turn in) I bought my 2001 Honda Prelude.

I should have realized back then that I had a problem.  It’s been a little over 4 months since I last punched my card.  My name is Bradd and I am a Chronic Car Buyer.

xwesx

My shortest ownership was five months. It really torqued my chain that I had to sell the car so quickly, but it was the best financial move at the time. We had just lost our 1996 Outback to a psychopathic driver... my wife wanted to replace with a new Outback, which really stretched the budget, but we did it. That was January 7, 2007. Two weeks later, we find out that she's pregnant, so it went from a budget squeeze to a strangler. I ended up buying a 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan for pretty cheap and sold the Outback in mid-June.

We stuck with that van for the next two years, and then I bought her the 2010 Forester in September of 2009. There was some electronic gremlin in the DGC; after the second time it stranded her, she was flat done!!!

Usually, we tend to own our vehicles a long time. Two other exceptions were the 2008 Outback and the 2013 Passat TDI, which were both bought with the intention of keeping them as short of a time as possible.... both ended up being about six months. But, I made a 50% profit on the Passat (after expenses), so that wasn't a bad deal at all! On the Outback, I had little idea that the economy was going to crash in the time between purchase and putting it up for sale, but I still managed to break even on it compared to our other alternatives.

stickguy

Well, back in my younger (school) days there were a couple that never even got registered. But that doesn’t count. Early married, pre kids years, a few spare cars only lasted maybe 6 months.

Once I started buying new, or newish, I think the shortest was 16 months. August 2014 to December 2015 on my Scion tC.

Actually my toys were short lived. More like 6 months to 1 year. Miata and integra.

thebean

ab348 said:

And, I know I've bad mouthed the looks of the new Civic in the past, but the more I see them, the more they are starting to appeal to me. EX-L sedan, perhaps.

Perhaps a better way of putting it would be "...the more I see them, the less offensive and eye-jarring they seem to me.".

When you live with one every day, you get used to it.  The car is so good, IMHO, that's it's worth the "less than mainstream" styling.  I can see why people are buying these instead of an Accord.

fintail

My shortest was the C43 AMG, which I had for around 18 months or so. I liked the car in general, but the ride was a little harsh (the tramlining Yokohama tires didn't help), rear seat room was nil, and most alarming, every once in awhile while cold, the engine would sound like it had a stuck lifter or something - it alarmed me. When the E55 turned up for sale just a couple blocks from home, I went for it.

nyccarguy

I think I'm going to sign up for this:

https://www.motorsportreg.com/events/adult-car-control-clinic-consumer-reports-test-facility-bmw-cca-504916

The BMWCCA Connecticut Valley Chapter is having an adult car control clinic at the Consumer Reports testing facility. Looks like a lot of fun for $125. There is also an HPDE event at Lime Rock on 6/22, but I'll hold off on that (for now).

nyccarguy

Done!

kyfdx

We had our leased 2011 Z4 for one month, before I flipped it to a friend.

Had the 2013 Audi A3 TDI for about five months, before VW bought it back.

qbrozen

1 month? Respect!

My shortest was 5 mos, which was one of my 190Es. I managed to have my TDI flip for 6 mos, a tie for 2nd place with 2 other vehicles.

ab348

fintail said:

My shortest was the C43 AMG, which I had for around 18 months or so. I liked the car in general, but the ride was a little harsh (the tramlining Yokohama tires didn't help), rear seat room was nil, and most alarming, every once in awhile while cold, the engine would sound like it had a stuck lifter or something - it alarmed me. When the E55 turned up for sale just a couple blocks from home, I went for it.

Funny you mention the tires. I just got the snows taken off the ATS this morning and the OE Bridgestone summer-only "performance" tires put back on. Driving home I noticed the same tramlining effect which was not there for the last several months with the Michelins. I assume yours were performance tires also. Maybe that is a characteristic of the things? I must admit aside from that the handling is noticeably sharper, so maybe that is the trade-off.

28firefighter

We had a nice day here yesterday and I worked east coast hours, so was able to leave work a bit early to run some errands. Stopped by the local Honda dealer and took a look at the Accord Sport 2.0T. I borrowed a friend's car this weekend (1997 Mazda) and got comfortable again, but alas the only Sport 6spd they had in stock was the smaller 1.5T. Ended up driving the 10 speed automatic in the 2.0T just to see if I liked it.

From an appearance perspective, this isn't like the Accord of old. Reminds me a bit of my CC or, as others have mentioned, the A5 Sportback. It is sleek looking, but definitely bigger than what I have been driving of late. For comparison, my GTI was 168" long, the C300 is 185" and this thing checks in at 192". I liked the aggressive wheels and the LED headlights - both a major plus. I generally don't care about sunroofs, but Sam gets a kick out of seeing the sky go by, so I've been using it a lot in both cars, so the fact this has one is nice.

The interior is really well appointed and optioned at the Sport- level trim. The only thing it was missing that would have been nice is memory seats, but beyond that, it is exactly how I would option a car. The heated cloth seats were supportive and I found a comfortable driving position really quickly. Also a major plus, the infotainment now has actual knobs and comes equipped with Apple CarPlay. They also did away with the right-side mirror camera in favor of traditional blind spot monitoring. Other safety nannies on this car were lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, speed sign reading (appears in the instrument cluster), collision avoidance, and a backup camera. No park-assist at this trim level.

The driving experience was interesting. I really liked the engine, but the 10 speed auto just felt like it was shifting every 5 seconds when I didn't need it to be, and thinking too hard about downshifting when I needed it. When I was really punching it though, it felt like there was plenty of power to be fun, it revved happily and never felt as if it was working too hard. Steering feel was tight and sporty and cornering was way better than I expected. It is no BMW/Audi/VW GTI/Golf R/Civic Type R, but still pretty fun. I suspect in the manual transmission it would be about perfect. Road noise was pretty loud - more than I had hoped or expected. EDIT: The more I'm thinking about this, the more I realize it may have just been the test drive roads. It's probably no worse than the MB and definitely no worse than the GTI which operated at a dull roar on the Seattle's rough roads.

My takeaway is that this is a lot of car for the money. I need to drive the 6spd 2.0T to know for sure if I would be happy with it for the long haul. And by long haul, of course, I mean 18-24 months. There also aren't really any "deals" on it right now - lease or finance, which I find fascinating because despite the great reviews, there hasn't been a ton of uptake.

28firefighter

nyccarguy said:

I think I'm going to sign up for this:

https://www.motorsportreg.com/events/adult-car-control-clinic-consumer-reports-test-facility-bmw-cca-504916

The BMWCCA Connecticut Valley Chapter is having an adult car control clinic at the Consumer Reports testing facility. Looks like a lot of fun for $125. There is also an HPDE event at Lime Rock on 6/22, but I'll hold off on that (for now).

Looks awesome!

ab348

@28firefighter - surprised to hear you report a lot of road noise in the Accord. That was always an Accord bugbear but I had read the previous generation made great strides in quieting it. Odd it would be back here with the new generation.

28firefighter

ab348 said:

@28firefighter - surprised to hear you report a lot of road noise in the Accord. That was always an Accord bugbear but I had read the previous generation made great strides in quieting it. Odd it would be back here with the new generation.

It's all relative, and the roads out here are downright awful. I should probably add, the MB is noisy too, just less so.

suydam

My 2013 Accord ExL was very quiet. Could it be the Sport model tires and suspension?

laurasdada

I believe my '09 Jag XK had the shortest tenure in my stable. Had to again become an adult and traded it for the current XF after ~2.5 years of V8 rumble ownership. Que lastima.