Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

Michaell

henryn said:

Going back 10, 15 years, and more, the newpaper ads were the best way to get a great deal on a new car. They actually ran full page, color ads in the Friday newspaper, and some of those deals were really good. But often they only had one, and you had to get there early on Friday (like when they opened).

Sort of, a little like, Black Friday deals, now that I think about it.

The year was 1992.

First wife had just totaled her 1991 Mazda Protege, and we needed a new car. She decides on a Honda Accord LX, but only in dark blue.

Living just north of LA, we picked up a Friday copy of the LA Times. The car ads were in a section that was probably 30-40 pages long. Every page filled with screamer ads.

The MSRP on the Accord was something like $17,300, but almost every Honda dealer had "one at this price" for far less. A dealer about 30 minutes from us had theirs advertised at $13,xxx.

Called them up - yes! Dark blue it was. Drove right out there and made the deal. We had money to spare so we decided to add the dealer accessory CD player, for $1500! Total deal, with tax and registration, was $16,500. I guess anyone else shopping that dealer was disappointed that weekend.

qbrozen

Great discount on this one for starters. I showed it to the wife to check on her reaction to the color. she said "YIKES!" But then agreed if we could get a good price on it....

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/new/searchresults.action?sourceContext=untrackedWithinSite_false_0&newSearchFromOverviewPage=true&inventorySearchWidgetType=AUTO&entitySelectingHelper.selectedEntity=d2623&entitySelectingHelper.selectedEntity2=&zip=08510&distance=500&searchChanged=true&lostFilters=Trims&modelChanged=true&filtersModified=true&sortType=MILEAGE&sortDirection=DESC#listing=201539831

kyfdx

That’s a “special” color. Takes a special buyer.

benjaminh

Yes, those "one only" car ads in the LA Times could be useful. I'd point them out to my parents, went along for the purchases, and we ended up getting.....

A new 1979 Datsun 210 for $3740

A new 1986 Mazda B2000 LX longbed for $5995

A new 1988 Toyota Tercel Wagon with several options for $8995

And then I helped my sister get a 1988 Mazda 323 for I think $6995.

All turned out to be good vehicles for us.

Mr_Shiftright

stickguy said:

actually, the C30 I really like is the V50. Basically a 4 door version with a whole lot more usable cargo space! If I stumbled upon a manual T5 one in nice shape and not a crazy price, I would go for it.

Here you go----only has 195,000 miles on it!

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/ctd/d/2006-volvo-v50-t5-wagon/6758539240.html

pensfan83

P&W is downtown I think. I bet I could see that one from my office if I wanted to 

qbrozen

pensfan83 said:

P&W is downtown I think. I bet I could see that one from my office if I wanted to 

Oh yeah? well, if they can work with me on the price, maybe I can persuade you to lay eyes on it for me.

28firefighter

P&W is in North Oakland off Baum I think. My old stomping grounds. They do negotiate on loaners - or they have - my buddy picked up an X1 there. 

28firefighter

Q I’m sure you know this but at 7825 miles, it no longer qualifies for regular incentives and the residual takes a big hit. IIRC for 7501 to 9999 it’s residual minus 6% minus $.25/mile over 500 miles.

Michaell

28firefighter said:

Q I’m sure you know this but at 7825 miles, it no longer qualifies for regular incentives and the residual takes a big hit. IIRC for 7501 to 9999 it’s residual minus 6% minus $.25/mile over 500 miles.

Correct

pensfan83

Absolutely. Dealer is a 15 minute drive from my office. If it looks like it's going to work out shoot me a PM.

tbirdmarco

 Well to put some miles on the car it takes ahead that’s why always say lease or buy used. Anyway hope that everyone had a good day and here catching up and post haven’t been in here since last night. 

stickguy

Shifty, that V50 is an Automatic. I can find one of those closer than 4,000 miles from here!

I actually like the X2 color. Just not the interior!

tbirdmarco

 Well to put some miles on the car it takes ahead that’s why always say lease or buy used. Anyway hope that everyone had a good day and here catching up and post haven’t been in here since last night. 

stickguy

I also don't like the 19" wheels on the X2. But, get it for me at $350/month and I will work around that.

Mr_Shiftright

stickguy said:

Shifty, that V50 is an Automatic. I can find one of those closer than 4,000 miles from here!

I actually like the X2 color. Just not the interior!

What do I know? Never paid much attention to the V50.

OK, I'll try harder!

2006 Volvo V50 in CT.

tbirdmarco

Congrats. On the new car  shifty good luck with it    Agreed.  With all looks good lol lol lol 

Q wow on what this dealr. Did to you. Breld is the. Nice to hear from you.  You had not posted in quite summm  time any pending. Punches for you?

breld

qbrozen said:

Great discount on this one for starters. I showed it to the wife to check on her reaction to the color. she said "YIKES!" But then agreed if we could get a good price on it....

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/new/searchresults.action?sourceContext=untrackedWithinSite_false_0&newSearchFromOverviewPage=true&inventorySearchWidgetType=AUTO&entitySelectingHelper.selectedEntity=d2623&entitySelectingHelper.selectedEntity2=&zip=08510&distance=500&searchChanged=true&lostFilters=Trims&modelChanged=true&filtersModified=true&sortType=MILEAGE&sortDirection=DESC#listing=201539831

My wife loves that color.

henryn

I usually like bright colors, but that one is kind of iffy. I would need to see it in person to make up my mind.

I got a private offer for $2,000 on a new Ford Expedition in the mail today. Too bad that's not something I would ever be likely to buy. Nothing against the Expedition, I have owned a Suburban and a Tahoe in the past, and the Expedition is pretty similar. But now that I have experienced the practicality of a minivan, I don't think I would ever go back to a large SUV. Never say never, but unlikely.

nyccarguy

Hey guys I just wanted to give everybody a quick update on my Pilot vs Rogue Sport saga.  Called All State (my insurance company).  Spoke to the claims person and then gave a statement to a claims investigator who ultimately decides who is at fault and at what percentage.  He pulled up a google map of the intersection.  

I explained what happened.  He said that according to CT law, that even though there IS room, technically I’m supposed to wait for the other vehicle to turn.  He also said that CT law states that a vehicle making a right turn must be as far to the right as possible (without being on a shoulder or curb) when making a right turn (the other driver was not far).  Since he was in front of me, he had the right of way.  He’ll take a look at the damage to the other vehicle and take a statement from the other driver, but more than likely I’ll be somewhere between 50 - 70% responsible for the damages.  Their insurance will be responsible for the rest.

Besides my perfectly unblemished insurance record, I’ll also have to deal with the fact that my Pilot will most likely have a “dirty” car fax attached to it.

corvette

That stinks, NYC. IMO, taken to its logical extreme, that law is pretty crazy. Could he have stopped at the intersection for half an hour then taken the right of way back whenever he pleased, since he was there first?

anonymousposts1

corvette said:

A lot of dealers don’t want easy. They want to wait for someone who will pay “their price.” 

I spent 18 years with CarMax before leaving late last year. Coming into it, Gee and I agreed I would take a year off before taking on another “corporate” job. During this year, we got our used car dealer license. It’s a tough market. To get the high quality cars, dealers pay a premium. Carmax can charge a premium because of infrastructure and name, as can franchise new car dealers. With older cars, dealers who want to sell nice cars are up against BHPH dealers who make a ton of money off of interest. I used to nickel and dime dealers to death, I still look for great deals but I am much more sympathetic. 

28firefighter

That’s a bummer, @nyccarguy. If you’re not filing a claim for the Pilot, why would it have a blemished Carfax?  

All said, don’t take it personally. It’ll fall off your insurance in a few years and you’ll forget all about it. 

sda

corvette said:

That stinks, NYC. IMO, taken to its logical extreme, that law is pretty crazy. Could he have stopped at the intersection for half an hour then taken the right of way back whenever he pleased, since he was there first?

x2, That totally bites

nyccarguy

corvette said:

That stinks, NYC. IMO, taken to its logical extreme, that law is pretty crazy. Could he have stopped at the intersection for half an hour then taken the right of way back whenever he pleased, since he was there first?

The crazy thing is that after something like this happens, I “what if?” Myself to death. 

What if I had listened to my wife who told me to drop off the turkey we bought to donate at the JCC before I dropped the kids off at Hebrew School?  I “had” to drop off at Hebrew 1st because of my compulsion for not wanting to be late.  

What if I had just waited another 10 seconds for the driver of the Rogue Sport to make a decision?

nyccarguy

28firefighter said:

That’s a bummer, @nyccarguy. If you’re not filing a claim for the Pilot, why would it have a blemished Carfax?  

All said, don’t take it personally. It’ll fall off your insurance in a few years and you’ll forget all about it. 

I’ll check with Shifty in a week or 2

qbrozen

28firefighter said:

Q I’m sure you know this but at 7825 miles, it no longer qualifies for regular incentives and the residual takes a big hit. IIRC for 7501 to 9999 it’s residual minus 6% minus $.25/mile over 500 miles.

I did not know that. Ugh. That puts yet another wrench in things. Apparently salesperson doesn't know that either because he said he'd work on it. Oh well.

qbrozen

corvette said:

qbrozen said:

One of the web people wrote back again, "oh, I'm sorry for the confusion, the person who called you is your salesperson. Is there anything you'd like me to pass along to him?"

"since you asked, you can inform him those 'incorrect prices' are also shown in truecar."

Can’t wait for him to respond that they don’t advertise with truecar, either. 

Aaaannd...that's exactly what he said

28firefighter

5000 miles or less for mileage adjustment only; 5001-7499 is 4% reduction and $.25/mile over 500 miles; 7500 - 10,000 is 6% and $.25/mile over 500 miles.  Over 10k is a set residual number by BMWFS. 

Dont give up yet. They’re likely motivated to move it. If you can try and get another 5-6% off you’d cover the spread. 

kyfdx

nyccarguy said:

corvette said:

That stinks, NYC. IMO, taken to its logical extreme, that law is pretty crazy. Could he have stopped at the intersection for half an hour then taken the right of way back whenever he pleased, since he was there first?

The crazy thing is that after something like this happens, I “what if?” Myself to death. 

What if I had listened to my wife who told me to drop off the turkey we bought to donate at the JCC before I dropped the kids off at Hebrew School?  I “had” to drop off at Hebrew 1st because of my compulsion for not wanting to be late.  

What if I had just waited another 10 seconds for the driver of the Rogue Sport to make a decision?

Let me tell you about leaving the parking lot at the coffee shop through a different exit, because my son was sick that day, and I didn’t have to drop him off at school. Which also caused me to have a crockpot of chili on the back floorboard. (Wife’s chili for a potluck at work. She stayed home with the sick boy). Then, the Mercedes driver waves me through his lane, as I’m making a left turn out of a corner lot. Hey, that’s a nice car! Be real smooth on the clutch, don’t spill the chili. Look to the right for oncoming traffic. All clear. Man, that’s a nice Mercedes. What am I forgetting? Nice and smooth, don’t slosh the chili. All good. Forgetting something. BOOM! Oh yeah, also crossing a left turn lane and just crunched a new Civic. Airbags blown. Chili is..... everywhere.

That was in 2002... so, you’ll forget it about it some day. Just not anytime soon.

pensfan83

That X2 is a little over 3 months away from a birthday at the dealer. I would think they would be somewhat motivated on that one.

roadburner

nyccarguy said:

corvette said:

That stinks, NYC. IMO, taken to its logical extreme, that law is pretty crazy. Could he have stopped at the intersection for half an hour then taken the right of way back whenever he pleased, since he was there first?

The crazy thing is that after something like this happens, I “what if?” Myself to death. 

What if I had listened to my wife who told me to drop off the turkey we bought to donate at the JCC before I dropped the kids off at Hebrew School?  I “had” to drop off at Hebrew 1st because of my compulsion for not wanting to be late.  

What if I had just waited another 10 seconds for the driver of the Rogue Sport to make a decision?

It's usually difficult to predict what the typical idiot US driver will do; although if you assume that they will make the most moronic choice you usually won't go too far wrong...

stickguy

that is what I taught the kids first time out. Think about the dumbest thing someone could do, and expect it to happen.

roadburner

I'm really liking the X1; I've driven it the past two days and it is the most entertaining non-///M BMW SUV I've driven. It's small and relatively light on its feet. I do think I'm going to hook it up to my Carli app and reset the transmission adaptations.I can't think of any similarly sized SUV I'd rather drive.

Funny thing; just like my old Mazdaspeed and my current 2er the X1 seems to constantly goad pickup truck drivers into wanting to race it. It's happened twice already, and both times the X1 dispatched them with little drama. In the 2 Series I let pickup boy gradually pull a car length ahead and then I nail it and leave them for dead, but in the X1 I have to hammer it from the outset.

stickguy

here is another mini Ute that is similar color to that X2. Just half the price! Pretty loaded up little buggy.

https://www.royalautogroups.com/vehicle-details/2018-ford-ecosport-titanium-awd-nav-dr-asst-pkg-tech-pkg-panoroof-wagon-419842ffd6eeb04982ba5252321b0bc9

suydam

I used to do the “what if” scenario over and over too. A friend once said to me, you made the decision that seemed right at the time. Hindsight is always 20-20. This too shall pass. And no one was hurt.

benjaminh

Mr_Shiftright said:

Picked up my new baby last night:

Here's hoping shifty gets 100,000 miles and more from his Volvo....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHOk87QWmmk

boomchek

stickguy said:

but of course, those are the easiest deals. Skinny maybe, but it moves another unit, and takes no effort. get the price approved, send an email, pass some info back and forth, and he shows up the next day to sign papers and take car home. Heck, you could work 5 of those deals before lunch.

Unfortunately based on experience at multiple dealerships I worked at is that a dealer will have greater success closing a deal to someone in person than on email, and that means getting the person who emailed to acutally come in.

I've worked hundreds of email leads over the years and probably a good 90% of best price quotes sent out never came in, bought, or turned into a deal, skinny or not, even if the quote left nothing on the table for us. We have better chance of getting the deal by NOT quoting best number over email and instead inviting the customer to come in person.

au1994

So it looks like we’ve arrived at a decision and will have a punch to replace the X6 in the next week or so. First, a little background on the going’s on in au1994 land...

About 2 months ago I was recruited to a new opportunity and now work from home 90% of the time. When I do go to an office, its 10-15 miles away vs the 30 I was driving. We’ve also taken the plunge on a lake house in the north GA mountains, thus the boat purchase a week ago. While we are not lake front, we are using a marina for storage that will not require us to get a tow vehicle. We’re very happy and very excited for the next lake season but will still go up over the fall and winter to hike.

For the longest time we were operating under the line of thought that we needed one large, ‘family’ vehicle in the fleet to get us to and fro and haul sports equipment etc. and were looking at everything from a Pilot to an Ascent with some Outbacks and Highlanders sprinkled in. Basically there wasn’t a midsized SUV that didn’t get a look on line or in person. We eventually looked at the compacts, Forester and CR-V specifically. Very impressed with both.

This weekend we sat back and really took stock of what we’ve got and what we need. We need a hauler, good gas mileage, good (but not cavernous) cargo capacity and a good price. After all the shopping and pricing we did, the answer was already in the garage and at a great price. The X1 is going to remain and move to Mrs. au1994 primarily. Her commute is 8 miles so she won’t be piling on the miles, its sitting at 22k right now. My only regret in getting the X1 is I got fwd instead of awd. My wife is in healthcare and has to be at work in all types of weather. We don’t deal with snow well in the Atlanta area and the mountains where the lake house is can get some snow, so I feel much more comfortable having 1 awd vehicle in the fleet. So...we’ve got a great quote on a Crosstrek Limited. That will become mine and fill the awd gap and leave us with a nice economical choice in the fleet. We briefly toyed with just having 1 car for a while but that just doesn’t work for us for many reasons. Mostly because neither of us has been without a car and the ability to go at any time since we were 16. Some would call it a control issue

I know the Crosstrek is slow, maybe even painfully slow but the value you get from it and any Subaru frankly, is amazing. Plus it will be a good car to pass on to little au1994. How much trouble can he get in with 152 hp on tap??

Headed out of town for a wedding so it will likely be next week before we can close the deal. Thanks for reading. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming!

benjaminh

Congrats on the Crosstrek!

qbrozen

stickguy said:

here is another mini Ute that is similar color to that X2. Just half the price! Pretty loaded up little buggy. https://www.royalautogroups.com/vehicle-details/2018-ford-ecosport-titanium-awd-nav-dr-asst-pkg-tech-pkg-panoroof-wagon-419842ffd6eeb04982ba5252321b0bc9

Yet the monthly would still be more than leasing a larger luxo vehicle.

nyccarguy

boomchek said:

stickguy said:

but of course, those are the easiest deals. Skinny maybe, but it moves another unit, and takes no effort. get the price approved, send an email, pass some info back and forth, and he shows up the next day to sign papers and take car home. Heck, you could work 5 of those deals before lunch.

Unfortunately based on experience at multiple dealerships I worked at is that a dealer will have greater success closing a deal to someone in person than on email, and that means getting the person who emailed to acutally come in.

I've worked hundreds of email leads over the years and probably a good 90% of best price quotes sent out never came in, bought, or turned into a deal, skinny or not, even if the quote left nothing on the table for us. We have better chance of getting the deal by NOT quoting best number over email and instead inviting the customer to come in person.

This is why I'm so glad you are back @boomchek. It is great to have someone's perspective from "the other side" of the table. Do you think you didn't hear back because people were just poking around or did they just shop your price around?

tbirdmarco

 Stick guy nice cars posted above from that dealer. And congratulations on the launch of the new Subaru cross track. Good morning everyone. Have a good day off, will be back in here later to catch up on postings. 

nyccarguy

@au1994 - Congrats on the upcoming Crosstrek punch. While a Crosstrek is sluggish, it does ride solid and handle securely. I had them as loaners a few times. Good choice for sure. If you are really concerned about your (now) wife's FWD X1 handling "adverse" driving conditions in Atlanta and the surrounding mountains might I suggest a set of winter tires. They will transform the way it drives, stops, turns when there is some snow/ice on the ground.

tbirdmarco

 Man New York car guy, let’s hope this all works out in your favor. 

au1994

nyccarguy said:

@au1994 - Congrats on the upcoming Crosstrek punch. While a Crosstrek is sluggish, it does ride solid and handle securely. I had them as loaners a few times. Good choice for sure. If you are really concerned about your (now) wife's FWD X1 handling "adverse" driving conditions in Atlanta and the surrounding mountains might I suggest a set of winter tires. They will transform the way it drives, stops, turns when there is some snow/ice on the ground.

thanks! A new set of tires is definitely in the offing. Since new one of my complaints has been the noise level with the X1 so we are going to replace the OEM Pirelli Cintuato (sp?) early next year. As noted it only has 22k miles so the tread is fine but the noise level is just unacceptable at any price point. We’ll look at all seasons and try to split the difference between the best rated for weather and quietness.

stickguy

Snows in Atlanta seem like overkill. Good quality all seasons that rate well in snow should be plenty.

stickguy

WAs poking on Honcker this morning. Good deal on a QX60. The interesting part was playing with term options. It was actually cheap (by $27!) to get it for 39 months instead of 36. Not just monthly, but total cost of the lease. Basically, like leasing for for 36 months, then they pay you $27 to keep it for an extra 3

Leasing can be such a strange animal.

Oh, it was $383/mo, $390 DAS for it, off a MSRP of about $43k. Not bad if looking for a barge like that.

graphicguy

qbrozen said:

Great discount on this one for starters. I showed it to the wife to check on her reaction to the color. she said "YIKES!" But then agreed if we could get a good price on it....

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/new/searchresults.action?sourceContext=untrackedWithinSite_false_0&newSearchFromOverviewPage=true&inventorySearchWidgetType=AUTO&entitySelectingHelper.selectedEntity=d2623&entitySelectingHelper.selectedEntity2=&zip=08510&distance=500&searchChanged=true&lostFilters=Trims&modelChanged=true&filtersModified=true&sortType=MILEAGE&sortDirection=DESC#listing=201539831

Agree with your wife on the “YIKES” part about the color. But, sounds like you can cut a screaming deal on it. I would like to know where the 8K miles came from, though. That seems like a lot for a loaner. CPO?

pensfan83

I've seen other BMW loaners with that mileage but as @28firefighter pointed out because those vehicles aren't eligible for incentives, they usually aren't good lease candidates unless you get a sizable discount from sticker, usually close to or over 30% IIRC.