Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

graphicguy

corvette said:

stickguy said:

what model cooper did you get? I have the CS5 ultra tourings on the RDX and they have been good so far.

Cooper Zeon RS3-G1.

ronsteve said:

How much is there to see over at the Coxs Creek facility? Any reason to add it to our Bourbon Trail adventures?

The Cox's Creek tour actually lasted longer than the one in Lawrenceburg. They take you in a van to show you where the distilled spirits are moved into barrels, one of the rickhouses, and the building where they do the filtering and bottling. And you get a second tasting. If you pay $5 for the tour at either facility, you can come back to the other facility within 60 days for free for a second tour and second tasting. I did both in one day. And the Cox's Creek facility is within spitting distance of Jim Beam--I don't really care for them (the bourbon or the tour), but if you're there and need to punch your passport, might as well.

kyfdx said:

How was the bourbon?

Good. The tour was cheap. The bottle of Single Barrel I brought home was less so.

Love the Bourbon Trail. Agree about Beam....huge conglomerate compared to the other, smaller distillers.

henryn

breld said:

On another note, I've been driving the Miata, top down, this weekend. Denver really is a nice area for convertibles - despite the reputation for snowy winters, there are plenty of warm sunny days throughout the winter months.

Back around 1994 or 1995, I spent a week in Denver for training. This was in January, and I was looking forward to seeing some snow. Yes, people who only see snow every 10 or 20 years enjoy playing in the snow, as long as we don't have to shovel it.

I even went out and bought a new coat, just for the trip. Which turned out to be a bust. The average temperatures were higher in Denver that week than back home in Houston.

corvette

graphicguy said:

Love the Bourbon Trail. Agree about Beam....huge conglomerate compared to the other, smaller distillers.

Maker's Mark is a much better visitor experience. Funny because they have the same corporate parent. The last time I was at Beam, the "tasting" was that they gave you a card, and a cup, and you put the card into a machine to dispense the bourbon you wanted to taste. Very impersonal.

au1994

Catching up on some posts...

RE: Jeep SUV’s. I am a fan of all of them, except maybe the Renegade. I found the Cherokee pretty nice in Limited trim. Have always been a fan of the Grand Cherokee. It originated the ruggedly handsome look to me and while that has become a marketing ploy, I still like it! They used to lease pretty well which brings me to my next comment...

RE: Lease and Finance deals. I too think they are drying up except for models that don’t sell well to begin with. The best rate Subaru had was, I believe 2.4 on 18 Outbacks. Most 19’s you could get 3.49 on. Little lease cash on anything. Our hosts can correct me but I don’t recall any 0% offers during the end of year selling season. So yes, looks like the days of ‘free’ money may be over for a while. Like everything else they will be back. Maybe dealers will get more agressive with discounts?

RE: Convertibles. Although there is not one in the fleet now, I am still a huge fan. Rule of thumb for me was if it was 55 and sunny top was down, windows up and heat on. With a pull over, it was fine for me. Today in the Atlanta area the car showed 72 when we were running some errands. This would have been a top down day for sure.

Michaell

henryn said:

breld said:

On another note, I've been driving the Miata, top down, this weekend. Denver really is a nice area for convertibles - despite the reputation for snowy winters, there are plenty of warm sunny days throughout the winter months.

Back around 1994 or 1995, I spent a week in Denver for training. This was in January, and I was looking forward to seeing some snow. Yes, people who only see snow every 10 or 20 years enjoy playing in the snow, as long as we don't have to shovel it.

I even went out and bought a new coat, just for the trip. Which turned out to be a bust. The average temperatures were higher in Denver that week than back home in Houston.

I've worn shorts both yesterday and today.

50's forecasted for the next 10 days.

As much as we complain about it, we do need the snow. Prime fire season without it.

graphicguy

corvette said:

graphicguy said:

Love the Bourbon Trail. Agree about Beam....huge conglomerate compared to the other, smaller distillers.

Maker's Mark is a much better visitor experience. Funny because they have the same corporate parent. The last time I was at Beam, the "tasting" was that they gave you a card, and a cup, and you put the card into a machine to dispense the bourbon you wanted to taste. Very impersonal.

Agree again, regarding Maker’s. Evan Williams in Louisville is a good one, too!

I do like going to Beam as they make my “go to” bourbon....Basil Hayden!

tbirdmarco

 If you come to the Denver area just to visit all those wineries that we could all meet up in the coming here ha ha seriously though how to make it happen. 

xwesx

-40F here this morning, though fortunate enough that it was "only" about -30 to -32 at my house. Impressive cold; it has been several years since we had temps dip this low, though it was, until about fifteen years ago, typical to have at least a few weeks of temps never getting *warmer* than -30F (and sometimes MUCH colder than that).

Happily, the Q7 fired up without drama this morning.

Climate change is quite pronounced in the arctic/subarctic, though I imagine many in California would agree that it is noticeable!

I remember that over the millenium new year, we had ten days of sub -50F temperatures. I was driving the '69 C20 that winter. And, I tell you what, you don't complain about -30F after experiencing that type of weather! Sadly, the body is a fickle thing and quickly forgets what those temps are really like.

kyfdx

Detectives needed:
https://forums.edmunds.com/discussion/53907/general/x/can-anyone-guess-what-type-of-car-this-is#latest

corvette

Wow. Do you have to use an additive to keep the diesel from gelling up? Do you have an oil pan heater or block heater? 

nyccarguy

Anybody else having trouble finding the forums on their desktop home page?

PF_Flyer

We haven't disappeared, but the top of page nav changed on the main site. Bookmark us directly (forums.edmunds.com) and cut out the middleman

au1994

nyccarguy said:

Anybody else having trouble finding the forums on their desktop home page?

No but have had some login issues the past 2 days. Had to reset my password twice yesterday as I would just get the spinning wheel when I tried to login and just a few minutes ago it said my email address wasn’t recognized when I tried to login.

nyccarguy

PF_Flyer said:

We haven't disappeared, but the top of page nav changed on the main site. Bookmark us directly (forums.edmunds.com) and cut out the middleman

Done. Thank-you!

nyccarguy

tifighter said:

So I drove the 3 up skiing yesterday for the first time with a friend. 2/3 section of rear seat folded down, for two sets of skis, bags with clothes, ski boots, helmets, packs, etc. Round trip to the area, Crystal Mtn, is about 150 miles, sea level to 4600 ft, then back down. Temps in the low 40s to 27 at the base of the mountain. Entire trip used about 50% battery, which seems good to me considering it is rated for 310 miles and it wasn’t a flat summer trip. Handled some snow and ice well, but it’s on winter tires. Impressed.

Glad to know you are enjoying yourself as well as your new Tesla 3. I look forward to hearing about your ownership & driving experiences.

xwesx

corvette said:

Wow. Do you have to use an additive to keep the diesel from gelling up? Do you have an oil pan heater or block heater? 

The fueling stations switch over to #1 diesel for the winter months. I estimate probably from abut 9/15 through 4/15. It makes economy take a hit, since #1 has less energy per gallon than #2, but it does not gel until *very* cold (~ -60 or less?).

I have a circulating block heater on it, which does a great job (when temps are more reasonable, such as -10 or warmer, it will heat the engine up to operating temperature and/or keep it there), and I also have an oil pan heater for the engine and transmission.

On Saturday, I plugged it in early in the morning so it would be ready to go when I needed it, and found out that my timer had failed which caused the power to not come on as planned. When I tried to start it, the did not even turn over before the battery cried mercy. About 90 minutes with the heaters on and a 6A charger on the battery, and it fired right up.

xwesx

How about this morning's temperature? BTW, that's about -46F.

PF_Flyer

nyccarguy said:

PF_Flyer said:

We haven't disappeared, but the top of page nav changed on the main site. Bookmark us directly (forums.edmunds.com) and cut out the middleman

Done. Thank-you!

Always stay light on your feet!

PF_Flyer

xwesx said:

How about this morning's temperature? BTW, that's about -46F.

Qualifies as BRISK!

laurasdada

Compared to xwesx, a balmy 25 degrees for our midday run (4.72 miles) here!

Girlfriend, who is fine, was t-boned by a Lexus RX Saturday night. Other driver claimed GF ran a stop sign, but has now admitted 100% fault. As all evidence shows! Dude at the repair facility said car was hit by a car going ~30 mph and likely will be totaled by insurance (other driver never slowed/stopped for her stop sign at four way likely. Wonder if texting/on phone?). Both passenger side curtains deployed, most of both doors destroyed. A shame, but if totaled, a punch coming.

28firefighter

What does your girlfriend drive now? How did it handle the hit?

xwesx

laurasdada said:

Compared to xwesx, a balmy 25 degrees for our midday run (4.72 miles) here!

Girlfriend, who is fine, was t-boned by a Lexus RX Saturday night. Other driver claimed GF ran a stop sign, but has now admitted 100% fault. As all evidence shows! Dude at the repair facility said car was hit by a car going ~30 mph and likely will be totaled by insurance (other driver never slowed/stopped for her stop sign at four way likely. Wonder if texting/on phone?). Both passenger side curtains deployed, most of both doors destroyed. A shame, but if totaled, a punch coming.

Ouch. But, as you say, she is fine and that's what counts!

tifighter

Glad to hear she is fine. T-bone is the worst.

stickguy

Yeah, take Alaska off the list of places I’m ever moving to.

au1994

laurasdada said:

Compared to xwesx, a balmy 25 degrees for our midday run (4.72 miles) here!

Girlfriend, who is fine, was t-boned by a Lexus RX Saturday night. Other driver claimed GF ran a stop sign, but has now admitted 100% fault. As all evidence shows! Dude at the repair facility said car was hit by a car going ~30 mph and likely will be totaled by insurance (other driver never slowed/stopped for her stop sign at four way likely. Wonder if texting/on phone?). Both passenger side curtains deployed, most of both doors destroyed. A shame, but if totaled, a punch coming.

Glad she is ok, wasn’t she driving a newish 3 series? Glad it did its job in the crash. Cars and the safety features are so much better these days. Some of the nannies get intrusive but the true safety features are welcome. You might be surprised at what it takes to total a car. I’d pray for frame damage

Thinking about some of my early rides compared to the safety tech on the Crosstrek and X1 is comical:

66 Mustang = lap belts and that’s about it for safety. Oh, the dash was padded.

89 Beretta - this was a former rental strippo model so no ABS and not even a drivers airbag. I suppose it had crumple zones. It may have even been drums on the rear brakes still. How I loathed that car.

95 Tacoma - Had a drivers airbag and ABS I believe.

Mr_Shiftright

stickguy said:

Yeah, take Alaska off the list of places I’m ever moving to.

I remember one day when I was working up there and the temp was around -55. I just shut the door and stayed inside. It was literally painful to even breathe. Our planes were all asleep in their hangers anyway.

xwesx

Mr_Shiftright said:

stickguy said:

Yeah, take Alaska off the list of places I’m ever moving to.

I remember one day when I was working up there and the temp was around -55. I just shut the door and stayed inside. It was literally painful to even breathe. Our planes were all asleep in their hangers anyway.

Yes, once it gets to -50 and colder, it truly is painful to breath that air (or have any skin exposed to it).

Mr_Shiftright

It's pretty dangerous if you aren't careful. It's quite interesting though. The cold begins to feel like a "thing" out there.

omarman

xwesx said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

stickguy said:

Yeah, take Alaska off the list of places I’m ever moving to.

I remember one day when I was working up there and the temp was around -55. I just shut the door and stayed inside. It was literally painful to even breathe. Our planes were all asleep in their hangers anyway.

Yes, once it gets to -50 and colder, it truly is painful to breath that air (or have any skin exposed to it).

xwesx

Mr_Shiftright said:

It's pretty dangerous if you aren't careful. It's quite interesting though. The cold begins to feel like a "thing" out there.

Yeah... like a vicious wall of stinging nettles! Hahahaha

Mr_Shiftright

omarman said:

xwesx said:

Mr_Shiftright said:

stickguy said:

Yeah, take Alaska off the list of places I’m ever moving to.

I remember one day when I was working up there and the temp was around -55. I just shut the door and stayed inside. It was literally painful to even breathe. Our planes were all asleep in their hangers anyway.

Yes, once it gets to -50 and colder, it truly is painful to breath that air (or have any skin exposed to it).

Hey, who brought that Thing in here?

(That's James Arness BTW)

graphicguy

laurasdada said:

Compared to xwesx, a balmy 25 degrees for our midday run (4.72 miles) here!

Girlfriend, who is fine, was t-boned by a Lexus RX Saturday night. Other driver claimed GF ran a stop sign, but has now admitted 100% fault. As all evidence shows! Dude at the repair facility said car was hit by a car going ~30 mph and likely will be totaled by insurance (other driver never slowed/stopped for her stop sign at four way likely. Wonder if texting/on phone?). Both passenger side curtains deployed, most of both doors destroyed. A shame, but if totaled, a punch coming.

Yikes....glad she's fine. Good that it sounds like insurance (other driver's?) is paying!

cdnpinhead

In Edmonton, when it got really cold (below -30F), all vehicle exhaust generated what amounts to ice fog. The traffic circles (roundabouts, rotaries) were full of it. I plugged my car in at work and at home, so had few problems. My MGB had a plug-in heater that went in the heater hose loop and worked very well. The 240Z had a conventional block heater that replaced one of the freeze plugs, as did my wife's Volvo. It's all relative, and one learns to cope. I still prefer the Edmonton weather relative to the Phoenix situation. We did have -56 deg F at one point, in still air, so I feel qualified to comment.

To give you an idea of things, hockey is insanely popular in Canada, and many of the youth teams played on outdoor rinks in Edmonton. When it got below -20F the daily practices were cancelled. Above that, party on!

laurasdada

Thanks, she is fine. '16 BMW 328xi (CPO). The other driver has admitted 100% fault (smartly, the evidence would not have supported any other claim!). I am glad she was in a fine piece of German engineering, the impact spun her car 90 degrees so it sat in the middle of the road, luckily no car coming from the other direction to hit her on the drivers side.

She rented a Ford Fusion Hybrid for the week, awaiting insurance adjudication. With the expectation of a total, she said it looked even worse in the daylight than in the dark, rainy Saturday evening. I had to explain a bit of the hybrid, she didn't understand why the engine wasn't running after starting it...

I think she'll want another 3'er, but I'll show her the usual suspects of A4 and C Class. Pretty sure she wouldn't be interested in an XE, not sure I could recommend a Giulia (unfortunately. But, I'm still intrigued. Now $10k discounts on '18 and $4600 on '19. But, I'm not yet ready. I did visit local Porsche dealer on Saturday. Three separate sales folks asked if they could help me! Guess my looky-lou face wasn't properly displayed; I usually get ignored. Thankfully).

fintail

I remember as a kid in eastern WA, if it was 0F or lower (it happens once in a blue moon), school would be canceled. It only happened for that reason once in my time there, and I think almost never now that winters in that region seem to be a bit warmer than 30-35 years ago. It would take a bit of snow to cancel school too, probably more than half a foot. Nowadays I think it is canceled with a lot less. On the west side, people freak out when it is below freezing, and a few inches of snow creates armageddon. I do miss the fun of creating a "rink" with any concrete slab and a garden hose, and wearing cowboy boots in the winter to slide on any available ice on the way to school.

xwesx

cdnpinhead said:

In Edmonton, when it got really cold (below -30F), all vehicle exhaust generated what amounts to ice fog. The traffic circles (roundabouts, rotaries) were full of it.

Yes indeed! It usually takes a few days of cold for the fog to build enough to really sock us in, but localized areas, such as circles and other intersections, can be problematic.

I was behind a tractor with a big flat bed trailer yesterday as we left an intersection, and it was complete whiteout for a little while as he accelerated. Once our speed was up, the exhaust thinned enough that we could see again.

Oh; hahahahahahaha.... I saw a red Cadillac yesterday morning that was dragging several cords under it. However, they weren't behind the car, but were out in front of it because they were so stiff from the cold. It looked like the driver forgot to unplug it that morning. When he hit the end of the cord, it looks like it tore off the bottom of the bumper fascia (behind which was the plug adapter for the car's electric heaters) and just left all the wiring dangling to the ground.

Plastic bits get quite fragile in these conditions. Metal, too, for that matter. On Saturday (it was a comparitively balmy -30F that day), I came across a large dodge pickup down in the median. It had been moving around a bit down there trying to free itself, so I stopped to pull him out. The driver said he had a tow truck on the way, and I offered to pull him out anyway. He replies, "I would love to, but I actually broke my driveshaft trying to get out, so that's why I do need the tow truck." /sigh Another recovery opportunity lost.

pensfan83

Browsing through some of the loaner inventory at a local BMW dealer I saw they had a listing for a 2004 which seemed odd. I was curious and now I see why they kept it for their lot.

Kind of sort of want to go take a look.

https://maxdigitalshowroom.com/web/#!/vehicle/WBABD53404PD98185

28firefighter

Pretty car, but yikes on the mileage. Even if maintained...yowza

nyccarguy

pensfan83 said:

Browsing through some of the loaner inventory at a local BMW dealer I saw they had a listing for a 2004 which seemed odd. I was curious and now I see why they kept it for their lot. Kind of sort of want to go take a look. https://maxdigitalshowroom.com/web/#!/vehicle/WBABD53404PD98185

That’s a $4K gamble.  With 185K on the odometer, it is definitely no spring chicken.  

Mr_Shiftright

pensfan83 said:

Browsing through some of the loaner inventory at a local BMW dealer I saw they had a listing for a 2004 which seemed odd. I was curious and now I see why they kept it for their lot.

Kind of sort of want to go take a look.

https://maxdigitalshowroom.com/web/#!/vehicle/WBABD53404PD98185

That car's statistical lifespan is just about over. Best thing to do is take it on a test drive and run the livin' daylights out of it and see if it breaks, leaks, stops, stutters, boils over or screams bloody murder. If not, then offer $2,500 and cross your fingers.

roadburner

I remember during the 2000 ALCAN rally a couple of teams would leave their vehicles idling all night. The next morning there would be a volcano shaped mound of ice under each tailpipe.

xwesx

roadburner said:

I remember during the 2000 ALCAN rally a couple of teams would leave their vehicles idling all night. The next morning there would be a volcano shaped mound of ice under each tailpipe.

Kinda overkill, to be honest. Even in ridiculously cold temperatures, two hours off, twenty-thirty minutes on, and two hours off is plenty of run time.

xwesx

With a buy under $4,000, that's equivalent to about a year of payments. So, if you can buy it and drive it for two years with no major issues, it was a good gamble.

We did that with our 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan. We made it just over two years before a major issue developed, so it worked out well. I probably could have eeked more out of it, but my wife didn't trust it anymore, so it was a goner. I knew she was serious when she swapped the car seats over to my Escort and drove away. Prior to that day, she wouldn't even ride in the Escort because, at a glance, she deemed it "unsafe."

corvette

That means you have to wake up for half an hour every two hours!

tifighter

@xwesx Looks like this filmed this in your neck of the woods. I'm getting cold just watching it-

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

28firefighter

xwesx said:

With a buy under $4,000, that's equivalent to about a year of payments. So, if you can buy it and drive it for two years with no major issues, it was a good gamble.

There is absolutely no chance that 330 goes 2 years with no major issues. 

qbrozen

28firefighter said:

xwesx said:

With a buy under $4,000, that's equivalent to about a year of payments. So, if you can buy it and drive it for two years with no major issues, it was a good gamble.

There is absolutely no chance that 330 goes 2 years with no major issues. 

Even if it could, that disregards all the “minor” issues that could add up to thousands of dollars. 

pensfan83

Mr_Shiftright said:

Browsing through some of the loaner inventory at a local BMW dealer I saw they had a listing for a 2004 which seemed odd. I was curious and now I see why they kept it for their lot. Kind of sort of want to go take a look. https://maxdigitalshowroom.com/web/#!/vehicle/WBABD53404PD98185

That car's statistical lifespan is just about over. Best thing to do is take it on a test drive and run the livin' daylights out of it and see if it breaks, leaks, stops, stutters, boils over or screams bloody murder. If not, then offer $2,500 and cross your fingers.

If the entire maintenance history were available and it passed a PPI I think I'd take a gamble.

au1994

At 185k miles there are things on the 3 that should have been replaced and then replaced again. I think a lot of us get the appeal of the ZHP and the E46 in general but as noted this one is awfully close to being used up even if it was well maintained.

But sure, take a flyer on it at 1500 and turn it into a track rat!

pensfan83

Well I already have one miled up vehicle in the fleet however I wouldn't want to swap it for one that is undoubtedly more to maintain. Not that I wasn't aware of that but I suppose miles don't stand out to me as much if everything else is in good working order.

Oh well...it held my interest for all of 12 hours. I appreciate you all putting up with my naivete on such things