Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

xwesx

kyfdx said:

Or, it’s -43F!

Not sure I’d blame that on Audi

My C20 doesn't have odd lights coming on at those temps! Hahahahha

Here's an example of an oddity tonight (my rear door was closed...) Oh, and nice temp tonight, eh? Even -42 at home. We haven't had a temp this cold at my house in many years, which is sorta sad (from a climate change perspective), but I'm not crying!

tifighter

breld said:

And I’ve found not all adaptive cruise controls are created equal.  Have had it on Audis, a Land Rover, a Dodge, the Prius and a Volvo.  

Of those, the Volvo was by far the smoothest.  I imagine Teslas are pretty good.  

Normal ACC is okay, but it’s much more useful if it has full stop capability. Our XC has this and its great in stop and go traffic, and as you point out, very smooth. Must have IMO if you have poor commuting traffic regularly. But yes, Autopilot bumps it up by an order of magnitude. Or two.

qbrozen

tbirdmarco said:

 Kind of figured all cruise controls were created equal. Man QB you’re talking about your Beamer with some Redlands one just gone. More so than the Alpha had wow you got a bad one then, if it continues see if they’ll swap you into exactly the same car another one though. 

Oh no no. My bimmer is fine. Its great. It is xwesx’s Audi that is possessed by jack frost.

qbrozen

kyfdx said:

xwesx said:

Oh, gosh, what's the Q7 doing, now?

Oh, well, just gremlin-y stuff: I open the doors, no interior lights. I close the doors, the lights come on, then shut off as normal. I open the rear hatch, it works fine, I try to close it.... nothing. I eventually just forced it shut manually (which it REALLY doesn't like, but oh well). I try to use the radio, the screen says "loading" for about two minutes, then the whole system just shuts down. Seriously? FM RADIO? What's so hard about that? LOL What else.... Oh, the illumination on a circuit (includes door panels, center panel, overhead, etc., but NOT dash display) began flickering wildly when I shut the car off the other day. It wouldn't turn off, just flickered almost imperceptibly fast. I eventually gave up trying to get it to stop and just went inside. Several hours later when I came back out, no flickering, worked like normal. No response from the "touch sensitive" handles on the vehicle, either to lock or unlock. I either have to pull the handle a half-dozen times to get it to unlock, or fish the FOB out of my pocket and use the flip-key. The headlights have auto-adjustment in them, so if I am carrying a heavy load, the lights will point further down to stay at the right level, etc. Well, those didn't adjust properly once, so they were pointed high. I tell you what.... visibility was EXCELLENT that trip, but several oncoming cars let me know they didn't appreciate it very much. LOL Odd stuff; one offs (I hope).

You sure its not an Alfa?

Or, it’s -43F! Not sure I’d blame that on Audi

Totally agree. Electronics don’t like the cold.

stickguy

sometimes it seems that features sound great on paper, but in reality, you hate them. My Hyundais had the "magic trunk" that opened when you stood behind it. after having it pop open a bunch of times when I walked behind the car, that quickly got turned off.

The TLX has "walk away" auto locking. No more waiting for the wife to get out of the car,, and having to push the button on the handle. Sounded great, so I turned it on. Drove me nuts, since it apparently also makes the honk when locking feature turn on, and whenever I parked in the garage (where I never lock it) and got a foot away it would lock itself. Turned that back off too.

I have parking sensors now, which is nice (particularly in the front) with a big car, and I don't have a ton of room in the garage (really gotta get rid of the kids bikes that they never use). But they get set off going in by the door frame, and then get set off when I back out (the rear ones). I think they are a bit oversensitive, but I guess better that than not working at all.

modern cars certainly like to beep, squawk and flash at you. sometimes hard to figure out why it is yelling at you, which can be a problem if it is actually important!

breld

tifighter said:

And I’ve found not all adaptive cruise controls are created equal.  Have had it on Audis, a Land Rover, a Dodge, the Prius and a Volvo.  

Of those, the Volvo was by far the smoothest.  I imagine Teslas are pretty good.  

Normal ACC is okay, but it’s much more useful if it has full stop capability. Our XC has this and its great in stop and go traffic, and as you point out, very smooth. Must have IMO if you have poor commuting traffic regularly. But yes, Autopilot bumps it up by an order of magnitude. Or two.

Gotta admit, I was pretty excited for the prospect of my wife getting a Model 3, but she just didn’t warm to it, and I certainly wasn’t going to push it.  With the upcoming move, she’s gonna start experiencing a long slow commute some days (as I have for the past several years), and I thought the autopilot feature in the Tesla would have made that much more tolerable.  

With the tax credits, a Model 3 would have been just about the same cost of the A5 we ended up with.  We weren’t considering the performance model, but did want the wheel upgrade and, of course, the autopilot feature. 

xwesx

stickguy said:

modern cars certainly like to beep, squawk and flash at you. sometimes hard to figure out why it is yelling at you, which can be a problem if it is actually important!

That's for certain! Somewhat related, I am in the thick of a major project at work where we are implementing a new process/program. One of the primary selling points of the software package is that it has "audit rules" built into it so that people are required to do things as we say they need to do them. In the event of an exception, the system flags it, requires additional justification, and *is supposed to* bring it to the attention of approvers.

However, there is a workflow decision point built into the routing logic that will send the approval to one type of person in one set of circumstances, and to another type in the other set of circumstances. The default is for the software to flag that and notify the user. The problem is... there's nothing important here! It is not any type of exception, it is just the normal workflow.

In early user testing, I noted this immediately as a concern, since there are no workflows that occur without having the flag... which means that all other flags become less noticeable within the approval process. Fast forward four months, we are on the cusp of rolling this out to the whole organization, and those flags are STILL there! I just cannot seem to get through to the programmers that this notification is undermining the entire "audit rule" functionality. Argh!!!

henryn

We went to Remedy software for Incident Management (trouble tickets) and Change Management about 6 years ago. I pointed out a number of problems at that time, and to date not one has been fixed. They did try to implement a fix for one problem, but the fix actually made the situation worse.

Maybe it's just me being a grouchy old man (you kids get off my lawn!), but it seems to me that the quality of software has gone downhill rather drastically. I attribute that to "lowest bidder" and "low cost geography".

xwesx

Not that it matter in that case, but thought I would mention:

Alaska has a title transfer notification system that sellers are required to use within 30 days of a sale, too. There is a tab on the bottom of the title, as well as (now) a web form. You just fill in the date of sale, vehicle, and buyer info, then submit. Nothing else to it.

This way, if there is an issue with the vehicle going forward, you have some coverage that indicates you released your interest in it. Not a perfect system, of course, but better than having zero recourse at all!

xwesx

Following up on the (ongoing) Xbox Saga....

The kids were supposed to up this morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The order of (supposed) events? Get up, take care of self, take care of space, eat breakfast, wash dishes.... then Xbox time (until noon). As noon was closing in and they were dragging their feet, wife declares, "If you're not ready by noon, we'll just have to try again next week!" Amazingly, the kids were ready to go at about five minutes before noon.

So, she had pity on them and is letting them set it up now. Turns out, it's not a gaming console at all: It's an internet device! Now, it has to go through all this setup crap before we can even use it. How annoying.

ab348

henryn said:

Maybe it's just me being a grouchy old man (you kids get off my lawn!), but it seems to me that the quality of software has gone downhill rather drastically. I attribute that to "lowest bidder" and "low cost geography".

I think some of it is due to the development methodology used and the way software now gets presented to the user. I remember back in the early days of writing code that you had it drilled into you to use as few hardware resources as possible and minimize bloat in your code. Tools now do just the opposite and that results in massive volume of very complex code. Good luck trying to modify, test and debug that.

Sandman6472

The last 24 hours have been a nightmare!! I would never believe it if it didn't happen to me. Got home last night with my dinner in my hands after working all day. Hit the switch at the kitchen table and hear a bang! All 8 small bulbs burnt out and 1/2 of the house goes dark. Lights in the master bedroom and kitchen work but the refrigerator is dark. T V also went off and won't turn on. A/C won't start and back of the house is dark. Both computers are dead, no light switches work in any room. Go outside and open the circuit box and see a tripped circuit. Easy peasy to fix, right? Wrong. Put it back in the proper position and hit the lights...nothing. Hit the reset button in the garage and again, nothing. This is happening at 7:15 so I call our fix it company we have a contract with. Naturally, they're closed except for a/c issues or flooding problems. I have neither but leave a message to please call me back. Wife is m i a and not answering her phone naturally. Company calls me back about a 1/2 hour later and says basically, don't open the fridge and we'll be there between 9 and noon tomorrow. Great!
Wife finally gets home about 8:15 and she calls a customer who's a handy guy. In the meantime, she's already called an electrician company to come out. Finally gets her guy on the line, he has us flip a bunch of switches and finally, power comes back on. After thanking her customer, she cancels the electrician which saves me the price of a useless service call. The light fixture looks fried.
The guy from our fix it company comes at 9:30 and checks things out. All is fine except tells us to get a new light fixture and use l e d lights in it. Also says to install a dimmer switch at the same time. So, need to go purchase a new lighting fixture over the kitchen table and a dimmer switch and have them installed.
This morning, the wife opens the garage about 9:30 and we both hear a loud BANG!

omarman

Maybe just a broken garage door spring. Unless there is was a Pinto parked in the garage.

Sandman6472

Turns out one of the springs broke in the garage. Naturally, both vehicles were sitting in there but being a Saturday, could've been a lot worse. Called the folks that putt the garage door opener in last year as their business info was right there on the wall. Replaced both springs even though the wife said do just one and by 3:30, my wallet was $245 lighter and the garage door was working once again.
So, it's been the weekend from hell so far and just hope nothing else goes wrong. Am in no mood for anymore surprises at this point!!

kyfdx

You did the right thing, replacing both springs.

stickguy

absolutely. always do them in pairs.

suydam

That’s what I was told too.

Michaell

Me, too. Have had to do it at two different houses, swapped them both each time.

henryn

Hmmm.... bad things come in 3's. You're at 2 and counting ....

xwesx

Sandy, glad you all are working through them. I cannot help but laugh, though. Perfect examples of what life throws at us all too often!

Finally got the Xbox going and had a little fun with it. Neither of the kids has much exposure to game systems. I was surprised how well I could manage it, even though the old NES controllers are blissfully simple compared to these modern ones! And, they shake in your hands (a little unnerving, to be honest). I did well enough to wow the kids, though. So that was fun.

Off to play pickleball now after a months' hiatus. I hope it goes well!

Sandman6472

Told my oldest who is a new homeowner, sh-t like this happens, one never knows. Just be prepared to have it fixed, or fix it yourself if able. Owning a home is just not the selling price or what one paid for it. That's just the beginning. There's so many more expenses and things that will go wrong that one must be ready for. But she's young and in time, she'll see what I mean.
That's why I'm really enjoying this time of life. Am past the raising the kids stage and almost ready to stop the working stage. Now, just have to hope we both stay healthy and make sure we have enough $ coming in to enjoy our new life. Like to be able to do what we want, when we want. But it's been a long time coming and we've sacrificed a lot to get to this point. And I just pray to G-d that he, or she, sees fit to let us live another 30 or so more years and enjoy it all.

omarman

I've asked others about the passing stages of life, raising kids, working full time, etc. But about driving...Driving can be something difficult for some to let go of. I was thinking of a quote from Mr. Overton today. I believe he was 109 y/o when he was featured in a mini-documentary.

stickguy

my kids already have been warned that if they come for my keys, they better come armed!

henryn

One of the hardest things I ever did was take the keys away from my mother. She hated it, absolutely hated it, it took away a great deal of her independence. But macular degeneration and a very shortened attention span made it a necessity, not an option.

A sad day.

tjc78

I was very happy we never had to do that with my Grandfather. At 84 he still drove very well. He was driving up until a few days before he passed.

He used to go over in to Phily from South Jersey just about every day to bet on the horses... his only vice.

tbirdmarco

My bad brozen. Was west. I had responded with out reading back an few  pages 

tbirdmarco

man   Sandman sorry to hear about the weekand that you and the wife had. Type your comment

fintail

I think my grandma was 87 or 88 when she voluntarily stopped driving - she had worries about her spatial awareness and depth perception. It took a lot of guts and self-awareness to do that,

Michaell

My mom, at 80, is talking about relinquishing her driving privileges. She only goes to the doctor, the grocery store and the pharmacy. And only during daylight- not even when it's raining.

jpp75

So, first punch of the year to report. I found another manual C30 here in Denver and went to check it out yesterday. It's pretty much identical to the one Carmax bought back earlier this year but it only has 55k miles on it and I have to say it's in a little better shape overall. Not that the first one was in bad shape but it looked more like an 11 year old car from a wear and tear stand point.

I really hadn't planned on looking again until April or so, but this was the perfect car so I went ahead and bought it. I took it for a test drive and it was as great as I remembered the first one being, it is a local one-owner with a clean Carfax and it was actually a few hundred dollars less than the one from Carmax, so I'm happy.

I'll pick it up on Tuesday, but everything is signed and official. It's great to have one of these again.

stickguy

Congrats! I'm looking forward to getting a toy again at some point.

our long range plan when the TLX lease is up is to send it back, get a new(er) RDX for the wife, and keep the old (9+ years at that point) one for the spare beater car. But, could convert that to something more fun, or more likely, keep it but get a fun car to go with it so I will have a nice weather fun car, and when conditions don't allow it out (or I need to transport the dog) can use the CUV. Sounds like a win win to me.

carnaught

Congrats @jpp5862. Sounds like you should have fun with it!

jpp75

Thanks guys, the C30 in a manual really is a fun car to drive and now that I have the Tacoma it's the perfect mix of vehicles. As @Mr_Shiftright knows finding these is hard enough and to find a low mileage one in good condition, one owner and locally serviced was something I couldn't pass up.

stickguy

oh, what color and options is this one? and year?

jpp75

It's silver, just like the first one. It's literally identical to the first one, even missing Cruise Control, but it has moonroof, Dynaudio, heated seats, leather. It's a 2008 with 55k on it. I'll post more pictures when I pick it up Tuesday.

jpp75

Also when updating my signature I realized I could update my username, so I'm not jpp75, much easier than the old one.

suydam

My Dad voluntarily gave up his keys after he sideswiped someone coming from his right and didn’t see them. Turns out he had had a mini stroke that had knocked out peripheral vision in both eyes. It was hard but he had made the decision even before we got the diagnosis. And he had been a real car guy. I think he was mid 80s at the time. He was happy to pass his car down to my oldest son, and from then on one of us drove him everywhere (he lived with us, which helped).

tbirdmarco

Congrads. JPP  on the punch of the new car!

xwesx

tjc78 said:

I was very happy we never had to do that with my Grandfather. At 84 he still drove very well. He was driving up until a few days before he passed.

Same for my grandfather. I strongly suspect, though, that we're about to that stage with my grandmother, though even a discussion about it would probably be something she would fight viciously.

kyfdx

jpp75 said:

Also when updating my signature I realized I could update my username, so I'm not jpp75, much easier than the old one.

Are you sure you changed your username?

graphicguy

Catching up......spent the weekend helping a friend set up his new home theater. I HATE crawling in old dusty attics to run wiring, but someone had to do it.

Anyway....Acura calls it’s safety tech “Acura Watch”. It includes lane keep warning and lane keep assist, automatic emergency braking (collision mitigation as they call it), Adaptive Cruise (it follows a pre-set distance away from vehicles in front of you, and paces them as a sort of “smart cruise control”). I know I have buttons to turn them off and on, but have never done it.

The only time it gets a little jerky is when someone cuts in front of you on the interstate and they cut it close or immediately slow down (which makes them jerks to begin with).

All of that tech combines to offer a little glimpse into “autonomous driving”. If youy’re going over 40 MPH and have all the above tech enabled, the car will actually drive itself for I think 30 seconds, short of making turns for you. Did I trust it at first? Nope. But, slowly but surely I have.....letting it drive my car while I get something out of the center console as an example.

I think ALL current Acuras have the technology.

@jpp75 ....congrats on the C30. I like those!

stickguy

I took the ILX back and got my car this morning, and figured out how to change the ACC Distance. That made a big difference, smoother and less jerky. I might actually use the CC a bit more on this car (I rarely use it in any car).

Gets a little confusing with 3 seperate keep you on the road tools. It warns you, moves you, and has some other watch in case you run off the road somehow. I think the lane keep piece (auto steer) only comes on with thecACC. at least that’s the only time the Button seems to do anything. Maybe you can use that without setting the cruise, but I haven’t tried.

stickguy

Also, there is a huge difference between the ILX and TLX. the big car is much smoother, more comfortable, and quieter. Handles better too.

jpp75

kyfdx said:

jpp75 said:

Also when updating my signature I realized I could update my username, so I'm not jpp75, much easier than the old one.

Are you sure you changed your username?

Yes sir, I now show up as jpp75, must be something new with the latest software?

jpp75

tbirdmarco said:

Congrads. JPP  on the punch of the new car!

Thanks Marco!

stickguy

@jpp75
Who were you before?

venture

graphicguy said:

Catching up......spent the weekend helping a friend set up his new home theater. I HATE crawling in old dusty attics to run wiring, but someone had to do it.

Anyway....Acura calls it’s safety tech “Acura Watch”. It includes lane keep warning and lane keep assist, automatic emergency braking (collision mitigation as they call it), Adaptive Cruise (it follows a pre-set distance away from vehicles in front of you, and paces them as a sort of “smart cruise control”). I know I have buttons to turn them off and on, but have never done it.

The only time it gets a little jerky is when someone cuts in front of you on the interstate and they cut it close or immediately slow down (which makes them jerks to begin with).

All of that tech combines to offer a little glimpse into “autonomous driving”. If youy’re going over 40 MPH and have all the above tech enabled, the car will actually drive itself for I think 30 seconds, short of making turns for you. Did I trust it at first? Nope. But, slowly but surely I have.....letting it drive my car while I get something out of the center console as an example.

I think ALL current Acuras have the technology.

@jpp75 ....congrats on the C30. I like those!

My Legacy will redirect me, I think, 3 times then display a message like, "Put your hands on the wheel". I don't remember the exact wording. I only did it once.

ab348

stickguy said:

@jpp75
Who were you before?

He was the now deceased @jpp5862. RIP.

au1994

graphicguy said:

Catching up......spent the weekend helping a friend set up his new home theater. I HATE crawling in old dusty attics to run wiring, but someone had to do it.

Anyway....Acura calls it’s safety tech “Acura Watch”. It includes lane keep warning and lane keep assist, automatic emergency braking (collision mitigation as they call it), Adaptive Cruise (it follows a pre-set distance away from vehicles in front of you, and paces them as a sort of “smart cruise control”). I know I have buttons to turn them off and on, but have never done it.

The only time it gets a little jerky is when someone cuts in front of you on the interstate and they cut it close or immediately slow down (which makes them jerks to begin with).

All of that tech combines to offer a little glimpse into “autonomous driving”. If youy’re going over 40 MPH and have all the above tech enabled, the car will actually drive itself for I think 30 seconds, short of making turns for you. Did I trust it at first? Nope. But, slowly but surely I have.....letting it drive my car while I get something out of the center console as an example.

I think ALL current Acuras have the technology.

@jpp75 ....congrats on the C30. I like those!

The Subaru has it as part of the Eyesight. I used it for the 1st time last weekend and enjoyed it. The other day I got cut off (jack wagon cut over 3 lanes into my turn lane and stopped) and the collision mitigation kicked in just before I could hammer the brakes. If it was a sports car I’d probably find these nannies annoying but I really appreciate them especially since my son was with me in the front seat when we got cut off.

au1994

jpp75 said:

Thanks guys, the C30 in a manual really is a fun car to drive and now that I have the Tacoma it's the perfect mix of vehicles. As @Mr_Shiftright knows finding these is hard enough and to find a low mileage one in good condition, one owner and locally serviced was something I couldn't pass up.

Great find! A nice truck and a sporty/fun car is a good combo in the fleet.