Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

corvette

I got a bid for demoing the deck and pouring stairs and a patio in stamped concrete. Cost is still not cheap, but roughly half the cost of a high end deck. I think that makes it a no-brainer.

marcogallo1986

@ Corvette, I’m on my second battery tender, and even bother sending it back for the lifetime warranty, I totally even forgot it had one. Just stop charging the battery one day, and the light just stayed read all the time. I still have it around here somewhere, but I bought the new one off Amazon maybe six months ago and finally started using it two weeks ago so far so good. It’s cheap enough that I don’t even bother sending it back.

marcogallo1986

@zwest question how do you properly maintain a battery where are you really can’t service it with the what what you mentioned above? I want to learn this interest me. And I agree with everything else you said in your comment about batteries. I remember years ago when I was a kid my dad used to add water to the battery or something used to be able to open a little spot in the wood top it off every so often and the battery lasted over six years. Although he drives a lot so his batteries time to last six years, about a year ago we replaced the battery in his Sanana that was six years old from AutoZone he came here shut off the car and it does that was it we went to go out to dinner for my sisters birthday and a damn thing just clicked and that was it. End it wouldn’t take a charge. So we went and got a replacement battery and he’s been fine sense. But the car has almost 200,000 miles on it he’s going to get rid of it next year I think but knock on wood still drives it everywhere no problems. and I think it’s only his third battery not bad for 1011-year-old car.

corvette

@marcogallo1986 - the Battery Tender Plus has a 10 year warranty, I think the Junior has a 5 year.

marcogallo1986

@ Corvette, thank you for the info on the battery tenders that you wrote above. I have the small one for Junior. Good to know. Maybe I should send it back and get another one and have an extra one around just cause I can.

marcogallo1986

@ Corvette, also nice replacing both license plate bulbs in the Tahoe, best to when one goes out replace them both in pairs, because you know the other one will go out how long after agreed. Same with headlights taillights whatever.

marcogallo1986

@breld doing any car looking this weekend with the wife? I hope you are because I wanna hear some stories all about it, you might even hear that you make a punch to as well! Lol

marcogallo1986

Anyone else looking at any cars, there’s a dealer over here or still has her use GTO that the price is under $20,000 now has like 17,000 original miles, 2006, send Mike my sister-in-law‘s stepdad has a red one, I will run it once, but this black one is automatic, the one he has is stick shift, I think he got it with 12,000 miles on it back in 2009 from a used car dealer, but he hasn’t really driven it much since, don’t even think he put 1000 miles sad. And I think the registration lapsed and it’s just sitting in the garage wasting away. Anyway also this dealer, still has that 350 Z with 14,000 miles on it, stick shift gray 2004 touring price is a little over 14,000 now went down a bit. Man if I could drive, I’d have one of these in my driveway already if inspection checked out.

xwesx

marcogallo1986 said:

@zwest question how do you properly maintain a battery where are you really can’t service it with the what what you mentioned above? I want to learn this interest me. And I agree with everything else you said in your comment about batteries. I remember years ago when I was a kid my dad used to add water to the battery or something used to be able to open a little spot in the wood top it off every so often and the battery lasted over six years. Although he drives a lot so his batteries time to last six years, about a year ago we replaced the battery in his Sanana that was six years old from AutoZone he came here shut off the car and it does that was it we went to go out to dinner for my sisters birthday and a damn thing just clicked and that was it. End it wouldn’t take a charge. So we went and got a replacement battery and he’s been fine sense. But the car has almost 200,000 miles on it he’s going to get rid of it next year I think but knock on wood still drives it everywhere no problems. and I think it’s only his third battery not bad for 1011-year-old car.

Well, it depends on the battery. If it is something like an AGM, which is truly sealed, then maintaining its voltage is the best way to maximize life. For a lead acid battery, these are never sealed, they cannot be, because they require ventilation. So, to maintain them, you just pop the "maintenance free" covers off the battery and shine a light in the holes to see whether they need additional water. These should not be full, but need to be maybe 1/2 to 1" down from the top of the cell. Typically some will be fairly full with others much lower. Just use dei-onized (or distilled) water and bring the low cells up to the level of the higher ones.

While this should not need to be done often (maybe once a year to check, but more likely once every two-four years to need to add), it can be much more frequent in older vehicles depending on the quality of their charging systems. If over-charged due to a bad regulator, the acid (water) can boil off fairly quickly (e.g., within a few thousand miles of use) and destroy the battery if not monitored closely. If you see the acid level changing rapidly like this, be sure to correct the issue in the charging system ASAP.

xwesx

For vehicles that receive infrequent use, I tend to either remove the battery (for warm storage) or disconnect the negative terminal (so there is no parasitic drain). Over the winter, I tend to charge them once or twice on a slow charger just to make sure that they don't fully drain if they are starting to weaken a bit.

Of course, these newer "smart" trickle chargers are really handy to just set and forget, but I haven't gone that fancy yet. However, I do still use a NAPA Select battery in my F250 plow truck that was manufactured in 2004.

stickguy

got another test drive in today (and at $50 a pop, it is a nice little side gig!) Swung through the Caddy dealer on the way to taking the wife to Produce Junction (it was sorta on the way!). checked out all the models and took a test drive in an XT4. Had my gift card in the email before we even left the lot (now I need to buy something on Amazon. I am sure that is doable).

drove a FWD premium luxury I think. MSRP right about $44K. Pretty nice car. Wife did not like the driving experience too much. I thought it was OK. But not enough to sway us to that model. She actually commented that she preferred the Santa Fe!

not sure I can find any more brands that offer money to test drive. I need to start checking!

carnaught

With these gift card test drives, how much hounding to you do they do afterwards?

stickguy

none actually. No more than any other visit to the dealer. Once you get to a salesman, just like you walked in off the street. The salesman just gives the form to a sales manager to enter the code, and you just become another customer.

marcogallo1986

@zwest thank you for the description above on what to do with the batteries depending which one you have, that’s what I do disconnect both battery cables actually but right now actually better than that it’s on the shelf in the garage with a trickle charger on those fancy ones ha ha Ha. Next time my cousin comes here and have them help me see which battery I have.

marcogallo1986

@ stink guy, my son the trash drive today of the Cadillac XT four, well you’re narrowing down the list already so the Santa Fe is one of the top contenders seems like. wow, this damn voice dictation totally screwed up this message sorry about that. Maybe you should try to get a Christmas or New Year’s eve deal and sell the Acura.

stickguy

Marco, I may have to officially change my handle. My wife would probably support it!

we aren't in any hurry, but once the wife decides for sure what she wants, I will keep some oars in the water and if the stars align and a deal too good to pass up drops in our lap, will go ahead and do it. If not, we wait a bit as long as she is OK with her current ride.

breld

marcogallo1986 said:

@breld doing any car looking this weekend with the wife? I hope you are because I wanna hear some stories all about it, you might even hear that you make a punch to as well! Lol

Well...since you asked.

breld

I took Friday off from work specifically for car shopping and did the same all day yesterday. That was a FUN couple days. I had @michaell at the ready as my "man in the chair" checking lease rates and such, and @jpp75 joined me a little yesterday and helped me over the finish line.

breld

Contenders:

• 2016 GLE - crazy high optioned GLE 350 with AMG exterior, massaging seats, etc. with an original MSRP of $77k and only 30k miles. Can't imagine why someone would do that and not step up to the GLE 400 at least. But...the sales manager didn't buy into my argument that all those options, while really nice, didn't add much to the resale, and so while I would go so far as to pay $5-6k over trade value since it was so nice and a CPO, I wasn't going to pay $10k over trade. I was prepared to buy it at a more reasonable price, but no deal.
  
• 2019 X5 xdrive40i - lightly optioned service loaner with 3k miles. $65k MSRP and got to a 3/36 lease at $638/month (pre-tax) with acq fee and 1st month's payment due at signing. Even lightly optioned, these new X5 models have pretty much everything I'd want, and this one was the Phytonic Blue . Very tempting - on the list but decided to move on to check out other options.
  
• 2020 Grand Cherokee Limited X - I'm a sucker for this kind of cosmetic package. It's basically a cross between a Summit and an SRT on the exterior and has these cool heritage seats on the inside. And...looks awesome in Slate Blue. But, naturally, this was my lower cost option, and the lease payments were only marginally better than that X5. So, nah.
  

breld

But then, I remembered these leftover 2019 wagons languishing on the nearby Volvo lot.

breld

Both wagons are nicely equipped, but different. The white one has the Luxury Package with the upgraded ventilated (and massaging) seats, the Bowers & Wilkins audio, and also already has the Polestar tune. That Luxury Package also gets you the body-color fender flares, for what it's worth. The gray one had the Advance Package that nets you the heads-up display and advanced parking assistance. It also had the air suspension. But no B&W and the standard (albeit very nice) seats.

At the end of the day (literally), and with @jpp75's and @michaell's helpful input, I decided I really like the sharpness of the white, and would appreciate the upgraded seats over the heads-up display on the gray one.

As for the X5, that was mighty tempting, cause it is such a nice vehicle. But I was happy to give up the extra ride height and driving position for the beautiful style of the V90. So that's what ended up in the driveway...

breld

I'm sure someone will ask about the deal, so...

Lease incentives of $12,600 on these and the dealer was advertising a total discount of $15k, but of course the residual is adjusted accordingly for a 2019 and money factor isn't anything special, so at first blush, didn't think the monthly would compete well with the X5 service loaner.

But the sales manager was very easy to work with and upfront with all the numbers, so I finally told him where I wanted to be to "get it done today." I didn't expect him to get there...and he didn't, but got most of the way there.

Best numbers were actually on a 2 year lease, which certainly was fine with me.

So, MSRP of $68,715, 24 months/12k miles a year, $638/month before tax with 1st payment and acq fee due.

28firefighter

Nice whip, @breld.

mjfloyd1

So you traded the A5 Sportback for the Volvo V90?

breld

mjfloyd1 said:

So you traded the A5 Sportback for the Volvo V90?

Yes, essentially. The best quote I received was from Echo Park, so I'll be handing it over to them tomorrow.

mjfloyd1

Do you have to pay taxes on whole amount or trade difference in CO? (It’s trade difference here)

kyfdx

mjfloyd1 said:

Do you have to pay taxes on whole amount or trade difference in CO? (It’s trade difference here)

CO taxes the monthly payment on a lease.

Seems doubtful that a tax credit on trade-in would come into play.

kyfdx

breld said:

mjfloyd1 said:

So you traded the A5 Sportback for the Volvo V90?

Yes, essentially. The best quote I received was from Echo Park, so I'll be handing it over to them tomorrow.

I see Swapalease in your future..

Great looking vehicle.

28firefighter

kyfdx said:

breld said:

mjfloyd1 said:

So you traded the A5 Sportback for the Volvo V90?

Yes, essentially. The best quote I received was from Echo Park, so I'll be handing it over to them tomorrow.

I see Swapalease in your future..

Great looking vehicle.

Can’t transfer a Volvo lease.

qbrozen

What?! Locked in for 2 years?! Oh, my.

stickguy

now you have stepped in deep doo doo.

sharp looking. Just a bit too big for my tastes. V60, that is a nice size!

that is a plain V90, not a cross country variant?

in any case, looks nice and should do what you want for 2 years.

kyfdx

qbrozen said:

What?! Locked in for 2 years?! Oh, my.

I thought that date on the back was an expiration date. “Use by...”

You can always get rid of the GTI, if you get an itch for something else.

fintail

Joining the white wagon club, nice choice, I approve. 7 and a half months in on the E450, and one word can sum up the driving experience: contentment.

mjfloyd1

kyfdx said:

mjfloyd1 said:

Do you have to pay taxes on whole amount or trade difference in CO? (It’s trade difference here)

CO taxes the monthly payment on a lease.

Seems doubtful that a tax credit on trade-in would come into play.

Didn’t realize it was a lease...

breld

Thanks guys - yes, a 2 year commitment!

@stickguy - it is a Cross Country...the "Luxury Package" includes body color fender flares, so makes it look more like the standard wagon, but still "lifted."

corvette

qbrozen said:

What?! Locked in for 2 years?! Oh, my.

He can always trade it in!

Nice looking whip, breld!

[Deleted User]

Congrats @breld, sharp looking ride!

carnaught

@breld, nice looking V90, congrats! Would like to see interior pics when you can.

qbrozen

corvette said:

qbrozen said:

What?! Locked in for 2 years?! Oh, my.

He can always trade it in!

Nice looking whip, breld!

I was thinking the same thing, but I bet that will hurt big time on a v90.

stickguy

what's the residual on that for a 2 year lease?

tjc78

@breld... I approve of this. Welcome to the white Volvo club as well!

Congrats!

tjc78

Speaking of the Volvo. Took it to NYC from south Jersey today. Four adults with a weekend’s worth of gear. Performed wonderfully and everyone was comfortable.

marcogallo1986

@ stick guy, what would you change your name to on here? Best to take it slow when she’s ready go for it but yeah if you can get something done sooner or chili too if everything aligns sounds good too ha ha Ha.

marcogallo1986

@breld. I’m so glad I asked this was also entertaining to read above, congratulations on the punch. Never thought you would actually lease something was just a suggestion, what are you gonna do for two years. I know something else that is not least will be leaving the fleet before the summer week before.

ab348

I really like the name "Stink guy" so please don't change a thing, @stickguy . :laughing:

stickguy

marcogallo1986 said:

@ stick guy, what would you change your name to on here? Best to take it slow when she’s ready go for it but yeah if you can get something done sooner or chili too if everything aligns sounds good too ha ha Ha.

Stink Guy, of course!

breld

stickguy said:

what's the residual on that for a 2 year lease?

56%...keep in mind it’s for a 2019.

corvette

This may come across as something iluvmysephia1 would say, but I'm kind of stoked for the new Fire HD 10 to go on sale on Black Friday. I have an iPad mini 2, which still works great, but my 2015-era Fire 7 has an unattractive display and takes forever to switch between apps. I'm fully aware than an iPad is better than the Fire HD 10, but I think the Fire will work great for my intended purposes.

stickguy

so 2 years from now, can buy it for 38K. that is some serious depreciation.

kyfdx

stickguy said:

so 2 years from now, can buy it for 38K. that is some serious depreciation.

Not actual depreciation. You’d have to know the selling price to calculate that. It’s likely the discount is over 25% of MSRP, to get that payment.