Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

marcogallo1986

Od348 Lol then we will keep stick guys new name as stink guy since you both love it so much you are a sick guy, and stick guy approves of stink guy. lol

marcogallo1986

@qb sorry to hear that the transfer case on the equinox the new one you got is kicking your butt, what are the issues that you’re having? I know you will figure it out soon enough, and not give up even though it’s frustrating. And cold out now too. But the weather is just the weather. Have to winterize the Thunderbird a little bit probably Saturday, get some fuel stabilizer, and fill up the oil and antifreeze and put dryer sheets in the interior to prevent mice from coming, although I do go near the car once a week and open and close the doors if anything to scare any of them off, luckily I’ve never had a problem with mice thank God so far so good. Funny enough when I brought the car home from upstate, a few weeks later my mom saw little things they look like baby rats come out from under the car, so I don’t know where they were living but they must’ve hacked and they were walking around, a few of them, so they pick them up and kill them with shovels or something and put them in plastic bags and got rid of them. So never had that problem again either. Wonder where they were hiding in the car it was transferred here on the truck too. But I was a couple years ago, I’ve had the car over four years now.

marcogallo1986

@MB enthusiast, wow that Steeler was trying to play you for a fool, but call elsewhere don’t even deal with that dealer anymore. A lot of these dealers like to play games and try to inflate the price meanwhile go look on Kelley blue book and you get the real value or some other thing like that. Thanks for the update on dad, will keep him in my prayers.

mb_enthusiast

marcogallo1986 said:

@MB enthusiast, wow that Steeler was trying to play you for a fool, but call elsewhere don’t even deal with that dealer anymore. A lot of these dealers like to play games and try to inflate the price meanwhile go look on Kelley blue book and you get the real value or some other thing like that. Thanks for the update on dad, will keep him in my prayers.

Coincidentally, CarGurus identifies it as being $4k overpriced. In my experience, CarGurus and the other book values are inflated anyway.

It's a $56k car, in my opinion. Not $62k.

corvette

mb_enthusiast said:

It's a $56k car, in my opinion. Not $62k.

Anymore, it seems like a lot of dealerships rely 100% on whatever valuation metrics they subscribe to and just wait for someone to come along to pay their price, which eventually will happen. A year or so back, our CFO bought a CPO luxury brand car from out of state (multiple states away). The nearby dealers were all in some sort of collusion, and he saved about $7,000--the selling dealer even sent a valet to drop off the new car and pick up his trade-in.

qbrozen

I don’t have the old one out yet. That is the rub. They must have built the car around it. LOL. Exhaust manifold blocks access to several bolts holding the tcase in, yet the tcase is preventing me from removing the manifold. There is a large bracket connected to the top of the trans and tcase that is bolted to the subframe, and 2 of the bolts holding that to the tcase are actually recessed DEEP in small crevices. It is a bit of a nightmare. I’ll figure something out eventually, even if it means dropping the subframe, but that seems really silly.

Oh, and GM’s instructions? “Step 1, remove bracket.” Yeah. Thanks for that.

stickguy

I watched a wheeler dealers yesterday where they did an MR2 turbo. Had to replace a 3” long coolant hose, a $7 part. Ant had to dismantle half the bottom of the car and drop the entire engine out to do it.

nyccarguy

qbrozen said:

I don’t have the old one out yet. That is the rub. They must have built the car around it. LOL. Exhaust manifold blocks access to several bolts holding the tcase in, yet the tcase is preventing me from removing the manifold. There is a large bracket connected to the top of the trans and tcase that is bolted to the subframe, and 2 of the bolts holding that to the tcase are actually recessed DEEP in small crevices. It is a bit of a nightmare. I’ll figure something out eventually, even if it means dropping the subframe, but that seems really silly.

Oh, and GM’s instructions? “Step 1, remove bracket.” Yeah. Thanks for that.

You are lucky you get even THAT out of GM!

tjc78

qbrozen said:

I don’t have the old one out yet. That is the rub. They must have built the car around it. LOL. Exhaust manifold blocks access to several bolts holding the tcase in, yet the tcase is preventing me from removing the manifold. There is a large bracket connected to the top of the trans and tcase that is bolted to the subframe, and 2 of the bolts holding that to the tcase are actually recessed DEEP in small crevices. It is a bit of a nightmare. I’ll figure something out eventually, even if it means dropping the subframe, but that seems really silly.

Oh, and GM’s instructions? “Step 1, remove bracket.” Yeah. Thanks for that.

Any help by unbolting the engine mounts, lifting the engine slightly to get at the manifold? No clue if that would do anything, but just a thought.

Surprising with the failure rate there is no You Tube video on it.

corvette

qbrozen said:

I don’t have the old one out yet. That is the rub. They must have built the car around it. LOL. Exhaust manifold blocks access to several bolts holding the tcase in, yet the tcase is preventing me from removing the manifold.

I see busted knuckles in your future. I'm also surprised there is no YouTube tutorial. Have you tried posting on the Terrain/Equinox specific boards to fish for tips from anyone else who has done it? It sounds like this guy did a DIY replacement, but his profile says he hasn't been active on the board for a while.

mb_enthusiast

corvette said:

mb_enthusiast said:

It's a $56k car, in my opinion. Not $62k.

Anymore, it seems like a lot of dealerships rely 100% on whatever valuation metrics they subscribe to and just wait for someone to come along to pay their price, which eventually will happen. A year or so back, our CFO bought a CPO luxury brand car from out of state (multiple states away). The nearby dealers were all in some sort of collusion, and he saved about $7,000--the selling dealer even sent a valet to drop off the new car and pick up his trade-in.

The GL63 I have also been looking too at has been on the market for nearly a year and has gone through several price chops. Again, $48k car. I'm pretty confident that it will sit there until it's sub $50k. Why they wouldn't want to sell it before the X167 starts hitting the road in larger numbers is beyond me. It'll drop like a stone shortly thereafter.

breld

corvette said:

mb_enthusiast said:

It's a $56k car, in my opinion. Not $62k.

Anymore, it seems like a lot of dealerships rely 100% on whatever valuation metrics they subscribe to and just wait for someone to come along to pay their price, which eventually will happen. A year or so back, our CFO bought a CPO luxury brand car from out of state (multiple states away). The nearby dealers were all in some sort of collusion, and he saved about $7,000--the selling dealer even sent a valet to drop off the new car and pick up his trade-in.

Agreed - the luxury CPO market seems to be very advantageous for the dealerships. That was made clear by my recent shopping excursions - for the most part, the CPO X5's and GLE's I was targeting were all around $7-8k, upwards of $10k, over auction/trade. I'll allow that they may have some extra costs into the cars over a non-CPO example, but it ends up being a very good deal for them.

And I suppose if you're buying one of these and holding it for a long time, it may be worth it.

Obviously for me, I'm targeting a more "fair" retail price, and was having a hard time getting there.

Saturday morning I was all ready to buy that really highly optioned GLE, but was hoping they would deal a bit on it. I'd say there was a mark-up over trade value of around $10k. They didn't budge and let me walk, and I got a call from the salesperson yesterday morning to let me know it had sold.

venture

breld said:

corvette said:

mb_enthusiast said:

It's a $56k car, in my opinion. Not $62k.

Anymore, it seems like a lot of dealerships rely 100% on whatever valuation metrics they subscribe to and just wait for someone to come along to pay their price, which eventually will happen. A year or so back, our CFO bought a CPO luxury brand car from out of state (multiple states away). The nearby dealers were all in some sort of collusion, and he saved about $7,000--the selling dealer even sent a valet to drop off the new car and pick up his trade-in.

Agreed - the luxury CPO market seems to be very advantageous for the dealerships. That was made clear by my recent shopping excursions - for the most part, the CPO X5's and GLE's I was targeting were all around $7-8k, upwards of $10k, over auction/trade. I'll allow that they may have some extra costs into the cars over a non-CPO example, but it ends up being a very good deal for them.

And I suppose if you're buying one of these and holding it for a long time, it may be worth it.

Obviously for me, I'm targeting a more "fair" retail price, and was having a hard time getting there.

Saturday morning I was all ready to buy that really highly optioned GLE, but was hoping they would deal a bit on it. I'd say there was a mark-up over trade value of around $10k. They didn't budge and let me walk, and I got a call from the salesperson yesterday morning to let me know it had sold.

There's one born every minute.

tjc78

I'll tell you all one thing... it's been awhile since I've purchased a Toyota and going back and forth with a few dealers it's just awful.

With the Volvo every single dealer was prompt and upfront with pricing via Email. With Toyota it's like pulling teeth to get information.

I know I should just go with a broker but at this point I feel it's a quest.

I've done better with Philly area dealers (bigger discount, lower MF in that region, Thanks @kyfdx ) and currently have a $32400 XLE AWD RAV4 at $349 /month with $349 OOP at signing all in.

This is about an 11.2 % discount from sticker with $500 lease cash included.

I feel this is close to rock bottom on this vehicle but I'm trying to inch another 6 or 700 to get to $325/325. Two dealers so far haven't agreed to that #.

andres3

tjc78 said:

I'll tell you all one thing... it's been awhile since I've purchased a Toyota and going back and forth with a few dealers it's just awful.

With the Volvo every single dealer was prompt and upfront with pricing via Email. With Toyota it's like pulling teeth to get information.

I know I should just go with a broker but at this point I feel it's a quest.

I've done better with Philly area dealers (bigger discount, lower MF in that region, Thanks @kyfdx ) and currently have a $32400 XLE AWD RAV4 at $349 /month with $349 OOP at signing all in.

This is about an 11.2 % discount from sticker with $500 lease cash included.

I feel this is close to rock bottom on this vehicle but I'm trying to inch another 6 or 700 to get to $325/325. Two dealers so far haven't agreed to that #.

It was a Toyota dealership that I looked at the recent model high mileage S6. The mismatched tires REALLY turned me off. I couldn't help but think that if someone was willing to put mismatched (and both cheap sets) of tires on an S6, what else was skimped on maintenance wise???

qbrozen

corvette said:

qbrozen said:

I don’t have the old one out yet. That is the rub. They must have built the car around it. LOL. Exhaust manifold blocks access to several bolts holding the tcase in, yet the tcase is preventing me from removing the manifold.

I see busted knuckles in your future. I'm also surprised there is no YouTube tutorial. Have you tried posting on the Terrain/Equinox specific boards to fish for tips from anyone else who has done it? It sounds like this guy did a DIY replacement, but his profile says he hasn't been active on the board for a while.

Yup, I read that same thread.

corvette

Maybe send this guy a PM and ask for help - looks like he changed his a couple months back. The photos in that thread might be helpful, but I can't see them because I'm not registered (I hate it when boards do that). Judging by the number of posts on the boards, failures on these don't seem nearly as common as on Ford products.

qbrozen

Unfortunately, the V6 and I4 are very different.

corvette

Rats! :@

andres3

qbrozen said:

Unfortunately, the V6 and I4 are very different.

Solution: LS engine swap with new transmission.

Sandman6472

Interview at Enterprise went quite well, guy offered me a position right then, as long as my driving record comes up clean. He said I was just what they were looking for. Was sent paperwork via email today and within an hour, they were already calling the last places I used to work. I'd be the 5th person of a 10 man crew and it was 3.3 miles from my driveway to their front door, beats the 29 miles I drive now! They also agreed to my going to Orlando on 12/23 for about 5 days as I've had no vacation this year and need to get away.
Am hoping this all works out as I'm ready for a change. I knew it when we were still moving vehicles at 8 pm on Monday night. I'm ready for a change and G-d willing, it'll happen within a week or two. I'm thinking of taking next week off just because. I'm a bit tired and want to just veg at home a few days if possible.

Michaell

Sandman6472 said:

Interview at Enterprise went quite well, guy offered me a position right then, as long as my driving record comes up clean. He said I was just what they were looking for. Was sent paperwork via email today and within an hour, they were already calling the last places I used to work. I'd be the 5th person of a 10 man crew and it was 3.3 miles from my driveway to their front door, beats the 29 miles I drive now! They also agreed to my going to Orlando on 12/23 for about 5 days as I've had no vacation this year and need to get away.
Am hoping this all works out as I'm ready for a change. I knew it when we were still moving vehicles at 8 pm on Monday night. I'm ready for a change and G-d willing, it'll happen within a week or two. I'm thinking of taking next week off just because. I'm a bit tired and want to just veg at home a few days if possible.

Did you happen to get a raise, as well?

Sandman6472

No, actually I'm going down in pay a bit. $8.75 as opposed to the $9.15 I'm getting now. I also get a $.30 raise in January at Hertz. But, I'm saving money as it's only 3.3 door to door, so 7 miles/day. Couple that with no more tolls on the Sawgrass Expressway, a $55/month savings. Plus, I'll be using less petrol so I think the trade-off is worth it right now. Like I said, I'm actually ready for a change and my time table for working is unknown right now. Will it be the end of 2020? Mid 2021? I have no clue right now so this will transition me out of the work force and like I've always said, I'll know when it's time to stop working all together.
If it does go through, it's on my terms and my timetable. So I see this as a win/win situation with no downside except, I'll miss a couple of folks I've been working with. Not folks I would've seeked out as friends, but do enjoy their company. But, a time for a change is presenting itself and I want to try this opportunity. And if it don't work out, can always re-apply at Hertz if need be. But don't think that's gonna happen!

qbrozen

Finally managed to get all the bolts out. At least as far as I know. Heck, I took out bolts that shouldn't need to be removed. But the tcase remains in its original position. It wouldn't budge. Even with a 3-foot pipe prying on it, the entire engine/transaxle assembly merely wiggles in its mounts. Hmmmm....

corvette

qbrozen said:

Finally managed to get all the bolts out. At least as far as I know. Heck, I took out bolts that shouldn't need to be removed. But the tcase remains in its original position. It wouldn't budge. Even with a 3-foot pipe prying on it, the entire engine/transaxle assembly merely wiggles in its mounts. Hmmmm....

Wow, is there a lot of corrosion that would cause them to stick together? The $2k price to have a shop replace the part reminds me of the time my dad got a bid to have their basement tiled. It was so high that he got mad and decided to do it himself. Halfway through the job, his back and knees were hurting and he admitted the bid probably wasn't as unreasonable as he'd thought.

corvette

Congrats on the new job @Sandman6472 ! Sounds like it will work better for you with the shorter commute.

xwesx

Sandman6472 said:

Interview at Enterprise went quite well, guy offered me a position right then, as long as my driving record comes up clean. He said I was just what they were looking for. Was sent paperwork via email today and within an hour, they were already calling the last places I used to work. I'd be the 5th person of a 10 man crew and it was 3.3 miles from my driveway to their front door, beats the 29 miles I drive now! They also agreed to my going to Orlando on 12/23 for about 5 days as I've had no vacation this year and need to get away.
Am hoping this all works out as I'm ready for a change. I knew it when we were still moving vehicles at 8 pm on Monday night. I'm ready for a change and G-d willing, it'll happen within a week or two. I'm thinking of taking next week off just because. I'm a bit tired and want to just veg at home a few days if possible.

That sounds like an excellent move for you. Congrats; I hope it goes as well as anticipated!

stickguy

how much of the $2K shop price was labor and how much was the unit? Maybe pay a pro to get it out, and put the new one in yourself? though that could be hard to get it there and back.

nyccarguy

stickguy said:

how much of the $2K shop price was labor and how much was the unit? Maybe pay a pro to get it out, and put the new one in yourself? though that could be hard to get it there and back.

He's way too deep in to have someone else do it for him now

qbrozen

well, until I take a torch to it, I still have options to attempt.

stickguy

Just need a bigger hammer.

ab348

stickguy said:

Just need a bigger hammer.

As the guys on the Olds forum used to say, "Get me the Ford tool, the big one". :laughing:

tjc78

Alright guys... talk to me here.

Three dealers now tell me they are "all in" for the RAV for Mom

How bad is this?

MSRP - 32,353
Selling price w/ 500 lease cash - 28731
Buy rate MF - .00083

$348.87 / with just first month OOP

No shenanigans on the math. Look like about $650 in dealer fee and tags

This deal is over 30 / month less than the NJ dealer with less OOP.

Brokers, MSDs, etc are all off the table. Have to also consider if I make her switch brands she is on the hook for a disposition fee.

I may play one more dealer or play Russian Roulette and see what dealer contacts me closer to the end of the month

28firefighter

It isn't bad by any stretch. They simply don't lease well relative to other options. If this is what she wants, then I'd do it.

stickguy

It’s $20/month. Just get the poor lady the new car she wants. Not worth hearing from her how much she hates some other brand every day for the next 3 years, because YOU forced her to get it.

stickguy

My rule of thumb is, if you have ground it out at multiple dealers that have all let you walk, you probably have squeezed all the blood out of that particular turnip.

I think it is just personal now, not the money!

kyfdx

tjc78 said:

Alright guys... talk to me here.

Three dealers now tell me they are "all in" for the RAV for Mom

How bad is this?

MSRP - 32,353
Selling price w/ 500 lease cash - 28731
Buy rate MF - .00083

$348.87 / with just first month OOP

No shenanigans on the math. Look like about $650 in dealer fee and tags

This deal is over 30 / month less than the NJ dealer with less OOP.

Brokers, MSDs, etc are all off the table. Have to also consider if I make her switch brands she is on the hook for a disposition fee.

I may play one more dealer or play Russian Roulette and see what dealer contacts me closer to the end of the month

What is the mileage allowance?
Which trim?

stickguy

This a 19 or 20? Can she live with FWD to save money?

Will you feel better to know the deals on rodo are much, much worse? Which indicates, these don’t lease well at all.

nyccarguy

28firefighter said:

It isn't bad by any stretch. They simply don't lease well relative to other options. If this is what she wants, then I'd do it.

The car she wants is WORTH a lot more than the better deal

xwesx

nyccarguy said:

28firefighter said:

It isn't bad by any stretch. They simply don't lease well relative to other options. If this is what she wants, then I'd do it.

The car she wants is WORTH a lot more than the better deal

Yeah I agree. I think that tjc did a lot of work on this to get the best reasonable deal. If this is what she wants, then just do it.

stickguy

Way to rain on his quest!

But I agree

28firefighter

I completely understand the hesitation. It doesn't feel like a car worth $350/month to most of us. Keyword there being "us."

My wife wanted an Outback for her next car and I was prepared to pay out the nose for it. Just so happened I found a window where I didn't have to, but they are few and far between.

tjc78

kyfdx said:

tjc78 said:

Alright guys... talk to me here.

Three dealers now tell me they are "all in" for the RAV for Mom

How bad is this?

MSRP - 32,353
Selling price w/ 500 lease cash - 28731
Buy rate MF - .00083

$348.87 / with just first month OOP

No shenanigans on the math. Look like about $650 in dealer fee and tags

This deal is over 30 / month less than the NJ dealer with less OOP.

Brokers, MSDs, etc are all off the table. Have to also consider if I make her switch brands she is on the hook for a disposition fee.

I may play one more dealer or play Russian Roulette and see what dealer contacts me closer to the end of the month

What is the mileage allowance?
Which trim?

36/10K XLE AWD w/some options

She wants AWD. Again not worth fighting.

I'm going after one more dealer.. then talking to her tonight and see what she wants. Her payment now is $320.

@28firefighter You hit it on the head. The car just isn't worth it in terms of payment to MSRP.

tjc78

Thanks for the input everyone. I've been comparing a lot and I'm thinking that it may be as low as it will go.

Even a few of the broker deals on LH for LE's with much lower MSRPs are in the low 300s structured the same way.

tjc78

stickguy said:

This a 19 or 20? Can she live with FWD to save money?

Will you feel better to know the deals on rodo are much, much worse? Which indicates, these don’t lease well at all.

2019. 2020 program is even worse.

breld

I kinda think $350/month with nothing down sounds pretty good for a well equipped AWD compact SUV from a notable brand.

corvette

Agree with @breld . I don't think any of them lease well.

cdnpinhead

Why not just buy the damn thing?

stickguy

They do lease bad, but recently the CRV was much better than normal. But, need to like the car.

If mom cared that much about the price, could always give up features!

But, leasing is expensive really. Gotta pay to play.

tjc78

Yes, we could certainly drop to an LE or a lower optioned XLE. It wasn't so much Mom worrying about the price, its me wanting a good lease.

I spoke with her. She is fine with the payment. I am going with one more quote and then we will put a bow on it next week.

As for buying? She hasn't owned a car for probably 20 years. No time for her to start now.

I think I've discussed this car here more than my own!