Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

tjc78

I don’t know about adding on.... we did a huge project and while it serves the intended purpose I feel we have over improved our home and it still doesn’t have everything we want.

The only good thing is I’m half way through my mortgage. If we moved that certainly wouldn’t have been the case.

stickguy

well, Bradd has the advantage of being in a really high priced area at the lower end of the spectrum most likely, so plenty of upside to improve and add equity. Assuming you can front the money and find someone to do it!

nyccarguy

explorerx4 said:

@nyccarguy,
I replaced my gas furnace, water heater and A/C for under 10K.
97 or 98% efficiency furnace, 17 seer A/C.
Maybe labor costs are a lot higher in Fairfield county.

I can’t imagine they are THAT much higher. You have gas up by you? That’s great. I heat my house with oil. Which A/C did you go with?

nyccarguy

stickguy said:

tahoe? That is the signal to get shopping.

For HVAC, that sounds really high for a smaller house. Unless it is not just swapping the equipment out. If you need new ductwork runs, etc, I have no idea what that will do to the price.

I think it is going to be more involved than swapping equipment. We currently have 1 zone and will most likely need 2. Currently our A/C cools the kitchen and living room down, but then the bedrooms never really get comfortable.

Might see if it is possible to run duct work into the basement.

ronsteve

Sandman6472 said:

Funny, I like the Sportage much better than the Tucson and the Sorrento much better than the Santa Fe, go figure. Different strokes I guess. I also think the Sorrento drives nicer to be honest. Crazy really but think the Sorrento looks and feels a bit more upscale also. One of my Hertz co-workers had a Sorrento, black over black, and it looked damn near perfect..

On one of our trips in 2018, we ended up getting a 19 Sorrento with 10 (yes, TEN!) miles on it at Hertz at DIA. It drove nice enough, didn't feel as big as, say, an Explorer or previous generation Pilot. The 8-speed auto was a bit shift-happy on some of the rolling hills on 25 up to Casper, but since then I found the 6-speed in my RDX a bit shift-happy in the mountains as well. Guess that's the price of having a peaky V6 instead of something turbocharged.

ronsteve

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

at 7 years and 3 months old, the RDX just hit 58,000 miles. and we had 30K in the first 2.5 years. Really slowed down after that. I think we are doing about 8K/year now with the wife commuting. easy to keep a car a long time when you put that low miles on it

4 years and 10 months on the Outback and it just crossed 34,000 miles last week. Less than 600 miles a month on it. No plans to trade it out, though the Subaru dealer keeps sending us offers. Latest one is $521/mo for a 2020 Outback Limited XT, based on the trade in value of ours. Of course, they don't know ours is paid off.

For Chronic Car Buyers, y'all sure don't drive a lot! My RDX is 4 years and 7 months from its in-service date and I just passed 60K last week. Just over 20K of those are mine in the last 14.5 months. Now the wife's Jetta is getting less use, as we're just over 75K (after being at 59K in Feb 2018).

Sandman6472

Up in Orlando now, nice to be away. Going to meet an old frat brother of mine soon.
Put in a 17 seer a/c unit last July, works great and very efficient.
Will hit 62K probably tomorrow.

qbrozen

ronsteve said:

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

at 7 years and 3 months old, the RDX just hit 58,000 miles. and we had 30K in the first 2.5 years. Really slowed down after that. I think we are doing about 8K/year now with the wife commuting. easy to keep a car a long time when you put that low miles on it

4 years and 10 months on the Outback and it just crossed 34,000 miles last week. Less than 600 miles a month on it. No plans to trade it out, though the Subaru dealer keeps sending us offers. Latest one is $521/mo for a 2020 Outback Limited XT, based on the trade in value of ours. Of course, they don't know ours is paid off.

For Chronic Car Buyers, y'all sure don't drive a lot! My RDX is 4 years and 7 months from its in-service date and I just passed 60K last week. Just over 20K of those are mine in the last 14.5 months. Now the wife's Jetta is getting less use, as we're just over 75K (after being at 59K in Feb 2018).

When I had an office job, I was driving about 15k/yr. My wife puts on about 24k, which she splits between 2 vehicles.

corvette

My commute to the office is one mile each way and I usually come home for lunch.

28firefighter

My commute to the office is 15 feet now.

Adding in daycare drop off and pickup it’s about 10 miles total. I put on about 6500 miles a year on my car. Wife does closer to 10k.

corvette

Decided to cross my fingers and hope the oil drip is just spilled oil from my recent oil change. Ran the Tahoe through a drive-through wash with the underbelly spray. Doubt that will take care of it, but you never know.

jmonroe

corvette said:

My commute to the office is one mile each way and I usually come home for lunch.

Damn, that's close enough for making pit stops.

FWIW, I thought I was doing pretty good at just under two miles for a big part of my working career.

jmonroe

pensfan83

28firefighter said:

My commute to the office is 15 feet now.

Adding in daycare drop off and pickup it’s about 10 miles total. I put on about 6500 miles a year on my car. Wife does closer to 10k.

That almost exactly mirrors what we do.

fintail

Got the wagon the last day of March, ~6300 miles on it now. I think most of it has been road trips and hockey, as commuting averages ~40 miles/week.

stickguy

I just hit one year. not sure which day but I got it a few days before Christmas last year. a few miles under 7K.

did not get to buy a car this weekend. But, went out today with the wife and princess and switched our cell phone plan over to Xfinity and got new iPhone 11s for everybody. Spun the kid off onto her own plan (one more step on the becoming a grownup plan). same price either way for her so made sense. wife and I took advantage of the new customer discount ($250) to replace our old 7s that run out of battery way too quick recently. $20/month each was worth it. even with the 2 new phones on the plan, we are paying $50 less per month now. Money that will go toward the next car!

kyfdx

stickguy said:

I just hit one year. not sure which day but I got it a few days before Christmas last year. a few miles under 7K.

did not get to buy a car this weekend. But, went out today with the wife and princess and switched our cell phone plan over to Xfinity and got new iPhone 11s for everybody. Spun the kid off onto her own plan (one more step on the becoming a grownup plan). same price either way for her so made sense. wife and I took advantage of the new customer discount ($250) to replace our old 7s that run out of battery way too quick recently. $20/month each was worth it. even with the 2 new phones on the plan, we are paying $50 less per month now. Money that will go toward the next car!

720 miles on the Fit. It will be 7 weeks old tomorrow. Sat at my mechanic's shop for a week, so getting more use than my normal daily driver.

I try to drive it when the two of us go anywhere, instead of my wife's car.

Because she hates the Fit..

roadburner

My son will be home for Cristmas so Thursday we are going to check out some cars to net $150. A Giulia, Supra, and Veloster N.

stickguy

Toyota doing $50 now too? i might have to make a swing by! I did get an email from Subaru dealer that they were upping the ante to $65, but I probably have to wait a while for that clock to reset!

28firefighter

roadburner said:

My son will be home for Cristmas so Thursday we are going to check out some cars to net $150. A Giulia, Supra, and Veloster N.

Very curious your thoughts about the Veloster N.

stickguy

I think car and driver just picked it as the best drivers car in a comparison. Beat out Porsche, mustang, BMW.

venture

stickguy said:

Toyota doing $50 now too? i might have to make a swing by! I did get an email from Subaru dealer that they were upping the ante to $65, but I probably have to wait a while for that clock to reset!

I got my Subaru $50 card yesterday.

corvette

28firefighter said:

roadburner said:

My son will be home for Cristmas so Thursday we are going to check out some cars to net $150. A Giulia, Supra, and Veloster N.

Very curious your thoughts about the Veloster N.

I have only ever seen Velosters driven by geriatric men who can’t use turn signals... make of that what you will.

nyccarguy

I saw Ford vs Ferrari yesterday with my sons. It was fantastic!

kyfdx

Needs advice:

https://forums.edmunds.com/discussion/59704/toyota/matrix/should-i-buy-a-matrix-only-driven-8k-miles-in-10-years#latest

roadburner

stickguy said:

I think car and driver just picked it as the best drivers car in a comparison. Beat out Porsche, mustang, BMW.

It was the PCOTY issue of R&T; a friend of mine is an editor there and he really likes the Veloster N. Hyundai poached BMW M VP of Engineering Albert Biermann to head their N division and he’s apparently doing an outstanding job. Needless to say, no other Hyundai’s are on my radar.

breld

I too anxiously await your assessment of the Veloster N. And I'd be very curious as to your impressions of the Civic Type R, though they continue to be difficult to get a hold of for a test drive.

I always figured the Veloster N would be an excellent used car buy, but there's yet to be much of any inventory. Though at $30k for the sportiest trim, it's quite the bargain as is.

28firefighter

I think what annoys me most from the reviews of the Veloster N is just how spartan the interior is - and how much hard plastic it contains. I realize they were trying to pack obscene performance in at a price point, but still.

breld

A little tempting. I was very fond of my '93 Prelude.

https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/littleton-1994-honda-vtec-prelude/7040526445.html

stickguy

I’d buy that prelude.

My latest scheme Plan was to swap trade the lease on the TLX for an X3. And trade in the RDX on the X3. Take the cash out, and spend part of it on a cheap 2nd car to winter beater for me.

Needless to say, I have not tried to explain this to the wife. Would need a spreadsheet and whiteboard for this one. Though she does seem to be focused on wanting a modern car now (just not the payment!)

Tipping point was listening to a podcast in my car, and not being able to easily call the princess to chat when they are both commuting home.

Now I just need to somehow put together a “revenue neutral” plan. Which is where the “I wonder if I can trade out of the TLX?” Came from.

Probably just easier to suck it up and do a 2nd payment.

28firefighter

stickguy said:

I’d buy that prelude.

My latest scheme Plan was to swap trade the lease on the TLX for an X3. And trade in the RDX on the X3. Take the cash out, and spend part of it on a cheap 2nd car to winter beater for me.

Needless to say, I have not tried to explain this to the wife. Would need a spreadsheet and whiteboard for this one. Though she does seem to be focused on wanting a modern car now (just not the payment!)

Tipping point was listening to a podcast in my car, and not being able to easily call the princess to chat when they are both commuting home.

Now I just need to somehow put together a “revenue neutral” plan. Which is where the “I wonder if I can trade out of the TLX?” Came from.

Probably just easier to suck it up and do a 2nd payment.

Have you seen what your TLX is worth on Carvana, Vroom, etc? They threw so much lease cash at that thing with such a low residual, you may be able to get out relatively unscathed...

stickguy

I have not. Guess the carvana request is easy. Just need to get the buyout from Acura.

Actually Rodo has a link now for getting out of a current lease. Hmmm.

nyccarguy

breld said:

A little tempting. I was very fond of my '93 Prelude.

https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/littleton-1994-honda-vtec-prelude/7040526445.html

LOVE that! It is a VTEC too! A driver too, at a resonable price.

28firefighter

stickguy said:

I have not. Guess the carvana request is easy. Just need to get the buyout from Acura.

Actually Rodo has a link now for getting out of a current lease. Hmmm.

I'd be careful with Rodo. I've not seen any evidence of improved business practices from them, even after name change. Stick with the "known" entities first, if you can.

Michaell

breld said:

A little tempting. I was very fond of my '93 Prelude.

https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/littleton-1994-honda-vtec-prelude/7040526445.html

Gee, I wonder if my wife would let me dip into our savings account for this...

stickguy

Michael, I’m sure she’s going to be fine with it. So just bring it home. That’s what I would do.

pensfan83

breld said:

A little tempting. I was very fond of my '93 Prelude.

https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/littleton-1994-honda-vtec-prelude/7040526445.html

Nice. Guessing it's not a 4WS example since it wasn't called out. Hopefully that bra is not a full time thing either or I'd be worried what the paint looks like underneath.

This is also strictly a personal preference but I think I'd rather have a 3G Si 4WS. They are a hoot to drive and the 4WS is also mechanical.

stickguy

I looked at the rodo link. It just says that they will take it back for you and you owe 0. So I assume they are treating it like a trade in and rolling money into new lease? Either that or it only really applies to when you are at the end of the lease and they are doing a courtesy for you (more likely this I would bet)

28firefighter

stickguy said:

I looked at the rodo link. It just says that they will take it back for you and you owe 0. So I assume they are treating it like a trade in and rolling money into new lease? Either that or it only really applies to when you are at the end of the lease and they are doing a courtesy for you (more likely this I would bet)

If you owe more than it's worth, I promise the money is going somewhere else that you'll pay for it.

qbrozen

speaking of sporty hatches ...

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inventorylisting/mySavedListings.action#listing=257110154

[Deleted User]

stickguy said:

Michael, I’m sure she’s going to be fine with it. So just bring it home. That’s what I would do.

Yeah, permission, forgiveness, they're both asks, yes?

roadburner

qbrozen said:

speaking of sporty hatches ...

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inventorylisting/mySavedListings.action#listing=257110154

Not very well equipped but it IS a JCW.

28firefighter

qbrozen said:

speaking of sporty hatches ...

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inventorylisting/mySavedListings.action#listing=257110154

Seeing listings for cool cars at BHPH lots just makes me depressed. You know that thing has been trashed and that you will need a shower after being in the dealer.

nyccarguy

Michaell said:

breld said:

A little tempting. I was very fond of my '93 Prelude.

https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/littleton-1994-honda-vtec-prelude/7040526445.html

Gee, I wonder if my wife would let me dip into our savings account for this...

That car is really tight on interior space.

nyccarguy

pensfan83 said:

breld said:

A little tempting. I was very fond of my '93 Prelude.

https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/littleton-1994-honda-vtec-prelude/7040526445.html

Nice. Guessing it's not a 4WS example since it wasn't called out. Hopefully that bra is not a full time thing either or I'd be worried what the paint looks like underneath.

This is also strictly a personal preference but I think I'd rather have a 3G Si 4WS. They are a hoot to drive and the 4WS is also mechanical.

Not a 4WS, but a VTEC. I had an OEM bra like that on my Prelude for a number of years. It did a good job protecting the front end.

kyfdx

nyccarguy said:

breld said:

A little tempting. I was very fond of my '93 Prelude.

https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/littleton-1994-honda-vtec-prelude/7040526445.html

LOVE that! It is a VTEC too! A driver too, at a resonable price.

My Fit is a VTEC!!

laurasdada

nyccarguy said:

I saw Ford vs Ferrari yesterday with my sons. It was fantastic!

I saw it with the GF and her daughter, all loved it. Great movie.
Be sure to see Knives Out, too. Also great entertainment, filmed all around my neighborhood!

roadburner

laurasdada said:

I saw it with the GF and her daughter, all loved it. Great movie.
Be sure to see Knives Out, too. Also great entertainment, filmed all around my neighborhood!

Knives Out also features a beautiful Polaris Silver 3.0CS.

roadburner

I love this puppy, but I know it will likely go for big $$$:
1993 M5 Touring

qbrozen

roadburner said:

I love this puppy, but I know it will likely go for big $$$:
1993 M5 Touring

I'd have to pass on that color

roadburner

Not me- I love Daytona Violet.