Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

carnaught

graphicguy said:

@breld .... @kyfdx congrats on the great punches, swaps, new rides. Love them!

Very cool, @breld and @kyfdx - congrats!

Like the picture of you guys and @Michaell but why doesn’t our Grand Poobah, @breld have his crown on?

carnaught

@benjaminh, my condolences also for your loss.

Michaell

carnaught said:

graphicguy said:

@breld .... @kyfdx congrats on the great punches, swaps, new rides. Love them!

Very cool, @breld and @kyfdx - congrats!

Like the picture of you guys and @Michaell but why doesn’t our Grand Poobah, @breld have his crown on?

He had to leave room for the hat he bought before the game started.

stickguy

@benjaminh, I am always skeptical about the going to 1 car plan. IMO when you are used to having your own, it rarely works. But, can give it a try, and get something cheaper used to have on hand as spare wheels. Does not need to be brand new.

oldfarmer50

benjaminh said:

Hi Folks—I had some password trouble, then got busy at work, then my dad passed away after a long illness, etc., but happy very late 2020 to everyone! I'll try to catch up on who has a new car. I'm still loving my 2018 Acura TLX, but I'm now more than halfway through the 3 year lease, and so my mind is beginning to think about the options—buy it out? lease something else? buy something else? or, horror of horrors, become a one car family. The last option is my least favorite, but it's true my wife and I could probably make do with just her CRV, and that would save some $.

PS Is stickguy still looking to ditch his TLX? Have the other TLX people moved on to new cars already?

Sorry for your loss.

houdini1

Michaell said:

I had one last ride in the GTI last night, to attend the Avs game. Such a sweet, sweet ride.

@kyfdx checked in a couple hours ago. Filling up the tank in Salina, KS. He reports north of 30MPG with the cruise set at 83.

I hope he is careful driving across Kansas. Police assume anyone without a Colorado tag has been in Colorado to buy MJ. Condolences ben.

breld

Condolences @benjaminh on the loss of your father. Mine passed away five years ago at the age of 85 after a relatively short bout with cancer - as you mentioned with regard to your father, he lived a nice long life and I am thankful for that...but it's still tough.

Michaell

stickguy said:

@benjaminh, I am always skeptical about the going to 1 car plan. IMO when you are used to having your own, it rarely works. But, can give it a try, and get something cheaper used to have on hand as spare wheels. Does not need to be brand new.

We are down to just the Outback and it's working fine.

Wife hardly drives anymore - she's either a passenger in the Mini, or with me in the Subaru

breld

houdini1 said:

Michaell said:

I had one last ride in the GTI last night, to attend the Avs game. Such a sweet, sweet ride.

@kyfdx checked in a couple hours ago. Filling up the tank in Salina, KS. He reports north of 30MPG with the cruise set at 83.

I hope he is careful driving across Kansas. Police assume anyone without a Colorado tag has been in Colorado to buy MJ. Condolences ben.

Well, he has my old plates on it for the drive, so at least he's covered on that front. But who knows what other kind of trouble I could find myself in with @kyfdx's antics.

tjc78

I am always skeptical about the going to 1 car plan.

My wireless card died in my computer yesterday...

Wife said the heck with it, just share mine (hers is new and smokin'). I said no, I ordered a new wireless card on Amazon.

So moral of the story. I can't share a computer. I sure as heck can't share a car.

28firefighter

Very sorry for your loss, @benjaminh.

28firefighter

I would think someone with CO plates would garner just as much attention as a non-CO plates. By that logic they should just setup a checkpoint looking for weed in any car crossing the border! Why discriminate?

stickguy

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

@benjaminh, I am always skeptical about the going to 1 car plan. IMO when you are used to having your own, it rarely works. But, can give it a try, and get something cheaper used to have on hand as spare wheels. Does not need to be brand new.

We are down to just the Outback and it's working fine.

Wife hardly drives anymore - she's either a passenger in the Mini, or with me in the Subaru

see, I thought of you, and meant to comment that you don't qualify. You have 2 cars in the house. Just shared between 3 drivers but 2 commute together.

Try it with your daughter having moved out, and your wife taking the OB to work every day. Being stranded at home day after day with no car in the garage, gets real old real fast!

Michaell

Try it with your daughter having moved out

If only. I doubt she will ever leave.

I'm trying to convince the wife that a move to NM is in our future. New build homes the same size as the one we are in are 60% less costly. And, the winter weather is much nicer.

explorerx4

Didn't feel life turning on the tv, so I ended up watching a video of a guy that bought a car in Florida(Coco Beach) and drove it back to Oklahoma City without a license plate.
According to him and the police who pulled him over, it's better to drive with no plate than the wrong one.
Paperwork was ok, so they let him go.

stickguy

gonna be a long commute to the studio!

I have given up on moving. At this point, the only place I could get her to go is back up to OldFarmer land in NY, where it is not cheap and the weather is much crappier. My plans of moving to a cheap southern locale, have been scuttled.

and until the princess moves elsewhere, we definitely are not moving. Might happen this summer (possibly to Albany, more likely Boston). If that move goes down, I expect the wife will say to start the planning. She just has to suck it up and ask to go FT WFH.

corvette

Punch pending...

pensfan83

@corvette nice! And to answer your earlier question, 2006 BMW 330Ci, 125,900K

sda

@benjaminh, my condolences, words never can be enough. Glad you’re back!

benjaminh

My wife and I are both in our mid 50s, and we both work full time. Her job is actually about a 20 minute walk away, but the realities of the weather and time mean that walking rarely happens, which I totally understand. So sharing one car would mostly mean me taking her to work and picking her up (since my job is farther away), which almost all the time would be fine. But then there's shopping and errands, taking our kids (neither of whom drives at this point) various places, my desire to take my bike out on bike rides, etc., and suddenly sharing a car seems like it could be a headache. On top of that, I actually like driving and appreciate the handling and acceleration of a car, specifically my TLX. For my wife it's all about the SUV utility, and driving is not really something she thinks of as fun. I listen to various kinds of music and appreciate my ELS studio sound system, while my wife seems to always have her radio on npr talk in her car. Sharing, in other words, wouldn't in the end be easy, although theoretically possible.

And financially I don't think it's going to be essential, because the math for our daughter's college already seems to add up, in part because the loan on my wife's 2018 CRV is going to be paid off early this July. The loan is already down to about $3000 iirc, and once that happens we suddenly are better off by $450 a month. And my lease is only $229 a month. Probably I'll want to buy out the TLX, but a loan for $18k is well over 500 a month over 3 years.

In any case, because I'm a CCBA, I'll probably use the opportunity to do a few test drives to be sure when the time comes. It would be rough to step down from an Acura, but actually I sort of like the interior design of the new Sonata, and I imagine in a year a lease on one of those might be a good deal. A Hyundai? What am I thinking? No. I don't think that's going to happen....

When it comes to car decisions there always seems to be the good, the bad, and the ugly financial side. And so in honor of that reality here's a 6-minute live performance of Ennio Morricone's music done by the Danish Symphony Orchestra....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enuOArEfqGo&list=RDenuOArEfqGo&start_radio=1

stickguy

don't knock Hyundai until you try it. The new Sonata is seriously stylish too.

mjfloyd1

@corvette- what are you buying?

sda

My wife and I commuted together for about 5 months as we were both working within blocks of each other and our schedules matched. There are definite compromises made doing this. I like listening to music and often surf stations. She likes quiet, or to share all that’s going on in her office, not always what I wanted to hear. We did stop from time to time at a craft brewery on our way home, which was a plus, and we both enjoyed. A change in job status has me driving solo again.

stickguy

the commuting part is usually the easy part of the sharing. To me, it is the free time, when you have separate things to be doing, that having the 2nd car really is needed.

benjaminh

corvette said:

Punch pending...

Can you tell us new or used?

(One of the all-new Corvettes??++)

sda

As I’ve shared before, my wife is awed with the Q5. It is the subtle details and overall refinement compared to what she’s driven in the past that has really impressed her. She says she’s spoiled now and there’s no going back.

Sandman6472

Bad news, got a letter from Social Security. I owe them for the difference between my Medicare and what s s pays me monthly. So, from 10/19 to 12/20, looks like I owe around $660 and some change! I only get $101.45 from s s now which they keep and my Medicare Part A & B is like $144.85, so I owe them the difference. That guy at work was totally wrong and Uncle Sam wants his $ by 10/20...or else!
Got the letter Friday so winning that $210 comes at a good time, so it'll go towards that bill. Still think it sucks that I can't get 100% of my real s s payment and not the fraction I do get! Why do the repubs like to "f" with blue collar workers income anyways? Really sucks, big time!!!

benjaminh

sda said:

As I’ve shared before, my wife is awed with the Q5. It is the subtle details and overall refinement compared to what she’s driven in the past that has really impressed her. She says she’s spoiled now and there’s no going back.

Nice to hear how much she loves her Audi. Any chance you might get an upgrade?

Another car I like the looks of is the new Volvo S60....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZj8X5mH_XM

stickguy

I thought the whole point was fed employees did not pay into SS, which is why you don't get to collect it. And get other pension instead. There are SS offsets to working people too, if you have other income. A bit of a convoluted system, but there are at least reasons for it.

how long it last though is a mystery now. But people paid into it, it isn't some kind of freebie.

explorerx4

@sandman6472,
Ignoring the political comment, why did that happen to you and that guy you work with?

carnaught

(BUMP)

roadburner

@benjaminh ; sorry to hear of your loss. My dad passed in 1991.

sda

Like a good CCBA, I am in continuous search mode. Having spent about $2500 in maintenance and repairs between the TL and Accord in the last month we are in a hold pattern. I am hoping in the next 12 months I will give the Accord to my daughter and sell the TL. The TL is still such a nice car, in many ways, those subtle details and overall refinement exceed that of my 7 year newer Accord.

corvette

explorerx4 said:

Didn't feel life turning on the tv, so I ended up watching a video of a guy that bought a car in Florida(Coco Beach) and drove it back to Oklahoma City without a license plate.
According to him and the police who pulled him over, it's better to drive with no plate than the wrong one.
Paperwork was ok, so they let him go.

I think it's basically impossible to get a temporary tag, unless you're a dealer, so that makes it difficult for private party sales.

corvette

The good news is that I only have the (comparatively quite reliable) G37 to drive for the next few days. The even better news is that I will be extremely cash flow positive for this month.

qbrozen

make with the deets, @28firefighter and @corvette

Michaell

@stickguy - in a few years, we are hoping the studio is self sufficient and the wife doesn't have to be there. Let her daughter run things - they have already hired three part time staff.

No huge rush, at this point.

28firefighter

No deets until it’s in my driveway. Probably this weekend.

laurasdada

Condolences, @benjaminh. Glad that your dad had a life well lived.
Congrats to the Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice car swappers here!

Went and looked at a Porsche Panamera 4S during lunch yesterday; realizing I"ve not had a German car since my very first ('78 Scirocco) I'm thinking it soon may be ime for a bookend. I can only have one car (currently) so a modicum of practicality is required, the Porsche, while impressive, is just too BIG! Plenty of other fish in the Rhein, so more leisurely shopping to come.

Jag just turned 62k miles Sunday, still looking and driving newish. Still not emotiionally ready to say goodbye. And, for some reason, I'm still drawn to the '20 Jag XE. Yup, still all talk.

kyfdx

2018 GTI SE. About 14K miles. (15K, by the time I get home tomorrow)

kyfdx

Lunch at. BBQ joint in Junction City, KS. Really good

corvette

kyfdx said:

Lunch at. BBQ joint in Junction City, KS. Really good

That looks awesome! When I made my road trip to and from Denver some years back, I felt lucky to find a Subway in Kansas... not much out there!

tifighter

Sheesh. I go away for a week and you guys all go crazy. So congrats to...everybody? To @kyfdx @pensfan83 @breld @28firefighter (in theory) and @corvette (also in theory) with new rides, of course. And to the rest of us for having entertaining free content. Now please continue with the show, I'm getting bored.

kyfdx

It was after 2 pm when I arrived, so only one table occupied. Zoom in on the guy behind the counter. He is the owner. Talked to me for 95% of the time I was there.

The place is easily 5% bigger than everything you see in the photos. 😏

kyfdx

They give you a “hillbilly fortune cookie” with your meal. It’s a Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie.

If you don’t know what that is, well, you don’t belong in a real BBQ joint. 😉

28firefighter

I’m not sure which is better - the gun rack behind the counter or the fact they seem to use Chevy parts in their BBQ.

Sandman6472

It's very simple, My s s check isn't big enough to pay for Medicare Parts A & B, so I have to kick in the rest. I get a federal pension as I was a Civil Service employee. That ridiculous 1984 Windfall Provisions Act basically says sure, you paid in but now, we'll only give you a fraction for your s s payment. Totally ridiculous and unfair, but not going down that road even though it's plain unfair to us retirees! No amount of logic can make this right in any way, shape or form!

roadburner

Current contenders for my next punch:

Used 2018 440 coupe
Used 2017 M2
Used 2019 Bullitt
New Stinger GTS

tjc78

Top 2 - 97% chance

Stang - 2%

Kia - 1%

kyfdx

tjc78 said:

Top 2 - 97% chance

Stang - 2%

Kia - 1%

I give the Bullitt about an 8% chance.