Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

Michaell

stickguy said:

I was hoping he would hang on another year and change until I needed a car. I liked that 2 series. I guess I can put in dibs on whatever replaces the car that replace the car that replaced the car that replaced the Supra. Hope it is something nice!

You are second in line, if I can convince the wife...

corvette

nyccarguy said:

I will have to give it an extensive test drive as I’ve spoken to a few people who say the power is adequate at best. I think it is an older engine paired with the 5AT.

That sounds about right, when I rode in my friend's, he was driving pretty sedately, so I wouldn't have picked up on any shortcomings in the powertrain. I've heard others have the same complaint you mentioned, though.

stickguy

I will bet that most every 4 runner is driven sedately almost all the time.

stickguy

Michael, I bet we are both coming out losers on this deal.

breld

nyccarguy said:

breld said:

graphicguy said:

@breld ...so, Supra thoughts?

Well, like I said, the performance of the Supra was as expected, which is to say incredibly fun. What I was particularly impressed with was how well mannered it was in casual driving. My wife and I both took note of how it handled bumps and imperfections on the road and thought it was every bit as compliant as most any other car we’ve owned with sporting pretensions.

Sitting inside of it, for obvious reasons, it felt like a modern German vehicle. But then you step out of it and the exterior styling is so striking in its Japanese influence. Sort of like the Civic Type R but not nearly as juvenile.

So the plan? I envision getting one within the next 2-3 months - trying to be patient (not my virtue as you all know) and wait for the right timing for deeper discounts on new or increased availability of used examples (that are priced like used examples).

You drove a 2020 or a 2021?

2020. Slightly used.

Michaell

stickguy said:

Michael, I bet we are both coming out losers on this deal.

Uh huh.

Which is a shame, as I really like the 2-series he has. Even if it is RWD in CO.

girlcarbuilder

Interesting. The other half works with a guy that buys cars more often than underwear. That bug can really hurt. I have been a member of a few auto museums. One in Nashville, Lane automobile museum often lets their members drive some of their older cool cars. I would look for a place like that to try to cool the buying hobby. But who am I? I still working on wearing out the current fleet bought between 2008, 09,10 model years of Toyota. Maybe after of years playing with them in the garage, I decided I wanted something to play with in the streets. Put, put, put to the grocery store. Take out has taken on a whole new meaning with Toyota refrigeration, eating under a hot oak tree! Besides, I like seeing bankers who want me to borrow, then I shred their stuff up! That hobby costs even less!

benjaminh

tifighter said:

Have you driven any of these yet? That will narrow your list for you.

Good point. But given the current situation a casual test drive seems to be going to a lot inconvenience for the dealer/salespeople and for me unless I'm serious and ready to buy or lease. Since that's a year away...

Tesla is apparently moving away from a test drive model. Currently you can set up a test drive, but soon even that might not be available. From what I read somewhere on Tesla's website that I now am having trouble finding they have a new buy it and try it plan. If you don't like it in one week/1000 miles you can get your money back. Service is also moving to a model where they come to you, but that sounds iffy. They are trying to eliminate their few physical showrooms and service bays, which is an idea that sounds like it might be too much ahead of its time. Given that their software is somehow recommending I fly to Fukushima for a test drive....? I've decided to take a pass on this offer. Also, grammatically shouldn't it be "farther" away rather than "further"?

https://www.tesla.com/support/tesla-return-policy

benjaminh

Alex on Autos mostly likes the Tesla model 3, but the ride quality he thought too firm and rough even for him at times on any roads that are less than ideal. Road noise was also somewhat high at highway speeds. Finally, the glass roof wasn't his favorite either in sunny conditions. Even though the roof is tinted he still found the light from above a bit distracting at times, and unlike in a regular car there's no standard covering system. Finally, one weird thing is that base models have the deluxe sound system installed, but some of the speakers are de-activated by software. I find that kind of odd that the speakers are there but you just can't use them because Musk has locked them out for your model. Pay a few thousand dollars and Tesla will activate them for you. Hmmmm.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89fJT87qhgg&t=304s

nyccarguy

dad23 said:

qbrozen said:

4runner SR5 is $320/mo for June, all in, for 36/10. But I assume that is too large for this grouping of SUVs.

Yeah, that sparked my interest, but is that 2WD?

4WD

qbrozen

So I guess the latest craigslist scam craze is to pretend you are interested, ask a question or two, then go in for the kill and ask the seller to spend $19 on a history report from some unknown company.

I have taken to writing back and asking if they really just spent all that time and effort for a couple of bucks. I then offer up the possibility they could make REAL money through the internet, and I could tell them how for just $49.99. I amuse myself sometimes.

corvette

Going to the "app model" for option upgrades rubs me the wrong way. It's definitely most prevalent with Tesla, however, on newer cars with forward collision mitigation, the hardware is already there for radar cruise and lane departure warning. I know Ford and GM charge extra for radar cruise, not sure about LDW.

corvette

@girlcarbuilder I see in your profile that you were a member of the Tupelo auto museum. I believe that one closed, but they had a Tucker in their collection, which I got to see a few years back. If you are ever in the Seattle area, LeMay - America's Car Museum and The LeMay Collections at Marymount are both must-sees.

corvette

@kyfdx - did your son's Tacoma start out as a 36 or 39 month lease? I know Toyota gives you a free tire rotation at 25k miles, if you hit that number before the two year free maintenance period ends. There was discussion on the leasehackr board about preferring the 24 month term, when available, because there is a far lower chance of having to buy a set of tires before lease end.

kyfdx

stickguy said:

I was hoping he would hang on another year and change until I needed a car. I liked that 2 series. I guess I can put in dibs on whatever replaces the car that replace the car that replaced the car that replaced the Supra. Hope it is something nice!

I saw the 2-series... it is really, really nice.

My thought: Why am I buying this GTI?

You should look into it. The @breld hospitality tour is amazing!

kyfdx

girlcarbuilder said:

Interesting. The other half works with a guy that buys cars more often than underwear. That bug can really hurt. I have been a member of a few auto museums. One in Nashville, Lane automobile museum often lets their members drive some of their older cool cars. I would look for a place like that to try to cool the buying hobby. But who am I? I still working on wearing out the current fleet bought between 2008, 09,10 model years of Toyota. Maybe after of years playing with them in the garage, I decided I wanted something to play with in the streets. Put, put, put to the grocery store. Take out has taken on a whole new meaning with Toyota refrigeration, eating under a hot oak tree! Besides, I like seeing bankers who want me to borrow, then I shred their stuff up! That hobby costs even less!

Lane is an awesome place!

kyfdx

corvette said:

@kyfdx - did your son's Tacoma start out as a 36 or 39 month lease? I know Toyota gives you a free tire rotation at 25k miles, if you hit that number before the two year free maintenance period ends. There was discussion on the leasehackr board about preferring the 24 month term, when available, because there is a far lower chance of having to buy a set of tires before lease end.

36 months

We are putting tires on shortly. That was another factor in extending the lease. I was going to be out the cost, in any case. At 34K miles, ours are about worn out.

The 24 month term just wasn't that good for USB in 2017.
36/12 residual was 82% (not a typo)

graphicguy

@benjaminh ....At least you’ve got time to test drive ALL the cars you’re looking at. My guess is they’ll all drive quite differently. And, you’ll whittle down the list pretty quickly.

I know two people who have Tesla 3s. One loves it, the other hates it. The one who loves his says he’s had no issues with it, but doesn’t drive much. The other person, who does drive mostly in town, bemoans the poor build quality of his. Not sure if they’re just differently built cars or built on the factory’s “bad day”, but his is less than a year old and he’s looking to get rid of it.

The one who loves his, is looking at getting a Model Y.

breld

kyfdx said:

stickguy said:

I was hoping he would hang on another year and change until I needed a car. I liked that 2 series. I guess I can put in dibs on whatever replaces the car that replace the car that replaced the car that replaced the Supra. Hope it is something nice!

I saw the 2-series... it is really, really nice.

My thought: Why am I buying this GTI?

You should look into it. The @breld hospitality tour is amazing!

I’m glad we could sweeten your trip to CO with more than just a nice vehicle!

There’s a yellow Supra at a deep discount not too far from you. It has been suggested to me that if we fly out and road trip it back a stop down your way could be warranted. 😀

breld

And yes, despite my wandering eye, the 2-series is shaping up to be a really great fun car at a fraction of the cost of a Supra. That makes it hard for sure.

I was reading/watching reviews of the 2021 4 cylinder Supra - you know, a nice refined 4 cylinder turbo from BMW, rear wheel drive...oh wait, I have that! And a manual to boot!

kyfdx

breld said:

kyfdx said:

stickguy said:

I was hoping he would hang on another year and change until I needed a car. I liked that 2 series. I guess I can put in dibs on whatever replaces the car that replace the car that replaced the car that replaced the Supra. Hope it is something nice!

I saw the 2-series... it is really, really nice.

My thought: Why am I buying this GTI?

You should look into it. The @breld hospitality tour is amazing!

I’m glad we could sweeten your trip to CO with more than just a nice vehicle!

There’s a yellow Supra at a deep discount not too far from you. It has been suggested to me that if we fly out and road trip it back a stop down your way could be warranted. 😀

Come on down! We'll go to a Reds... oh, never mind.

roadburner

On another forum there is a subset of members who insist that the pinnacle of automotive excellence is a soul-slaughtering appliance that can trave intergalactic distances with only minimal upkeep. I was discussing a couple of entertaining cars with another participant and one of the hairshirt brigade posted, “But how will those cars hold up over 400,000 miles?”
I replied, “If I faced the prospect of driving most any car for 400,000 miles I would just cut to the chase and jump off a very tall building.”

breld

@benjaminh -

I would think turning in your current TLX and leasing a new one may be a really great way to go. By then there should be some level of discounts and Acura should make it relatively easy - heck, you could probably do it a few months early!

And the new model with the turbo would feel like a change.

But if a 3-series is a dream car of yours and you’re up for another lease, I’m sure a good lease deal would be available on a current 330i. Treat yourself!

stickguy

Just get the 6 month lease option though, so you can flip out of it quick.

Right Breld?

benjaminh

Acura does sometimes have incentives for current Acura owners. Right now there's an extra 3000 incentive for Acura owners on the RDX on top of the regular incentives, and there's an extra 1500 on the current TLX. If I really like the new TLX I might even be able to live with a base model, which will have all the good stuff in terms of style, turbo engine, double wishbone suspension, variable ratio steering, NSX brakes, 255 performance tires, etc. I would be ok skipping the milano leather, which I like but isn't a must-have, but I'd miss the ELS sound system and blis.

But I can't help thinking this—the residual on my car was 49%. And so in a sense I've already bought more than half of the car, and yet it'll have at most 40,000 miles on it at that point. Since a TLX is likely to last to at least 200k then it has about 80% of it's life left for less than 50% of the price. And in terms of tech it has almost everything.....

But yeah, the BMW 3-series has kinda been a dream since Kindergarten way back in 1971 when one of my teachers sometimes drove me in his BMW 2002.

Decisions, decisions. At least it helps keep my mind off of the news....

stickguy

Off topic, but man times have changed. Can you imagine the uproar today if a teacher took a kindergartener for a ride alone in their car?

breld

stickguy said:

Just get the 6 month lease option though, so you can flip out of it quick.

Right Breld?

It’s a good program. But you have to be your own bank!

stickguy

Have you considered a YouTube channel? I think you buy and sell nearly as often as JRGO.

Michaell

stickguy said:

Have you considered a YouTube channel? I think you buy and sell nearly as often as JRGO.

Huh. Him and the missus are quite photogenic. They could co-host.

benjaminh

stickguy said:

Off topic, but man times have changed. Can you imagine the uproar today if a teacher took a kindergartener for a ride alone in their car?

It was an alternative private school, but yeah....From another teacher we also got rides in the Toyota 4-wheel drive vehicle of that day that I think has now become a classic. It was over a rough dirt road and the bounces were really something. No seatbelts, but somehow we were all ok. Another teacher had a huge American station wagon that I think was borrowed from their parents that was a Dodge in the avocado green of that time. Different era.

isellhondas

roadburner said:

breld said:

Yup, it would replace the 228i. But I’m still much more inclined to give it some time for used ones to appear unless the discounts get silly.

The wingnuts at Oxmoor(ons) Toyota in Louisville won't allow a test drive of a Supra without a signed buyer's order.

Can you really blame them? They don't know you or your level of seriousness. Cars like that attract flakes and joyriders like a magnet. When the S-2000's first came out, we had a similar policy. As time went by we slowly relaxed the rules. We still tried hard to ferret out the serious from the non serious but it's hard. As expected, VERY few who went on test drives were buyers. Several salespeople had the living bejeesus scared out them by idiots who were determined to drive the crap out of them. Toyota will sell every Supra and at the risk of ticking off a few people the cars will still sell.

tifighter

That must be why they already have incentives.

28firefighter

From several of the Toyo dealers on Leasehackr, they aren't moving all that well. The max discount a dealer can give on it, before incentives, before taking a truly unrecoverable loss is 9.2%. On top of that there is, or was, a $3500 rebate.

Methinks there are deals to be had.

fintail

I've seen exactly one Supra on the road here, I see more Uterus and Bentayga in traffic.

stickguy

I think I have seen at least 2 different ones. for a while I thought there were more red ones running around, until I discovered that someone in the front of my neighborhood bought one. so I assume I keep seeing theirs!

roadburner

isellhondas said:

roadburner said:

The wingnuts at Oxmoor(ons) Toyota in Louisville won't allow a test drive of a Supra without a signed buyer's order.

Can you really blame them? They don't know you or your level of seriousness. Cars like that attract flakes and joyriders like a magnet. When the S-2000's first came out, we had a similar policy. As time went by we slowly relaxed the rules. We still tried hard to ferret out the serious from the non serious but it's hard. As expected, VERY few who went on test drives were buyers. Several salespeople had the living bejeesus scared out them by idiots who were determined to drive the crap out of them. Toyota will sell every Supra and at the risk of ticking off a few people the cars will still sell.

Yes I can blame them. I exchanged several emails with a salesperson and scheduled an appointment. She said that she looked forward to meeting me. I showed up with my son driving my M235i. I was told she had already left for the day. The guy who "assisted" me knew next to nothing about the car- which I found particularly annoying, as I stayed on top of the product info at BMW when I worked there. The simple fact is that it's a Toyota Supra- not a Ferrari , a Lamborghini, or even an M2 Competition, for that matter. And the market is speaking loud and clear- if it's such a hot car, why is Toyota Financial already offering 0% financing?

I honestly wasn't surprised; Oxmoor(ons) played the same game with me when I was shopping for a Mazdaspeed 3 in 2007. No test drives without a buyers order, put down a deposit, get in line- if you reached the head of the line and didn't like the color of "your" MS3 you went back to the end of the line. Oh yeah, they also added a $2K-$3K ADM sticker to every MS3. A week later I checked out Kings Mazda in Cincinnati. No hassle at all- the salesman offered a test drive before I even asked. When I decided to buy one a couple of weeks later he only requested a $500 deposit and asked me for color and trim; within 24 hours he located the exact car at a dealer in Northern Ohio. He even had it flatbedded to Kings at no charge.

breld

I visited two Toyota dealers this morning.

The first one was lame. Salesman wasn’t helpful, they required a buyers order before a drive, and their pricing was not terribly competitive.

The second one was amazing. Salesman was very transparent and helpful. Without asking, he offered a test drive and let me take it out on my own. When we talked pricing, the manager came out and said it’s an awesome car but he doesn’t make money by showing it on the lot and would love to make a deal.

28firefighter

breld said:

I visited two Toyota dealers this morning.

The first one was lame. Salesman wasn’t helpful, they required a buyers order before a drive, and their pricing was not terribly competitive.

The second one was amazing. Salesman was very transparent and helpful. Without asking, he offered a test drive and let me take it out on my own. When we talked pricing, the manager came out and said it’s an awesome car but he doesn’t make money by showing it on the lot and would love to make a deal.

The second one sounds like someone speaking your language. Like someone who sent you home with a Supra today!

breld

Not quite.

But this has a sold sign in it as of a few minutes ago.

breld

As great as that second experience was, it was for a silver one. And that’s probably my top choice if not for the yellow.

I know it’s polarizing, but man do I love a yellow on the right car. Few can pull it off, but the Supra can (IMO of course).

As much as I would’ve loved to make an easy local deal, I knew in my gut I wanted the yellow. This one is less than 1k miles away, and they’re aggressive on the pricing.

About 10.5% off MSRP plus the $3,500 Toyota incentive.

kyfdx

breld said:

As great as that second experience was, it was for a silver one. And that’s probably my top choice if not for the yellow.

I know it’s polarizing, but man do I love a yellow on the right car. Few can pull it off, but the Supra can (IMO of course).

As much as I would’ve loved to make an easy local deal, I knew in my gut I wanted the yellow. This one is less than 1k miles away, and they’re aggressive on the pricing.

About 10.5% off MSRP plus the $3,500 Toyota incentive.

Which direction is the 1000 miles?

clm8

I'm a long time reader, but seldom post. This is just a few miles from me. I'd be happy to deliver it to you.

kyfdx

clm8 said:

I'm a long time reader, but seldom post. This is just a few miles from me. I'd be happy to deliver it to you.

No way, buddy... that's right on my way to Denver.

benjaminh

breld said:

Not quite.

But this has a sold sign in it as of a few minutes ago.

Congrats!!

explorerx4

A thousand miles, you could each drive 500 of them.

au1994

Once again we bow at the feet of the master.

I agree about the color, the Supra and certain other sports cars can pull off ‘radical’ colors like this. A Wrangler is about the only other thing that can do that.

kyfdx

explorerx4 said:

A thousand miles, you could each drive 500 of them.

Social distancing..

explorerx4

How could I overlook that?

kyfdx

explorerx4 said:

How could I overlook that?

I'm not sure I want to fly back.. Might have to buy the 2-series coupe!

mjfloyd1

breld said:

As great as that second experience was, it was for a silver one. And that’s probably my top choice if not for the yellow.

I know it’s polarizing, but man do I love a yellow on the right car. Few can pull it off, but the Supra can (IMO of course).

As much as I would’ve loved to make an easy local deal, I knew in my gut I wanted the yellow. This one is less than 1k miles away, and they’re aggressive on the pricing.

About 10.5% off MSRP plus the $3,500 Toyota incentive.

That’s only an hour away from me!