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Comments
Does that have the ski pass through in the trunk?
(has evils thoughts...)
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0
BUT, a broker wouldn't suggest cars to fit your needs. That's the other part to the job here.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
One time when I was helping out a friend the salesman referred to be as the curbside lawyer.
How could he not like the looks of an Altima?
An Eclipse, Passat, or Forester. Huh. Nothing like narrowing down the type of car to speed up the process. What? No pickup truck in that field?
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
That's a complement, it shows he thought you had the best interests of your 'client' at heart.
Not sure if he thinks the Forester is good looking, or liking the whole Subaru persona thing. Either way, didn't find any pre-owned locally.
Drove through many lots today and test drove Mazda 6, Prius, Saturn Aura and Passat. He decided against the Eclipse on his own, thank goodness.
The front runner is definitely the Passat. I drove it a little also and it is a very good handling car with some great pick-up.
It looks like there are a couple around that we can check out.
I was thinking the same thing!
Hey, the Passat could be very nice for him. Having owned an 80 Rabbit I have found it impossible to pull the trigger on a Volkswagen (I came extremely close to breaking that in 1999 on a Passat wagon) but they are nice cars, fun to drive and VW is really coming along in the reliability department.
I hear you. I've done the Audi thing and am not in a hurry to do it again. But an AWD convertible? I mean, how cool it that? In the winter, top up, throw on snows and put skis in the back with pass-through, crank up the heated seats and take my sweetheart to a nice ski-in ski-out cabin. Take said car in summer, without snows of course, drop top, drive the coast. All I need is steve's help in figuring out a way to put some crossbars with gunwale mounts on the top. :P
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0
Yeah, I was trying to ignore that part.....
Between that and the fact that they are as attractive a car as is out there it gets all too tempting.
A friend of mine leases an A8 every two years. If I had his kind of money I'd likely lease Audis, too.
quite a bit smaller than a new style passat. More like a Jetta.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
The rack consisted of pipe standards welded to the bumpers with heavy pipe going up in a double T, with a 2x4 making up the T. Weighed a ton and the welds on the bumper kept failing - big pain.
Just buy the S40 at a Volvo dealer so you get the six year 100,000 mile certified warranty.
Volvo has won many awards for their CPO program.
http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/22/best-CPO-cars-forbeslife-cx_jm_1022cars.html
http://www.intellichoice.com/press/cpo_programs_2009#
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
When I mentioned Volvo to my son, he didn't seem interested.
Would Ford selling it off effect the warranty on a CPO?
The article was interesting though in that VW also got high marks for CPO program. But again, I'm not finding any CPO Passats within a reasonable distance and price constraints. Ah, the joys of living in small town Indiana.
I would probably push Altima a little more if the local dealer was better. I haven't heard good things about them, and if we get one still under warranty, it could be a problem.
My dad owns, I believe you all know, a '70 Chevy pickup. Bought it new and currently has 138K on the body - the top half of the 350 was rebuilt at 90K. He dropped about $5-6K on it a few years ago to freshen everything up - new paint, new rubber seals, etc. Mom and dad figure he could sell it for north of $10K.
It's currently insured by AAA (along with their '03 Hyundai Sonata with 22K), but there is concern that if the unthinkable were to happen and it was totaled, the insurance company wouldn't give them fair market value for it - to them, it's a 40 year old truck with a replacement value of probably a couple thousand dollars.
So - my question is - how do they get 'collectible' insurance set up? I know there are specific companies that do this. Lots of restrictions in terms of miles, etc. and, IIRC, an appraisal is done.
The truck is parked outside of their house, in the driveway. He just spent $300 on some sort of alarm that requires a second key in order to start the truck.
Any information about the process involved and the companies who can do this would be greatly appreciated.
I have no doubt that it's worth that to him but to most it's just an old truck.
They don't do appraisal. They take your own stated value and the cost of your insurance is based on that. And in the 8 years I've been with them, they've never once confirmed how much I drive each year.
The only requirement is that you show you have a daily driver insured with another company. That's it.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
Remember Volvo's platforms are used in many Ford cars now. Without Volvo Ford would have a hard time developing new product.
There is of course the chance that a new owner would drastically change the warranty but that probably would happen to the CPO program going forward and not effect previously sold cars. Land Rover had the same thing happen to them. Their old CPO program was six year 75,000 mile with a 100 dollar deductible. Recently it was changed back to their old program which was five year 62,000 miles.
Without Ford Volvo would have a hard time developing new product.
Ford wouldn't have most of the cars they have on the market now, excluding the Fusion which is I think all on a mazda platform, without Volvo. Even the mustang has some of its front end for the current S40/V50/C30 platform.
Volvo wouldn't have had the money to develop the new technology they have debuted over the past couple of years without Fords investment.
Well, at least they have nowhere to go but up if they move production to India. I don't know what it is with English run companies and their inability to get the gremlins out of their cars.... foreign manufacturers don't seem to have the same problem when the use England as assembly points.
Ford would be just fine without Volvo- just because they shared some of the platforms does not mean Ford can't do their own in house work.
The IS drives great even with 125k. It does have a few minor issues with the AC servo motor and a miss at 2k RPM. Now gee is saying since we've dumped the Accord that leaves enough money for him to buy that 98-01 Prelude he's been dreaming of for so long.
As far as the best seats ever, I give that that the 08 IS. They are so soft and comfortable even for long trips.
Really people still think this?
Jag has been at the top of reliability studies for a while now and their new product is awesome.
http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?id=2009043
Land Rover is still in the bottom but it is not last anymore and has been improving steadily over the years.
Notice MINI, a foreign owned brand built in the UK, is below average in that same survey. I will say that I only had one real problem with my MINI and it was pretty minor.
Ford would be just fine without Volvo- just because they shared some of the platforms does not mean Ford can't do their own in house work.
Ford forgot how to design cars in North America. They have admitted that they put all their resources into designing trucks and SUVs in North America and neglected their cars. Look it up on Google news or AutoBlog they have stated it over and over. Ford of Europe still knows how to design cars but they rely heavily on Volvo for that too.
If the Indians offshore all of it, watch for those gains to be wasted. I'd bet on it.
Is there any major autobrand left from the UK that is actually owned by a UK company? Sure there are several small cottage or specialty manufacturers left in the UK that are native owned like Aerial Atom but that is it.
Is Morgan still British? I have to believe Bristol is too. That's all that comes to my mind. I don't know of one that actually makes both engines and cars themselves.
I'll take this report w/ a grain of salt based on my personal experience. I've had more little annoying problems on my bimmer than the Pontiacs I've owned, yet Pontiac is close to the basement also.
Well if it's any consolation, I have a friend who used to have a 2001.5 Passat, and as far as I know, he only had one real problem with it...some kind of switch that made the car think it was in gear when he tried to start it, so it would sometimes leave him stranded. Took the dealer a few months to hunt down the problem, but I blame the dealer more than the car here. I forget how many miles he had on the car when he got rid of it, but I think it was at least 130-140,000. He replaced it just recently, with a used 2005 or so Passat wagon.
The Passat is a nice, nice car. Hope this one does the trick!
Nor can I figure out how to shift my wife away from the xD she wants.
I was thinking that too. Also surprised to see Mazda down there...not my personal experience.
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0
I took a test drive in an xD, and all I can say is that it's a bit ... er, how do I phrase this ... eccentric.
The basic premise is positive. One price for a fairly well equipped ride, hatchback utility, Toyota reliability and resale.
If only .... it wasn't so ugly.
If only .... the tach didn't sweep counterclockwise.
If only .... there was another 1-2" of travel in the front seat.
xD - Car & Driver called it the "asian-shop-girl driving position"
25 NX 450h+ / 24 Sienna Plat AWD / 23 Civic Type-R / 21 Boxster GTS 4.0
That being said JD Powers does not distinguish from a minor problem like a radio that stops work, a very minor problem like a broken cup holder, a non-problem what they call perceived design flaws if someone doesn't like the design of said cup holder or radio and a major problem like a blown transmission that leaves you stranded on the side of the road.
Hows that for a run on sentence?
I think VW has more of the minor and design flaw problems then really serious ones at least for their recent models. From an ergonomics stand point they just aren't set up like the similarly priced Japanese competition and some people can't get over that so they think it is a problem.
Land Rover has the same problem. The vehicles Land Rover has come out with in the past couple of years are many, many times more reliable then the vehicles they made in the mid 90s to early 2000s but they still are quirky from a design stand point.
MINI also suffers from the same fate. They have a very strange interior that some people just can't deal with and the cars ride rough because they are so short with a sport suspension. When the MINI first came out they got hammered for those perceived design flaws. The whole car is billed as a retro inspired hot hatch and you expect it to look like a Toyondaisan plus have a soft ride? :confuse:
How far is South Bend from Chicago, 2 hours-ish? To me, any excuse to go to Chicago is worth it--I once traveled from So. IN, about 5 hrs each way, to buy a new car. Stayed overnight, Lot's o' fun.
VW's......IMO, get one with plenty of warranty left, & a dealer really close by for repairs. Or lease. Or buy a toyota or subaru......instead.....
I heard that they changed their methodology after all the complaints about HUMMERS over the gas mileage dinged the ratings of the rig.
"The study captures problems experienced by owners in two distinct categories: design-related problems, and defects and malfunctions." JD Power
If MINI owners can't figure out how to use a switch, that's a "quality of life" issue and it seems reasonable to cover that in the IQS (I'd ding older Subarus for the idiotic parking light switch hidden atop the steering wheel).
Their longer term star ratings and 3 year studies focus more on stuff like the engine and drivetrain.