Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

tjc78

stickguy said:

I just had to book a cargo van (Ford Transit) to move the princess to Boston. Ended up using a Hertz HLE near me. Shockingly cheap at $52/day, unlimited miles. Was actually the cheapest vehicle they had. Sub compacts were slightly more. A minivan or SUV was close to $150/day!

Side rant: it’s easy to find that full sized van to rent. Still bigger than I need. More places should carry the baby (city) sized versions like transit connects. But those, can’t seem to find.

I had a Silverado and 5x9 trailer last weekend to bring my Golf Cart down the shore.

I was surprised even with the LDW it was $188 for the day and 170 miles (Deptford to Easthampton, Sea isle and back).

fintail

Even in the before times, that kind of thing could happen if one tried to perform a same day booking online. I recall looking up a generic rental not long ago, and seeing a premium SUV of some kind for like $800/day.

Flyertalk has many stories of empty rental car lots and lines of renters. We'll see if the execs can plan their way out of this, might be a couple months yet until tourism really picks up.

Michaell said:

$300 a day to rent a Kia Rio?

stickguy

U haul is really expensive local with their miles charge. In 2 weeks I have to get a transit in Wilmington to move princess from apartment back home. About 50 miles. It’s cheaper to rent there and drop here. Ends up being about $110 total for ~50 miles.

stickguy

I called the enterprise truck rental office to ask about transit connect sized vans. He said they only lease those out on longer term rentals. So no luck. Will just need to drive the big one and pilot around part of the north end of Boston. Hopefully it’s the Ford transit. They drive really nice.

tjc78

I rented a Penske truck for a day during our move (long story, moving company loaded/unloaded it) and it was stupid expensive compared to Uhaul.

stickguy

That’s why I was shocked how cheap Hertz was. Almost forgot to even check them. But for some odd reason, he HLE is closed Saturday and Sunday.

sda

laurasdada said:

More pix, certainly not my best work. A bit rushed:





Short trip to Kohl's, ~10 miles round trip, gas engine never kicked in. Did burn ~13 miles of electrons to drive the 10-ish.

I'll get used to the shifter, as I did the hockey puck in the Jag. But, if I had to choose, I'd go puck over Audi shifter.

Beautiful car. The profile looks fairly similar to your beloved XF. Enjoy.

oldfarmer50

tjc78 said:

I rented a Penske truck for a day during our move (long story, moving company loaded/unloaded it) and it was stupid expensive compared to Uhaul.

Years ago when I needed a box truck U haul was the cheapest for short distance local use but the equipment was in horrible shape. I got a Penske once and it was very nice but twice the cost.

oldfarmer50

fintail said:

Even in the before times, that kind of thing could happen if one tried to perform a same day booking online. I recall looking up a generic rental not long ago, and seeing a premium SUV of some kind for like $800/day.

Flyertalk has many stories of empty rental car lots and lines of renters. We'll see if the execs can plan their way out of this, might be a couple months yet until tourism really picks up.

Michaell said:

$300 a day to rent a Kia Rio?

The supply chain issues are going to have ripples across the board. Rental companies are keeping cars in service longer because they can’t get replacements. That means fewer will be sold so there’ll be a shortage of used cars on dealer lots. Prices of those that are available will rise as a result.

sda

@oldfarmer50 Do you think rental car companies will start keeping cars to 60k? That's when most powertrain warranties expire. In the past 5 years or so I have been surprised by how many rentals exceed 40k before they're released. I do understand the inventory issue.

au1994

Random question...Does the Progressive half motorcycle guy creep you out or is it just me?

28firefighter

Really nice, @laurasdada!

graphicguy

au1994 said:

Random question...Does the Progressive half motorcycle guy creep you out or is it just me?

Yeah...not sure who thought that was a good idea. Ranks up there with the whole “caveman” ads (note....good they don’t use them, anymore).

au1994

Just got an email from Costco.

1250-2000 on Audi’s

2250 on Jeep Grand Cherokee

1000 on Honda Pilot

4700 (!) on GMC Acadia

1250 on RAV 4

kyfdx

sda said:

@oldfarmer50 Do you think rental car companies will start keeping cars to 60k? That's when most powertrain warranties expire. In the past 5 years or so I have been surprised by how many rentals exceed 40k before they're released. I do understand the inventory issue.

I don't think rental car companies get warranties.

oldfarmer50

sda said:

@oldfarmer50 Do you think rental car companies will start keeping cars to 60k? That's when most powertrain warranties expire. In the past 5 years or so I have been surprised by how many rentals exceed 40k before they're released. I do understand the inventory issue.

I’ve seen some of ours go to 45k. Usually they come out of service in the mid 30s except for trucks which get sold to dealers at less than 20k. I can’t imagine they’d go 60k but who knows, these are strange times.

I’m sure they have a team of experts who calculate exactly when it’s most profitable to sell them.

oldfarmer50

kyfdx said:

sda said:

@oldfarmer50 Do you think rental car companies will start keeping cars to 60k? That's when most powertrain warranties expire. In the past 5 years or so I have been surprised by how many rentals exceed 40k before they're released. I do understand the inventory issue.

I don't think rental car companies get warranties.

We’ve brought a few cars to dealers for warranty and/or recall work so they must get something.

corvette

I've had an Enterprise rental with 59k before... It was a Camry--perhaps they keep those longer.

xwesx

oldfarmer50 said:

xwesx said:

@laurasdada

What a bummer that you bought the A7. Now I'm going to have to tone down my hate for the Audi shifter.

Oh, I mean congratulations! Pics soon!

Better get used to it, I drove a Rouge today that had the same kind of shifter.

Not this guy; I will tolerate it on a borrow, but not a buy. I'll not be owning any car with a shifter like that. I don't care that it is "classic" or "new-aged," but if it tries to pretend like it is something different than it is, that's when I take issue.

Make it however you like, but make it clean and intuitive.

tjc78

au1994 said:

Just got an email from Costco.

1250-2000 on Audi’s

2250 on Jeep Grand Cherokee

1000 on Honda Pilot

4700 (!) on GMC Acadia

1250 on RAV 4

I have to remember to sign up for Costco at the end of the year just in case something I want to lease in 2022 has the program.

I wish there was one closer to me, we only have BJs and Sam’s.

xwesx

corvette said:

I've had an Enterprise rental with 59k before... It was a Camry--perhaps they keep those longer.

Agreed; the Enterprise Santa Fe I had a couple Februarys ago was around 58,000 miles, but it was a north-of-the-border edition, so it's odometer was kilometers and was quickly closing in on 100,000. I already shared the other craziness of that particular rental. When I was at the tire shop with it, the Enterprise corporate guy was having a heck of a time believing the shop tech regarding the miles.

au1994

tjc78 said:

au1994 said:

Just got an email from Costco.

1250-2000 on Audi’s

2250 on Jeep Grand Cherokee

1000 on Honda Pilot

4700 (!) on GMC Acadia

1250 on RAV 4

I have to remember to sign up for Costco at the end of the year just in case something I want to lease in 2022 has the program.

I wish there was one closer to me, we only have BJs and Sam’s.

They frequently have some good Volvo incentives.

stickguy

tjc78 said:

au1994 said:

Just got an email from Costco.

1250-2000 on Audi’s

2250 on Jeep Grand Cherokee

1000 on Honda Pilot

4700 (!) on GMC Acadia

1250 on RAV 4

I have to remember to sign up for Costco at the end of the year just in case something I want to lease in 2022 has the program.

I wish there was one closer to me, we only have BJs and Sam’s.

Same here. Might be worth it just in case.

fintail

Years ago I had an Enterprise Galant with ~50K on it. Shockingly, it was relatively pristine - no real damage, no smells, interior looked fine. I suspect it had just been used as a short term insurance rental and seldom left town.

Back in the day I also recall an Enterprise Kia Spectra at ~20K miles that was beat to hell, really kind of sad.

My lowest mileage rental to date is still an Impala, 4 miles on it. I thought it might have been the trip odometer - nope. That was something like a $15/day Budget rental, I think.

oldfarmer50 said:

I’ve seen some of ours go to 45k. Usually they come out of service in the mid 30s except for trucks which get sold to dealers at less than 20k. I can’t imagine they’d go 60k but who knows, these are strange times.

I’m sure they have a team of experts who calculate exactly when it’s most profitable to sell them.

28firefighter

I had an opportunity to buy a 95.5 Audi S6 Wagon like my dad had when I was younger. I loved that car but passed because of the scarcity of parts for that car and the lack of people who are truly competent to work on them.

oldfarmer50

xwesx said:

corvette said:

I've had an Enterprise rental with 59k before... It was a Camry--perhaps they keep those longer.

Agreed; the Enterprise Santa Fe I had a couple Februarys ago was around 58,000 miles, but it was a north-of-the-border edition, so it's odometer was kilometers and was quickly closing in on 100,000. I already shared the other craziness of that particular rental. When I was at the tire shop with it, the Enterprise corporate guy was having a heck of a time believing the shop tech regarding the miles.

I’m surprised that they even rented a Canadian car down here. When one is returned to an office here we take it to a lot where they gather them up on a carrier and return them to Canada. I’ve never seen any in-service rental with over 50k. Long term leases are another matter. I once picked up a pick up from a construction company that had 250,000 miles and seats that looked like they were attacked by wolves.

But who knows what other districts do.

pensfan83

I've never really paid too much attention to miles on a rental car. I'm more attuned to whether it's been smoked in, stained, general condition, etc.

nyccarguy

tjc78 said:

au1994 said:

Just got an email from Costco.

1250-2000 on Audi’s

2250 on Jeep Grand Cherokee

1000 on Honda Pilot

4700 (!) on GMC Acadia

1250 on RAV 4

I have to remember to sign up for Costco at the end of the year just in case something I want to lease in 2022 has the program.

I wish there was one closer to me, we only have BJs and Sam’s.

$60 well worth it if it nets you $1000 + in incentives

fintail

Took the wagon in for Service B today, still under 15K miles (thanks covid). Lease is up almost exactly in a year, residual is 45K. Autotrader has 3 year old E wagons from 45-59K. Might not be a terrible idea just to buy this one, it's really hard to find used ones with options and colors I like, and I probably won't save any money by letting it go, either, given the used car market right now, not to mention the possible hassle of finding another lux trim car. Can't think of much out there I like more - not a fan of the "all terrain" models, and that fintail blue G550 is a little out of my price range.

Another car buying trip coming up soon, my mom is coming into a little windfall as we're selling my late grandmother's house. Most of it will go to upgrading her own house, but I'd like her to replace her aging (but still in decent condition) XV30 Camry, at least get something with more airbags, and given her age, this could be her last car. She likes a little ride height now, loves my brother in law's old Tribeca that my sister often drives (she wanted a big SUV, they got a Suburban, now she wants the smaller car). Maybe will have her look at RAV4 and CRV or HRV - I think a CH-R will be too wacky - she likes Toyotas, and she lives in a small town, so not a ton of dealers (no Stellantis at all I think, she's leery of domestics after her last one, a 3.8 Taurus).

sda

xwesx said:

oldfarmer50 said:

xwesx said:

@laurasdada

What a bummer that you bought the A7. Now I'm going to have to tone down my hate for the Audi shifter.

Oh, I mean congratulations! Pics soon!

Better get used to it, I drove a Rouge today that had the same kind of shifter.

Not this guy; I will tolerate it on a borrow, but not a buy. I'll not be owning any car with a shifter like that. I don't care that it is "classic" or "new-aged," but if it tries to pretend like it is something different than it is, that's when I take issue.

Make it however you like, but make it clean and intuitive.

Nothing but console mounted PRNDS, click, click, click "D" in our fleet.

tjc78

nyccarguy said:

tjc78 said:

au1994 said:

Just got an email from Costco.

1250-2000 on Audi’s

2250 on Jeep Grand Cherokee

1000 on Honda Pilot

4700 (!) on GMC Acadia

1250 on RAV 4

I have to remember to sign up for Costco at the end of the year just in case something I want to lease in 2022 has the program.

I wish there was one closer to me, we only have BJs and Sam’s.

$60 well worth it if it nets you $1000 + in incentives

Yeah without question. Only thing is, if I have the membership my wife will want to check out the store which is at least $300 in purchases.

au1994

pensfan83 said:

I've never really paid too much attention to miles on a rental car. I'm more attuned to whether it's been smoked in, stained, general condition, etc.

I only paid enough attention that after the recession I noticed having several in the 30k range which was high compared to pre-recession but I don’t remember the exact totals pre.

au1994

tjc78 said:

nyccarguy said:

tjc78 said:

au1994 said:

Just got an email from Costco.

1250-2000 on Audi’s

2250 on Jeep Grand Cherokee

1000 on Honda Pilot

4700 (!) on GMC Acadia

1250 on RAV 4

I have to remember to sign up for Costco at the end of the year just in case something I want to lease in 2022 has the program.

I wish there was one closer to me, we only have BJs and Sam’s.

$60 well worth it if it nets you $1000 + in incentives

Yeah without question. Only thing is, if I have the membership my wife will want to check out the store which is at least $300 in purchases.

Minimum

kyfdx

You have to take Costco incentives with a grain of salt. Some makes actually give you a separate incentive that stacks on top of any normal incentives. Others might have $3000 Costco incentive, but that's inclusive of a $2000 incentive that you'd get anyway. It's really hard to tell.

corvette

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m surprised that they even rented a Canadian car down here.

xwesx doesn't live "down here," though.

corvette

tjc78 said:

au1994 said:

Just got an email from Costco.

1250-2000 on Audi’s

2250 on Jeep Grand Cherokee

1000 on Honda Pilot

4700 (!) on GMC Acadia

1250 on RAV 4

I have to remember to sign up for Costco at the end of the year just in case something I want to lease in 2022 has the program.

I wish there was one closer to me, we only have BJs and Sam’s.

Can someone give more details on the auto program discounts? Is there a waiting period after you join before you're eligible?

tjc78

corvette said:

tjc78 said:

au1994 said:

Just got an email from Costco.

1250-2000 on Audi’s

2250 on Jeep Grand Cherokee

1000 on Honda Pilot

4700 (!) on GMC Acadia

1250 on RAV 4

I have to remember to sign up for Costco at the end of the year just in case something I want to lease in 2022 has the program.

I wish there was one closer to me, we only have BJs and Sam’s.

Can someone give more details on the auto program discounts? Is there a waiting period after you join before you're eligible?

Yes there is a waiting period but I think it varies by manufacturer.

xwesx

fintail said:

Years ago I had an Enterprise Galant with ~50K on it. Shockingly, it was relatively pristine - no real damage, no smells, interior looked fine. I suspect it had just been used as a short term insurance rental and seldom left town.

Back in the day I also recall an Enterprise Kia Spectra at ~20K miles that was beat to hell, really kind of sad.

My lowest mileage rental to date is still an Impala, 4 miles on it. I thought it might have been the trip odometer - nope. That was something like a $15/day Budget rental, I think.

A new rental! I have not had that happen yet. I've had some "basically new" ones, such as the Charger from about 18 months ago, which had fewer than 4,000 on the clock. For me, that's new, because often I will add between 2,500 and 5,500 on the ticker in the first week of ownership just to get it home.

I did have a Q3 a few years ago as a loaner. It had around 600 miles on the clock when they gave it to me, and I tripled that by the time I returned it a week later. Normally, I wouldn't consider 1,200 miles to be many at all, but in that case...

Speaking of loaners, I will have another one on Monday when I take the Q7 down to Anchorage for a warranty visit. I have yet another issue with the reductant (DEF) system wherein the car thinks it is not working properly, so it is telling me it will not restart the vehicle after another 400 miles driven. I'm not sure if I will actually make it to the dealer before I run out of distance (about 376 miles door to door with no deviations), so I'm going to need to be very careful about the reflex to just turn off the vehicle when I arrive somewhere (like a rest stop...).

Given all the sensor issues with the reductant system, I think I will likely need to just remove the system from the car once it is out of the warranty period (which is soon... another 16,000 miles). I don't want to do this, because I actually like the DEF system (most pleasant exhaust of any ICE vehicle, period), but I'm not willing to fork over thousands of dollars in "repair" costs every year or two just to nurse along a clearly-flawed system.

oldfarmer50

corvette said:

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m surprised that they even rented a Canadian car down here.

xwesx doesn't live "down here," though.

Hmmmm, maybe they do different things for Alaska but I’d still wonder why they would rent a car from a different country. There may be international laws or franchise restrictions. I do know that if a Canadian car is rented in Canada but returned to us it gets shipped back, not rented.

xwesx

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m surprised that they even rented a Canadian car down here. When one is returned to an office here we take it to a lot where they gather them up on a carrier and return them to Canada. I’ve never seen any in-service rental with over 50k. Long term leases are another matter. I once picked up a pick up from a construction company that had 250,000 miles and seats that looked like they were attacked by wolves.

But who knows what other districts do.

From what I gathered by all the surprised reactions by Enterprise personnel I dealt with after the initial pickup (this included Erie, PA, corporate office, and Columbus, OH), they were equally surprised that I had it. The Erie and Columbus folks kept asking, "where did you get this, again?" Pittsburgh International Airport. /shrugs

The vehicle itself seemed to be clean enough (save for the windshield, which had a wickedly nasty film on the outside of it), but those tires.... my god those tires. Good outcome of the experience is that I do not take the state of the tires for granted any longer! I suspect that the AWD system on the car was not working - FWD only, but it's hard to say. The traction was just so awful; I've truly never experienced anything like it, and some of my cars are/were real gems when it comes to winter driving.

xwesx

sda said:

Nothing but console mounted PRNDS, click, click, click "D" in our fleet.

In a fleet of six vehicles, I'm 50% manual, 50% PRND...L. Wait, no. The Audi has an 'S' rather than the 'L'. I can live with that.

xwesx

corvette said:

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m surprised that they even rented a Canadian car down here.

xwesx doesn't live "down here," though.

True, which is why I rent "down here!"

xwesx

It is quite true that getting out of Costco under $300 is difficult. Thankfully, there's still (typically) value in the loot for that price, and the programs they have, at least in the Executive ($120 annual) membership are fairly simple to break even on. I think that I tend to receive around $300 in their annual rebate (cash back) program, so more than enough to offset the fee. Plus, access to the fueling station is valuable here, if I'm in the gasoline vehicle and actually remember to use it when the store is open (they are not card lock when unstaffed for some strange reason).

Maybe I'll need to look into their auto program if I ever actually buy a new car again....

Sandman6472

We've put a bunch of cars that were to be sold back into the rental fleet this week. Spring break and all. But did bring a F-150 to a Ford dealer in Miami today with just about 53K on the clock. Drove like a new one to be honest!

explorerx4

Currently, we have one traditional floor shift, 2 push button types and a hockey puck.
One V8, and 3 4 Cyl turbo's.
One 4 speed, 2 6 speeds and one 10 speed transmission.

28firefighter

Took the afternoon to get the house ready for Passover. Washing and waxing all three cars counts, right?

Mystic blue family...

tjc78

28firefighter said:

Took the afternoon to get the house ready for Passover. Washing and waxing all three cars counts, right?

Mystic blue family...

Sure does!!

Looking good !

explorerx4

I'm trying Dr Color Chip on my wife's MKC tomorrow while she is out of town.

laurasdada

For the A7, I got $2k from Costco (love that place!), $2k and 0% financing from Audi. Actually, it was either $2k or 0% from Audi, but instead of the rebate, sales manager added $1k to my trade and took another $1k off their offer; that way I could take the 0%. I still didn't get the best deal I think I could have, but c'est la vie.

explorerx4

Audi could use a guy like laurasdada.
You only need to watch the first minute and a half .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KnW9_viA7Q