Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

xwesx

henryn said:

tifighter said:

Agreed @henryn

And speaking of modded 70's Fords-
1978 Ford Bronco, you won't believe this one.

I was reading the description, the Coyote V8, etc, etc, and said to myself, "Some fool sank way over $100k into this." Then I reach the part where it states "$260k in invoices", and I'm thinking he's never going to get his money back out of this. And then I see where it brought $213k at auction. Which is crazy in and of itself, but it still left the guy who "refurbished" it $47k in the hole.

There are some crazy people out there. This is almost as bad as that $20k Bugatti oil change.

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

Huh. I know everything is foolishly expensive right now, yet I still don't see anywhere near $200K in value on this. It's a cool unit, and would make a fabulous plow truck, but I dunno... maybe at $20K.

Sandman6472

Liked the Elantra GT and almost got one instead of the Tucson, probably should've done it. Parked in front of a Kona today at work and did like the size/stance so I know it'll work for my needs. Also saw a Venue Denim Edition and liked it a lot also. A few hatchbacks on the list now so looking good. Of course, the Corolla Cross still ain't out yet and it's #1 on the list. An XLE with the JBL audio and possibly a moon roof and I'll be a happy man in either a light blue or a dark maroon if they offer such a beast. And if they still have the 0% financing, it'll be the perfect storm to be honest. Think I'd pull the proverbial trigger to be honest. I know I'd be thrilled, the guys at work will cheer as they all know I really want one next time around.

cdnpinhead

There is no accounting for taste (or the lack thereof). Can't remember who to attribute that to, but it certainly seems to be the case. I wouldn't be caught dead in many of the popular vehicles today, but I'm certain that no one on the planet earth gives a . . .

xwesx

cdnpinhead said:

There is no accounting for taste (or the lack thereof). Can't remember who to attribute that to, but it certainly seems to be the case. I wouldn't be caught dead in many of the popular vehicles today, but I'm certain that no one on the planet earth gives a . . .

Still one of my favorites.

xwesx

Please humor me; my grandmother passed away this morning, so I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.

This is from the trip down to Oregon we took in October of 2007, when my daughter was a week old. I drove the 1997 F350 with my son (3) on board, pulling a 35' enclosed trailer. The rest of my squad, and my grandparents, followed in the motorhome.

28firefighter

@xwesx said:
Please humor me; my grandmother passed away this morning, so I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.

This is from the trip down to Oregon we took in October of 2007, when my daughter was a week old. I drove the 1997 F350 with my son (3) on board, pulling a 35' enclosed trailer. The rest of my squad, and my grandparents, followed in the motorhome.

So sorry for your loss, Wes. A great memory to carry with you.

tjc78

My condolences Wes. Very sorry to hear.

mjfloyd1

Sorry for your loss. Great memories for sure

mjfloyd1

@28firefighter said:
To me, the strangest thing is that most PHEVs have CVTs (I think). The 4xE is mated to an 8 speed auto both in EV mode and gas mode. I can see where if you entered the water expecting the simplicity and “smoothness” of a CVT operation, this powertrain might disappoint.

I really liked the V6 and 8 speed AT combo. I expected a Jeep / brick when I bought a Jeep. Yes, crosswinds on the interstate can be interesting but that’s what I knew would happen.

mjfloyd1

@cdnpinhead said:
There is no accounting for taste (or the lack thereof). Can't remember who to attribute that to, but it certainly seems to be the case. I wouldn't be caught dead in many of the popular vehicles today, but I'm certain that no one on the planet earth gives a . . .

That raises an important point. If you are dead, are you really caught???

Found perhaps??

mjfloyd1

Happy Independence Day! The day we freed ourselves from taxation without representation.

Oh, that’s happening again. Never mind.

sda

@xwesx , Very sorry to learn Wes. My condolences to you and your family.

au1994

Sorry for your loss.

mjfloyd1

Great Budweiser ad

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqu57JYp9zg

kyfdx

tifighter said:

mjfloyd1 said:

@kyfdx said:

I think you are correct.

It must be a love child-

Yeah... that's weird.

mjfloyd1

@kyfdx said:

Really weird low rider ‘Murican fusion

roadburner

@28firefighter said:
To me, the strangest thing is that most PHEVs have CVTs (I think). The 4xE is mated to an 8 speed auto both in EV mode and gas mode. I can see where if you entered the water expecting the simplicity and “smoothness” of a CVT operation, this powertrain might disappoint.

That’s why I like the BMW PHEVs- they also get the ZF 8HP. A CVT eliminates a vehicle from my consideration.

roadburner

@xwesx said:
Please humor me; my grandmother passed away this morning, so I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.

This is from the trip down to Oregon we took in October of 2007, when my daughter was a week old. I drove the 1997 F350 with my son (3) on board, pulling a 35' enclosed trailer. The rest of my squad, and my grandparents, followed in the motorhome.

So sorry.

oldfarmer50

xwesx said:

Please humor me; my grandmother passed away this morning, so I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.

This is from the trip down to Oregon we took in October of 2007, when my daughter was a week old. I drove the 1997 F350 with my son (3) on board, pulling a 35' enclosed trailer. The rest of my squad, and my grandparents, followed in the motorhome.

Sorry for your loss.

ab348

xwesx said:

Please humor me; my grandmother passed away this morning, so I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.

My condolences, @xwesx.

henryn

xwesx said:

Please humor me; my grandmother passed away this morning, so I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.

This is from the trip down to Oregon we took in October of 2007, when my daughter was a week old. I drove the 1997 F350 with my son (3) on board, pulling a 35' enclosed trailer. The rest of my squad, and my grandparents, followed in the motorhome.

My condolences as well.

henryn

mjfloyd1 said:

Great Budweiser ad

Thanks for sharing. I watch very little commercial TV, so I had not seen that ad. Budweiser has a history of making some great ads, and this is one of their best.

fintail

Condolences, sounds like you had some good times, remember those! Having lost mine in October, I know she'd want it that way.

xwesx said:

Please humor me; my grandmother passed away this morning, so I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.

This is from the trip down to Oregon we took in October of 2007, when my daughter was a week old. I drove the 1997 F350 with my son (3) on board, pulling a 35' enclosed trailer. The rest of my squad, and my grandparents, followed in the motorhome.

fintail

Another family punch, this one kind of from left field. My uncle had been driving a Taurus (03, Vulcan) he took over from my grandma when she stopped driving - he had a LeSabre he really liked, but it was getting miled up, and the Taurus was a low mileage little old lady car. For free, why not. Taurus is aging and well over 100K miles now, he got bored and replaced it with a 2012 Honda Fit, apparently a 50K mile one prior owner car per my brother, local car, still has window sticker etc. Not sure of the trim level. Apparently my uncle thinks it is a neat little car, and he likes the interior room - he wanted something of that size/shape but wanted to avoid a CVT. Apparently he paid a little over 10K for it - wacky vs original MSRP (but these days likely a reasonable price given condition and mileage).

breld

@xwesx - sorry for your loss. Thanks for sharing the great picture and story.

nyccarguy

@xwesx - I’m so sorry to hear about your grandmother.

Sandman6472

+1...sorry to hear of your loss. Grandparents are truly a wonderful gift in life, unconditional love and get to spoil their grandkids. What's there not to love!

Sandman6472

Looking like we're going to miss a major it, thank G-d! We'll get some winds and rains for sure, but it could've been so much worse, so we're very pleased. Work will go on I'm thinking, definitely tomorrow and most likely Tuesday. And if it does get too nasty, they can always bring us in a bit early just to be sure. That's Florida during this time of year, always on the lookout for storms to come at us. Looks to be an active year but hoping the U S is spared any major hits!
Thanks again G-d for keeping us out of harms way...again!

xwesx

@Sandman6472 It's like staring down the barrels of a double shotgun with only one side loaded... "please pull the left trigger, please pull the left trigger..."

ab348

fintail said:

Taurus is aging and well over 100K miles now, he got bored and replaced it with a 2012 Honda Fit, apparently a 50K mile one prior owner car per my brother, local car, still has window sticker etc. Not sure of the trim level. Apparently my uncle thinks it is a neat little car, and he likes the interior room - he wanted something of that size/shape but wanted to avoid a CVT.

Doesn't the Fit have a CVT?

henryn

ab348 said:

fintail said:

Taurus is aging and well over 100K miles now, he got bored and replaced it with a 2012 Honda Fit, apparently a 50K mile one prior owner car per my brother, local car, still has window sticker etc. Not sure of the trim level. Apparently my uncle thinks it is a neat little car, and he likes the interior room - he wanted something of that size/shape but wanted to avoid a CVT.

Doesn't the Fit have a CVT?

https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/honda/fit/2012

Reviewers said the 2012 Honda Fit’s four-cylinder engine feels lively around town, but that the Fit can be slow to accelerate and pass other vehicles on the highway. Test drivers said the standard five-speed manual transmission is fun to shift and makes the best use of the engine’s power. However, the Fit feels less peppy with the available five-speed automatic transmission, they added.

corvette

ab348 said:

fintail said:

Taurus is aging and well over 100K miles now, he got bored and replaced it with a 2012 Honda Fit, apparently a 50K mile one prior owner car per my brother, local car, still has window sticker etc. Not sure of the trim level. Apparently my uncle thinks it is a neat little car, and he likes the interior room - he wanted something of that size/shape but wanted to avoid a CVT.

Doesn't the Fit have a CVT?

I think the new ones do, but the first couple of generations sold in the US had a five speed auto.

corvette

@xwesx sorry to hear of the loss of your grandmother. I have great memories of both of mine!

benjaminh

The guy from test driven tv has ordered a base Maverick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at7Fau8zrCQ

PS Thanks @xwesx for sharing that picture and memory. Interesting how many of our family memories involve cars in some way.

henryn

benjaminh said:

The guy from test driven tv has ordered a base Maverick.

If I knew that I would fit, I would place an order myself. If the blinkin' thing comes in by September or October, even if you didn't like it you could probably sell it for very little (if any) loss. I'm not thinking "flip it for a profit", just get out from under with a minimal loss.

But first things first -- will I fit? I've learned the hard way that manufacturer's numbers for head room, leg room, hip room don't mean anything.

And so I will wait.

xwesx

henryn said:

If I knew that I would fit, I would place an order myself. If the blinkin' thing comes in by September or October, even if you didn't like it you could probably sell it for very little (if any) loss. I'm not thinking "flip it for a profit", just get out from under with a minimal loss.

But first things first -- will I fit? I've learned the hard way that manufacturer's numbers for head room, leg room, hip room don't mean anything.

And so I will wait.

It's almost surprising how much wiggle room there is for fudging those numbers way beyond what's practical.

henryn

Just for grins, I had a look at the Ford website ordering process for the Maverick. I was unable to resist two options, "Trailer Hitch Receiver with 4-pin Connector" for $100, and "Full Size Spare Tire" for $115. If I'm remembering correctly, the towing capacity is only 2,000 lbs with that hybrid engine, but $100 for the receiver and the wiring is not something I would pass up. And who in their right mind would pass up a full size spare tire for $115.



Now if you can find a dealer to actually place the order, one who won't add $2k in mop-n-glo, this wouldn't be half bad.

fintail

First two gens don't, I think.

Uncle also wanted a timing chain vs timing belt, surprisingly (to me), the car is a timing chain engine.

Funny to me that a 70 year old guy who has driven only American cars for nearly the past 40 years made such a choice, but I am sure the car will be fine. Also fun that a 9 year old small car sold for probably 2/3 of its original MSRP, but 10K is the new 7K at least.

ab348 said:

fintail said:

Taurus is aging and well over 100K miles now, he got bored and replaced it with a 2012 Honda Fit, apparently a 50K mile one prior owner car per my brother, local car, still has window sticker etc. Not sure of the trim level. Apparently my uncle thinks it is a neat little car, and he likes the interior room - he wanted something of that size/shape but wanted to avoid a CVT.

Doesn't the Fit have a CVT?

fintail

I wonder what kind of ADM they will see once those hit the lots. 5K?

henryn said:

Just for grins, I had a look at the Ford website ordering process for the Maverick. I was unable to resist two options, "Trailer Hitch Receiver with 4-pin Connector" for $100, and "Full Size Spare Tire" for $115. If I'm remembering correctly, the towing capacity is only 2,000 lbs with that hybrid engine, but $100 for the receiver and the wiring is not something I would pass up. And who in their right mind would pass up a full size spare tire for $115.


Now if you can find a dealer to actually place the order, one who won't add $2k in mop-n-glo, this wouldn't be half bad.

sda

I noticed today when I was walking a Honda lot they modified their sticker addendum fro m showing market adjustment to including the mark up into the mop and glow addendum, $1999, all add ones priced up. I guess that is less offensive?

mjfloyd1

They tried to gig me with $1199 ceramic coating on the Q7. He didn’t hesitate to take it off

jmonroe1

Michaell said:

Didn’t you read his first post? $10k over his self-imposed budget.

So what’s the problem? It ain’t our money.

jmonroe

benjaminh

I'll correct my guess about the new Maverick hybrid taking more than 9 seconds to go 0-60. The base Maverick weighs about 3600 pounds, but so does the new Sonata Hybrid with similar power, and the Sonata hybrid gets from 0-60 in 8.1 seconds.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a36830653/2021-hyundai-sonata-hybrid-limited-by-the-numbers/

That's a bit slow these days, but probably okay. If you go back about to a 1995 BMW 318i the 0-60 time on that was 8.7 seconds.

https://www.zeroto60times.com/vehicle-make/bmw-0-60-mph-times/

Even back in the 1990s that was on the slow side, but the bottom line is that the bargain Maverick produced in Mexico should have performance that's good enough. And even at full msrp it seems like a really good deal. Production on the new Maverick is expected to begin in August, but it seems like every one of them is going to be pre-sold for probably a few months at least.

https://www.motor1.com/news/515446/ford-maverick-production-start-rumor/

henryn

fintail said:

I wonder what kind of ADM they will see once those hit the lots. 5K?

henryn said:

Just for grins, I had a look at the Ford website ordering process for the Maverick. I was unable to resist two options, "Trailer Hitch Receiver with 4-pin Connector" for $100, and "Full Size Spare Tire" for $115. If I'm remembering correctly, the towing capacity is only 2,000 lbs with that hybrid engine, but $100 for the receiver and the wiring is not something I would pass up. And who in their right mind would pass up a full size spare tire for $115.


Now if you can find a dealer to actually place the order, one who won't add $2k in mop-n-glo, this wouldn't be half bad.

In the youtube video posted above by @benjaminh, the guy found a dealer who promised no add-ons. I suspect the first few that show up this fall will have some serious mark ups.

xwesx

fintail said:

First two gens don't, I think.

Uncle also wanted a timing chain vs timing belt, surprisingly (to me), the car is a timing chain engine.

Funny to me that a 70 year old guy who has driven only American cars for nearly the past 40 years made such a choice, but I am sure the car will be fine. Also fun that a 9 year old small car sold for probably 2/3 of its original MSRP, but 10K is the new 7K at least.

Well, considering the pricing on everything these days, you're likely correct there.

In trying to get things set up for the funeral in Anchorage, I was looking at both hotels and rental cars. Hotels are demanding ~300 per night, and rental cars are even higher (daily -- if you can even find one!). It's completely nuts.

mjfloyd1

Again, sorry for your loss

Our rental would have been $186 per day. They had an agreement with the insurance company for $30 per day.

We stayed in Lafayette IN last night after picking up youngest daughter from YMCA Camp Tecumseh and it was $124 / night with AAA.

Camp T is so awesome. It is her last year and she is a torchbearer. Perhaps she will be a CILT next year - camper in leadership training.

mjfloyd1

I sent an email to the adjuster on the Q7 again asking for Monroney labels on the comps.

I told him that the comps were either not available or did not have the options that the company said except one that was offered for $61400. After their deductions, it was $53k.

I told them to send the Monroney labels or be reasonable or begin arbitration.

Hopefully he gets the hint

I did return the rental because I knew the new Q7 was coming. Driver was from the same county that I grew up in. I was surprised when a semi showed up and met him in the cul de sac.

corvette

fintail said:

Uncle also wanted a timing chain vs timing belt, surprisingly (to me), the car is a timing chain engine.

All of Honda's four bangers have had a timing chain for quite some time. I want to say early 2000s, at the latest. They still use a belt on the V6.

benjaminh

More on the Maverick from KBB....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcCIa8gcSn8

henryn

benjaminh said:

More on the Maverick from KBB....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcCIa8gcSn8

Twerps. Complete twerps, clueless and annoying. At 2:05, the dingy woman talks about a 12 volt electrical outlet while showing a 110V outlet. The man spends a lot of time showing how well he fits in the front and rear seats, but he never gives us a clue as to his size. If he’s 5’4”, I’ll bet he fits in about anything including a shoebox.