Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

corvette

That $22k 2012 Canyon/Colorado makes this look more palatable, although I think there was some fatal flaw with the AWD systems on those not being able to handle the power, and also, I had no idea the SS had a trim level without leather. I also like the black wheels and emblems. Of course, for that price, you could also preorder a Maverick 2.0T that would likely hang even with it in most performance measures.

corvette

Drove the Prius to the Hemlock Cliffs in Indiana this morning and went for a hike. It was kind of a pain, since I-64 westbound is completely closed. I think at least one of the tires is losing air. I aired them all up and reset the TPMS, now just need to wait a couple weeks and see whether any of them drop again. Got the tank down to a single "pip" on the gauge--supposedly it will start flashing when it's critically low, but I didn't get there--and filled up with about 9.5 gallons. I think the rated capacity is 10.9, so fairly close to empty.

ronsteve

@stickguy said:
I like those. But the engine mods scare me a bit.

Definitely not a perfect copy and a modded Subaru definitely comes with some risk. Somebody is bound to value it more highly than I will.

kyfdx

Regarding charge times for PHEVs:

My friend's RAV4 Prime charges overnight (8-10 hours) on 110v power.

His wife gets 42-47 miles on pure electric, which is just about enough to get her to work and back. She works at a local university, and I asked her if she was charging at work. She said no, because all of the charge stations are outdoors, and she can park in a covered garage.

oldfarmer50

kyfdx said:

Regarding charge times for PHEVs:

My friend's RAV4 Prime charges overnight (8-10 hours) on 110v power.

His wife gets 42-47 miles on pure electric, which is just about enough to get her to work and back. She works at a local university, and I asked her if she was charging at work. She said no, because all of the charge stations are outdoors, and she can park in a covered garage.

That’s good, the company’s Kona EV take 60 hours on 110.

corvette

That would work for me. I think I'd only need to charge up once or twice a week. Would also be a good excuse to install an exterior outlet on my house near the driveway.

jmonroe1

@ronsteve said:
So what are the odds this one gets bid up well past its real value? https://carsandbids.com/auctions/9aZP18dm/2005-subaru-legacy-25gt-limited-wagon

If it doesn't get toooo outrageous I could make it fit in my driveway.

Why?

jmonroe

28firefighter

This seems inexpensive for a low mileage,
not crazily modified S2000.

https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/d/seattle-2003-honda-s2000-clean-title/7368238384.html

explorerx4

A friend of mine sent me a link to the auction site PCarMarket.
Mostly Porsche related but some other stuff too.
https://www.pcarmarket.com/

corvette

corvette said:

...now just need to wait a couple weeks and see whether any of them drop again.

Scratch that, curiosity got the better of me and I found what appears to be a nail lodged in the right front tire. I made an appointment at Discount Tire for Friday and will have them take a look at the right rear while they are at it.

jmonroe1

@corvette said:
Scratch that, curiosity got the better of me and I found what appears to be a nail lodged in the right front tire. I made an appointment at Discount Tire for Friday and will have them take a look at the right rear while they are at it.

“While they are at it” why not see what you can flip it for? You don’t want to be seen in here as the rare bird who buys keepers, do you? You could lose your membership doing that.

jmonroe

sda

jmonroe1 said:

@corvette said:

Scratch that, curiosity got the better of me and I found what appears to be a nail lodged in the right front tire. I made an appointment at Discount Tire for Friday and will have them take a look at the right rear while they are at it.

“While they are at it” why not see what you can flip it for? You don’t want to be seen in here as the rare bird who buys keepers, do you? You could lose your membership doing that.

jmonroe

Time to flip the 15 Ginny or pay a late fee.

oldfarmer50

28firefighter said:

This seems inexpensive for a low mileage,

not crazily modified S2000.

https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/d/seattle-2003-honda-s2000-clean-title/7368238384.html

Can you imagine that a few years ago you could get into one of those for about $10k?

stickguy

I am bummed I did not get a chance to buy my BILs perfect 1st year model when he got his Cobra. Probably worth at least double what I would have paid for it. Maybe more.

plus I would have a 2nd car!

stickguy

saw an oddball today. A Subaru Baja. Dark blue, looked brand new. Had the turbo hood too. Very reminiscent of the new Santa Cruz, just more compact and less overstyled.

If Subaru made a new version I would be very interested. They missed the boat if Hyundai does well with theirs.

jmonroe1

@sda said:
Time to flip the 15 Ginny or pay a late fee.

I might do that when it hits 15K miles. Right now it has less than 12K miles. Furthermore, I’m just a visitor in here not a real member, so, I’m not even subject to dues bumps.

jmonroe

explorerx4

@stickguy,
Did you see a gen 1 Baja? *edit (1st gen was the Brat) The Baja is larger.

stickguy

Yes, the Baja. Outback with a bed. 4 door.

kyfdx

stickguy said:

Yes, the Baja. Outback with a bed. 4 door.

The turbo Baja (like most turbo Subies) is very collectible. I rarely see one, any more. My son's friend bought one with a stick, a couple of years ago. I think he still has it.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

I am bummed I did not get a chance to buy my BILs perfect 1st year model when he got his Cobra. Probably worth at least double what I would have paid for it. Maybe more.

plus I would have a 2nd car!

Maybe even a stick.

oldfarmer50

jmonroe1 said:

@sda said:

Time to flip the 15 Ginny or pay a late fee.

I might do that when it hits 15K miles. Right now it has less than 12K miles. Furthermore, I’m just a visitor in here not a real member, so, I’m not even subject to dues bumps.

jmonroe

And here I was feeling guilty because my same year Mustang hasn’t hit 15k yet.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

saw an oddball today. A Subaru Baja. Dark blue, looked brand new. Had the turbo hood too. Very reminiscent of the new Santa Cruz, just more compact and less overstyled.

If Subaru made a new version I would be very interested. They missed the boat if Hyundai does well with theirs.

But they only made those for 4 years. I wonder why they didn’t sell better.

kyfdx

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

saw an oddball today. A Subaru Baja. Dark blue, looked brand new. Had the turbo hood too. Very reminiscent of the new Santa Cruz, just more compact and less overstyled.

If Subaru made a new version I would be very interested. They missed the boat if Hyundai does well with theirs.

But they only made those for 4 years. I wonder why they didn’t sell better.

I don't think Subaru had a great reputation for reliability, at that time. Head gaskets, and all. Plus, we weren't at "peak pickup truck", yet.

stickguy

the Baja was just ahead of it's time.

qbrozen

IMHO, the Baja missed all targets. Too porky to be sporty and too small to be truly useful. As Mr Miagi said, “walk in the middle, sooner or later, squish, just like grape.”

mjfloyd1

@qbrozen said:
IMHO, the Baja missed all targets. Too porky to be sporty and too small to be truly useful. As Mr Miagi said, “walk in the middle, sooner or later, squish, just like grape.”

Do you think the Brat was more right sized?

corvette

kyfdx said:

I don't think Subaru had a great reputation for reliability, at that time. Head gaskets, and all. Plus, we weren't at "peak pickup truck", yet.

It took over a decade of bros decrying the Ridgeline and Baja as "not real trucks" before Ford finally made something similar.

stickguy

I don't think the Maverick is at all like the Baja. Even the Ridgeline. It is a traditionally styled PU. That just happens to be a unibody. They managed to do the CUV chop job while making it clearly be a PU not a CUV with a bed.

at this point I don't care what kind of frame it has, just how it functions.

explorerx4

@corvette,
Ford never said the Maverick is a real truck. It is however, something there is a market for.

nyccarguy

Anybody heard from @graphicguy lately?

roadburner

nyccarguy said:

Anybody heard from @graphicguy lately?

Not since I messaged him a while back. He was okay, just busy.

sda

What about @henryn ? He has been pretty silent.

corvette

And @mark156 ? Or @abacomike ?

corvette

Tried the Dr. Colorchip on the Prius' rear bumper. As you might expect, 15 years of being parked outside means that the touch-up is somewhat darker than the paint on the car, and the "blend" method that the touch-up kit uses doesn't work so well in that situation since you're essentially smearing the paint instead of actually blending it. I'm sure it would work better if the match were better. So, I'm using it more like a conventional touch up paint instead of trying to blend it into the rest of the panel, and it seems to work okay for that, although I'm sure it is more expensive than a conventional paint touch-up pen.

oldfarmer50

corvette said:

Tried the Dr. Colorchip on the Prius' rear bumper. As you might expect, 15 years of being parked outside means that the touch-up is somewhat darker than the paint on the car, and the "blend" method that the touch-up kit uses doesn't work so well in that situation since you're essentially smearing the paint instead of actually blending it. I'm sure it would work better if the match were better. So, I'm using it more like a conventional touch up paint instead of trying to blend it into the rest of the panel, and it seems to work okay for that, although I'm sure it is more expensive than a conventional paint touch-up pen.

You’re really going to town on that old car. I like that. It can be fun doing little improvements to an older car.

oldfarmer50

One for stickguy to hold him over until the market improves.

https://albany.craigslist.org/cto/d/glens-falls-2003-chevy-s10/7372527073.html

corvette

oldfarmer50 said:

One for stickguy to hold him over until the market improves.

I'm assuming from the equipment level and 2WD that it's the gutless 2.2 liter four banger (we had one in my family).

stickguy

cute little thing. Practical for carrying bulky stuff, as long as you don't need to tow. Slow but probably has crappy brakes and handling, so how fast do you really want to go? And at least it is better than Driver's Mercedes, it has a BU camera!

Though I would really want to know what the cheesy fender flares are covering (my guess, rust) and how bad the frame and undercarriage look like.

still pricey. I bet that 18 months ago, that was a $1,900 truck up there.

stickguy

corvette said:

oldfarmer50 said:

One for stickguy to hold him over until the market improves.

I'm assuming from the equipment level and 2WD that it's the gutless 2.2 liter four banger (we had one in my family).

at least with 2WD and the stick, you can get the most out of the little motor.

boomchek

sda said:

Browsing the local Honda dealer online sites, no surprise inventory is extremely thin. On their used car lots CPO 2019 Accord LXs are priced more than they could have been purchased for when they were new! A 2018 Accord Touring is listed for $29k. Incredible. It seems the only Honda that each dealer has a fair number of is the HR-V. I guess the HR-V is really out of favor.

We always have a few HRVs left over as well. They're the only ones that tend to be unsold every year when new ones come out. Not bad cars but when my sister was looking for a car, I recommended she lease a Subaru Crosstrek, which she did, over an HRV. More favorable lease residuals and rates = lower payments for her. So far she loves it.

ronsteve

corvette said:

oldfarmer50 said:

One for stickguy to hold him over until the market improves.

I'm assuming from the equipment level and 2WD that it's the gutless 2.2 liter four banger (we had one in my family).

Who made the mistake of asking if it could actually get worse than the Iron Duke?

au1994

Anybody bothered to check out the new Frontier and Pathfinder?

stickguy

Not in person but online reviews on YouTube were positive. Big improvements over outgoing models.

au1994

The Frontier was seemingly 20 years old but the new one definitely looks like a huge improvement.

nyccarguy

It is funny how things change. I'm sure at some point during my posts and rants over the past 20+ years at some point I said I wouldn't own a Toyota or a Pickup Truck. Well, 2 years apparently isn't enough. I called and extended my lease for 6 months (until March 17, 2022). This will also be the 1st time I have extended a lease as well.

sda

nyccarguy said:

It is funny how things change. I'm sure at some point during my posts and rants over the past 20+ years at some point I said I wouldn't own a Toyota or a Pickup Truck. Well, 2 years apparently isn't enough. I called and extended my lease for 6 months (until March 17, 2022). This will also be the 1st time I have extended a lease as well.

I have learned the hard way, 'never say never' or else..

stickguy

nyccarguy said:

It is funny how things change. I'm sure at some point during my posts and rants over the past 20+ years at some point I said I wouldn't own a Toyota or a Pickup Truck. Well, 2 years apparently isn't enough. I called and extended my lease for 6 months (until March 17, 2022). This will also be the 1st time I have extended a lease as well.

Not like you can get a replacement now. I bet a lot more people will do it if allowed.

stickguy

Stopped at Ford dealer today. Granted it was Monday morning, but man, what a morgue.

Did not learn much other than that dealer was writing orders at flat sticker, no add ons. And they hoped to get first delivery within a month. Also hybrid has been more popular so far. Orders for the 2.0t are getting picked up and scheduled a lot sooner.

I hope they remove the test drive embargo soon. Really want some driving reports before locking in a driveline!

roadburner

@au1994 said:
Anybody bothered to check out the new Frontier and Pathfinder?

I like the Frontier.
The Pathfinder is a swing and a miss for me; I miss the original which was smaller and had serious off-road capability.

28firefighter

It occurs to me that we’re in the final 10 months of the lease on the Outback. Haven’t the foggiest idea what will replace it, yet.