Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

stickguy

Yowzers Tom. Too close for comfort. I just watched the NBC news report from the Mullica Hill neighborhood that got hit. Big houses just knocked to kindling. I have seen that in places like Kansas but never around here.

stickguy

benjaminh said:

stickguy said:

still not sure what, but I really am Jonesing for another car now. About to be 1 year since I turned in the TLX (did not expect to go this long!)

watching all the crazy weather (we are currently on the edge of a Tornado warning since one is on the ground about 10 miles away) makes me wonder if the car shortages are going to get even worse soon.

Need to just find something and bite the bullet. Probably safer to lease and just pay a little more each month. That might bother me less than overpaying for a used car to have temporarily that will crater in value when I go to replace it with something I really want.

actually, I would not spend more. Just find a cheaper car. So instead of leasing a (for example) $40K car for $400/month (ah, the old days!) will just find a still nice $30K car for the same $400. So pay the same for what I "need" instead of what I "want"

Now that leases have gone up too, maybe you should instead see if you can lock down Ford's 0% for 36 months on a Maverick? A Maverick at 0% sounds like a good deal to me on a very functional vehicle. Ford seems to do a great job on their trucks.

I think that you just reserve the car. Any incentives including financing rates and lease terms are whatever they offer when it shows up.

tjc78

@stickguy said:
Yowzers Tom. Too close for comfort. I just watched the NBC news report from the Mullica Hill neighborhood that got hit. Big houses just knocked to kindling. I have seen that in places like Kansas but never around here.

Yeah, I can’t believe the pictures. Downtown Wenonah got slammed too.

Right now in Wildwood it’s rockin pretty good.. crazy weather day in NJ.

corvette

We do a decent amount of business in Louisiana, and got a report that parts of NOLA could be without power for a month and Baton Rouge up to a week. No idea whether that's true, but wow!

stickguy

some of the pictures coming out already are pretty nasty. Should be interesting tomorrow when the rain is all cleared out and the sun comes up, so you can really see what happened. Luckily my neighborhood was just on the fringes so I think we got maybe 3" of rain but not expecting to find much more than some extra leaves in the pool.

qbrozen

We spent a couple of hours in the basement. I don’t think anything happened outside but I guess I’ll know for sure in the morn.

28firefighter

My brother in the Philly suburbs spent 2 hours in the basement tonight. My parents yard was totally under water this afternoon. Crazy. Glad our beach trip was last week and this week.

roadburner

The G42 2er Configurator is now live at BMW USA. Assuming that xDrive adds $2,000 to the bottom line, "my" RWD M240i would have an MSRP of $58,245. The Configurator doesn't show a sunroof delete option, but I'd hope it would be a possibility, as that option is available on the 230i.

andres3

Sensible CA speed limits are under attack from the Zero Vision crowd:

AB43

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB43&showamends=false

It's entertaining to see all the extra language about arbitrarily and subjectively being able to ignore the 85th percentile for various reasons, largely readily apparent reasons, and some don't make any sense at all, but they were meticulous in which direction the 85th percentile could be "overruled" and that's in one direction only; downward. Heaven forbid an engineer should find the 85th too low to be reasonable; that's not mentioned in the new proposed law at all.

Worst new feature of AB-43? Has to be the "lets bury our heads in the sand" and only require a Traffic & Engineering Survey every 14 years, because more data and credibility isn't the purpose, now is it?

andres3

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2021/08/speeders-should-not-set-speed-limits/

Idiots in Government wrote that article it looks like.

My favorite part? Besides the title of the article which shows ignorance of how the 85th percentile method works? In trying to bash the 85th percentile method of setting speed limits, this line:

"This is like setting your teenager’s curfew, but changing it each night based on when they get home."

An interesting analogy, because the Traffic & Engineering Survey the 85th percentile is based upon is only required once every 10 years per current statute and law. The assembly bill they are promoting wants to make it every 14 years. So I have to ask, how is once every 10 or 14 years similar to your teenager coming home each night for curfew? One happens with a frequency of daily, the other less than once per decade.

benjaminh

When I was driving in Texas a while ago for work, I did enjoy the 75 mph speed limit found on many interstates there. Guessing that tickets weren't going to be handed out unless you were going more than 5 above the limit, we would cruise at about 80 and make some real distance in a pretty short period of time. A fair number were going 85 or even higher, and so most of the time we weren't in the left lane. In good weather on a well-maintained Interstate with moderate traffic 80 seemed good to me, and in fact on some Interstates in Texas the speed limit apparently is 80—and in a few places even 85.

au1994

Scary weather. Glad everyone is safe!

stickguy

Based on that logic, the speed limit on the NJ turnpike or I295 is 80!

xwesx

stickguy said:

The Audi can tow something that big? Good luck. Also looks like you need a drop hitch since it isn’t level.

It actually is level... almost perfectly so. I think the shadows or perhaps the ground variation makes it look off.

The factory said ideal tow height is 14-16". I bought a straight bar for the ball, which puts it at 16" knowing that once I load the car/trailer, it will sit a couple inches lower (and hopefully not more than that!).

And, it has no problem towing it at all in terms of power. I ran I77 through the heart of Appalachia and it rolled up the hills without missing a beat. I was a little disappointed, actually, as I was hoping the EGR would act up again with the extra stress. Nope; it was perfectly fine.

Sandman6472

NY, the Accent is the newest vehicle with just under 7K on the clock. I won't be driving as I'll probably be put in the backseat with the girls up front. It's o k with me actually since all I do is drive, it'll be a nice change to be driven. There's also still a chance I might just take the Golf and go up a day early. That way, I'd be able to give the Golf to my son & daughter-in-law to use for those few days. But there's no real plan set yet as we're a bit too far out. And if the Covid cases continue to rise here in Florida, the kids in Chicago won't be coming down anyways. My son was born with that heart issue & though he's been patched up, he still has to be careful health wise. And there's no way we want him to make a bad decision here that could be life threatening.
But as of now, the Accent will be the vehicle that we drive up.

corvette

benjaminh said:

...on some Interstates in Texas the speed limit apparently is 80—and in a few places even 85.

Yeah, the toll road from Austin to San Antonio is 85 (and almost no traffic, when I drove it). I was renting an Xterra and Nissan's cruise control won't set a speed higher than 89, so that's what I drove. My rental also had an annoying vibration at speeds higher than that.

Parts of the Dakotas had 80-85 MPH speed limits. There was more traffic and quite a few people who just park in the left lane and/or do a "cruise control pass" where they end up more or less matching the speed of the car alongside them for a mile or more. Very annoying.

xwesx

au1994 said:

Scary weather. Glad everyone is safe!

From CNN:

"Wednesday was the rainiest day on record for Newark, New Jersey, by a large margin, with 8.41 inches of rain recorded. That's nearly 25% above the previous record, set in 1977.

In New York City, more rain fell in a single hour (3.15 inches) than at any point in the city's weather records, which go back to the 1800s. New York's Central Park recorded 7.13 inches of rain, nearly doubling the previous record set in 1927 for the same date, the National Weather Service New York reported.

New York City's flash flood emergency status is the first issued in its history."

rayainsw

My brother lives between DC and Annapolis.
Tornado touchdown within 5 miles when I called him last night.
But all OK.
- Ray
Not seen one since I lived in Oklahoma...

ab348

xwesx said:

In New York City, more rain fell in a single hour (3.15 inches) than at any point in the city's weather records, which go back to the 1800s. New York's Central Park recorded 7.13 inches of rain, nearly doubling the previous record set in 1927 for the same date, the National Weather Service New York reported.

New York City's flash flood emergency status is the first issued in its history."

That must have been later in the day. I took a look at some NYC webcams mid-afternoon and it looked as though the streets were still dry. That is a LOT of rain for sure.

Michaell

And yet, the west is suffering through a 20 year drought, and the water from the Colorado River will have to be rationed more than ever before ...

sda

Michaell said:

And yet, the west is suffering through a 20 year drought, and the water from the Colorado River will have to be rationed more than ever before ...

It is certainly one extreme or the other.

stickguy

So many flooded cars

A ridiculously tight car market is about to get a lot worse. At least until the flood cars dry out a little!

28firefighter

I figured the best cure for my Camaro desire was to drive the ZHP to work today. I was right. Third gear above 3500 rpm is allll smiles getting on the highway.

sda

28firefighter said:

I figured the best cure for my Camaro desire was to drive the ZHP to work today. I was right. Third gear above 3500 rpm is allll smiles getting on the highway.

I thought you sold the ZHP. Glad you enjoy it, sounds fun. I miss having a car with a manual transmission and power under the hood.

28firefighter

Still have it! Coming up on two years with it.

au1994

stickguy said:

So many flooded cars

A ridiculously tight car market is about to get a lot worse. At least until the flood cars dry out a little!

I thought about that. I’d be extremely careful buying used for a while no matter what part of the country you are in. It’s going to be so many cars that I don’t think Carfax will be able to keep up.

qbrozen

Wonder if I can get a flood golf cart on the cheap. ;b

corvette

qbrozen said:

Wonder if I can get a flood golf cart on the cheap. ;b

"Fresh water, didn't go over the floorboard. Batteries never shorted out. NO LOW BALLS, I know what I got!"

stickguy

I may never get another car at this pace.

benjaminh

But think of how much you'll save if you wait until 2023 lol!

You've been brave to save so much already by giving up having a car, but at this point some good opportunities have seemingly slipped through your fingers. Given the high prices now for everything I wonder what you might be able to get that you'd actually like. Any specials on the rodo lease app today?

mjfloyd1

I put the 4xe into Vroom for an estimate- $57230 MSRP and they offer $50000 so I’d make about $5000.

stickguy

benjaminh said:

But think of how much you'll save if you wait until 2023 lol!

You've been brave to save so much already by giving up having a car, but at this point some good opportunities have seemingly slipped through your fingers. Given the high prices now for everything I wonder what you might be able to get that you'd actually like. Any specials on the rodo lease app today?

Not that I could find. Chatted with wife, and right now, just buying something in the 20-25k range (new or slightly used) might just make more sense.

benjaminh

What's available for 20-25k that you like?

In normal times my guess is that most of us here could get a better deal on our own than by using a buying service. But in these strange times with very few cars on the ground I personally would use a buying service like Costco. Even today I don't think dealers want to annoy Costco or Costco customers, and so the experience might be nicer too. Just a thought.

Michaell

benjaminh said:

What's available for 20-25k that you like?

In normal times my guess is that most of us here could get a better deal on our own than by using a buying service. But in these strange times with very few cars on the ground I personally would use a buying service like Costco. Even today I don't think dealers want to annoy Costco or Costco customers, and so the experience might be nicer too. Just a thought.

My sister and I looked at and test drove an NX F-Sport a couple weeks ago in San Diego. I think the one we looked at had an MSRP of $42K.

stickguy

Well, I would have had to get a Costco membership for that!

I think you need it for at least a month in advance?

I might just order some Maverick today. Just for kicks. Probably the hybrid.

stickguy

Oh, but keep looking still of course.

And one $25k car I will look at is a bmw 3 series. Why not!

corvette

stickguy said:

I might just order some Maverick today. Just for kicks. Probably the hybrid.

Some? Like more than one?

I really like the multi-colored interior on the XLT.

benjaminh

stickguy said:

Well, I would have had to get a Costco membership for that!

I think you need it for at least a month in advance?

I might just order some Maverick today. Just for kicks. Probably the hybrid.

I think you can use their car buying service right away if you join Costco. Probably that day. You'll get a membership number the first day, and you'd give that number to their service.

I resisted Costco for decades, although I'm not sure why. In any case, until one opened up near me about four years ago there didn't seem much point, and I did join 6 months or so after it opened. Anyway, after finally giving in, I feel like it's as good as everyone says. Great quality. Great prices. Good service. Clean. Nice employees. Etc.

And it literally pays for itself if you get the Executive membership, which includes a credit card. It's a rebate card with the following benefits:

4% cash back on the first $7,000 spent per year on eligible gas purchases and 1% cash back thereafter.
3% cash back at restaurants and on eligible travel expenses.
2% cash back on Costco and Costco.com purchases.
1% cash back on non-bonus-category purchases.

Last year on a middle-class income we earned about $500 with our card, which obviously more than pays for the $120 membership. They send you a check for for this, and sometimes cash you out with crisp $50 bills. I guess I've never had a reward card like that before, because it seems almost like magic each year when this happens lol.

But putting in an order for a new Maverick also makes sense, I think. The two obviously aren't mutually exclusive. I'd probably do both lol!

stickguy

Already contacted a Costco affiliate Ford dealer. Waiting to see how they handle the Maverick.

breld

Our Model Y is supposed to available for delivery next week.

We're waiting on Tesla for a trade value on the MINI, but hit up Carvana and Vroom already.

Carvana was a fairly disappointing $28,873, while Vroom went all in at $32,263! I'm still shocked at the disparity sometimes between these two major online retailers.

Vroom's offer is about $700 less than we paid for it (from Carvana) last November.

It'd be nice if Tesla came through with a comparable offer (taking into account the sales tax savings on the trade), but I'm not holding my breath.

stickguy

Been meaning to visit Costco. We already have a BJs membership, and Costco isn’t very convenient. But might be worth it for basic!

breld

roadburner said:

The G42 2er Configurator is now live at BMW USA. Assuming that xDrive adds $2,000 to the bottom line, "my" RWD M240i would have an MSRP of $58,245. The Configurator doesn't show a sunroof delete option, but I'd hope it would be a possibility, as that option is available on the 230i.

Thanks for the heads up. I just went through the configurator myself...so you checked every single box for packages and options, huh?

stickguy

Turns out Costco doesn’t cover the Maverick. So no reason to run over and sign up!

benjaminh

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2021/09/gm-halts-production-at-nearly-all-u-s-plants-chip-shortage-to-blame/

"GM Halts Production at Nearly All U.S. Plants, Chip Shortage to Blame
By Tim Healey on September 2, 2021

“During the downtime, we will repair and ship unfinished vehicles from many impacted plants, including Fort Wayne and Silao, to dealers to help meet the strong customer demand for our products,” Flores told the paper. “Although the situation remains complex and very fluid, we remain confident in our team’s ability to continue finding creative solutions to minimize the impact on our highest-demand and capacity-constrained vehicles.”

benjaminh

stickguy said:

Turns out Costco doesn’t cover the Maverick. So no reason to run over and sign up!

And since you have a membership in another discount place that's closer, a Costco membership also doesn't seem needed on that level.

Makes sense that a vehicle that's not yet on sale wouldn't be included.

roadburner

@breld said:
Thanks for the heads up. I just went through the configurator myself...so you checked every single box for packages and options, huh?

Pretty much; I thought that might as well go first class as I’d be keeping it a while.
If you delete the sunroof on the 230i you get $800 back; I doubt that benefit accrues to the M240i.

breld

roadburner said:

@breld said:

Thanks for the heads up. I just went through the configurator myself...so you checked every single box for packages and options, huh?

Pretty much; I thought that might as well go first class as I’d be keeping it a while.

If you delete the sunroof on the 230i you get $800 back; I doubt that benefit accrues to the M240i.

Let's just hope you have the option to delete the sunroof at all. You think BMW is figuring it goes hand in hand with RWD (i.e., enthusiast-oriented vehicle)?

mjfloyd1

Dealer says second (white) 4xe is in transit to dealership. Should be there soon as it is only 3 hours from the factory

oldfarmer50

tjc78 said:

My house is the one with the swing set in the yard. In the video you can see the funnel rotating.

Wow! I hope you’re ok although as I say that I realize you either are or can’t respond.

oldfarmer50

roadburner said:

The G42 2er Configurator is now live at BMW USA. Assuming that xDrive adds $2,000 to the bottom line, "my" RWD M240i would have an MSRP of $58,245. The Configurator doesn't show a sunroof delete option, but I'd hope it would be a possibility, as that option is available on the 230i.

It’s kind of like waiting to open up Christmas presents isn’t it? Get what you want if you can afford it. Especially if it’s that copper/gold color.