Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

Oh, but keep looking still of course.

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

Here you go. Except for the $25k sticker and the self rowing gears.

https://www.enterprisecarsales.com/list/buy-a-car/vehicle/WBA8Z9C56JG828399/Used-2018-BMW-3-Series-Allentown-PA

stickguy

and the color combo, miles and being a rental!

Sandman6472

Drove an EV Polestar at work yesterday. Took a couple of seconds to get used to an EV again but was sure a lot of fun!

nyccarguy

Hey guys. The creek behind my house overflowed, my back yard became a lake and water came rushing into my basement. At its highest point, the water was up to my knees. My family and I are safe and healthy, but I’m not in a good place. Since the water came in from outside the house, insurance won’t cover the damage to my fully finished basement. Even if I had flood insurance (I don’t because I don’t live on a flood plain), it would only cover the basic mechanicals of the house (boiler/ water heater. My wife and I removed 75% of the carpeting & padding. I loaded all the carpet into my truck. I’ll have to make a separate run for the padding, then the furniture.

benjaminh

@nyccarguy

Hang in there!

stickguy

Bradd, that sucks. Was it just stuff and furniture/rugs, or did you lose mechanical stuff too?

I have learned to dislike basements. I was talking to a RE agent today about plans to list this place, and we actually discussed not wanting a basement (but more in terms of preventing hoarding), but worrying about water issues is the other big reason. Though not finishing it helps with that I guess.

Cut the wet drywall out (if you used it) before it sucks the water up.

definitely sucks to do all that work and spend the money to have it ruined. But most important is that everybody is fine.

sda

@nyccarguy So sorry to learn. Ida was an incredibly destructive storm. Glad your family is ok and wish you the best.

jmonroe1

@nyccarguy, man, that’s enough to take the wind out of your sales for sure. Here’s hoping it can be redone without it hurting you car budget too much.

Good to hear the family was not harmed by this.

jmonroe

tjc78

That’s just terrible NYC, so sorry to hear. First the AC and now this.

qbrozen

@nyccarguy said:
Hey guys. The creek behind my house overflowed, my back yard became a lake and water came rushing into my basement. At its highest point, the water was up to my knees. My family and I are safe and healthy, but I’m not in a good place. Since the water came in from outside the house, insurance won’t cover the damage to my fully finished basement. Even if I had flood insurance (I don’t because I don’t live on a flood plain), it would only cover the basic mechanicals of the house (boiler/ water heater. My wife and I removed 75% of the carpeting & padding. I loaded all the carpet into my truck. I’ll have to make a separate run for the padding, then the furniture.

Sorry to hear it. Just keep saying “it is only stuff.”
How high did the creek have to rise to do that? Kind of sounds like the house should never have had a basement.

benjaminh

stickguy: Seems unlikely at this point that even with an order for a new Maverick that you'd get it any time soon. But since you said that the 2.0T is less popular, I wonder if that might be the one to try for? You said you're not looking for fast and powerful vehicle, but if you had one maybe you'd enjoy that once in a while?

au1994

Sorry about the damage @nyccarguy. Strip the drywall as noted but I would not hesitate to call in a pro to help with the extraction. The last thing you want is hidden mold.

oldfarmer50

Sandman6472 said:

Drove an EV Polestar at work yesterday. Took a couple of seconds to get used to an EV again but was sure a lot of fun!

Hey Sandy, I worked with a new guy yesterday who spends his winters down in your area and who is an ex mail carrier. I guess driving rental cars is an ambition of many postal workers.

kyfdx

@nyccarguy

Really sorry to hear this. I agree with @au1994 . Get a pro in there, ASAP, to at least tell you what needs to be done.

oldfarmer50

nyccarguy said:

Hey guys. The creek behind my house overflowed, my back yard became a lake and water came rushing into my basement. At its highest point, the water was up to my knees. My family and I are safe and healthy, but I’m not in a good place. Since the water came in from outside the house, insurance won’t cover the damage to my fully finished basement. Even if I had flood insurance (I don’t because I don’t live on a flood plain), it would only cover the basic mechanicals of the house (boiler/ water heater. My wife and I removed 75% of the carpeting & padding. I loaded all the carpet into my truck. I’ll have to make a separate run for the padding, then the furniture.

Sorry to hear that.

sb55

nyccarguy said:

Hey guys. The creek behind my house overflowed, my back yard became a lake and water came rushing into my basement. At its highest point, the water was up to my knees. My family and I are safe and healthy, but I’m not in a good place. Since the water came in from outside the house, insurance won’t cover the damage to my fully finished basement. Even if I had flood insurance (I don’t because I don’t live on a flood plain), it would only cover the basic mechanicals of the house (boiler/ water heater. My wife and I removed 75% of the carpeting & padding. I loaded all the carpet into my truck. I’ll have to make a separate run for the padding, then the furniture.

OH NO! Hopefully FEMA (or some other gov't agency) will supplant insurance and take over. Are you on well/septic? If so, how did that fare?

breld

@nyccarguy - so so sorry to hear that. But happy you and the family are okay.

mjfloyd1

Sorry to hear about your water issues @nyccarguy Hopefully you can get it dried out quick! Sounds like a headache and a lot of work.

On the bright side, as others have mentioned, you and your family are safe and healthy.

Michaell

@nyccarguy - as others have said, so sorry for this. No advice to give, but happy the family came through OK.

xwesx

nyccarguy said:

Hey guys. The creek behind my house overflowed, my back yard became a lake and water came rushing into my basement.

That's rough, Bradd. Basements are always the first casualty when water is involved.

How did everything else fare? Any damage to your garage, cars, new AC system, etc? As others have said, at least your family is okay. Good luck getting the basement cleared out!

28firefighter

So sorry, @nyccarguy . Brutal. Hang in there.

rayainsw

"I’m not in a good place. " - nyccarguy
Add my sincere condolences.
Really sucks - but glad you are otherwise OK.
- Ray
Sorry - really...

stickguy

Interesting now that I am “older and wiser” (or at least one of those) my criteria for looking at new houses since we are shopping has evolved. I don’t want to be anywhere near water, or in a low lying area.

corvette

Checked out the Toyota lease broker in PA… Mid-range Tundras seem to be leasing in the $5-600 range and Tacomas in the 400s. He had one RAV4 Prime available for sale at $2,500 over the $50k MSRP. Strange times, indeed.

coldinohio

ugg

so sorry; that is bad; we used one of the commercial companies in NE Ohio when we had snow melt basement damage and were as happy as one could be-- they did a good job / efficient and told us what else should be gutted.

good luck

glad family safe

nyccarguy said:

Hey guys. The creek behind my house overflowed, my back yard became a lake and water came rushing into my basement. At its highest point, the water was up to my knees. My family and I are safe and healthy, but I’m not in a good place. Since the water came in from outside the house, insurance won’t cover the damage to my fully finished basement. Even if I had flood insurance (I don’t because I don’t live on a flood plain), it would only cover the basic mechanicals of the house (boiler/ water heater. My wife and I removed 75% of the carpeting & padding. I loaded all the carpet into my truck. I’ll have to make a separate run for the padding, then the furniture.

ab348

Chiming in with best wishes for a speedy and not too-expensive outcome, @nyccarguy . Even if your insurers stiff you, hopefully there is some govt aid forthcoming.

Floodwater is really scary. I live four houses away from where the side street dead-ends against a golf course. The course is uphill from me. My house in turn is on a streetcorner with storm drains on either side. Those two drains seem to collect most of the water from both streets whenever we get big rain.

One day a month or two after I moved in we had a big rainstorm. Looking out a rear window I noticed a river coming down the side street from the golf course. It covered half the width of the street, on my side, and was moving fast. I couldn't understand where it was coming from since we had other big rainstorms previously and I had seen nothing like this. Looking out the front of the house I saw the two storm drains on the corner were completely overwhelmed (I discovered later the river had collected all the fallen leaves and assorted debris, and plugged the grates), and I had a lake rising at the corner that was halfway up the bank on my front lawn.

Even though it was pouring out, I put on my raingear and headed up to we where the river was coming from. Turned out there was a large round storm drain just on the other side of the golf course fence that was supposed to collect the runoff from 4 or 5 holes that converged at a low point there. I saw the neighbor who lived adjacent to the course and had been given a key to a gate that was there, frantically trying to clear it in knee-deep water. Apparently he was the first victim of the river and took matters into his own hands. Between his efforts and the rain finally slowing, the water got no higher. If neither of those had happened and the water had crested the front bank of my house I'm sure I would have had water inside my basement. Thankfully that has never happened again.

nyccarguy

Thank-you all for your well wishes here as well as offline. I really can't express my gratitude enough. I made 2 trips to the dump today. 520 lbs of carpeting and 440 lbs of carpet padding. I'll post some pics a little later today.

stickguy

Well, that’s a reason for having a truck that you hadn’t planned on.

nyccarguy

This is a shot of my driveway. Wednesday night 11:45 PM

stickguy

Nasty. Glad it stopped there. And you have tall cars.

nyccarguy

My washing machine and dryer at 2 different points of the night. This all happened so quickly.

nyccarguy

Just some perspective. 1 shot is of our full size air hockey table. The other is my (almost) 15 year old son in the office.

nyccarguy

nyccarguy

This is the little creek that caused all that damage.

nyccarguy

My entire back yard had at least 2 feet of water

sda

Bradd, that is just awful. I bet it was an extremely scary experience. Again, glad you and your family are ok. Your son is growing into a man!

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

Chiming in with best wishes for a speedy and not too-expensive outcome, @nyccarguy . Even if your insurers stiff you, hopefully there is some govt aid forthcoming.

Floodwater is really scary. I live four houses away from where the side street dead-ends against a golf course. The course is uphill from me. My house in turn is on a streetcorner with storm drains on either side. Those two drains seem to collect most of the water from both streets whenever we get big rain.

One day a month or two after I moved in we had a big rainstorm. Looking out a rear window I noticed a river coming down the side street from the golf course. It covered half the width of the street, on my side, and was moving fast. I couldn't understand where it was coming from since we had other big rainstorms previously and I had seen nothing like this. Looking out the front of the house I saw the two storm drains on the corner were completely overwhelmed (I discovered later the river had collected all the fallen leaves and assorted debris, and plugged the grates), and I had a lake rising at the corner that was halfway up the bank on my front lawn.

Even though it was pouring out, I put on my raingear and headed up to we where the river was coming from. Turned out there was a large round storm drain just on the other side of the golf course fence that was supposed to collect the runoff from 4 or 5 holes that converged at a low point there. I saw the neighbor who lived adjacent to the course and had been given a key to a gate that was there, frantically trying to clear it in knee-deep water. Apparently he was the first victim of the river and took matters into his own hands. Between his efforts and the rain finally slowing, the water got no higher. If neither of those had happened and the water had crested the front bank of my house I'm sure I would have had water inside my basement. Thankfully that has never happened again.

When there’s a big rainstorm while we’re working at the airport the poorly designed drainage system can’t handle the water and the drains boil up in huge fountains. We like to call it the Enterprise spa. No one has taken a dip so far.

fintail

Really stinks the insurance is refusing, hopefully you can get some assistance, I have to imagine there will be some kind of disaster declaration. But think positive, at least you didn't have a tornado - great video out there of a guy filming it from inside his house, which was the worse for wear after it passed.

I can't find a direct link, but this also shows how bad it could be (not to mention those stuck in un or under-regulated basement apartments):

https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/comments/pgumvd/flooded_basement_quickly_becomes_an_ocean/

Hope the cars are OK, too.

nyccarguy said:

My entire back yard had at least 2 feet of water

benjaminh

Thanks for sharing those pix Brad. Grim stuff. Wow.

Seems silly to be worry about car deals after seeing those, but anything to avoid work for a few more minutes, apparently.....

https://www.wardsauto.com/dealers/there-good-labor-day-deal-today-s-new-car-market

"Is There a Good Labor Day Deal in Today’s New Car Market?

It wasn’t that long ago when shoppers were overwhelmed with advertisements for incredible deals and offers on new cars: loyalty cash, conquest cash, retail cash, holiday bonus cash, dealer cash, lease cash … cash, cash, cash and more cash!

....Today the U.S. auto industry is “living its best life” as OEM and dealer profits continue to soar thanks to the reduction in inventory from 3.5 million units in February 2020 to 1.0 million units at the beginning of August 2021. Inventory shortages coupled with strong demand for new vehicles have been a winning hand....

As the car companies resume their annual “All Dealer Meetings” in Las Vegas this year, there will be plenty of high fives and extra-large platters of jumbo shrimp as dealers and OEMs are witnessing margins they never could have dreamed of....

In normal years, Labor Day weekend marks the kick-off of the model year-end sell down with extra incentives as OEMs make way for the new models. Consumers who are out shopping this Labor Day weekend are more likely to enjoy a free hot dog than a great deal on their next new car.

If getting the most “bang for your buck” is the primary objective, shoppers better visit a local VW dealer and take the Arteon for a test drive."

stickguy

I think the extra profits are temporary. can only raise the prices so much, and eventually the sheer lack of sales due to no inventory will bite them.

plus I am sure (not learning anything from the chip debacle) that they will jump on the opportunity to cut staff to save even more short term money. Then cry and moan down the line when (if?) supply picks back up and the sales model moves more toward normal, but they don't have enough staff to cover additional volume.

stickguy

ran out this afternoon for some errands. one of which was right next to the Hyundai dealer. So I stopped in. Say the slightly used CPO Kona that was online. Pretty nice. Likely going back in the AM with the wife to drive it, and see how it is and if it is big enough.

While I was there, noticed 2 Santa Cruzes in the front lot. A dark gray limited turbo (MSRP~ 41K) that was locked. And a white SE AWD (base engine) (MSRP ~30k). That one was unlocked, so I tried out the insides.

initial impression, it looks good in person. Better than in pictures. Size is workable. Certainly not small, but fits in a normal spot since it is barely bigger than a Sonata. Quite roomy front seats, and comfortable. Nice dash and center stack. Back seat, roomy enough for adults but not huge. Overall though, nice package.

Bed is actually pretty useful looking. Not overly long but will hold a lot of stuff, and well designed. Can always get the bed extender too. But for "lifestyle" use it is big enough. The gray one had to optional hard retractable tonneau cover. That was a slick design but the box eats up a lot of space. Can put stuff under it, but for taller items it makes a small bed even smaller.

anyway, I liked it a lot. They are just darned pricey, and like everything else, lease like crap now.

stickguy

Too much traffic jammed up in the area to go to the used car megastore to look at the BMW I found. Will do that tomorrow too.

sda

I like the Arteon, but it is overpriced. The huge hatchback cargo area and modern MQB platform is a big plus. I’ve been watching the new VW inventory for the Arteon and Passat for months. They have 5 Arteons and 7 Passats, now 6 Passats. They simply aren’t selling.

greg128

stickguy said:

I think the extra profits are temporary. can only raise the prices so much, and eventually the sheer lack of sales due to no inventory will bite them.

plus I am sure (not learning anything from the chip debacle) that they will jump on the opportunity to cut staff to save even more short term money. Then cry and moan down the line when (if?) supply picks back up and the sales model moves more toward normal, but they don't have enough staff to cover additional volume.

The basic economic principle of high demand and low supply is what is driving the price and profit per vehicle increase. Let us not forget that the volume of new cars being sold is down so the net profit per vehicle must necessarily go up. I checked online inventory of various dealers near me and all seemed to have very little and especially of popular models.

Thousands of flooded cars from LA to here in the northeast must be replaced, which will mean even higher prices in the near future.

One of my customers with a Cadillac version of the Chevy Avalanche which he uses for work is looking for a used truck. He has almost 400K miles on it and is pretty much used up ( although he is still driving it). He knows he will be paying a premium no matter what the replacement is.

I might add that we will probably be seeing substantial increases in our insurance premiums.

breld

Well, we're scheduled to pick up the Model Y on Wednesday, and we've submitted all the docs to Vroom for them to buy the MINI.

On the MINI bids, Tesla was the lowest at $27.6k and Vroom was obviously the highest at $32.3k. Carvana and Carmax were in the middle, at $28.9k and $29.4k, respectively. Quite the spread!

benjaminh

stickguy said:

....While I was there, noticed 2 Santa Cruzes in the front lot. A dark gray limited turbo (MSRP~ 41K) that was locked. And a white SE AWD (base engine) (MSRP ~30k)....anyway, I liked it a lot. They are just darned pricey, and like everything else, lease like crap now.

Well, if you're trying to stay close to an msrp of $25k, what about the $26k Civic EX? (Realizing, of course, that it's unlikely you can get it for msrp at this point.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBqI23rv8I0&t=1638s

andres3

55 City Freeway/Interstate Speed limits.....

I agree far too low. I don't mind them in Los Angeles when traffic is forcing me to go 1/11th that speed. However, at 6 AM on a Saturday/Sunday you best bet your top dollars I'm going to be ripping through.

jmonroe1

andres3 said:

55 City Freeway/Interstate Speed limits.....

I agree far too low. I don't mind them in Los Angeles when traffic is forcing me to go 1/11th that speed. However, at 6 AM on a Saturday/Sunday you best bet your top dollars I'm going to be ripping through.

Watch it; you’re going to be low hanging fruit for the early bird Smokey’s.

jmonroe

benjaminh

@stickguy : what about this? A new 2021 TLX Tech lease for $399 with 0 down. If you can get it that even goes under that 1% of msrp lease goal. Once you add taxes, doc fee, etc., it'll be more, but it still might be worth considering—a loaded Acura TLX for probably only a bit more than a Civic EX lease. Since you and your spouse are already familiar with the "true touch" Acura system, or whatever it's called, it should be easy for both of you to use from the first time you get in. A long weekend like this might be a good time to drive down and seal the deal. I don't think deals like this are going to be around much longer, since as we know the supply of vehicles is going to dry up even more in the next weeks and months. You might even try asking the dealer where you got your RDX from if they can match this, which they might do for a past customer.

Wasn't that Sonata lease deal that you were somewhat sorry you'd missed $350 a month or something? And that was for a $29k car. Since this is a $42k car it seems like a better deal.

https://www.pohankaacura.com/new-acura-lease-finance-specials-chantilly-va/#tlx

stickguy

Would not be hard to convince the boss to ride in that. But, I did the numbers. adding in all the fine print, and NJ's cut of things (tax and DMV), it comes out to just about $490/month with just 1st payment DAS.

not bad these days I guess, but not super cheap! Still better than the $513 one on Rodo.