Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

stickguy

It is an Audi. They’ve done worse.

stickguy

corvette said:

There is a Ford dealer in Des Moines offering factory orders at $3,000 off MSRP on Mavericks through January 31. Tempting!

Interesting. Not likely to be many allocations left for 2022s at the dealer, but good way to get customers. And could also be some fine print in there.

nyccarguy

Thanks everybody. The whole thing is still very upsetting. Big positives are that nobody got hurt, all we lost was “stuff,” and it forced us to throw out a lot of things we were holding on to for no good reason. The layout is great now, better than ever. Biggest negative is that I have to write an appeal letter to FEMA to try and get money for the work we had done. I paid to have it fixed and had that money allocated for other household projects.

mjfloyd1

Which of these two grille replacements for the current body style M3/M4 do you prefer? Both are from Prior Design.

kyfdx

The top one

mjfloyd1

Me too

jmonroe1

@mjfloyd1 said:
Me too

Where is the middle one?

jmonroe

ab348

The top one reminds me of a Dodge.

stickguy

Top one in orange.

corvette

Top one, although the bottom one reminds me of an Alfa.

Sandman6472

Now that we're not going to be moving to Orlando any time soon, we need to turn our attention to our kitchen cabinets and counters. Hoping to get the new stove/own put in in the next few months and then we can come up with some plan. Would love to re-face the current ones but that all depends if the boxes will support this. Our builder used real garbage it seems which could be an issue. Have to wait until tax season is over which ain't too bad since summer months are the best time down here as the snowbirds have all left and the carpenters and such are looking for work.
Come June 30th, we'll have been here 35 years, so it's definitely time to fix things up. Hoping that the other half will tell me "just to take care of it" like she did in 2009 with the kids bathroom. Got together with my carpenter friend and he & his buddy did all the work after I picked all the finishes/colors. Turned out pretty nice to be honest and now, it's my bathroom, which makes for a smooth happy household. Our daughter starts her new job a week from Monday and her new lease starts on 1/28/2022, as they need time to clean it up, paint & all, since the current tenant is not moving out till mid January. Time-wise, works out great as she still has her Miami place till the end of January, so she can stay with us the first month.
It came down to Orlando & Boca Raton and G-d made the choice for her though either would've been acceptable. Just nice to finally have her plans set so we can move ahead with ours. Will be interesting having one of the kids home for a short while though, has been awhile.

sda

It isn’t a surprise that new car inventory is lean but it is startling to experience it first hand. Yesterday I went out for a while and took advantage of 70degree weather and closed dealers. Two larger Honda dealers had a handful of new vehicles and those on the lot were marked up by $4k. The VW dealer had a good selection of Taos and Tiguans, little else and all marked up $3-4k. Mazda did not have a single new vehicle on the lot but did have a decent number of CPO Mazdas. CarMax had a full lot. I did not walk the CarMax lot to observe prices which I suspect were crazy high.

sda

Here is one Honda dealer, only a handful of Passports and Pilots. Not an Accord, Civic, CR-V in sight.

tjc78

@sda
It seems like Carmax and other similar outfits have plenty of cars to sell. They had a good inventory before things got sketchy and I guess they have been able to maintain.

Biggest issue is you are gonna pay big for anything from them.

Michaell

My local CarMax has a full lot, again.

28firefighter

@Michaell said:
My local CarMax has a full lot, again.

Ours too. Granted, prices are even more outrageous than usual.

tjc78

I honestly think I’d rather over pay on a lease right now than buy something used at these obscene prices.

I mean look at this. This should be a 30K car.

https://www.carmax.com/car/21633755

28firefighter

@tjc78 said:
I honestly think I’d rather over pay on a lease right now than buy something used at these obscene prices.

I mean look at this. This should be a 30K car.

https://www.carmax.com/car/21633755

+1

kyfdx

There is a CJDR dealer a few blocks from me. They seem to have a huge inventory. Especially, if you want a Gladiator or a RAM truck.

28firefighter

@kyfdx said:
There is a CJDR dealer a few blocks from me. They seem to have a huge inventory. Especially, if you want a Gladiator or a RAM truck.

One of the brokers on LH is advertising 14% off ram trucks. Had a 51k RAM for $430/month plus tax. Tempting as a holdover if I wanted to order another Jeep.

Of course it probably has the hemi and therefore gets 8mpg.

tjc78

If I didn’t have the XC90 I’d consider a truck for the next vehicle, but I certainly don’t need two big vehicles.

I almost feel like I should get a Jeep. I have a house down the Jersey shore it’s almost a requirement. Every third car is a Jeep especially in season. Only problem is I don’t really think I’d like it any other time than going to the beach.

corvette

28firefighter said:

Of course it probably has the hemi and therefore gets 8mpg.

You mean there is a full size truck which gets even worse mileage than the outgoing model Tundra like mine? I may have to add that to my shopping list, just for bragging rights.

xwesx

corvette said:

28firefighter said:

Of course it probably has the hemi and therefore gets 8mpg.

You mean there is a full size truck which gets even worse mileage than the outgoing model Tundra like mine? I may have to add that to my shopping list, just for bragging rights.

No, there's not. He was exaggerating. Hahhaha

tjc78

With my mostly city driving and heavy foot, I wouldn’t be surprised if I managed to get a full size V8 truck into single digits.

au1994

BTW…I got a mountain bike for Christmas if that counts as a punch

graphicguy

Got a standing offer for trade on my TLX from one of the two local dealers of $2K over what I paid for my TLX 9 months ago. Plus, if I trade it in, I would get $2,500 in additional cash for a new TLX. Not sure that's enough to make me pull the trigger, but who knows? I've got some time on my hands this week.

sda

graphicguy said:

Got a standing offer for trade on my TLX from one of the two local dealers of $2K over what I paid for my TLX 9 months ago. Plus, if I trade it in, I would get $2,500 in additional cash for a new TLX. Not sure that's enough to make me pull the trigger, but who knows? I've got some time on my hands this week.

Wow. Does your dealer have any in stock? Our local Acura dealer which generally has a good inventory only has one TLX, a TLX-S for $54k, in Steel Metallic Gray, but it does have the red interior!

nyccarguy

sda said:

graphicguy said:

Got a standing offer for trade on my TLX from one of the two local dealers of $2K over what I paid for my TLX 9 months ago. Plus, if I trade it in, I would get $2,500 in additional cash for a new TLX. Not sure that's enough to make me pull the trigger, but who knows? I've got some time on my hands this week.

Wow. Does your dealer have any in stock? Our local Acura dealer which generally has a good inventory only has one TLX, a TLX-S for $54k, in Steel Metallic Gray, but it does have the red interior!

My local Acura dealer has (2) White/Red FWD ASpec TLX in stock. That's it.

tifighter

Our 3 Performance came with 20" summer tires standard. No bueno for the winter. As I already had a spare 3 wheelset from the last car, I opted to have something more all season mounted. With snow now in the city, and a few ski days under the belt as well, I'm ready to declare the CrossClimate 2 a success.

Drives like an all-season during the usual cold wet yuck that Seattle has from November to March, but puts in an above-average performance in snow traction. It's not a winter compound, so I'm not expecting miracles when it's very icy, but so far, I haven't felt any slip. Not bad for a car with all the torque and around 500hp.

@xwesx will frown, but the Y got Sottozero 3's last week. Couldn't find anything else, but so far, so good. If you think finding car inventory is challenging right now, try finding good traction tires.

nyccarguy

I was going to ask you WA State guys how things are going. Saw a clip on our local news last night about your state (and the Western Part of the USA) and the amount of snow fall.

@tifighter - I bought a set of those Michelin Cross Climate 2s for my Mom's 2020 RX. I think she had them on for less than 2 weeks before we sold it back to the Lexus dealer.

28firefighter

Child care is closed. Roads are icy up my way because they seem to be plowing but not treating the roads, combined with temps in the 20s all week.

Got the Jeep to go sideways though, which was way more fun than it should be.

tifighter

We are going to the Methow valley on Thursday for 10 days to nordic ski. Current outlook-

Hence the winter tires on the Y.

28firefighter

tifighter said:

We are going to the Methow valley on Thursday for 10 days to nordic ski. Current outlook-

Hence the winter tires on the Y.

Balmy.

stickguy

I’m looking
Forward to getting home and using one of the predicted high of 55-57 days to wash the northern salt slime off the car.

sda

tifighter said:

We are going to the Methow valley on Thursday for 10 days to nordic ski. Current outlook-

Hence the winter tires on the Y.

Too cold! To what degree do cold temps affect the travel range on the Y?

jmonroe1

@tifighter said:
We are going to the Methow valley on Thursday for 10 days to nordic ski. Current outlook-

Hence the winter tires on the Y.

Some folks just ain’t happy till they go lookin for trouble.

jmonroe

tifighter

I'm not worried about range - I'll pass 5 supercharger stations between here and there. I'm more worried that the trip, which is ordinarily 4-5 hours in normal weather will take forever due to road conditions. But worst case would be 2 charging stops, I'd guess. I'll need to stretch anyhow.

ab348

28firefighter said:

tifighter said:

We are going to the Methow valley on Thursday for 10 days to nordic ski. Current outlook-

Hence the winter tires on the Y.

Balmy.

You mean the weather, or @tifighter ?

tifighter

jmonroe1 said:

@tifighter said:

We are going to the Methow valley on Thursday for 10 days to nordic ski. Current outlook-

Hence the winter tires on the Y.

Some folks just ain’t happy till they go lookin for trouble.

jmonroe

I've done this trip the past two winters with the X. It's a known quantity.

28firefighter

Ultimately the snow doesn’t bother me here, other than the fact it shuts everything down. We’ve had pretty consistent significant snowfall the last few years, so it seems like local governments need to start investing in snow removal.

sda

28firefighter said:

Ultimately the snow doesn’t bother me here, other than the fact it shuts everything down. We’ve had pretty consistent significant snowfall the last few years, so it seems like local governments need to start investing in snow removal.

And you thought you left that mess behind when you moved from the burgh!

28firefighter

@sda said:
And you thought you left that mess behind when you moved from the burgh!

Pretty much! And the first 5 years I lived here, that was generally the case. Oh well.

mjfloyd1

@roadburner

2020 M2 comp, 3 pedal, slick top ,executive pkg, hockenheim silver, 16 k miles, clean car fax

https://www.carvana.com/vehicle/2144307

Another option - it has the M service and another service documented

https://www.carfax.com/vehicle/WBS2U7C06L7E17082

xwesx

tifighter said:

@xwesx will frown, but the Y got Sottozero 3's last week. Couldn't find anything else, but so far, so good. If you think finding car inventory is challenging right now, try finding good traction tires.

Why would I frown?! Just because my Pirelli's didn't stand up to the added weight of towing doesn't mean they weren't good tires before that. I just realized that having gone a different way with the car, I need to go a different way with the tires, too.

I agree about the limited supply on tires in general. Crazy times in which we live!

Hopefully they work well.

cdnpinhead

jmonroe1 said:

Some folks just ain’t happy till they go lookin for trouble.

One of the many Don Imus quotes (having nothing to do with nappi-nes) that I remember fondly was "we're not happy until you're not happy."

Different times.

Some would say better

sda

@xwesx Have you had a chance to trouble shoot the Q7? Hoping it is something really minor and simple to address.

xwesx

We had about 10" of snow here on Saturday and Sunday, which then turned to this sleety-rain stuff for much of the afternoon and dropped a thick layer of ice atop everything.

Power went out at about 8pm, and I expect it will be off for a day or two... maybe longer because we have more snow on the way. My son enthusiastically got out the generator to get us back up and running. It's actually the first time we took the time to use a generator during a power outage. Amazingly, the whole house is up and running nearly as normal with an 8K portable unit.

The nice part of this all is that the temps are incredibly warm... above freezing! It's quite strange to go outside and hear water dripping from the roof in late December.

xwesx

sda said:

@xwesx Have you had a chance to trouble shoot the Q7? Hoping it is something really minor and simple to address.

No, but I did get a moment to stop by and visit it this morning. Earlier, I made a special trip to town early Saturday morning to put a charger on the battery just to make sure it was fully topped. When I stopped in this morning, the parking lot where I left it had been plowed, and they plowed my nice extension cord along with it. So, that's a bummer, but so it goes.

I went ahead and tried to start it again, and it hung for just a moment on the initial crank, then started as normal. So, that's good, perhaps. I'll have my son drop me off at the car later this afternoon and see if I can maybe drive it home. Haha; living dangerously!

stickguy

Looks like I’m going to sneak a punch in this year.
Ford website updates That the lariat is at the dealer for final prep. So likely picking it up Friday or Wednesday. I’ll be back home from NY tomorrow.

jmonroe1

@tifighter said:
I've done this trip the past two winters with the X. It's a known quantity.

I was talking about the cold weather not the trip.

Have a good time skiing.

jmonroe