Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

stickguy

And I did look at a lease when I picked it up. Even at that selling price, buying made more sense. If you are getting discount financing probably the way to go.

28firefighter

@breld said:
Late night browsing of local inventory last night…my local BMW/MINI dealer just took in a 2002 530i. Premium, sport and manual transmission. 87k miles. $9,700. Toledo Blue over black.

If it is in the condition you’d hope for with those miles, that’s very tempting. At that seemingly reasonable price, it could be a mess.

If it doesn’t have a leaking valve cover gasket I’d be concerned it isn’t an authentic example.

graphicguy

Michaell said:

tjc78 said:

Honestly unless the more informed here know something I don’t, I can’t think of a single three row SUV right now that is worth it to lease.

Had a member just lease an XC90 for something like $700/mo - with $9K of equity from their previous lease factored in.

So, so, so glad I'm not in the market. Even though I wanna be, at times. Still under 50K on the Outback, which turns 7 at the end of next month.

That’s NUTzzzzzz!!!!!!!

stickguy

I have to help my father do lease end stuff soon. He has a Sentra coming off lease early March. I did convince him to just buy it out.

I got the payoff, and it’s about 10,500 IIRC (I think before tax, but not sure). For kicks, put it through carmax and it git hit at about $16,500. For a 2019 Sentra, but it does only have about 12,000 miles. Still, it means they would list it for nearly the original MSRP.

Would be nuts for him to return it and try to get something new. Plus he’s 93, so I’d rather get someday a title in hand car rather than a lease to deal with!

nyccarguy

graphicguy said:

Michaell said:

tjc78 said:

Honestly unless the more informed here know something I don’t, I can’t think of a single three row SUV right now that is worth it to lease.

Had a member just lease an XC90 for something like $700/mo - with $9K of equity from their previous lease factored in.

So, so, so glad I'm not in the market. Even though I wanna be, at times. Still under 50K on the Outback, which turns 7 at the end of next month.

That’s NUTzzzzzz!!!!!!!

I agree. I can't believe they've kept the outback that long.

kyfdx

28firefighter said:

@breld said:

Late night browsing of local inventory last night…my local BMW/MINI dealer just took in a 2002 530i. Premium, sport and manual transmission. 87k miles. $9,700. Toledo Blue over black.

If it is in the condition you’d hope for with those miles, that’s very tempting. At that seemingly reasonable price, it could be a mess.

If it doesn’t have a leaking valve cover gasket I’d be concerned it isn’t an authentic example.

Yeah, but that's the M54 engine that's in your ZHP. A valve cover gasket is no big deal.

Considering the prices I see on BaT, that would be a steal. Very low miles.

breld

kyfdx said:

28firefighter said:

@breld said:

Late night browsing of local inventory last night…my local BMW/MINI dealer just took in a 2002 530i. Premium, sport and manual transmission. 87k miles. $9,700. Toledo Blue over black.

If it is in the condition you’d hope for with those miles, that’s very tempting. At that seemingly reasonable price, it could be a mess.

If it doesn’t have a leaking valve cover gasket I’d be concerned it isn’t an authentic example.

Yeah, but that's the M54 engine that's in your ZHP. A valve cover gasket is no big deal.

Considering the prices I see on BaT, that would be a steal. Very low miles.

That’s why I’m suspicious of the condition of the car. I’m sure the BMW dealer “knows what it’s got.”

Though the Carfax is clean with only 2 owners, and does seem to indicate regular service being performed.

kyfdx

breld said:

kyfdx said:

28firefighter said:

@breld said:

Late night browsing of local inventory last night…my local BMW/MINI dealer just took in a 2002 530i. Premium, sport and manual transmission. 87k miles. $9,700. Toledo Blue over black.

If it is in the condition you’d hope for with those miles, that’s very tempting. At that seemingly reasonable price, it could be a mess.

If it doesn’t have a leaking valve cover gasket I’d be concerned it isn’t an authentic example.

Yeah, but that's the M54 engine that's in your ZHP. A valve cover gasket is no big deal.

Considering the prices I see on BaT, that would be a steal. Very low miles.

That’s why I’m suspicious of the condition of the car. I’m sure the BMW dealer “knows what it’s got.”

Though the Carfax is clean with only 2 owners, and does seem to indicate regular service being performed.

You can't beat the option configuration.

breld

kyfdx said:

breld said:

kyfdx said:

28firefighter said:

@breld said:

Late night browsing of local inventory last night…my local BMW/MINI dealer just took in a 2002 530i. Premium, sport and manual transmission. 87k miles. $9,700. Toledo Blue over black.

If it is in the condition you’d hope for with those miles, that’s very tempting. At that seemingly reasonable price, it could be a mess.

If it doesn’t have a leaking valve cover gasket I’d be concerned it isn’t an authentic example.

Yeah, but that's the M54 engine that's in your ZHP. A valve cover gasket is no big deal.

Considering the prices I see on BaT, that would be a steal. Very low miles.

That’s why I’m suspicious of the condition of the car. I’m sure the BMW dealer “knows what it’s got.”

Though the Carfax is clean with only 2 owners, and does seem to indicate regular service being performed.

You can't beat the option configuration.

Agreed. Identical to the one I lucked into back in 2012, other than color (that one was Topaz Blue with beige leather). “Lucking” into a gem these days doesn’t seem to happen, but we shall see.

kyfdx

Great looking Carfax. One owner for the first 15 years, and the 2nd owner seems to have done some decent maintenance/repair.

28firefighter

They may not actually know what they've got if they're simply using MMR, BlueBook etc. Also, they could have used those to seriously lowball the PO who didn't know what they had.

If it's in good shape cosmetically and isn't a basket case mechanically, could be an opportunity to flip.

kyfdx

28firefighter said:

They may not actually know what they've got if they're simply using MMR, BlueBook etc. Also, they could have used those to seriously lowball the PO who didn't know what they had.

If it's in good shape cosmetically and isn't a basket case mechanically, could be an opportunity to flip.

Probably too late. I'm sure @breld is doing the paperwork, now.

28firefighter

Someone should be.

breld

I’m in Orlando awaiting my flight back to Denver, which has been delayed.

I’m ready to drive directly to the dealership to check the vehicle out. 😀

jmonroe1

benjaminh said:

At 52,000 miles I'm now just past the bumper to bumper warranty on my TLX. Went out to start it a couple of days ago when it was well below freezing and the car was covered in snow, but the battery couldn't quite do it. AAA gave a jumpstart but didn't have a replacement battery, and so I drove to my Acura dealer. Fortunately they had one last battery for my car in stock, and $190 later I have a "100 month" battery. I asked the tech if they really lasted that long, and he answered honestly: "About half of them do, and about half don't. But with the pro-rated warranty at least you get something if it doesn't quite go that long. But most of these last at least six years." My oem battery lasted only three years and eight months from when I bought the car, although actually by manufacturing date it was a few months over four years old. Anyway, along with my new Michelin tires seems like I should be set for tires and the battery till well past 100k.

Saw a new generation TLX right next to mine as I pulled into the service bay, and it looked sharp from every angle.

Back in the late 70’s I went to Sears to get a Diehard battery that had a 5 year rating but they were out of them for my car so I bought their next best battery that was a 48 month battery. Since they installed it free and checked the alternator I let them install it. This was back in the day when you could watch them do it without hearing the line, “for insurance reasons we don’t allow that”. Anyway, as the guy is installing it I asked him how long the battery would last and he looks at the battery and says, “48 month battery, should last you maybe 3 years but it’s prorated after 2 years. So you at least get something after it fails”. I didn’t keep that car even 2 years so I was fully covered during my ownership.

jmonroe

carnaught

@qbrozen said:
@nyccarguy , remind me why you are even wanting the ‘21 Wrangler anymore?

(queue Jaws music) Are you conjuring up another flip perhaps? Hmm….

au1994

Just googled some images and wow, Toledo blue is stunning. Black interior wouldn’t be first choice but thats a smokin’ deal on a 5 series that should be fun to drive.

If you get any discount at all, it shouldn’t be too hard to flip.

Michaell

au1994 said:

Just googled some images and wow, Toledo blue is stunning. Black interior wouldn’t be first choice but thats a smokin’ deal on a 5 series that should be fun to drive.

If you get any discount at all, it shouldn’t be too hard to flip.

No discount - this is a “one price” store.

But, no dealer fee.

kyfdx

breld said:

I’m in Orlando awaiting my flight back to Denver, which has been delayed.

I’m ready to drive directly to the dealership to check the vehicle out. 😀

Come on!! Just call and put it on the AMEX!

tjc78

@Michaell said:
Had a member just lease an XC90 for something like $700/mo - with $9K of equity from their previous lease factored in.

So, so, so glad I'm not in the market. Even though I wanna be, at times. Still under 50K on the Outback, which turns 7 at the end of next month.

Wow $950 effective for an XC… nope

The broker lease for a 58K XC with 6.625 NJ tax is $871 with just first out of pocket.

To see how far we have come my 2020 XC leased in November 2020 was a touch over 60K and I’m $620 / month with just first out of pocket. Good thing I didn’t wait.

tjc78

After typing all that, I guess in this market if you have huge equity on your lease and use it buy down the next is it all that bad?

If this current market wasn’t so nuts you wouldn’t have that equity and most likely could score a more normal lease. In essence what I’m trying to say is the “equity” isn’t really equity because whether you roll it into your next lease or cash it out you are spending it anyway because the next lease is so inflated.

The only true way to cash out is to sell it third party and not buy anything else. That isn’t possible for over half of the captive lenders, so that leaves you buying from the same manufacturer again to roll the equity forward.

breld

I actually went through the online purchase process last night on the 530i, though I imagine that didn’t do much more than the standard “I’m interested” link.

I did just now follow up with a phone call and it would seem someone already beat me to the punch. Oh well.

carnaught

@breld, just an objective opinion : if you have to many BMW’s, you will get bored easily and want to trade sooner 🤓.

stickguy

Hopefully that means it is now in Michaels garage!

I assume a RWD old bmw in Colorado in winter is not a super easy sell overall though.

stickguy

Toledo is a great color. Close to what I almost bought in 2001. A 525i RWD.

Michaell

stickguy said:

Hopefully that means it is now in Michaels garage!

I assume a RWD old bmw in Colorado in winter is not a super easy sell overall though.

Trust me, when @breld brought it to my attention last night I was sorely interested, at that price.

Just don't need another car in my life. I've got a better chance at trading in the Outback for something slightly newer and more sporty, but still an SUV.

A good set of winter tires will likely take care of most of the weather we get here.

qbrozen

one E39 was enough for me. Granted, the 6-banger would be far easier to fix than my v8 was, but still lots of potential issues, IIRC.

andres3

oldfarmer50 said:

andres3 said:

sda said:

@xwesx Between you and @andres3 your mechanical issues with the Audis is not giving me the warm and fuzzies about long term ownership of our Q5 or VW. I hope it isn’t a serious problem. Bah humbug!

The VW Tiguan has been stellar up to 19K miles now, and the TTS continues to rack them up and is fine nearing 54K miles.

The S4 is catastrophic engine failure of course.

Metal and junk and shavings everywhere. They tried to clean the oil housing and oil cooler but they are beyond saving; just uncleanable. Don't want to introduce old engine metal to the new engine, so ordering an aftermarket housing to save some money on plastic as German plastic is expensive, and went OEM oil cooler as that has metal components and it was only $100 more than aftermarket.

Latest message from the shop:

Looks like we had to disassemble the supercharger as well. There’s a bunch of crap inside it along with metal shavings as well. I’m hoping we can get most of it out and cleaned out from behind the intercoolers so we don’t have to replace them.

The water jacket in the block broke causing coolant and oil to mix everywhere.

It probably is easier to replace than "fix" things.

Looks like a 2022 finish on this repair job.

Am I getting this right, the engine block actually failed? That would seem to be a manufacturing defect. Should Audi stand behind something like that? Blocks don’t usually crack, at least not internally.

Hitachi HPFP..... Hitachi is on my brown colored list now.

xwesx

tjc78 said:

Batteries can really be hit or miss. My theory is the newer cars have a higher current draw when “off” which degrades the batteries faster.

My 04 Grand Marquis went nearly 12 years on the OEM Motorcraft battery. The battery never fully went but after a few very slow cranking mornings in the winter I knew it was time.

This is quite true. Batteries have a fairly dependable lifespan based on the total amount of power that flows through them. That calculation is probably where the "100 month" tag comes from on the Acura battery. However, the actual use of the battery plays a key role as well, since long periods of time at low charge will shorten the lifespan. Therefore, given the higher "environmental" load in newer cars, even short spans of a week or two without use will put the battery in that danger zone of extended low charge. Frequent, short trips will do the same thing since it takes a lot of juice to start the car and around twenty minutes of driving to recover that use.

Likewise, environmental factors such as high heat exposure can also reduce life through the tendency to boil off the water in the battery.

xwesx

mjfloyd1 said:

The affiliate program is back for 2022 4xxxxxxxxxxe

Go Forksy. Go Forksy. It's your birthday!

xwesx

nyccarguy said:

Maybe a handheld garmin would help in the interim. Part of the problem is that she doesn't have the wifi password when she is at a patient's house, so she isn't able to connect and start up before she leaves to go to the next patient.

I'm not interested in purchasing a used highlander. I drove a V6 rental and liked it. It doesn't fit as well, but the hockey bag fits. Right now, leasing one for $700 per month keeps it out of the running. The idea of the Hybrid appeals to me because my wife does do a lot of "city" driving in between patients' homes. Right now the trip computer says she averages 20ish mpg which I think is closer to 17.5 - 18. I'll have to check at the next fill up.

What type of head unit does the Pilot have? An aftermarket system might be and approachable solution. All you really need is to have a system that has a quality screen and Carplay or Auto (depending on her handheld) so she can use the up-to-date mapping system there.

My son and I are scheming to replace the head unit in the Forester this summer.

xwesx

qbrozen said:

Being wrecked is not a good recipe for a flip.

But, is it an issue if there's no post-consumer history on that?

xwesx

breld said:

Agreed. Identical to the one I lucked into back in 2012, other than color (that one was Topaz Blue with beige leather). “Lucking” into a gem these days doesn’t seem to happen, but we shall see.

Well, if anyone can do it, you can. And maybe @qbrozen ...

mjfloyd1

@xwesx said:
Go Forksy. Go Forksy. It's your birthday!

What do you call a 4x4?

mjfloyd1

@xwesx said:
But, is it an issue if there's no post-consumer history on that?

Depends on quality of repair/ repaint

xwesx

mjfloyd1 said:

What do you call a 4x4?

The forksy offered an opportunity to go a different route with the verbalization. I seized on it, and stand by this as the right move!

Consider, we're nearly a quarter of the way into the current century, and there are STILL people out there who continue to speak the year as "two thousand twenty-two." Ask them to speak any other year prior to 2000, and they will start by saying, "seventeen," "eighteen," "nineteen," etc., so how does it follow that "twenty" becomes "two thousand?!" And, yet, I don't think any of us bother to even suggest an alternative to those poor souls anymore; it is an acceptable alternative in our daily lexicon.

TL;DR.... EMBRACE THE FORKSY!

mjfloyd1

I bought a forkseyfour

mjfloyd1

@xwesx said:
The forksy offered an opportunity to go a different route with the verbalization. I seized on it, and stand by this as the right move!

Consider, we're nearly a quarter of the way into the current century, and there are STILL people out there who continue to speak the year as "two thousand twenty-two." Ask them to speak any other year prior to 2000, and they will start by saying, "seventeen," "eighteen," "nineteen," etc., so how does it follow that "twenty" becomes "two thousand?!" And, yet, I don't think any of us bother to even suggest an alternative to those poor souls anymore; it is an acceptable alternative in our daily lexicon.

TL;DR.... EMBRACE THE FORKSY!

FORK THE FORKSY

mjfloyd1

andres3 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

andres3 said:

sda said:

@xwesx Between you and @andres3 your mechanical issues with the Audis is not giving me the warm and fuzzies about long term ownership of our Q5 or VW. I hope it isn’t a serious problem. Bah humbug!

The VW Tiguan has been stellar up to 19K miles now, and the TTS continues to rack them up and is fine nearing 54K miles.

The S4 is catastrophic engine failure of course.

Metal and junk and shavings everywhere. They tried to clean the oil housing and oil cooler but they are beyond saving; just uncleanable. Don't want to introduce old engine metal to the new engine, so ordering an aftermarket housing to save some money on plastic as German plastic is expensive, and went OEM oil cooler as that has metal components and it was only $100 more than aftermarket.

Latest message from the shop:

Looks like we had to disassemble the supercharger as well. There’s a bunch of crap inside it along with metal shavings as well. I’m hoping we can get most of it out and cleaned out from behind the intercoolers so we don’t have to replace them.

The water jacket in the block broke causing coolant and oil to mix everywhere.

It probably is easier to replace than "fix" things.

Looks like a 2022 finish on this repair job.

Am I getting this right, the engine block actually failed? That would seem to be a manufacturing defect. Should Audi stand behind something like that? Blocks don’t usually crack, at least not internally.

Hitachi HPFP..... Hitachi is on my brown colored list now.

Does detonation cause piston to destruct which damages the block?

qbrozen

xwesx said:

qbrozen said:

Being wrecked is not a good recipe for a flip.

But, is it an issue if there's no post-consumer history on that?

Factory paint can never be replicated.

mjfloyd1

@qbrozen said:
Factory paint can never be replicated.

It can be surpassed by many but the thickness is not the same

28firefighter

mjfloyd1 said:

@qbrozen said:

Factory paint can never be replicated.

It can be surpassed by many but the thickness is not the same

That's what she said?

*waits for flag*

roadburner

tjc78 said:

Batteries can really be hit or miss. My theory is the newer cars have a higher current draw when “off” which degrades the batteries faster.

My 04 Grand Marquis went nearly 12 years on the OEM Motorcraft battery. The battery never fully went but after a few very slow cranking mornings in the winter I knew it was time.

My Club Sport's battery lasted over a decade, but I went ahead and changed it as BMW batteries tend to fail without notice. I still have the OEM battery in the M235i and X1.

cdnpinhead

qbrozen said:

Factory paint can never be replicated.

Since the advent of latex (water-based) paint, that can be a good thing.

Bring back Dittzler enamel!

roadburner

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

Hopefully that means it is now in Michaels garage!

I assume a RWD old bmw in Colorado in winter is not a super easy sell overall though.

Trust me, when @breld brought it to my attention last night I was sorely interested, at that price.

Just don't need another car in my life. I've got a better chance at trading in the Outback for something slightly newer and more sporty, but still an SUV.

A good set of winter tires will likely take care of most of the weather we get here.

My wife's E39 got around just fine on Michelin Artic Alpins. And it wasn't too maintenance intensive either.

mjfloyd1

@roadburner

price has dropped but I think no longer CPO

https://www.dpat.com/used/BMW/2018-BMW-M4-63e388cf0a0e09af7e331ff8979ea72a.htm

corvette

roadburner said:

My wife's E39 got around just fine on Michelin Artic Alpins. And it wasn't too maintenance intensive either.

To be fair, you owned it during the best part of its life...

roadburner

corvette said:

roadburner said:

My wife's E39 got around just fine on Michelin Artic Alpins. And it wasn't too maintenance intensive either.

To be fair, you owned it during the best part of its life...

I owned it past 130k miles.

mjfloyd1

@roadburner said:
My wife's E39 got around just fine on Michelin Artic Alpins. And it wasn't too maintenance intensive either.

Arctic?? Not sure what Artic is…

cdnpinhead

Oh, so now we're going to start with this.