Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

explorerx4

@stickguy,
It doesn't look like the gas tank was fixed on either of those builds.

stickguy

Easy DIY project.

ab348

Ford themselves did a prototype or at least a styling concept for a Pinto pickup in the early '70s. I have a picture of it somewhere.

Found it! From 1970, so they were thinking about it right from the start. Love the big "FORD" lettering on the tailgate.

stickguy

not a great design but good proof of concept. Should have gone ahead with it.

one thing I expect to see at some point is a long bed/short cab version of the Maverick. Even if just geared toward commercial buyers like auto parts stores and other delivery places.

Michaell

Depends on where they put the gas tank.

My wife had a friend in HS who had a Pinto, and was one of the first to get her license. I’m surprised she’s here, today.

jmonroe1

ab348 said:

Ford themselves did a prototype or at least a styling concept for a Pinto pickup in the early '70s. I have a picture of it somewhere.

Found it! From 1970, so they were thinking about it right from the start. Love the big "FORD" lettering on the tailgate.

That’s because that tailgate is probably from a real pickup in Ford’s lineup back then. Having a toy pickup in 1970 would have never gotten off the ground. Today anything goes as long as it sits a little higher than a sedan.

jmonroe

kyfdx

Michaell said:

Depends on where they put the gas tank.

My wife had a friend in HS who had a Pinto, and was one of the first to get her license. I’m surprised she’s here, today.

How many people do you think actually died in a Pinto rear-end accident? (rhetorical)

Since the Pinto was around when I was in high school, I'll guess I know people that have traveled an aggregate of 1 million+ miles in a Pinto. None of them died in a Pinto accident.

Not as safe as a Gremlin, maybe, but it's just a matter of degree.

stickguy

toy pickups became very popular in the early 70s. The Toyota, Courier, etc. were not much bigger than the pinto design, just a little boxier so they looked more like trucks (at least the Courier did, the early Toyotas did have very carlike hoods).

roadburner

stickguy said:

well, if I had known you could get this from Ford, I would have saved a lot of money on the Maverick. Just needs a manual trans and a tach!

gotta say, it looks very cleanly down. And incredible how much room there is in the engine bay to get at everything.

https://classics.autotrader.com/classic-cars/1980/ford/pinto/101646311

and this is actually a neat idea. Never saw this conversion before. and who doesn't love a cruising wagon?

https://classics.autotrader.com/classic-cars/1977/ford/pinto/101693780

An acquaintance bought a Cruising Wagon in the '80s.
For what reason, I can't imagine.

ab348

stickguy said:

toy pickups became very popular in the early 70s. The Toyota, Courier, etc. were not much bigger than the pinto design, just a little boxier so they looked more like trucks (at least the Courier did, the early Toyotas did have very carlike hoods).

Yes, as the text below the picture states, Ford brought over the Courier from Mazda in 1972 and I believe they did quite well with it.

28firefighter

No local ford dealer, I do not believe your $15k markup on a Mach E is a “strong deal” in this market. Goodness. Like I’m all for capitalism, but let’s not lie.

au1994

A friend just traded his F150 of 11 months on a Colorado. Ford was just too big but of course he traded a new style Ranger on the F150 as the former was too small inside. Go figure.

As you’d expect, did well on the trade and they came off 1k on the Colorado. Which came with a $50 credit as its missing a chip for the heated seats. They will put it in at no charge when its available. I wouldn’t hold my breath for that call. Heated steering wheel works though.

henryn

I walked by a Toyota C-HR in a parking lot today. First time I’ve seen one, or at least the first time I’ve noticed one. I was giving it a good look, and didn’t think too badly of it. Until I saw the wheel covers. OMFG! I thought they passed a law against those ugly things back during the Reagan administration? If they didn’t, they should have.

Those things are so ugly … How ugly, you ask? I’ll bet the parking attendants at valet parking will refuse your business, they would not want to take a chance on anyone seeing them in that car. But on the bright side, they should make the car theft-proof. Park it on the street at night, with the windows down and the key in the ignition, no self respecting car thief would come within a hundred feet of it.

I suppose if you really wanted the car, you could make a deal with the dealer to remove the wheel covers before delivering the car. Then they could bury them, at night, during the dark of the moon.

qbrozen

wife and I visited a volvo dealer today who has quite a hefty inventory of both new and CPO. Drove a CPO S90 AWD t5 first. That is a VERY nice car. The rear leg room is crazy generous. She loved it. I talked her into driving a V60 CC just to be sure. It frankly felt like an economy car in comparison. This was the previous gen V60, FYI. So now we're on the quest for a CPO S90. This dealer had several but were just too proud of them. I explained they are $8k over the others out there but that just fell on deaf ears. Kind of like the salesman knew. Didn't argue with me. It was just immediately "Oh, well, Ok."

henryn

qbrozen said:

wife and I visited a volvo dealer today who has quite a hefty inventory of both new and CPO. Drove a CPO S90 AWD t5 first. That is a VERY nice car. The rear leg room is crazy generous. She loved it. I talked her into driving a V60 CC just to be sure. It frankly felt like an economy car in comparison. This was the previous gen V60, FYI. So now we're on the quest for a CPO S90. This dealer had several but were just too proud of them. I explained they are $8k over the others out there but that just fell on deaf ears. Kind of like the salesman knew. Didn't argue with me. It was just immediately "Oh, well, Ok."

Car salesmen have gotten completely spoiled during the current ... whatever you want to call this period. I mentioned before, I had a car salesman hang up on me recently when I asked about whether I could stack two incentives. The tables will turn.

fintail

Related to a probable upcoming punch, got one approval to finance the wagon today. I am not going to exhaust myself shopping rates, but I want to get something decent. I find it odd that lease buyouts appear to have higher rates than standard used cars. I'll be signing on a dotted line by the end of the month.

corvette

Nice! PenFed usually has good rates.

qbrozen

@fintail said:
Related to a probable upcoming punch, got one approval to finance the wagon today. I am not going to exhaust myself shopping rates, but I want to get something decent. I find it odd that lease buyouts appear to have higher rates than standard used cars. I'll be signing on a dotted line by the end of the month.

I overlooked something. What wagon?

fintail

My daily driver for the past 3 years, lease is up at the end of the month, residual is 10K++ below retail value:



BoA (I know, I know) offered 3.19% for 60-72 months, but lower rates as a dealer used car, I'll have to see if that could somehow be arranged by the dealer. The equity in the car (45K residual) will make it an easy deal.

qbrozen said:

@fintail said:

Related to a probable upcoming punch, got one approval to finance the wagon today. I am not going to exhaust myself shopping rates, but I want to get something decent. I find it odd that lease buyouts appear to have higher rates than standard used cars. I'll be signing on a dotted line by the end of the month.

I overlooked something. What wagon?

stickguy

fin is buying out the lease on the E class wagon.

For finance, you can also refi something you already own. I know that AAA does it. And some banks. No clue if you will actually save money on it though. I am spoiled with .99% on one car (only reason I haven't paid it off) and 0% on the other (definitely not paying that off!)

our mortgage is the big interest generator, at a whopping 2.25% or something like that.

fintail

Refi, that slipped my mind, may be an option - equity won't be a problem.

Funny, I bought my house less than 6 months ago, and I am already getting refi offers - yeah, beat 2.75%.

stickguy said:

fin is buying out the lease on the E class wagon.

For finance, you can also refi something you already own. I know that AAA does it. And some banks. No clue if you will actually save money on it though. I am spoiled with .99% on one car (only reason I haven't paid it off) and 0% on the other (definitely not paying that off!)

our mortgage is the big interest generator, at a whopping 2.25% or something like that.

qbrozen

Feels like working with one hand behind my back with not having Manheim numbers. I have to he like some regular schmoe and go by national asking prices. Ew.

I discovered something interesting. There are 2020 S90 AWD t6 non-CPO out there for what many volvo dealers are asking for 2018 CPO. Our current frontrunner CPO has a $34k pricetag, which ain’t bad based on national asking prices. But I found a 2020 at a Toyota dealer for $38k. I think that’s a winner. Has the factory warranty for another 2.5 years. Not too shabby at all.

stickguy

I was gonna say, why do you care about CPO? Won't matter unless you want to keep it out of warranty and that seems unlikely on a 2020. 2.5 years BtB, then a couple more powertrain? Seems like worth saving the couple $k and rolling with that coverage.

qbrozen

@stickguy said:
I was gonna say, why do you care about CPO? Won't matter unless you want to keep it out of warranty and that seems unlikely on a 2020. 2.5 years BtB, then a couple more powertrain? Seems like worth saving the couple $k and rolling with that coverage.

She wants warranty. Her car, her rules.

Both b2b and powertrain were 4/50k. Car went into service 8/2020.

Nice thing on volvo cpo is you can buy it up to 10y/unlimited miles, if so inclined. Standard is 5/unlimited.

corvette

@stickguy - I had no clue AAA offered financing. Their rates look decent, too.

@fintail - I have an out of state rental property I bought a couple years ago. Not long enough ago to pay down the loan that much. And I've started getting aggressive marketing from the loan servicer for a refi. Now, rates are not lower now, so they aren't offering a lower rate. Their "hook" is that, due to appreciation, I can do a cash out refi and maybe pocket $10,000 or so. Never mind that the rate will go up, that I will pay probably $2-3,000 in closing costs, and that the clock on the 28 years remaining on the loan will reset to 30 years. When you consider all that, they are offering the equivalent of a payday loan.

stickguy

you can buy that warranty by itself though, right? I never shopped it but I do recall people talking about the longer unlimited miles CPO. Would not mean much to me though.

qbrozen

I was trying to find Volvos rules on who can buy their warranties, but no luck so far. Meaning, for example, only the original owner, which is often the case with other brands.

Michaell

Yesterday, I had breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. @breld, and they drove the Bronco. They were kind enough for me to give it a short test drive after we ate. My impressions:

1. It's not nearly as big as I thought it would be.
2. The engine is certainly powerful enough for the use case - I didn't get to really open it up (we were in a business park), but I didn't notice a lack of power at half throttle.
3. Even with the fabric top, it was pretty quiet inside. We didn't have to raise our voices to be heard.
4. I haven't ridden in a Wrangler for 30 years, so I can't compare the two, but I felt the ride was compliant in the Bronco. No, it's not a daily driver, unless you are a hard core off roader and this is your only car.

Overall, it's a great compliment to the M340i that Mrs. @breld can swap between.

And, I love the color.

stickguy

I think the 2 door looks a lot cooler. More old school too, and not as bulky. I saw one out driving yesterday, a door cloth top in a dark green color, with steelies. Very retro looking.

28firefighter

Premium at Costco is up over 4.50 a gallon as of yesterday. I’m expecting it to hit 5 today when they open.

au1994

@fintail, with the instant equity are you going to flip or hang on to it? Its a rare bird if I recall from when you got it.

au1994

28firefighter said:

Premium at Costco is up over 4.50 a gallon as of yesterday. I’m expecting it to hit 5 today when they open.

Ouch. I expect us to hit over 4 early this week.

fintail

Probably keep it at least for now. Not much out there (that I could actually afford) that I would want. If things keep on keeping on, it should have positive equity through the term of the loan.

au1994 said:

@fintail, with the instant equity are you going to flip or hang on to it? Its a rare bird if I recall from when you got it.

fintail

With values in my area soaring by an average of maybe 20% YOY for the past 6 or 7 years (online estimator sites already have it about 10% more than I paid), I am sure a cash out is what they think I'll go for, too. Like you, no thanks, I don't want to reset the term, and at maybe a significantly higher rate.

corvette said:

@stickguy - I had no clue AAA offered financing. Their rates look decent, too.

@fintail - I have an out of state rental property I bought a couple years ago. Not long enough ago to pay down the loan that much. And I've started getting aggressive marketing from the loan servicer for a refi. Now, rates are not lower now, so they aren't offering a lower rate. Their "hook" is that, due to appreciation, I can do a cash out refi and maybe pocket $10,000 or so. Never mind that the rate will go up, that I will pay probably $2-3,000 in closing costs, and that the clock on the 28 years remaining on the loan will reset to 30 years. When you consider all that, they are offering the equivalent of a payday loan.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

fin is buying out the lease on the E class wagon.

For finance, you can also refi something you already own. I know that AAA does it. And some banks. No clue if you will actually save money on it though. I am spoiled with .99% on one car (only reason I haven't paid it off) and 0% on the other (definitely not paying that off!)

our mortgage is the big interest generator, at a whopping 2.25% or something like that.

My FICO score dropped 40 points as soon as I paid off my car loan. They suggested I take out another car loan or mortgage so that they could then loan me even more money. Go figure.

au1994

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

fin is buying out the lease on the E class wagon.

For finance, you can also refi something you already own. I know that AAA does it. And some banks. No clue if you will actually save money on it though. I am spoiled with .99% on one car (only reason I haven't paid it off) and 0% on the other (definitely not paying that off!)

our mortgage is the big interest generator, at a whopping 2.25% or something like that.

My FICO score dropped 40 points as soon as I paid off my car loan. They suggested I take out another car loan or mortgage so that they could then loan me even more money. Go figure.

Thats happened to both my wife and I over the years. I call it the darned if you do, darned if you don’t clause of credit. Too much on credit, no soup for you! Not enough on credit, no soup for you!

oldfarmer50

corvette said:

@stickguy - I had no clue AAA offered financing. Their rates look decent, too.

@fintail - I have an out of state rental property I bought a couple years ago. Not long enough ago to pay down the loan that much. And I've started getting aggressive marketing from the loan servicer for a refi. Now, rates are not lower now, so they aren't offering a lower rate. Their "hook" is that, due to appreciation, I can do a cash out refi and maybe pocket $10,000 or so. Never mind that the rate will go up, that I will pay probably $2-3,000 in closing costs, and that the clock on the 28 years remaining on the loan will reset to 30 years. When you consider all that, they are offering the equivalent of a payday loan.

A lot of people fall for the payday loan scam. You could go buy lots of lottery scratchers with the money.

breld

Nice choice on the S90 @qbrozen. I’ve always thought it’s quite the sleeper option, as long as you like a sedan.

Pay attention to the brake feel - the pads seem to be be notorious for irregular wearing early on. Slowing down at higher speeds may result in some very noticeable shuddering. My V90 exhibited that on a road trip, and the dealer ended up replacing them under warranty with no fuss.

tjc78

breld said:

Nice choice on the S90 @qbrozen. I’ve always thought it’s quite the sleeper option, as long as you like a sedan.

Pay attention to the brake feel - the pads seem to be be notorious for irregular wearing early on. Slowing down at higher speeds may result in some very noticeable shuddering. My V90 exhibited that on a road trip, and the dealer ended up replacing them under warranty with no fuss.

Both of my Volvos have a little brake shudder at speeds over 75 and the S60 squeals a bit. So be it. I’m hard on brakes so I’m partly to blame. I warped the rotors on both Enclaves before 20k miles.

@qbrozen
A rental S90 is what got me into Volvo. Very nice car. For awhile in 2019 there were screaming lease deals if you could stack Costco.

henryn

Credit scores are strange creatures. Two years ago, I was over 800 on Fico and Vantage. Right now, I’m running about a hundred points lower on each. I have no debt, I owe no one. The difference? Two years ago, my only credit card was an Amex. Since then, I have opened and closed 4 different credit card accounts, and in every case made cold hard cash by doing so.

I’ll take the hit on the credit score in order to pocket the money.

I just shifted from the Amex green card that I’ve had since 1984 to the new Amex BlueCash Preferred card. The green card was better for travel, but I’m not traveling these days, and the Blue preferred gives me 6% back at the grocery store, and I definitely buy groceries. And the annual fee drops from $150 to $95. And I forgot that I do still have the Amazon Visa card. I don’t carry it, it’s locked in the small safe, but I use it on Amazon for 5% rewards. And yes, I spend a fair bit on Amazon. My two biggest monthly expenditures are now netting me 6% and 5% rewards.

kyfdx

henryn said:

Credit scores are strange creatures. Two years ago, I was over 800 on Fico and Vantage. Right now, I’m running about a hundred points lower on each. I have no debt, I owe no one. The difference? Two years ago, my only credit card was an Amex. Since then, I have opened and closed 4 different credit card accounts, and in every case made cold hard cash by doing so.

I’ll take the hit on the credit score in order to pocket the money.

I just shifted from the Amex green card that I’ve had since 1984 to the new Amex BlueCash Preferred card. The green card was better for travel, but I’m not traveling these days, and the Blue preferred gives me 6% back at the grocery store, and I definitely buy groceries. And the annual fee drops from $150 to $95. And I forgot that I do still have the Amazon Visa card. I don’t carry it, it’s locked in the small safe, but I use it on Amazon for 5% rewards. And yes, I spend a fair bit on Amazon. My two biggest monthly expenditures are now netting me 6% and 5% rewards.

I have that same AMEX card.

qbrozen

@breld said:
Nice choice on the S90 @qbrozen. I’ve always thought it’s quite the sleeper option, as long as you like a sedan.

Pay attention to the brake feel - the pads seem to be be notorious for irregular wearing early on. Slowing down at higher speeds may result in some very noticeable shuddering. My V90 exhibited that on a road trip, and the dealer ended up replacing them under warranty with no fuss.

Thanks.
Maybe they sourced their brakes from Chrysler. Ha. Aftermarket rotors and pads fixed that problem on both our T&Cs.

ab348

Up here in Canada I used to have an Amazon Visa card, issued by Chase. It provided a similar 5% back IIRC and I liked it. Oddly, Chase decided to get out of the credit card business up here and Amazon of course discontinued the card. Even more oddly, Chase just ate the loss by not trying to collect any outstanding balances owed to them after a few months of discontinuing the card (wish I had known about that before I made my final payment). After some period of time without a branded card, they returned with an Amazon Mastercard from MBNA, but now only offer 2.5% back, and MBNA has a less than stellar reputation at least in my mind, so I didn't bother with it.

henryn

I never heard of MBNA, is that Canadian?

Yes, apparently so, googled it and got "mbna.ca".

roadburner

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

fin is buying out the lease on the E class wagon.

For finance, you can also refi something you already own. I know that AAA does it. And some banks. No clue if you will actually save money on it though. I am spoiled with .99% on one car (only reason I haven't paid it off) and 0% on the other (definitely not paying that off!)

our mortgage is the big interest generator, at a whopping 2.25% or something like that.

My FICO score dropped 40 points as soon as I paid off my car loan. They suggested I take out another car loan or mortgage so that they could then loan me even more money. Go figure.

Same here; my FICO dropped when I paid the X1 off early...

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

Up here in Canada I used to have an Amazon Visa card, issued by Chase. It provided a similar 5% back IIRC and I liked it. Oddly, Chase decided to get out of the credit card business up here and Amazon of course discontinued the card. Even more oddly, Chase just ate the loss by not trying to collect any outstanding balances owed to them after a few months of discontinuing the card (wish I had known about that before I made my final payment). After some period of time without a branded card, they returned with an Amazon Mastercard from MBNA, but now only offer 2.5% back, and MBNA has a less than stellar reputation at least in my mind, so I didn't bother with it.

I only have two cards, one I’ve had for nearly 40 years. That one I don’t use any more because of some company policies with which I disagree. To close it now would cause a big credit score hit so I just let it float like a zombie. I never buy anything based on points as I would feel like I was being manipulated.

Mostly I just use cash as I know it frustrates the CIA’s efforts to track me.

henryn

oldfarmer50 said:

ab348 said:

Up here in Canada I used to have an Amazon Visa card, issued by Chase. It provided a similar 5% back IIRC and I liked it. Oddly, Chase decided to get out of the credit card business up here and Amazon of course discontinued the card. Even more oddly, Chase just ate the loss by not trying to collect any outstanding balances owed to them after a few months of discontinuing the card (wish I had known about that before I made my final payment). After some period of time without a branded card, they returned with an Amazon Mastercard from MBNA, but now only offer 2.5% back, and MBNA has a less than stellar reputation at least in my mind, so I didn't bother with it.

I only have two cards, one I’ve had for nearly 40 years. That one I don’t use any more because of some company policies with which I disagree. To close it now would cause a big credit score hit so I just let it float like a zombie. I never buy anything based on points as I would feel like I was being manipulated.

Mostly I just use cash as I know it frustrates the CIA’s efforts to track me.

Yes, but anytime you forget to wear the tin foil hat, they can still track the chip implanted in your head using their satellites.

oldfarmer50

henryn said:

oldfarmer50 said:

ab348 said:

Up here in Canada I used to have an Amazon Visa card, issued by Chase. It provided a similar 5% back IIRC and I liked it. Oddly, Chase decided to get out of the credit card business up here and Amazon of course discontinued the card. Even more oddly, Chase just ate the loss by not trying to collect any outstanding balances owed to them after a few months of discontinuing the card (wish I had known about that before I made my final payment). After some period of time without a branded card, they returned with an Amazon Mastercard from MBNA, but now only offer 2.5% back, and MBNA has a less than stellar reputation at least in my mind, so I didn't bother with it.

I only have two cards, one I’ve had for nearly 40 years. That one I don’t use any more because of some company policies with which I disagree. To close it now would cause a big credit score hit so I just let it float like a zombie. I never buy anything based on points as I would feel like I was being manipulated.

Mostly I just use cash as I know it frustrates the CIA’s efforts to track me.

Yes, but anytime you forget to wear the tin foil hat, they can still track the chip implanted in your head using their satellites.

Actually, I think I can relax a little bit since I hear they are concentrating on a poster who claims he cheats on his taxes.

explorerx4

When they changed the bills years ago, it was to implant trackers in the cash.

corvette

roadburner said:

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

fin is buying out the lease on the E class wagon.

For finance, you can also refi something you already own. I know that AAA does it. And some banks. No clue if you will actually save money on it though. I am spoiled with .99% on one car (only reason I haven't paid it off) and 0% on the other (definitely not paying that off!)

our mortgage is the big interest generator, at a whopping 2.25% or something like that.

My FICO score dropped 40 points as soon as I paid off my car loan. They suggested I take out another car loan or mortgage so that they could then loan me even more money. Go figure.

Same here; my FICO dropped when I paid the X1 off early...

You're a bad credit risk because they know you will pay off the loan early and deprive them of interest charges rather than riding it out like most people do.