Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

fezo

Don't do that to me!

I hear you about the minivan. I'm all minivaned out and the older kids can drive which has more or less meant that we never need the van. it's still got a year of payments though so I think it will be next year before I do something about it. I'm getting close to having enough in the car fund to just pay it off but for now I'll keep adding to that fund and wait out the year.

michaellno

Heck, you have a RAV4? Why would you need more room than that?

Hello, it gives them an opportunity to shop!

What are you, anti-CCBA all of a sudden? :P

qbrozen

oh no. I didn't mean that. I just hate to think of someone wasting CCB effort on a minivan.

michaellno

I just hate to think of someone wasting CCB effort on a minivan.

Yeah, but this is anon and gee we're talking about here. They'd buy / sell if the Braves lost on a particular Tuesday.

Also, are you suggesting that the Odyssey is the only minivan worth considering?

stickguy

I am pretty well done with that phase. We really don't need the people room anymore (on the rare times we have overflow, someone else could drive, or take 2 cars). And while we fill it up a couple times a year (vacation, and to/from college), well, people just have to learn to pack a lot lighter (my wife always wildly overpacks, partly because there is "plenty of room" in the van!).

I do need a utility vehicle, but a crossover or wagon would do fine, with the roof back in a pinch. Sat in a CRV today, that was nice.

and IMO, if you want a full size minivan (how is that for an oxymoron?), I highly recommend going with the sienna.

when we got our first, it was the new style (1995?) Chrysler (first year with dual doors), but it was the SWB. Not overly large (lengthwise, it was actually shorter than my Accord!)

The US needs another van like that. Bigger than the 5, but smaller than the behemoths. Something like the JDM Osyssey varient.

anonymousposts

We actually thought of the Mazda 5. We drove one and gee barely fit as a driver and it was even tighter on the passenger side.

Its not that the Odyssey is the "only" minivan. We like the new Sienna, but we can buy this Odyssey for $15,000.

The rav4 is nice but with gee being so tall, there isn't a whole lot of room behind him. And you can forget the Is250... it has about as much interior room as an old civic.

We had our appointment today, I am almost 2 months along already. It all seems surreal at this point.

qbrozen

Yeah, I barely fit as a driver in the 5... but its my wife's car. I only drive on the weekends and no long trips. It is passable. I find the passenger side comfy enough. Comfier than the driver's side since I don't have to worry about driving position. And since the 2nd row slides, when there is just us and kids in the car, they are all the way back, leaving plenty of room to slide the front seats all the way back, too.

Just recently, we had my wife and I, our toddler and baby, and my 2 teenage nephews all in the car for a 90 minute drive. Nobody complained.

Tell ya what, the GTI I drove has incredible room in it. I could get very comfy in the driver's seat and there is still room for an adult to sit behind me. The boot could be a problem if I wanted to fit a big stroller AND groceries, however. But maybe a Jetta or even Passat wagon could suit you. Lightly used ones are in the mid teens.

jayrider

Rented a 2009 pt cruiser with 30k miles in San Francisco this week. Wouldn't buy one but it ran fine on the freeway and out to Halfmoon Bay. Took the hills and curves nicely. Very solid -- no rattles or squeaks. Engine and trans could be a bit smoother and a set of bilsteins would be nice. Probably would cost chrysler very little to make this car into a great driver but it never crosses their mind to spend a nickle more. That's why their lineup doesn't get attention or sales.

anonymousposts

gee is in love with the Odyssey. Looks like we will buy it and put the RAV4 in the local classifieds. Now he just has to make a decision on his IS250. Looks like we would have positive equity in a private sale and break even in a trade. I am in favor of selling it and buying a cheaper fun car for gee to have. A 06 330 manual or G35 would be much cheaper and just as fun for him as the Lexus.

gouldn

I had the chance to drive a friend's Mini Cooper S today. Mind you I haven't touched a stick shift car since I traded my Audi in 2000. Even after 10 years, it was as easy as when I left off. Nice car too, prolly shouldn't have accepted the offer. Now I'm all hot and bothered to get a small stick-shift runabout as a 3rd car.

The gearbox was super smooth on that car ... have stick shifts gotten better, or did I always buy clunky ones? The stick shift cars I had were a Volvo 240, Nissan Stanza, 1990 Honda Accord (absolutely horrible stick shift ... notchy and the clutch engaged with the finesse of a circuit breaker), and an Audi 90s

fezo

What is it with Honda and stick shifts? My 80 and 85 Accords had just wonderful sticks but the 00 is sticks and just not up to the former standards.

kyfdx

MINI sticks are awesome.... Plus, great seats...

'82 Accord was positively the best stick, clutch, throttle combo I've ever had, tried, seen, etc........ Darn near perfect... Everything would suck compared to that..

corvette

The MINI stick shift doesn't have much of a throw from 1st to 3rd or 3rd to 5th. Almost did a "money shift" on one... The 3-series and (I think) the Mustang won't let ham-fisted guys like me shift into 1st above 10 MPH, the MINI didn't seem to have that feature.

kyfdx

The big drawback of 6-speeds, is that you need four gates horizontally... Personally, I'm happy with just five gears... I like reverse to be right and down, below 5th... (or, like in old Datsuns and old 3-speeds, straight up above, with 1st below)..

My new car has a 6-speed, and I keep forgetting where to find reverse, and also find myself cruising in 5th, instead of 6th...

anonymousposts

The best manual I have driven recently is the one in my 09 Accord EX. It was direct, smooth, and great clutch take up. The manual in Gee's IS250 is average. It is vague and the throws are kind of long for a sporty car.

michaellno

A quick rundown of the manual transmission cars I've owned over the years:

'79 Pontiac Sunbird (2.5L "Iron Duke", 4-speed) - not bad, but then, I was a young adult, so what did I know? Long throws between gears.

'85 Honda Accord LX - my first 5-speed; as ky noted above, just about perfect in all respects

'86 Isuzu P'up - hey, it's a truck, what do you expect? I commuted to LA one summer in it. Very, very long throws - 1st to 2nd took you from the dashboard to the seat, it seemed like.

'91 Nissan Sentra SE - almost as good as the Accord; I could change gears with one finger.

'93 Honda Accord DX - still not too bad of a combination after 8 years of development

'97 Ford Escort LX - wife wanted a stick shift; nothing stands out about it

'99 VW New Beetle - not as nice as the Ford; a bit notchy between the gears

'03 Ford Focus ZX5 - wow, what fun! Ford really had their poop in a group with this one. So much fun to shift, even though (typical Ford) there was no redline on the tach.

qbrozen

I don't know what it is, but all the one's I like have ridiculous asking prices.

That one is a good $5k over trade-in. Not sure I could get them to knock $2500 off their price to make me happy. Found a nice blue '02 with only 40k miles... asking $15k! A hefty $6k-$7k over wholesale.

stickguy

geez, what happened to the GTI? I even saw one yesterday, if you like all black, including the wheels, and a2 door! No comment on the price.

http://www.echelonford.com/VehicleDetails/708408723

Also, that BMW is really nice looking. Other than the tad high miles, I like it.

Plus, it is about 5 miles from my house. So, if you want me to take a look at it (and feel out the place), let me know. I can be there in 10 minutes! And really, I don't mind going.

qbrozen

I still want the GTI, but haven't found one yet, so I'm still shopping. :P

Odd how an '06 325i value is so close to an '06 GTI. And here I thought VWs depreciated harshly. :confuse:

I really don't want black on black. Found a gorgeous metallic red '06 bimmer... but its in NYC, which I try to avoid at all costs.

jayrider

Go to cargurus.com -- they give you a good vs bad price on listings. Saw an 08 GTI for $15900 stick with 18k miles . In Fla but you can do local searches. There are tons of 2009-10's way over priced. Fun to search.

guss

I have been lusting after GTI's since the 4 doors came out. The 2 door is much better looking but I need the 4. Go figure, I am 47 and I am still looking at pocket rockets. Used prices are a bit ridiculous, I wonder if the 4 doors are any cheaper used. it eliminates the under 30 crowd that will overpay for them.

A friend of mine just picked up a blue 2011 Buick Regal. Buick is definitely going for a Lexus look with the styling. It handles better than any Buick I have ever been in. The only downside was the smell from the glue used on the headliner. Buick is already replacing them.

qbrozen

Base trade-in on the 4-door is just $200 more than the 2-door.

I'm heading out now to PA to check on an '07 4-door with 52k miles.

kyfdx

Funny.... I like the looks of the 4-door, more...

jayrider

You have excellent taste.

qbrozen

it was a real difficult process (that ain't exactly over yet) but I brought this one home today.

I'll write more when the kids are in bed and out of my hair.

Sandman6472

Sweet vehicle there! Does this mean the V50 is history?

The Sandman :sick: :shades:

qbrozen

thanks.

Yes, I traded in the V70. Overall, I didn't get quite the deal I was shooting for. Paid $475 more than the final target I had in my head when I walked in. Oh well. Let's just hope I'm happy with this car for a long time to come.

Interesting thing happened on the way there, though. It seems I wound up smack dab in the middle of 3 cars taking part in a season of BullRun. Just as I got on the NJ Turnpike heading south, in heavy traffic, a red IS350 went past me in the middle lane. I noticed it because it had graphics on it, and one of those on the back said Bullrun.com. I thought, "huh. what a weird sticker to put on your car." Then, 2 seconds later, a dark grey new Camaro went by, even more stickers on this one, and the same BullRun one on the rear. Then a third... this one a white Discovery II.

It had just started raining and the Lexus and Camaro were trying to zip in and out of traffic. I decided to catch up and snap a few pics. I was going to post them, but you can't make out any of the stickers given it was with a cell phone, at 70mph, in the rain. The Land Rover gave up trying to be slick and resolved to putter along in traffic. I decided to follow the Camaro and Lexus, letting them be my fuzz detectors. We were soon joined by a Maxima from New York. The 4 of us steadily travelled 85-90 all the way down to the PA border. When we hit the toll at the end of the bridge, the 3 who weren't familiar with the area made the wrong decision and got stuck while I breezed through in the right lane. I let them catch up to me not long after on the PA turnpike. They then stayed behind me for the next 10 miles or so. I took them back up to 90 and led the way through until it was time for me to exit.

Made for a relatively quick and interesting drive.

So there's my brush with the lowest level of fame possible. If you watch whatever season that may be and you see a moondust V70 T5, you can say "I know that guy!" :P

qbrozen

so the deal isn't quite done. After standing around for 3 hours, I was informed they couldn't find the title! They decided to put a dealer plate on the car and let me take it home. Then I have to go back to settle everything next week.

In the meantime, though, I can arrange financing with my credit union. So I guess no big deal. It also gave me 3 hours to observe many sales stories at a Land Rover/Jag shop. Some funny stuff happens there. I'll have to post some on the Sales Stories board.

anonymousposts

The GTI is on gee's short list of cars to replace the is.... IF he decides to sell it.

qbrozen

stickguy... check this out.

Wife found it AFTER I bought the GTI. No sport pack, but if its clean and no accidents, that's a heck of a deal. Only $1k over high wholesale.

oregonboy

That BMW looks almost TOO good. I would want to check it very carefully for signs for damage repairs. :surprise:

I watched last season's "Bullrun" on Hulu.com and found it moderately entertaining although it has way too much hype. I found it very suspicious that there were no AWD, hi-performance vehicles in the mix, as they would have dominated the "challenges" , which were mostly on low-traction surfaces. :shades:

roadburner

Nice GTI- and I love the retro plaid seats!

fezo

Let's just hope I'm happy with this car for a long time to come.

Yeah, right! You're worse than Jolie!

michaellno

My wife is taking some college classes in Colorado Springs this summer - Saturdays and Sundays for the next 6 weekends.

I decided to spend the evening with her and booked a hotel room. Got in a bit early, had some time to kill, so I went and test drove this.

Nice ride .. had a sticker on it for $28.8K, not the $31.6K in the ad. I've no idea if this is a good price; the 4/50 warranty would be up in 01/11 and the CPO warranty expires 01/13.

I hadn't driven a stick in a few years, so it took me a bit to get comfortable with the clutch and shifter.

Nice, nice car, but it totally reinforced the fact that I want a roadster or a 'vert as my 'toy'. Also, not sure that I'd want AWD either, since we've got the VUE to handle winter duty.

q - congrats on the GTI! I've always thought they were a great combination of fun and practicality.

qbrozen

thanks, michaell.

That's an absurd price on that bimmer. It is worth all of $19k on a trade (give or take a nickel). Even as a CPO, $24k should be plenty. Now, I'm on the east coast, but the zip code differential certainly doesn't amount to $5k.

stickguy

nice GTI. I give it 3 months tops, but enjoy it while you have it.

and thanks for the BMW. Not gonna spend that much coin at the moment, but I do like the car. Other than the color, since I cna't see myself with bright red.

I also don't care about the sport pack, especially on that body style. The primary things I liked about the older ones were the 3 spoke wheel (get that now on the base) and the seats with the thigh extension. But, I seem to remember the base seats now being fine.

I also prefer the smaller wheels and higher profile tires, to deal with the crappy A roads around here. The base suspension is plenty sporty enough for me!

That car in dark blue, dark green, or a nice metalic gray/blue would be much more appealing.

Not all that far from me (2o minutes or so). Not familiar with that dealer, but there are a bunch of small operations in that area. A few are good, but many I would not step foot into. Problem is, I am not always sure which is which!

qbrozen

Do we have an official mantra around here? It should be something along the lines of "I swear, this time, I will own this car until I pay it off!"

guss

Do we have an official mantra around here?

or

"Really, I can quit looking at buying cars any time I want to. I just choose not to."

Very nice Gti. After your postings about Gti's, I did a quick search of my area and that one was one of the leading candidates if I was looking to buy.

A friend of mine worked at that dealership a few years ago and said they were pretty good to work for. They did not play alot of games like the Toyota dealership he was at before going there.

michaellno

That's an absurd price on that bimmer. It is worth all of $19k on a trade (give or take a nickel). Even as a CPO, $24k should be plenty. Now, I'm on the east coast, but the zip code differential certainly doesn't amount to $5k.

Seriously? What's funny is that $25K is the self imposed limit I'm setting for myself when / if I get around to doing this - perhaps in 2-3 years, which is why I'm leaning towards CPO / used 3-series or Mustang 'verts.

This same dealer also had a few CPO Z4's on the lot; I think one of them was a manual. He also showed me a $97K X5 M on the showroom floor. Gad, it looked like something that had been run through West Coast Customs.

But, it was a fun way to kill an hour. Salesman was very nice; he was telling me how he just bought a Gen I MR2 to commute in, and the Gen I RX7 he owned when he first moved to Colorado back in '95 (from Vermont, of all places). Dude had some good knowledge on the product.

lemmer

I made it just over a year without buying anything. My wife wanted another convertible, so I picked up a really nice silver '99 Miata over the weekend. I haven't sold anything, so I am out of garage places with four cars now. We'll see how long this goes on before my wife gets annoyed.

corvette

For what it's worth, PenFed dropped their auto loan rate to 2.99%. I mean, that's almost like paying you to borrow money to buy a car, right? (I know, I'm an enabler...)

michaellno

For what it's worth, PenFed dropped their auto loan rate to 2.99%.

Wow, the daughter and I got 3.75% when we bought the MINI, which I thought was a pretty decent rate.

qbrozen

huh. Better than my CU. They are 3.99% to 48mos, 4.49 to 66 mos, and 4.99 beyond that.

qbrozen

congrats, lem. So you have 4 garage spaces? lucky you!

I still have 5 cars at the moment (2 garage spaces), but will be offering the 300Z for sale soon. So I'll be back to a reasonable 4.

Speaking of verts, now that we have his Saab, my dad replaced it this weekend. He picked up an '01 CLK320 droptop with 118k miles. Paid too much, as usual. Drives nice, though.

lemmer

No, I actually only have 3 spots and one small spot I use for our golf cart. I could probably add another interior spot if I moved some exercise equipment and tools.

My wife considers the Miata temporary until I have time to find the perfect BMW convertible. At that time, I'll probably have to get rid of my 944 or the Miata. That will be a tough choice to make.

fezo

You cant fool me. If you sell the 300Z you'll start looking again. Not that that's a bad thing....

When we bought the Camry for the Mrs. they had 2.9% financing. I ended up financing the whole thing. Cheap money.

kyfdx

But, one of them goes back in a couple of weeks.. It will make for a lot less car shuffling....

akangl

Three years with the Pilot. Hard to believe I've had it that long and still enjoy driving it. Its sitting right at 57,500 miles, which is kinda low for me, lol. No real issues other then brakes, normal maintenance stuff, and one driver's side headlamp bulb, can't beat that for reliability!

It also took me nearly the entire 3 years to get a speeding ticket......thank you Pilot for your love of 80-90 mph and that wonderful speeding ticket I got on saturday. Nothing like my radar detector going off a split second too late and the cop rolling off the overpass. He got me at 87 in a 65, knocked it down to 84 in a 65 and added 1 beautiful expired registration ticket to it, grand total.....$262. Don't ask about the reg, lol, its a long story that will be resolved soon.

So, who has bets that I'll make it to 4 years with the Pilot? :P

grandtotal

So, who has bets that I'll make it to 4 years with the Pilot?

Not a chance. I'm thinking that you'll start obsessing that now that the Pilot is out of warranty you may get stuck with a large bill for replacing a failed seat back adjuster and just have to trade it for a much more reliable 5 year old Suburban.

anonymousposts

Gee is still struggling with whether to sell the IS250. He is now saying that he could part with it in favor of a Mini Cooper. He says all he needs is a base model with a manual and a sunroof. He is thinking of a 02-04, from looking at the prices, I think he may be better off just buying a new one. I found a nice 06 with 49k with manual, panoramic roof, and sport package. But they want $15,000 for it private owner? Seems a bit high to me.