Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

explorerx4

@nyccarguy,
You're carrying a lot of weight but just keep plugging along. Hoping everything with you and your family improve as things move forward. I'll keep you in my prayers. Hopefully petitions from Catholics count.

28firefighter

My Jeep has finally gone to D1 - after 14 weeks.

sda

What is D1? I assume forward progress

28firefighter

It means it’s finally scheduled for build. So yes, big forward progress!

xwesx

andres3 said:

Your garage is bigger than some houses in San Diego.

Definitely bigger than my house! Cleaner, too! LOL

xwesx

ab348 said:

Let me join in the well-wishes and hopes for better things on the horizon, @nyccarguy - it sounds like you have been put through the mill. I wish I had some magic fix to suggest.

Same here. My initial thought is always to crack a joke to lighten the mood, but somehow I have a feeling it would go over like a lead balloon given the gravity of the circumstances.

jmonroe1

andres3 said:

breld said:

It’s like I got one of the paint palette cards from Home Depot and only stuck with that family of colors for the garage. Wife is at a retreat tonight, but her Mineral Gray fits right in.

Your garage is bigger than some houses in San Diego.

And a couple of 3 car dealership showrooms I remember when I was a kid in the middle of the last century.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

@nyccarguy, that is a lot to be going through at one time. You’re going about getting help for your family the right way. As for calling the welfare police on you that is sheer bureaucratic incompetence and is proof of what power can do when in the wrong hands.

You have the the ears of your poster buddies when you want to vent.

Best of luck to you and your family.

jmonroe

explorerx4

Connecticut can feel pretty small. Sometimes it feels like it mimics Peyton Place.

roadburner

nyccarguy said:

Michaell said:

nyccarguy said:

Congrats @breld !

As you have added to your fleet, I have subtracted. We officially said goodbye to our 2017 Pilot Touring AWD this evening. 4 years, 3 months, 88,001 miles.

Another signature update is requested.

Done. Just a quick post about gas mileage for this beautiful Friday AM. I filled up the Highlander last night. Keep in mind that my wife still has not returned to work since getting sick from Covid in January. 16.3 MPG average. I filled up the Jeep this AM 27.5 mpg.

I haven't shared much of anything that's been going on with my life and family since January. It is honestly too much to type and I'm sure I'm going to leave a lot out. Literally the day Covid symptoms hit my wife, my Dad (Whom I am in business with) broke his ankle. So I have a small business to run and can't be home to take care of my wife or help her get our children (15, 13, & 10) off to their 3 different schools in the AM. My wife is currently suffering from Long Covid Symtoms. She has been diagnosed with PTSD, Anxiety, & Depression. Along with medication, she currently sees a private Therapist 1x a week and is enrolled in an IOP (Intensive Outpatient Program) Group Therapy 3 days a week for 4 hours. Her anxiety is so bad that is causing her to have chest pressure. Twice she has been to the hospital because she thought she was having a heart attack.

My 13 year old son was having difficulties at school which he didn't tell us about. As far as we know, nothing was directly happening to him. The middle school we are districted for has a lot of students that attend the school from less desirable parts of our fair city. Many of these children were literally watching TV, You Tube, or playing video games for the past 2+ years while the schools were all remote, then transitioned to Hybrid. Since many of these students suffered educational loss, the district decided to eliminate the honors program and make every kid an honors student. They call it Honors for all. My 7th Grader has been an Honors student (he gets his brains and good looks from my wife). The teachers spent a significant amount of time disciplining the kids and reviewing material that my son learned in 5th grade. Aside from being disruptive in the classroom, these kids are also very loud and physical with each other in the hallways in-between classes. My son has some sort of hyper sensitivity sensory issue going on. The fighting in the hallways and other kids being disruptive in the class made him not want to go to school. As crazy as this sounds, he was diagnosed with a condition called "school refusal" in addition to anxiety and depression. He missed 20+ days of school. So while my wife was sick with Covid, she spent hours trying to wake my son up and get him to school. He was literally sleeping for 12 - 15 hours and not eating. We fought with the school and the school district to get my son transferred to another middle school and were successful. This brought on its own set of problems. My wife went over one of the associate superintendent's head to get our son the help and change he needed. This didn't sit well with this woman who attended the transition meeting and proceeded to call DCF (Department of Child & Family Services) on us. This only added to my wife's anxiety problem. My wife is the PTO President at our daughter's school and had to leave a PTO event she was running to meet the DCS worker at our house with 20 minutes notice on a Friday when she was supposed to be away for a Temple women's retreat. Due to the volume of children with mental health issues we haven't been able to get my son a Therapist until last week.

Last year, my older son (now 15 and a sophmore) suffered a severe concussion while playing ice hockey last year. While he has recovered physically from the concussion, it uncovered some severe anxiety and depression issues he was having. He's been in Therapy for a little over a year now. Since his concussion, we have been trying to figure out that something was "off" with him. He was recently diagnosed as being on the Autism Spectrum. We had to pay for testing which was expensive and hire a lawyer to help us navigate the school district's "Special Education" gauntlet. We have been fighting with the district for help and there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel.

Our 10 year old daughter has had issues with other children bullying her at school. She is currently seeing a Therapist and has been suffering from anxiety and depression.

You will be in my prayers nyccarguy, that is a lot of issues to have to deal with. I caught flak from the media for sending beyond control juvenile delinquents to detention; what wasn't mentioned was how these "poor kids" ruined the educational experience for the kids who wanted to learn.

[Deleted User]

Prayers for you and the family @nyccarguy, things are tough enough already for kids these days.

mlevine

nyccarguy,
Sorry to hear about your family issues. The long covid syndrome is a difficult issue and is real. As the understanding of covid is still unknown, it can be frustrating as how to treat this. I think it is a waiting game for the recovery and continue to be supportive. I deal with people who have lung and heart post covid issues and the best thing is to be positive. I have seen people get better. I also believe your children's issues are covid related to due disruption of the teenage years. They may also have post covid syndrome as I have seen a lot of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Again it is a waiting game and try to be supportive. Try and remain positive and thanks for sharing your story.

nyccarguy

Thanks everybody again for listening and for your kind words. I do get time for myself here and there. The Jeep helps. The fresh air coming into the cabin when the roof is open is very soothing. This evening on my way home, I set the adaptive cruise at 60. I relaxed and enjoyed the drive. Lithium (Sirius/XM 34) helps too. As does Star Wars. Checking this board multiple times a day helps too. Cheers to my Chronic Car Buyer friends!

Sandman6472

Sorry to read about your family's issues these past few months. It took me awhile to read and re-read your post as it really got to me. I know if you're like me, my wife & kids come first, no matter what. When they are in crisis, all I can do or think about is taking care of them & getting any problems resolved. There are three things in my life that I won't let anyone mess with, my wife & kids being #1 on that list! And from reading your post, betting you are the same with your family. Guess that's why your post really got to me.
I'm sure you've talked with your rabbi at your temple as I'd think he could be a real asset in helping your family get the help they need to deal with it all. I remember a situation with my twin when we just became teenagers and our rabbi was a great source of help & inspiration for our family. Just a thought as I read your post.
That woman who reported you definitely crossed the line & hope in time, she'll be held accountable for why she did such a horrible thing to a family in crisis. But first things first, getting your wife & kids the help they need to move forward. Hopefully your dad is doing much better & I bet your extended family is lending their support. You definitely could use their help. Take care of yourself also, if you need some help, just ask. No one ever said raising a family would be easy & doing so in these awful times can't be easy at all. But with G-d's help, the family will get through it all & be stronger because of it.

fintail

May the Schwartz be with you - oops wrong movie.

nyccarguy said:

Thanks everybody again for listening and for your kind words. I do get time for myself here and there. The Jeep helps. The fresh air coming into the cabin when the roof is open is very soothing. This evening on my way home, I set the adaptive cruise at 60. I relaxed and enjoyed the drive. Lithium (Sirius/XM 34) helps too. As does Star Wars. Checking this board multiple times a day helps too. Cheers to my Chronic Car Buyer friends!

pensfan83

@nyccarguy did you have a factory tonneau cover on your Tacoma or aftermarket. If aftermarket what brand? Mine has become discolored and I think I'm going to pick up a replacement

nyccarguy

@pensfan83 - I had the factory tonneau cover on my Tacoma. Have you tried reaching out to the company you bought your aftermarket cover from?

pensfan83

I haven't yet. I'd be surprised if it's still under any warranty, it was kept from the last truck so it's about 2.5 years old. May be worth a try though.

corvette

On a much lighter note, given that I liked my rental Edge pretty well, I decided I want to move forward with my Maverick order. Given that the Tundra lease ends in August, I also drew a line in the sand that I don't want to use the Prius as my only daily driver for longer than a month.

I'm sure @Michaell will appreciate this... I did a critical path analysis based upon my lease end date and the typical timeframes for notifications of a build date and time from build to the dealer receiving the truck. The bottom line is that if I don't receive a build scheduling email by mid to late July, the one month cutoff is likely to be met, and I have given myself permission to start shopping for a temporary-ish SUV/CUV to hold me over until I get the Maverick.

corvette

@pensfan83 - if you can't go the warranty route, some of the ceramic coatings appear to do amazing things to discolored black trim. Might be worth a flyer for the cost of a bottle of Avalon King or similar.

Michaell

corvette said:

On a much lighter note, given that I liked my rental Edge pretty well, I decided I want to move forward with my Maverick order. Given that the Tundra lease ends in August, I also drew a line in the sand that I don't want to use the Prius as my only daily driver for longer than a month.

I'm sure @Michaell will appreciate this... I did a critical path analysis based upon my lease end date and the typical timeframes for notifications of a build date and time from build to the dealer receiving the truck. The bottom line is that if I don't receive a build scheduling email by mid to late July, the one month cutoff is likely to be met, and I have given myself permission to start shopping for a temporary-ish SUV/CUV to hold me over until I get the Maverick.

Love it!

Let's hope it all works out for you, in the end.

Michaell

On the shopping front, I'm pretty sure I'm going to test drive the XC40 Recharge tomorrow.

Normally, the girls commute in the MINI back and forth to the cooking studio, but we got some new tables delivered to us, and they took the Subaru yesterday instead, loaded with almost 400 pounds of them.

Both of them now realize how rough the MINI rides, and the interest level is picking up on a new vehicle. I'm to test drive the Volvo and report back to them on the comfort level.

Why they won't test drive it themselves, I do not know.

Preliminary investigation leads me to believe we will have to wait until the 2023 models are released before one will be available to us.

But, I'll know more after the test drive.

corvette

I haven't really looked at the XC40. I went to Volvo's website and tried to check the trim levels and options, and it appears they play a game of "hide the ball," demanding you enter your zip code and then showing you what is incoming to your local dealer in the next few weeks, without showing you what is available to order. Oh, well.

kyfdx

pensfan83 said:

I haven't yet. I'd be surprised if it's still under any warranty, it was kept from the last truck so it's about 2.5 years old. May be worth a try though.

The factory one is terrible. Extremely heavy.

My friend's F-150 has a Bakflip cover. Not sure if they make one for the Tacoma, but it's very nice.

tommister2

I’ve starting seeing Wrangler 4xe inventory around my area. For those of you that are buying/leasing them, are you getting discounts? I assume they are going for MSRP like most everything else but figured I should ask.

explorerx4

I had a hard cover on my last F-150. It weighed a ton and leaked everywhere, especially where it folded.

qbrozen

@tommister2 said:
I’ve starting seeing Wrangler 4xe inventory around my area. For those of you that are buying/leasing them, are you getting discounts? I assume they are going for MSRP like most everything else but figured I should ask.

Custom order. There are several dealers and brokers offering anywhere from 8%-10% off MSRP plus the $7500 incentive. So, depending on build, you are looking at ~$13k under sticker.

graphicguy

greg128 said:

@nyccarguy
Life is a great gift. But reflecting the duality of our existence it is also a great burden. Have faith that you and your family will overcome these trials and thrive in the future.

Amen to that. My son was born with a bilateral clef and pallet. He went through some mentally fragile years, especially around puberty. Through therapy and some medication, he came out the other end OK.

Bradd….as others have said, you have our support and understanding, not only for you, but for your family. Hang tough. It does and will get better.

tommister2

@qbrozen said:

@tommister2 said:
I’ve starting seeing Wrangler 4xe inventory around my area. For those of you that are buying/leasing them, are you getting discounts? I assume they are going for MSRP like most everything else but figured I should ask.

Custom order. There are several dealers and brokers offering anywhere from 8%-10% off MSRP plus the $7500 incentive. So, depending on build, you are looking at ~$13k under sticker.

Thanks!

mlevine

nyccarguy,
I hope you take some time for yourself. Each day should go for a drive to just get out of the house. Your family looks up to you in this time of need. When you have a lot on your plate it is very easy to become frustrated. When a computer is asked to do multiple tasks it may free when overwhelmed. So far you are doing a great job managing the situation. The posts on this forum show many of us are here to support you. On another note, I suggest adding more ant-oxidant foods to the diets of you and family. When covid gets into brain, I believe the inflammation causes a variety of the neurological issue depending on which part of the brain is most affected. It is a waiting game to recovery. I see this a lot and have seen people get better.

oldfarmer50

corvette said:

On a much lighter note, given that I liked my rental Edge pretty well, I decided I want to move forward with my Maverick order. Given that the Tundra lease ends in August, I also drew a line in the sand that I don't want to use the Prius as my only daily driver for longer than a month.

I'm sure @Michaell will appreciate this... I did a critical path analysis based upon my lease end date and the typical timeframes for notifications of a build date and time from build to the dealer receiving the truck. The bottom line is that if I don't receive a build scheduling email by mid to late July, the one month cutoff is likely to be met, and I have given myself permission to start shopping for a temporary-ish SUV/CUV to hold me over until I get the Maverick.

Oh oh, looks like you’re developing a hooptie buying addiction. Be careful or you’ll be on Craigslist all night.

henryn

kyfdx said:

pensfan83 said:

I haven't yet. I'd be surprised if it's still under any warranty, it was kept from the last truck so it's about 2.5 years old. May be worth a try though.

The factory one is terrible. Extremely heavy.

My friend's F-150 has a Bakflip cover. Not sure if they make one for the Tacoma, but it's very nice.

I had 3 soft tri-fold Tonneau covers in a row, all were purchased online and quite inexpensive, around $225 to $275. The longest I owned one was about 2 years, but they held up quite well for that period. And they were all very light weight and easy to put on and take off. I would advise just buying a cheap one, and then replacing every 3 years if needed. This is CCBA, how many times are you going to need to replace it?

The only reason I don't have one right now is that I have an 8' bed on this work truck, and it's very difficult to find a cover for an 8' bed.

On Edit: The reason I owned 3 was that I had a 5.5' bed, then a 6.5' bed, then another 5.5' bed.

corvette

I did truck things in the Tundra this morning. Two scoops of black mulch at $35 each. I must say, I’m not sold on the concept of bulk mulch. Yes, you save a nominal amount of money, but it’s more difficult to work with than bagged, and you pay for it in your own labor. It took me quite a while to blow all of the “crumbs” out of the bed with the leaf blower. I’m tired. Should sleep well tonight.

oldfarmer50

I was listening to an auto repair show today and one of the callers had a Toyota Tundra (older model since it was a V8) and he was complaining that he only got 8 mpg in mostly highway driving. Is that normal? I get 15 mpg out of my cargo van with mainly short trip city driving so 8 on the highway seems unusually bad.

Are Tundras noted for poor gas mileage?

corvette

oldfarmer50 said:

Are Tundras noted for poor gas mileage?

Up until the 2022 redesign, they were rated for 17 MPG highway in the most common configuration. You can attain that at a steady 70-75 MPH. If you go over that, or if it's windy, you will get in the low to mid teens. 8 MPG highway is certainly an outlier, though.

explorerx4

According to Fuelly.
https://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/tundra

au1994

oldfarmer50 said:

I was listening to an auto repair show today and one of the callers had a Toyota Tundra (older model since it was a V8) and he was complaining that he only got 8 mpg in mostly highway driving. Is that normal? I get 15 mpg out of my cargo van with mainly short trip city driving so 8 on the highway seems unusually bad.

Are Tundras noted for poor gas mileage?

I got about 14 in town in the 08 Land Cruiser with the 5.7.

explorerx4

The only time I got into 14's with my Ecoboost 3.5's was when I was towing a trailer across PA.

henryn

explorerx4 said:

The only time I got into 14's with my Ecoboost 3.5's was when I was towing a trailer across PA.

Yes, but the Ford Ecoboost gets a lot better mileage than a V8, while outperforming most V8s. But I will say that 8 mpg is pretty bad. Back in the last millennium, I pulled a 10,000 lb fifth wheel travel trailer with a Ford F250 equipped with the big block 460 cid V8 engine. That truck, unloaded, did about 11 mpg overall, and could hit 14 on steady highway cruising. Pulling the 5th wheel, usually about 8 or 9 mpg, and did see as low as 7.

That Toyota Tundra, with a small block V8, should definitely be doing better than 8. If it's running correctly, it would be hard to imagine conditions under which it do less than 10 mpg.

oldfarmer50

henryn said:

explorerx4 said:

The only time I got into 14's with my Ecoboost 3.5's was when I was towing a trailer across PA.

Yes, but the Ford Ecoboost gets a lot better mileage than a V8, while outperforming most V8s. But I will say that 8 mpg is pretty bad. Back in the last millennium, I pulled a 10,000 lb fifth wheel travel trailer with a Ford F250 equipped with the big block 460 cid V8 engine. That truck, unloaded, did about 11 mpg overall, and could hit 14 on steady highway cruising. Pulling the 5th wheel, usually about 8 or 9 mpg, and did see as low as 7.

That Toyota Tundra, with a small block V8, should definitely be doing better than 8. If it's running correctly, it would be hard to imagine conditions under which it do less than 10 mpg.

That’s what I thought, even with the biggest V8 you should do better than that unless you’re towing something. The radio mechanic seem to think that was accurate real world mileage.

The worst I’ve been able to manage with a modern V8 is 19 when I was having a LOT of fun.

xwesx

Seeing how a lot of folks drive those things, that poor of economy wouldn't surprise me at all... especially if modified with a lift or large tires and/or wheels.

qbrozen

Finished the trip home with the average fuel economy showing 19.0. Which means we were probably getting 17 to drive down that far from where we started before the trip. And it now has 1900 miles after just 1 month of ownership.

explorerx4

The previous gen Tundra(prior to 2022) had a 4.30 rear axle ratio which not good for fuel mileage. It maximized acceleration and towing.

qbrozen

The Volvo has finally landed. No pics yet since we got home very late last night and now the wife is out and about in it.

mjfloyd1

@qbrozen said:
The Volvo has finally landed. No pics yet since we got home very late last night and now the wife is out and about in it.

I’m waiting for someone to tell you that you missed out on a great driving opportunity even though it didn’t fit in your schedule 😂🤣

graphicguy

au1994 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

I was listening to an auto repair show today and one of the callers had a Toyota Tundra (older model since it was a V8) and he was complaining that he only got 8 mpg in mostly highway driving. Is that normal? I get 15 mpg out of my cargo van with mainly short trip city driving so 8 on the highway seems unusually bad.

Are Tundras noted for poor gas mileage?

I got about 14 in town in the 08 Land Cruiser with the 5.7.

When I had my ‘09 Tahoe, I was lucky to get 12-13 MPG around town. Didn’t improve much on the highway……15 MPG on a good day on the highway. And, that was with the smaller 305 V8. It really went to hell if I was carrying a lot (which was often, given that was the reason I had it).

I’ve heard the newer Tahoes are a little better with the cylinder deactivation, but those are fraught with crippling reliability issues.

henryn

I never really understood the appeal of a Tahoe. I owned one, a used 2006 model back around 2015. I didn't keep it for very long. You don't have a bed to haul things, and for inside carrying, not nearly as roomy as a minivan. If I ran the drivers seat all the way back, there was very little leg room for the rear seat passenger. All in all, a bit of a bust. But different strokes for different folks.

roadburner

I stopped at my dealer yesterday. There was nothing interesting in my price rage. My wife did like a new Portimao/Tacora M340i xDrive, but it had virtually no options- bare bones. There was a clean manual F80 M3, but it was black over black and it had a sunroof- three strikes. One of my old friends in sales said that production was ramping up and that she might have a G42 2er in status 112, so there's that.

benjaminh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q0mQ-9_gSY

sda

graphicguy said:

au1994 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

I was listening to an auto repair show today and one of the callers had a Toyota Tundra (older model since it was a V8) and he was complaining that he only got 8 mpg in mostly highway driving. Is that normal? I get 15 mpg out of my cargo van with mainly short trip city driving so 8 on the highway seems unusually bad.

Are Tundras noted for poor gas mileage?

I got about 14 in town in the 08 Land Cruiser with the 5.7.

When I had my ‘09 Tahoe, I was lucky to get 12-13 MPG around town. Didn’t improve much on the highway……15 MPG on a good day on the highway. And, that was with the smaller 305 V8. It really went to hell if I was carrying a lot (which was often, given that was the reason I had it).

I’ve heard the newer Tahoes are a little better with the cylinder deactivation, but those are fraught with crippling reliability issues.

I don’t know what’s up with GM reliability recently. In addition to the industry common infotainment tech issues like slow, freezing non functional screens, they are having a good number of engine and transmission issues. I’ve owned many GM cars in the past and was basically raised with Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Cadillacs driven by my parents. It gives me pause to buy GM now.