Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

au1994

tjc78 said:

@au1994 said:

Thats too bad on the 6, it is really nice.

Speaking of Mazda, my BiL leased a CX-9. He had ordered a Grand Cherokee 4xe but couldn’t come to terms so he went this route.

Really nice looking CUV. His is a Grand Touring in Gray over Ivory leather. Pretty much loaded with everything but 2nd row captains chairs. Paying about $650/mo.

In this market the $650 probably isn’t too bad. Two years ago probably could have gotten it sub $500.

Agree and agree!

nyccarguy

explorerx4 said:

I miss having a sedan but an SUV is much more practical.

I agree 100%.

sda

graphicguy said:

Michaell said:

greg128 said:

Last month Chevy sold 25 times more Corvettes than Bolts: 3172 vs 129

I think the Bolt was under a stop sale for battery fires, until recently.

Yeah…they were all under a stop sale until the battery thing gets resolved. They started with the older Bolts (2017, I think?) and progressing to the new(er) ones. I know when I was looking, there were some 2022s that had the new batteries. But, there were more 2021/22s that were awaiting batteries that were sitting on their lot.

Frustrates the potential customers. Frustrates the dealers even more, I suppose.

I bet it is especially frustrating for dealers if they have to pay the floor plan interest on those vehicles that have been tagged to hold and not sell because of a recall.

corvette

Ivory interior is, unfortunately, a rare sight on mainstream cars anymore, and seems especially rare on a grey car.

explorerx4

Does installing the fast charger include upgrading your electrical service, if inadequate?

corvette

@explorerx4 - I'm assuming no. I think it includes installing an additional circuit on your existing panel. If you have no spaces left on the panel, I'm guessing you'd have to install a larger panel or a subpanel at your own expense.

Most of the EVSEs I've seen have a variable maximum amperage that is set at the time of installation based on the size of the wiring and circuit installed. If someone had a heavily loaded electrical panel or one that wasn't 200 amps, the max could be adjusted downward. I think the typical maximum used in residential settings is 40 or 50 amps, although Tesla's EVSE will support higher amperages.

henryn

From an article in the Washington Post (probably behind a paywall):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/05/02/elon-musk-twitter-financing-flawed/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https://s2.washingtonpost.com/car-ln-tr/36bae71/626ffc00956121755a5efec7/626d87e59f177f157dc41b92/49/72/626ffc00956121755a5efec7

Even when judged against the tech sector, however, Tesla has been a frothy outlier. Since March of 2020, Tesla shares have soared from $85 to as high as $1,243 in October, briefly giving the upstart carmaker a market value of more than $1 trillion — more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler, Ford and GM combined.

Even today, with its shares down to below $900, Tesla is selling at a price 118 times its profit from the previous year. By comparison, Google’s parent, Alphabet, boasts a price-earnings ratio of 21, with Amazon at 38. By that or any other measure, Tesla remains overvalued.

Tesla is only now beginning to feel the impact of big-league competition in the fast-growing market for electric cars, in which it boasts a technological head start as well as a good deal of cachet among environmentally conscious consumers. Those advantages brought Tesla rapid sales growth for the past two years, once its early production problems were ironed out, and allowed the company to charge premium prices that last quarter generated a copious operating profit margin of 37 percent.

Even with that impressive record, the only way today’s sky-high valuation for Tesla makes sense is if you think those profit margins and sales growth will continue into the future. But with Volkswagen, Ford and other competitors rushing to bring out their own lines of electric vehicles, that seems unlikely.

qbrozen

ohhhhhhh no. Got a call from the MB dealer. They tell me there is water in several crevices of the car that has fried modules and damaged wiring. They believe probably the broken moonroof is the cause, or was the cause. She suggested I reach out to insurance and it will most likely be totaled.

au1994

Oh man, that is very much no bueno.

Hate to hear that.

28firefighter

qbrozen said:

ohhhhhhh no. Got a call from the MB dealer. They tell me there is water in several crevices of the car that has fried modules and damaged wiring. They believe probably the broken moonroof is the cause, or was the cause. She suggested I reach out to insurance and it will most likely be totaled.

Oh. Em. Gee.

rayainsw

"Got a call from the MB dealer. "
Bummer!
- Ray
sorry.....

tjc78

@qbrozen said:
ohhhhhhh no. Got a call from the MB dealer. They tell me there is water in several crevices of the car that has fried modules and damaged wiring. They believe probably the broken moonroof is the cause, or was the cause. She suggested I reach out to insurance and it will most likely be totaled.

Holy crap!! Please tell us you have comprehensive on it! Major bummer!

explorerx4

Insurance claim sounds like your easiest out of that money pit. Can't win them all.

tifighter

Boy has that thing been an adventure.

xwesx

qbrozen said:

ohhhhhhh no. Got a call from the MB dealer. They tell me there is water in several crevices of the car that has fried modules and damaged wiring. They believe probably the broken moonroof is the cause, or was the cause. She suggested I reach out to insurance and it will most likely be totaled.

Oh, that is no good at all!

28firefighter

tifighter said:

Boy has that thing been an adventure.

Like a bad penny.

jmonroe1

@xwesx said:
Oh, that is no good at all!

———————————————

And his insurance company ain’t gonna like it either.

@Q, I hope this isn’t going to be too painful.

jmonroe

mjfloyd1

@qbrozen - I hope the warranty claim works out. You have all the tools to get a fair value. I wonder if this will be a giant hassle with a broken sunroof (Unrepaired) causing the issue.

@andres3 - Audi just sent me an extended warranty on the electronic fuel pump 15 years or 150k miles.

corvette

@qbrozen Hope you can collect from insurance, but if the insurance angle doesn't pan out, sell it to Hoovie or Rich Rebuilds!

ab348

Or put it on BaT. The prices stuff is bringing on there has gone crazy the last few months.

fintail

What kind of temp tag is that? Not a MT tax dodge I hope (doesn't look like what I recall of WA or OR)

28firefighter said:

They do exist!

qbrozen

I do have comp, with $100 deductible.
We’ll see what happens. Will probably have a tough time getting a fair valuation. Maybe I’ll buy it back and make a toy of it.

henryn

qbrozen said:

I do have comp, with $100 deductible.

We’ll see what happens. Will probably have a tough time getting a fair valuation. Maybe I’ll buy it back and make a toy of it.

Good luck with whatever you do. I have read, many times in many places, that many modern cars are going to get totaled due to electrical / wiring / computer issues. Not wrecked, not rusted out, not a blown engine or transmission, just electrical problems.

corvette

Or buy it back and sell it to Hoovie at a higher price.

How do you only have a $100 deductible? Collector car policy?

stickguy

he already has one. but his is sorted out at least now.

28firefighter

@fintail said:
What kind of temp tag is that? Not a MT tax dodge I hope (doesn't look like what I recall of WA or OR)

I’m not sure at all. Couldn’t see it even when I was behind it. Had one in the license plate bracket and one in the back window.

andres3

mjfloyd1 said:

@qbrozen - I hope the warranty claim works out. You have all the tools to get a fair value. I wonder if this will be a giant hassle with a broken sunroof (Unrepaired) causing the issue.

@andres3 - Audi just sent me an extended warranty on the electronic fuel pump 15 years or 150k miles.

Audi of America already told me that even if I got my wish and they extended the warranty on the High-Pressure fuel pump in my S4 (and others like it), they wouldn't make it retroactive. It would only be good for people that haven't had it fail yet.

When I mentioned how that wasn't the case for other parts in other cars, they said it was a "case-by-case" basis. So now they have at least one $21K reason NOT to extend the warranty retroactively on the HPFP.

qbrozen

@corvette said:
Or buy it back and sell it to Hoovie at a higher price.

How do you only have a $100 deductible? Collector car policy?

$500 on collision and $100 on comp. its an option I’ve carried for nearly 2 decades now on all my cars.

ab348

qbrozen said:

I do have comp, with $100 deductible.

We’ll see what happens. Will probably have a tough time getting a fair valuation. Maybe I’ll buy it back and make a toy of it.

My advice is to grind for the best settlement you can get, then take the money and run.

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

qbrozen said:

I do have comp, with $100 deductible.

We’ll see what happens. Will probably have a tough time getting a fair valuation. Maybe I’ll buy it back and make a toy of it.

My advice is to grind for the best settlement you can get, then take the money and run.

I would agree with that. I never knew insurance would cover that sort of damage.

stickguy

No guarantee they will.

henryn

qbrozen said:

@corvette said:

Or buy it back and sell it to Hoovie at a higher price.

How do you only have a $100 deductible? Collector car policy?

$500 on collision and $100 on comp. its an option I’ve carried for nearly 2 decades now on all my cars.

I recently switched insurance, both auto and home. As such I was comparing different insurance companies, and how the rates changed depending on the deductible you choose. Dropping the deductible on comprehensive to $100 for the 2 autos was not very expensive, a no brainer in my book. On the other hand, trying to lower the deductible on your homeowner's insurance is an entirely different ball game.

And I would expect the comprehensive auto insurance to cover this. No guarantees, but I expect that it will. Now whether they will make a reasonable offer for his car is an entirely different question.

qbrozen

Yes, the Geico app already told me this would be a comprehensive problem and not affect my rates, not my fault, etc. Adjuster called and said he'd visit the dealer tomorrow afternoon and let me know what next steps are after that.

explorerx4

@qbrozen,
Maybe your adjuster will be British Rover. HA HA. Actually, I don't know which company he works for.

qbrozen

dealer sent an estimate over. What they've recorded is that the rear door has the water issue and to fix that is $4200. So I could see insurance maybe looking at this and saying, "well, we'll cover THAT, but you are on your own with the rest." The whole estimate is $13k. But I think they are full of it with $7k moonroof replacement. I am fairly confident I can fix it by just removing the lousy wind deflector. I found out as I was driving to the dealer that the deflector does not retract, and the roof gets stuck on it. When I pull the deflector down manually, I can then close the roof.

kyfdx

qbrozen said:

dealer sent an estimate over. What they've recorded is that the rear door has the water issue and to fix that is $4200. So I could see insurance maybe looking at this and saying, "well, we'll cover THAT, but you are on your own with the rest." The whole estimate is $13k. But I think they are full of it with $7k moonroof replacement. I am fairly confident I can fix it by just removing the lousy wind deflector. I found out as I was driving to the dealer that the deflector does not retract, and the roof gets stuck on it. When I pull the deflector down manually, I can then close the roof.

I'll be shocked if your car insurance covers you for a vehicle repair issue.

corvette

This may be a dumb question, but how could water get from the leaking sunroof into the rear door? Is a drain clogged?

jmonroe1

@qbrozen said:
dealer sent an estimate over. What they've recorded is that the rear door has the water issue and to fix that is $4200. So I could see insurance maybe looking at this and saying, "well, we'll cover THAT, but you are on your own with the rest." The whole estimate is $13k. But I think they are full of it with $7k moonroof replacement. I am fairly confident I can fix it by just removing the lousy wind deflector. I found out as I was driving to the dealer that the deflector does not retract, and the roof gets stuck on it. When I pull the deflector down manually, I can then close the roof.

————————————————

Good to hear that but how many times did you get your fingers pinched doing that? This calls for a permanent fix using duct tape.

jmonroe

qbrozen

jmonroe1 said:

Good to hear that but how many times did you get your fingers pinched doing that? This calls for a permanent fix using duct tape.

jmonroe

Exactly. Finger was just a test. Duct tape is a little low class for a benz. I'd probably use silicone.

qbrozen

corvette said:

This may be a dumb question, but how could water get from the leaking sunroof into the rear door? Is a drain clogged?

That's what I asked. She didn't really know. I mean, maybe it has been flooded. I have no idea. Can't imagine water was sitting in it THAT long, though. But it isn't the door itself, from what she said, it is like the compartment under the floor. I can't say with certainty what that means. Spare tire well, but I'm thinking it goes across the whole rear because the electronics all seem to be in the fenders.

I think the insurance company will be debating if this is a weather-related incident. The MB service advisor acted like insurance totaling the car for this reason is a common occurrence.

pensfan83

corvette said:

This may be a dumb question, but how could water get from the leaking sunroof into the rear door? Is a drain clogged?

I was wondering the same. Most times it seems to accumulate in footwells, spare tire well, etc.

kyfdx

2022 Frontier Crew 4X4 S trim

18/10 lease residual is 101%

28firefighter

Is that possible?

nyccarguy

kyfdx said:

2022 Frontier Crew 4X4 S trim

18/10 lease residual is 101%

Is the bank compensating for the fact that a majority of the trucks are being sold over sticker?

tjc78

What’s the MF?

nyccarguy

tjc78 said:

What’s the MF?

That would also be part of the "gotcha."

kyfdx

tjc78 said:

What’s the MF?

.00290 MF

tjc78

Sooooo IF you could find a dealer to sell you one at MSRP without a marked up MF you could be at $294 a month with just first OOP (including 6.625% tax)

Interesting

Edit: based on a 36K MSRP

henryn

kyfdx said:

qbrozen said:

dealer sent an estimate over. What they've recorded is that the rear door has the water issue and to fix that is $4200. So I could see insurance maybe looking at this and saying, "well, we'll cover THAT, but you are on your own with the rest." The whole estimate is $13k. But I think they are full of it with $7k moonroof replacement. I am fairly confident I can fix it by just removing the lousy wind deflector. I found out as I was driving to the dealer that the deflector does not retract, and the roof gets stuck on it. When I pull the deflector down manually, I can then close the roof.

I'll be shocked if your car insurance covers you for a vehicle repair issue.

Prepare to be shocked. In 2018, on my almost brand new F150, the main wiring harness from the front to the rear of the vehicle was torn up under the hood. Almost certainly by some animal, a packrat, a feral cat, who knows. The estimate was around $1,800 to replace the wiring harness, the insurance company covered it under comprehensive. All I was out of pocket was the $100 deductible.

Interesting side note, once it became an "insurance pays" item the price dropped from $1,800 to $1,100.

stickguy

Good deal these days. And real short commitment. Since some people seem to have an issue with that.