Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

Michaell

sda said:

I knew I had to commit to longer ownership had I done the 100k maintenance on my 2013 Accord which I owned for 7 years and was ready for a change. I traded it with 99930 mi and was able to get a respectable trade value and for $10k difference a 5 yr newer car with 18k, a CPO warranty to 84k, 8/25. Thankfully I am satisfied with the Passat. And as it gets 30mpg+ in my regular driving on RUG, that is a huge plus.

I still quite like the Passat. Wife even commented favorably on it, when I had one as a loaner early in my Jetta lease.

henryn

Someone on here had commented favorably on the Walmart grocery delivery service. I just tried it, and it was terrible. Hard to imagine how it could have gone worse. I get a text saying my groceries are being delivered, and I walk outside. No driver, no car, no groceries. I look around, and the groceries are in front of my neighbor’s door. I catch the driver as he is leaving, and make him move the groceries to my front door.

I haul the groceries inside, and go over everything. Two items are missing, and there is one substitution which I had disallowed. I reach out to Walmart online, and request a call back. I get a woman who speaks broken English, and is not at the local store. She asks me to hold while she calls the store. After a wait of several minutes, she comes back and says no one is answering at the store. I explain about the missing items, and request a refund. She says her “system” will not allow her to do a refund. She can only request a “re-delivery”, so we go with that.

All in all, a really bad experience and one I will not repeat. I would highly recommend against using Walmart grocery delivery service. I splurged a few months ago on the Walmart Plus plan to get free delivery on some items that Walmart had, much cheaper than Amazon. Motor oil for one, a few others. I was not unhappy with my experience until I tried the grocery delivery.

I would assume the quality of your experience is going to depend entirely on the caliber of the help at your local Walmart, and obviously mine is pretty bad.

henryn

They even emailed me a picture of the delivery.

The only problem? That's not my house, not my front door.

oldfarmer50

henryn said:

Someone on here had commented favorably on the Walmart grocery delivery service. I just tried it, and it was terrible. Hard to imagine how it could have gone worse. I get a text saying my groceries are being delivered, and I walk outside. No driver, no car, no groceries. I look around, and the groceries are in front of my neighbor’s door. I catch the driver as he is leaving, and make him move the groceries to my front door.

I haul the groceries inside, and go over everything. Two items are missing, and there is one substitution which I had disallowed. I reach out to Walmart online, and request a call back. I get a woman who speaks broken English, and is not at the local store. She asks me to hold while she calls the store. After a wait of several minutes, she comes back and says no one is answering at the store. I explain about the missing items, and request a refund. She says her “system” will not allow her to do a refund. She can only request a “re-delivery”, so we go with that.

All in all, a really bad experience and one I will not repeat. I would highly recommend against using Walmart grocery delivery service. I splurged a few months ago on the Walmart Plus plan to get free delivery on some items that Walmart had, much cheaper than Amazon. Motor oil for one, a few others. I was not unhappy with my experience until I tried the grocery delivery.

I would assume the quality of your experience is going to depend entirely on the caliber of the help at your local Walmart, and obviously mine is pretty bad.

Assuming the service was satisfactory, did the cost of the delivery come to more or less than using your car @ $.56/mile? My Walmart is close enough that it would cost me about $6 round trip.

henryn

The Walmart Plus membership is much like an Amazon Prime membership, shipping is included on everything, including grocery deliveries. It's actually not a bad deal. I purchased my microwave through Walmart, free shipping, and it was a better unit at a better price than anything I found on Amazon. And as I mentioned up above, oil, oil filters, air filters, generally cheaper than Amazon. And there are some other things I have purchased through Walmart, a couple of cheap notebook computers for one.

Now they do make you tip the driver, and the minimum amount on the form is $5. The tipping is for grocery deliveries from the local store, not anything else. Things like motor oil, computers, microwaves are delivered by FedEX or UPS or whomever.

roadburner

The RWD G42 M240i was announced recently and it seems the 2023 2er gets the new iDrive 8 interface, which replaces the instrument binnacle with a screen that extends across 2/3 of the dash. Plus it gets a bizarre new shifter. Ugh. I asked my salesperson at the dealer if they have any 2022 M240i coupes in status 112, but I'm not holding out any hope.

qbrozen

@roadburner said:
The RWD G42 M240i was announced recently and it seems the 2023 2er gets the new iDrive 8 interface, which replaces the instrument binnacle with a screen that extends across 2/3 of the dash. Plus it gets a bizarre new shifter. Ugh. I asked my salesperson at the dealer if they have any 2022 M240i coupes in status 112, but I'm not holding out any hope.

Eh, 112, 113, whatever it takes.

roadburner

qbrozen said:

@roadburner said:

The RWD G42 M240i was announced recently and it seems the 2023 2er gets the new iDrive 8 interface, which replaces the instrument binnacle with a screen that extends across 2/3 of the dash. Plus it gets a bizarre new shifter. Ugh. I asked my salesperson at the dealer if they have any 2022 M240i coupes in status 112, but I'm not holding out any hope.

Eh, 112, 113, whatever it takes.

112 is the immediate pre-production status- the build cant be changed after that point

tjc78

@henryn
It was me who talked about the Walmart delivery. I was extremely skeptical but aside from the wrong order debacle (that they more than made up for) our experience has been really good. Like you said I’m sure like anything else the local store makes or breaks the experience. One time they didn’t send something we bought and my wife reported it short on the app, the credit was on the card the next day.

Sorry it didn’t work out.

GPS takes you to the wrong side of the street for our house so it is very common that our neighbors across the street get our stuff. Oddly enough that hasn’t happened with Walmart (but Amazon frequently).

au1994

I’m one of the weirdos that actually likes going to the grocery store. I do all the cooking and I don’t trust anyone else to pick out my ingredients.

benjaminh

As basic transportation the new Honda HRV seems okay. The base lx model costs only about $1k more than a base Civic. The Sport model for $27k has heated seats, blind spot monitoring, remote start, 18" wheels, smart entry, led headlights and taillights, etc. The engine, unfortunately, is the lackluster 2.0. If Honda had put the 1.5 turbo or the 2.4 into the new HRV it would have been a better vehicle. Destination has shot up to $1250 because of high fuel/transportation costs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG6xGxRMYMM

stickguy

Looks like a ford now

explorerx4

Honda doesn't want the HR-V to overlap with the CR-V(their top seller?).

kyfdx

When my D-I-L was shopping, last December, the acceleration of the HR-V put her off of it.
This was right after she test-drove the Mazda CX-30. (180 hp vs. 146 hp).

"How did you like it"
"It's sort of doggy".

oldfarmer50

au1994 said:

I’m one of the weirdos that actually likes going to the grocery store. I do all the cooking and I don’t trust anyone else to pick out my ingredients.

Me too. I like picking out the exact thing my wife wants so she can complain that it’s wrong when I get home.

Also, I don’t want the store selling my grocery list to the CIA so they can track how many cheesy puffs I eat.

tjc78

@au1994 said:
I’m one of the weirdos that actually likes going to the grocery store. I do all the cooking and I don’t trust anyone else to pick out my ingredients.

If we are cooking for guests or a holiday then yes we go to the store, but for normal weekly shops I have to say the convenience is worth it

henryn

oldfarmer50 said:

au1994 said:

I’m one of the weirdos that actually likes going to the grocery store. I do all the cooking and I don’t trust anyone else to pick out my ingredients.

Me too. I like picking out the exact thing my wife wants so she can complain that it’s wrong when I get home.

Also, I don’t want the store selling my grocery list to the CIA so they can track how many cheesy puffs I eat.

Ah, but the Amazon Echo is listening to you, counting every crunch, and reporting directly to the CIA. Just be glad it's not reporting to the KGB!

ab348

henryn said:

oldfarmer50 said:

au1994 said:

I’m one of the weirdos that actually likes going to the grocery store. I do all the cooking and I don’t trust anyone else to pick out my ingredients.

Me too. I like picking out the exact thing my wife wants so she can complain that it’s wrong when I get home.

Also, I don’t want the store selling my grocery list to the CIA so they can track how many cheesy puffs I eat.

Ah, but the Amazon Echo is listening to you, counting every crunch, and reporting directly to the CIA. Just be glad it's not reporting to the KGB!

I'd be more concerned about the direct connection to the CCP that is implanted at the China plant where the devices are made.

oldfarmer50

henryn said:

oldfarmer50 said:

au1994 said:

I’m one of the weirdos that actually likes going to the grocery store. I do all the cooking and I don’t trust anyone else to pick out my ingredients.

Me too. I like picking out the exact thing my wife wants so she can complain that it’s wrong when I get home.

Also, I don’t want the store selling my grocery list to the CIA so they can track how many cheesy puffs I eat.

Ah, but the Amazon Echo is listening to you, counting every crunch, and reporting directly to the CIA. Just be glad it's not reporting to the KGB!

That’s why I don’t have one of them spy thingies in my house either.

Actually, if I didn’t want sinister forces tracking me I should turn off my cell phone too. Maybe I’ll stick it in the trunk of my kid’s car when he drives Uber to confuse them.

au1994

Had some 33’ Falken Wild Peaks installed today. About 1in bigger than stock and much more aggressive looking. I think I need a 3/4 spacer up front to level it out.

jmonroe1

au1994 said:

I’m one of the weirdos that actually likes going to the grocery store. I do all the cooking and I don’t trust anyone else to pick out my ingredients.

————————————————
I wonder how many others in here are honest weirdos?

jmonroe

xwesx

henryn said:

The Walmart Plus membership is much like an Amazon Prime membership, shipping is included on everything, including grocery deliveries. It's actually not a bad deal. I purchased my microwave through Walmart, free shipping, and it was a better unit at a better price than anything I found on Amazon. And as I mentioned up above, oil, oil filters, air filters, generally cheaper than Amazon. And there are some other things I have purchased through Walmart, a couple of cheap notebook computers for one.

Now they do make you tip the driver, and the minimum amount on the form is $5. The tipping is for grocery deliveries from the local store, not anything else. Things like motor oil, computers, microwaves are delivered by FedEX or UPS or whomever.

And, that's not actually a tip... it's a surcharge. A tip is something that you give because you feel service went above-and-beyond basic expectations. You, as the customer, have full control over it based on your *perception* of the service. If I had paid a surcharge on delivery at the wrong house, I would have been livid.

jmonroe1

oldfarmer50 said:

au1994 said:

I’m one of the weirdos that actually likes going to the grocery store. I do all the cooking and I don’t trust anyone else to pick out my ingredients.

Me too. I like picking out the exact thing my wife wants so she can complain that it’s wrong when I get home.

Also, I don’t want the store selling my grocery list to the CIA so they can track how many cheesy puffs I eat.

————————————————
I know what you mean but with me it’s potato chips. Cheesy puffs is for the high end snackers

jmonroe

xwesx

au1994 said:

Had some 33’ Falken Wild Peaks installed today. About 1in bigger than stock and much more aggressive looking. I think I need a 3/4 spacer up front to level it out.

Wow, those are stock rim size? That's huge for something that bills itself as an off-roader. However, with the Wildpeaks on it and the extra sidewall, I'm sure you could enjoy some time in the sand (with lower-than-road pressure) with it and not have any issues at all.

I'm not sure I would go with adjusting the ride height on the front. The stance looks good empty, and it won't look like it is squatting terribly with a decent load in it.

tjc78

@au1994
Looks good.

au1994

Stock 20in rims on a 4xe Sahara. I could have looked for some Rubicon take offs for sale (17’) but its really about looks for me. My trail riding will be very light stuff so these can handle it.

There is just an ever so light rake in the front I’d like to level out. Kinda one of those things that once you notice it, you can’t unsee it!

stickguy

Daughter picked up her new cx30 today. She moves at Breld speed since only talked to the broker Monday. He presented one option, she took it. So far likes it. Looks great in red.

Michaell

stickguy said:

Daughter picked up her new cx30 today. She moves at Breld speed since only talked to the broker Monday. He presented one option, she took it. So far likes it. Looks great in red.

Great choice! I’m sure she’ll love it.

qbrozen

I know I'm like the only Alfa fan here, but I'll ask anyway: what's the consensus on what a '92 5-spd 2.0TS Milano with less than 23k original miles would fetch at C&B or BaT? Cloth interior, no moonroof, red on gray. If it was a V6, it would be a no brainer, I think. The 4-cyl hurts a little, but ultra low miles helps A LOT.

xwesx

au1994 said:

There is just an ever so light rake in the front I’d like to level out. Kinda one of those things that once you notice it, you can’t unsee it!

Yeah, I agree. I can definitely see the slight cant toward the front end... I guess I just happen to like it (mostly because I hate sagging rear ends). Perfectly level works well, too, especially if you're not inclined to make it work much!

jmonroe1

au1994 said:

Stock 20in rims on a 4xe Sahara. I could have looked for some Rubicon take offs for sale (17’) but its really about looks for me. My trail riding will be very light stuff so these can handle it.

There is just an ever so light rake in the front I’d like to level out. Kinda one of those things that once you notice it, you can’t unsee it!

————————————————
You’re right, now I can see it. It must be off a whole 3/8 of an inch. Gotta get that fixed.

jmonroe

venture

xwesx said:

au1994 said:

There is just an ever so light rake in the front I’d like to level out. Kinda one of those things that once you notice it, you can’t unsee it!

Yeah, I agree. I can definitely see the slight cant toward the front end... I guess I just happen to like it (mostly because I hate sagging rear ends). Perfectly level works well, too, especially if you're not inclined to make it work much!

I like it the way it is too.

tifighter

@qbrozen said:
I know I'm like the only Alfa fan here, but I'll ask anyway: what's the consensus on what a '92 5-spd 2.0TS Milano with less than 23k original miles would fetch at C&B or BaT? Cloth interior, no moonroof, red on gray. If it was a V6, it would be a no brainer, I think. The 4-cyl hurts a little, but ultra low miles helps A LOT.

Not the only Alfa fan. As this is a Q question, I’ll assume we’re talking about a low mile 75 from Japan. 92 was the last year for these. IDK. The twin spark will be an acquired taste here - all of the history on BaT is V6 US spec Milano. Any history listed?

You want comps? Too bad. A 59k mile Twin Spark Spider (96) brought $14k in November. But that’s a Spider. A 48k mile Twin Spark GTV (99) brought about $10k. All BaT. So lower miles - yes. More desirable than a Spider or GTV? I guess it only takes one buyer.

qbrozen

You would be correct, ti. It went off last night but I was not in the bidding. Well, I was, but they told me it was starting at 300k, about $2300. I had put in $2k before they told me. I hope they post the sale price. Will check later. But my thinking was to get it here for $4500 and hope for $7500 sale.

stickguy

Princess picked up her cx30 yesterday afternoon. Likes it so far. Loves the red on it. Says it drives nice and just right amount of zoom zoom. Found street parking. Seems safe enough. Residential street spot in between a Tesla S and a BMW I think. Needs to do that for a couple months until garage spot opens up.

stickguy

She really missed having her own car. Lasted over a year though!

kyfdx

stickguy said:

Princess picked up her cx30 yesterday afternoon. Likes it so far. Loves the red on it. Says it drives nice and just right amount of zoom zoom. Found street parking. Seems safe enough. Residential street spot in between a Tesla S and a BMW I think. Needs to do that for a couple months until garage spot opens up.

My daughter in law really likes her CX-30. 2021 that she got in December. Gray, naturally.

qbrozen

tifighter said:

Not the only Alfa fan. As this is a Q question, I’ll assume we’re talking about a low mile 75 from Japan. 92 was the last year for these. IDK. The twin spark will be an acquired taste here - all of the history on BaT is V6 US spec Milano. Any history listed?

You want comps? Too bad. A 59k mile Twin Spark Spider (96) brought $14k in November. But that’s a Spider. A 48k mile Twin Spark GTV (99) brought about $10k. All BaT. So lower miles - yes. More desirable than a Spider or GTV? I guess it only takes one buyer.

What in THE HELL?! Sold for over $14k!!

nyccarguy

One of the reasons I decided to sell our 2017 Pilot (aside from the large amount of equity) was a problem we were having with (everybody's favorite) Auto Stop/Start. The Pilot would shut off and not turn back on. It even took a few seconds (an eternity when you are 1st at a light or in the middle of an intersection). My solution when I drove was to just turn off the Auto Stop/Start immediately.

I just read an article (maybe it was Jalopnik) where they said that NHSTA is in talks with Honda about this very same ongoing problem with 2016-2019 Pilots.

benjaminh

ronsteve said:

I'm at 94k. If I go 3 more years with it, I'll probably be 140k-ish, but there is plenty of "fun" at 105 (or now based on age) and 120.

More possible reasons to trade-in your 2015 RDX are the new features now on most new cars that weren't available in 2015, including Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and adaptive cruise control. Those two features are worth a lot to me, esp. on long trips. But if those don't matter to you, maybe consider holding on to your RDX for another year to see if the new car shortage finally ends?

In addition to the Subaru are there any other vehicles you're considering?

henryn

I recently posted on here about fraudulent activity on my debit card, resulting in +/- $500 in charges for Google Ads. I had the bank (Chase) reverse those charges and cancel that debit card. Within 24 hours I had an email from Google, or Google Pay (actually the email came from “payments-noreply@google.com"), complaining that they could no longer receive payments for my Google Ads account. “Google Ads account”? What Google Ads account?

I logged into Google Pay, and sure enough, there it was, pay “Google Ad Services” using my debit card. I tried to eliminate that from Google Pay, and there wasn’t any way to do that. I could change the method of payment, but I could not stop paying. And as I don’t have any account with Google Ads, I couldn’t go there. A search for “contact google ad services” lead me to a web page where I could fill out a form to send to their support team. That form asked for information I did not have (as I don’t have the account), but it would allow “unknown”.

So just now I get a phone call from the support team at Google Ad service. The guy was friendly and helpful, and it seems this is going to be taken care of. I did ask who was using my debit card to pay for Google Ads, or at least what they were selling. He said he didn’t have that information, but I got the strong impression that he did know and wasn’t allowed to say. Probably a matter of liability. If they told me John Doe at 123 Elm Street in Tulsa was responsible, and I went to Tulsa and shot John Doe like the dirty dog that he is, they might share some of the responsibility.

qbrozen

It never fails to stump me as to how us honest consumers can have purchases denied because we did something horrendous like type in Dr instead of Drive for our address and it didn't match up with where the card is registered, but then someone can make purchases who doesn't even share the same name or address.

The one time we had fraudulent activity was charges made at Best Buy online. Like you experienced, nobody is allowed to share certain info, but if you do some workarounds, you can get to it. This was a long time ago, so I'm going to flub some details, but it went something like getting the order confirmation number from the CC company and then calling Best Buy and using that number to get the name, then using the name and number (with a different call to Best Buy) and saying "Oh, I just want to make sure you got the mailing address correct. Can you tell me where you shipped it?" I then asked to talk to a manager and gave them hell and accused them of having an employee who was in on the fraud because there is no way items should get shipped to an address that did not match the credit card. And, of course, provided the name and address I had acquired back to the credit card company. No clue if anything came of it because "we can't share that info."

stickguy

my understanding is that the CC companies can't be bothered to chase after anything like this. they just write it off and move on. They have a slush fund for that, and probably cheaper to just let the scammers go and keep what they got than to try and track them down and do something about it.

police aren't doing anything either.

as long as the CC cos are raking it in on the 22% interest charges, they are happy and turning a big profit.

kyfdx

I have many boring stories about CC fraud, etc.. If you live long enough, you'll have seen a bunch of them.

pensfan83

Oh the stories I could regal everyone with on identity theft and indirect car loans...among other schemes and scams.

ronsteve

benjaminh said:

ronsteve said:

I'm at 94k. If I go 3 more years with it, I'll probably be 140k-ish, but there is plenty of "fun" at 105 (or now based on age) and 120.

More possible reasons to trade-in your 2015 RDX are the new features now on most new cars that weren't available in 2015, including Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and adaptive cruise control. Those two features are worth a lot to me, esp. on long trips. But if those don't matter to you, maybe consider holding on to your RDX for another year to see if the new car shortage finally ends?

In addition to the Subaru are there any other vehicles you're considering?

The Subaru was the only player, and I couldn't get the trade value back in a range where it was something that made sense for me. The time to trade was probably last month, and I had a hard time finding any XTs available then. So I'm just going ahead with the timing belt and maybe I will revisit the question next year, or later if the market hasn't normalized. Yes, I'm a little risk averse.

CarPlay doesn't mean that much to me, as I usually just let the Nav display on the RDX time out and go dark. And I think the adaptive cruise means even less.

breld

Had a real fun gathering tonight with @Michaell, @jpp75, @tifighter, and @corvette.

@tifighter and @corvette, thanks for taking the time during your stay in CO to spend time with us!

au1994

Great pic!

qbrozen

Volvo came back late yesterday. They replaced the sensor and the harness leading up to it. Wife complained of brake shudder (I found it too minor to complain) so they replaced all 4 rotors under warranty.

tjc78

@qbrozen said:
Volvo came back late yesterday. They replaced the sensor and the harness leading up to it. Wife complained of brake shudder (I found it too minor to complain) so they replaced all 4 rotors under warranty.

My XC90 has to go in for that. It’s noticeable to me. Wife said she didn’t feel it.

The S60 has it a touch too, but the next owner can worry about it.