Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

jmonroe1

dad23 said:

We acquired another vehicle yesterday, mini-punch I guess. The car the boys have been working on with my Dad is now ours. It definitely needs some work, but we're in the process of making a list now.

———————————————
Good luck with whipping that Mustang into shape.

However, you better take that pic down. Given the age of that car and with only a little bit of rust showing, @oldfarmer50 will be salivating.

jmonroe

[Deleted User]

tjc78 said:

Fun project!

I sure hope so! One of our three is doing trade school studying automotive technology and was told he could bring it in on occasion to do work so he's pretty excited. My wife on the other hand, excited but thinking this could get expensive!

Sandman6472

Saw a couple Discount Tire stores up in West Palm Beach the last few months though they are a bit far from the house. The last set of tires I bought in 2019 were at a Goodyear owned company store down south where I used to work. The Total Choice/Goodyear stores near the house are just affiliated with Goodyear and won't help me with any warranty issues dealing with my road hazard policy. Twice they've refused to honor the road hazard policy I paid extra for and had me go back to the store that sold them to me. Again, it's a distance away and seems totally unnecessary but this has already happened twice. Got a nail in a tire twice since new and they prorated the new replacement tire and had me also get the road hazard for the new tire.

jmonroe1

dad23 said:

tjc78 said:

Fun project!

I sure hope so! One of our three is doing trade school studying automotive technology and was told he could bring it in on occasion to do work so he's pretty excited. My wife on the other hand, excited but thinking this could get expensive!

————————————————-
Remind her that if you took it to The Guy, it would be even more expensive. You have to hone your skills some place so this is a good way to start.

jmonroe

sda

200 six? I like the red interior w/console.

[Deleted User]

sda said:

200 six? I like the red interior w/console.

Correct, the previous owner to my Dad had replaced the seat covers just before he bought it. We think he ordered the wrong color as everything else is a darker red, more like maroon, so that's on our list with a question mark to replace. I think tires, brakes and exhaust will be the first to be addressed.

ab348

Looks like it needs door cards and carpets anyway so maybe that's enough to spur a full replacement. Keep in mind carpet shades are sometimes darker than upholstery.

Sandman6472

Finally sat down, took out all my receipts since day #1 of ownership and wrote down all the maintenance I've done on the Golf since I took it home. The only receipt I couldn't find were the set of Bridgestone run flat tires I had for a few years there. Guessing I threw it out after I put the current Goodyear Eagle GT's on, don't know why I even did that. Come next month, these tires will be 3 years old and on October 1st, the Interstate battery will be 2 years old. Batteries down south here generally last between 2 to 3 years and I know last time, it died in our garage like the A3 did 2 weeks ago. This time, I won't wait till it dies to replace it and will probably swap it out within the next 6 months.
I know a few months ago, someone in here asked me how much maintenance I've had to do on the Golf as I was talking about getting something new. Bought the car on 12/12/14 with 15 miles on it. The water pump/thermostat were replaced within miles of the warranty ending, at 35,958 miles but also noticed that the first battery died at 22,942 miles on 10/18/16...didn't even go for a full two years of ownership! Besides the usual oil changes/tire rotations, the only at fault, with my wife directing me, was the $729 charge to replace the passengers side view mirror right after Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Here are charges that I think VW should've helped me with and were no fault of human error. There was the drivers door defective lock in 6/19, they charged $139 to straighten out some cable as the key fob wouldn't unlock the front door. They told me it got kinked somehow in that small area in the drivers door which seemed odd to me and they refused to assist me in any way. In June of 2020,the engine gasket had a leak which my mechanic fixed for $360 after VW again refused to help. Lastly, towards the end of 2020,the right front axle assembly needed replacing, a $537 charge done at my mechanic as I was just shy of 65K.
And now with just about 72K on the clock, that's about it to speak of. Am lucky if I drive it 40 miles/week now and have just decided to stop looking for something else. Looking at what I've spent out of pocket in the almost eight years of ownership, it really isn't that much to speak of and to be honest, nothing out there besides the Mini Cooper that really excites me to change into. Not much out there I'm really interested in, so will just wait and see what the future brings. Probably, something will just fall in my lap that will finally make me want a change. But, as of now, nothing like that has happened so will do nothing going forward except possibly swap out the battery for a new one.

[Deleted User]

ab348 said:

Looks like it needs door cards and carpets anyway so maybe that's enough to spur a full replacement. Keep in mind carpet shades are sometimes darker than upholstery.

Yep, one of the catalogs we have lists a complete interior kit - seat covers, carpet, headliner, door panels, arm rests, dash pad, etc., so an option, but probably better off finding a guy to do that

roadburner

andres3 said:

Best car deal of your lifetime........... go!

Mine is easily the '06 A3. Sport package, leather, aluminum paddles, dual-clutch auto that worked great, pearl blue paint, and for just a smidge over $30K out the door brand new! 4 years of maintenance included back then, no extra charge. Free loaners.

Hard to go back to non-luxury makes after that. Audi was clearly wanting to "buy" customers back then.

2015 X1 2.8 M Sport- Auctioned to my dealer at $21,700 and bought with CPO warranty for $22,500.
1967 Riviera- $5.00; long story but it only needed a solenoid and battery to get it running. I drove it all summer.

sda

The 67 Rivera was a beast and a great car in its own way. A good friend had a white GS. One day he came out of his house and found the hood partially open. Some jerk stole the GS specific air cleaner!
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://rivowners.org/features/evolution/images/67/engine.jpg&imgrefurl=https://rivowners.org/features/evolution/evpt67.html&tbnid=VmJzWlLz_teIHM&vet=12ahUKEwigrrCY--z5AhUHXlMKHfs8AnUQMygIegUIARCVAw..i&docid=Xo8ua5Th42IGZM&w=300&h=200&q=1967 buick riviera gs air cleaner&hl=en-us&client=safari&ved=2ahUKEwigrrCY--z5AhUHXlMKHfs8AnUQMygIegUIARCVAw

tifighter

Oh hai.

stickguy

Snazzy.

andres3

Instead of buying this weekend set a record time going up Palomar mountain with a tracked out B9 S4 in front of me (gave me a good workout to keep up with him), and a V10 R8 behind me who had to work hard to keep up too. The TTS just likes being beat on.

It doesn't allow anyone to increase their lead on a mountain canyon carving road. There was zero traffic early Sunday morning.

stickguy

My best car was the 2000 Acura 3.2TL. paid $2200 in 2008. Put about 35,000 miles on it and fold for $2,700 in 2014 (I think). The family discount helped on that one (I just had to match the dealers trade in offer).

kyfdx

@tifighter Is it yours?

kyfdx

Best deal:

2011 Z4 hardtop convertible.
Service loaner with 11K miles.
MSRP $55K

24/10 lease for $335/mo.
Due at signing:
$335 1st payment
+$2450 in multiple security deposits.
$2785 total (with $2450 refunded at lease end)

corvette

The best deal by far was the TDI that got bought back under the Dieselgate settlement. I did pretty well on the Mustang GT as well as the G37 in terms of price paid vs. what I sold them for a year or two later.

explorerx4

When I looked at the pic of that blue BMW, I thought the rear bumper was cracked.
Now I see where Toyota came up with the rear bumper styling of the current gen Camry.

explorerx4

@sandman6472,
You have a 3rd party road hazard warranty on your tires.
Goodyear is not going to honor that. Neither would any other OEM tire brand.
Too big a hassle for them.

explorerx4

That Mustang has a nice interior upgrade, not sure if it's a Pony Package.
Consider this hearsay but swapping in a V8 will involve some structural upgrades.

kyfdx

corvette said:

The best deal by far was the TDI that got bought back under the Dieselgate settlement. I did pretty well on the Mustang GT as well as the G37 in terms of price paid vs. what I sold them for a year or two later.

Yeah.. forgot about that one.. +$9700.

28firefighter

@tifighter said:
Oh hai.

Oh my.

jpp75

Congrats @tifighter that's really sharp!

tjc78

Gorgeous!! Congrats!

jpp75

Best car deal for me? Probably the 2008 C30. Bought for $8,900 drove it 2+ years and 12k miles, sold for $10,500. With some maintenance along the way I probably broke even and as much as I enjoyed that car it was worth every penny.

roadburner

dad23 said:

We acquired another vehicle yesterday, mini-punch I guess. The car the boys have been working on with my Dad is now ours. It definitely needs some work, but we're in the process of making a list now.

The 1965 Mustang that my mother single-handedly demolished in 1969 was a black over red 1965 260 V8- one of the very first sold in the state. It was to be my car when I got my license in 1973.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.

roadburner

sda said:

The 67 Rivera was a beast and a great car in its own way. A good friend had a white GS. One day he came out of his house and found the hood partially open. Some jerk stole the GS specific air cleaner!
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://rivowners.org/features/evolution/images/67/engine.jpg&imgrefurl=https://rivowners.org/features/evolution/evpt67.html&tbnid=VmJzWlLz_teIHM&vet=12ahUKEwigrrCY--z5AhUHXlMKHfs8AnUQMygIegUIARCVAw..i&docid=Xo8ua5Th42IGZM&w=300&h=200&q=1967 buick riviera gs air cleaner&hl=en-us&client=safari&ved=2ahUKEwigrrCY--z5AhUHXlMKHfs8AnUQMygIegUIARCVAw

I always thought that the 1966-1967 Riviera was the best looking Riv.

andres3

roadburner said:

dad23 said:

We acquired another vehicle yesterday, mini-punch I guess. The car the boys have been working on with my Dad is now ours. It definitely needs some work, but we're in the process of making a list now.

The 1965 Mustang that my mother single-handedly demolished in 1969 was 1965 260 V8- one of the first sold in the state. I t was to be my car when I got my license in 1973.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.

What was your substitute first car in 1973?

corvette

I'm not thrilled so far with the 7-speed DSG in the Q5. It seems like it gets confused as to how many gears to downshift during moderate acceleration when you are already moving and there is a lag of close to a second, then the power suddenly comes on. I have tried changing the drive mode to "dynamic," and that didn't seem to help. I may try driving with the transmission in S instead of D. When I had the GLI (with a six speed DSG), all that seemed to do was essentially apply the same shift program, but kept the car in one lower gear than it would otherwise be in D, which would help, but may not be ideal. And, there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to whether or not the car will creep when you let your foot off the brake pedal (I initially thought it never did, but now I realize that it sometimes does).

Other than that, it's extremely nice. I went hiking last weekend and it was very quiet and stable on the interstate, even at very high two-digit speeds. One neat feature is that it lowers the audio volume when you are reversing. There does seem to be a fairly large discrepancy between the Bluetooth media volume level and the XM volume level--Bluetooth has lower volume, and if I switch to XM, I get blasted with very loud music.

My parents did not have an active XM subscription. I opened the chat box at SiriusXM and asked them to transfer my subscription on the Tundra (with a negotiated discount) to the Q5. They told me there would be a $15 fee (on an $8/month subscription). I told them I'd rather just cancel since I no longer own the Tundra, and they waived the fee.

nyccarguy

@kyfdx said:
Best deal:

2011 Z4 hardtop convertible.
Service loaner with 11K miles.
MSRP $55K

24/10 lease for $335/mo.
Due at signing:
$335 1st payment
+$2450 in multiple security deposits.
$2785 total (with $2450 refunded at lease end)

Best deal and also your shortest period of ownership, correct?

ab348

explorerx4 said:

That Mustang has a nice interior upgrade, not sure if it's a Pony Package.
Consider this hearsay but swapping in a V8 will involve some structural upgrades.

Yes, the early 6-cylinder Mustangs were largely gen-1 Falcons under the skin, including the 4-lug wheels I see in the pic.

oldfarmer50

dad23 said:

We acquired another vehicle yesterday, mini-punch I guess. The car the boys have been working on with my Dad is now ours. It definitely needs some work, but we're in the process of making a list now.

That interior looks pretty good . That’s a big plus. Besides a parking brake cable what does it need?

tifighter

@kyfdx said:
@tifighter Is it yours?

I changed the seat memory, so I’m calling it mine.

Sandman6472

Explorer, are you sure about that? The two tires I got replaced for nail punctures only cost me $25/tire plus the new road hazard fee. That was done at a regular Goodyear store. The Tires Choice is affiliated with Goodyear and not a Goodyear owned store from what I was told. Not sure what you said about a 3d party is correct in this case but if I have another nail puncture, I'll just go back to where I bought them and see what happens. I do know that I doubt I'll ever buy a Goodyear tire in the future as they make it too difficult honestly...I've never had an issue at Tires Plus/Firestone when it comes to using the road hazard warranty. If the tire wasn't patchable, they'd pro-rate it, add on a new road hazard fee and send me on my way with a brand new balanced tire. And down here, They are both all over the place. I just wanted to try the Goodyear Assurance tire this time but the sales guy said I'd do better with the Eagle GT's and he showed me that he had them on his VW GTI. Assured me that I'd like them better than the ones I was planning on buying, so I took his word as he has real word experience.
And, I must say he was right, they are a good driving tire and are wearing very evenly. But, I do rotate them on schedule and align the vehicle like ever 6 months with the 3-year policy I bought. I just feel safer having the policy and am willing to spend the time sitting & waiting in the store for them to do the needed work. I don't like throwing money at our vehicles if I can do certain things to make them and their parts last longer. Right now, we're both going to have owned our vehicles 8 years this December and have a feeling that we'll still have both in the garage next year at this time unless I do something stupid or G-d above takes one of them out. As much as I love automobiles, does take me awhile to decide to switch out of one for another and tend to keep them for a longer period of time. The only time I've acted illogically was with that 2014 Tucson I had for just over a year but blame that on me. It was the wrong vehicle at the time. That won't happen again I hope as we don't drive as much anymore plus I'm just not ready to sell any assets right now to buy something new. That is, unless the right vehicle comes along and all things work out smoothly with no kinks along the way.

qbrozen

@dad23 , if a labor of love, more power to ya. If value is a concern, be careful. The I6 auto hardtop is the bottom of the barrel and will never command much dough. Almost never worth restoring from a monetary perspective. Bodywork and paint alone can exceed its value. One of those vehicles that can actually be more valuable as a restomod. So v8 away if you wish!

roadburner

andres3 said:

roadburner said:

dad23 said:

We acquired another vehicle yesterday, mini-punch I guess. The car the boys have been working on with my Dad is now ours. It definitely needs some work, but we're in the process of making a list now.

The 1965 Mustang that my mother single-handedly demolished in 1969 was 1965 260 V8- one of the first sold in the state. I t was to be my car when I got my license in 1973.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.

What was your substitute first car in 1973?

A considerably less cool 1970 Mustang Grande...

stickguy

Ti, what are the details on that BMW? I lost track of what everybody was chasing!

qbrozen

whoops. Bought another JDM vehicle. Not totally sure how since the bidding went a little above my max, but I guess they figured I wouldn't mind an extra $50. Looks to be roughly $2600 for this model with 44k miles: https://carfromjapan.com/specifications/suzuki/alto-works/58192d0d2afaa2c4b2877954

stickguy

I like this one. and it is a manual!

qbrozen

oh, of course! No way I'd buy such an enthusiast's vehicle without a manual.
1500 lbs. That should be fun.

nyccarguy

@28firefighter said:
The Elantra is just about out of the 600 mile break in window, so I've been going relatively easy on it. I'll likely get an oil change around 1000 miles and pay out of pocket for it.

I love it so much. It really hits the perfect balance of incredibly fun to drive when it wants to be and tame daily when you need it to be. Build quality remains shockingly good - I'm continuously surprised that this is a Hyundai and not a VW or similar.

For the low-mid 30s price point it is hard to beat.

Just checked my local Toyota dealer’s inventory. They have a Black/Black Camry SE Hybrid with a $34K-ish sticker price. Hmmmm - Hybrid Camry or Elantra N for the same price?

This is one thing I kinda like about the current market. It really makes one compare apples to apples as far as pricing goes. A $34K car is a $34K car. Do you want a Hybrid that gets phenomenal gas mileage or a performance sedan?

oldfarmer50

jmonroe1 said:

dad23 said:

We acquired another vehicle yesterday, mini-punch I guess. The car the boys have been working on with my Dad is now ours. It definitely needs some work, but we're in the process of making a list now.

———————————————
Good luck with whipping that Mustang into shape.

However, you better take that pic down. Given the age of that car and with only a little bit of rust showing, @oldfarmer50 will be salivating.

jmonroe

I wouldn’t mind having a fully restored Mustang as a collector’s item but I’m not so sure they make good daily drivers. Several years ago I got to drive a friend’s 66’ GT Mustang and it was something of a disappointment. Ride, handling, comfort feature were all primitive compared with anything available now.

Michaell

I can close the book on my sister's car shopping exploits.

Her and her husband went to the Lexus dealer tonight and made the deal on the blue/blonde 2019 XC40 T5 Inscription with 16,000 miles.

$39,500 plus TTL.

Now for them to decide what to do with the Q50. It's at the dealer now, and will go into the service bay tomorrow to address a small engine issue - some white smoke coming from the tailpipe. It's still under warranty. They may try to sell it now, or they can keep it until the lease ends next spring.

tjc78

I guess the dealer really liked my S60. They put pictures up and it’s sitting in the showroom.

@Michaell
I think your sister will be happy with the XC40. Also a great color combo.

kyfdx

nyccarguy said:

@kyfdx said:

Best deal:

2011 Z4 hardtop convertible.

Service loaner with 11K miles.

MSRP $55K

24/10 lease for $335/mo.

Due at signing:

$335 1st payment

+$2450 in multiple security deposits.

$2785 total (with $2450 refunded at lease end)

Best deal and also your shortest period of ownership, correct?

Yes, I flew to Baltimore to get it. My wife hated it. Flipped it to her friend, one month later. (who was very happy with it, for 23 months).

stickguy

Denim over blonde is a great looking color combo.

[Deleted User]

oldfarmer50 said:

dad23 said:

We acquired another vehicle yesterday, mini-punch I guess. The car the boys have been working on with my Dad is now ours. It definitely needs some work, but we're in the process of making a list now.

That interior looks pretty good . That’s a big plus. Besides a parking brake cable what does it need?

It's not in bad shape, but it does need some work, new dash, door panels, headliner, probably carpet, body work, paint, tires, exhaust...

stickguy

Definitely going to be done for the experience since if you had to pay for the big stuff will never come out ahead.

[Deleted User]

qbrozen said:

@dad23 , if a labor of love, more power to ya. If value is a concern, be careful. The I6 auto hardtop is the bottom of the barrel and will never command much dough. Almost never worth restoring from a monetary perspective. Bodywork and paint alone can exceed its value. One of those vehicles that can actually be more valuable as a restomod. So v8 away if you wish!

Thanks Q! I think for now, it's just a matter of getting it street worthy, something for me and the boys to continue working on with my Dad, ony at our place now. I don't think we'll ever see it on Barrett Jackson.