Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

henryn

Sunlight (ultraviolet rays) are very hard on tires. RV tires almost always age out before they mile out. One reason you will often see tire covers on RVs, which often travel very few miles per year.

Michaell

There is a Nissan Xterra in my neighborhood that had those tire covers on it, all summer long. Now that the weather has turned colder and snowier, they've come off and I assume the owner is driving it more.

corvette

Cool Maverick feature/behavior which the Tundra did not do: the radio stays off during a remote start. The Tundra would start playing the radio, and if my phone was nearby, would end up playing whatever podcast I had queued up while I wasn’t even in the truck to hear it.

explorerx4

Keeping the tires out of the sun is a good idea. I would just throw an old blanket over them.

au1994

Reminds me that I need to get a tire cover for the Jeep.

stickguy

corvette said:

@stickguy said:

Car tires wear out?

Who knew!

The Contis they put on my Maverick have an OE tread depth of only 8/32”. I’m sure Ford saved a few cents on each vehicle by speccing them that thin (most similar tires are at least 9 or 10/32”), but I doubt they will last as long as you’d expect.

I’m a high roller. Mine came with Michelins. Though my RDX came with continentals.

sda

I have noticed several tire manufacturers of premium reputation offering new tires with only 8-9/32. And we are encouraged to replace them around 4/32. Such a deal!

henryn

corvette said:

Cool Maverick feature/behavior which the Tundra did not do: the radio stays off during a remote start. The Tundra would start playing the radio, and if my phone was nearby, would end up playing whatever podcast I had queued up while I wasn’t even in the truck to hear it.

About 3 years ago, I took the Town & Country in for the annual oil change and state inspection at the dealership. I had to go in for the state inspection, and they were always sending me coupons for the oil change, so I just had both done in one trip. I was still working back then, and had a lot less free time.

This was my Friday off (9/80 schedule), and a nice day, so I was sitting on a bench outside enjoying the day while waiting. My boss called me on my cell phone, and while I was talking to him, the tech brought the Town & Country back around to the front. And, of course, my cell phone connected via bluetooth to the minivan, and I lost the call on my cell phone. A bit of a PITA, to be sure.

qbrozen

@corvette said:
Cool Maverick feature/behavior which the Tundra did not do: the radio stays off during a remote start. The Tundra would start playing the radio, and if my phone was nearby, would end up playing whatever podcast I had queued up while I wasn’t even in the truck to hear it.

Weird. My 2008 Dodge doesn’t turn on the radio with the remote start.

sda

I have no idea whether the radio plays when I use the remote start on the Passat. What I find annoying is the car stops running, i.e. turns off as soon as the door or trunk is opened. This prevents the car from cooling or heating the interior when I load the trunk with groceries or items from my monthly WalMart run for paper towels. tp, and other basic items. Of course I can start the car regular way and let it run while I load it. As a result I rarely use the remote start. On my 08 HHR I used the remote start frequently during the summer as the car continued to run when a door or hatch was opened.

nyccarguy

@qbrozen said:

@corvette said:
Cool Maverick feature/behavior which the Tundra did not do: the radio stays off during a remote start. The Tundra would start playing the radio, and if my phone was nearby, would end up playing whatever podcast I had queued up while I wasn’t even in the truck to hear it.

Weird. My 2008 Dodge doesn’t turn on the radio with the remote start.

I forgot you had that -

stickguy

I have never used remote start. and never will.

qbrozen

I use it to make the wife comfy. Or, well, more specifically, to stop the wife from complaining. So I guess it is making me more comfortable. ;b

And, yes, I still have the Dodge. I'm honestly not sure it will ever leave me, as long as it is in one piece.

sda

qbrozen said:

I use it to make the wife comfy. Or, well, more specifically, to stop the wife from complaining. So I guess it is making me more comfortable. ;b

And, yes, I still have the Dodge. I'm honestly not sure it will ever leave me, as long as it is in one piece.

I know you are super busy with the JDMs, setting up your sales site, etc. Any progress on the Coronet? I must have missed it, did you sell the ML after all the repairs?

Sandman6472

Re-up'd at BJ's today as I got a $25 special promotion on my phone the other day. My daughters membership ends on 1/31/23 so once I got this pop-up on my phone for this special rate, I jumped on it. I did it really for the savings I get in their petrol prices. The closest BJ's is right near my office and since they open the pumps at 6:15 in the morning, I can go before breakfast & work. At that time, usually only a couple of others filling up which is fine with me. We took the Hyundai today at about 1:30 and there were more vehicles in line to fill up. We've found that the best time to go besides when they open is at 8 at night as most folks have gotten theirs already & we can usually just drive up to a open pump. We've tried a variety of earlier times and there are just too many vehicles in line at each pump. Gets annoying at those times so we just go when there's almost no one in line.
There are a bunch of things we do buy in bulk there, mostly paper products for the house and dishwasher detergent among a few other things. Then we take them home and give about a third of it all to our kid in Boca so she has it for her apartment. Luckily, the BJ's is so close to the house or it wouldn't be worth it. There's a Costco where Abacomike goes buts it's a lot closer to his place and out of the way for us. Plus, the parking at our BJ's is so much better plus the gas pumps are out of the way as not to disrupt the flow of traffic unlike a the Costco. We'll try it for another year and then see where it goes after that. There are some tremendous savings on certain things we do use a lot of and by splitting it with my kid, we're all happy.

jmonroe1

@sda said:
I have noticed several tire manufacturers of premium reputation offering new tires with only 8-9/32. And we are encouraged to replace them around 4/32. Such a deal!

————————————————-
If I made tires I’d say the same thing.

jmonroe

laurasdada

Lately, BJs gas has been cheaper than Costco up here. Of course, BJs isn't Top TIer. So, there's that.
And, The Pats continue their relentless march to mediocrity. Now in year three of Belichick/Brady conundrum. As always, Tom is decidedly winning.

qbrozen

@sda said:
I know you are super busy with the JDMs, setting up your sales site, etc. Any progress on the Coronet? I must have missed it, did you sell the ML after all the repairs?

No movement on the coronet.

ML was totaled by insurance company when dealer claimed water damage found. Insurance paid what I was hoping to sell it for, so no harm done.

Michaell

laurasdada said:

Lately, BJs gas has been cheaper than Costco up here. Of course, BJs isn't Top TIer. So, there's that.
And, The Pats continue their relentless march to mediocrity. Now in year three of Belichick/Brady conundrum. As always, Tom is decidedly winning.

I could live with mediocrity from the Broncos. Just a gigantic disaster at the moment.

I'm still scoping out BMW G32's, just for fun at the moment.

tjc78

@laurasdada said:
Lately, BJs gas has been cheaper than Costco up here. Of course, BJs isn't Top TIer. So, there's that.
And, The Pats continue their relentless march to mediocrity. Now in year three of Belichick/Brady conundrum. As always, Tom is decidedly winning.

I can’t say I’m upset with this 😝😝

sda

qbrozen said:

@sda said:

I know you are super busy with the JDMs, setting up your sales site, etc. Any progress on the Coronet? I must have missed it, did you sell the ML after all the repairs?

No movement on the coronet.

ML was totaled by insurance company when dealer claimed water damage found. Insurance paid what I was hoping to sell it for, so no harm done.

Now I remember that saga, what an ordeal. I imagine good riddance to the ML!

qbrozen

sda said:

Now I remember that saga, what an ordeal. I imagine good riddance to the ML!

I think I may actually be cured of looking at used MBs. Oddly, the one that gave me the fewest problems was a 16x,xxx mile 190E. Didn't have it long, though. All the others were nothing but frustrations.

au1994

I use remote start on the Jeep if its really, really cold. So not that often here.

It does have a cool little feature that if its below 40 (I think) when you crank it up, the drivers side seat heater and steering wheel come on.

In a similar vein, one of the features I enjoyed on the TSX and Accord I had was holding down the unlock button and it would drop the windows and open the sunroof. On a hot day just doing that as you approached the car made a difference.

stickguy

That was nice on the Hondas. Not nice was accidentally hitting the fob and coming back to find your car that way.

Parking in the garage makes having remote start not very useful.

pensfan83

Had to take my parents to the airport early this morning and when I got there everything was already loaded in their Passport so we took that. My initial impressions are it's a pretty nice vehicle overall; comfortable seats, rides well, smooth powertrain, ton of cargo space. I brought it home for a few days so my wife can drive it and determine if it's a candidate if we do decide to move on from the Acura.

stickguy

I looked at those when we were replacing the old RDX. We just found it to big and bulky for us.

laurasdada

tjc78 said:

@laurasdada said:

Lately, BJs gas has been cheaper than Costco up here. Of course, BJs isn't Top TIer. So, there's that.

And, The Pats continue their relentless march to mediocrity. Now in year three of Belichick/Brady conundrum. As always, Tom is decidedly winning.

I can’t say I’m upset with this 😝😝

In general, people love an underdog. Love a winner. Hate a dynasty (see Patriots, and for much of women's college basketball, my Lady UConn Huskies!)

sda

qbrozen said:

sda said:

Now I remember that saga, what an ordeal. I imagine good riddance to the ML!

I think I may actually be cured of looking at used MBs. Oddly, the one that gave me the fewest problems was a 16x,xxx mile 190E. Didn't have it long, though. All the others were nothing but frustrations.

Monkey Wrench Mike has yet to learn that lesson!

qbrozen

good god this Gloria thing is frustrating. I have a listing loaded and ready to go on Ebay. Not an auction, just an ad. $79, though. Guess that's a small price of business to pay. Will list it for $9500 but open to offers. I've message C&B again because I want to make sure they know my intent. I'll likely post it sometime tomorrow in time for Sunday browsers to come upon it. Hopefully. How many people are surfing ebay for unknown JDM Nissans, though? Guess I'll find out. If my business was official, I'd be bombarding social media. Oh well.

breld

qbrozen said:

sda said:

Now I remember that saga, what an ordeal. I imagine good riddance to the ML!

I think I may actually be cured of looking at used MBs. Oddly, the one that gave me the fewest problems was a 16x,xxx mile 190E. Didn't have it long, though. All the others were nothing but frustrations.

On the MB note, I should be getting my E450 wagon back next week once they get a part in to repair the keyless entry on the driver's door.

I knew that'd be an easily identifiable fix. The other items were a burning smell that seems to have been linked to a loose oil cap and a minor rattle in the passenger door which I think they addressed. But the most bothersome thing I had was a shimmy/vibration at higher speeds (above 65 mph). They agreed there was a slight vibration and recommended a balancing of the wheels. I'm fine with that since it's inexpensive, but I did point out that I had snow tires put on a month ago by Discount Tire, and they would have re-balanced the wheels at that point. The vibration was present before that and remained after that, so I am not hopeful that another re-balancing of the wheels will address the vibration.

The wagon is lovely other than that vibration at high speeds. It's not something I would expect at all from a Mercedes and definitely contrasts with the X5, which was silky smooth.

I'll keep you posted on results after I pick it up next week, but if anyone has thoughts on things that would cause the vibration at higher speeds, do share. I feel it through the steering wheel as well as through the seat of my pants. And it was noticeable from the passenger's seat as well.

stickguy

I think we know the obvious answer to you having nagging issues with a car.

breld

stickguy said:

I think we know the obvious answer to you having nagging issues with a car.

I'm trying to use this as an opportunity to mature.

qbrozen

gotta fix it for the next owner, anyway

nyccarguy

@breld - did you feel the vibration before you had the snow tires put on?

breld

nyccarguy said:

@breld - did you feel the vibration before you had the snow tires put on?

Yes, I did.

pensfan83

qbrozen said:

good god this Gloria thing is frustrating. I have a listing loaded and ready to go on Ebay. Not an auction, just an ad. $79, though. Guess that's a small price of business to pay. Will list it for $9500 but open to offers. I've message C&B again because I want to make sure they know my intent. I'll likely post it sometime tomorrow in time for Sunday browsers to come upon it. Hopefully. How many people are surfing ebay for unknown JDM Nissans, though? Guess I'll find out. If my business was official, I'd be bombarding social media. Oh well.

How frustrating. I'll echo what others have said, it's a shame C&B is not helping you make this right or at least refunding some or even all of the fee.

stickguy

qbrozen said:

gotta fix it for the next owner, anyway

Not if he trades it in!

qbrozen

pensfan83 said:

How frustrating. I'll echo what others have said, it's a shame C&B is not helping you make this right or at least refunding some or even all of the fee.

No fee for me at C&B. Theoretically, they are supposed to pay me half the fees they have collected, but I doubt that will happen.

jmonroe1

Michaell said:

laurasdada said:

Lately, BJs gas has been cheaper than Costco up here. Of course, BJs isn't Top TIer. So, there's that.
And, The Pats continue their relentless march to mediocrity. Now in year three of Belichick/Brady conundrum. As always, Tom is decidedly winning.

I could live with mediocrity from the Broncos. Just a gigantic disaster at the moment.

I'm still scoping out BMW G32's, just for fun at the moment.

————————————————-
Mediocrity is the worst place to be. Ask any Steelers fan if you think I’m wrong. The Steelers have been living there for years, yet the national media thinks Tomlin is a good coach. After all he’s NEVER had a losing season, which they constantly remind us of. So, maybe they should come and live here.

“The standard is the standard”. That is a Tomlinism and he’s proving it but the folks around here don’t like it. Believe me, mediocrity gets old.

jmonroe

nyccarguy

breld said:

nyccarguy said:

@breld - did you feel the vibration before you had the snow tires put on?

Yes, I did.

Could literally be anything. a bent rim, an unbalanced tire, a warped brake rotor, a worn brake pad...

jmonroe1

breld said:

qbrozen said:

sda said:

Now I remember that saga, what an ordeal. I imagine good riddance to the ML!

I think I may actually be cured of looking at used MBs. Oddly, the one that gave me the fewest problems was a 16x,xxx mile 190E. Didn't have it long, though. All the others were nothing but frustrations.

On the MB note, I should be getting my E450 wagon back next week once they get a part in to repair the keyless entry on the driver's door.

I knew that'd be an easily identifiable fix. The other items were a burning smell that seems to have been linked to a loose oil cap and a minor rattle in the passenger door which I think they addressed. But the most bothersome thing I had was a shimmy/vibration at higher speeds (above 65 mph). They agreed there was a slight vibration and recommended a balancing of the wheels. I'm fine with that since it's inexpensive, but I did point out that I had snow tires put on a month ago by Discount Tire, and they would have re-balanced the wheels at that point. The vibration was present before that and remained after that, so I am not hopeful that another re-balancing of the wheels will address the vibration.

The wagon is lovely other than that vibration at high speeds. It's not something I would expect at all from a Mercedes and definitely contrasts with the X5, which was silky smooth.

I'll keep you posted on results after I pick it up next week, but if anyone has thoughts on things that would cause the vibration at higher speeds, do share. I feel it through the steering wheel as well as through the seat of my pants. And it was noticeable from the passenger's seat as well.

————————————————
From what I’ve heard, Discount Tire is a competent outfit so if they balanced your tires it shouldn’t be a balancing problem but I’d still want someone to double check the rims to see if they’re bent.

If the dealer balances your tires and you still have a “shimmy”, you shouldn’t have to pay for that. Yes, please let us know the outcome.

jmonroe

fintail

breld said:

nyccarguy said:

@breld - did you feel the vibration before you had the snow tires put on?

Yes, I did.

I assume you are running the same wheel for winter and regular tires? Gotta be in the wheel or maybe brakes, they need to just take it all apart and look. I wouldn't be surprised if those big thin spoke wheels can be susceptible to minor issues.

3.75 years in with my wagon, still no real complaints other than that you gotta pay to play.

corvette

Knocked out a couple of mods on the Maverick. Enabled traffic sign recognition via the forward facing camera and also installed the vinyl lettering on the tailgate. I think the chrome AWD badge kind of clashes with the black lettering. Should I remove it or try to find a black badge?

Michaell

Black badge would compliment it nicely

au1994

corvette said:

Knocked out a couple of mods on the Maverick. Enabled traffic sign recognition via the forward facing camera and also installed the vinyl lettering on the tailgate. I think the chrome AWD badge kind of clashes with the black lettering. Should I remove it or try to find a black badge?

Looks great! I’d find a black badge.

explorerx4

How about plastidip the AWD badge?

andres3

qbrozen said:

Ok, I found this in the FAQ:

If your buyer fails to follow through, we’ll immediately work with the next-highest bidder(s) in an attempt to sell your vehicle at an agreed-upon price. In the event that we can’t strike a deal, we may offer to re-list your car free of charge, or we will pay you half of the collected buyer’s fee after 90 days.

Of course, I doubt they'd ever offer up half the fee. They'll just offer to relist it. If you turn them down, well, that's on you, and they are not obligated to pay you one cent.

Those are absurd terms and conditions. It should be much faster. Either the buyers complete their obligation within 7 calendar days or they overnight you a check for 1/2 the buyer's fee within 3 business days after those 7 calendar days. That would be reasonable.

corvette

Speaking of tire balancing, my dad paid the Audi dealer for a balance and rotation at the Q5's service visit earlier this week. I had just taken it to Discount Tire for a free rotation perhaps 1,000 miles ago, and they didn't feel like they were out of balance.

breld

Regarding C&B, @jpp75 could add to the discussion as well regarding the site's vetting of bidders, and how they should perhaps not allow ones from another country to bid and eventually win.

It all worked out in the end, but you can imagine what kind of complications there were in selling to a buyer in France.

breld

fintail said:

breld said:

nyccarguy said:

@breld - did you feel the vibration before you had the snow tires put on?

Yes, I did.

I assume you are running the same wheel for winter and regular tires? Gotta be in the wheel or maybe brakes, they need to just take it all apart and look. I wouldn't be surprised if those big thin spoke wheels can be susceptible to minor issues.

3.75 years in with my wagon, still no real complaints other than that you gotta pay to play.

Yes, same wheels...since they weren't particularly large ones, it made sense to simply swap out tires. Unlike the wife's GLC with the staggered AMG setup, for which we found the nice used MB wheels to create a whole winter wheel/tire setup. As we say, the next buyer will appreciate them.

My tendencies to let my mind wander may suggest otherwise, but for the record, I am very excited to get my wagon back.