Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

breld

@roadburner - congrats on the AMG! Way to be bold and make the move.

explorerx4

@roadburner,
Congrats, a good looking car. I hope it brings you many fun miles.

imidazol97

¹11¹¹¹¹> @jmonroe1 said:

@henryn said:
In many cases, what they are tracking are “annoyances” rather than actual “reliability”. Some other sources talk about “initial quality”, which is more closely related to “annoyances”.

What would be most meaningful to me would be an actual count of the number of trips made to the service department under warranty. I have owned new cars and trucks that never went in for warranty work, and others which required several trips to the service department.

In my younger days, I drove mostly older used cars and trucks. I wanted to know if a 10 year old model with 100k miles would reliably get me to work and not leave me stranded beside the road. To this day, I still mainly think of reliability in that way. And in that regards, Honda and Toyota have always lead the pack. Closely followed by anything on the Cougar platform, and certain Buick models, such as the LeSabre.

———————————————
@henryn, since you are a computer guy you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding out how @imidazol97 hacked into your Edmunds login info.

jmonroe

What does this mean? I haven't hacked anyone's account. I'm confused.

oldfarmer50

imidazol97 said:

¹11¹¹¹¹> @jmonroe1 said:

@henryn said:

In many cases, what they are tracking are “annoyances” rather than actual “reliability”. Some other sources talk about “initial quality”, which is more closely related to “annoyances”.

What would be most meaningful to me would be an actual count of the number of trips made to the service department under warranty. I have owned new cars and trucks that never went in for warranty work, and others which required several trips to the service department.

In my younger days, I drove mostly older used cars and trucks. I wanted to know if a 10 year old model with 100k miles would reliably get me to work and not leave me stranded beside the road. To this day, I still mainly think of reliability in that way. And in that regards, Honda and Toyota have always lead the pack. Closely followed by anything on the Cougar platform, and certain Buick models, such as the LeSabre.

———————————————
@henryn, since you are a computer guy you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding out how @imidazol97 hacked into your Edmunds login info.

jmonroe

What does this mean? I haven't hacked anyone's account. I'm confused.

I’m guessing that Mr. Monroe’s humor is at such a high level that us mere mortals can’t understand it.😵‍💫

qbrozen

whoops. I think I may have overbid on this, but it is mine now. What do you think? Supposedly excellent condition, 1992 model, about 50k miles. I was thinking folks might go nuts for it since it is an early e36, although 4 doors and an automatic and cloth guts. It is a 2.5, which is fairly rare for Japan, but being LHD probably explains that.

benjaminh

qbrozen said:

whoops. I think I may have overbid on this, but it is mine now. What do you think?....

May we ask how much the winning bid was?

Love the color and style of the car, but what will the performance be like?

stickguy

like the car but the slushbox just kills it for me. Looks very clean.

benjaminh

Tesla has already proved it can cut the price of the Model 3 by $7500.

In the next year production should really ramp up at Austin on the Model Y, which should allow a big increase in production on the Model 3 at Freemont. As the numbers they need to sell increase dramatically, it's possible Tesla will just make a price cut in the Model 3 that's not a rebate.

If they did that, moving the base model down to around the $42,500 level, when you add on the new federal tax credit of 7500 you'd finally have a $35k Model 3.

A mid-level Camry is currently about $30k, but you'd save about $1k a year on gas costs with the Model 3, meaning it would only take about five years to make up the extra purchase price of the Tesla. The trick is that many people only keep their car for about that long, and often even less.

Still, I think it's possible that sometime during 2024 the Model 3 might become the best selling sedan in the US, just because it will be a compelling value.

nyccarguy

@qbrozen - I love that color. I can't believe how clean that car looks. How many KM?

qbrozen

benjaminh said:

May we ask how much the winning bid was?

Love the color and style of the car, but what will the performance be like?

I was first curious to hear what y'all thought it might bring on the open US market. My gut was telling me about $10k.

0-60 I think is in the 7.5-8-sec range. Really not bad. Gotta remember these are only right around 3k lbs.

Could be an excellent starting point for a manual swap. 74k km.

kyfdx

@qbrozen The low mileage is amazing. But, the slushbox will really hold down the value. The only E36 models I see bringing any money are M3s.

Maybe worth $8K, given the low miles? I don't think it could top $10K. (of course, I have no real idea)

au1994

I think you could get 10k. Great color combo. Maybe try listing it on a BMW board?

qbrozen

C&B recently had this '96 328 auto. Sure, it has marginally more power, but also weighs more, so pretty much a wash in that department. And this '92 could be considered a special lightweight edition with the lack of options. lol. And, of course, lower miles. You never know what someone will treasure about a particular car. I also think that 328 is a bit rough around the edges for the miles.

When all is said and done, I'll be into this for about $8k. Couple of things conspired against me, like the exchange rate and the loose bidding of the broker who, I guess, figured I wouldn't mind going a couple hundred over my max.(?) Anyway, I shouldn't LOSE money on it, it just might have to be chalked up to being a kindhearted soul who wanted to bring a nice example to our shores.

kyfdx

qbrozen said:

C&B recently had this '96 328 auto. Sure, it has marginally more power, but also weighs more, so pretty much a wash in that department. And this '92 could be considered a special lightweight edition with the lack of options. lol. And, of course, lower miles. You never know what someone will treasure about a particular car. I also think that 328 is a bit rough around the edges for the miles.

When all is said and done, I'll be into this for about $8k. Couple of things conspired against me, like the exchange rate and the loose bidding of the broker who, I guess, figured I wouldn't mind going a couple hundred over my max.(?) Anyway, I shouldn't LOSE money on it, it just might have to be chalked up to being a kindhearted soul who wanted to bring a nice example to our shores.

I don't think the engine power, etc really matters. It's a cool non-US model. Nobody is going to worry about 0-60. The low miles and slushbox might make it a good XMAS present for a new driver.

roadburner

qbrozen said:

whoops. I think I may have overbid on this, but it is mine now. What do you think? Supposedly excellent condition, 1992 model, about 50k miles. I was thinking folks might go nuts for it since it is an early e36, although 4 doors and an automatic and cloth guts. It is a 2.5, which is fairly rare for Japan, but being LHD probably explains that.

I love the Euro steering wheel and the roomier interior(no knee bolsters like the US cars have).

sda

qbrozen said:

whoops. I think I may have overbid on this, but it is mine now. What do you think? Supposedly excellent condition, 1992 model, about 50k miles. I was thinking folks might go nuts for it since it is an early e36, although 4 doors and an automatic and cloth guts. It is a 2.5, which is fairly rare for Japan, but being LHD probably explains that.

I gave serious consideration to one of those (domestic) and was torn what version to buy, the 318 or 325 and ended up with a new 95 VW GLX VR-6. The VW was no BMW but was still a fun car and easier on my budget.

28firefighter

@kyfdx said:
I don't think the engine power, etc really matters. It's a cool non-US model. Nobody is going to worry about 0-60. The low miles and slushbox might make it a good XMAS present for a new driver.

Agree. Though I’m pretty sure no airbag on that. Would be a dealbreaker for me, probably not everyone. You could hit $10k for sure with the right buyer who wants a well kept driver that’s also completely novel on our shores.

pensfan83

Lovely weather we're having...

au1994

pensfan83 said:

Lovely weather we're having...

Yeah, I picked up a bottle of 12 year old Weller yesterday. I’m not leaving the house in these temps!

qbrozen

28firefighter said:

Agree. Though I’m pretty sure no airbag on that. Would be a dealbreaker for me, probably not everyone. You could hit $10k for sure with the right buyer who wants a well kept driver that’s also completely novel on our shores.

yeah, doesn't look like an airbag.

I have been surprised, though. My son's Opel was an eye opener. Dual airbags and ABS. I had no idea. Even has a sticker on the back window touting all the safety features. I told him he needs to leave that on there. Good selling point.

kyfdx

28firefighter said:

@kyfdx said:

I don't think the engine power, etc really matters. It's a cool non-US model. Nobody is going to worry about 0-60. The low miles and slushbox might make it a good XMAS present for a new driver.

Agree. Though I’m pretty sure no airbag on that. Would be a dealbreaker for me, probably not everyone. You could hit $10k for sure with the right buyer who wants a well kept driver that’s also completely novel on our shores.

I bought my son a car with no airbag, ABS or stability control. Then, sold it, and bought him a car that came with all those items, but they'd all been removed. But, it did come with some extra HP modifications. I might be a bad Dad.

(he's still alive, and turning 29 next month)

henryn

imidazol97 said:

¹11¹¹¹¹> @jmonroe1 said:

@henryn said:

In many cases, what they are tracking are “annoyances” rather than actual “reliability”. Some other sources talk about “initial quality”, which is more closely related to “annoyances”.

What would be most meaningful to me would be an actual count of the number of trips made to the service department under warranty. I have owned new cars and trucks that never went in for warranty work, and others which required several trips to the service department.

In my younger days, I drove mostly older used cars and trucks. I wanted to know if a 10 year old model with 100k miles would reliably get me to work and not leave me stranded beside the road. To this day, I still mainly think of reliability in that way. And in that regards, Honda and Toyota have always lead the pack. Closely followed by anything on the Cougar platform, and certain Buick models, such as the LeSabre.

———————————————
@henryn, since you are a computer guy you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding out how @imidazol97 hacked into your Edmunds login info.

jmonroe

What does this mean? I haven't hacked anyone's account. I'm confused.

===============end quoted material=========================

I believe he was referring to the favorable comment that I made about a Buick LeSabre being a very reliable used vehicle. You (@imidazol97) have been known to make favorable comments about LeSabre's.

roadburner

kyfdx said:

28firefighter said:

@kyfdx said:

I don't think the engine power, etc really matters. It's a cool non-US model. Nobody is going to worry about 0-60. The low miles and slushbox might make it a good XMAS present for a new driver.

Agree. Though I’m pretty sure no airbag on that. Would be a dealbreaker for me, probably not everyone. You could hit $10k for sure with the right buyer who wants a well kept driver that’s also completely novel on our shores.

I bought my son a car with no airbag, ABS or stability control. Then, sold it, and bought him a car that came with all those items, but they'd all been removed. But, it did come with some extra HP modifications. I might be a bad Dad.

(he's still alive, and turning 29 next month)

Of course my son got a 1975 2002- although it did have new seat belts...

xwesx

My first car was a 1971 Ford Econoline. No safety features (not even seatbelts). My first "modification" to that was to add seatbelts. For a kid, I was pretty weird.

Not that anything has changed (except my age).

roadburner

xwesx said:

My first car was a 1971 Ford Econoline. No safety features (not even seatbelts). My first "modification" to that was to add seatbelts. For a kid, I was pretty weird.

Not that anything has changed (except my age).

Welcome to my world...

imidazol97

henryn said:

———————————————
@henryn, since you are a computer guy you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding out how @imidazol97 hacked into your Edmunds login info.

jmonroe

What does this mean? I haven't hacked anyone's account. I'm confused.

===============end quoted material=========================

I believe he was referring to the favorable comment that I made about a Buick LeSabre being a very reliable used vehicle. You (@imidazol97) have been known to make favorable comments about LeSabre's.

@jmonroe1

Now that makes sense. The leSabres of the 90s and 00s deserve the accolades. Not perfect but then they didn't have problems some others did in exchange.

I had even been known to resist the statements bashing GM in the past. GM has left me.

I see many leSabres in this area that are still in great shape and appear to be running well for the owners. Along with many others that have been modded and urbanized.

oldfarmer50

xwesx said:

My first car was a 1971 Ford Econoline. No safety features (not even seatbelts). My first "modification" to that was to add seatbelts. For a kid, I was pretty weird.

Not that anything has changed (except my age).

My younger son’s first car had no floor.

pensfan83

We all have non-negotiables or things that don't faze us when rounding out our fleets to suit our needs.

qbrozen

My first had no roof, no doors, manual steering, manual brakes, and lap belts only.

henryn

How about no turn signals? My first car did not come equipped with turn signals, you rolled down the window and stuck your arm out.

xwesx

henryn said:

How about no turn signals? My first car did not come equipped with turn signals, you rolled down the window and stuck your arm out.

Hahah; that's how mine was, too. Granted, it *came* with turn signals, but the unit was broken by the time I got the van on the road. I ended up replacing the unit with a junk yard replacement, but the plastic (being fifty years old now) is very fragile and started coming apart when my son was learning to drive with it. I should probably see if I can find another replacement for it before I start my daughter's driving lessons in it this summer.

pensfan83

@qbrozen said:
My first had no roof, no doors, manual steering, manual brakes, and lap belts only.

Sounds like our side-by-side.

laurasdada

My first car (to use) was dad's '71 Saab 99 (IIRC four on the floor, key in center console, freewheeling and fold down back seats. Cloth seats and comfy. Can't recall if it had AC). So, I started safe and weird. Car-wise, that is.

kyfdx

pensfan83 said:

@qbrozen said:

My first had no roof, no doors, manual steering, manual brakes, and lap belts only.

Sounds like our side-by-side.

Our side-by-side is a Bosch.

houdini1

qbrozen said:

28firefighter said:

Agree. Though I’m pretty sure no airbag on that. Would be a dealbreaker for me, probably not everyone. You could hit $10k for sure with the right buyer who wants a well kept driver that’s also completely novel on our shores.

yeah, doesn't look like an airbag.

I have been surprised, though. My son's Opel was an eye opener. Dual airbags and ABS. I had no idea. Even has a sticker on the back window touting all the safety features. I told him he needs to leave that on there. Good selling point.

A car that old without an airbag might be a plus. Some of those defective air bags are still killing people.

[Deleted User]

Son just sent me this picture of the grill on the 4Runner. Could that be from the cold, but only one side?

mjfloyd1

@qbrozen said:
C&B recently had this '96 328 auto. Sure, it has marginally more power, but also weighs more, so pretty much a wash in that department. And this '92 could be considered a special lightweight edition with the lack of options. lol. And, of course, lower miles. You never know what someone will treasure about a particular car. I also think that 328 is a bit rough around the edges for the miles.

When all is said and done, I'll be into this for about $8k. Couple of things conspired against me, like the exchange rate and the loose bidding of the broker who, I guess, figured I wouldn't mind going a couple hundred over my max.(?) Anyway, I shouldn't LOSE money on it, it just might have to be chalked up to being a kindhearted soul who wanted to bring a nice example to our shores.

C&B 328 has leather and sport pkg with sport seats and suspension and sport pkg wheels. The one that you bought does not have sport pkg. That may or may not hurt the resale in the US?? It is also four years newer

xwesx

dad23 said:

Son just sent me this picture of the grill on the 4Runner. Could that be from the cold, but only one side?

Cold or hot can do it. Once the chromed covering starts to separate from the plastic underneath, any fast shift in temperature just makes it spread further and further. The console on my Q7 is doing the same thing. Funny enough, it was fine through all the winters here in Fairbanks, but six weeks in Ohio last year, and it was all blistered up like that by the time we left.

qbrozen

@mjfloyd1 said:

@qbrozen said:
C&B recently had this '96 328 auto. Sure, it has marginally more power, but also weighs more, so pretty much a wash in that department. And this '92 could be considered a special lightweight edition with the lack of options. lol. And, of course, lower miles. You never know what someone will treasure about a particular car. I also think that 328 is a bit rough around the edges for the miles.

When all is said and done, I'll be into this for about $8k. Couple of things conspired against me, like the exchange rate and the loose bidding of the broker who, I guess, figured I wouldn't mind going a couple hundred over my max.(?) Anyway, I shouldn't LOSE money on it, it just might have to be chalked up to being a kindhearted soul who wanted to bring a nice example to our shores.

C&B 328 has leather and sport pkg with sport seats and suspension and sport pkg wheels. The one that you bought does not have sport pkg. That may or may not hurt the resale in the US?? It is also four years newer

I’d prob find some like me who’d rather have the older, simpler, lighter version with cloth seats. Sport seats are a plus but if I had to choose between perfect base seats and torn leather sports, I’m taking the clean seats. And 4 years doesn’t mean much at these ages.

Sandman6472

My first car was a 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme 4-door, turquoise with a black vinyl roof. It was a gift from my mom to her folks who were driving a base '66 Olds Cutlass F-85. She wanted them in something nicer so she put them into the 1967 top of the line Cutlass Supreme. He died in the early part of my senor year of high school and since my grandma couldn't drive, we parked it in the garage. Already had my license so after a couple of days, my dad threw me the keys and said it's yours to drive to high school. This was in 1971 and kept it through college and traded it in on that crappy Izuzu Opel in the summer of '77. By then, it had changed color to navy blue in 1972 and then brown in 1976.

Sandman6472

Low of 43 here tonight, then 58 tomorrow. Repeat again for Saturday into Sunday. Am working tomorrow so will need to wear long pants and wear a coat I'm guessing. Decided to shower tonight as the load of towels in the dryer were still hot and the house will probably be down to 65 when I get up to go to work. Going to enjoy this cool snap as we don't get them too often.

jmonroe1

henryn said:

imidazol97 said:

¹11¹¹¹¹> @jmonroe1 said:

@henryn said:

In many cases, what they are tracking are “annoyances” rather than actual “reliability”. Some other sources talk about “initial quality”, which is more closely related to “annoyances”.

What would be most meaningful to me would be an actual count of the number of trips made to the service department under warranty. I have owned new cars and trucks that never went in for warranty work, and others which required several trips to the service department.

In my younger days, I drove mostly older used cars and trucks. I wanted to know if a 10 year old model with 100k miles would reliably get me to work and not leave me stranded beside the road. To this day, I still mainly think of reliability in that way. And in that regards, Honda and Toyota have always lead the pack. Closely followed by anything on the Cougar platform, and certain Buick models, such as the LeSabre.

———————————————
@henryn, since you are a computer guy you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding out how @imidazol97 hacked into your Edmunds login info.

jmonroe

What does this mean? I haven't hacked anyone's account. I'm confused.

===============end quoted material=========================

I believe he was referring to the favorable comment that I made about a Buick LeSabre being a very reliable used vehicle. You (@imidazol97) have been known to make favorable comments about LeSabre's.

————————————————
Thanks, I couldn’t have explained it any better myself. I decided not to respond to his post because I thought maybe @imidazol97 was pulling my leg. I’ve had that done to me too many times over the years which probably explains why I limp.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

xwesx said:

My first car was a 1971 Ford Econoline. No safety features (not even seatbelts). My first "modification" to that was to add seatbelts. For a kid, I was pretty weird.

Not that anything has changed (except my age).

————————————————
You didn’t have to state the obvious.

jmonroe

xwesx

@jmonroe1 said:
————————————————
You didn’t have to state the obvious.

jmonroe

Ironic statement considering the post it followed, yet I’ll concur.

oldfarmer50

dad23 said:

Son just sent me this picture of the grill on the 4Runner. Could that be from the cold, but only one side?

That’s odd. I’m assuming that grill is all plastic. I never saw chrome coming off plastic unless it melted.

Sandman6472

41 here now and even wearing a long sleeve pull over under my work shirt which I can always take off later. Instead of using the heat, we've got a couple of little heater boxes to keep a small area warm, using the heat really sucks the amount of electricity used which ratches up the monthly power bill. Got a Columbia jacket to wear and a hat, showered last night instead of this morning so the hair is a mess...bed head!
Maybe volunteering today wasn't such a smart move in the first place!!!

benjaminh

I didn't realize until this morning how much Carvana has collapsed....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gynGb97rPc

corvette

Congrats to @roadburner on the Merc, it looks very nice!

Happy Christmas to those who celebrate.

I think we had a low of -7 here, far lower than it's been in quite some time here. Had to click the set temperature on the water heater up a few degrees to compensate for the very cold water coming in. There's still a slushy mix on the roads. We took a brief drive to grab dinner last night, but decided not to make the 80-ish mile trek to my parents' house.

roadburner

@corvette said:
Congrats to @roadburner on the Merc, it looks very nice!

Happy Christmas to those who celebrate.

I think we had a low of -7 here, far lower than it's been in quite some time here. Had to click the set temperature on the water heater up a few degrees to compensate for the very cold water coming in. There's still a slushy mix on the roads. We took a brief drive to grab dinner last night, but decided not to make the 80-ish mile trek to my parents' house.

Same here, we planned to visit my wife’s family in northern Ky today but decided to cancel last night. Good thing as I-71 is virtually shut down.

tjc78

I left the house for the last time until Monday at 8 this morning and came back around 9:30. Had to pick up a cake and the balloon bouquet for my wife’s birthday.

I may have had some spirited full throttle pulls in the truck. It’s not super quick, but I just like to hear the V8 especially on a particularly cool morning.