Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

tifighter

BP today has announced they are buying $100 million of Tesla Superchargers to install across the BP network. It continues...

xwesx

qbrozen said:

If it is one piece, how did you replace just a portion? Was there cutting involved?

Yes. I basically just cut out the black portion in the lower center of the fascia, then put an edge cover on it and attached it to the new steel portion. Since that was the part that was already damaged, I had no qualms with doing so!

xwesx

tifighter said:

BP today has announced they are buying $100 million of Tesla Superchargers to install across the BP network. It continues...

I noticed a few "fueling stations" on my way home this year that had DC fast chargers installed. Not Tesla, but they were there nonetheless. If there is anyone who should be getting in on the electric charging game, it's all the many gas station / convenience stores!

tifighter

xwesx said:

tifighter said:

BP today has announced they are buying $100 million of Tesla Superchargers to install across the BP network. It continues...

I noticed a few "fueling stations" on my way home this year that had DC fast chargers installed. Not Tesla, but they were there nonetheless. If there is anyone who should be getting in on the electric charging game, it's all the many gas station / convenience stores!

No one knows the number yet, but the $ figure sort of implies something like 3000 units.

nyccarguy

tifighter said:

xwesx said:

tifighter said:

BP today has announced they are buying $100 million of Tesla Superchargers to install across the BP network. It continues...

I noticed a few "fueling stations" on my way home this year that had DC fast chargers installed. Not Tesla, but they were there nonetheless. If there is anyone who should be getting in on the electric charging game, it's all the many gas station / convenience stores!

No one knows the number yet, but the $ figure sort of implies something like 3000 units.

They really didn't say buzzing to announce...

sda

Not a good snap, white Hummer EV infront of the R8. It is huge and towers over the other vehicles. The R8 driver was having fun, accelerating rapidly and quickly going through the gears.

corvette

I would bet some of the older/smaller stations don't have the three phase electrical service they would need to host a fast charger...

kyfdx

corvette said:

I would bet some of the older/smaller stations don't have the three phase electrical service they would need to host a fast charger...

It'll to be the big ones, with the whole mini-mart/restaurant thing going, I'd guess. Blue Pantry? Does BP still call them that?

tjc78

I just got quoted on an EQE sedan loaner (3K miles) $84,500 MSRP …
$699 36/7.5 with just first and broker OOP

And then they said it had black interior.

Can get the EQE SUV $80,400 MSRP for same price. Only one left is black/black

Wife isn’t happy with black interior (neither am I) and can’t decide on SUV vs Sedan. That deal on the sedan is tough to beat

tjc78

There is decent inventory on these so .. if this doesn’t work out I can always find one and try dealing direct

jmonroe1

sda said:

Not a good snap, white Hummer EV infront of the R8. It is huge and towers over the other vehicles. The R8 driver was having fun, accelerating rapidly and quickly going through the gears.

————————————————
That Audi should have held a couple lower gears longer so he could passed that beast instead of trying to draft that thing through traffic.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

roadburner said:

@xwesx said:

Yep! But, at least you only have what, maybe two years left? How many more can you collect during that time?! (yes, that may be a challenge.....)

Fourteen months- but who’s counting?

————————————————
Fourteen months is too early to start counting down.

When I was in the Navy (discharged in July of 1963 it was customary and accepted) to start counting down when you were less than a month from being discharged. This was done just before the barracks lights were about to be turned off. The guy being discharged would yell out something like, “25 days and a wake up”. I thought this was rubbing it in so I didn’t do that. Finally, a few guys yelled out one night as I was getting pretty close to being discharged, “hey @jmonroe, how many days do you have left?” I looked at the calendar on the inside of my locker door and said, “2 days and a breakfast”. I guess that hit a nerve with some of the guys because they had to throw at least 10 pillows at me. And that’s the thanks I got for serving my time with guys who I thought were my friends.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

qbrozen said:

Here are some pics to peruse. Looks pretty good for the money. I'll probably just black out the grille and bumper. Interior will take a good scrubbing. Underside looks very solid.

That’s quite a score for $1700.

oldfarmer50

xwesx said:

tifighter said:

BP today has announced they are buying $100 million of Tesla Superchargers to install across the BP network. It continues...

I noticed a few "fueling stations" on my way home this year that had DC fast chargers installed. Not Tesla, but they were there nonetheless. If there is anyone who should be getting in on the electric charging game, it's all the many gas station / convenience stores!

My local Sam’s Club is installing a new 17 pump gas station so Dino fuel is still in the game. No word if they’ll have chargers as well.

qbrozen

@au1994 said:
Anyone else having issues with insurance rates going up even in absence of claims? We are with Allstate and just experienced our 3rd rate increase in as many years. And yes, I shopped it last time this happened. The results were mixed. One would be better on cars but worse on homes etc. I need to run numbers but we may be to the point where its better to break things up.

Agent says inflation. A 10k repair on a car is now 14k. Totaling many they used to fix due to the cost and complexity to fix. Allstate has him on restrictions as to what he can quote for new customers based on driving record, value of homes etc.

Insurance being jacked up across the board. I have received letters and emails from all my insurance companies telling me they have filed for an increase. Funniest one was our pet insurance. Within their letter, they said, in summary:

• we were previously approved for a 12.5% increase
• We have requested an additional 28.1%
• so our customers will see a 7% increase
• You could see an overall 44.1% increase

I emailed them with that summary and asked them to show me the math. Their reply was “we’ll inform you of your rate increase.”

ab348

ab348 said:

Driving home the display adjusted itself to show 38psi at each corner. If true, that means they didn’t bother to adjust the pressures when they installed the rims. Wouldn’t be the first time I had that happen with them. I’ll check tomorrow… [sigh…]

Closing the loop on this, yesterday morning I got my trusty pressure gauge out and checked the tires. They were indeed 38psi all around. Supposed to be 32 front, 36 rear. Bled them down and the TPMS shows the change correctly. Why a tire shop continually gets pressures wrong is a mystery. A few years back they returned the Cutlass to me with 45psi in one tire and 15psi in another. When I told them that they refused to believe me.

kyfdx

I stopped by Discount Tire, yesterday, for them to check the psi on the Cayman. It's 32/36 F/R, as well. He said they were all within 1 psi of that, already.

2018 date codes, with about 3000 miles on them. Should be good for awhile.

roadburner

Wrangler Upgrades Round 1:

stickguy

The money pit has opened!

jmonroe1

ab348 said:

ab348 said:

Driving home the display adjusted itself to show 38psi at each corner. If true, that means they didn’t bother to adjust the pressures when they installed the rims. Wouldn’t be the first time I had that happen with them. I’ll check tomorrow… [sigh…]

Closing the loop on this, yesterday morning I got my trusty pressure gauge out and checked the tires. They were indeed 38psi all around. Supposed to be 32 front, 36 rear. Bled them down and the TPMS shows the change correctly. Why a tire shop continually gets pressures wrong is a mystery. A few years back they returned the Cutlass to me with 45psi in one tire and 15psi in another. When I told them that they refused to believe me.

————————————————
With that type of incompetency why didn’t you think to check your lug nuts. I thought I taught you better than that.

jmonroe

roadburner

stickguy said:

The money pit has opened!

Next up:
1. Mud flaps- either Mopar or WeatherTech
2. Covercraft or Mopar Sunshade

tjc78

One thing about a Jeep… no shortage of accessories!!

cdnpinhead

ab348 said:

ab348 said:

Closing the loop on this, yesterday morning I got my trusty pressure gauge out and checked the tires. They were indeed 38psi all around. Supposed to be 32 front, 36 rear. Bled them down and the TPMS shows the change correctly. Why a tire shop continually gets pressures wrong is a mystery. A few years back they returned the Cutlass to me with 45psi in one tire and 15psi in another. When I told them that they refused to believe me.

I've had similar issues with Discount Tire which seems to think that all tires are meant to be inflated to 36 or more psi. When I tell them to inflate to the values on the door jamb they act like I want them to do something illegal.

Higher pressures yield better gas mileage at the expense of handling (and tire wear, but who's going to keep track?), so from their point of view, what's the problem?

tjc78

Punch Pending

au1994

tjc78 said:

Punch Pending

dun, dun, duh…

28firefighter

I smell something electrical from Herr Daimler.

Michaell

Member needs help evaluating a used car...

roadburner

cdnpinhead said:

I cut out the middleman and keep one of these in each car- although I will say that my BMW, Jeep, and M-B dealers always get the tire pressures spot on.

stickguy

I have a gauge in both cars (and make the kids have one too) but only use it when I need to pump up the tires. I check the accuracy of the TPMS at the beginning (and they have always been close to spot on) and once I know it is accurate, I just check that on a regular basis.

corvette

I'm not sold on Hoovie's (and his girlfriend's) new channel, trying to do a the equivalent of a morning talk show on YouTube.

My Volt must have had a weird ownership history, especially since it's had three previous owners. The window sticker and quick start guide were still in the glovebox (although the owner's manual is MIA). The interior looks mint for 100k miles, save for a little compressed foam on the driver's seat bolsters. I found the OE mesh-like cargo cover in a bin in the trunk, apparently never used. And the GM tire inflator kit with expired slime. Someone appeared to have used the air compressor at some point, because it was put back in its case the wrong way.

Cleaned off some old stickers and sticker residue on the windows. Charging it up tonight and going to see how it fares on a highway trip to go hiking tomorrow, weather permitting. Some of GM's marketing for the Volt indicates that people average 1,000 miles on a tank of gas, which seems very reasonable for people with short to medium commutes who plug in and fully recharge almost every night, but it would also be interesting to confirm for myself, especially since nearly all of my miles are non-commuting miles. (For context, I usually work from home four days a week, and my office is about a mile from my house, although the location is likely to change within the next year.)

oldfarmer50

corvette said:

I'm not sold on Hoovie's (and his girlfriend's) new channel, trying to do a the equivalent of a morning talk show on YouTube.

My Volt must have had a weird ownership history, especially since it's had three previous owners. The window sticker and quick start guide were still in the glovebox (although the owner's manual is MIA). The interior looks mint for 100k miles, save for a little compressed foam on the driver's seat bolsters. I found the OE mesh-like cargo cover in a bin in the trunk, apparently never used. And the GM tire inflator kit with expired slime. Someone appeared to have used the air compressor at some point, because it was put back in its case the wrong way.

Cleaned off some old stickers and sticker residue on the windows. Charging it up tonight and going to see how it fares on a highway trip to go hiking tomorrow, weather permitting. Some of GM's marketing for the Volt indicates that people average 1,000 miles on a tank of gas, which seems very reasonable for people with short to medium commutes who plug in and fully recharge almost every night, but it would also be interesting to confirm for myself, especially since nearly all of my miles are non-commuting miles. (For context, I usually work from home four days a week, and my office is about a mile from my house, although the location is likely to change within the next year.)

I thought Hoovie was married, does his wife know about this?

ab348

oldfarmer50 said:

I thought Hoovie was married, does his wife know about this?

It's hard to keep up with him because of the urge I have to switch to another video from anybody else, but he went through a big change recently. He and his wife divorced, so he had to sell the house and a big part of his car collection to finalize things between them. Then he bought an old farmhouse with a few outbuildings and is constructing a new storage building there as he begins collecting again. I find him difficult to watch because so much of it is obviously faked/redone for effect. And the basic premise wears thin quickly: buy a car, discover all sorts of "surprises", sing the blues at what all that costs to fix (in conjunction with his co-conspirator, the "Car Wizard", who I find increasingly unwatchable as well), then rinse and repeat. Maybe his views were falling and he figured he needed a new gimmick.

qbrozen

I can’t stand hearing his voice for more than 30 secs. If you are a simpsons fan, you may better know him as the squeaky-voiced teen:

https://youtu.be/uNOLnjb4xyQ?si=z2IVKCp1MTyQBySu

kyfdx

ab348 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

I thought Hoovie was married, does his wife know about this?

It's hard to keep up with him because of the urge I have to switch to another video from anybody else, but he went through a big change recently. He and his wife divorced, so he had to sell the house and a big part of his car collection to finalize things between them. Then he bought an old farmhouse with a few outbuildings and is constructing a new storage building there as he begins collecting again. I find him difficult to watch because so much of it is obviously faked/redone for effect. And the basic premise wears thin quickly: buy a car, discover all sorts of "surprises", sing the blues at what all that costs to fix (in conjunction with his co-conspirator, the "Car Wizard", who I find increasingly unwatchable as well), then rinse and repeat. Maybe his views were falling and he figured he needed a new gimmick.

Isn't this the basis for Love it or List it? (Canadian reference for you... lol)

breld

Unlike some of you, I like the updated look of the new Mustang, particularly on the interior, but this slightly used Mach 1 sure is tempting too.

https://ww2.clearshift.com/inventory/2023-ford-mustang-mach-1/669809

qbrozen

@breld said:
Unlike some of you, I like the updated look of the new Mustang, particularly on the interior, but this slightly used Mach 1 sure is tempting too.

https://ww2.clearshift.com/inventory/2023-ford-mustang-mach-1/669809

FYI, they paid $51k for it.

breld

Interesting. Thanks for the info. Not great pricing, but typical mark-up for dealers these days it seems, particularly for an enthusiast car.

fintail

Can't do Hoovie anymore. I used to like him, but things seemed to derail after the Lamborghinis and it got old fast.

Not a punch for me, but yesterday my brother bought a $4500 Husqvarna lawn mower - he's into that kind of thing and sent me an excited text. 9 times the cost of his first car.

roadburner

I'd definitely go with the Mach 1.

corvette

oldfarmer50 said:

I thought Hoovie was married, does his wife know about this?

As mentioned, he either got divorced or is in the process of doing so. There was a massive takedown of a bunch of his YT videos which prominently featured the ex-wife (people noticed his stats dropped), although I think a few where she wasn't on camera as much are still up. The new GF/collaborator is one of his fellow Barrett-Jackson hosts. Very odd couple. She has a lot of modeling bona fides and moved out to the sticks from Chicago.

The new channel already has 20k subscribers after one day of being live, so maybe their combined clout will be synergistic. I thought the first video was pretty bland overall, and if they are making regular 40+ minute videos like that, it's not a compelling thing to spend time watching.

Drove the Volt to a new hiking spot about 85 miles away. After driving about five miles in the city to get on the interstate, I kept the cruise at 70 once I got out of town. It did about 43 miles before the battery ran out and the generator kicked in. MPG for the trip overall was over 50, and I used 3/10 of a tank of fuel. The hiking spot was a bust--no waterfall despite the recent rain, and the trails were poorly marked and maintained. Definitely marking that one off the list!

explorerx4

That is my favorite color(Fighter Jet Gray) for a Mach 1.
Price seems high for one with 8K on it.

oldfarmer50

breld said:

Unlike some of you, I like the updated look of the new Mustang, particularly on the interior, but this slightly used Mach 1 sure is tempting too.

https://ww2.clearshift.com/inventory/2023-ford-mustang-mach-1/669809

When Carvana was making me obscene offers on my Mustang a few years ago I considered upgrading to a new Mach1. Same color as that one. I went as far as driving 50 miles to the nearest dealer that had one with no market adjustment. It turned out that the sales manager was using it as his personal toy and there would be no discount off sticker for whatever abuse he was putting it through.

I tend to keep my cars for a long time and I didn’t want previous sins coming back to haunt me years down the road so I passed. It might be different for you though, since you rotate out of cars fairly often.

tifighter

@breld said:
Unlike some of you, I like the updated look of the new Mustang, particularly on the interior, but this slightly used Mach 1 sure is tempting too.

https://ww2.clearshift.com/inventory/2023-ford-mustang-mach-1/669809

Yeah, that would work. I know a guy that had a 987 Boxster Spyder that he sold and replaced with a Mach 1. He said he “wanted something different.” Mission accomplished.

ab348

breld said:

Unlike some of you, I like the updated look of the new Mustang, particularly on the interior, but this slightly used Mach 1 sure is tempting too.

https://ww2.clearshift.com/inventory/2023-ford-mustang-mach-1/669809

I don’t know the delta in price between this and the 2024s you’ve looked at, but keep in mind the ‘24 has a different dash (may be either better or worse depending on your POV) and a number of mechanical upgrades from what I’ve read.

tjc78

Crazy couple days! Ending at a friends house for the rest of the weekend.

Here is the punch. 2023 EQE 4Matic Exclusive

I’ll write up details later on.

fintail

Ooh, a bathtub (I mean it affectionately, I would choose that over one of the CUVs too). Still haven't seen one on the road in Spokane, but I have seen an EQB or two.

Michaell

@breld and I test drove an EQE 350 sedan some months back.

Nice ride! Congrats!

Sandman6472

Windshield installed with no issues, just took awhile I heard. Happy to finally have it looking right.
Renting a Chrysler minivan for three days in mid-November hich should work just fine. Has already ordered her new queen bed. Moving into a 1/1 in a brand new complex and from the videos they made last week, should work out great. Even a full size washer/dryer in it's own room off the kitchen. Still needs to find a new sofa plus some additional pieces but that'll take some time. Going up on the 15th of next month.
Will bring her vehicle and one of our vehicles on Thanksgiving day. Spending it with the kids in Orlando and leave that Friday for St. Augustine. Figure we'll come back home that Sunday morning, only a 4 hour drive. Think it'll work out great for us all but do see some more trips up there until we sell & move ourselves. Gave the wife until the end of 2025 which I think is fair...sooner would be my preference though. After living in South Florida for 54 years, will be tough to leave but the time has come.
Have a reservation for a small SUV for the Thanksgiving trip at this point. Don't really want to drive the Golf up and not going to want to use the A3 as I want her the one to be driving it more. Anticipate her trading it in within the next year though. I did see that the new 2024 Hyundai Kona's have it the streets around here. No hybrid units available which is what I'd want I'm thinking. The current Limited and N-Line models are a bit pricey, around $35K give or take. Same price point as the Mini Cooper Countryman, or pretty close. Drove one up to Pt. St. Lucie on Friday with just 49K on the clock. Nice size but a whole lot of road noise which even with the radio volume set pretty high, still heard the noise. Was very unhappy. No turbo lag that I could feel and held the road nicely. Vehicle needed an alignment though.
So, between the Mini Cooper, the new Kona and the 2024 Corolla Cross...a tough decision. I'd want a hybrid on both the Hyundai & the Toyota which would drive up the price a bit. So, a tough call here. And now that the Golf has 4 new tires and the tranny is fixed, do I just tough it out for another year? Seeing that I only have been putting less then 3K/year on it, seems like a waste to trade an almost 9 year old vehicle for new and having to spend around $28K with my trade. Being that I also don't want to pay cash this time around, I'd have to either finance or use some funds from my Roth IRA which leads to what kind of tax liability would I incur doing this?
Lots to consider honestly but my gut is telling me to just stay the course and save some more cash by keeping the Golf. If anything does go wrong, it'll surely cost less then buying new. Think if I were driving it more, it would make sense to just trade it but as I stand with not even doing 3K a year, totally absurd to trade it. Makes zero sense to my logical brain...zero sense. So thinking waiting is the right course of action going forward.

stickguy

does that use the supercharger network now too? Or are you just not worried about ever charging away from home?

Pretty neat looking.

and I guess the Ram made the space of the XC90 style car unnecessary?

stickguy

had a successful 3rd base coach deal go down today. Been helping my future in-law look for a "cheap" lease (relative to current reality) after a deer took out their Trax. with no insurance payout. So price mattered.

look at various options for a smaller hatch/CUV style car, most of which sucked to lease. Including the HRV initial offers, but she liked that the best. After failing at a local deal on a 2023 Kona (sold before they got there today) pivoted back to the Honda. I did some internetting with a dealer local to me (they live about an hour away in the sticks of Massachusetts), and good a good deal offer from them that I relayed to my "client", and stopped by today since I was going by to nail down availability, and got an available unit link to send her. In the interim, she got an appointment at a dealer close to them in Vermont.

end result, they must have done some good haggling because they got the deal there to about the same level (possibly slightly better, accounting for differences in state DMV and taxes since I priced it in NY). Assuming I got accurate reporting on terms! But I think I do.

2024 HRV AWD Sport. MSRP ~$29,400. $2000 OOP, and $339/mo for 36/36,000. Under her desired budget and a nicer car than she was originally hoping for. Might not be deal of the century, but everyone should go home happy (she is!) and most important, she has a car again.