Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

roadburner

qbrozen said:

@roadburner said:

I drove the C43 to a Christmas party last night; on Wednesday I will have had the C43 for a year and I'm still extremely happy with it.

Today we took the Wrangler up to northern KY and it stayed at 75 mph most of the trip. It seems my wife loves it even more than I do. It ran on IC most of the time so a fill-up before we headed home revealed its gas guzzler roots- 31 mpg.

What?? It has already been a year? Yikes! That went fast!

Yes- I already had my eye on it; on the night of Saturday 12/17 I saw the price had been cut by several thousand dollars so early on Monday 12/19 I called and put down a deposit. The next day we drove up to Fort Mitchell and picked it up.

au1994

nyccarguy said:

My son is off from school for 2 weeks. I made an appointment to have the Wrangler's leaky top checked out as well as the USB port in the center console that seems to only work intermittently. While the time I needed to wait for an appointment (3 Weeks) and not offered a loaner on a $60K + vehicle is still disappointing, it couldn't have come at a better time. It has been pouring rain all night. Whomever gets into the Jeep this AM will definitely see where the top leaks from.

I agree with you on the loaners. I had to push for one the last time mine went in for recall work. It’s a hard one to crack. I don’t think loaners for everyone is the answer but the person dropping off a $90k Wagoneer is going to rightfully expect one.

breld

tifighter said:

It’s funny, I drove the Comp today for the first time in awhile, since we had a nice day. I’m still quite happy with it. Sixteen months and counting. It would take something pretty special to replace it.

Must have been a nice weekend across the country to take out the fun cars. I took the Corvette out Saturday to go run an errand. I really like the fact that it is so enjoyable to drive even when just running around in normal conditions. Lots of character in that car.

Five weeks and counting...and I am still loving it!

jmonroe1

qbrozen said:

@roadburner said:

I drove the C43 to a Christmas party last night; on Wednesday I will have had the C43 for a year and I'm still extremely happy with it.

Today we took the Wrangler up to northern KY and it stayed at 75 mph most of the trip. It seems my wife loves it even more than I do. It ran on IC most of the time so a fill-up before we headed home revealed its gas guzzler roots- 31 mpg.

What?? It has already been a year? Yikes! That went fast!

qbrozen said:

@roadburner said:

I drove the C43 to a Christmas party last night; on Wednesday I will have had the C43 for a year and I'm still extremely happy with it.

Today we took the Wrangler up to northern KY and it stayed at 75 mph most of the trip. It seems my wife loves it even more than I do. It ran on IC most of the time so a fill-up before we headed home revealed its gas guzzler roots- 31 mpg.

What?? It has already been a year? Yikes! That went fast!

————————————————
And it was driven even faster.

jmonroe

benjaminh

Maverick's 8-speed transmission dies at 90k:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YueVBNvrQXg&t=150s

Car Wizard says Hyundai 4-cylinder Sonata engine is not very good. Plus owner abused it by not changing the oil. New engine would be about 10k, including labor, although that's a lot less than an EV battery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw54i8Ke5TM&t=836s

stickguy

Dealers almost never try to fix anything on the tranny now. They seem to be replaced as a full unit no matter piece what fails.

nyccarguy

au1994 said:

nyccarguy said:

My son is off from school for 2 weeks. I made an appointment to have the Wrangler's leaky top checked out as well as the USB port in the center console that seems to only work intermittently. While the time I needed to wait for an appointment (3 Weeks) and not offered a loaner on a $60K + vehicle is still disappointing, it couldn't have come at a better time. It has been pouring rain all night. Whomever gets into the Jeep this AM will definitely see where the top leaks from.

I agree with you on the loaners. I had to push for one the last time mine went in for recall work. It’s a hard one to crack. I don’t think loaners for everyone is the answer but the person dropping off a $90k Wagoneer is going to rightfully expect one.

Regardless of what the cars are leasing for, there are a lot of them in the $50K plus range. BMW, MB, Lexus, Genesis are all going to offer loaners. It might not be immediately, but maybe they would give you the option of either drop off on a Tuesday or take a loaner on Thursday.

au1994

Punch pending…

stickguy

Not a car (but a lot more expensive) the wife and I trespassed in our new house Saturday. All framed up, roofed, doors and windows on (not garage door year) and staircases are in so we went in to check it out. Lots of wood. Very weird trying to envision what a house will look like when there is just studs, no drywall.

Going to do a tour Friday with the builder to make sure we know how all the changes got incorporated. Much easier to adjust something like the placement of the door to the closet now than it will be after rough ins and drywall happen!

qbrozen

speaking of owning cars a while, I passed 4 years with the Charger back in September. That moves it into 5th place all time for length of ownership.
1. '86 alfa spider: ~10 yrs
2. '14 Town & Country: ~7.5 yrs
3. '67 Coronet: ~6.5 yrs (and counting)
4. '98 S70: ~4.5 yrs

So only about 5 more months before it takes the #4 spot.

kyfdx

1) '82 Accord: 12 years
2) '06 330Ci: 10 years
3) '02 CR-V: 6.5 years
4) '17 X3: 6 yrs, 3 months (wife's car, currently)

Honorable mention: '92 Acura Legend was in my family for 21 years (my aunt, then me, then my uncle, then my son)

stickguy

I had a few in the 8 year range. My 2005 accord and 2013 RDX for sure. my Mazda 626 hit at least 7. A couple of minivans got in that range. Unlikely anything will ever crack the top of that list. But the current RDX turns 4 in march so has a chance.

nyccarguy

qbrozen said:

speaking of owning cars a while, I passed 4 years with the Charger back in September. That moves it into 5th place all time for length of ownership.
1. '86 alfa spider: ~10 yrs
2. '14 Town & Country: ~7.5 yrs
3. '67 Coronet: ~6.5 yrs (and counting)
4. '98 S70: ~4.5 yrs

So only about 5 more months before it takes the #4 spot.

This is impressive considering these cars' reputations for reliability and the fact that you are 6'5".

breld

I am choosing to not participate in this length of ownership game. No need to be shamed.

laurasdada

Perhaps surprisingly, at ~7.25 years, my '13 Jag XF was my longest resident.
That's 60 in breld years!

au1994

Done and dusted. 2024 Q5 Premium Plus 45 in Daytona Gray over Atlas Beige. Really pretty CUV. Good tech and with the 261hp turbo 4, it moved along nicely.

Leased deal was pretty good. He knocked over 6k off of sticker and there was $2500 in cash.

23s had better lease cash but they were few and far between on the ground.

stickguy

Am interesting deal, well below the 1% target. If you want an electric Lexus. Can think of worse winter beaters!

pensfan83

The Mazda6 was the longest at about 5.5 years but the Prelude will breach that in March.

kyfdx

au1994 said:

Done and dusted. 2024 Q5 Premium Plus 45 in Daytona Gray over Atlas Beige. Really pretty CUV. Good tech and with the 261hp turbo 4, it moved along nicely.

Leased deal was pretty good. He knocked over 6k off of sticker and there was $2500 in cash.

23s had better lease cash but they were few and far between on the ground.

Congrats!

stickguy

sounds nice. good luck with it.

28firefighter

Congrats, @au1994 !

Man I love the last minute influx of buys at the end of the year. Almost makes me want to go shopping.

sda

au1994 said:

Done and dusted. 2024 Q5 Premium Plus 45 in Daytona Gray over Atlas Beige. Really pretty CUV. Good tech and with the 261hp turbo 4, it moved along nicely.

Leased deal was pretty good. He knocked over 6k off of sticker and there was $2500 in cash.

23s had better lease cash but they were few and far between on the ground.

We really like our 16 Q5, my wife’s favorite of any she’s had. Enjoy!

cdnpinhead

breld said:

I am choosing to not participate in this length of ownership game. No need to be shamed.

Me too

qbrozen

@breld said:
I am choosing to not participate in this length of ownership game. No need to be shamed.

Oh, I’m definitely not putting up the shortest. I’ll stick with those longest 5 out of the 74.

qbrozen

@nyccarguy said:
This is impressive considering these cars' reputations for reliability and the fact that you are 6'5".

To be fair, it only gained a few thousand miles in 10 yrs, and 2950 of those with the top down.

xwesx

breld said:

Must have been a nice weekend across the country to take out the fun cars. I took the Corvette out Saturday to go run an errand. I really like the fact that it is so enjoyable to drive even when just running around in normal conditions. Lots of character in that car.

Five weeks and counting...and I am still loving it!

While not a record, that's still a good sign it will survive the winter, at least!

xwesx

breld said:

I am choosing to not participate in this length of ownership game. No need to be shamed.

Whoops! Unintended coincidence, I promise!

My top spot goes to my '69 Ford Econoline E100 at a solid thirty years in my possession. The '69 C20 isn't too far behind (just the span of Q's #5).

xwesx

stickguy said:

Am interesting deal, well below the 1% target. If you want an electric Lexus. Can think of worse winter beaters!

While that really is a good deal, it still seems like a lot on the monthly, to me!

jmonroe1

I had an ‘80 Park Ave that I kept until ‘97 with around 115K miles on it. I had that car Ziebarted and touched up at least 5 times. When I moved to SC in ‘92 I stopped doing that. So, the body was perfect.

Before I moved back to the Burgh from SC I noticed the tranny was starting to slip. I wanted to put a rebuilt tranny in it which would have only set me back about 350 bucks. Mrs. j just got tired of looking at it and wanted me to sell it. So, I caved.

I sold it to a guy that had a BHPH lot for 900 bucks. He showed up with his tow truck, listened to it then drove it around the block. He said he was going to put a rebuilt tranny in it for about $350, wash it, put it on his lot and wouldn’t take a penny less than $2,300 for it.

As he was getting ready to hook it I said to Mrs. j something like, “see, I told you for $350 I could drive that thing for at least 5 more years”. She said to the guy, “please hurry up and take it, he’ll get over it when he doesn’t see it any more”. WRONG, I still like that car. Probably the best car I ever had.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

au1994 said:

Done and dusted. 2024 Q5 Premium Plus 45 in Daytona Gray over Atlas Beige. Really pretty CUV. Good tech and with the 261hp turbo 4, it moved along nicely.

Leased deal was pretty good. He knocked over 6k off of sticker and there was $2500 in cash.

23s had better lease cash but they were few and far between on the ground.

————————————————
Good luck with it. How about a pic or two.

Something tells me they called it Daytona Gray and not Old Man’s Gray because that could have killed some sales.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

28firefighter said:

Congrats, @au1994 !

Man I love the last minute influx of buys at the end of the year. Almost makes me want to go shopping.

————————————————
Sounds like a threat.

jmonroe

Sandman6472

With the cooler temps, been using the sunroof more which I love. Have to look to see if the Kona has one but sure it does. No matter, she'll never use it unless I insist that she makes sure it works. Still haven't driven it except that first night. She'll be gone for a few days Friday but doubt I'll use it.

Asked for volunteers to work the weekend so I said sure for Sunday and said I'd do Saturday if they really needed a body since it might be pushing things health wise. Luckily it won't be for the whole day so will be easier. Since I work Monday's, the next two are holidays and not sure if we're going to use Wednesday as the make-up day. When I asked about a week ago, seemed like it was a go but now, not so sure. Have no issue staying home but if needed and I've got no other plans, happy to work. Usually use Thursdays as the day to get house stuff done but sometimes Wednesday's also.

roadburner

1. 1995 318ti Club Sport- 28 years
2. 1999 Wrangler- 21 years
3. 1974 Monte Carlo- 15 years
4. 2007 Mazdaspeed 3- 8 years
5. 1973 Bavaria- 7 years

au1994

au1994

Saturday was the day of the hunt. We looked at a lot online but went out to see the Q5, RDX, QX50/55 and X3.

Q5 was the first drive and our guy respected that it was just that. No pressure to come inside, meet my manager etc. Infiniti didn’t even progress to a drive. I liked the RDX. It was a white over chocolate brown but it just didn’t do it for her. Acura, as always, is the perfect blend of performance, luxury and value. Next was BMW. Spent a lot of time there as we are big fans. X3 is nice, probably not as peppy as the Q5 unless you got into the model with the 6. Out of several on the lot, no X3 had exactly the color and option combo she was looking for. She was also turned off by having to speak to the manager before leaving. Just didn't sit well with her.

So it came down the the incentives, willingness to deal and color/option combo being available on the Q5. Process was easy, he came back within 50 of my number on first pencil so we got there quickly. Finance process was slow but there was a power blip that played havoc with the computers.

Everyone is happy although I did squash a last minute request to look at Macans!

pensfan83

Beautiful color combo, congrats!

benjaminh

Congratulations! Beautiful interior. Bet it's fun to drive too.

It sounds like you were able to get a good deal during that classic good deal month of December, but during which is hasn't really been possible to get good deals for the previous few years. If you feel like sharing any numbers, such as how much off of msrp, we'd be interested.

nyccarguy

@au1994 - sharp Q5! Congrats! Nice color combo! Love the way those sport seats look!

oldfarmer50

benjaminh said:

Maverick's 8-speed transmission dies at 90k:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YueVBNvrQXg&t=150s

Car Wizard says Hyundai 4-cylinder Sonata engine is not very good. Plus owner abused it by not changing the oil. New engine would be about 10k, including labor, although that's a lot less than an EV battery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw54i8Ke5TM&t=836s

I didn’t know Ford had an 8 speed. The two Fords in my family are both 6 speed. There’s a newer 10 speed I’m aware of. I wonder if this is a new unit just for the Maverick. BTW, that white Fusion is a dead ringer for my son’s.

I heard that the Hyundai-Kia 2.4 as well as the 2.0 (which I have in my car) are very susceptible to less than meticulous oil changes. To be fair though, most modern engines won’t take poor maintenance like in the old days. Kia sent an advisory to reduce OCIs to 3750 miles due to this. I’ve been changing mine at 5k but I’m thinking of changing that as I hear more stories like this.

Hyundai-Kia are cheaply made cars designed to meet a price point and that’s why they sell so many. By the time mine mine reaches 116k miles I’m pretty sure oil changes won’t be my concern.

au1994

benjaminh said:

Congratulations! Beautiful interior. Bet it's fun to drive too.

It sounds like you were able to get a good deal during that classic good deal month of December, but during which is hasn't really been possible to get good deals for the previous few years. If you feel like sharing any numbers, such as how much off of msrp, we'd be interested.

It was 56,190 of the sticker and he came off 6k plus there was a 2500 incentive. Pretty good for what we’ve seen in the past few years.

benjaminh

au1994 said:

It was 56,190 of the sticker and he came off 6k plus there was a 2500 incentive. Pretty good for what we’ve seen in the past few years.

Wow! That's an awesome deal.

oldfarmer50

qbrozen said:

speaking of owning cars a while, I passed 4 years with the Charger back in September. That moves it into 5th place all time for length of ownership.
1. '86 alfa spider: ~10 yrs
2. '14 Town & Country: ~7.5 yrs
3. '67 Coronet: ~6.5 yrs (and counting)
4. '98 S70: ~4.5 yrs

So only about 5 more months before it takes the #4 spot.

I tend to keep my cars a long time.

1. Mustang - 9 years
2. Cargo van - 8 years
3. Sebring convertible - 6 years
4. Kia - 5 years

I have to get busy and buy something.

oldfarmer50

au1994 said:

Done and dusted. 2024 Q5 Premium Plus 45 in Daytona Gray over Atlas Beige. Really pretty CUV. Good tech and with the 261hp turbo 4, it moved along nicely.

Leased deal was pretty good. He knocked over 6k off of sticker and there was $2500 in cash.

23s had better lease cash but they were few and far between on the ground.

Someone told me that VW is planning on doing away with the Audi brand. Anything to that?

kyfdx

oldfarmer50 said:

au1994 said:

Done and dusted. 2024 Q5 Premium Plus 45 in Daytona Gray over Atlas Beige. Really pretty CUV. Good tech and with the 261hp turbo 4, it moved along nicely.

Leased deal was pretty good. He knocked over 6k off of sticker and there was $2500 in cash.

23s had better lease cash but they were few and far between on the ground.

Someone told me that VW is planning on doing away with the Audi brand. Anything to that?

Nope

roadburner

au1994 said:

Saturday was the day of the hunt. We looked at a lot online but went out to see the Q5, RDX, QX50/55 and X3.

Q5 was the first drive and our guy respected that it was just that. No pressure to come inside, meet my manager etc. Infiniti didn’t even progress to a drive. I liked the RDX. It was a white over chocolate brown but it just didn’t do it for her. Acura, as always, is the perfect blend of performance, luxury and value. Next was BMW. Spent a lot of time there as we are big fans. X3 is nice, probably not as peppy as the Q5 unless you got into the model with the 6. Out of several on the lot, no X3 had exactly the color and option combo she was looking for. She was also turned off by having to speak to the manager before leaving. Just didn't sit well with her.

So it came down the the incentives, willingness to deal and color/option combo being available on the Q5. Process was easy, he came back within 50 of my number on first pencil so we got there quickly. Finance process was slow but there was a power blip that played havoc with the computers.

Everyone is happy although I did squash a last minute request to look at Macans!

Very nice! At my BMW center we were low-key as well, especially to folks who were just starting to shop. I had several people come back and buy/lease from my center because we didn't push to close a deal.

As for the "meet the manager" Kabuki theater, that stunt lost a Nissan dealer a sale back in 2005. My wife really liked the Xterra but it was the first place we stopped and the manager put on a full-court press ands tried to talk me out of selling my E39 myself(I still sold it myself- for double what CarMax offered).

ab348

oldfarmer50 said:

I heard that the Hyundai-Kia 2.4 as well as the 2.0 (which I have in my car) are very susceptible to less than meticulous oil changes. To be fair though, most modern engines won’t take poor maintenance like in the old days. Kia sent an advisory to reduce OCIs to 3750 miles due to this. I’ve been changing mine at 5k but I’m thinking of changing that as I hear more stories like this.

Hyundai-Kia are cheaply made cars designed to meet a price point and that’s why they sell so many. By the time mine mine reaches 116k miles I’m pretty sure oil changes won’t be my concern.

Keep in mind that the H-K 4-bangers suffered from the "metal shavings left in the engine" QC problem from new which caused many of them to grenade prematurely and up here led to a recall IIRC.

breld

@au1994 - congrats on the Q5. The sport seats are a great upgrade (warm weather package, right?). Definitely love the color combo.

My brother has also been flirting with a new Q5. He has a 2014 Q5 3.0T that has served him well, so he’s thinking of simply replacing it with a new one (though you can’t get the 3.0T anymore without going all in on the SQ5). He is seeing similar discounts around here that make the Audi an awesome buy.

au1994

oldfarmer50 said:

au1994 said:

Done and dusted. 2024 Q5 Premium Plus 45 in Daytona Gray over Atlas Beige. Really pretty CUV. Good tech and with the 261hp turbo 4, it moved along nicely.

Leased deal was pretty good. He knocked over 6k off of sticker and there was $2500 in cash.

23s had better lease cash but they were few and far between on the ground.

Someone told me that VW is planning on doing away with the Audi brand. Anything to that?

I can’t imagine how that would work. Audi is their direct competitor with BMW etc. they would have to take BMW waaaay up market to do that.

au1994

@breld …yes warm weather package. Initial drives are getting rave reviews from the hindquarters.

venture

roadburner said:

Yes- I already had my eye on it; over the weekend I saw the price had been cut by several thousand dollars so I called and put down a deposit on 12/19 and on 12/20 we drove up to Fort Mitchell and picked it up.

au1994 said:

Saturday was the day of the hunt. We looked at a lot online but went out to see the Q5, RDX, QX50/55 and X3.

Q5 was the first drive and our guy respected that it was just that. No pressure to come inside, meet my manager etc. Infiniti didn’t even progress to a drive. I liked the RDX. It was a white over chocolate brown but it just didn’t do it for her. Acura, as always, is the perfect blend of performance, luxury and value. Next was BMW. Spent a lot of time there as we are big fans. X3 is nice, probably not as peppy as the Q5 unless you got into the model with the 6. Out of several on the lot, no X3 had exactly the color and option combo she was looking for. She was also turned off by having to speak to the manager before leaving. Just didn't sit well with her.

So it came down the the incentives, willingness to deal and color/option combo being available on the Q5. Process was easy, he came back within 50 of my number on first pencil so we got there quickly. Finance process was slow but there was a power blip that played havoc with the computers.

Everyone is happy although I did squash a last minute request to look at Macans!

Very nice! At my BMW center we were low-key as well, especially to folks who were just starting to shop. I had several people come back and buy/lease from my center because we didn't push to close a deal.

As for the "meet the manager" Kabuki theater, that stunt lost a Nissan dealer a sale back in 2005. My wife really liked the Xterra but it was the first place we stopped and the manager put on a full-court press ands tried to talk me out of selling my E39 myself(I still sold it myself- for double what CarMax offered).

I'm not too swift. Why do they want you to meet the manager?