Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

corvette

@sda - on my trip to Arkansas, I made a left turn behind another car. The other car stopped. I stopped behind it. The other car shifted into reverse. I sounded the horn, which was ignored, and the other car backed into the Maverick. The young male driver provided a State Farm insurance card, which I later realized had expired (but apparently and thankfully still pertained to an active policy). He apologized and said he was distracted by a child in the back seat, whom I did not see (tinted windows), nor hear.

I immediately submitted a claim to State Farm and told the adjuster what had happened. She said she would discuss with their insured and get back with me. I only know a lot of this timeline because I submitted an Arkansas Insurance Department complaint, which State Farm was required to respond to in detail.

State Farm contacted its named insured who told them that his daughter (also listed on the policy) was driving. They played phone tag with the daughter. Daughter sent the adjuster an email alleging she was driving and that I told her I didn't have insurance and drove off from the scene. More phone tag ensued, she (apparently) ghosted the State Farm adjuster and refused to give a statement. Their named insured (the father) finally admitted that the daughter's boyfriend "might" have been driving the car.

I provided the adjuster with a photo of the provided insurance card and photos of both vehicles at the scene (which doesn't jibe with the daughter's allegation that I drove off), pointed out that my vehicle has an AEB system which would not[1] have allowed a low speed rear end collision to occur, and strongly implied that a second insurance department complaint was forthcoming.

Lessons learned/relearned: always get a police report and don't wait a year after acquiring a vehicle to install the dashcam that you already have.

[1] I know these systems aren't foolproof, but strategically, it's better not to admit weaknesses in your position.

oldfarmer50

I always say, no matter what the other party admits to at the scene, always get a police report, especially with a rear end collision.

When the utility truck backed into me he said “let’s get the vehicles out of the street”. I told him I wasn’t moving until the police arrived. Fortunately, he admitted backing up without looking and the report reflected that. No telling what would have happened if he had time to go home and think about it.

I would say I can’t believe how that girl lied but I believe people are pretty much capable of anything these days.

jmonroe1

sda said:

corvette said:

State Farm finally figured out its insured was lying and accepted liability for the October 10 accident, so that saves me from having to submit a not-at-fault claim under my own policy.

Remind us what happened? My daughter's boyfriend just started an adjusters position at a large insurance company dealing with assigning fault. He already has some stories to tell! Some unhappy campers out there!

————————————————
And I’m sure @andres3 would like to hear more about this too.

jmonroe

stickguy

waiting for the police report is great. assuming you are someplace the police will bother to come out for a fender bender, and if they do, bother to do anything besides tell you to exchange insurance cards and get the heck out of the road.

Sandman6472

Thinking of getting rid of our cable t v. What do most of y'all use and how expensive it it really? The price I was given from our cable company for just the t v seemed a bit low, so think I'll call again just to be sure so I can do an apples to apples comparison. The kids in Orlando use "YouTube T V" and seem to love it so just checking out our options. The kid in St. Augustine uses the app from our cable t v so have to keep that in mind.

Finally got tired of checking how data we use on our 6 gig line for our two smartphones so went with the special 55 & Older Florida plan. Will end up paying a few bucks less but won't have to keep checking how much data we've used since I use my GPS at work a lot and I sometimes use my phone on those long trips in the chase van. Gets tiresome just looking out the window so fun to be on the net more. Just one less thing to worry about!

benjaminh

Recently I learned that a small percentage of Honda's 1.5 turbo engines, of the kind found in our CR-V, are having head gasket failures at around 80k-120k miles. Most of the failures are with the Accord version of this engine, which has 20.5 psi of boost, compared to 18.5 psi found in the CR-V, and 16.5 found in the Civic. Getting a head gasket replaced on this engine seems to be about $5k+—1k for the parts, 4k for the labor. Honda is sometimes covering 30-50% of the cost of these, if the engine was well maintained at a Honda dealer. A video by a Honda mechanic suggested using premium fuel, doing more frequent 5k oil changes, and reducing the number of times that you really press the engine if you want to try to avoid this problem.

Thinking about this over the past few days, my wife and I considered replacing her CR-V with something new. The trade-in value for our 2018 CR-V EX AWD with 52k miles is still good at $20k. But even negotiating a discount, getting a 2024 CR-V Hybrid is c. $39k with tax and license. That includes $2k for the "protection package," which they cut the price on but weren't willing to remove. Getting a Subaru Outback Premium with some options is c. $35k with tax. The Subaru seems like a good value, but $15k over what we've got now is still a lot. The good and the bad of the Outback is it has a naturally-aspirated engine standard, and so won't be prone to the problems that turbos sometimes have. The downside of the Outback with the standard engine is that acceleration 0-60 is about 8.6 seconds. Even a decade ago that might have seemed good enough for us, but we are now used to the 7.5 second 0-60 on our turbo CR-V, and the 6.8 on my TLX. We never accelerate the way the magazines do for those tests, but sometimes when merging onto the freeway or passing we go full throttle.

Anyway, we've decided for now to keep our CR-V, but are planning to switch to premium fuel for it, do more frequent oil changes (down from from 6-7k to 5k), and maybe press the turbo into service less often. We're hoping those steps, and the lower boost of the CR-V compared to the Accord, might avoid this engine disaster. And maybe sometime in the next couple of years we'll find a good enough deal on a new car to make a change.

I'm disappointed in Honda's engineering when it comes to this engine. I remember hearing about turbos from Saab, Volvo and others failing early in the 1990s, and I was hoping that Honda would have engineered their turbos well enough to eliminate such engine meltdowns. I'm glad my Acura has the K-series non-turbo engine, which I love.

Btw, I did ask someone at our local Honda dealer if they were having head gasket replacements on turbos, and he said he'd been there for years and it didn't seem to be happening at their huge service center—or at least not yet.

corvette

Another milestone: I now owe under $15k on the Maverick. I continue to appreciate the simplicity of calculating the interest/principal split on its 0% interest loan.

stickguy

@benjaminh said:
Recently I learned that a small percentage of Honda's 1.5 turbo engines, of the kind found in our CR-V, are having head gasket failures at around 80k-120k miles. Most of the failures are with the Accord version of this engine, which has 20.5 psi of boost, compared to 18.5 psi found in the CR-V, and 16.5 found in the Civic. Getting a head gasket replaced on this engine seems to be about $5k+—1k for the parts, 4k for the labor. Honda is sometimes covering 30-50% of the cost of these, if the engine was well maintained at a Honda dealer. A video by a Honda mechanic suggested using premium fuel, doing more frequent 5k oil changes, and reducing the number of times that you really press the engine if you want to try to avoid this problem.

Thinking about this over the past few days, my wife and I considered replacing her CR-V with something new. The trade-in value for our 2018 CR-V EX AWD with 52k miles is still good at $20k. But even negotiating a discount, getting a 2024 CR-V Hybrid is c. $39k with tax and license. That includes $2k for the "protection package," which they cut the price on but weren't willing to remove. Getting a Subaru Outback Premium with some options is c. $35k with tax. The Subaru seems like a good value, but $15k over what we've got now is still a lot. The good and the bad of the Outback is it has a naturally-aspirated engine standard, and so won't be prone to the problems that turbos sometimes have. The downside of the Outback with the standard engine is that acceleration 0-60 is about 8.6 seconds. Even a decade ago that might have seemed good enough for us, but we are now used to the 7.5 second 0-60 on our turbo CR-V, and the 6.8 on my TLX. We never accelerate the way the magazines do for those tests, but sometimes when merging onto the freeway or passing we go full throttle.

Anyway, we've decided for now to keep our CR-V, but are planning to switch to premium fuel for it, do more frequent oil changes (down from from 6-7k to 5k), and maybe press the turbo into service less often. We're hoping those steps, and the lower boost of the CR-V compared to the Accord, might avoid this engine disaster. And maybe sometime in the next couple of years we'll find a good enough deal on a new car to make a change.

I'm disappointed in Honda's engineering when it comes to this engine. I remember hearing about turbos from Saab, Volvo and others failing early in the 1990s, and I was hoping that Honda would have engineered their turbos well enough to eliminate such engine meltdowns. I'm glad my Acura has the K-series non-turbo engine, which I love.

Btw, I did ask someone at our local Honda dealer if they were having head gasket replacements on turbos, and he said he'd been there for years and it didn't seem to be happening at their huge service center—or at least not yet.

First I’ve heard of it. I’d assume it is a fairly rare occurrence. The oil change intervals seems like a good idea though.

I actually prefer non turbo (and GDI) for anything I plan to keep long term. The RDX I would love on from but the wife likes it. Though at 2-4k per year I will be dead before before it hits 80k most likely!

imidazol97

Sandman6472 said:

Thinking of getting rid of our cable t v. What do most of y'all use and how expensive it it really? The price I was given from our cable company for just the t v seemed a bit low, so think I'll call again just to be sure so I can do an apples to apples comparison. The kids in Orlando use "YouTube T V" and seem to love it so just checking out our options. The kid in St. Augustine uses the app from our cable t v so have to keep that in mind.

Finally got tired of checking how data we use on our 6 gig line for our two smartphones so went with the special 55 & Older Florida plan. Will end up paying a few bucks less but won't have to keep checking how much data we've used since I use my GPS at work a lot and I sometimes use my phone on those long trips in the chase van. Gets tiresome just looking out the window so fun to be on the net more. Just one less thing to worry about!

Have you thought about just using a powered TV antenna to capture the signals over-the-air, rather than paying a cable company to send them to your TV.

https://www.antennasdirect.com/transmitter-locator.html



In FL, put in your zip code and look at the reception map and the directions. I'd think you'd be able to receive most of the predicted stations since you don't have hills to block signals and if you aren't nearby an area with tall buildings that can block signals.

You might try using what we have which is an old UHF/VHF antenna that plugs into AC for boosting the power. Screw that into the TV antenna reception input and remove the cable as input to see what stations you can get over-the-air.

We use that kind of antenna for our bedroom TV here in Ohio. Hills are a minor problem if you are in a valley, but FL is, well, flat.

qbrozen

@Sandman6472 said:
Thinking of getting rid of our cable t v. What do most of y'all use and how expensive it it really? The price I was given from our cable company for just the t v seemed a bit low, so think I'll call again just to be sure so I can do an apples to apples comparison. The kids in Orlando use "YouTube T V" and seem to love it so just checking out our options. The kid in St. Augustine uses the app from our cable t v so have to keep that in mind.

Finally got tired of checking how data we use on our 6 gig line for our two smartphones so went with the special 55 & Older Florida plan. Will end up paying a few bucks less but won't have to keep checking how much data we've used since I use my GPS at work a lot and I sometimes use my phone on those long trips in the chase van. Gets tiresome just looking out the window so fun to be on the net more. Just one less thing to worry about!

I use a combo of things. The device I’m in love with right now is the FireTV cube. So that is a one-time expense of $200-$250 (haven’t checked recently). We pay for Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. I honestly don’t know how to calculate prime because we get SO MUCH free shipping that the Prime Video is an added bonus. Netflix and Hulu are like $27/mo together, I think. And Hulu comes also with Disney +. I also have an HD antenna but almost never use it. The other big trick is installing Kodi on the cube. You can find instructions online for that. BUT, it is largely useless without tying to a provider account. I use real-debrid for like $3/mo. So that’s $30/mo total. Many folks suggest a VPN as well. I don’t always use one.

We use Kodi for movies not found on the other services and for sporting events.

nyccarguy

I got a cold call from someone at my local Toyota dealer last night on my way home. "Just calling to see if you are in the market for a new car?" I refrained from saying: "That's my secret Cap..." and told him that I'm always in the market. He asked me what I was interested in, so I told him I'm not 100% sure and that I'd have to check his inventory when I got home to see if anything caught my eye. I did say I have a vehicle I'm looking to trade in and can you run it by your manager and get back to me. I gave him some basic information about the Jeep, then texted him a picture of the VIN. Checked my CCAP account this AM. Going to need a post Hanukkah miracle to pull this one off. My current payoff (including the CCAP buyout fee is $44,761.75. Yikes!

ab348

Since I’m in Canada cable service here is both expensive and heavily controlled like most things, but the alternatives of gray/black market providers using VOIP don’t seem appealing. Really, the only reason I have cable is for live sports. It’s still far less of a hassle than streaming those. I don’t watch movies (which to me are largely unwatchable anyway these days) or hardly any scheduled programming, either on the big networks or cable channels. I find myself watching things I find interesting on YouTube more and more. In the summer I get MLB TV which I enjoy because it lets me watch something other than the Blue Jays.

tjc78

I’ve about given up on trying to save money on Cable/Phone/Internet.

No matter what I seem to do I either strip way too much and everyone is unhappy OR I try and get creative and stack some services together and then no one can find anything they want.

We pay a stupid amount for Comcast between the two houses but at least all anyone has to do is bark at the remote and their show/movie/app is on the TV. At the shore we just have internet and can sign into nearly anything with our Comcast password.

From what I’ve seen Q’s suggestion is great and You Tube TV is also very easy to navigate

Also if going streaming only … Roku devices are very easy to deal with.

nyccarguy

Current GALVES value for my Jeep: $30,025 Trade In. $31,825 Market Ready. Needless to say that I won't be trading it in anytime soon.

qbrozen

@nyccarguy said:
Current GALVES value for my Jeep: $30,025 Trade In. $31,825 Market Ready. Needless to say that I won't be trading it in anytime soon.

Woof. Galves? They still using a 4-square, too?

nyccarguy

qbrozen said:

@nyccarguy said:

Current GALVES value for my Jeep: $30,025 Trade In. $31,825 Market Ready. Needless to say that I won't be trading it in anytime soon.

Woof. Galves? They still using a 4-square, too?

Probably so. I just made some inquiries over text. You think MMR is THAt much more?

corvette

I echo @tjc78 on the Roku recommendation, and you can't beat the price, especially on Black Friday or Prime Day.

Although Roku supports them with current software for a very long time, I'd plan on proactively replacing them about five or six years in. My older ones have gotten noticeably slower and laggy past that mark.

greg128

stickguy said:

@benjaminh said:

Recently I learned that a small percentage of Honda's 1.5 turbo engines, of the kind found in our CR-V, are having head gasket failures at around 80k-120k miles. Most of the failures are with the Accord version of this engine, which has 20.5 psi of boost, compared to 18.5 psi found in the CR-V, and 16.5 found in the Civic. Getting a head gasket replaced on this engine seems to be about $5k+—1k for the parts, 4k for the labor. Honda is sometimes covering 30-50% of the cost of these, if the engine was well maintained at a Honda dealer. A video by a Honda mechanic suggested using premium fuel, doing more frequent 5k oil changes, and reducing the number of times that you really press the engine if you want to try to avoid this problem.

Thinking about this over the past few days, my wife and I considered replacing her CR-V with something new. The trade-in value for our 2018 CR-V EX AWD with 52k miles is still good at $20k. But even negotiating a discount, getting a 2024 CR-V Hybrid is c. $39k with tax and license. That includes $2k for the "protection package," which they cut the price on but weren't willing to remove. Getting a Subaru Outback Premium with some options is c. $35k with tax. The Subaru seems like a good value, but $15k over what we've got now is still a lot. The good and the bad of the Outback is it has a naturally-aspirated engine standard, and so won't be prone to the problems that turbos sometimes have. The downside of the Outback with the standard engine is that acceleration 0-60 is about 8.6 seconds. Even a decade ago that might have seemed good enough for us, but we are now used to the 7.5 second 0-60 on our turbo CR-V, and the 6.8 on my TLX. We never accelerate the way the magazines do for those tests, but sometimes when merging onto the freeway or passing we go full throttle.

Anyway, we've decided for now to keep our CR-V, but are planning to switch to premium fuel for it, do more frequent oil changes (down from from 6-7k to 5k), and maybe press the turbo into service less often. We're hoping those steps, and the lower boost of the CR-V compared to the Accord, might avoid this engine disaster. And maybe sometime in the next couple of years we'll find a good enough deal on a new car to make a change.

I'm disappointed in Honda's engineering when it comes to this engine. I remember hearing about turbos from Saab, Volvo and others failing early in the 1990s, and I was hoping that Honda would have engineered their turbos well enough to eliminate such engine meltdowns. I'm glad my Acura has the K-series non-turbo engine, which I love.

Btw, I did ask someone at our local Honda dealer if they were having head gasket replacements on turbos, and he said he'd been there for years and it didn't seem to be happening at their huge service center—or at least not yet.

First I’ve heard of it. I’d assume it is a fairly rare occurrence. The oil change intervals seems like a good idea though.

I actually prefer non turbo (and GDI) for anything I plan to keep long term. The RDX I would love on from but the wife likes it. Though at 2-4k per year I will be dead before before it hits 80k most likely!

This on YT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TtvbfUNePI&t=483s

ab348

Wasn’t that Honda 1.5 turbo the same one that reportedly suffered from oil dilution issues a year or two ago?

ab348

Stumbled across this video today along with the follow-up they did later. Not to go all Driver100 on everyone, but this seems shocking, pardon the pun:

https://youtu.be/dr3mFzh0KSk?si=qY3ZfCzDIZGT0bgI

I don’t know what’s happening with Hyundai Canada regarding this, but I suspect there’s some shenanigans.

Their second video reports on a second case on the other side of the country which was very similar and just raises more questions:

https://youtu.be/EEXieo06ta8?si=uzLHbr9bHMyBkqy0

qbrozen

@nyccarguy said:
Probably so. I just made some inquiries over text. You think MMR is THAt much more?

No idea. Refresh my memory on the details of the jeep.

benjaminh

Ford F-150 Lightning road trip nightmare. This is a big reason why these are sitting on dealer lots, even with big discounts. Part of it is that the supposed range of 320 miles is closer to 200, and part of it is that the Electrify America charge system is mediocre.

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2022-ford-f-150-lightning-lariat-yearlong-review-update-11-road-trip-nightmare/

benjaminh

https://www.autoweek.com/news/a46217038/gm-halts-sales-of-blazer-ev/

"Chevrolet has stopped sales of its new Blazer EV due to numerous software problems. On several vehicles in customer and media hands, the infotainment screen crashed and numerous fault codes made charging the vehicle, apparently, impossible. Chevrolet has stated it will address the problems, saying, “Customer satisfaction is our priority.”

nyccarguy

@qbrozen said:

@nyccarguy said:
Probably so. I just made some inquiries over text. You think MMR is THAt much more?

No idea. Refresh my memory on the details of the jeep.

2022 Sahara 4xe
32,000 miles
Hydro Blue
Saddle Leather
Safety Tech
Advanced Safety Tech
Trailer Tow
Sky Open Top
Cold Weather

10/10 inside & out

oldfarmer50

nyccarguy said:

Current GALVES value for my Jeep: $30,025 Trade In. $31,825 Market Ready. Needless to say that I won't be trading it in anytime soon.

Wow, I thought Jeeps held their value. The 4xe was the hot topic a year or two ago with ADMs galore. What happened?

Michaell

oldfarmer50 said:

nyccarguy said:

Current GALVES value for my Jeep: $30,025 Trade In. $31,825 Market Ready. Needless to say that I won't be trading it in anytime soon.

Wow, I thought Jeeps held their value. The 4xe was the hot topic a year or two ago with ADMs galore. What happened?

Everybody and their brother bought or leased a Wrangler 4xe, and the incentives to lease a new one are still pretty strong ($7500 PHEV bonus plus up to $6000 in other incentives, depending on the region). No real reason to get one used.

corvette

If I were in the market, I'd consider buying a used 4xe in the $30k range. A lot of vehicle for the money.

On the F-150 Lightning, it sounds like there is a lot of blame to be shared between Ford's optimistic range estimates and EA's flaky charger network. The fact that the F-150 has the aerodynamics of a brick doesn't help its range, and these larger/heavier EVs appear to be noticeably slower charging on Level 2 chargers compared to something like a Tesla. That said, I think them being able to connect to Superchargers for reliable L3 charging will be an improvement.

qbrozen

Really trying to handle projects this week but it is slow going. Spent some time working on the Alto wrap. Still a long way to go on that. Opted to use today to 1) rebuild a toilet tank, 2) add a battery tender to the Fiat, and 3) rear brakes on the S90. Dealer first started warning us back when they had 4mm left. I assured the wife that was plenty. On the next visit a couple of weeks ago, they said 2mm. They called me and quoted $900. JUST the rear. No thanks. I will admit, the first side took me like 90 mins. Second side about 15.

stickguy

nyccarguy said:

qbrozen said:

@nyccarguy said:

Current GALVES value for my Jeep: $30,025 Trade In. $31,825 Market Ready. Needless to say that I won't be trading it in anytime soon.

Woof. Galves? They still using a 4-square, too?

Probably so. I just made some inquiries over text. You think MMR is THAt much more?

you know the drill. Carvana, carmax and Vroom it!

stickguy

busy day here.

for TV, we still have cable (Spectrum since that is our only option). we are debating cutting the cord when we move. If nothing else, won't need to design in coax cables and a place to a box.

our TV (bought when we moved in) seems to have all the services we could possibly get built in, so no need for a roku or fire stick. so that helps.

the new place does have the option of getting Fios instead of cable. So if they still offer a big discount for a year or 2 as a new customer will likely do that.

staying with cable is easier for me because I won't need to listen to my wife complain about not knowing how to get to what she wants to watch. she is not really happy with multiple remotes and having to change stuff. Better to just hit the one button to turn it all on, and the guide button she is used to!

corvette

I don't have cable or a landline, just AT&T gigabit Fiber. Price has gone up, but it's a grandfathered plan that includes Max, it's been reliable, and the competition has gotten less reliable in the last few years. At this point, it's a matter of not playing the game again once you've won.

Eero blankets the house and detached garage with very fast wifi--again, no complaints.

ab348

When I re-upped my cable contract last summer they came and took away all the old digital cable Motorola boxes and replaced them with tiny wifi things that plug into the TV, so all my coax wiring is now abandoned. The only coax now is the line from the outside into the house modem.

stickguy

I have the modem plugged into one coax jack (on my office desk, so I can ethernet my work laptop right into it), and another one in the family room where the cable box plugs into with a remote coax connection for the TV. so no wifi needed for the TV (cable part, just the streaming piece I think)

roadburner

corvette said:

@sda - on my trip to Arkansas, I made a left turn behind another car. The other car stopped. I stopped behind it. The other car shifted into reverse. I sounded the horn, which was ignored, and the other car backed into the Maverick. The young male driver provided a State Farm insurance card, which I later realized had expired (but apparently and thankfully still pertained to an active policy). He apologized and said he was distracted by a child in the back seat, whom I did not see (tinted windows), nor hear.

I immediately submitted a claim to State Farm and told the adjuster what had happened. She said she would discuss with their insured and get back with me. I only know a lot of this timeline because I submitted an Arkansas Insurance Department complaint, which State Farm was required to respond to in detail.

State Farm contacted its named insured who told them that his daughter (also listed on the policy) was driving. They played phone tag with the daughter. Daughter sent the adjuster an email alleging she was driving and that I told her I didn't have insurance and drove off from the scene. More phone tag ensued, she (apparently) ghosted the State Farm adjuster and refused to give a statement. Their named insured (the father) finally admitted that the daughter's boyfriend "might" have been driving the car.

I provided the adjuster with a photo of the provided insurance card and photos of both vehicles at the scene (which doesn't jibe with the daughter's allegation that I drove off), pointed out that my vehicle has an AEB system which would not[1] have allowed a low speed rear end collision to occur, and strongly implied that a second insurance department complaint was forthcoming.

Lessons learned/relearned: always get a police report and don't wait a year after acquiring a vehicle to install the dashcam that you already have.

[1] I know these systems aren't foolproof, but strategically, it's better not to admit weaknesses in your position.

When I was in private practice State Farm was one of, if not THE worst insurance company to deal with.

roadburner

benjaminh said:

Recently I learned that a small percentage of Honda's 1.5 turbo engines, of the kind found in our CR-V, are having head gasket failures at around 80k-120k miles. Most of the failures are with the Accord version of this engine, which has 20.5 psi of boost, compared to 18.5 psi found in the CR-V, and 16.5 found in the Civic. Getting a head gasket replaced on this engine seems to be about $5k+—1k for the parts, 4k for the labor. Honda is sometimes covering 30-50% of the cost of these, if the engine was well maintained at a Honda dealer. A video by a Honda mechanic suggested using premium fuel, doing more frequent 5k oil changes, and reducing the number of times that you really press the engine if you want to try to avoid this problem.

Thinking about this over the past few days, my wife and I considered replacing her CR-V with something new. The trade-in value for our 2018 CR-V EX AWD with 52k miles is still good at $20k. But even negotiating a discount, getting a 2024 CR-V Hybrid is c. $39k with tax and license. That includes $2k for the "protection package," which they cut the price on but weren't willing to remove. Getting a Subaru Outback Premium with some options is c. $35k with tax. The Subaru seems like a good value, but $15k over what we've got now is still a lot. The good and the bad of the Outback is it has a naturally-aspirated engine standard, and so won't be prone to the problems that turbos sometimes have. The downside of the Outback with the standard engine is that acceleration 0-60 is about 8.6 seconds. Even a decade ago that might have seemed good enough for us, but we are now used to the 7.5 second 0-60 on our turbo CR-V, and the 6.8 on my TLX. We never accelerate the way the magazines do for those tests, but sometimes when merging onto the freeway or passing we go full throttle.

Anyway, we've decided for now to keep our CR-V, but are planning to switch to premium fuel for it, do more frequent oil changes (down from from 6-7k to 5k), and maybe press the turbo into service less often. We're hoping those steps, and the lower boost of the CR-V compared to the Accord, might avoid this engine disaster. And maybe sometime in the next couple of years we'll find a good enough deal on a new car to make a change.

I'm disappointed in Honda's engineering when it comes to this engine. I remember hearing about turbos from Saab, Volvo and others failing early in the 1990s, and I was hoping that Honda would have engineered their turbos well enough to eliminate such engine meltdowns. I'm glad my Acura has the K-series non-turbo engine, which I love.

Btw, I did ask someone at our local Honda dealer if they were having head gasket replacements on turbos, and he said he'd been there for years and it didn't seem to be happening at their huge service center—or at least not yet.

If I had to change my driving style in an effort to keep the motor in good condition I'd ditch that car in a nanosecond.

corvette

roadburner said:

When I was in private practice State Farm was one of, if not THE worst insurance company to deal with.

I've had experience with them. I will say that, if you're representing an injured person and they've accepted liability, they tend to make very fair offers (as opposed to Progressive, Liberty Mutual, and some others, which will often "max out" very low on the hope that the plaintiff will take the easy money and not go to trial). Contrarily, if State Farm thinks it has reasons to deny liability, it will refuse to make any reasonable offers. I saw them send an adjuster to mediation with only $500 in authority when the injured person had $30k in medicals and probably a legitimate $100k or so in pain and suffering. Their insured probably didn't have much liability, but they should have offered a decent chunk more than that to avoid the risk of an excess verdict, given that he only had $100k in liability limits and might have gotten hit with joint and several liability.

The random adjuster I spoke to in order to set up repairs raved about their direct repair program. I just let him blabber on and figured it would be a waste of breath to inform him that I've had terrible experiences at two of State Farm's preferred body shops and it's one of the main reasons I'm no longer a State Farm policyholder. As it happens, the shop I plan to have the Maverick repaired is in their network, but it's definitely not a selling point for me.

qbrozen

Sorry I cut the story short. Was interrupted.

Reason for the first side taking so long was mostly due to fighting with the caliper. For some reason, it has a screw-type piston top but doesn’t actually screw in and out. At least not in the usual way. There is a motor attached to the back of each caliper that turns a screw that pushes the piston straight out. So you have to remove the motor, thread out the screw, compress the piston, then reattach the motor. Once again, overcomplicating something that worked just fine the way it was before. So probably 30 mins trying to turn the piston from the top, as is the usual way, then another 30 searching for online answers, and 15 mins finding the right tools.

roadburner

The Club Sport is getting its annual oil service (plus plugs and a fuel filter) at my dealer and I was given a new 430i xDrive coupe for my loaner. It's black on black, which at least hides the huge grille. It actuality has the M Sport suspension and it feels maybe a touch stiffer than the C43 in comfort mode. Like the C43, it also has 19" wheels with run-flats. The steering is typical BMW- accurate but totally devoid of feel. It has 5k miles on it, which may explain that it felt a lot quicker than I expected; on the way to work I had a bit of fun with a G8 GT at the Pontiac's expense.

Inside, I'm still no fan of the widescreen display and the accompanying useless graphics. Ditto for the elimination of physical HVAC and audio controls- although in fairness some of the audio settings can be adjusted by buttons on the steering wheel. I will say that it has the most annoying safety nanny- hands down; it has road sign recognition and if you exceed the speed limit the road sign icon blinks for several seconds.I had to spend a couple of minutes drilling down through some iDrive menus but I was finally able to kill it.

At the end of the day I think its a comfortable cruiser but it's not particularly engaging. I drove it back-to-back with the C43 and the Mercedes is definitely the more involving drive.

benjaminh

roadburner said:

If I had to change my driving style in an effort to keep the motor in good condition I'd ditch that car in a nanosecond.

This is a good point. My wife and I have sometimes used the turbo "just for fun." But maybe we'll pay for that fun at some point? I think BMWs and some other brands go through head gaskets too sometimes. Can any turbo really stand up long-term to performance driving up until 200k?

benjaminh

For my 2018 TLX my cost of maintenance has been low. I'm going in for service tomorrow, which will probably be another $300 or so, but so far for five years of ownership I've spent only $2100 on maintenance, and that includes a new set of Michelin tires from Costco, a battery, and a transmission fluid change at 50k the owner's manual didn't call for. It's true that for my first two years I got three oil and filter changes free from the dealer, worth a total of about $200, plus they have good coupons in general. On the Edmunds site they estimate that in 5 years maintenance and repair will add up to about $9k. I had no repairs, compared to the $2800 in repairs that they guessed. Knock on wood, but so far I've done better than their estimates.

https://www.edmunds.com/acura/tlx/2018/cost-to-own/

stickguy

are they insane? Almost $1,000 in year 1 and 2? that is a few oil changes and tire rotations. Not $1,800 worth.

roadburner

benjaminh said:

roadburner said:

If I had to change my driving style in an effort to keep the motor in good condition I'd ditch that car in a nanosecond.

This is a good point. My wife and I have sometimes used the turbo "just for fun." But maybe we'll pay for that fun at some point? I think BMWs and some other brands go through head gaskets too sometimes. Can any turbo really stand up long-term to performance driving up until 200k?

My MS3 made it to 158k and was running great; I only sold it because I wanted a RWD car and the 2014 M235i turned up.

roadburner

stickguy said:

are they insane? Almost $1,000 in year 1 and 2? that is a few oil changes and tire rotations. Not $1,800 worth.

I think Edmunds service cost estimates are really inaccurate.

jmonroe1

qbrozen said:

Sorry I cut the story short. Was interrupted.

Reason for the first side taking so long was mostly due to fighting with the caliper. For some reason, it has a screw-type piston top but doesn’t actually screw in and out. At least not in the usual way. There is a motor attached to the back of each caliper that turns a screw that pushes the piston straight out. So you have to remove the motor, thread out the screw, compress the piston, then reattach the motor. Once again, overcomplicating something that worked just fine the way it was before. So probably 30 mins trying to turn the piston from the top, as is the usual way, then another 30 searching for online answers, and 15 mins finding the right tools.

————————————————
I’m going to guess that your S90 has a hill holder or a stop hold feature. Mrs. j’s 2018 Legacy has a “hill holder” that only works when on a hill whereas my 2015 Genny has a “stop hold” that works on hills or level surfaces.

I have to think (not positive about this) that those systems need a motor to engage the caliper to keep pressure against the rotor when you’re stopped. Then as soon as the accelerator is pushed the motor reverses thereby releasing the caliper. All this happens very fast but if the ABS system can pump the brakes as quickly as it does to keep a car from sliding left or right on snow, I guess it’s not too complicated to make these brake holding systems work quickly.

So far I haven’t had a problem with either car acting up and not releasing but why have it? I’ve only tried this feature just for fun, just like I do with advanced cruise control but I can’t trust it if I take my eyes off of it, so to speak. I’ve never found it too difficult to continue to hold my foot on the brake when I’m stopped. Hill or no hill.

Once again these car companies have fixed something that ain’t broke. Why? I guess the answer to that is because they can. When will this stuff stop?

jmonroe

roadburner

My loaner has what BMW calls Auto Hold. When it is enabled and you come to a complete stop you can take your foot of the brake pedal and the brakes will not release until you touch the accelerator.
Mercedes has the same feature but to use it you simply push the brake a bit harder once you have stopped. I like that approach better because you don't need to toggle the feature on or off.

stickguy

most cars seem to have that. only time mine is ever on is when I bump the button by accident, then wonder why my car isn't moving when I expect it too. and hill holder seems pointless on a car with an automatic.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

are they insane? Almost $1,000 in year 1 and 2? that is a few oil changes and tire rotations. Not $1,800 worth.

I’m trying to remember how much I’ve spent on my various beaters and I realize some of them have been pretty cheap to operate. The Mustang has been relatively cost free if you discount the voluntary mods. Just oil changes every year or so ( 2k miles), new Michelins for $800 and a new battery after 8 years. Probably under $1500.

The cargo van has been inexpensive to maintain as well. After an initial $750 to fix a main seal and various other fluid leaks it’s been oil changes and routine maintenance. I did have to put in new rear rotors after a rusty e-brake cable caused it to seize and gouge everything. Under a thousand in repairs after the post purchase recon. Not bad for a 20 year old rust bucket.

Of course I tend to be a bit more obsessive with maintenance on my newer stuff to the point where I have probably changed oil, brake and radiator fluids more often than necessary.

qbrozen

@jmonroe1 said:
————————————————
I’m going to guess that your S90 has a hill holder or a stop hold feature. Mrs. j’s 2018 Legacy has a “hill holder” that only works when on a hill whereas my 2015 Genny has a “stop hold” that works on hills or level surfaces.

I have to think (not positive about this) that those systems need a motor to engage the caliper to keep pressure against the rotor when you’re stopped. Then as soon as the accelerator is pushed the motor reverses thereby releasing the caliper. All this happens very fast but if the ABS system can pump the brakes as quickly as it does to keep a car from sliding left or right on snow, I guess it’s not too complicated to make these brake holding systems work quickly.

So far I haven’t had a problem with either car acting up and not releasing but why have it? I’ve only tried this feature just for fun, just like I do with advanced cruise control but I can’t trust it if I take my eyes off of it, so to speak. I’ve never found it too difficult to continue to hold my foot on the brake when I’m stopped. Hill or no hill.

Once again these car companies have fixed something that ain’t broke. Why? I guess the answer to that is because they can. When will this stuff stop?

jmonroe

Knowing volvo, I’m sure it has something like that. I think the motor is also for the electronic e-brake.

stickguy

I know that with some cars (probably saw it discussed in the maverick forum) you need to put the rear brakes in service mode through some settings (not sure if in the car or need a scanner) which does stuff like release the electronic E brake. Before you can do a brake job.

breld

Two more shopping days in the year (at lease in those states where dealers are closed on Sundays)…anyone gonna make a last minute punch?

Something tells me we’re not getting our Bronco Heritage Edition…