Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

28firefighter

CarMax warranty report: the BMW was making a short grinding noise at the end of the startup cycle. My shop diagnosed it as the exhaust valve actuator motor. Warranty pre authorized the software update to try and repair it (TSB) all the way up to replacing the motor. No hassle. Software fixed it. Just paid my $150 deductible and the car back the next day (software updates seem annoying).

Color me impressed so far.

Michaell

Member is looking for advice on a CPO German coupe

jmonroe1

au1994 said:

Did anybody ever go back to the original dealer and let them know of the purchase from a competitor?

I did that on the Jeep lease. After getting a number that made me say “ I only wanted to lease 1 4xe, not 2”, I shot the offending dealer a note with my new and much, much more reasonable deal.

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I worked with a guy back in the late 70’s who dealt with an obnoxious salesman while trying to buy a Grand Prix. As a result he left and bought elsewhere. To have some fun a few days later he went to the first dealership and asked the salesman to come outside. No sooner did they walk out the door together and the salesman saw his new car the salesman turned around and walked back into the showroom. My friend heard him say, “butt-hole” (I cleaned that up per the bylaws in here).

jmonroe

stickguy

I can’t be bothered to waste the time and energy but at least once answered a dealer call after the fact and told them. Generally, they are not interested after they hear you are no longer a potential paycheck to them.

au1994

@jmonroe1 said:
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I worked with a guy back in the late 70’s who dealt with an obnoxious salesman while trying to buy a Grand Prix. As a result he left and bought elsewhere. To have some fun a few days later he went to the first dealership and asked the salesman to come outside. No sooner did they walk out the door together and the salesman saw his new car the salesman turned around and walked back into the showroom. My friend heard him say, “butt-hole” (I cleaned that up per the bylaws in here).

jmonroe

It’s normally not my style but this joker(cleaned that up as well) had quoted me over 2x of what I ended up with.

Maybe I was having a bad day but I just couldn’t help myself.

Sandman6472

Just stopped by the Mini Cooper lot & checked out a CountrymanS unit I've been watching online. White roof over a blue body, sticker says $37K plus and that's without the Harman Kardon audio system I want. It's only maybe 2" longer then my Golf and just as wide so I know it'll fit on my side of the garage. But just not sure I want to deal with the "upkeep" of a Mini Cooper truth be told. Think going with Hyundai might be the better choice. But, at least I'm ready to look which is a big step for me. Think I'll go back next week on my n/s day to test drive it and see how the audio system sounds. Need some time as I'd probably want to do a back to back test drive with the Hyundai.

But the thing is, I'm ready to seriously start looking, a big deal for me as I really like the Golf that I now have.

Michaell

Sandman6472 said:

Just stopped by the Mini Cooper lot & checked out a CountrymanS unit I've been watching online. White roof over a blue body, sticker says $37K plus and that's without the Harman Kardon audio system I want. It's only maybe 2" longer then my Golf and just as wide so I know it'll fit on my side of the garage. But just not sure I want to deal with the "upkeep" of a Mini Cooper truth be told. Think going with Hyundai might be the better choice. But, at least I'm ready to look which is a big step for me. Think I'll go back next week on my n/s day to test drive it and see how the audio system sounds. Need some time as I'd probably want to do a back to back test drive with the Hyundai.

But the thing is, I'm ready to seriously start looking, a big deal for me as I really like the Golf that I now have.

Sandy, you should find out how long it would take for a custom order to be filled - that way, you can add exactly what you want, and exclude the options you don't want or need. May take a few months to fulfill, but at the end of the day, you'll have exactly what you want.

xwesx

Michaell said:

Sandy, you should find out how long it would take for a custom order to be filled - that way, you can add exactly what you want, and exclude the options you don't want or need. May take a few months to fulfill, but at the end of the day, you'll have exactly what you want.

Four months! This is CCBA! He'll have changed his mind by then!

xwesx

My supervisor has a Durango hellcat. Ridiculous machine.

venture

roadburner said:

venture said:

roadburner said:

When the Supra first came out I set up a test drive with a salesperson at a specific time. I arrived a few minutes early to find my salesperson was gone and that the dealer was not allowing Supra test drives without a signed buyers order.
Idiots.

I never got that. Of course, I'm not too swift.

Does that mean you are going to buy the car or what?

Yes, the same dealer group pulled that with the 2007 Mazdaspeed 3; in that case they definitely lost a sale as I bought my MS3 from a Cincinnati dealer that didn't tack on an ADM or play other ridiculous games.

OK. The part I never understood is why would they expect you to buy the car before you get a chance to drive it to see if you like it? No wonder you left.

jmonroe1

venture said:

roadburner said:

venture said:

roadburner said:

When the Supra first came out I set up a test drive with a salesperson at a specific time. I arrived a few minutes early to find my salesperson was gone and that the dealer was not allowing Supra test drives without a signed buyers order.
Idiots.

I never got that. Of course, I'm not too swift.

Does that mean you are going to buy the car or what?

Yes, the same dealer group pulled that with the 2007 Mazdaspeed 3; in that case they definitely lost a sale as I bought my MS3 from a Cincinnati dealer that didn't tack on an ADM or play other ridiculous games.

OK. The part I never understood is why would they expect you to buy the car before you get a chance to drive it to see if you like it? No wonder you left.

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No explanation for it other than the smug attitude…”I know what I got”.

jmonroe

28firefighter

They assigned me a 2023 Suburban 2WD - in winter, in Cleveland. It was really beat up but weather is clear so didn’t think much of it. Get to the door to open it and some Mensa member locked the keys inside. Had to wait 30 mins for them to find another one and bring it up.

Comfortable ride, stopping distance and acceleration of the titanic.

corvette

I always liked the LS engine in my Tahoe. It wasn't quick, but was perfectly adequate if you didn't care about MPGs and were willing to keep your foot in it.

28firefighter

It’s perfectly adequate. Just not what I’d want to daily drive.

corvette

I need to return the Frontier with 1/4 tank. Splashed about 3 gallons in it (I only drove about 20 miles), the gauge didn't cover the 1/4 mark to a level I was comfortable with, so I put another 3 gallons in. $20 of fuel to drive 20 miles. Now it reads almost 1/2 tank, so I bought Enterprise a bunch of free gas.

Got a call that the Maverick was ready for pickup. As I discussed with @nyccarguy, the bumper had debris in the clearcoat and one edge had been rubbed up against something. "That'll buff out," and they'll have it ready early tomorrow, per the estimator. We'll see. I've had previous good experience with this shop, but since then, they were bought out by a chain, and I doubt I'll go back there after this experience. Someone should have looked it over before declaring it was ready to be picked up.

roadburner

au1994 said:

Did anybody ever go back to the original dealer and let them know of the purchase from a competitor?

I did that on the Jeep lease. After getting a number that made me say “ I only wanted to lease 1 4xe, not 2”, I shot the offending dealer a note with my new and much, much more reasonable deal.

Back in 2001 my wife and I went to look at a couple of A4s. The Audi dealer had them priced pretty reasonable but it took them nearly an hour to appraise our car and pencil a deal (I had told them we would buy within the week if the numbers were right). They came back with an offer for our 3er $2,500 under what my BMW dealer later offered and they didn't come down a cent from their asking price on the A4- a BRIGHT green lease return which had sat on their lot for at least six weeks. Then the guy had the nerve to say: "Our used car manager is out. When he gets back next week maybe he can get you more for your trade and maybe I can get a little off the A4."

As it turned out, that very same day my BMW dealer had just taken a nice 1997 528i in trade, so after leaving the Audi fiasco we drove over to BMW and bought the 5er the next day. When the Audi sales guy called to follow up I let him know that we would have bought the A4 that day if they hadn't tried to lowball the trade and had come down a few hundred on the A4. I took particular pleasure in seeing that A4 we looked at continue to hang around on their lot for about four more weeks- with the price eventually being cut by over $2,000 less than we had been willing to pay.

Sandman6472

As luck would have it, parked next to a 2024 Hyundai Kona in white at the pizza joint last night. It's definitely bigger then her 2023 model and something I could get used to. Then the garage came up & she mentioned parking one vehicle inside & one out on a schedule to be determined later. I kinda scoffed at that idea & said we'd just have to make it work as I'm not buying a new car to park outside 24/7 when I already have a garage. Problem is that stupid closet she insisted the builder add on in our front hall of the house. Had to take some room from her side of the garage so now, it's coming back to bite her! Sometimes, I have to pull mine in on a right angle to have enough room to get out without knocking into her passenger door but, it works.

Turns out the model we saw was a SEL with the 1.6t engine but I'd go with a Limited model and won't get AWD as think it's unnecessary down here in Florida. Unfortunately, she had no choice because our local Hyundai store only had a few Kona Limited models and to get the color she wanted, it had to be one with AWD.

au1994

28firefighter said:

It’s perfectly adequate. Just not what I’d want to daily drive.

I had an Expedition EL on a company trip back in November and I will echo your comments. I do see how people love them though. Great road trip vehicles.

tjc78

After driving a full size pickup for nearly two years now … I would take a Tahoe, etc in a minute.

I keep hearing how much supply there is on Wagoneers. Lease deals aren’t there from what I understand but substantial discounts to buy.

I loved the Wagoneer rental I had. Not sure what powertrain it had, but it’s quick for the beast that it is.

stickguy

Carvana likes to send me emails. I still get them on Q’s WRX. This one came in today and gotta say, this is a nice car.

https://www.carvana.com/vehicle/lt/2926107?utm_content=hero_cta&utm_medium=engagement&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=price_drop_xshop

qbrozen

you were spying on my wrx? any idea if they dropped the price before selling? I didn't keep an eye on it.

stickguy

I opened the link when you posted it (or maybe I searched for it!) and after that the cookies took over. Pretty sure it dropped a few times but not sure if it ever sold.

xwesx

Carvana's page is so annoying. Any time I open it, it locks me out and says "out of market". I have to enter a made-up a zip code just for it to let me view photos. Who does that?!

kyfdx

xwesx said:

Carvana's page is so annoying. Any time I open it, it locks me out and says "out of market". I have to enter a made-up a zip code just for it to let me view photos. Who does that?!

They aren't delivering a car to Alaska.

jmonroe1

xwesx said:

Carvana's page is so annoying. Any time I open it, it locks me out and says "out of market". I have to enter a made-up a zip code just for it to let me view photos. Who does that?!

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Didn’t you just answer your own question? Just in case you forgot the question, Carvana does that.

jmonroe

xwesx

kyfdx said:

xwesx said:

Carvana's page is so annoying. Any time I open it, it locks me out and says "out of market". I have to enter a made-up a zip code just for it to let me view photos. Who does that?!

They aren't delivering a car to Alaska.

Haha; yes! But, apparently they've never fully comprehended how the whole internet shopping thing works, either.

oldfarmer50

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:

sorry to hear about your loss.

good luck with the "or similar" with that one. I rented a minivan for a couple of months from now to get from up in NY down to Newark airport. 5 of us are going on a trip together, and are going out of Newark instead of Albany to save a bunch of money. and a connection! no one has a roomy enough car (that they are willing to park there for 8 days...) so the solution was to rent a minivan at each end, and drop off when we get there/home. So it best be a minivan, since there really isn't an "or similar" to that. though I guess a Suburban would function, but I have zero desire to pilot one of those airport to airport.

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Nothing to it. @oldfarmer50 and his transport crew probably does that a couple times a month.

jmonroe

Yep. Best way is to go down I-287 to I-78 which will take you almost right to Newark Airport. If you were willing to drive a Ford Expedition and drop it off down the road at our big Elizabeth yard I bet they’d give you a free rental.😃

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:

sorry to hear about your loss.

good luck with the "or similar" with that one. I rented a minivan for a couple of months from now to get from up in NY down to Newark airport. 5 of us are going on a trip together, and are going out of Newark instead of Albany to save a bunch of money. and a connection! no one has a roomy enough car (that they are willing to park there for 8 days...) so the solution was to rent a minivan at each end, and drop off when we get there/home. So it best be a minivan, since there really isn't an "or similar" to that. though I guess a Suburban would function, but I have zero desire to pilot one of those airport to airport.

————————————————
Nothing to it. @oldfarmer50 and his transport crew probably does that a couple times a month.

jmonroe

I'm getting it from his home base. just not his company.

Careful, some of our competitors are known for reporting your rental stolen and hauling you off the plane.🤣

oldfarmer50

venture said:

Sandman6472 said:

Yes, once we're at this point, what's the matter with spending a bit more. Guessing by the amount of miles I put on each year, whatever I get should be here in 10 years with relatively low miles. Even if we do end up moving sooner then later, my monthly mileage will still be the same most likely. Just depends which child we live nearer I guess. And it's looking like it might be the St. Augustine area as our kid really is liking living there. The wife would just need to adapt to the chillier winter weather.

It's 41F here. Warm for the first of February. I saw a guy this morning riding a scooter (Vespa type).

Yesterday in Burlington VT I almost ran over some dufus riding an electric kiddie scooter the wrong way on the one way airport road. Almost no snow up there.

corvette

Here are some pics of my bumper, which had the damaged areas of paint blended and then a layer of clear put over the entire bumper. The body shop estimator referred to this as “not a drip,” despite it being filled with air bubbles and being where the lowest part of the bumper would be when it’s on a rack in the paint booth. Thoughts?

Had he said, “oh, yeah, that’s a drip in the clear, we’ll get that sanded down, just come back in 15,” I would have let it slide, but he chose the hard way… they’re going to repaint the entire bumper.

au1994

Why don’t people just do things right the first time?

venture

We called that a sag back when I was painting cars. Obviously, too much paint.

xwesx

Definitely a drip, and it also looks like the two panels were clear-coated together. Amateur work.

stickguy

corvette said:

Here are some pics of my bumper, which had the damaged areas of paint blended and then a layer of clear put over the entire bumper. The body shop estimator referred to this as “not a drip,” despite it being filled with air bubbles and being where the lowest part of the bumper would be when it’s on a rack in the paint booth. Thoughts?

Had he said, “oh, yeah, that’s a drip in the clear, we’ll get that sanded down, just come back in 15,” I would have let it slide, but he chose the hard way… they’re going to repaint the entire bumper.

until they figure out they can save a lot of work by sanding it down and fixing the drip instead!

stickguy

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:

sorry to hear about your loss.

good luck with the "or similar" with that one. I rented a minivan for a couple of months from now to get from up in NY down to Newark airport. 5 of us are going on a trip together, and are going out of Newark instead of Albany to save a bunch of money. and a connection! no one has a roomy enough car (that they are willing to park there for 8 days...) so the solution was to rent a minivan at each end, and drop off when we get there/home. So it best be a minivan, since there really isn't an "or similar" to that. though I guess a Suburban would function, but I have zero desire to pilot one of those airport to airport.

————————————————
Nothing to it. @oldfarmer50 and his transport crew probably does that a couple times a month.

jmonroe

Yep. Best way is to go down I-287 to I-78 which will take you almost right to Newark Airport. If you were willing to drive a Ford Expedition and drop it off down the road at our big Elizabeth yard I bet they’d give you a free rental.😃

probably 17 to the GSP then 78 into Liberty. though I hate 17 and the GSP. At least on 17 I can stop for gas and a snack/bio break if needed.

hopefully they give me the van with about 1/2 a tank, so I can fill up here and be right about where it needs to be when I drop it off!

corvette

xwesx said:

...it also looks like the two panels were clear-coated together.

They actually weren't (I checked), just a tight panel gap. And that was the first thing I asked when he got all huffy and agreed to repaint the entire bumper: "They're going to remove it from the truck before painting it, right?"

stickguy said:

until they figure out they can save a lot of work by sanding it down and fixing the drip instead!

Except that I'm now on high alert, I would notice the bumper wasn't fully repainted (as promised), and they will get to redo it again, while I keep the rental, which is probably on their dime at this point. I hope their estimator has his resume updated!

corvette

au1994 said:

Why don’t people just do things right the first time?

Because 90% or more of people don't expect factory quality and won't notice when they just do it okay. I share the opinions of @andres3 with regard to most body shops.

jmonroe1

corvette said:

Here are some pics of my bumper, which had the damaged areas of paint blended and then a layer of clear put over the entire bumper. The body shop estimator referred to this as “not a drip,” despite it being filled with air bubbles and being where the lowest part of the bumper would be when it’s on a rack in the paint booth. Thoughts?

Had he said, “oh, yeah, that’s a drip in the clear, we’ll get that sanded down, just come back in 15,” I would have let it slide, but he chose the hard way… they’re going to repaint the entire bumper.

————————————————
It take a lotta balls to try to pass that off to a customer. That looks like a paint job done by a 10 year old.

Your job is to make sure you pass the word around about that shop starting with your insurance company.

jmonroe

qbrozen

I keep coming back to this one. I really love the color. I don't think I've ever seen a prettier Trailblazer.
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?listingId=697250748

stickguy

cheap enough, looks clean, miles are good. Buy it. You are a dealer, can always just resell it!

next year, I really need to get myself a winter beater. Once I get this whole house nonsense straightened out, I need to start flipping the fleet. Either that or I will be using a low mile RDX as my salt sled, and that would hurt.

jmonroe1

stickguy said:

cheap enough, looks clean, miles are good. Buy it. You are a dealer, can always just resell it!

next year, I really need to get myself a winter beater. Once I get this whole house nonsense straightened out, I need to start flipping the fleet. Either that or I will be using a low mile RDX as my salt sled, and that would hurt.

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Most folks use their truck for that kind of duty.

jmonroe

roadburner

corvette said:

au1994 said:

Why don’t people just do things right the first time?

Because 90% or more of people don't expect factory quality and won't notice when they just do it okay. I share the opinions of @andres3 with regard to most body shops.

Exactly- people accept substandard work as a matter of course.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:

sorry to hear about your loss.

good luck with the "or similar" with that one. I rented a minivan for a couple of months from now to get from up in NY down to Newark airport. 5 of us are going on a trip together, and are going out of Newark instead of Albany to save a bunch of money. and a connection! no one has a roomy enough car (that they are willing to park there for 8 days...) so the solution was to rent a minivan at each end, and drop off when we get there/home. So it best be a minivan, since there really isn't an "or similar" to that. though I guess a Suburban would function, but I have zero desire to pilot one of those airport to airport.

————————————————
Nothing to it. @oldfarmer50 and his transport crew probably does that a couple times a month.

jmonroe

Yep. Best way is to go down I-287 to I-78 which will take you almost right to Newark Airport. If you were willing to drive a Ford Expedition and drop it off down the road at our big Elizabeth yard I bet they’d give you a free rental.😃

probably 17 to the GSP then 78 into Liberty. though I hate 17 and the GSP. At least on 17 I can stop for gas and a snack/bio break if needed.

hopefully they give me the van with about 1/2 a tank, so I can fill up here and be right about where it needs to be when I drop it off!

First time we went to Elizabeth that was the way GPS sent us but it was a nightmare of twists and merges. Proceed at your own risk.

stickguy

I know the roads so not worried about following it. 17 is a lousy road, and I spent way too much time complaining about the GSP but I still ended up on it! I used to go down 287 all the time going from the NJ house to up here so know exactly how you went. a little more of a loop around, but likely simpler.

tjc78

@qbrozen said:
I keep coming back to this one. I really love the color. I don't think I've ever seen a prettier Trailblazer.
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?listingId=697250748

Looks great. I always liked those and have driven quite a few. That one is pretty equipped too.

I’ve never seen that color in person.

28firefighter

Final trip report on the suburban. It served its purpose for this trip and everyone was appreciative of only having one car and one person drive around. Unfortunately I was confused on more than one occasion for an Uber Premium driver, but what can you do?

One odd observation from driving, and maybe this is my poor adjustments for seating position, but I felt like I never had a good place to rest my elbows. The arm rests were never quite in the right spot for me.

Used just over half a tank - man this thing is thirsty if you get into it. With my corporate rate it was just under $150 plus taxes for the 3 days which is not bad at all for a car that size (would’ve been less than half that for a sedan.)

Sandman6472

Worked with a different crew yesterday as a bunch of drivers took off but honestly, it was a nice change. Wasn't too busy until about 4:30 when we had to go east a bit to bring 4 rentals from the Toyota store back to the local branch where the loaners came from. Got the keys since I knew where they were from working there back in 2022 and instead of 4 keys, found 6 keys. No big deal as there were 2 drivers and the branch wasn't that far away. After I had done my 3 vehicles, I'm waiting at the branch for a long time and it's getting close to 6, closing time for that branch. They were super busy so that 6 pm time was never gonna happen!

Finally got picked up at about 6:20 and asked what happened? Turns out the other two guys had a "senior moment" and were trying to find one last Voyager as they a set of keys for one. Turns out that set of keys was for the chase vehicle! I fell out laughing as I found it very funny, the other guys, not so much. Clocked off at 6:40 so was nice to get some extra hours. Never a dull moment and every day is different from the one before. Glad I'm doing 3 days/week which is plenty right now.

fintail

Got another email from the dealer where I bought/leased the wagon almost 5 years ago now. If not for the onerous initial payment and the miserly mileage limit, these wouldn't be too bad. I guess we know which models are either being over-produced or aren't selling:



Thinking back to the demise of Northwest Motorsports, I saw the ultimate stereotype truck with that plate frame lately - lifted 4 door RAM, all black including dark tint, loud exhaust, snowflakey stickers on the rear window, going maybe 15-20 over.

oldfarmer50

Sandman6472 said:

Worked with a different crew yesterday as a bunch of drivers took off but honestly, it was a nice change. Wasn't too busy until about 4:30 when we had to go east a bit to bring 4 rentals from the Toyota store back to the local branch where the loaners came from. Got the keys since I knew where they were from working there back in 2022 and instead of 4 keys, found 6 keys. No big deal as there were 2 drivers and the branch wasn't that far away. After I had done my 3 vehicles, I'm waiting at the branch for a long time and it's getting close to 6, closing time for that branch. They were super busy so that 6 pm time was never gonna happen!

Finally got picked up at about 6:20 and asked what happened? Turns out the other two guys had a "senior moment" and were trying to find one last Voyager as they a set of keys for one. Turns out that set of keys was for the chase vehicle! I fell out laughing as I found it very funny, the other guys, not so much. Clocked off at 6:40 so was nice to get some extra hours. Never a dull moment and every day is different from the one before. Glad I'm doing 3 days/week which is plenty right now.

Ha ha love those senior moment stories. We had a pair of those types who once were assigned to bring a car to the auction. This required one driver for the auction car and a chase driver. For some reason they both got in the chase and drove 100 miles to the auction before realizing that they forgot the car they were supposed to bring.

Embarrassed, they called the assistant boss because they figured she would be more sympathetic. They confessed their error and asked her to not tell the big boss.

She then had to tell them that she had them on speaker and the big boss was standing there listening. Ouch!

stickguy

$6k down on a basic midsized sedan seems to defeat the purpose of leasing. that makes the effective monthly what, at least $700 on the C class?