Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)
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That, my friend, is a matter of opinion.
The looks of the CX-7 was one of the primary reasons we bought it. Didn't look like every other CUV on the road.
I'm OK with a little less space for stuff for a more style.
Zoom zoom!
I ended up with a minivan, then had to get my dose of Zoom zoom with a PRHT MX-5! :shades:
Huh, didn't know that the power had increased.
She's more inclined to V6s and (now) turbo 4 cylinders.
We're keeping the Mazda for a while.
It's interesting .. some years back, we test drove an Outback XT. When I told my wife it required premium fuel, it was immediately crossed off the short list. Now, the CX-7 has the same need, but for some reason, that didn't matter this time around.
Go figure.
It made mine too back in February when we were SUV shopping (truthfully should have just gone truck shopping). Salesguy took us out in a CX-9, drove to a parking lot, had me get into the driver's seat. I drove it about 5 feet, stopped, got out, and said no, drive me back to the lot. Something about it made me feel so claustrophobic, I couldn't deal with it.
After that he showed us a Volvo XC90 and I loved it, of course after hubby looked at the MSRP he nixed it right away. Funny thing is it was cheaper than the F-150 he bought me in May......he didn't even blink at that price. Then again, it was a RED F-150 which he has a weakness for.
May have been the same thing that bothered me - the center console had a protruding trim piece that just rubbed my right knee the wrong way.
Ironically, Mazda updated the CX9 and guess what? That trim piece is gone.
Funny how a little ergonomic mistake can kill a sale.
I did.... pretty painless deal.. Dropped the MF markups, as soon as I mentioned them, etc..
I was sort of surprised.... they give a decent, but not great deal upfront.. but, I've heard from quite a few people that they won't really bargain.. Of course, there is only one other Infiniti dealer within 50 miles... and, most people would consider that out of the local area, so maybe they don't have to.
Nothing but good things to say about them... Of course, we don't sign and pickup the car for two weeks... but, the deal is on paper.
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It only has 180. But, that was an increase over the 160something it used to have.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
I'm just glad I don't have to be deadly accurate anymore!
I'm going to go ahead and call dibs on the lease transfer if the wife doesn't like it. I don't have anyone to tell me no. :P
Cuz if there was, I don't see it.
I'm working on it!
the front half anyway LOL!
H and A Accessories is in California somewhere. They also sponsor a few boards here. I've bought stuff from them in the past.
There's a dealer in Rhode Island (cheaphondaparts.com) that I bought quite a few Pilot accessories from.
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
No chance on this one..
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But, you're right, they've always been very nice. And, maybe they're a little different when you lease. But, I always purchase and can't seem to get them to work a deal. Funny thing is, while I've not bought, I have been able to do better with Infiniti in Lexington, and Infiniti in Dayton. Just can't with my local Infiniti dealer.
As you say, they're the only Infiniti dealer in the city. Maybe that's the reason they don't get more aggressive. I had even told them once...."you're competition in Lexington is doing this deal."
To which they responded...."Let them. We appreciate you coming in, but we won't match their deal."
No harm, no foul!
Also, the vice-president of the dealer group I met by chance last month.. owns this dealership, as well.... I never played that card, though.. as, I'm not sure how far it would have gone... She had already done me a favor at the Audi dealership... I was happy with the deal I received..
They do have the 2012 models on the lot, though they aren't advertising them yet.... About 20 total 2011 G37 sedans left.. If IFS takes off the cheap lease deals, they'll have a hard time moving them..
Maybe, they were motivated..
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On a side note, the wife is very happy with her new sneakers and the car does drive more confidently on the road. Now if we can get this puppy up to 120k, I'll be one happy camper! Glad she's happy now & also agrees that we should keep it till at least 120k...it's a Mazda so I think it will get there.
The Sandman
P.S. Looking outside, can see my neighbors white over black G35...definitely a sweet ride!
2023 Hyundai Kona Limited AWD (wife) / 2025 VW GTI (me) / 2019 Chevrolet Cruze Premier RS (daughter #1) / 2020 Hyundai Accent SE (daughter #2) / 2023 Subaru Impreza Base (son)
And, their customers are usually happier it seems.
Ignorance is bliss... :P
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These people want to simply be treted fairly and pay what they think is a reasnoble price for a car. They want the transaction to be upbeat and friendly and they want to leave feeling that they were treated fairly.
The real grinders never seem to leave happy. It's like they think that somehow, just maybe, they left money on the table.
As a shopper, I would like to think I'm somewhere in the middle as I think most of the posters here are.
On my recent lease of a 2012 LaCrosse I went to one Buick dealer, had lease numbers in mind and struck a deal relatively quickly. It was a skinny deal, but the dealer was happy and so was I. Come survey time, all 10s!
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
But, other factors such as inventory levels and demand can throw off a shopper's expectations. They may think, for an example that a 500.00 profit on a new car may be a "fair" deal and during times of high inventory levels, it may be more than fair when the lots are overstuffed with cars.
When inventories are down to nothing a store would be foolish to cheap sell a car knowing others will be happy to pay more and also knowing he can't quickly replace it.
Trade-in's can kill a deal too. The shopper "knows" what is trade is worth but it's car the store simply does not want! It may be a poor seller, be a lousy "no sale" color or smell like a German Shepard inside.
I used to cringe when I saw some of the potential trades when I knew they were going through the auctions 3000.00 "back of book".
How do you tell a customer that without sounding like you are out to steal their trade. How do you tell your dog loving customer that her car stinks
like the inside of a Humane Society?
It's not always cut and dried.
The real grinders never seem to leave happy. It's like they think that somehow, just maybe, they left money on the table.
Sometimes I can be a real grinder when it comes to a car deal, but it all depends on how I feel like I'm being treated. Treat me fair and I'll be fair back, treat me like I have no business car shopping because I'm a woman (and yes, I've had that happen many many times), watch out cuz I'll take every penny of profit I can.
When I bought my truck, the salesguy was wonderful, I had been in many times and he had always treated me with respect, not to mention he has a crazy sense of humor. When we were working the deal on the truck, the GSM came over and started working the numbers. She was great, made me an offer on the Pilot I felt was fair (of course at that point she did not know about the accident). She gave me a price on the truck and I declined, got up to leave, she asked me to wait, went and grabbed the invoice for the truck. I made an offer that I felt was fair to me and to my salesguy. I know how much it sucks to work for hours and end up with a mini. Did I leave $$$ on the table? Yes, but I was still happy with the deal.
She did not change her offer on the Pilot after finding out about the accident, she gave me $30,500 for it which was a lot more than any other dealer was offering for it. Most did not want it because of the accident and because there were tons of used 09-11 Pilots for sale. She also gave us $2k for our 95 F-250 with 180k on it, $3k total with the extra trade-in rebate from Ford, which is exactly what I paid for it lol.
I really don't want to car shop again for a while but its looking like the 95 Escort is up to no good. It overheated on the kid today, hopefully its something minor. I don't want to have to replace that car any time soon.
Earlier this week I saw, drove and made a deal on a demo 2011 Buick Regal Turbo. While I was disappointed at their original offer - there was a trade involved, and they started out by lowballing it - by the end of that experience between the salesman, sales manager and business manager I was happy.
Today I went in to do the paperwork, write a check, and get the car. The paperwork was royally screwed up. They had added some extras I never said I wanted, and the lease deal I thought I had was mysteriously changed. I will cut them a bit of slack because their process seems really odd - when I left there after negotiating the deal I had seen numbers on a form but wasn't given a copy (my fault) and I am willing to believe their explanation that what I was presented with today was a misunderstanding among the people at their end who were involved in the negotiation. By the time I left I was happy (and was given a free set of floor mats for my trouble), but it could all have been avoided if they just gave the customer something in writing as a normal part of their selling process. I guess it is too much to ask that a dealer come up with a process that doesn't involve so many different people to make a deal. The way it played out, my first thought was that they were trying to pull something, even though their reputation is not one of doing business that way. I guess that goes along with the territory when you are a car dealer, whose image is always one of trying to pry another few $$$ out of the customer.
I would not consider myself a grinder when buying a car. This was the longest negotiation I have ever had - probably 2 hours in total - and in most of the other cases the price I would pay was determined in a matter of minutes. I prefer it that way but sometimes you are forced into a different place. A lot of the time in this case could have been avoided if they hadn't made a ridiculous offer on my trade initially. That set me up to do more grinding than I normally would and made me more suspicious of them than I would have felt otherwise. I don't blame them for trying to make a buck, but making a ridiculous offer would seem to be their starting point. I know that now and if I buy another car from them sometime I will use that as MY starting point.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
Mark156
I guess I take for granted that generally we have newer vehicles and they tend to be problem free. I forget the issues of older cars. Best we can tell the car may have overheated, whatever it did it created an oil leak and possibly a coolant leak. It steams when driven once it gets warmed up. Guess we'll find out tomorrow and hopefully its something minor...otherwise, we are going to have to go car shopping if the repair outweights the value of the car.
I hope my son was paying attention when I talked! Or maybe next time he is on break from school, I will make him read the owners manual.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
I hope not because the repair would be about the value of the car sadly. The oil level was higher than normal but I didn't see any coolant trying to befriend the oil which is hopefully a good sign.
I do know my son will never forget this lesson, nor will he live it down!
As for the repair, I don't think a head gasket on a 4cyl Escort will be that bad of a repair. If the car is decent otherwise, it may be worth it.
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
Yup, stick was right. I got the call this morning, it did blow the head gasket. However they said that we caught it really quick and there doesn't appear to be any other damage to the engine. They suggested doing the timing belt/water pump as well since they will be in there anyway and its at that age. Total repair looks like about $1500, unless the machine shop finds a problem with the head, then I don't know what we will do. Most likely junk the car at that point.
The ONLY reason we are going to try to fix the car is because its solid and has no other major issues. Not to mention the $1500 price range in used cars is a scary scary world. The shop will give a nationwide 12 mo/12k warranty on the work that will follow the kid when he takes the car out of state next summer.
The guy at the shop said he'd fix it since its such a nice little car and pretty solid mechanically. They were shocked it did this since they gave it a very clean bill of health back in March when they did the mechanic's inspection on it after I bought it. Ah well, no big deal, we should get it back next week.
They usually just let go one day without much warning.
Replacing the timing belt, water pump and other belts and hoses while they are "in there" just makes good sense.
Hopefully they won't find a cracked head or other damage but based on what you were told it's probably unlikely.
1500.00 is a lot of money but you should end up with a pretty nice car when they are done with it as opposed to buying something else that could cause you even greater trouble.
That said, if the head is cracked by all means proceed to plan B.
Back when I was in school and my fintail had a mechanical failure, I weighed the cost of repair vs the cost of just selling it and getting something else. I am glad I got it fixed.
The only other things the car needs is the A/C recharged and the fuel sending unit replaced, a total of about $500.
I saw the estimate for the car today and its sitting right around $1580, but that will probably change a little bit due to variations here and there. That includes the head gasket kit, head bolts, machining the head, a timing belt kit, and water pump.
They said that it was one of the most minor blown head gaskets they'd ever seen, it was just a small spot where the coolant (and oil) was coming out. They don't believe the car overheated at all and we caught it literally within minutes of the failure. They said it was nothing my son did to the car, it looked like the gasket just rotted due to age/miles. What amazes everyone is the car still runs great and has good compression.
The car has a clean title, good car fax history, 3 owners, and is relatively unmolested. In short its not a typical $1000 used car. That all being said we felt it was best to fix the car, that is unless the head is cracked or warped neither of which they believe has happened.
I just had a good bit of work done to the old Roller (new starter, head gaskets, rubber boots (?), rebuilt power steering gearbox, re-cored radiator, etc.). But, I love the old car and it gets a lot of thumbs up when driving it around town!
Mark156
And of course it only cost $1,500...... (where's the rolleyes when I need it?)
Mark156
I'm just thankful its a Ford Escort and not an older MB or BMW!! I hope after this it is a good car for a while.
My old car has kind of a head gasket issue, but very minor - every now and then I see a trickle of coolant, but coming down the outside of the engine, not mixing with oil. The coolant level in the radiator never really falls, and there's nothing wrong with the oil. Not going to dive into fixing it, whatever it is.
They said the coolant was running down the outside from a small hole in the gasket and hitting the block, thus the steam. I'm not sure where the oil was coming out but it was pouring out of somewhere.
I let my son drive my truck tonight......that may have been a bad idea now that his car is down for a week or so.
Interesting.
I've seen lots of cars with either the H.M. Brown or Centennial license plate frames .. given all that's said about brokers on these forums, I find it a bit surprising that so many people use them in the greater Denver area.
Either way, congrats on the purchase. The kids are really growing, eh? Needed more space for their friends and stuff, I should think.
:confuse: