Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

isellhondas

That RX-7 was built well before the ignition immoblizer systems came out so they were easy to steal.

On some of the earlier Toyota trucks you could lift up a door handle, shove a pencil in a hole and open the door.

In the case of the RX-7, since she didn't know it had been stolen, Lojack wouldn't have done her any good.

Lojack does work VERY well. It just is of little value on today's cars. Like I said, they were ten years too late.

tjc78

My Father had a car stolen once. It was brand new 1986 Shelby Charger (remember those?). He was parking it and as he was getting out the perp asked for the keys at gunpoint. He quickly gave them up and the car sped away. A day later they catch the guy and the car, unfortunately the car wasn't quite screwed up enough to total. I was only a kid, but remember seeing it and it was missing pieces, banged up in spots and something with either the clutch or transmission. My Dad had it all fixed and then a few months later totalled it on the New Jersey Turnpike. I guess that car wasn't meant to be.

qbrozen

Neither I nor anyone I'm related to or know personally has had a car stolen.

And I live in NJ. Just goes to show you can't believe stereotypes.

fintail

A co-worker of mine had a Honda Accord stolen (in Renton, WA - a place where this is inevitable). It was later found stripped, but on roller wheels, his aftermarket wheels taken - but the tires on the generic wheels were better than his bald tires. It was replaced with a 3 year old BMW 330. Never had a car stolen or even broken into, personally - heck, I often leave the key in the fintail, good luck getting far or getting anything out of that :shades:

andres3

Well, with Lojac you can get it back within an hour or two. So if they've only had it for minutes, did they really steal it, or just borrow it for an hour?

Also, if it helps Police make arrests on scum buckets that steal people's property, I'm all for it. It actually makes the Police earn their paycheck, rather than waste resources issuing traffic citations and tickets for perfectly safe driving behavior.

And, if you happen to like your car, and it's been an extremely reliable model, you might want it back regardless.

Also, some insurance companies are known for low-balling people with unfair offers to settle out.

andres3

A lot of insurance companies will give discounts to your Comprehensive coverage if you have LoJack.

It's always good to have multiple redundant anti-theft systems. If they can beat or bypass one or two, maybe not the third!

andres3

It was banged up on both sides (both front quarter panels) were trashed. The car was dirty inside and trashed. It was missing for about 2-1/2 weeks and had over 1,000 miles more on it than when taken.

But it was so darn reliable that I insisted the insurance company not total it and fix it right. It had value to me even at 175,000 miles or so.

isellhondas

A few years ago, our Used Car Manager found a rare 1999 Civic SI at an auction. He was very happy to have it.

Unfortunatly, those didn't have the immoblizer system and two days later, it was GONE! Right from our front line, about 100 yards from where you work, fintail.

It went to a chop shop and when they were done with it, they dumped it out in the woods somewhere. What was left came to us on a flatbed trailer.

To say it was stripped would be a gross understatement.

They took EVERYTHING...Powertrain, interior, wheels, doors, hood, trunk lid, sunroof, dash with all of the instruments.

It looked like a Thanksgiving turkey that had been attacked by a family of 12.

Another time somoene stole the hardtop (4500.00) off a used S-2000 along with the seats.

fezo

I remember my dad having a 61 Valiant wagon that we inherited from my mom's dad. A real piece of junk. Well, one night he gets in the car and it won't start. The mechanic comes by and brings a cop around. It seems someone tried to hotwire the thing and steal it but was unsuccessful. If we had found him we'd have handed him the keys and said "Here. Try again."

ateixeira

1986 Shelby Charger (remember those?)

Yeah, and with the on/off turbo surge I'm not surprised it was wrecked twice.

anonymousposts

I didnt know we had some fellow Atlantans on here.. Which suburb/exburb are you close to?

au1994

I pop back and forth between the Buford and Duluth area daily.

fintail

That car has "steal me" written across the windshield from the factory, doesn't it?

I wonder how long one would last parked at Southcenter...

Sandman6472

Got my check today...so thank you Honda Corp. for doing the right thing...even though ya didn't have to!

The Sandman :sick: :shades:

qbrozen

Granted, I have been a VW owner all of 16 months now, but I am impressed so far with their service. I received another notice in the mail yesterday that they have extended the warranty on my intake manifold motor (flap thingy inside the manifold) to 10yr/120k. Same as they did for the fuel pump and any damage that may be caused by that.

I wasn't even worried about that part, frankly, although it has thrown a code about 4 times since I've owned it. But here VW is stepping up and covering it for a long time to come. They are systematically eliminating excuses for getting rid of it any time soon.

isellhondas

Park a car like that at Southcenter or Crossroads and it'll last about as long as a cellephane moth flying through the gates of hell.

tifighter

I don't think crossroads is that bad. It had a bit of a rep, but that was a long time ago.

fintail

Yeah, that general area used to be the "you'll get your stereo stolen" 'hood, but with the influx of law-abiding H1Bers looking for cheap rent, it has toned down quite a bit. Big exodus of riff raff north and south in the past decade.

corvette

"Throwing a code" 4 times in 16 months? You might make it to the two year mark before trading it. :P

The intake manifold changeover valve on my Jetta VR6 broke twice during the 92,000 miles that I owned it. Covered by the power train warranty both times, but annoying nonetheless.

qbrozen

Eh, that light doesn't bother me. Plug in my laptop, clear the code, and I'm good to go.

mark156

I personally have never had a car stolen but my niece had '01 Subaru wagon stolen. Keep in mind, I'm trying to remember the details because this was several years ago. She bought this car when it was 3 yrs old with only 11,000 miles on it for something like $8,500. Normal retail would have been $16,000-$17,000 but the car had a salvaged title. It was totaled out when it only had 500 miles on it. Somebody bought it, rebuilt it, drove it for a little while then sold it.

It was a good car but you could tell 'something' had happened to it. But it was a good car for my niece and her young daughter. When she divorced her husband, she moved into a small rental house. She had some friends over one evening and a guy snuck in the kitchen door, saw her purse and took her keys (very brazen).

Anyway, the guy was a drug dealer/crook/thug and was shot by a gang member while driving my nieces car. Believe it or not she ended up getting the car back in fairly decent shape but it did have some blood inside (not much) and several bullet wholes in the car mainly in and around the driver's door.

Unfortunately, she only had liability insurance. She and her husband thought they were saving money because they paid cash for the car and just bought liability insurance. She bought regular insurance soon after.

She had the interior professionally cleaned and the exterior bullet wholes fixed but not the interior bullet whole tears in the door panel and fabric. She was just glad to get the car back so she could have transportation. A couple of years later she bought an '05 Jeep Grand Cherokee which she still owns.

Mark156

andre1969

I remember my dad having a 61 Valiant wagon that we inherited from my mom's dad. A real piece of junk. Well, one night he gets in the car and it won't start. The mechanic comes by and brings a cop around. It seems someone tried to hotwire the thing and steal it but was unsuccessful.

Small world...I learned how to hotwire a car with my '68 Dart! I don't remember all the details, but it was something along the lines of running a wire from the positive terminal to the battery to the positive on the ignition coil, touch something else with a screwdriver, and it would fire right up.

Back in college, I showed my uppity friends from church that little trick. They were not amused. :shades:

fezo

Now see? You could have probably successfully hotwired that car other than for the fact that you hadn't been born yet at the time....

roadburner

Does anyone know if the cars with the SkyActive engines have hit our shores yet? Supposedly they're a much better engine with much improved mpg's, just in case we end up with another Mazda3 in the stable, which I hope not.

My Mazda dealer had a SkyActive Mazda3 sedan in the showroom- with a slushbox...

roadburner

You got hosed on the locking lug nuts, Mazda only charged $75 for the ones on my MS3(also McGards, BTW) and they don't stick out or look odd. I've found that some dealers just don't give a damn once you've bought the car, and it sure looks like your dealer fits that pattern.

roadburner

I feel the same exact way. If someone steals my truck I'd rather they total it and kill themselves. Solve two problems that way.

My sentiments exactly!!!

tjc78

...I learned how to hotwire a car with my '68 Dart! I don't remember all the details, but it was something along the lines of running a wire from the positive terminal to the battery to the positive on the ignition coil, touch something else with a screwdriver, and it would fire right up.

Wait a second, you don't just smash a panel under the dash and twist two wires together like they do in the movies?

oldfarmer50

"...that light doesn't bother me. Plug in my laptop, clear the code..."

That's something that worrys me when looking a used car. Couldn't the same thing be used to conseal serious problems?

Here's something I saw on Craigslist:

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/2665075280.html

I worry that you could mess with the digital odometer as well. Since I'm computer challanged for the most part am I worrying about nothing or are there real potential problems here?

My budget usually requires low end CCB which is where I thik there would be the biggest chance of mischief.

What do you experts think?

anonymousposts

We go out there occasionally. Nice area..but that traffic is no fun.

anonymousposts

I guess the European fever has gotten me after driving the Tiguan for a couple of weeks. We are seriously considering getting rid of our Odyssey for another Tiguan or something else German. My favorite is a late 2000's E-Class wagon .... that would make absolutely no sense, right? Why would we get rid of a perfectly fine and relatively loaded 2011 Odyssey for a Tiguan or an E-Class wagon ... or the rare X5 with a manual transmission ... someone stop us from jumping

akangl

someone stop us from jumping

You came to the WRONG forum for that missy! Heck I'm thinking about trading my perfectly good and beautiful 2011 F-150 for a 6-7 year old diesel pick up. Talk about making no sense.......

*let the betting begin!* :sick:

rayainsw

'*let the betting begin!* '
Tomorrow?
- Ray
'Cured' of the new car fever - for now......

isellhondas

Sometimes our store would take in a trade in only to have the Check Engine or other warning light come on within the next couple of days.

It's a simple thing to simply disconnect a battery cable for a few seconds to temporally erase the code.

We once took in a Volvo that the owner demanded top dollar for.

Two days later, the Check Engine light and the SRS lights both came on.

We took it to the Volvo dealer who siad it had 2400.00 worth of repairs needed. He gave us the same bad news he had given the previous owner the week before.

Funny how computers store service records!

isellhondas

On old Chevies that were made prior to 1953, it took five seconds and a piece of tinfoil to start them. If you didn't have tinfoil, the inside shiny part of a cigaratte or gum wrapper would work too.

Just reach under the dash with the tinfoil and poke around the back of the ignition switch wires until you see the guages move. Then jam the tinfoil in harder and push the starter button. Five seconds!

tjc78

We took it to the Volvo dealer who siad it had 2400.00 worth of repairs needed. He gave us the same bad news he had given the previous owner the week before.

Did you guys have any recourse, or was it just a lesson learned for the Used Car Manager?

isellhondas

You know, I suppose we could have raised hell with them or taken them to court but it isn't worth the effort and publicity.

The judge probably would have told us that it was our responsibility as experts to have been able to determine the car's condition. Courts do NOT favor a business over a "little guy" very often. We took our blows and licked our wounds. Not the only time this happened.

People would buy cans of R-134 and fill up their leaky A/C units just long enough to get the cars traded in. We once found a receipt in a traded in car for four cans of freon that were bought the day before. The car needed something like 1200.00 in A/C repairs.

This is why when a trade in is appraised the appraiser has to assume the very worst if a check engine light is on or the A/C doesn't work despite the sellers
assurances that it's "probably a loose wire or something minor".

You get jaded in this business after a short time and for good reason!

andres3

That doesn't surprise me at all.

I know of people who would have a car that was pretty much past its last leg, needed thousands in repairs (about as much needed in repairs as the car was even worth), and then they would park it unlocked in an area begging for it to be stolen (everything short of having a sign on it that said "take me."

Getting blue book value from the insurance company ain't bad when the AC and auto tranny are crapped out.

Sandman6472

What are y'all thinking? This is just plain "dumb" if I may be blunt about it. Another new car...why? Keep what ya got and bank the money for later on in life. This "want" mentality must have a limit especially in our "new economy" where saving is preferable to spending. You don't need another car now do ya, you just want one which is totally different...just stop for a moment and think about this and I think y'all will see how stupid the idea is. Less is more now and keeping up with others just has no place in today's economy. Also, make sure your financial house is in order just in case something happens job wise or some other emergency crops up.

I know y'all will do what ya want to do and I do understand...I "want" to replace my Civic with either a RX or a C Class and I have the funds coming in very soon...finally. But I know the prudent thing is to save the money & put it to work and keep my current ride. The smartest move in the long run in my case. So it's not that I don't "want" a new ride, I really do...I just don't "need" one, so I will squash the desire and move on. And next month I'll be looking back and patting myself on the back for staying the course of fiscal responsibility!

Good luck to y'all and please, be careful whatever y'all decide! I am,

The Sandman :sick: :shades:

fintail

A compulsive car buyer friend of mine just got spared some agony - his local VW dealer had a new style Passat TDi that he was ogling. He was set to take a test drive yesterday, but he showed up and it has sold (he wanted the color). That gave him time to calm down, and now he is off it. I've warned him that VWs have an iffy rep, and that the new Passat is very Americanized - but I don't think he'll care about the latter anyway, as he drives a big Accord V6 now.

Local MB dealer has 2 used SLS right now, if I was a lot more well off I would almost think about it. One is even silver on red.

akangl

Tomorrow?

Nah, I'm going to give my truck a chance, I really do like the little bugger. We are driving to Washington in June to pick up a horse trailer and 2 horses. Its a bit of a stretch for a 1/2 ton to pull a 3-horse trailer, but I'm well within my limits so should be fine. We'll see, it has 2500 miles on the way home to impress me.

anonymousposts

Selling the Odyssey for any of the cars I mentioned would actually save us money. Our desire to trade it has nothing to do with keeping up with anyone... We are just chronic car buyers, hence the reason I started this forum many moons ago. Our financial house is in pretty stable condition. We are not rich by anyone's standards but we pay extra on our mortgage every month and will have our 15 year mortgage will be paid off early, we have savings and add to it each paycheck, I have been on my job 13 years and my husband is a retired veteran. Our incomes are also fairly stable (knock on wood). If our car buying decisions ever put the well-being of our children in jeopardy, it wouldn't be a topic of discussion, it wouldn't happen. We just don't feel we need a car as big or expensive as the Ody. We have put 1500 miles in the VW in two weeks and the Ody has barely moved. We like the van but the VW has us yearning for that solid German feel.

roadburner

1987 Porsche 928 S4:



The major downside is the slushbox. It does have a complete service history and just had the cam belt service(@$1500 or more, depending on what you R&R WYAIT)- and it's ridiculously cheap at just $8,000. Still, I'd have to learn about another marque...

2005 M3 ZCP:





BIG downside is the SMG transmission and I could do without the nav system- but it IS a Competition Package car and I love the Coral Red interior. Low miles and a full service history as well. Having said all that, I guess I'll keep the MS3 for a bit longer, it's running pretty well and I don't foresee any major expenses other than a new set of tires for at least 8,000-10,000 miles. Boring, I know...

fintail

I'd drive that 928, very cool.

nyccarguy

Dont do it to yourself. A 928 S4 is bad enough $$$ repair & maintenance wise, but with a slush box?

That's a sharp looking E46 M3. I love the coral red interior too. Hold out for a proper 6 speed stick though will ya?

roadburner

That's a sharp looking E46 M3. I love the coral red interior too. Hold out for a proper 6 speed stick though will ya?

I probably will; too bad the ZCP cars are so thin on the ground; a dealer in Cincinnati has an Interlagos Blue 6 speed 2005 ZCP with manual seats, no sunroof(Yay!) and 49K on the clock- all for just $34,000... :surprise:

roadburner

This 380 bhp monster would be way too much fun:





Imagine having a 23 year old boxy sedan which could blow the doors off a Boss 302 or CTS-V without even breathing hard... :P

fintail

Wow, I'd take that...I like the dorky period style pinstriping too.

nyccarguy

I definitely admire your CCBA habit & love for the German car driving experience. My garage (& my heart) has been void of a German car since we turned in our leased 2007 BMW X3 at the end of July 2010.

Our current stable consists of a 2001 Honda Prelude Type SH (144K+ miles & 9 1/2 years) that I recently made a 1 - 2X a week driver, a 2010 Acura TSX Tech (43K miles in just over 2 years), & a 2011 Honda Pilot EX - L w/ Nav we bought in May (9,000 miles) since we are having a 3rd child in the next week or so.

My Acura (which was my wife's until we bought the Pilot) is a good car. Great engine & transmission (slushbox). Thickly bolstered seats, well crafted interior, Bluetooth, iPod connectivity & streaming audio, navigation, backup camera, hansomly styled, gets excellent gas mileage, roomy, has a big trunk...

It's not perfect though. The brakes stink.

We bought it a year before the lease on our X3 was up because I had a $3500 cash 4 clunkers credit (1900 BMW 325i). I like the Acura a lot, but it's no BMW.

I do have some equity, plus BMW's crazy 27 month lease right now, whatever mission to drive credit they have, plus a $500 BMWCCA rebate... Hmmm.

OTOH, I've only got 3 more years until ZeRO car payments on the TSX, is I've got a set of snow shoes for it I've only used one season. Been doing synthetic oil changes so it should be good for the long haul.

roadburner

Wow, I'd take that...I like the dorky period style pinstriping too.

Me too, a nice homage to the original ///M car- the E12 M535i:

gouldn

I live in CA and see M3's all the time, but a 928 in good condition is something that always turns my head

When I was in JHS, the movie "Risky Business" came out, and I promised myself someday, someway I'd drive a 928. Do you have a mechanic you could trust for it? The way I look at purchase like that is 8K down, and put another 5-8K in an account for repairs over a few years. You're still at less than a econobox.