Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

suydam

A Buick Enclave or GMC Acadia is too big? Ford Edge?

stickguy

nice looking SRX> i like the MB better I think, but I assume the Caddy will be cheaper to run. Probably comes down to condition though.

Might want to check why the low tire pressure light is on!

qbrozen

suydam said:

A Buick Enclave or GMC Acadia is too big? Ford Edge?

I like them all. Just a matter of finding the right one. When looking for something in nice shape with lowish miles at this pricepoint, you gotta be open to different brands and models.

Mr_Shiftright

MR2 is a bit pricey but the miles are good. You can buy these for $5K but they'd have higher miles by far.

stickguy

not really in my budget right now, but if I was looking, I would pay a little more for lower miles and babied vs. rode hard and put away wet.

Mr_Shiftright

True...many MR2s are Mickey-Moused. Tight fit in there, if you are a big guy.

qbrozen

So, despite trying to hide his address behind a different name, I drove to that address of the Benz to discover this is the same awful dealership I have been suckered into visiting a couple of times before. In the past, I have convinced myself to take a look anyway based on the pics they post for their cars, only to be disappointed I wasted my time. Always bottom of the barrel crap. So I did not bother pulling in this time.

stickguy

better luck with the SRX?

qbrozen

Not so much. We wound up falling in love with the H3, of all things!
now I have to do my research since I know next to nothing about them except that it pushes our budget up a bit.

stickguy

an H3? Odd. It is basically a Chevy Colorado (complete with 5 cyl option) with a squashed wagon body.

I guess it is better than an H2! slightly more fuel efficient and gotta be more reliable.

did you drive one I assume? What was it like?

28firefighter

qbrozen said:

We wound up falling in love with the H3, of all things!

Said no one ever?  

Michaell

qbrozen said:

Not so much. We wound up falling in love with the H3, of all things!
now I have to do my research since I know next to nothing about them except that it pushes our budget up a bit.

H3 is based on the Colorado chassis

Mr_Shiftright

Great off-roader.

suydam

I thought they were long gone. There's still a market for them? What a difference in fuel economy from the Fit!

stickguy

just checked local on cars.com. Assuming asking is realistic, man are these things overpriced. Can buy an MDX or Lexus of similar vintage and miles for less.

qbrozen

Wow. I just lost a few hundred words I had typed up on my phone in this post. Ugh!

sigh. Lets see....H3 is awesome. I had all the concerns y'all did, till we drove it! It is quieter, smoother, and more luxurious than anything else we have found so far. I drove a 3.0si version of the X3 immediately after and felt that was a cheap toy in comparison. The leather is super high quality, the accommodations, although narrow, are limolike in length. The whole family just loved it. 

Only things I knew ahead of time was that it was a Colorado with an I5 and different body. That really isn't telling the whole story though. Not even close.

anyway, that happened to be just sitting there at a dealer I had gone to because they had an SRX (albeit a totally wrong configuration) and were 2 doors down from a place with the X3. Also tried on a Vue for size, but the wife didn't like it. So we kept eyeballing the H3 just because it has such presence. I checked the tag and it has 99k miles priced at $12.5k. Black on black. Guy got the key and when we opened it, I immediately was hit with that high-quality well-worn leather smell. The hides on these seats feel very thick. The contrasting piping is a nice touch, too. Drove it, the whole family loved it. But I said I had to think about it. 

So then we headed north to look at an SRX that would more fit the bill. It was at this exotic car dealership. I had called ahead and they were frantically still looking for the srx keys when we arrived. As they are doing that, various people are talking to us, including a sales manager. We mention the H3 and he says he has owned them, has one that is a shop truck now, and has one in stock to sell. Turns out to be a loaded up '06 with only 65k miles, garage kept, etc. Of course, they are very proud of it. So now we really have to consider if we want to pony up much larger bucks than originally intended (they are asking $18k).

stickguy

$18K for a 2006? Ouch.

qbrozen

Yup. Its not CRAZY. These seem to hold value pretty well, all things considered. Auction range is $10k for 100k miles to $14.5k for the 60k-mile creampuffs, which is where this one should fall. Even 150k-200k miled up examples still pull $8k.

I'd be far more comfortable at $16k, though.

corvette

H3? I thought all of those had been totaled since you can't see out of the gunslit windows.

stickguy

went looking for the hummer. And they had this. Yeah, might be the nicest (only?) one in the country, but that is a lot of money for a '79. Is there really anyone that wants one?

http://www.autoexoticainc.com/web/used/Alfa-Romeo-Alfetta-1979-Red-Bank-New-Jersey/16922320/

Here's one for Roadburner. More subdued color, but is a limited so roof and power seats (well, I would want them even though he doesn't!). Sharp in the gray.

http://www.autoexoticainc.com/web/used/Alfa-Romeo-Alfetta-1979-Red-Bank-New-Jersey/16922320/

stickguy

More Hummers. 2 years newer, 15K fewer miles, same price. But not quite as fancy I don't think.

http://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/651348223/overview/

And here is a rarity. Hey, if you are going to get lousy mileage, might as well have a big honking engine to go with it!

http://www.highlinecar.com/2007-Chevrolet-TrailBlazer/Used-SUV/Southampton-NJ/6755991/Details.aspx

And since you mentioned Venzas, and actual 1 of those with reasonable miles. though not quite sure what happened to the shift knob!

http://www.highlinecar.com/2010-Toyota-Venza/Used-Wagon/Southampton-NJ/6686766/Details.aspx

stever

qbrozen said:

Wow. I just lost a few hundred words I had typed up on my phone in this post. Ugh!

sigh.

Ugh is right. Did you recall what happened? Sometimes I'll fat finger my way out of a post but usually if I go back or forward in the browser I'll find it. And sometimes it'll show up under your member name as a Draft, under the Categories, Recent Discussions, etc.

qbrozen

I think One of these stupid ads got me and pushed me to another page. I tried going back and forth, but the post was gone. Then I typed the new post, published it, and THEN all that previous text showed up as a "draft." Oh well.

on the Venza, the wife's reaction was "I'm not spending that much in THAT." She's got weird priorities that only she understands. And, yes, that newer Hummer is missing the leather power seats.

js06gv

qbrozen said:

Wow. I just lost a few hundred words I had typed up on my phone in this post. Ugh!

sigh. Lets see....H3 is awesome. I had all the concerns y'all did, till we drove it! It is quieter, smoother, and more luxurious than anything else we have found so far. I drove a 3.0si version of the X3 immediately after and felt that was a cheap toy in comparison. The leather is super high quality, the accommodations, although narrow, are limolike in length. The whole family just loved it. 

Only things I knew ahead of time was that it was a Colorado with an I5 and different body. That really isn't telling the whole story though. Not even close.

anyway, that happened to be just sitting there at a dealer I had gone to because they had an SRX (albeit a totally wrong configuration) and were 2 doors down from a place with the X3. Also tried on a Vue for size, but the wife didn't like it. So we kept eyeballing the H3 just because it has such presence. I checked the tag and it has 99k miles priced at $12.5k. Black on black. Guy got the key and when we opened it, I immediately was hit with that high-quality well-worn leather smell. The hides on these seats feel very thick. The contrasting piping is a nice touch, too. Drove it, the whole family loved it. But I said I had to think about it. 

So then we headed north to look at an SRX that would more fit the bill. It was at this exotic car dealership. I had called ahead and they were frantically still looking for the srx keys when we arrived. As they are doing that, various people are talking to us, including a sales manager. We mention the H3 and he says he has owned them, has one that is a shop truck now, and has one in stock to sell. Turns out to be a loaded up '06 with only 65k miles, garage kept, etc. Of course, they are very proud of it. So now we really have to consider if we want to pony up much larger bucks than originally intended (they are asking $18k).

They also made a handful of them with an optional GM 5.3 V8, I think referred to as H3 Alpha. One of those would be a nice find. People used to complain about the 5 cyl being underpowered in a Colorado. I would imagine it's just barely adequate in an H3?

qbrozen

Power seemed perfectly adequate to me. I mean, just how quickly must one get such a large vehicle up to speed? The wife accelerates at a snail's pace anyway.

imidazol97

stever said:

Ugh is right. Did you recall what happened? Sometimes I'll fat finger my way out of a post but usually if I go back or forward in the browser I'll find it. And sometimes it'll show up under your member name as a Draft, under the Categories, Recent Discussions, etc.

I lost a post from my Android last evening also. I hit the post button after getting rid of the keyboard that covers it up. I don't know why it didn't post, but my Android is way beyond my skill level.

I couldn't figure out how to look for drafts on my Android. So back to a real computer later.

The post had been saved as a draft--one of the few times I was happy to have the draft feature. Usually it saves incomplete posts I decided not to post. LOL

Mr_Shiftright

They also made a pickup H3.

79 Alfetta --- $8,500 is all the money in this world and the next one. An unloved car, even by the Alfisti.

qbrozen said:

Power seemed perfectly adequate to me. I mean, just how quickly must one get such a large vehicle up to speed? The wife accelerates at a snail's pace anyway.

stever

One of the reasons I became a Microsoft fanboi back in the day was thanks to Lotus 1-2-3. It didn't autosave and I lost more work to that idiotic program. When I got Excel, I was hooked. Took a long time to let go of WordPerfect though (I still have a copy of WP5.0 somewhere around here).

That's similar to how I came to dislike Volvos - too many lost hours running them.

corvette

The secretaries at my old firm were still using WordPerfect for Windows when I left there in 2014. It was awful and I used Word instead.

qbrozen

Mr_Shiftright said:

They also made a pickup H3. 79 Alfetta --- $8,500 is all the money in this world and the next one. An unloved car, even by the Alfisti.

Power seemed perfectly adequate to me. I mean, just how quickly must one get such a large vehicle up to speed? The wife accelerates at a snail's pace anyway.

The pickup H3 is what they have at that dealer for their shop truck.

stever

corvette said:

The secretaries at my old firm were still using WordPerfect for Windows when I left there in 2014. It was awful and I used Word instead.

WP didn't make the transition to wysiwyg, dropped 800 number support to anyone and lost their way. 5.0 was the DOS version and I moved on to Word when 6.x came out. Took me a long time to get used to the missing "F4" key though.

Kind of like having power windows and then landing in a car with crank windows.

corvette

Yeah, they used the DOS version on a couple of older machines when I first started there. They started using Corel WordPerfect for Windows on the newer machines. Thank goodness I brought my Mac to work and was able to use that. I actually don't mind Windows 10, which is what we're using at my current office. I don't like Outlook, though. Wish we would go with a web based system like Gmail for Business. I grew up with an Apple IIC and still use keyboard shortcuts. 

stever

lol, different strokes. I dislike gmail, but have to use it at Edmunds after they switched from Exchange. Use Outlook for personal stuff.

Guess that's why everyone isn't driving a minivan.

berri

While all of these Office products are useful, I've always thought they also cause people to generate a lot of useless reports driving up overhead which probably offsets some of the costs reductions employing the products. And yeah, gotta do what the other guy is doing.

ab348

stever said:

lol, different strokes. I dislike gmail, but have to use it at Edmunds after they switched from Exchange. Use Outlook for personal stuff.

Guess that's why everyone isn't driving a minivan.

I use Outlook on a PC to access my Gmail account. Looks just like an Exchange mailbox.

stever

I don't want Google to have access to my personal stuff, even if it's theoretically not doable. I browse in-private and mostly search with duckduckgo and try to avoid using Chrome if I can.

Sandman6472

Use both Gmail and Yahoo for e-mailing since I use one account for more of the personal stuff. Find that after a few years, just best to start a new account since they get too many sources e-mailing too much information. Nice to have it but sometimes, too much is just too much! Like to keep things easy since am a bit tech challenged to be honest. Luckily, the kids can fix what ever I screw up!!

The Sandman

Sandman6472

Have been asked to swap my Tuesday work day for Wednesday due to the many Thanksgiving reservations. Was hoping to work the three days but don't know if it'll happen...kind of wanted the extra days pay since I want to make a certain amount this year at Hertz. Want the extra income to put towards some renovation work at the house. The kitchen could use new cabinets, a fridge and oven/stove plus new counter tops are just a given. Working the extra hours would give me the cash I need so as not to charge that much!
Ah, the joys of home ownership. At year 28, there are some things that need to be replaced since I see us staying for another 5 or so years and want to enjoy it all. Hate to fix things and then put it on the market...want to enjoy the changes for awhile.

The Sandman

stickguy

Sandy, if you are smart about the upgrades, you should end up getting what you put in (and often more) back out when you sell in a few years. So basically, you get to enjoy it for Free!

corvette

stever said:

I don't want Google to have access to my personal stuff, even if it's theoretically not doable. I browse in-private and mostly search with duckduckgo and try to avoid using Chrome if I can.

Actually, those are probably what I would advise as "best practices," but don't actually practice myself. I use Gmail, Google Calendar, and Chrome, search with Google, and have Chrome sync my bookmarks. I like having my bookmarks synced across all devices.

corvette

Sandy, in my market, the houses that have been kept up and maintained sell within a couple of days of being listed. Those with "deferred maintenance" linger on the market for months. As sitckguy said, I would have no regrets about doing some maintenance and repair on the house.

stickguy

I remember a few years ago talking to our real estate agent before we remodeled our house. Talked about the kitchen, and what to do (or not do). She said it largely had to do with time horizon. If you were moving in IIRC 1-3 years, design it all based on easiest resale (i.e., what a flipper would do). 3-7 you could be more creative, but not too crazy. beyond that (say, 10+), do whatever made you happy, even if quite personalized.

stickguy

@michaell, for your search, make sure to keep VW on the list next year. Spent some time in the Jetta today, and forgot how much I liked it. Now that they have the 1,.4t engine in the S model, even the cheap units are nice to drive I assume. And really good deals on those!

I just rode in it though. Daughter has the genetic trait of refusing to hand over the keys!

Michaell

stickguy said:

@michaell, for your search, make sure to keep VW on the list next year. Spent some time in the Jetta today, and forgot how much I liked it. Now that they have the 1,.4t engine in the S model, even the cheap units are nice to drive I assume. And really good deals on those! I just rode in it though. Daughter has the genetic trait of refusing to hand over the keys!

@stickguy – Nothing is excluded from the list of cars I will look at when the time comes next year.  It will be about the value of the lease deal as much as it is about the vehicle itself  

 I am curious about this new engine in the S trim, Just like I am with the new turbo in the civic 

stickguy

Not sure if the 1.4 is really a new motor, or just a shrunken 1.8! Probably really economical based on what the 1.8 can do.

I am way too focused on planning for the next car, considering I have 2 years to go on this one!

28firefighter

The punch is in.

So when we last left off, I was helping my brother-in-law and his wife pick out a 7 passenger vehicle. We had it narrowed to the Flex, the Odyssey and the Sedona.

After numerous test drives of each, they settled on a Flex Limited with ecoboost. The primary reason was the fun-to-drive factor as well as features like power folding seats, which may seem gimmicky, but makes a huge difference. It also didn't drive nearly as big as the mini-van competitors, which was a huge plus for my SIL. 

No dealers in the Seattle area had any of the colors or option packages in the right combo in-house, so I went to the high-volume, big discount, high-sleaze dealer south of Seattle to see what we could do on a dealer trade. We found a couple options within a few hours and came to price pretty quickly and left a deposit for them to secure the vehicle.  So far so good. Things fell apart quickly - in the two days that followed, it came to light that they couldn't seem to get a dealer to swap with them and therefore needed more money to go outside the area and find the car in a color we wanted.  Magically our signed sales agreement went up $2500. I didn't even counter - I had them refund the deposit.

I went to another high volume, not as big discount, but much more reputable dealer on the East Side and he was able to dealer locate the exact car we wanted and started the dealer trade process. Price negotiations were a bit frustrating because we had a miscommunication - namely that 0 cap cost reduction and sign-and-drive are not the same, which was causing their payment to be much higher than mine. The dealer also wanted a $500 dealer transfer fee (I've never paid more then $250).  

Bottom line was we landed at dealer invoice less $3500 in lease cash with no transfer fee. Total savings was about $8000 off MSRP. They are leasing it for 36 months with the intention to buy at the end - the lease is because of the low interest rate and to get the lease cash. 

Delivery today was smooth. I went with my SIL to pick it up and sign the papers. In and out in under 2 hours and no Mop'n'glo pitch, which I appreciated. 

The car is a Magnetic Gray 2015 Flex Limited EcoBoost with 303A package, appearance package, moonroof and tow hitch. Pretty awesome looking and driving car - that EcoBoost engine can get you in some serious trouble, which is unexpected for a family hauler. 

nyccarguy

May I ask what the lease payment is?  What term did they do?  I've noticed Ford's MFs are so lie that it offsets their sub-50% residuals

28firefighter

It's high - about $600 a month. The residual is 49% and rate is .5%. Overall it's a net savings of about 3k for leasing and then buying at the end vs buying it upfront today. 

stickguy

that thing must have a sticker north of 50K to be that high. I did a quick edmunds search and local here are a couple that seem to be equipped that way that hit 51k!

nyccarguy

EcoBoost Flexes aren't cheap.  I was looking into them back in 2011 before we bought the Pilot.  The north of $50K stickers scared me off.  Nice ride though.  Somewhat of a sleeper for sure!