Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

fintail

9K for a ponton with many needs, maybe that bodes well for fintail values. Appreciation, maybe one of these days!

I've read the lease return buyback via auction route too. Maybe that will happen. It'll depend on the market when my lease is up, but I have a bad feeling there won't be a diesel replacement, and I won't like much of what is available. It kind of perplexes me why they wouldn't be willing to just take an offer that would no doubt exceed auction prices, but I know these kind of situations have arcane rules, and MB can probably count the loss as a tax deduction or something similar, as the company is a person too.

Speaking of R107s, I still think the good ones are undervalued. Of course the car is nothing but a boulevard cruiser, and they like to drink, but it's an awful lot of style for the money. If I had endless storage space and more budget, I would put one away for sunny days.

I bought myself a car-related Christmas gift - a little $50 dashcam that I am going to run in the fintail. People might like to see the view from behind the wheel.

tifighter

I agree with you on R107 values. Everyone likes them, and there is still some variety out there. I kick around the thought of a 560 that is a nice solid weekend car but they are over the map price-wise. From $7k to $30k with no consistency for the stuff in the middle.

Still, I guess it's cheaper than a Pagoda.

breld

tifighter said:

We've had family in town for the holidays, and I've made the mistake using some house time to look at craigslist. Searching using terms like original owner and classic is pretty interesting. Besides stuff like that Ponton, I've found other classic Euros, cool vintage SUV's and a JDM import or two of interest. My wife points out every R107 SL she sees. A woman down the street from me is selling her 330ci convertible- original owner, 70k miles in a nice dark blue with the factory hardtop for cheap. With sport pkg and manual tranny.

Save me from myself.

For cheap? I don't think anyone is going to talk you out of something like a low mileage E46, sport, manual, for cheap!

corvette

breld said:

tifighter said:

We've had family in town for the holidays, and I've made the mistake using some house time to look at craigslist. Searching using terms like original owner and classic is pretty interesting. Besides stuff like that Ponton, I've found other classic Euros, cool vintage SUV's and a JDM import or two of interest. My wife points out every R107 SL she sees. A woman down the street from me is selling her 330ci convertible- original owner, 70k miles in a nice dark blue with the factory hardtop for cheap. With sport pkg and manual tranny.

Save me from myself.

For cheap? I don't think anyone is going to talk you out of something like a low mileage E46, sport, manual, for cheap!

I hereby nominate breld to go check this car out for tifighter. breld still has time to get one more punch in this year, and if he sees it, he might not be able to resist!

tifighter

Chronic Car Enablers Anonymous, how may we help you?

tifighter

As for the E46, I haven't actually looked at it, so it might need a bunch of stuff. It's a 01. Seems like it is at that age where many things rubber and plastic will probably need attention. I've been hesitant to go learn about E46's, mainly because that would mean I'm really considering it...

Mr_Shiftright

The 560SL is the one you want. The earlier 107s are really dogs to drive. Clumsy, gas-eaters, slow, with lots of mechanical flaws. The 560s are much more refined...it took a while but Benz finally got the 107 "right" with that model.

stever

This one looks pretty nice. $4,300, 115k miles. The blue shows up looking green on my monitor too btw.

corvette

Looks like no cruise control on the SLK. And the gearshift looks like it's missing the 1-2-3-4-5-R legend. Why wouldn't you fix that, if the car had no other pressing needs?

Mr_Shiftright

Hey, is that a GUY driving that car?

stever

lol, hey now, that guy could be me.

Going by the windshield stickers, I bet the guy is military down in Ft. Bliss. That would explain the moving sale.

I got my SuperBeetle up north from an Air Force guy. Kept the stickers on. Every time I drove on base at Elmendorf/Ft. Rich to run Eagle River, I got saluted. Beard and all.

Mr_Shiftright

Well okay then, go for it. Add $750 for new tires, and make sure Hans and Dieter look it over before you write the check.

stever

Pretty sure Hans and Dieter operate out of Tucson.

fintail

Manual SLK isn't too common, but that era also wasn't MB's quality zenith. Proceed with caution.

For a R107, buy the nicest you can afford, and have it looked at before purchase. Don't skimp on anything that might bug you later, as everything can be costly to get right. As Shifty says, 560s are the best, I would rank the very earliest small bumper cars behind them, and the cheaper 380 and normal 450s together. A grey market 280SL or 300SL could be interesting too, as they could be had with a manual.

Mr_Shiftright

A W107 feels like a 60s T-Bird to me. It's certainly the most unpleasant Mercedes I have ever driven.

nyccarguy

I saw a Black Golf R yesterday! Yummy!

28firefighter

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! My sister came in for a few days to spend some time with us before the baby arrives, so I took a break to get some quality time in with her. I have to say, I have never really done a staycation before, but it was absolutely glorious.

Yesterday, I was able to get the tires swapped from the A3 to the GTI. Man, what a world of difference a set of tires can make. I used to be able to make my front wheels spin pretty easily if the road was even slightly damp, but definitely not with these Contis. Not a bad move to have made for $80.

Is everyone off this week or part of this week?

graphicguy

Bradd...my son and I were just talking about those Rs. He thinks he may want one in a couple of years as a replacement for his GTI.

Michaell

28firefighter said:

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! My sister came in for a few days to spend some time with us before the baby arrives, so I took a break to get some quality time in with her. I have to say, I have never really done a staycation before, but it was absolutely glorious. Yesterday, I was able to get the tires swapped from the A3 to the GTI. Man, what a world of difference a set of tires can make. I used to be able to make my front wheels spin pretty easily if the road was even slightly damp, but definitely not with these Contis. Not a bad move to have made for $80. Is everyone off this week or part of this week?

My employer is shut down until 1/3/17. 

Which gives me me time to think. Never a good idea with this crowd. 

Was running errands with the family yesterday in the Outback and noticed that it just clicked over 17,000 miles after 22 months. 

Extrapolated that out over the 72 month loan, I estimate it will have less than 60k on it when the loan is paid off. 

Now, how much is a six year old outback worth? 

I found two 2011s with the 3.6 engine for sale here in Denver - one for $20k, the other for $21.5k. Both had less than 50,000 miles on them. 

Wonder what hat my odds are of convincing the wife to get something new at that time?

jpp75

stickguy said:

like the brake fluid on my RDX that was low, when it should not have been. After checking it all over, the tire shop said it was all fine, and the brakes were at least 50%. So odds are, when the dealer did the brake fluid change, the tech did not fill it back up to where it was.

The service advisor said "sometimes coolant just evaporates" which is true. Just drove it 900 miles for the holiday with no issues, I do love the car. I just hate dealing with these nagging annoyances.

While I was waiting for it to be fixed a sales guy kept trying to get me into a new one but I'm not interested in trading one problem for another.

On the last two service tickets they've documented "operating to VW design" so they are definitely playing CYA, and really at the end of the day that's probably accurate.

jpp75

breld said:

Yup - X5 was missing.  I knew someone would chime in!  

That was my favorite of all your punches recently.

jpp75

Michaell said:

fintail said:

I think a lease purchase has more of a case for a punch than a refi. At the end of the least, you must make a move - either buy it, or move on to another car. A refi is voluntary.

I am still thinking I might buy my leased car at the end. The car has been faultless so far, and I enjoy driving it. I suspect negotiation might be a headache though, due to the inflated residual - it's higher than I can get 2 year old cars for right now, and prices will be that much lower when the car is 3 years old (and the prior body style) in another 2 years. I hope they don't use the residual as any kind of starting point, as it will not have real world relevance.

Hate to break the bad news to you - especially on Christmas - but it's unlikely that you'll get anything but the residual value as the buyout price. MBFS is insured if the market value is less than the contractual residual, so there is no incentive for them to discount the buyout price.

When the lease on my G37x ended I got a letter from Infiniti Financial Services offering to sell me the car for $28k, the residual was $32k. It still wasn't a great deal but looking back I should have done it.

28firefighter

Well, my gut says its worth way more than one would expect for a 6 year old car because it's a Subaru in Colorado!

kyfdx

28firefighter said:

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! My sister came in for a few days to spend some time with us before the baby arrives, so I took a break to get some quality time in with her. I have to say, I have never really done a staycation before, but it was absolutely glorious.

Yesterday, I was able to get the tires swapped from the A3 to the GTI. Man, what a world of difference a set of tires can make. I used to be able to make my front wheels spin pretty easily if the road was even slightly damp, but definitely not with these Contis. Not a bad move to have made for $80.

Is everyone off this week or part of this week?

I tried to find something of worth to keep from the A3, but really.... nada.

It has a nice extra set of factory A3 winter mats, but I'm pretty sure that every A3 in the country already has a set.

cdnpinhead

OTOH I have objective evidence that it's possible to get a really good deal on a new Subaru in CO, so it could go either way.

fintail

Really any worse than a big 126 coupe or something similar? I haven't spent any real behind the wheel time in one, but I can't imagine they are that floppy.

Maybe 14 years ago, when my daily driver was a W126, a local car dealer had a beautiful 88 560SL, and it was the same color combo as my 126 (diamond blue on grey). I think it had 60-70K on it, and they wanted 14K for it. I really thought about it, but keeping three cars would be too much headache. Would have been a nice cruiser though, and I wouldn't have lost my shirt when it came time to sell.

Mr_Shiftright said:

A W107 feels like a 60s T-Bird to me. It's certainly the most unpleasant Mercedes I have ever driven.

Mr_Shiftright

They drive "big"--very ponderous, heavy steering, plow into turns--they make you feel .....old....LOL!

fintail

Which was the key buying demographic when new, right? When I think of the buyer of a late 107 when new, I imagine Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development.

qbrozen

jpp5862 said: The service advisor said "sometimes coolant just evaporates" which is true. 

From a water- and air-tight and pressurized system.... Gonna say No to that.

Mr_Shiftright

I'm with Q on this one---not very plausible on a newer car.

fintail

Might not even be good even on an older car. I check the coolant in my fintail every time I drive it. It uses very little even over the course of a year. I can't recall when I last added any.

28firefighter

The only time I had a coolant problem is when my 2004 BMW 330xi coolant reservoir totally disintegrated and lost its cookies on the streets of Pittsburgh.

I check all of the major fluid levels of each of our cars at each fill-up and have never seen an issue.

tifighter

That sounds like the notorious E46 expansion tank issue.

Oh, crap...

tifighter

RE: the R107, here is an interesting article about driving one vs a XJS. Have to admit, the Jag has aged well.

sda

Its been 20+ years since I've had to add coolant to any of our cars. I did have to watch the oil level fairly closely on my '06 Passat 2.0t as it used a quart every 7-800 miles. VW said that was normal, yep. At around 80k our Pilot used a quart of oil between one oil change but a TSB which reprogrammed the computer and new plugs seems to have cured that issue. Honda covered that repair. The oil level hasn't budged from full for the past two oil changes.

28firefighter

tifighter said:

That sounds like the notorious E46 expansion tank issue.

Oh, crap...

It is. I had very bad luck with my E46 - I actually think it was due to poor maintenance by the previous owner. A PPI should have caught it, but it didn't. After it left me stranded several times, including once on the PA Turnpike, it was gone - when it was working, it was wonderful.

Let's see, in the year I owned it I replaced/repaired:
- Expansion Tank
- Intake runner manifold
- Mass airflow sensor (MAF)
- Oil pan gasket leak
- Engine mounts
- Fuel filter
- Ignition Coils

That last one led to it being traded in because it was still intermittently misfiring with no diagnosis. I also knew it was going to need a new radiator and water pump given the way the expansion tank went.

laurasdada

So, after the XF got new oil, saw a Miata RF at the local Mazda/BMW dealer. RF is cool, but it's a long way down and up out of the driver's seat for my increasingly old and running abused knees (ran my first half marathon last month in NH, part of the course was along the ocean, very nice!).

But, as the ladyfriend is interested in a 3, stopped there, too. Sales Mgr came by to see if I needed help, then recognized me from earlier in the month visit. A lot of used/CPO inventory, ready to aggressively deal before the new year. Took some pix, texted to ladyfriend with pricing. Might test drive tomorrow night.

But, as I always do, I asked about the buy one, get one free policy. She buys a 3, I get a free i8. Nope, but mgr. said if I buy a $145k i8, he would consider tossing in a used 320... So, I set this scenario to LF; get the price of the 16 i8 reduced to 125k, she gives me 25k for a nice cpo 320 and I "only" have to come up with 100k for the i8. Her reaction, "I thought you were getting me a free car!" With age does not come wisdom regarding the fairer sex, should have seen that coming...

XF needs new rear brakes very soon, new fronts in a bit, too. Maybe it is time to buy new instead of investing in a now 3 year old car! I know our idol, breld, would.

stever

SUVs Dominate List of Most Researched Vehicles in 2016 on Edmunds.com (Yahoo)

tifighter

Clearly, @breld does his BMW research elsewhere.

corvette

I had a Honda salesman several years ago tell me that a lot of their buyers already know everything about the product--that list seems to bear that out!

The Jetta GLI always lost a few ounces of coolant between service visits. I think I complained once and got the "no problem found" diagnosis.

jpp75

qbrozen said:

jpp5862 said: The service advisor said "sometimes coolant just evaporates" which is true. 

From a water- and air-tight and pressurized system.... Gonna say No to that.


I completely agree but they documented that they did a pressure test and found no issues. I should have dumped it when I had the transmission issue, it was close to the payoff then.

breld

Hope everyone is having a restful holiday week.  My wife and I are staying out of the office this whole week, but I do have to check in remotely here and there.  Still, it was fun getting out to see a movie this afternoon.

On Thursday, I get to take the stock tires from the departed Mini up to the dealer to swap them out for the snows that are on there.  The dealer doesn't care about keeping them, so I'll be throwing them out on Craigslist.  Hopefully some other base Mini owner could use them, cause I can't imagine many other modern cars take that small of a tire!

So, I'll get to browse the Mini and BMW lot while they're doing that, then I'm meeting @michaell for lunch during his VW service appointment, where we'll get to browse the Audi, Volvo and Mazda lots.  Man, hope I get through the day without any additonal car loans!

Michaell

@breld what did you see?

And, I'll do everything in my power to keep you from an eighth punch of the year. 

Myself, I've been working through all of the "West Wing" seasons. 

Funny how how the topics covered in this show mimic the stuff we went through. 

breld

We saw Passengers, which I thought was quite good.

La La Land tomorrow. Then Rogue One Thursday night with the whole family.

suydam

So far we've seen Manchester By the Sea and Fences. La la Land and Rogue One next.

qbrozen

Saw Rogue One today. I honestly didn't care for it. Too many plot holes and an overexuberance to get in appearances by old familiar characters at any cost.

Michaell

breld said:

We saw Passengers, which I thought was quite good.

La La Land tomorrow. Then Rogue One Thursday night with the whole family.

We saw Passengers this morning. Pretty thought provoking, and we all walked out having enjoyed the film.

Sandman6472

Seeing more Mini Countryman's down here and am intrigued. That one test drive in a base model I had awhile back was just too short to have made any real impact. As much as I'd like to get that red/beige 2016 Tiguan on the dealers lot, it's a cpo unit as I recall, going down from my current mpg's to 21/26 isn't appealing as I'm still doing that long commute 3 to 4 days each week. Think it's where I should've landed back in 2013 and gotten one instead of the Tucson. The 2017 Wolfburg Edition is a nice package, a bit pricey new but probably a good cpo value. And my timing could work even if I do decide to keep working into 2018. I love the versatility of a hatch/cuv, it helped on Tuesday when we moved our daughter into her new place in Kendall, south Miami. That extra hauling capacity is nice to have and think it would be a great vehicle to do some road trips in.
As it stands now, the youngest and oldest will be getting married this year or early 2018. Our son will marry in Chicago and since the wife refuses to fly, we plan to drive. Not sure if we'll rent from Hertz given I do get a nice employee discount or take the Golf. That trip alone will probably be about 2500 miles give or take I suspect. A hatch or mid-size vehicle will help to take enough stuff for an almost 2 week stay. And then the others will fly up from Lauderdale and we'll need room to fit them in. A rental might just be the smarter move here to be honest. A minivan or Impala might just work and also be a bit more comfortable and from what we hear, it'll be sometime in October.

The Sandman

Sandman6472

Showed the wife a CLA and a GLA and she liked both...but for me. Starting to like the GLA more for the hauling space. White over beige works for me unless they have a blue over beige. Luckily the MB dealer is across the street from the VW store. Need to show her a Mini and get her reaction. I'd either lease or buy new with a Mini but do a cpo unit with the Benz as they're a bit pricey brand spanking new!

The Sandman

breld

@sandman_6472 - I do think a small SUV would suit you well, what with the higher entry point and seating position.

Both those are actually good choices as outgoing models that come with heavy discounts, and both could be had as CPO vehicles as well. My first reaction on the Tiguan is that it's a pretty old model, but that actually probably bodes well for the reliability, since presumably they've worked all the bugs out by now. And, the new Tiguan is increasing in size quite a bit, which would probably not be to your taste.

I really like the Countryman as well, though I do think the upcoming model will be quite an improvement on the current one, without a huge increase in size. I say that just in comparing the "previous gen" MINI feel from my wife's 2012 hardtop to her current Clubman. Of course, getting $3-4k off a current Countryman would be no problem, and perhaps closer to $5k, while discounts will be modest on the new model for awhile.

I know you've also mentioned BMW X1s as an option - seems like those are killer CPO deals for what you get.

Just my thoughts.