Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

au1994

stickguy said:

I want a new car.

Pretty much the thought that runs through my head every day.

nyccarguy

au1994 said:

stickguy said:

I want a new car.

Pretty much the thought that runs through my head every day.

+1

Michaell

Wow, you guys are weak.

I’m coming up on two years having retuned the Jetta lease. While there are times I wish I had something else to drive other than the Outback, I can’t say that I’ve missed the experience of owning another vehicle.

Of course, I get to live vicariously through @breld and @jpp75. Which reminds me, I haven’t seen the new Defender yet. Gotta make some lunch plans!

stickguy

If my daughter was still living here with her car, I wouldn’t bother. But we are trying to get stuff going with relocating so being able to be in separate places at the same time would be useful.

A PU now especially, but bad time to get one of those!

Michaell

stickguy said:

If my daughter was still living here with her car, I wouldn’t bother. But we are trying to get stuff going with relocating so being able to be in separate places at the same time would be useful.

A PU now especially, but bad time to get one of those!

The new Santa Cruz is on the lots. Got a link to one in Indy - almost $42k!

mjfloyd1

This Santa Cruz

https://www.rayskillmanhyundaiwest.com/inventory/new-2022-hyundai-santa-cruz-4dr-awd-limited-awd-crew-cab-pickup-5ntjedaf0nh001726

qbrozen

mjfloyd1 said:

Yes @qbrozen has a hardtop.

It seems most comments about the noise are when the electric runs out and the ICE kicks in. Probably fans cooling the hybrid battery plus the ICE

I'm going to take it to Philly this weekend, so I'll have to report back how it does on a slightly longer trip. Will be about 90 miles roundtrip. Leaving tomorrow and coming back Sunday. My 11-yr-old and I are taking in a Phillies game, along with some touristy activities.

stickguy

Oh boy. I will be right by th Hyundai dealer tomorrow. Definitely stopping in!

mjfloyd1

@stickguy said:
Oh boy. I will be right by th Hyundai dealer tomorrow. Definitely stopping in!

I know that you are kidding but I hope it is in a better part of town than the Copart was when I got our stuff out of the Q7. I lived near there when I went to The medical school and it is not so nice now. Sad to see.

I need to differentiate The MD medical school from the new DO school

stickguy

Not that dealer. My dealer. Though I have no clue if there is one there.

That price though, not going there. Rather order a Maverick XLT 2.0t AWD. Moonroof and luxury package. I think that will only push 33k?

sda

I was floored by the $42k price. A Maverick looks better by the moment.

explorerx4

Selling my car and just got a personal email from Ford to reserve an electric F150.
Maybe because I got the payoff for my current loan.

Michaell

qbrozen said:

Leaving tomorrow and coming back Sunday. My 11-yr-old and I are taking in a Phillies game, along with some touristy activities.

Pat's or Geno's?

90 mile round trip? I go that far with @breld to look at cars....

andres3

greg128 said:

I have a nightmare lease story regarding my BIL's daughter's (my niece) 2018 Nissan Sentra which was coming to the end of the lease recently and I suggested she should buy it rather than return it. Her buyout price was in the bit over $10,000 range and I saw them going for $2- $3K more online. She decided to buy and last Sunday they went to the original Nissan dealer (Smithtown Nissan) and gave them a bank check (on which my BIL cosigned for the buyout plus last lease payment.

Last Wednesday the car was repossessed, even after my niece showed them proof of payment to the dealer. My BIL and his wife spent most of Friday on the phone with both the dealer and Nissan Fincancial (45 mins on hold for that one) with no resolution. The repo towing company insisted they need an release from the people holding the title.

Apparently It turns out that they received the payment 2 days later than the last lease payment was due and immediately sent a repo order, probably because they knew it was worth more than the buyout. There was no communication between dealer and corporate. Bottom line is that a repo fee of $500 is required even though the car was paid in full and Nissan Corporate denies any responsibility for the fee. They are picking up the car Monday and will have to pay it.

I told my BIL and niece that if it was me I would spend an afternoon leaving negative reviews on Google, Yelp, Consumer Affairs etc. and make it clear that they would never consider Nissan again and would urge all of their family and friends to do the same.

As I've said before, the way leases are ran between dealerships and Finance companies (banks) is an absolute utter 100% scam! Everyone of them should be put in prison for the fraud and scheming.

And that's me being nice. It's a system clearly set up to fail for the consumer. The entire structure is inherently and deeply flawed.

stickguy

pats and Genos. Both tourist traps!

andres3

https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/5-german-performance-cars-while-you-can/?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Thursday_DailyDriver&hashed_email=69a1e8abda0a5753d54bcc55669099e038852d0d1c5b94e6823db086560daedc

Some ideas for those of you looking for a good punch!

stickguy

sda said:

I was floored by the $42k price. A Maverick looks better by the moment.

That is the top of the line model with all the goodies. The problem is they only have the turbo engine in higher line trims. And the base 2.5 NA motor is way underpowered for this car. But, a comparable Santa Fe would sticker for just as much.

the Maverick does seem to be an excellent value. Assuming Ford does not horribly botch this rollout too, they are going to sell a ton of them. Hopefully soon they will have driving reviews out.

andres3

au1994 said:

qbrozen said:

I’d get a lawyer involved. It isn’t just $500. This is a repo on her credit. That will impact her for years to come.

This.

Hugely important. WIth a ding like that she wouldn’t be able to finance a bar of soap.

And yes, I would absolutely vilify Nissan, the dealer, repo company and anyone else involved in this. Someone will eat the $500 just to make the negative posts go away.

$350 was enough for the GM at Kia of El Cajon to put up with negative reviews and posts. So no, $500 will not be paid out (necessarily) by a business to make negative posts go away.

ab348

The two stands at the ballpark (Campo's and Tony Luke's) both get awful reviews as well.

28firefighter

@qbrozen said:
It is rather thrashy in the upper RPMs. But, DAMN! the thing pulls like a train when both battery and engine are engaged. Definitely not a good sounding vehicle overall, but nobody should be getting a hybrid if they want vroom vroom noises.

+1. It’s noisy when cold and when I’m the upper RPMs. Reminds of the 4 cylinder that was in our 2016 X1 - which was not refined at all and sounded like a tractor. It pulls hard though and I don’t care about anything else.

mjfloyd1

Four cylinder BMWs sound like sewing machines to me

laurasdada

LF said once we put the design touches to bed on the new townhouse (due by 8/20), then she can return to car shopping; upgrading the CX-5. Likely, if I was a betting man, Audi Q5e. But, short supply and doesn't look like any deals to be had.
Stick, NJ is crawling with Astons. Why don't you just take a test drive and report back. Funny, Hyundai of Bedford, OH has a DB11 for sale, along with a handful of other ostentatious pieces of iron (forgive me, aluminum and carbon fiber). I guess times are tough all over when trading your Continental GT for a Veloster GT...

andres3

corvette said:

@greg128 - time to lawyer up and also to refuse (if they offer) to just take the car they they paid for and walk away with no tangible consequences to the lender. I think a poster here had a car wrongfully repoed many moons ago and got a settlement of about three times the cost of the car.

I don't see any distinction between a wrongfully repossessed vehicle and grand theft auto. A thief could say they "stole" the wrong Honda Civic too. They really meant to steal the other gray Honda Civic on that street.

andres3

qbrozen said:

ab348 said:

The execs aren't dumb necessarily

No, definitely not all of them. Some are brilliant, in fact. They just don't live in reality.

Brilliantly corrupt at times....

qbrozen

@Michaell said:
Pat's or Geno's?

90 mile round trip? I go that far with @breld to look at cars....

Believe me, there is no good reason to stay the weekend when we live so close, but this was a request from the top to spend the weekend in the city with the kid.

I booked us a walking ghost tour tomorrow night and a segway tour Sat morn. Game isn’t until 4pm.

Michaell

stickguy said:

pats and Genos. Both tourist traps!

Hey, I'm from Colorado --- what do I know about Cheesesteak? I'm a tourist.

qbrozen

One down ….

Michaell

qbrozen said:

@Michaell said:

Pat's or Geno's?

90 mile round trip? I go that far with @breld to look at cars....

Believe me, there is no good reason to stay the weekend when we live so close, but this was a request from the top to spend the weekend in the city with the kid.

I booked us a walking ghost tour tomorrow night and a segway tour Sat morn. Game isn’t until 4pm.

I've spent some time in Philadelphia, over the years. At one time, I had family both in the city and across the river in NJ, plus several business trips. Walked up and down South Street several times, on those trips. Also visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art with a co-worker.

explorerx4

@qbrozen,
Sorry, but I'd be embarrassed to drive that.

28firefighter

D’alessandros if you want a real cheesesteak.

corvette

I attempted a second E85 experiment in my (non-flex fuel) Tundra, in preparation for a road trip out west, where the price delta between regular and E85 seems to be close to $1. Followed conventional wisdom, which is that you can get away with about half a tank of corn juice in vehicles that aren't designed for it. Filled up with 19 gallons of E85 + 6.5 gallons of regular E10 to make the total concentration in the 38 gallon tank half E85 and half E10. No check engine light or other issues, this time, so on the trip, I will be comfortable going roughly half and half.

stickguy

isn't the $ savings offset by getting a lot worse MPG on the corn stuff?

nyccarguy

@stickguy said:
isn't the $ savings offset by getting a lot worse MPG on the corn stuff?

How much worse can the MPG get on a Tundra?

corvette

stickguy said:

isn't the $ savings offset by getting a lot worse MPG on the corn stuff?

Often, yes. In my locality, E85 is often not significantly less expensive. But when there's a 30% discount (as there appears to be in the Dakotas), it starts looking attractive. The lower cruising range is going to be a bummer, as the Tundra already classifies 8-9 gallons of its 38 gallon tank as the reserve, so there's at least 8 gallons left when you hit E and 0 miles of range.

qbrozen

@explorerx4 said:
@qbrozen,
Sorry, but I'd be embarrassed to drive that.

Haha. That’s ok. I’m secure enough for both of us. I drive an orange Charger!

mjfloyd1

Where is Jenny’s number?

explorerx4

@qbrozen,
The red on my Explorer makes the orange on your Charger look like a creamsicle , but that's not what I'm talking about.
I'll just leave it at that.

tjc78

@28firefighter said:
D’alessandros if you want a real cheesesteak.

Skip the cheesesteaks and get a Dinic’s roast pork.

Sandman6472

Have been in spasm since a week ago Monday with no end in sight. The other drivers at Enterprise can see it in the way I walk and have been very helpful. They've been letting me sit most of the day driving the chase vehicle so I won't have to keep getting in and out. Walking is getting to be extremely painful but sitting is much easier. Think it's getting worse from the shuttle gig as there's a lot of in and out, in and out in those 6 hours. The last 35 minutes are usually just sitting around and we usually let one of the three of us go home around 6 pm. I'm just not sure how much longer I can keep this up. I was hoping to get through till years end and then re-evaluate to see what I should do. But not sure I'll make it that long.
Wrote the above narrative about 3 am this morning as the pain was so severe it woke me up when I turned in bed. It's now about 10 pm and am still in spasm and beginning to think something is wrong. Will give it another day or two and then might have to speak with my pain doctor about what I need to do. I'm guessing he'll agree that I'm pushing myself a bit too much here and maybe cut back a bit, just like he did back in the spring of 2014 when he suggested I just do the Hertz gig and see how it goes. He was right then, and cutting back to that one job seemed to do the trick. But, we'll give it a couple of more days and then, go from there.

Sandman6472

Explorer4, I happen to like the red color of your Explorer to be honest. Looks to be a darker red but all the same, I really do like it. Not sure I'd get a red vehicle, would have to be how it looked on the particular vehicle. But would never say never here. I had tried to get my daughter to go with a red Hyundai Accent a couple years back as it did look very good in that red they have, but she preferred the darker gray and ended up with the darker gray. But, I did try.
Almost got the red on my current Golf SE but I would've had to wait a bit as I got mine early in the '15 model year and wanted to purchase right then. But if the new Corolla Cross fits in the garage and I like it as much as I think I will, will definitely consider the red color. Have seen it on their CH-R and I do like the shade.

28firefighter

@tjc78 said:

@28firefighter said:
D’alessandros if you want a real cheesesteak.

Skip the cheesesteaks and get a Dinic’s roast pork.

Aaaand now I’m hungry.

nyccarguy

So I have a very good customer that is an HVAC guy. He came up to my house tonight to have a look at my A/C. What to replace it with. How to make it cooler and more efficient. He told me my condenser was shot, my air handler was facing the wrong way, and my duct work is not sized properly. He made some suggestions to me regarding the duct work, placement of the supply vents & returns. He also explained to me why he would make things different. He also suggested an inverter that would give me some heat before I really need to crank up the baseboards.

He took measurements & is going to give me a price tomorrow.

tjc78

@nyccarguy said:
So I have a very good customer that is an HVAC guy. He came up to my house tonight to have a look at my A/C. What to replace it with. How to make it cooler and more efficient. He told me my condenser was shot, my air handler was facing the wrong way, and my duct work is not sized properly. He made some suggestions to me regarding the duct work, placement of the supply vents & returns. He also explained to me why he would make things different. He also suggested an inverter that would give me some heat before I really need to crank up the baseboards.

He took measurements & is going to give me a price tomorrow.

Good luck. Hopefully he can make it right without totally breaking the bank. I would be so miserable without AC this long already.

Are home units in short supply? I know the large commercial stuff is taking 12+ weeks right now unless you can find a suitable unit on the ground.

Sandman6472

A/C is a must down here in South Florida and I seem to remember it got hot in New York/Connecticut in the summers though we always spent our summers in Connecticut, Clinton, and it was a bit cooler at night. I do miss those wonderful summers to be honest!!

au1994

mjfloyd1 said:

Where is Jenny’s number?

867-5309

mjfloyd1

@au1994 said:
867-5309

It was gonna be on the hood. Maybe later

oldfarmer50

mjfloyd1 said:

This Santa Cruz

https://www.rayskillmanhyundaiwest.com/inventory/new-2022-hyundai-santa-cruz-4dr-awd-limited-awd-crew-cab-pickup-5ntjedaf0nh001726

I don’t get that as anything other than a lifestyle statement.

oldfarmer50

qbrozen said:

One down ….

Looks ready to go to war. there’s a guy down the street that has a cameo Jeep with a biohazard symbol on the side and something to the effect of being in the zombie apocalypse business.

kyfdx

nyccarguy said:

So I have a very good customer that is an HVAC guy. He came up to my house tonight to have a look at my A/C. What to replace it with. How to make it cooler and more efficient. He told me my condenser was shot, my air handler was facing the wrong way, and my duct work is not sized properly. He made some suggestions to me regarding the duct work, placement of the supply vents & returns. He also explained to me why he would make things different. He also suggested an inverter that would give me some heat before I really need to crank up the baseboards.

He took measurements & is going to give me a price tomorrow.

By "inverter", does he mean heat pump, instead of a straight A/C unit?

xwesx

venture said:

Bradd - In your search for a possible replacement for the pilot; if you get a chance have a look at the Subaru Ascent. When we were looking for my wife's new car last year she had it narrowed down to a Pilot or an Ascent. You can get 7 or 8 seats and there is quite a bit of room behind the rear seat. It also doesn't drive big.

I would be interested to hear your take on it.

A friend of mine in Iowa recently replaced his 2010 Outback with an Ascent. I didn't get to drive it on a recent visit, but I was at least able to sit in it. Wow; really big on the inside! Thoughtfully laid out in classic Subaru fashion, but absolutely beautiful with the deep blue exterior and the white leather interior, which nicely contrasted with the black accents in there.

For a large family, I'd say that one kicks the pants off of any five-seater with 7-seater pretenses, at least. His had two rows of captains chairs and a bench in the back, and this is definitely a vehicle that can comfortably hold full-size people in all seven seats (though, perhaps not in the third row if those "full size" are "plus size").