Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

kyfdx

tifighter said:

@kyfdx said:

Yes. Getting Continental DWS-06. I have Pilot Sport A/S, now.

Continentals were about $100 less for the set.

I’m really overdue. What got me moving is Ohio has a sales tax holiday for back to school, and virtually any item under $500 is sales tax free. (Dumb, but.. 🤷‍♂️)

Otherwise, I was going to join Costco, again, and get the Michelins. But by the time I paid sales tax in KY and the $65 membership, it made more sense to just get them in Ohio at Discount Tire.

Had a set of DWS06 on the M2C, and now the Type R. Solid all season. Then again, for the Type R, there are only two choices for an all season in its stock size. But, trust me, it’s the best one!

Most people love the DWS06. We'll see, I guess

oldfarmer50

Sandman6472 said:

Figure that if the kid really does buy a house in 2026, she'll get either a 3/2 or a 4/2 and we can stay there for a bit before we buy ourselves. A duplex could work also. This way we'd have the money from the house sale in South Florida so we wouldn't need a mortgage or to dip into our portfolio's to finance the new place. This might be easier since the only joint asset we have is our house right now. We do have our own individual monies though. Did find out that money & a dysfunctional family are a bad mixture. Money was always used as a control weapon growing up which only got worse after dad passed.

But, looking more & more like St. Augustine will be where we end up. From what I've seen, they have all the same retail places as we do down south here but will be a big learning curve getting to find our ways around. After 56 years down here, kind of familiar with the area. But as we age, think it best to be near the kids.

Sandy, how are you going to play the recent dip in Florida home prices? If you sell at the bottom and wait do you risk getting squeezed in a presumably rising market a year or two later? Up here prices are more stable but I have seen them fluctuate 10-15% during boom and bust cycles. I remember in 2008 my BIL’s Florida condo lost 50% before regaining it back 10 years later.

ab348

Sandman6472 said:

Have had our smart t v for over a year and finally tonight, I set up my google account on it. Want to see about getting rid of the cable tv as they keep raising the price. Think I could do better with Sling tv or Pluto tv and save a bit. But I have a lot to learn before we do any switching as there must be some free stations out there. I'm not tech savvy at all so this could take me awhile! Just looking for a cheaper alternative but have all the shows we like to watch.

I don't watch much regular TV except for some live sports. They way it works in Canada is that the cable cos. all package sports in a separate package so if you want, say, NFL and MLB but don't care for other things, you still have to buy the package just for those. As for the rest of the channels, I watch virtually none of them so I downsized those to a pretty skinny assortment and watch them very little if at all. I find I watch a lot of YouTube stuff now, with some things from Roku mixed in. My testes evolved to where I found most of the specialty channels like HGTV, Magnolia, and many of the others unwatchable.

ab348

I see Rivian reported another $1 billion+ loss for the most recent fiscal year yesterday after losing $1.5 billion the year prior. Pretty soon they'll be talking real money.

Meanwhile Honda announced Q1 profits down 50% and blamed EV sales or lack thereof for much of that. They say they are pivoting to de-emphasize EVs and go harder into hybrids.

kyfdx

ab348 said:

I see Rivian reported another $1 billion+ loss for the most recent fiscal year yesterday after losing $1.5 billion the year prior. Pretty soon they'll be talking real money.

Meanwhile Honda announced Q1 profits down 50% and blamed EV sales or lack thereof for much of that. They say they are pivoting to de-emphasize EVs and go harder into hybrids.

Funny thing is: Doesn't Honda only offer 2 EVs? And, they're re-badged Chevy Blazers?

Seems like they could pivot away with minor consequences.

At least Rivian has been selling some vehicles. I see them a lot (or, maybe, just notice them)

ab348

I think the two rebadged GMs were used as stopgaps while they developed their own designs. I took yesterday's announcement to mean they were pivoting away from that development in favor of hybrids.

nyccarguy

I saw an article yesterday about the slumping WRX sales. Subaru apparently dropped the base model, making the premium trim the new base model. They jacked up the price of the Premium trim which now starts at over $37K plus destination. When the current generation debuted in 2022, didn't it start at just under or just above $30K?

Speaking of the current WRX, I've warmed up to the black plastic cladding. I've seen a few of them (mostly in WR Blue) with the aftermarket painted fender flares and it just doesn't look right. That being said, my favorite current WRX color is Black.

EDIT

Meanwhile, a Civic Si starts at just under $31K and a Civic Type R starts at just under $46K. That WRX Ts has an MSRP of $47K.

Michaell

Member looking for help evaluating tires for a TLX

jmonroe1

corvette said:

@kyfdx - Discount Tire? What did you choose for the replacement? I’m taking a look at the Sumitomo HTR A/S P03 because I really liked the previous version I had on my Murano, and the company I work for owns a minority stake in Sumitomo.

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Now that’s what I call being a company man.

jmonroe

Sandman6472

I'd still want to keep the 18" alloys I've got now so if the speedo is a bit off, not much of an issue as I'm a pretty conservative driver. Don't really speed as most of my driving is in a radius of about 8 to 10 miles from home. Been averaging around 3K miles/year since I started at Enterprise at the end of 2019. The few long trips we took were in rentals as I didn't want to stress out the 2015 Golf and we do get great rates as employees. My buddy saw that the current tires have a 560 rating, whatever that means, and said I should have them for a pretty long time driving the amount I do. So no change in tire size for many years to come. Just have to live with the current driving dynamics for the time being. It is what it is!

tjc78

With a 560 tread rating and your usage they will dry rot long before wearing out.

sda

@Sandman6472 said:
I'd still want to keep the 18" alloys I've got now so if the speedo is a bit off, not much of an issue as I'm a pretty conservative driver. Don't really speed as most of my driving is in a radius of about 8 to 10 miles from home. Been averaging around 3K miles/year since I started at Enterprise at the end of 2019. The few long trips we took were in rentals as I didn't want to stress out the 2015 Golf and we do get great rates as employees. My buddy saw that the current tires have a 560 rating, whatever that means, and said I should have them for a pretty long time driving the amount I do. So no change in tire size for many years to come. Just have to live with the current driving dynamics for the time being. It is what it is!

I may have mentioned this before, check the tire pressure. It may be higher than what is specified. A sticker inside the driver's door jamb should provide the correct tire pressure. On the Arteon, this is also avaliable on the infotainment screen. Try CAR>Vehicle Status>Tire Pressure.

nyccarguy

@tjc78 - Thank-you for the marvelous restaurant recommendations at the Jersey Shore! My wife, daughter, & I had a blast!

stickguy

I still can’t believe they replaced the tram tractors with a Maverick. I assume a hybrid. Which means they are wildly exceeding the rusted towing capacity!

tjc78

@nyccarguy
You're welcome! I'm so happy you enjoyed yourself! So much to do and see for sure.

tjc78

stickguy said:

I still can’t believe they replaced the tram tractors with a Maverick. I assume a hybrid. Which means they are wildly exceeding the rusted towing capacity!

Well.. they only go about 7-8 miles an hour!

stickguy

I know. That’s still probably 5 tons

tjc78

Yeah including the Maverick way over 5.

4 Cars @ 1000lbs = 4000
12 People @175lbs x 4 Cars = 8400
Maverick = 3674
Driver and two attendants - 525
This puts it at about 16599 lbs.... just a touch over the towing limit

nyccarguy

@stickguy said:
I still can’t believe they replaced the tram tractors with a Maverick. I assume a hybrid. Which means they are wildly exceeding the rusted towing capacity!

Just one was a Maverick. They still have 3 other regular tram cars.

“Watch the Tram Car Please”

stickguy

I have that voice burned into my brain. I could still go full dementia and remember that.

ab348

My only exposure to that extravaganza was a recent video by the Philly Captain on YT. Pretty entertaining.

https://youtu.be/0wI3BRADoOU?si=6K6BlltfIsMrNllB

stickguy

that was cool. I have not been there for a long time, but recognized a lot of places, and have been on that log flume many times. And as he said early on, the housing stock has changed a lot over the years.

we used to vacation down there when I was a kid. Probably stayed in at least one of the motels he rode by. And one thing I found odd back then was you saw a ton of Canadian plates there. I guess they figured if they had to drive all the way down from Quebec, might as well go all the way to the bottom of the shore towns! Probably not so much these days.

ab348

stickguy said:

we used to vacation down there when I was a kid. Probably stayed in at least one of the motels he rode by. And one thing I found odd back then was you saw a ton of Canadian plates there. I guess they figured if they had to drive all the way down from Quebec, might as well go all the way to the bottom of the shore towns! Probably not so much these days.

When I was a kid my parents and I would usually take a car trip to New England every summer. One year we went to Old Orchard Beach in southern Maine where we had never gone before. We were astounded at the number of cars from Quebec there and the amount of French we heard while walking around.

jmonroe1

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

we used to vacation down there when I was a kid. Probably stayed in at least one of the motels he rode by. And one thing I found odd back then was you saw a ton of Canadian plates there. I guess they figured if they had to drive all the way down from Quebec, might as well go all the way to the bottom of the shore towns! Probably not so much these days.

When I was a kid my parents and I would usually take a car trip to New England every summer. One year we went to Old Orchard Beach in southern Maine where we had never gone before. We were astounded at the number of cars from Quebec there and the amount of French we heard while walking around.

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And if you overheard any English being spoken they were probably talking about all the furriners that invaded the area.

jmonroe

corvette

jmonroe1 said:

Now that’s what I call being a company man.

In this instance, it's an honor and a privilege, lol. Today, we hired our third employee that used to work for my previous company. It kind of feels like we're rebuilding the old team I used to work with.

tjc78

ab348 said:

My only exposure to that extravaganza was a recent video by the Philly Captain on YT. Pretty entertaining.

https://youtu.be/0wI3BRADoOU?si=6K6BlltfIsMrNllB

I didn't watch the whole video (I have a house there, don't need to lol) ... but the place where they start the video my wife and I were just there last week. They had an amazing band.

The water parks (not Splash Zone) at the back of the piers is where we have our membership.

When they get to the convention center if you were to go off the boardwalk and go right all the way to the other side of the island by the bay is where my house is (as far away from that boardwalk as I can get!)..

Many many years ago when the Sea Serpent ride was new, it broke down and was stuck on it's side for four hours. I was just on it the day before. My kids ride it very often. Not sure if they mentioned it in the video but there were some power issues that day if I recall.

laurasdada

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

we used to vacation down there when I was a kid. Probably stayed in at least one of the motels he rode by. And one thing I found odd back then was you saw a ton of Canadian plates there. I guess they figured if they had to drive all the way down from Quebec, might as well go all the way to the bottom of the shore towns! Probably not so much these days.

When I was a kid my parents and I would usually take a car trip to New England every summer. One year we went to Old Orchard Beach in southern Maine where we had never gone before. We were astounded at the number of cars from Quebec there and the amount of French we heard while walking around.

I've read that that's not the case lately. I wonder why, what changed?

tjc78

laurasdada said:

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

we used to vacation down there when I was a kid. Probably stayed in at least one of the motels he rode by. And one thing I found odd back then was you saw a ton of Canadian plates there. I guess they figured if they had to drive all the way down from Quebec, might as well go all the way to the bottom of the shore towns! Probably not so much these days.

When I was a kid my parents and I would usually take a car trip to New England every summer. One year we went to Old Orchard Beach in southern Maine where we had never gone before. We were astounded at the number of cars from Quebec there and the amount of French we heard while walking around.

I've read that that's not the case lately. I wonder why, what changed?

Like @stickguy mentioned....In the 80s Wildwood NJ was also a very popular spot for Canadians. As a kid I always remember spotting the license plates. Maybe now it is too and people fly down and rent cars.... not nearly as many Canadian plates.

tjc78

stickguy said:

I have that voice burned into my brain. I could still go full dementia and remember that.

It was local news, but recently the woman who voiced the infamous recording sued the tram car operator for royalties. I don't know where the case ended up.

There is now a whole store (or two) dedicated to Tram Car merchandise.

stickguy

Toward the end of that video he goes through the team car store on the boardwalk and gets into the story of the lady. Apparently she did the original voice for free or very little and didn’t get mad until they started making all kinds of toys using her voice and now wants a cut of that

laurasdada

Heading to coastal Delaware in September, will likely get our honky-tonk fill in Ocean City MD.

tjc78

@stickguy said:
Toward the end of that video he goes through the team car store on the boardwalk and gets into the story of the lady. Apparently she did the original voice for free or very little and didn’t get mad until they started making all kinds of toys using her voice and now wants a cut of that

She has a point!

ab348

laurasdada said:

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

we used to vacation down there when I was a kid. Probably stayed in at least one of the motels he rode by. And one thing I found odd back then was you saw a ton of Canadian plates there. I guess they figured if they had to drive all the way down from Quebec, might as well go all the way to the bottom of the shore towns! Probably not so much these days.

When I was a kid my parents and I would usually take a car trip to New England every summer. One year we went to Old Orchard Beach in southern Maine where we had never gone before. We were astounded at the number of cars from Quebec there and the amount of French we heard while walking around.

I've read that that's not the case lately. I wonder why, what changed?

Not many Canadians are vacationing or travelling to the USA these days. Relations are not good.

stickguy

That town in Maine is on the news often as one taking the biggest hit since they depend so heavily on Canadian tourists.

Wildwood, no clue if in recent years the Canadian visitors have declined before this.

kyfdx

ab348 said:

laurasdada said:

ab348 said:

stickguy said:

we used to vacation down there when I was a kid. Probably stayed in at least one of the motels he rode by. And one thing I found odd back then was you saw a ton of Canadian plates there. I guess they figured if they had to drive all the way down from Quebec, might as well go all the way to the bottom of the shore towns! Probably not so much these days.

When I was a kid my parents and I would usually take a car trip to New England every summer. One year we went to Old Orchard Beach in southern Maine where we had never gone before. We were astounded at the number of cars from Quebec there and the amount of French we heard while walking around.

I've read that that's not the case lately. I wonder why, what changed?

Not many Canadians are vacationing or travelling to the USA these days. Relations are not good.

At least, we're starting to learn about devalued currency. I bought Euros recently, and

laurasdada

stickguy said:

That town in Maine is on the news often as one taking the biggest hit since they depend so heavily on Canadian tourists.

Wildwood, no clue if in recent years the Canadian visitors have declined before this.

Yes, it's been newsworthy here in New England. I was just being a bit sarcastic...
I haven't been to OOB in probably 30 years, went to summer camp and, of course, skied in Maine.

tjc78

@stickguy said:
That town in Maine is on the news often as one taking the biggest hit since they depend so heavily on Canadian tourists.

Wildwood, no clue if in recent years the Canadian visitors have declined before this.

I am pretty sure it did long before. I don’t ever remember seeing the amount of license plates like in the 80s.

stickguy

Other than about 15 years ago when I stayed overnight when my son was in a band competition at the convention center the last time I stayed for vacation was in the 70s. Though back in the 2000s we used to go to the boardwalk one night when we were down there staying a town over.

tjc78

stickguy said:

Other than about 15 years ago when I stayed overnight when my son was in a band competition at the convention center the last time I stayed for vacation was in the 70s. Though back in the 2000s we used to go to the boardwalk one night when we were down there staying a town over.

The only time we are on the boardwalk is when we go to the waterpark (or off season for bike rides)... but we literally walk straight back to the entrance and then back off. A few weeks back when we had company over we went up around 8 PM on a Sunday and it was crazy busy! We all ate and then the kids did a few rides. All the adults rode the log flume. It was the first time in about 30 years for me... it hasn't changed.

jmonroe1

corvette said:

jmonroe1 said:

Now that’s what I call being a company man.

In this instance, it's an honor and a privilege, lol. Today, we hired our third employee that used to work for my previous company. It kind of feels like we're rebuilding the old team I used to work with.

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Allow me to play Paul Harvey and ask for the rest of the story…like how many employees did your old company hire from your current company?

jmonroe

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

@stickguy said:

Toward the end of that video he goes through the team car store on the boardwalk and gets into the story of the lady. Apparently she did the original voice for free or very little and didn’t get mad until they started making all kinds of toys using her voice and now wants a cut of that

She has a point!

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I’m not a layer but I’d say she’s out of luck unless her lawyer can get a jury trial. A lot of times they’re more sympathetic than when a judge makes the ruling. Think law suit against Mc Donald’s for serving hot coffee.

jmonroe

corvette

jmonroe1 said:

Allow me to play Paul Harvey and ask for the rest of the story…like how many employees did your old company hire from your current company?

Zero, and very likely to remain zero going forward.

Sandman6472

Finally set up our smart tv the other day, set it up with my google account. Didn't think about it when we bought it back in 2023 but they were talking about free tv stations using the apps. So, what are some of the better free tv stations we can get? Still have cable so don't want to add more $ as we're paying too much as it is now. Seriously thinking of ditching the cable and using the Fire stick the kids gave us and maybe some of the free stations moving forward.

Sandman6472

Just hit 400 miles today so only another 100 or so and then I can stop babying it. Been very careful driving & braking since I got it. Read the discussion about high test vs. regular and plan on using regular still. Got petrol today and I looked inside where the cap is and it says to use 87 octane so plan to keep on using that grade.

sb55

stickguy said:

That town in Maine is on the news often as one taking the biggest hit since they depend so heavily on Canadian tourists.

Wildwood, no clue if in recent years the Canadian visitors have declined before this.

We live about 25 Miles from the Canadian border. Local business up here are pro-Canada and have been handing out small Canadian maple leaf flags to display.

tjc78

Sandman6472 said:

Finally set up our smart tv the other day, set it up with my google account. Didn't think about it when we bought it back in 2023 but they were talking about free tv stations using the apps. So, what are some of the better free tv stations we can get? Still have cable so don't want to add more $ as we're paying too much as it is now. Seriously thinking of ditching the cable and using the Fire stick the kids gave us and maybe some of the free stations moving forward.

If you have a smart TV you don't need a Fire Stick. What platform is your TV running? Sounds to me like it is an Android Based TV.

The most common cable replacement is YouTube TV, or Hulu with live TV.

There are also as many apps as you can think of. Many of the platforms built into the TVs have a ton of free content but its older stuff like sitcom re-runs, This Old House channel, tons of cooking. Good for casual watching but nothing new.

If you watch local sports or news you will still need some sort of live TV app. If not then you could probably get all the content you want with Netflix, the free channels and maybe one more app of choice (Disney+, HBO Max, etc)

Really depends on what you want. I don't have traditional cable any longer but we share You Tube TV between the two houses and then add on Netflix and Disney+/Hulu. Then since we have Amazon prime we have that app, Paramount+ is free with Walmart+, Peacock comes with our internet and I think we get Apple TV with some sort of Cloud Bundle we have. All this is still cheaper than what we paid for a full boat cable package. Lastly, you can also swap the services in and out as needed. My Mom watches something on Starz, so she gets it for when that show is on then cancels it

au1994

We ditched cable many years ago and for a while, were saving money. Now with all of the increases in internet charges and streaming services, we are probably over what our original baseline was.

We use Youtube TV and like it. From there we have the usual suspects of apps: Netflix, Prime, HBOMax, Paramount +(free w/internet) etc, etc.

As noted, figure out what’s important and you can find a combo that works for you. There is nothing on traditional network TV we watch except for sports so the apps and services work well for us, plus it’s shareable between the main house and lake house.

suydam

Should be noted that none of these streaming services are free.

tjc78

plus it’s shareable between the main house and lake house.

Yes! When I had "cable" I wasn't able to stream that service at my shore house (with Internet provided by the same company) so switching to YTTV eliminated that problem

If I was to consider what it would cost to have Cable TV at the shore I am very much ahead with just having streaming services.

ab348

Sandman6472 said:

Finally set up our smart tv the other day, set it up with my google account. Didn't think about it when we bought it back in 2023 but they were talking about free tv stations using the apps. So, what are some of the better free tv stations we can get? Still have cable so don't want to add more $ as we're paying too much as it is now. Seriously thinking of ditching the cable and using the Fire stick the kids gave us and maybe some of the free stations moving forward.

Sandy, I presume your smart TV is like my setup. So I have 2 remotes, the one that came with the TV, and the one from the cable company. You need to get the one that came with the TV and dive into its Home Screen to see what it offers in terms of services. With mine it shows one choice to use the cable box and then umpteen other choices for what it can deliver via your internet connection. Right now I’m diving into that section of mine for the old original 1970s Columbo TV movies plus the British Sherlock Holmes series from the late ‘80s/early ‘90s.