Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

jmonroe1

benjaminh said:

greg1288 said:

My niece who previously complained that she could not afford her approx $450 per mo. lease on a Nissan Rogue has now turned it in 6 months early on a 2025 Pathfinder for approx $650 per mo. I don't get it...

yikes.

————————————————
Rather than question/ridicule folks who do such things, maybe we should praise them for keeping the economy rolling along.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

greg1288 said:

My niece who previously complained that she could not afford her approx $450 per mo. lease on a Nissan Rogue has now turned it in 6 months early on a 2025 Pathfinder for approx $650 per mo. I don't get it.
It looks pretty nice as well as the interior. I think it is an SV with cloth seats, sunroof and captain chair option and seems pretty well equipped. MSRP I think is mid $40K. According to her the salesman's selling point was that it had a V-6 and 9 speed Auto as opposed to the 4 cyl VC turbo and CVT in the Rogue. Those engines are prone to failure and Nissan has recalled over 400,000 of them.

She says she likes it very much although she will probably find out it will get 7 or 8 less Mpg compared to the Rogue so with the increase cost of gas she will probably be paying close to $300 a month more. It won't take long before she starts complaining she cannot afford it.

My friend’s niece did something similar. She wanted a car but because of previous bad judgement she had a low credit score. So to make it worse she bought a 10 year old Nissan from CarMax at a loan rate so high he estimates she’ll end up paying double if she manages to not get repoed.

nyccarguy

greg1288 said:

My niece who previously complained that she could not afford her approx $450 per mo. lease on a Nissan Rogue has now turned it in 6 months early on a 2025 Pathfinder for approx $650 per mo. I don't get it.
It looks pretty nice as well as the interior. I think it is an SV with cloth seats, sunroof and captain chair option and seems pretty well equipped. MSRP I think is mid $40K. According to her the salesman's selling point was that it had a V-6 and 9 speed Auto as opposed to the 4 cyl VC turbo and CVT in the Rogue. Those engines are prone to failure and Nissan has recalled over 400,000 of them.

She says she likes it very much although she will probably find out it will get 7 or 8 less Mpg compared to the Rogue so with the increase cost of gas she will probably be paying close to $300 a month more. It won't take long before she starts complaining she cannot afford it.

That's unfortunate. If she had come to you beforehand and asked for your advice, maybe you could have talked her off the ledge so to speak. I'm sure part of that $650 per month is some negative equity.

Sure the VC Turbo 3cyl/CVT combination isn't the winning combination for 300,000+ miles, but it is a lease. Any issues should be covered under warranty. My sister just leased a Rogue Rock Creek (from a broker on LH). I think she's paying $391 per month for 39/15K with NY taxes rolled in. For the money, it is a LOT cheaper to lease than a CRV or RAV4. At the time it was also about $50 per month cheaper than the CX50.

corvette

greg1288 said:

It won't take long before she starts complaining she cannot afford it.

This reminds me of pretty much every tenant my mom and her late brother ever had at the rental house they used to own together. Can't afford rent, but can afford stupid "collector's items" that are advertised on late night TV. One failed to pay for garbage pickup and had their trash can repossessed multiple times.

I also have some relatives (by marriage) who constantly asked for (and received) handouts from an elderly relative. It amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. Meanwhile, the elderly relative complained that she would have liked to have had one last new vehicle. She never got one. The handout recipients got a payable-on-death CD that passed outside of the estate, which they immediately spent on a house. They nearly lost it within a few years due to not paying the property tax. The last I checked, they had put a conventional 80% LTV 30 year mortgage against the property. I was never able to figure out what the hole in their financial ship was.

tjc78

My Stepbrother (who I don’t quite see eye to with…) has never made a decent living to support his family. His wife doesn’t/won’t work and her grandmother before she passed sold her house to them at a 50% discount (to give to the cash to her other grandchild to make it fair). His mother in law funds a good bit of their bills and stuff for their 3 kids.

To top it off … she takes them to Disney twice a year and other vacations.

I could never accept that much of a handout. My wife and I have earned everything we have.

nyccarguy

@tjc78 said:
My Stepbrother (who I don’t quite see eye to with…) has never made a decent living to support his family. His wife doesn’t/won’t work and her grandmother before she passed sold her house to them at a 50% discount (to give to the cash to her other grandchild to make it fair). His mother in law funds a good bit of their bills and stuff for their 3 kids.

To top it off … she takes them to Disney twice a year and other vacations.

I could never accept that much of a handout. My wife and I have earned everything we have.

I just had a conversation with a friend who works his rear end off for the family business. His sister and brother in law are constantly asking his parents and his brother in law’s parents for money while not showing any restraint or appreciation.

My friend’s niece (16 or 17) rear ends another car while clearly distracted. The brother in law never put her on the insurance to save money. The insurance paid to fix the car she hit, but wouldn’t pay to fix her Kia EV6. $24K worth of damage. The brother in law got $5K from my friend’s parents and $19K from his parents to fix the car.

The brother in law travels up here for business. He always buys 2 seats for himself because he doesn’t want to sit next to anyone.

corvette

@nyccarguy - stories like that make me grateful I'm an only child.

roadburner

@corvette said:
@nyccarguy - stories like that make me grateful I'm an only child.

Same here- and I think my son would also agree.

Sandman6472

We taught our kids to live below their means and they are doing great. Always say "no" when we try to gift them anything. Very responsible kids so think we did our job well.

au1994

tjc78 said:

My Stepbrother (who I don’t quite see eye to with…) has never made a decent living to support his family. His wife doesn’t/won’t work and her grandmother before she passed sold her house to them at a 50% discount (to give to the cash to her other grandchild to make it fair). His mother in law funds a good bit of their bills and stuff for their 3 kids.

To top it off … she takes them to Disney twice a year and other vacations.

I could never accept that much of a handout. My wife and I have earned everything we have.

I think there is one of those in every family. Infuriating, isn’t it?

stickguy

other than my son's affinity for cars that cost more than he maybe should spend, and expensive polo shirts and socks, my kids seem to be responsible with money. and don't ask me for any! I have a couple of years now sprung for their share of the annual week at the shore house rental, just because they have had big expenses with weddings (that they each paid a big chunk of) and a baby. I just look at it as getting a little big of their inheritance early, and we must be putting ourselves through the hell of working for some reason. Soon as we retire, that stops though.

I also made sure to hammer on them to pour money into their 401Ks early on too and don't touch it. And when the time comes, don't expect any problems with them handling the estate situation.

greg1288

I am very lucky in that my 2 sons are very successful and both have higher incomes than me. My older son in particular is VERY careful with money. We bought each of them their first cars (used of course). First son had a Dodge Shadow bought around in late 1990's which he drove for 4 years. He bought a new Chevy Cavalier and drove it almost 200K miles and afterward a Cobalt that he brought up to about 130K miles and then was totaled when he hit a deer upstate NY (He drives a lot). All this time he was in computer networking and could afford much more expensive cars and more often. He now drives a 2019 Chevy Equinox and believe it or not tows a trailer all around the east coast with it for his side businesses. He works from home in South Carolina for his networking company located up here on Long Island. Even though with the 2.0L turbo rated at 3500 Lbs. I told him not to expect it to get the longevity of his other cars. It now has 80K and still runs great and he is meticulous with the maintenance (got that from me) and even uses premium gas with it.

He is up here now for a big show he had at the Aviation Museum in Nassau County and was amazed watching him multitasking on the computer managing his 4 or 5 companies at one sitting. I am very proud of that boy (Of course he is in his 40's now). Luckily both my sons got their brains from their mother.

suydam

One thing parenthood teaches you is that you are not the only influence on your kids. And some kids are hard to parent well. If any of them have a problem or if they succeed it doesn’t necessarily mean either that you failed or that you were a great parent. I have become much humbler about my parental powers as I age!

jmonroe1

greg1288 said:

I am very lucky in that my 2 sons are very successful and both have higher incomes than me. My older son in particular is VERY careful with money. We bought each of them their first cars (used of course). First son had a Dodge Shadow bought around in late 1990's which he drove for 4 years. He bought a new Chevy Cavalier and drove it almost 200K miles and afterward a Cobalt that he brought up to about 130K miles and then was totaled when he hit a deer upstate NY (He drives a lot). All this time he was in computer networking and could afford much more expensive cars and more often. He now drives a 2019 Chevy Equinox and believe it or not tows a trailer all around the east coast with it for his side businesses. He works from home in South Carolina for his networking company located up here on Long Island. Even though with the 2.0L turbo rated at 3500 Lbs. I told him not to expect it to get the longevity of his other cars. It now has 80K and still runs great and he is meticulous with the maintenance (got that from me) and even uses premium gas with it.

He is up here now for a big show he had at the Aviation Museum in Nassau County and was amazed watching him multitasking on the computer managing his 4 or 5 companies at one sitting. I am very proud of that boy (Of course he is in his 40's now). Luckily both my sons got their brains from their mother.

————————————————
Yeah, we sorta knew that.

jmonroe

greg1288

This is my 6 month review of my 2024 new to me Toyota Crown Platinum. I have only put a few thousand miles on it and now has about 14K miles. It is very refined, quiet, comfortable and thus far reliable (it would be a giant surprise if it was not). The hybrid max power train has plenty of power and my mileage has been right around 30 mpg with at least 50% around town driving. I do notice a very slight shudder when accelerating from a stop but the otherwise is silky smooth for a 4 cyl and the 6 spd auto shifts seamlessly.
The seats are comfortable and the cabin quiet. I find the JBL audio pretty good but not great.

However there are some negatives. The interior is too plasticky. But I find that on almost all cars I ride in.
I was very unimpressed with my BIL's girlfriends Audi Q5 interior as well. I think the Genesis interiors look very upscale and probably would be driving a used G70 with the 3.3 turbo right now if it had a spare tire.

While washing the car about a month ago I noticed the 3rd middle brake light was crooked. It turns out the light fell out of its cheap plastic housing because the cheap plastic tabs that hold it in were deformed possibly from the heat of the sun. That bracket should have been metal with metal tabs. I managed to snap it back but I am not confident it will not happen again.

I also wish the AC was a little stronger and that the vents would direct air as well as the ones in my 2006 Silverado work truck. That system works much better especially now that I had the system recharged this summer for the first time in 19 years.

The infotainment works pretty well but the electronic nannies are a pain. The cross traffic alert sounds way too often and it will never let you forget that your seat belt is unbuckled with a fast paced obnoxious dinging. Also I like to drive with my left hand at the top of the steering but my arm often gets in the way of the sensor that looks at my eyes resulting in an annoying message to keep my eyes on the road. Also when I lock the car it sometimes beeps once, sometimes twice and sometimes 3 times. I have no idea what that is about. The problem with these technically complicated cars is that you don't know if it is operating as intended, there is something not right, or that I am not knowledgeable enough about it and am doing something wrong.

I do like the overhead camera display, The adaptive cruise and other aspects of the car. All in all I do like it and recognize all vehicles have there good and bad characteristics.

benjaminh

greg1288 said:

...I like to drive with my left hand at the top of the steering but my arm often gets in the way of the sensor that looks at my eyes resulting in an annoying message to keep my eyes on the road...

Thanks for your report. Sounds like a good vehicle overall, but this makes me glad we have a loaded mid-level Outback, rather than one of the higher trims that has Subaru's version of the driver attention monitor. Some video reviews of the higher Subaru models say that the frequent beeping from the driver attention monitor is an annoyance.

stickguy

I saw a Crown SUV on the highway today. Not bad looking, in a generic blocky CUV kind of way.

laurasdada

tjc78 said:

My Stepbrother (who I don’t quite see eye to with…) has never made a decent living to support his family. His wife doesn’t/won’t work and her grandmother before she passed sold her house to them at a 50% discount (to give to the cash to her other grandchild to make it fair). His mother in law funds a good bit of their bills and stuff for their 3 kids.

To top it off … she takes them to Disney twice a year and other vacations.

I could never accept that much of a handout. My wife and I have earned everything we have.

I, however, am available for her adoption. I've been to college and had braces, I'd be a nice tax deduction. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

tifighter

@greg1288 said:
Also when I lock the car it sometimes beeps once, sometimes twice and sometimes 3 times. I have no idea what that is about.

Our Sienna does this too, and it drives me nuts. And you are supposed to be able to lock the entire car by pressing the button for the rear hatch twice. And it nearly always just beeps a few times and never locks. Sometimes I just walk past the rear of the car and it starts beeping at me. I don’t know what this ‘safety feature’ says about Toyota drivers or Toyota engineers, but neither is good.

corvette

Dang, that makes the walk-away locking on the Ariya sound perfect. The Volt also had a similar feature.

ab348

tifighter said:

@greg1288 said:

Also when I lock the car it sometimes beeps once, sometimes twice and sometimes 3 times. I have no idea what that is about.

Our Sienna does this too, and it drives me nuts. And you are supposed to be able to lock the entire car by pressing the button for the rear hatch twice. And it nearly always just beeps a few times and never locks. Sometimes I just walk past the rear of the car and it starts beeping at me. I don’t know what this ‘safety feature’ says about Toyota drivers or Toyota engineers, but neither is good.

When my ATS got hit and was in the shop for a couple of weeks the rental co. provided a RAV4 as transportation. Aside from being totally unimpressed with it, the Toyota way of using the buttons or fob to lock/unlock/open things totally flummoxed me. I recall early in my time with it standing in my driveway trying to open the hatch. No way. I remember having to get on my PC and looking up how it was supposed to work. If I remember right I was using the correct button but not pressing it the right way or in the right combination. A first for me.

28firefighter

@tifighter said:

@greg1288 said:
Also when I lock the car it sometimes beeps once, sometimes twice and sometimes 3 times. I have no idea what that is about.

Our Sienna does this too, and it drives me nuts. And you are supposed to be able to lock the entire car by pressing the button for the rear hatch twice. And it nearly always just beeps a few times and never locks. Sometimes I just walk past the rear of the car and it starts beeping at me. I don’t know what this ‘safety feature’ says about Toyota drivers or Toyota engineers, but neither is good.

Morse code. Maybe it’s asking for help.

suydam

I’ve never heard of this issue — is it a Toyota thing? I’ve only ever owned one Toyota.

nyccarguy

@28firefighter

How are things going with the GLI repair?

Michaell

Chatting with my sister this weekend. Her oldest has moved home after getting two masters degrees. He’s landed a job teaching HS in the San Diego area, but about an hour drive from home.

After only one week, his 2014 Jetta has sprung a small oil leak, and is in need of brakes. It has over 100k on the odometer, and it’s going into the mechanic for an evaluation. Fingers crossed that it isn’t too serious (read: expensive), but he has been casually looking for a replacement.

While the Jetta is in the shop, he’s been driving my moms 2003 Sonata, and commented how much he likes it.

One of the possible replacements is the Honda Civic hybrid. He was concerned that the Honda was smaller, until I did a Google search and found this:

The 2003 Hyundai Sonata has the following dimensions:
    •    Length: 186.9 inches.
    •    Width (without mirrors): 71.7 inches.
    •    Height: 56.0 inches.
    •    Wheelbase: 106.3 inches. 
Interior dimensions
    •    Front Head Room: 39.3 inches.
    •    Rear Head Room: 37.6 inches.
    •    Front Leg Room: 43.3 inches.
    •    Rear Leg Room: 36.2 inches.
    •    Front Shoulder Room: 56.9 inches.
    •    Rear Shoulder Room: 55.7 inches.
    •    Front Hip Room: 55.8 inches.
    •    Rear Hip Room: 54.4 inches.
    •    Trunk Volume: 14.1 cubic feet.

The 2025 Honda Civic Sedan is a compact car that offers a surprising amount of interior space despite its size. 
Here are the key dimensions: 
    •    Length: 184.8 inches
    •    Width: 70.9 inches
    •    Height: 55.7 inches 
Interior dimensions
    •    Passenger Volume: 99 cubic feet
    •    Cargo Volume: 14.8 cubic feet
    •    Headroom (front/rear): 39.3 / 37.1 inches
    •    Legroom (front/rear): 42.3 / 37.4 inches
    •    Shoulder Room (front/rear): 57.0 / 56.0 inches
    •    Hiproom (front/rear): 54.3 / 48.9 inches

My sister was shocked at how similar they are in size, and how todays “compact” was yesterdays “mid size”

corvette

I know this is blasphemy here, but cars.com has a feature that will let you compare the dimensions of multiple vehicles side by side. It's pretty useful for that sort of research.

28firefighter

@nyccarguy said:
@28firefighter

How are things going with the GLI repair?

Hopefully done end of this week, then can deal with DV, flip it and be done with this mess.

oldfarmer50

corvette said:

Dang, that makes the walk-away locking on the Ariya sound perfect. The Volt also had a similar feature.

I almost never lock my cars. I guess I just lead a charmed life.😊

ab348

oldfarmer50 said:

corvette said:

Dang, that makes the walk-away locking on the Ariya sound perfect. The Volt also had a similar feature.

I almost never lock my cars. I guess I just lead a charmed life.😊

Either that, or nobody wants to steal them.

jmonroe1

oldfarmer50 said:

corvette said:

Dang, that makes the walk-away locking on the Ariya sound perfect. The Volt also had a similar feature.

I almost never lock my cars. I guess I just lead a charmed life.😊

————————————————
Until you don’t.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

ab348 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

corvette said:

Dang, that makes the walk-away locking on the Ariya sound perfect. The Volt also had a similar feature.

I almost never lock my cars. I guess I just lead a charmed life.😊

Either that, or nobody wants to steal them.

————————————————
From what he’s told us about his hoopties, I’m pretty sure you’re right. Some guys just don’t have any luck at all.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

corvette said:

Dang, that makes the walk-away locking on the Ariya sound perfect. The Volt also had a similar feature.

I almost never lock my cars. I guess I just lead a charmed life.😊

Either that, or nobody wants to steal them.

That’s entirely possible.

stickguy

I know where to go mustang hunting. Assuming you leave the keys in them too, otherwise all I can do is sit in it and make vroom vroom noises.

kyfdx

Saw a new Mustang convertible, the other day.. not good.

explorerx4

The S650 Mustang looks too much like a Camaro and the base models look very cheap.

stickguy

Dash is weird.

stickguy

I’ve also been more of a GTI type than a mustang type.

kyfdx

I love the Mustang GT from about 3-5 years ago, I think

explorerx4

@kyfdx,
That's the S550. When it was introduced, to many people it looked too much like a Fusion from the front, but over time opinions changed.

nyccarguy

Moved my oldest back up to college to start his sophomore year. Quinnipiac is only an hour from our house with no traffic (which there is was none of today). The other day my Dad suggested we switch cars for the day so we could use his 2023 Tahoe to help with the move. Let me tell you that it swallowed 90% of my son’s bags, microwave, & fridge (that stood upright) behind the 2nd row. For context, when we moved him home last year, our Highlander was stuffed to the gills along with a full Thule roof box, and my wife and son holding things on their lap.

Besides being awesome looking, it is just a great truck. There’s really nothing like the ladder box framed, RWD based, V8. It only has the 5.3, but the 10 speed transmission really makes the most of the power band. The V8 just sounds terrific.

With just over 63,000 miles, it is still tight and solid as the day he picked it up.

oldfarmer50

explorerx4 said:

@kyfdx,
That's the S550. When it was introduced, to many people it looked too much like a Fusion from the front, but over time opinions changed.

To me the S197 was the best looking. Simple styling that paid tribute to the first generation.

corvette

@nyccarguy - the Tahoe is still my favorite out of the vehicles I've owned. Watching LegitStreetCars' videos, I think I'd like a supercharged 6.2 liter Yukon (like his supercharged Escalade, but with milder styling).

nyccarguy

Interior-wise, the Tahoe is done really nicely. Soft touch materials are everywhere The digital gauge cluster is simple and tells you all the information you need. Getting to different information screens is easy too and very intuitive .

au1994

The Tahoe and Suburban are great products from Chevy. They do not drive as big as they are and I agree that the interior is very well done.

Just a great cruiser and as noted will swallow a small apartment of cargo.

tjc78

Can’t beat a full size SUV for road trips and hauling. A full size pickup with a bed cover is a close second.

When we did our Florida trip we wouldn’t have been nearly as comfortable in our XC90 as we were in the truck.

Well… we could have been if we packed lighter which we all know doesn’t happen

Michaell

When we had the Expedition, it was the same. Even though we had to physically remove the 3rd row (and it took two of us to do it), it was worth it for the extra space. Took it to Vegas on a family vacation and it was quite comfortable for the four of us.

kyfdx

We rented an Expedition EL (Suburban size) in Colorado for a ski trip in 2011. 3 adults and 3 full-size teenagers, plus a snowboard and ski boots, luggage for all.

Everyone fit, with room to spare. It was a terrible vehicle.. But, we only had to rent one vehicle, instead of two, for a week.

tjc78

Terrible because of the size and handling compared to what you are used to or other reasons?

kyfdx

tjc78 said:

Terrible because of the size and handling compared to what you are used to or other reasons?

Lousy powertrain, terrible handling..

But, this was in 2011.

nyccarguy

tjc78 said:

Terrible because of the size and handling compared to what you are used to or other reasons?

Terrible because it isn't a PORSCHE!

In all seriousness, I think 2011 would have been a Triton V8 powered Expedition EL. Not exactly a world renowned powertrain.