Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

qbrozen said:
Spotted this gem today. 2nd gen rusting Forester with offroad tires and fart can exhaust. Classy.

In the Northeast rust belt that would be called “extra clean”.😢

stickguy · September 2020

oldfarmer50 said:

snakeweasel said:
I was at the Honda dealership over the weekend (powersports not cars) getting some work done on the bike getting her ready for the winter. The place was relatively empty and by that I mean empty of inventory, not nearly as many bikes, quads, watercraft and the like. Talking to the owner he told me that it was hard getting stuff from the manufacturer and that he was selling out of a lot of things. He stated that he wasn't getting his full allotment of inventory, as an example he said that he usually sells over 70 personal watercraft but received less than half of that this year. It's due to the factories being shut down then slowly reopening. On the plus side he said he isn't negotiating on prices and is easily getting MSRP.

I haven't been in a car dealership since I got the BMW so not sure how auto dealers are doing. Any thoughts?
I mentioned over on CCBA that Enterprise has been selling everything for premium prices to dealers. Our wholesale lots are empty, as are the stores. We often deliver a car to customers who have been cooling their heels waiting for us to arrive. We hop out, the renter hops in. There are no cars left to pull out of service.

so you bought cheap on a bankruptcy clearance sale from Hertz, now reselling for a profit? Good business plan!

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

stickguy said:

oldfarmer50 said:

snakeweasel said:
I was at the Honda dealership over the weekend (powersports not cars) getting some work done on the bike getting her ready for the winter. The place was relatively empty and by that I mean empty of inventory, not nearly as many bikes, quads, watercraft and the like. Talking to the owner he told me that it was hard getting stuff from the manufacturer and that he was selling out of a lot of things. He stated that he wasn't getting his full allotment of inventory, as an example he said that he usually sells over 70 personal watercraft but received less than half of that this year. It's due to the factories being shut down then slowly reopening. On the plus side he said he isn't negotiating on prices and is easily getting MSRP.

I haven't been in a car dealership since I got the BMW so not sure how auto dealers are doing. Any thoughts?
I mentioned over on CCBA that Enterprise has been selling everything for premium prices to dealers. Our wholesale lots are empty, as are the stores. We often deliver a car to customers who have been cooling their heels waiting for us to arrive. We hop out, the renter hops in. There are no cars left to pull out of service.
so you bought cheap on a bankruptcy clearance sale from Hertz, now reselling for a profit? Good business plan!

And I get profit sharing.......sweet.😄

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

It’s nice to have a clean car but who has the time?

https://youtu.be/q7NxL4II_vI

stickguy · September 2020

wonder what the back story on that one was?

roadburner · September 2020

I read about a guy who finally took delivery of an F900XR after nearly an 8 month wait. The factory had shut down twice due to COVID-19.

jmonroe1 · September 2020

oldfarmer50 said:
It’s nice to have a clean car but who has the time?

https://youtu.be/q7NxL4II_vI

If nothing else, that last guy can bounce park between the lines.

jmonroe

ronsteve · September 2020

Had a headlight on the RDX going south the last couple weeks, and now really kicking myself for not asking my brother to help with it when I unexpectedly saw him last week.

It finally got to where it was cutting out completely on Sat morning, so I took it in today. Most halogen bulbs are just a pain in the behind for where you have to fit your hands, but HID is truly out of my league.

They wanted to diagnose ballast vs ignitor vs bulb... not sure if this was just a convenient time suck. The service writer mentioned that the bulb was roughly $500 total. So while I waited I was looking at YouTube videos showing bumpers needing to be removed, but also seeing prices for the HID bulb in the 100-125 ballpark, with Genuine Acura parts at the 125 end. I let them do it, total 460+tax... and when I saw the itemized tab it was 232 for the part (holy markup, Batman!) and 228 for labor (actual shop time was maybe 1:15 including diagnostic time).

So for future reference, does the Louisville crew know any indie shops that are good with Honda/Acura? This dealer is way better than any Euro car on the routine maintenance but this headlight seemed to unexpectedly take me back to that level of sticker shock.

stickguy · September 2020

one good thing about my 2013 RDX. It had Halogen bulbs. Though I never had to replace any in 8 years. They worked just fine to me. And the new one has LEDs. I hope they last forever, but I have no clue how easy or cheap those are to replace if any go (and if it was something where you can replace one bulb, or is it an entire unit?)

my TL (a 2000) had Xenons. Toward the end, one of them occasionally would go out, but it was intermittent. I knew it was going to be expensive, so as long as it usually was on, I did not bother with it (car did have 175,000 miles on it!) Just so much easier and cheaper to replace a normal bulb.

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

Oh the good old days of sealed beam headlights. On my van it take four screws accessible from the front, one plug unplugged and done. No lenses to get foggy either. 11 bucks.

kyfdx · September 2020

On my '82 Accord, four headlamps. Had the car for 12 years. Averaged one lamp per year, at least. I could change one out in about two minutes.

BMW had the halogen bulb for the inside DRL go out. Had to remove the air intake, and could barely squeeze three fingers in there to get it. After trying for 20 minutes, got on the internet and found this post: "My hands won't fit in there, I have my girlfriend do it." After 30 more minutes, and all the skin scraped off my right hand, I finally got it changed out.

ab348 · September 2020

Lighting technology sure has changed, I guess for the better in terms of light (although there were/are some composite standard halogen headlights that output a pretty awful pattern), but we tend to forget how terrible sealed beams once were. My Cutlass had the old incandescent sealed beams when got it and the lights were almost theoretical at night. I put in halogen sealed beams and that improved it a lot, damn the originality.

I remember when Dad bought his '73 Volvo new, it was the first car we had with halogen sealed beams. At the time he still had his '68 Volvo as well, which had regular headlights. The difference driving the '73 the first time was remarkable. Not a weak yellowish light but a much stronger beam with almost a blue tinge to it by comparison.

snakeweasel · September 2020

ronsteve said:
Had a headlight on the RDX going south the last couple weeks, and now really kicking myself for not asking my brother to help with it when I unexpectedly saw him last week.

It finally got to where it was cutting out completely on Sat morning, so I took it in today. Most halogen bulbs are just a pain in the behind for where you have to fit your hands, but HID is truly out of my league.

They wanted to diagnose ballast vs ignitor vs bulb... not sure if this was just a convenient time suck. The service writer mentioned that the bulb was roughly $500 total. So while I waited I was looking at YouTube videos showing bumpers needing to be removed, but also seeing prices for the HID bulb in the 100-125 ballpark, with Genuine Acura parts at the 125 end. I let them do it, total 460+tax... and when I saw the itemized tab it was 232 for the part (holy markup, Batman!) and 228 for labor (actual shop time was maybe 1:15 including diagnostic time).

So for future reference, does the Louisville crew know any indie shops that are good with Honda/Acura? This dealer is way better than any Euro car on the routine maintenance but this headlight seemed to unexpectedly take me back to that level of sticker shock.

I had the headlight on the bike go out just the other day. It's an easy fix but a very tight working area. I checked replacement bulbs and they were $55 at the low end. Since I was going to the dealership for the oil change and some adjustments in a few days I held off on getting it to see what they would charge. It was $40 for the part and zero for labor.

imidazol97 · September 2020

@ronsteve
I feel your pain on that one.

I found that the 15 Cruze needs to have the bumper removed per the book method. One of the headlamp units had the amber plastic internal shield over the amber running light bump break loose. Didn't replace.

My 08 Cobalt just the headlight units pop out and you can replace the bulbs. I just replaced the whole wiring harness (about 12 inches long) for the 3 bulbs on one because the contact for the headlight had corrosion and heated and weakened, reducing voltage due to poor contact. These were replacement headlight units because the originals had fogged a little.

But what I learned long ago, is there is often a different method that can be used without doing the bumper removals to get at the headlight units.

$200 per hour is the rate you paid per their using the book time. That's the incentive the techs have for finding the alternate shortcuts--they get paid book time (and the store does too) and they spend less than book time.

14 Malibu looks like both bulbs, projector and high beam halogen, can be removed by loosening some things behind or just forcing to get a little room.

driver100 · September 2020

I guess the good news is....if a new headlight is going to cost $500+ too replace, thieves aren't as likely to steal them if you have to remove the front end and it takes 2 hours to install a new one!

omarman · September 2020

Quick Quack oil change service coming soon? Combine all that with covid testing and mail delivery and QQ could be the next AMZN.

roadburner · September 2020

ronsteve said:
Had a headlight on the RDX going south the last couple weeks, and now really kicking myself for not asking my brother to help with it when I unexpectedly saw him last week.

It finally got to where it was cutting out completely on Sat morning, so I took it in today. Most halogen bulbs are just a pain in the behind for where you have to fit your hands, but HID is truly out of my league.

They wanted to diagnose ballast vs ignitor vs bulb... not sure if this was just a convenient time suck. The service writer mentioned that the bulb was roughly $500 total. So while I waited I was looking at YouTube videos showing bumpers needing to be removed, but also seeing prices for the HID bulb in the 100-125 ballpark, with Genuine Acura parts at the 125 end. I let them do it, total 460+tax... and when I saw the itemized tab it was 232 for the part (holy markup, Batman!) and 228 for labor (actual shop time was maybe 1:15 including diagnostic time).

So for future reference, does the Louisville crew know any indie shops that are good with Honda/Acura? This dealer is way better than any Euro car on the routine maintenance but this headlight seemed to unexpectedly take me back to that level of sticker shock.

Manufacturers sometimes hose you on Xenon bulbs. If the bulb was a D2S I hope that the dealer sent flowers the next morning; I picked up OEM D2S bulbs for both my X3 and MS3 for under $75.

roadburner · September 2020

oldfarmer50 said:
Oh the good old days of sealed beam headlights. On my van it take four screws accessible from the front, one plug unplugged and done. No lenses to get foggy either. 11 bucks.

“good old days”- seriously? Maybe if you never drove over 45 mph at night. Sealed beam headlights are absolutely worthless. When I purchased a car with sealed beams the first thing I did was throw them in the garbage can and replace them with Cibie or Hella E-Code lamps. Even my Jeep got a set- with OSRAM Night Breaker Plus H4 bulbs.

ronsteve · September 2020

I tell you what, at $228 in labor I won't complain so much any more about the hassle (and scraped knuckles) of getting bulbs in and out of the Jetta (or when I had to do it on the Volvo), but I'd still leave the more complicated HID jobs to a pro (high voltage, disconnecting battery and resetting after, can I even execute the shortcuts?).

The real peeve IS indeed the price of the bulb, especially with plenty of dealers online in other places showing ~$125 for Genuine Acura/Honda, even knowing that it's just a Sylvania D2S. Way too much markup at this store!

jmonroe1 · September 2020

I agree that the old sealed beam is pretty bad compared to the new types of lights now available on cars today but are they any worse than the plastics lens on cars today that get cloudy?

Grandson #1 (now a college freshman) just installed one of those bruser bars with LED lights on his 2012 Escape. When I was over at Son #1’s house this past Sunday night my grandson wanted to show me his handy work. Those LED lights are blinding in comparison to his clouded plastic lens head lights. Son #1 said he used 2 different plastic lens refurbishment kits and they did almost nothing. He said he doesn’t like the idea of his son driving at night with the clouded lens and he’s considering taking it to his mechanic for another rub down, if possible, or getting replacement lights altogether which are not cheap even if he got the after market jobs. He then ask me what I thought. I said, (1) have him slow down when he drives at night, seems pretty logical to me and (2) put more carrots in his salad.

jmonroe

roadburner · September 2020

jmonroe1 said:
I agree that the old sealed beam is pretty bad compared to the new types of lights now available on cars today but are they any worse than the plastics lens on cars today that get cloudy?

jmonroe

I guess I lead a charmed life; the Clubman is the only car in my garage that has even a
hint of clouding on the headlights. I recently bought the top rated Sylvania headlamp restoration kit and plan to try it out in a few days. And yes, I realize that it’s a hazardous DIY procedure; I’ll have a fire extinguisher close at hand in case anything bursts into flame.

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

kyfdx said:
On my '82 Accord, four headlamps. Had the car for 12 years. Averaged one lamp per year, at least. I could change one out in about two minutes.

BMW had the halogen bulb for the inside DRL go out. Had to remove the air intake, and could barely squeeze three fingers in there to get it. After trying for 20 minutes, got on the internet and found this post: "My hands won't fit in there, I have my girlfriend do it." After 30 more minutes, and all the skin scraped off my right hand, I finally got it changed out.

Couldn’t get a girlfriend?

The only other car I ever changed the fancy new bulbs on was my old Lincoln. It was tricky from a getting my hands in there standpoint but fairly straight forward. The trouble was that the headlight design was poor and the problem wasn’t the bulb it was that the heat from the bulb burned up the reflective material inside the housing. MarkVIII owners became known as “high beamers” because that was the only way to see at night.

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

roadburner said:

oldfarmer50 said:
Oh the good old days of sealed beam headlights. On my van it take four screws accessible from the front, one plug unplugged and done. No lenses to get foggy either. 11 bucks.

“good old days”- seriously? Maybe if you never drove over 45 mph at night. Sealed beam headlights are absolutely worthless. When I purchased a car with sealed beams the first thing I did was throw them in the garbage can and replace them with Cibie or Hella E-Code lamps. Even my Jeep got a set- with OSRAM Night Breaker Plus H4 bulbs.

Well, I’m not tossing the cargo van through the twisties on some back road at night.

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

jmonroe1 said:
I agree that the old sealed beam is pretty bad compared to the new types of lights now available on cars today but are they any worse than the plastics lens on cars today that get cloudy?

Grandson #1 (now a college freshman) just installed one of those bruser bars with LED lights on his 2012 Escape. When I was over at Son #1’s house this past Sunday night my grandson wanted to show me his handy work. Those LED lights are blinding in comparison to his clouded plastic lens head lights. Son #1 said he used 2 different plastic lens refurbishment kits and they did almost nothing. He said he doesn’t like the idea of his son driving at night with the clouded lens and he’s considering taking it to his mechanic for another rub down, if possible, or getting replacement lights altogether which are not cheap even if he got the after market jobs. He then ask me what I thought. I said, (1) have him slow down when he drives at night, seems pretty logical to me and (2) put more carrots in his salad.

jmonroe

I just replaced the headlights in the Sebring. I didn’t think they were that bad considering the age but compared to the new ones they were pretty cloudy.

imidazol97 · September 2020

jmonroe1 said:
I agree that the old sealed beam is pretty bad compared to the new types of lights now available on cars today but are they any worse than the plastics lens on cars today that get cloudy?

Grandson #1 (now a college freshman) just installed one of those bruser bars with LED lights on his 2012 Escape. When I was over at Son #1’s house this past Sunday night my grandson wanted to show me his handy work. Those LED lights are blinding in comparison to his clouded plastic lens head lights. Son #1 said he used 2 different plastic lens refurbishment kits and they did almost nothing. He said he doesn’t like the idea of his son driving at night with the clouded lens and he’s considering taking it to his mechanic for another rub down, if possible, or getting replacement lights altogether which are not cheap even if he got the after market jobs. He then ask me what I thought. I said, (1) have him slow down when he drives at night, seems pretty logical to me and (2) put more carrots in his salad.

jmonroe

I searched online and on ebay for a while, reading the reviews of headlight units for the Cobalt. I found one that seemed to have a good reputation and ordered both L and R. Good quality units, and having the plastic housing CLEAR again made a definite difference in the light at night.

I did not want to put in the extra bright bulbs to compensate like the Sylvania bulbs that just blast light everywhere. Those make more heat, pull a little more current, and failed more often.

qbrozen · September 2020

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:
I agree that the old sealed beam is pretty bad compared to the new types of lights now available on cars today but are they any worse than the plastics lens on cars today that get cloudy?

Grandson #1 (now a college freshman) just installed one of those bruser bars with LED lights on his 2012 Escape. When I was over at Son #1’s house this past Sunday night my grandson wanted to show me his handy work. Those LED lights are blinding in comparison to his clouded plastic lens head lights. Son #1 said he used 2 different plastic lens refurbishment kits and they did almost nothing. He said he doesn’t like the idea of his son driving at night with the clouded lens and he’s considering taking it to his mechanic for another rub down, if possible, or getting replacement lights altogether which are not cheap even if he got the after market jobs. He then ask me what I thought. I said, (1) have him slow down when he drives at night, seems pretty logical to me and (2) put more carrots in his salad.

jmonroe
I just replaced the headlights in the Sebring. I didn’t think they were that bad considering the age but compared to the new ones they were pretty cloudy.

I think you should glue those down right where they are. You can tell people they are rally lights.

explorerx4 · September 2020

Here is one of the headlights on my Mustang.
It doesn't get driven in the winter, so that does help.

stickguy · September 2020

Nice work OF.

I kinda want to buy an older car, just so I have a reason to do some putt with it projects.

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

stickguy said:
Nice work OF.

I kinda want to buy an older car, just so I have a reason to do some putt with it projects.

Glad you said that, I found a manual for you up near me. I’m sure it will give you hours of project time.

https://albany.craigslist.org/ctd/d/albany-2016-volkswagen-golf-18t/7204691419.html

Or if you want a real old hooptie there’s this:

https://newlondon.craigslist.org/ctd/d/fiskeville/7198414038.html

Basically a Mitsu Eclipse underneath.

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

explorerx4 said:
Here is one of the headlights on my Mustang.
It doesn't get driven in the winter, so that does help.

Are those glass or plastic? My early 90s cars had the bulb that inserted in the back of a glass housing. Could never understand why they did away with that. Glass never clouded over.

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

qbrozen said:

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:
I agree that the old sealed beam is pretty bad compared to the new types of lights now available on cars today but are they any worse than the plastics lens on cars today that get cloudy?

Grandson #1 (now a college freshman) just installed one of those bruser bars with LED lights on his 2012 Escape. When I was over at Son #1’s house this past Sunday night my grandson wanted to show me his handy work. Those LED lights are blinding in comparison to his clouded plastic lens head lights. Son #1 said he used 2 different plastic lens refurbishment kits and they did almost nothing. He said he doesn’t like the idea of his son driving at night with the clouded lens and he’s considering taking it to his mechanic for another rub down, if possible, or getting replacement lights altogether which are not cheap even if he got the after market jobs. He then ask me what I thought. I said, (1) have him slow down when he drives at night, seems pretty logical to me and (2) put more carrots in his salad.

jmonroe
I just replaced the headlights in the Sebring. I didn’t think they were that bad considering the age but compared to the new ones they were pretty cloudy.

I think you should glue those down right where they are. You can tell people they are rally lights.

Yeah but then I’d have to paint flames down the sides of the car.

imidazol97 · September 2020

oldfarmer50 said:

Yeah but then I’d have to paint flames down the sides of the car.

Those lights have a plausible look. It would fit right in with the 58, 59, 60 era
of car styling..

Even looks a little like the 2018 Chev pickup with the 4 headlights

explorerx4 · September 2020

@oldfarmer50,
All those lenses are plastic.

snakeweasel · September 2020

oldfarmer50 said:

qbrozen said:

oldfarmer50 said:

jmonroe1 said:
I agree that the old sealed beam is pretty bad compared to the new types of lights now available on cars today but are they any worse than the plastics lens on cars today that get cloudy?

Grandson #1 (now a college freshman) just installed one of those bruser bars with LED lights on his 2012 Escape. When I was over at Son #1’s house this past Sunday night my grandson wanted to show me his handy work. Those LED lights are blinding in comparison to his clouded plastic lens head lights. Son #1 said he used 2 different plastic lens refurbishment kits and they did almost nothing. He said he doesn’t like the idea of his son driving at night with the clouded lens and he’s considering taking it to his mechanic for another rub down, if possible, or getting replacement lights altogether which are not cheap even if he got the after market jobs. He then ask me what I thought. I said, (1) have him slow down when he drives at night, seems pretty logical to me and (2) put more carrots in his salad.

jmonroe
I just replaced the headlights in the Sebring. I didn’t think they were that bad considering the age but compared to the new ones they were pretty cloudy.

I think you should glue those down right where they are. You can tell people they are rally lights.
Yeah but then I’d have to paint flames down the sides of the car.

Yeah but you could do the flames like this car, rather subtle.

stickguy · September 2020

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:
Nice work OF.

I kinda want to buy an older car, just so I have a reason to do some putt with it projects.
Glad you said that, I found a manual for you up near me. I’m sure it will give you hours of project time.

https://albany.craigslist.org/ctd/d/albany-2016-volkswagen-golf-18t/7204691419.html

Or if you want a real old hooptie there’s this:

https://newlondon.craigslist.org/ctd/d/fiskeville/7198414038.html

Basically a Mitsu Eclipse underneath.

the Golf does not look too bad. Seems like a decent choice for spare car duties. Probably a little overpriced.

a 16 YO Chrysler? Hard to talk myself into that one. But the manual, interesting. Did not even know they came that way. And it has a moonroof, and certainly cheap enough.

roadburner · September 2020

The original headlamps on the Club Sport:

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

stickguy said:

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:
Nice work OF.

I kinda want to buy an older car, just so I have a reason to do some putt with it projects.
Glad you said that, I found a manual for you up near me. I’m sure it will give you hours of project time.

https://albany.craigslist.org/ctd/d/albany-2016-volkswagen-golf-18t/7204691419.html

Or if you want a real old hooptie there’s this:

https://newlondon.craigslist.org/ctd/d/fiskeville/7198414038.html

Basically a Mitsu Eclipse underneath.
the Golf does not look too bad. Seems like a decent choice for spare car duties. Probably a little overpriced.

a 16 YO Chrysler? Hard to talk myself into that one. But the manual, interesting. Did not even know they came that way. And it has a moonroof, and certainly cheap enough.

It’s not really a Chrysler, it’s a rebadged Mitsubishi, arguably a bit better than a totally Chrysler design. You said you’d consider an old car to do some wrenching on. I bet the Chrysler parts would give you plenty to fix.

stickguy · September 2020

True. Did not realize that one had a lot of Mitsubishi underneath. For the price, why not!

jmonroe1 · September 2020

roadburner said:
The original headlamps on the Club Sport:

Oh, oh. Who’s going to stand fire watch for this job?

jmonroe

ronsteve · September 2020

stickguy said:
True. Did not realize that one had a lot of Mitsubishi underneath. For the price, why not!

Yep, the coupes were truly Eclipse twins, while the sedans and the Sebring vert were true Chrysler.

qbrozen · September 2020

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:
Nice work OF.

I kinda want to buy an older car, just so I have a reason to do some putt with it projects.
Glad you said that, I found a manual for you up near me. I’m sure it will give you hours of project time.

https://albany.craigslist.org/ctd/d/albany-2016-volkswagen-golf-18t/7204691419.html

Or if you want a real old hooptie there’s this:

https://newlondon.craigslist.org/ctd/d/fiskeville/7198414038.html

Basically a Mitsu Eclipse underneath.

In the long long ago, I was once hunting for a manual V6 Sebring coupe like that. Never did find one, obviously. Can't recall what I wound up with at that time. I know it was the 3.0 mitsu, so must have been the 2nd gen. That may have been when I wound up with a 350z.

jmonroe1 · September 2020

qbrozen said:

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:
Nice work OF.

I kinda want to buy an older car, just so I have a reason to do some putt with it projects.
Glad you said that, I found a manual for you up near me. I’m sure it will give you hours of project time.

https://albany.craigslist.org/ctd/d/albany-2016-volkswagen-golf-18t/7204691419.html

Or if you want a real old hooptie there’s this:

https://newlondon.craigslist.org/ctd/d/fiskeville/7198414038.html

Basically a Mitsu Eclipse underneath.
In the long long ago, I was once hunting for a manual V6 Sebring coupe like that. Never did find one, obviously. Can't recall what I wound up with at that time. I know it was the 3.0 mitsu, so must have been the 2nd gen. That may have been when I wound up with a 350z.

There comes a time when everybody has to settle.

jmonroe

stickguy · September 2020

Gee farmer, now you got me wanting the dumb thing!

jmonroe1 · September 2020

stickguy said:
Gee farmer, now you got me wanting the dumb thing!

I’ve never heard a car being called dumb. Now owners...that’s a different car story.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50 · September 2020

qbrozen said:

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:
Nice work OF.

I kinda want to buy an older car, just so I have a reason to do some putt with it projects.
Glad you said that, I found a manual for you up near me. I’m sure it will give you hours of project time.

https://albany.craigslist.org/ctd/d/albany-2016-volkswagen-golf-18t/7204691419.html

Or if you want a real old hooptie there’s this:

https://newlondon.craigslist.org/ctd/d/fiskeville/7198414038.html

Basically a Mitsu Eclipse underneath.
In the long long ago, I was once hunting for a manual V6 Sebring coupe like that. Never did find one, obviously. Can't recall what I wound up with at that time. I know it was the 3.0 mitsu, so must have been the 2nd gen. That may have been when I wound up with a 350z.

Given a choice I’d take a 350z any day. I wouldn’t trust my ability to judge if a used one was abused or not so given my beer budget I might choose the Chrysler just to have some gears to row. The mileage would be hard to resist.

stickguy · September 2020

If it’s clean, for that price, seems harmless enough.

qbrozen · September 2020

oldfarmer50 said:

qbrozen said:

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:
Nice work OF.

I kinda want to buy an older car, just so I have a reason to do some putt with it projects.
Glad you said that, I found a manual for you up near me. I’m sure it will give you hours of project time.

https://albany.craigslist.org/ctd/d/albany-2016-volkswagen-golf-18t/7204691419.html

Or if you want a real old hooptie there’s this:

https://newlondon.craigslist.org/ctd/d/fiskeville/7198414038.html

Basically a Mitsu Eclipse underneath.
In the long long ago, I was once hunting for a manual V6 Sebring coupe like that. Never did find one, obviously. Can't recall what I wound up with at that time. I know it was the 3.0 mitsu, so must have been the 2nd gen. That may have been when I wound up with a 350z.
Given a choice I’d take a 350z any day. I wouldn’t trust my ability to judge if a used one was abused or not so given my beer budget I might choose the Chrysler just to have some gears to row. The mileage would be hard to resist.

If that is indeed when it happened, it was likely one of those times where a budget increased significantly. Lol.

Possibly, maybe, it was when I wound up with the $1,000 300z, but I think that came much later.

abacomike · September 2020

At 8:00 AM this morning, I received a call from my daughter, crying her heart out - literally - because as she approached her office, her 2010 Honda Accord EX Coupe had just came to a crunching halt. She had to get help from her staff to push the car into the recreation center where she works. I could feel her tears as she went on and on over the fact that she is in trouble and looking for help from dear old Dad.

She told me she was having her car towed to her mechanic's garage to see what could be done. I suggested that she have the car towed to her local Honda Dealership since, as she described what happened to me over the phone, it sounded like either her engine gave out or that something was wrong with the transaxle. She followed my advice and had the car towed to the Honda dealer. I told her I would help her and, after showering and shaving, I drove up to her work and picked her up.

I drove her to her apartment so she could pick up the title to the Honda Accord EX Coupe, her checkbook (which had enough in the account to pay for a nice dinner at Morton's Steakhouse, but not a penny more, and her insurance paper work. I then drove her to the Honda Dealer. She tried out several models and finally landed on a Honda Civic EX Coupe in white with black cloth interior. MSRP was about $24,455 which included shipping. Edmund's stated that the average purchase price was $22,908. Then they added dealers fee of $999, tinting, pinstriping, and a bunch of other BS add-ons for $1800, 7% sales tax (6% + $50.00), DMV stuff, etc., and came up with a price out the door of $27,990. I told them I would give them one price - if they met that price we would buy the car - if not, we walk. My offer was $26,000 out the door. They argued that I was not paying for the dealer fee or the add-ons and wanted the car for dead invoice. I responded "YES"! After about 20 minutes, he came back and said they couldn't meet my price. Their counter offer was for $26,001.00. They were being cute.

Now that we had arrived at a sales price, we needed to find out if she could finance the car. Her credit history is a bit tarnished - I'm being positive here and that was the best way I could describe her FICO score - so they came up with a 6.1% 75 month loan with Wells Fargo, the only bank willing to finance her purchase. Since she keeps a car for many, many years, she also wanted an extended warranty - so through Berkshire-Hathaway, we added a 6 year 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty (3 additional years over and above what Honda Warrants) with no deductibles and no exclusions. Honda dealership accepts that insurance up to $5,000 on a consignment basis. Honda didn't offer an extended warranty on this car. So, we added $1700 for the warranty and she ended up with a payment of $329 a month.

Needless to say, I am exhausted from all the rushing around. I really hated the fact that that dealership had leg up on getting a deal done because the broken axled Accord was in their service department and if we didn't buy a new car there, we would have to pay to have it towed somewhere else.

All in all, it was an experience I never, ever want to go through again for the rest of my life. Besides, It cost me $8000 which is $8000 less I have in reserve and $8000 less the kids will inherit.

UGH!!!

stickguy · September 2020

what did they give you for the old Accord? And what exactly was wrong with it?

jmonroe1 · September 2020

abacomike said:
At 8:00 AM this morning, I received a call from my daughter, crying her heart out - literally - because as she approached her office, her 2010 Honda Accord EX Coupe had just came to a crunching halt. She had to get help from her staff to push the car into the recreation center where she works. I could feel her tears as she went on and on over the fact that she is in trouble and looking for help from dear old Dad.

She told me she was having her car towed to her mechanic's garage to see what could be done. I suggested that she have the car towed to her local Honda Dealership since, as she described what happened to me over the phone, it sounded like either her engine gave out or that something was wrong with the transaxle. She followed my advice and had the car towed to the Honda dealer. I told her I would help her and, after showering and shaving, I drove up to her work and picked her up.

I drove her to her apartment so she could pick up the title to the Honda Accord EX Coupe, her checkbook (which had enough in the account to pay for a nice dinner at Morton's Steakhouse, but not a penny more, and her insurance paper work. I then drove her to the Honda Dealer. She tried out several models and finally landed on a Honda Civic EX Coupe in white with black cloth interior. MSRP was about $24,455 which included shipping. Edmund's stated that the average purchase price was $22,908. Then they added dealers fee of $999, tinting, pinstriping, and a bunch of other BS add-ons for $1800, 7% sales tax (6% + $50.00), DMV stuff, etc., and came up with a price out the door of $27,990. I told them I would give them one price - if they met that price we would buy the car - if not, we walk. My offer was $26,000 out the door. They argued that I was not paying for the dealer fee or the add-ons and wanted the car for dead invoice. I responded "YES"! After about 20 minutes, he came back and said they couldn't meet my price. Their counter offer was for $26,001.00. They were being cute.

Now that we had arrived at a sales price, we needed to find out if she could finance the car. Her credit history is a bit tarnished - I'm being positive here and that was the best way I could describe her FICO score - so they came up with a 6.1% 75 month loan with Wells Fargo, the only bank willing to finance her purchase. Since she keeps a car for many, many years, she also wanted an extended warranty - so through Berkshire-Hathaway, we added a 6 year 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty (3 additional years over and above what Honda Warrants) with no deductibles and no exclusions. Honda dealership accepts that insurance up to $5,000 on a consignment basis. Honda didn't offer an extended warranty on this car. So, we added $1700 for the warranty and she ended up with a payment of $329 a month.

Needless to say, I am exhausted from all the rushing around. I really hated the fact that that dealership had leg up on getting a deal done because the broken axled Accord was in their service department and if we didn't buy a new car there, we would have to pay to have it towed somewhere else.

All in all, it was an experience I never, ever want to go through again for the rest of my life. Besides, It cost me $8000 which is $8000 less I have in reserve and $8000 less the kids will inherit.

UGH!!!

I guess that means I get less too, huh?

jmonroe

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