Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

xwesx · January 2021

corvette said:
I've been fortunate not to run into longevity issues with them. We had two 2011 base model MacBook Airs in my family. They were both retired in the last year due to no longer being officially supported with OS security updates, and they had no SSD issues.

Thankfully, I have had no SSD issues with my personal computers, but my work-issued computers are a different story. In my office alone, we have only been running SSD-based machines for about five years now, and we have had four failures (a total of about 15 machines). So, not a terrible record, but that's still four failures in only FIVE years (or less... mine failed at three years)! With HDDs, we never had a single drive failure.

xwesx · January 2021

qbrozen said:

same here. Got one for our basement studio, figuring it would be nice to hook up to the TV and do video calls. Wife complained the wi-fi on it is too slow, even after I got an external adapter. My son is now using it instead of the school-provided Chromebook, and it is WAY BETTER than that one.

Haha! I think my son's favorite past-time is to poo-poo the Chromebooks at his high school. I occasionally need to tell him to zip it when he gets on one of his rants about them, as there are only so many times I can tolerate listening to it!

He has a desktop computer that is on the verge of twelve years old, and a laptop even older, and he will regularly marvel at how much better those run than the Chromebooks.

stickguy · January 2021

One for RB. other than the color, isn’t this the dream? 2019, stick, exec, slick top?

https://www.bmwofmtlaurel.com/inventory/certified-used-2019-bmw-m2-competition-rwd-2d-coupe-wbs2u7c57k7d15753/

Much nicer color, 10k fewer miles but not CPO. I can’t tell if it has exec package like the black one (which I probably drove right past yesterday).

https://www.piazzaautogroup.com/used/BMW/2019-BMW-M2-25cc8c460a0d04fe3b21eb0484f3d33f.htm

qbrozen · January 2021

xwesx said:

qbrozen said:

same here. Got one for our basement studio, figuring it would be nice to hook up to the TV and do video calls. Wife complained the wi-fi on it is too slow, even after I got an external adapter. My son is now using it instead of the school-provided Chromebook, and it is WAY BETTER than that one.
Haha! I think my son's favorite past-time is to poo-poo the Chromebooks at his high school. I occasionally need to tell him to zip it when he gets on one of his rants about them, as there are only so many times I can tolerate listening to it!

He has a desktop computer that is on the verge of twelve years old, and a laptop even older, and he will regularly marvel at how much better those run than the Chromebooks.

The schools are asking way too much of them. Chromebooks were always intended to just surf the net. That is why they are named after a browser! But now schools are saying "hey, let's do all of our schoolwork on these!" Nope. Even just an online meeting it can't handle. It totally chokes on that kind of bandwidth. Now you want to hold a meeting with 25 kids on screen while you show a video and have them take notes in a Google doc? hahahahahah!

fintail · January 2021

Officiating youth hockey these days, in some regions especially, should entail enough hazard pay for the kid to be able to afford a Raptor

For the modern MBs with Distronic and LEDs etc, I wonder what the average speed of a front end crash is needed to create a total loss. Probably not huge.

Jumping in on the SSD discussion, I haven't had a HDD failure since the spinny days either - but I am maybe not a heavy user. I have had Micro SD cards fail in the dashcam, as it will chew up the normal cheap grades - dashcams need a heavy duty type.

nyccarguy said:
No punches for me, but some interesting news and notes. A friend of mine has a kid who started his own landscaping business last year. Just got his license. He saved up money from cutting grass, officiating hockey, & they contributed as well. They started out looking at used pickups, then asked me about leasing, they ended up finding a 2011 F150 Lariat with the 6.2L V8 locally with under 90,000 miles.

My sister finally got her Mercedes back last week. The total repair bill was north of $22,000. The car was completely drivable away from the scene of the accident.

My best friend who just a few short months ago bought a used Raptor to daily drive also has a 2015 Wrangler Rubicon Hard Rock 6MT & a 2020 Grand Cherokee Summit just bought (with his friend/business partner) a 2005 Wrangler Unlimited (LJ) with 60K miles and a 6 Speed for $12K.

venture · January 2021

qbrozen said:

venture said:

stickguy said:
not a car, but after some looking and research, got the wife (well, ordered) a new laptop to replace the 11 YO macbook she inherited from our daughter 6 years ago. Never did like it, or know how to use it, and at this point doesn't even update.

ended up with her deciding she wanted a bigger screen, so got a 15.6. And she thought the touchscreen was cool, so on the list.

and just like with cars, scope creep crept in. Turned into a Lenovo with extra capacity (12 gig RAM and 256 SSD) and a bit of an upgraded processor. Total overkill for her, but she liked the way it looked, and if she doesn't want it, I'll be happy to take it since it's a lot nicer than the old one I use!
YOGA? Sounds a lot like the one I got about 6 months ago. Pretty nice machines.
same here. Got one for our basement studio, figuring it would be nice to hook up to the TV and do video calls. Wife complained the wi-fi on it is too slow, even after I got an external adapter. My son is now using it instead of the school-provided Chromebook, and it is WAY BETTER than that one.

I bought mine mostly for Zoom meetings. The camera on my old one was not very good.

My wife uses it now for whatever she does so I don't see it much. She has used it for some of her school remote meetings too. She likes it better than her school issued one.

Now that I think about it, I don't think she has used her desktop in quite a while. Her UPS failed, a month or so ago, so I got her another one and it's sitting here in my office - hasn't even been plugged in yet.

nyccarguy · January 2021

fintail said:
Officiating youth hockey these days, in some regions especially, should entail enough hazard pay for the kid to be able to afford a Raptor

For the modern MBs with Distronic and LEDs etc, I wonder what the average speed of a front end crash is needed to create a total loss. Probably not huge.

Jumping in on the SSD discussion, I haven't had a HDD failure since the spinny days either - but I am maybe not a heavy user. I have had Micro SD cards fail in the dashcam, as it will chew up the normal cheap grades - dashcams need a heavy duty type.

nyccarguy said:
No punches for me, but some interesting news and notes. A friend of mine has a kid who started his own landscaping business last year. Just got his license. He saved up money from cutting grass, officiating hockey, & they contributed as well. They started out looking at used pickups, then asked me about leasing, they ended up finding a 2011 F150 Lariat with the 6.2L V8 locally with under 90,000 miles.

My sister finally got her Mercedes back last week. The total repair bill was north of $22,000. The car was completely drivable away from the scene of the accident.

My best friend who just a few short months ago bought a used Raptor to daily drive also has a 2015 Wrangler Rubicon Hard Rock 6MT & a 2020 Grand Cherokee Summit just bought (with his friend/business partner) a 2005 Wrangler Unlimited (LJ) with 60K miles and a 6 Speed for $12K.

sda · January 2021

That was 22K in damage?? Holy cow.

28firefighter · January 2021

That was $22k worth of damage? Whew!

venture · January 2021

28firefighter said:
That was $22k worth of damage? Whew!

I guess when somebody taps your bumper any more you don't say, "That's OK. I'll take care of it".

nyccarguy · January 2021

She was stopped at a light and the guy that hit her had no plans on stopping. If I had seen that damage not knowing what happened, I’d say “no way that’s $22K worth of damage.” An SUV with $22K worth of damage should have had to be towed from the accident scene. She said the car drove away like nothing had happened. Just the seat belts & a bunch of warning lights on the dashboard.

roadburner · January 2021

stickguy said:
One for RB. other than the color, isn’t this the dream? 2019, stick, exec, slick top?

https://www.bmwofmtlaurel.com/inventory/certified-used-2019-bmw-m2-competition-rwd-2d-coupe-wbs2u7c57k7d15753/

Much nicer color, 10k fewer miles but not CPO. I can’t tell if it has exec package like the black one (which I probably drove right past yesterday).

https://www.piazzaautogroup.com/used/BMW/2019-BMW-M2-25cc8c460a0d04fe3b21eb0484f3d33f.htm

I've looked at the Sunset Orange car; it has the Exec Pkg.- you can tell by the Nanny Buttons under the headlamp switch as well as the heated wheel.

qbrozen · January 2021

no way. I can't buy $22k there. Must be something we aren't seeing. Was she pushed into a vehicle in front of her?

explorerx4 · January 2021

Probably a lot of one time safety features were activated, seat belt tensioners, etc.
A lady I worked with had a RAV 4. Was filling up at a gas station up north(New Hampshire?).
A snowmobile pulls up to the pump behind her, then decides to move up closer.
Goosed the gas and ran into the back of the RAV 4. 5K+ damage.

corvette · January 2021

I was browsing FB Marketplace (and now I feel like I need a shower), but it amazes me how many final-generation S-10s I saw on there. Those and Cavaliers/Cobalts seem to truly be automotive cockroaches.

oldfarmer50 · January 2021

tjc78 said:

stickguy said:
slight chance that my next car might becoming from within the family. My daughter is cooking up a scheme to move to beantown to move in with her college roomie (downtown someplace). If it happens, she won't have parking so was figuring on getting rid of her car. Depending on all the factors, might make more sense for me to just take it off her hands instead. But, a lot has to happen to get from here to there.

would not be a bad idea. It is a nice car.
Well you’ve cleaned and maintained it, so may as well own it.

Who paid for it. Daddy may already own it.

oldfarmer50 · January 2021

stickguy said:

sda said:
@stickguy, Your daughter has a Jetta R-type if I recall? How does she like it? My BIL has a 2020 Jetta SE as his company car that replaced his 2018 Jetta SEL. He really likes his current Jetta though he misses the adaptive cruise control from the 18. He visited us this weekend and it was parked next to the TL. They are both the same size!

yes, a 2019 R line in white Silver ( a darker grayish white. very nice looking). She likes it. Been a good car, but it did just crack 40K miles (in 2.5 years), thanks to time spent doing a 90 mile/day commute. Not accumulating nearly as fast now. So 3.5 years/32K miles left on the warranty. Going to hurt sale price (maybe the high used values hold up?) but works out for me given how little I drive. I am curious what Carvana, etc. would hit it at. Good thing for her is she has it almost fully paid off so will get a nice chunk of change out of it.

I believe the apartment (and intended one to move to) is more downtown, not out in a fringe neighborhood, so having a car is going to be a non starter. and really makes little sense to keep owning it and keeping it here, or finding someplace outside the city (we have some friends out in the burbs) to park it for extended periods. Will just be an urbanite, and mostly public transit or Uber, and on the occasion she needs to get someplace that requires driving, zipcar is available.

all speculation at this point. She was talking to her friend up there today cooking all this up, but will have to deal with the pesky job situation somehow. But at least she is excited about it!

and if she does go, that takes our last tie to the area out of play, so the likelihood of us moving somewhere between Saratoga and New Hampshire goes way up. Mom can't be that far from her baby!

Just get a place near the Mass Pike. Lee has all those discount outlets and Williamstown is very Saratoga-like and a gateway to Vermont. (Was up there today and Oh! those mountains covered in snow).

oldfarmer50 · January 2021

stickguy said:
One for RB. other than the color, isn’t this the dream? 2019, stick, exec, slick top?

https://www.bmwofmtlaurel.com/inventory/certified-used-2019-bmw-m2-competition-rwd-2d-coupe-wbs2u7c57k7d15753/

Much nicer color, 10k fewer miles but not CPO. I can’t tell if it has exec package like the black one (which I probably drove right past yesterday).

https://www.piazzaautogroup.com/used/BMW/2019-BMW-M2-25cc8c460a0d04fe3b21eb0484f3d33f.htm

Awful lot of black on that first one.

I like the color on the second. Atypical for a BMW.

28firefighter · January 2021

Subaru is back. The tech did not properly torque the drain plug, as expected. Gave me a loaner, refunded my oil change and gave me a credit towards a new one. Also offered to send a cleaning crew to the house to clean the garage floor, which I declined. Very satisfied with how they handled.

Ended up with a 21 Impreza Hatch Loaner. Decidedly meh and very slow relatively to the H6 in the Outback, but it accomplished the task at hand just fine.

oldfarmer50 · January 2021

qbrozen said:

xwesx said:

qbrozen said:

same here. Got one for our basement studio, figuring it would be nice to hook up to the TV and do video calls. Wife complained the wi-fi on it is too slow, even after I got an external adapter. My son is now using it instead of the school-provided Chromebook, and it is WAY BETTER than that one.
Haha! I think my son's favorite past-time is to poo-poo the Chromebooks at his high school. I occasionally need to tell him to zip it when he gets on one of his rants about them, as there are only so many times I can tolerate listening to it!

He has a desktop computer that is on the verge of twelve years old, and a laptop even older, and he will regularly marvel at how much better those run than the Chromebooks.
The schools are asking way too much of them. Chromebooks were always intended to just surf the net. That is why they are named after a browser! But now schools are saying "hey, let's do all of our schoolwork on these!" Nope. Even just an online meeting it can't handle. It totally chokes on that kind of bandwidth. Now you want to hold a meeting with 25 kids on screen while you show a video and have them take notes in a Google doc? hahahahahah!

Just based on what I didn’t understand of what you said I’m glad I’m not in school any more.

sda · January 2021

28firefighter said:
Subaru is back. The tech did not properly torque the drain plug, as expected. Gave me a loaner, refunded my oil change and gave me a credit towards a new one. Also offered to send a cleaning crew to the house to clean the garage floor, which I declined. Very satisfied with how they handled.

Ended up with a 21 Impreza Hatch Loaner. Decidedly meh and very slow relatively to the H6 in the Outback, but it accomplished the task at hand just fine.

I must have missed one of your posts. What’s up with the Subaru?

28firefighter · January 2021

Went in for an oil change last week. Found a puddle of oil underneath the car in the garage a few days later. New oil, but oil nonetheless.

stickguy · January 2021

oldfarmer50 said:

tjc78 said:

stickguy said:
slight chance that my next car might becoming from within the family. My daughter is cooking up a scheme to move to beantown to move in with her college roomie (downtown someplace). If it happens, she won't have parking so was figuring on getting rid of her car. Depending on all the factors, might make more sense for me to just take it off her hands instead. But, a lot has to happen to get from here to there.

would not be a bad idea. It is a nice car.
Well you’ve cleaned and maintained it, so may as well own it.
Who paid for it. Daddy may already own it.

she paid for it all. Other than the $1,000 I put on my CC at delivery, since you couldn't put it all on one. Or something like that. I never asked her for that back. he paid everything since then

stickguy · January 2021

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

sda said:
@stickguy, Your daughter has a Jetta R-type if I recall? How does she like it? My BIL has a 2020 Jetta SE as his company car that replaced his 2018 Jetta SEL. He really likes his current Jetta though he misses the adaptive cruise control from the 18. He visited us this weekend and it was parked next to the TL. They are both the same size!

yes, a 2019 R line in white Silver ( a darker grayish white. very nice looking). She likes it. Been a good car, but it did just crack 40K miles (in 2.5 years), thanks to time spent doing a 90 mile/day commute. Not accumulating nearly as fast now. So 3.5 years/32K miles left on the warranty. Going to hurt sale price (maybe the high used values hold up?) but works out for me given how little I drive. I am curious what Carvana, etc. would hit it at. Good thing for her is she has it almost fully paid off so will get a nice chunk of change out of it.

I believe the apartment (and intended one to move to) is more downtown, not out in a fringe neighborhood, so having a car is going to be a non starter. and really makes little sense to keep owning it and keeping it here, or finding someplace outside the city (we have some friends out in the burbs) to park it for extended periods. Will just be an urbanite, and mostly public transit or Uber, and on the occasion she needs to get someplace that requires driving, zipcar is available.

all speculation at this point. She was talking to her friend up there today cooking all this up, but will have to deal with the pesky job situation somehow. But at least she is excited about it!

and if she does go, that takes our last tie to the area out of play, so the likelihood of us moving somewhere between Saratoga and New Hampshire goes way up. Mom can't be that far from her baby!
Just get a place near the Mass Pike. Lee has all those discount outlets and Williamstown is very Saratoga-like and a gateway to Vermont. (Was up there today and Oh! those mountains covered in snow).

if her move goes off, most likely I will look closer at NH. Should be cheaper than Vermont! Not looking at Mass though.

stickguy · January 2021

speaking of oil changes, the service wrench came on in the RDX yesterday. So made an appointment for Friday. So few miles (4,400) that it isn't even asking for a tire rotation yet. Got a coupon from the dealer, Oil and filter, MPI, $29.99. Seems like a deal to me. Will wait for it, and walk the lot for fresh air and to kill time. Maybe finally sit in a new TLX. Would be nice if the new MDX was there, but might be too early for those.

roadburner · January 2021

My son may have a punch soon...

stickguy · January 2021

just got the monthly email from Acura with vehicle health on the RDX. Actually gives the oil life % (which was 46%). So looks like the maintenance counter looks at days also. This is probably 1 year from when it was made and shipped.

stickguy · January 2021

roadburner said:
My son may have a punch soon...

I like that one. A lot. great colors.

fintail · January 2021

That's nutty. Was the driver's rear quarter warped or the hatch bent or something?

nyccarguy said:

explorerx4 · January 2021

What's a 330E?

stickguy · January 2021

a 3 series mild hybrid. At least I don't think it plugs in.

explorerx4 · January 2021

I wish RB's son the best, but looks like a recipe for disaster.

nyccarguy · January 2021

qbrozen said:
no way. I can't buy $22k there. Must be something we aren't seeing. Was she pushed into a vehicle in front of her?

@qbrozen - no car in front of her. I’ll see if she’ll send me a copy of the work order or invoice. Crazy. I know.

28firefighter · January 2021

330e is a bargain for what you get!

roadburner · January 2021

stickguy said:
a 3 series mild hybrid. At least I don't think it plugs in.

It does plug in- and there are three drive modes(in addition to the usual Sport, Comfort, and Eco Pro modes every BMW gets):

Auto eDrive: Either the gas or elecrtic motor is used depending on speed and acceleration demands
Max eDrive: Electric motor only
Battery Save: Gas only- while maintaining or increasing the battery charge level

This one is reasonably well equipped- it's a base Sport with H-K, SiriusXM, CWP, Professional Navigation, Comfort Access and PDC. It has a full local service history, and the dealer just put a set of Pirelli P7 tires on it- not my first choice but not terrible. My son's only concern is finding a convenient charging station; if he could charge it every 2-3 days he'd likely never engage the gas motor driving to or from work.
It can be certified for only $900, which would mean he'd have 2 years of warranty and could also get a 36 month loan from BMW Financial at 0.9%.

roadburner · January 2021

explorerx4 said:
I wish RB's son the best, but looks like a recipe for disaster.

How so?

28firefighter · January 2021

These cars were leasing so cheap and have depreciated so fast, they’re a bargain used. That’s a great spec.

roadburner · January 2021

28firefighter said:
These cars were leasing so cheap and have depreciated so fast, they’re a bargain used. That’s a great spec.

I was one of the people at my dealer that was certified to sell the i and iPerformance cars, an I think that they are really nice. One salesman was leasing a 330e M Sport for his wife; she drove to work on the battery and drove home on gas- she was averaging 75 mpg.

stickguy · January 2021

I need a car even less than before right now, but if I was looking in that rough price range (basically a new higher end Civic or Mazda 3 type car), I would definitely consider that 330 instead. though not sure I would want it out of warranty with all the extra complexity.

roadburner · January 2021

stickguy said:
I need a car even less than before right now, but if I was looking in that rough price range (basically a new higher end Civic or Mazda 3 type car), I would definitely consider that 330 instead. though not sure I would want it out of warranty with all the extra complexity.

It’s actually not all that more complex than an F30 330i; the electric motor replaces the torque converter. The only other addition is the battery under the trunk floor which I think is warranted for 8 years and 100k miles. When I worked at BMW I spent some time in the service lane determining if customer issues were in fact user error. I never recall any issues with any of the BMW PHEVs.

qbrozen · January 2021

Pretty nice classic.

roadburner · January 2021

qbrozen said:
Pretty nice classic.

Those are great cars; I remember driving a couple at the BMW CCA Oktoberfest in 1991. It was a revelation; I got back in my E28 535is and it felt like driving a truck.
The E36 M3 is beginning to start appreciating in value, and I expect the rest of the E36 models to eventually follow suit. Nice cars that have been well maintained are a bit scarce as so many cars were run into the ground.
A 328is is a particularly nice drive.

corvette · January 2021

qbrozen said:
Pretty nice classic.

Seems fairly priced at $5,600 right now. I bet the gavel will fall at over $10k, though.

stickguy · January 2021

I like that 328. A bit of TLC needed but seems sound. Would want a pro looking underneath though, since it spent most of its life in northern NY snow and salt territory. But with those miles, might have been summer only use.

Curious what that goes for.

oldfarmer50 · January 2021

roadburner said:
My son may have a punch soon...

What’s the depreciation on those? When I was looking at domestic sedans the hybrids were always much less used than the straight gassers.

oldfarmer50 · January 2021

qbrozen said:
Pretty nice classic.

Didn’t make reserve?

explorerx4 · January 2021

One of the reviews I watched said the 330e uses Toyota's hybrid system.
I would be more comfortable with that.
Maybe it was a swap BMW's Chassis and drivetrain in return for Toyota hybrid tech.
Overall, seems to be a cruiser(gas engine 180 hp, 248 combined) rather than a performance model.

stickguy · January 2021

oldfarmer50 said:

qbrozen said:
Pretty nice classic.
Didn’t make reserve?

Yup. $6k to me seems like a really strong price. Guess the seller didn’t think so. Maybe he should clean up all the little flaws if he wants top dollar.

explorerx4 · January 2021

Not a very good job repairing the damage on that BMW, even the seller admits it.
Not sure why C & B would even accept a car like that.

roadburner · January 2021

explorerx4 said:
One of the reviews I watched said the 330e uses Toyota's hybrid system.
I would be more comfortable with that.
Maybe it was a swap BMW's Chassis and drivetrain in return for Toyota hybrid tech.
Overall, seems to be a cruiser(gas engine 180 hp, 248 combined) rather than a performance model.

I believe that review is wrong; BMW and Toyota are working together on solid state battery technology and of course the Z4/Supra was a joint effort, but BMW and Toyota PHEVs share nothing- the Toyota systems use a transverse I4, a CVT(Meh), and are FWD. The BMW uses a longitudinal I4 with a ZF 8HP automatic and is RWD(AWD is optional on the new G20 330e).
As for performance, it certainly isn’t a rocket ship, but a 5.8 second 0-60 and a 14.3 second quarter mile is at least tolerable for a PHEV.

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