Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

au1994 · October 2021

Some thoughts on the Jeep after a couple of weeks and 400 miles:

Short version…I love it!

Average mpg is 33.7 so that tells you most of my miles have been on electricity. But pretty phenomenal for a brick.

Its surprisingly comfortable. Lack of a dead pedal is annoying but as per usual with the Jeep aftermarket, easily remedied.

Ride and steering feel are better than the 07 JK I had by a long shot.

Driving position and windows afford great visibility.

Infotainment is great. Easy to use, clear display, b/u camera is awesome.

The power is pretty fun. Nail it and you’ll squeal the tires for sure.

The stereo kicks! Not a huge audiophile but its better than the Harmon Kardon in the BMW,

Forgot how I missed open air driving.

That said, the top removal is really a 3 person job. 2 can do it but it induces much pucker factor avoiding scratches or dropping the darn thing. It may run me $600 but a hoist may be in order.

The freedom panels are great and give the front passengers the convertible feeling. They do take up a good bit of the cargo area or when strapped to the back seat, impede rear visibility. Not totally but enough to be a little annoying.

Back seat is a little cramped but its still comfortable.

Again, all in all no complaints from me!

28firefighter · October 2021

au1994 said:
Some thoughts on the Jeep after a couple of weeks and 400 miles:

Short version…I love it!

Average mpg is 33.7 so that tells you most of my miles have been on electricity. But pretty phenomenal for a brick.

Its surprisingly comfortable. Lack of a dead pedal is annoying but as per usual with the Jeep aftermarket, easily remedied.

Ride and steering feel are better than the 07 JK I had by a long shot.

Driving position and windows afford great visibility.

Infotainment is great. Easy to use, clear display, b/u camera is awesome.

The power is pretty fun. Nail it and you’ll squeal the tires for sure.

The stereo kicks! Not a huge audiophile but its better than the Harmon Karden in the BMW,

Forgot how I missed open air driving.

That said, the top removal is really a 3 person job. 2 can do it but it induces much pucker factor avoiding scratches or dropping the darn thing. It may run me $600 but a hoist may be in order.

The freedom panels are great and give the front passengers the convertible feeling. They do take up a good bit of the cargo area or when strapped to the back seat, impede rear visibility. Not totally but enough to be a little annoying.

Back seat is a little cramped but its still comfortable.

Again, all in all no complaints from me!

I echo these sentiments entirely. It is so great and the more I drive it the more I love it.

breld · October 2021

dad23 said:
@breld, does that get you in to the CC, or do you already belong

The HOA dues gets you into the country club, workout facilities and tennis courts, but golf privileges are additional. Which is fine, since neither of us golf. Though my wife wants a golf cart just to drive around.

nyccarguy · October 2021

@breld

To quote George Tekkei from The Howard Stern Show (I know, he's Mr Sulu): "Oh my!"

breld · October 2021

Apparently no offer has come in yet, so our agent is drafting one.

And yes, it's a pricey home, but fortunately our existing home has also benefited from this crazy market. So...just like when trading a car for a new one...it's only the difference that matters.

qbrozen · October 2021

Wow. Good luck, @breld !

au1994 · October 2021

Guess @breld is hosting Thanksgiving this year. Dibs on an indoor parking space!

I prefer Dunkin’ coffee in the morning btw…

coldinohio · October 2021

good luck;

love the"side mounted" GDOs; you can add a lift or two and expand fleet!!! then start a youtube channel

breld said:
Apparently no offer has come in yet, so our agent is drafting one.

And yes, it's a pricey home, but fortunately our existing home has also benefited from this crazy market. So...just like when trading a car for a new one...it's only the difference that matters.

oldfarmer50 · October 2021

breld said:
So you all know how dangerous it can be to just "browse" car listings. Well, yesterday, I was talking about houses with a co-worker and that made me curious about what listings there were in my neighborhood, and I happened upon a listing for this house...

Beautiful house, with all the upgrades and finishes that my wife would like to do to our house.

You'll of course notice what looks like a 4-car garage, which caught my attention. But...one of those bays is a tandem...so space for 6 cars. From the property description..."There is a 2, 100 square foot garage which includes its own furnace, 220V outlet, room for car lifts and plenty of space to enjoy and entertain."

I e-mail the listing to my wife, who responds quickly, "Oh, I've been eyeing that listing for days now. How serious are you?"

Long story short...we visited the house last night with our realtor. It hits all the right design notes for my wife (and myself too), and the garage is exquisite. There's easily room for 6 vehicles, with tons of room to spare. We are interested, but the listing agent was expecting an offer last night, so we're waiting to see what comes of that. We are not interested in competing in any bidding war.

This had me drooling...

Looks like Hoovie’s.

stickguy · October 2021

Actually does. Could put a nice double decker rack in the back.

stickguy · October 2021

The crazy YouTube Maverick owner dude just posted a long towing video. Not concerned with required breaks period. Or tow ratings. But good to know a 2.0t without the 4K tow package can apparently tow a u haul weighing about 3,500 pounds loaded without breaking a sweat. Even the FWD should easily handle 2K.

greg128 · October 2021

stickguy said:
Yes. He also has a gorgeous 1988 T Bird turbo coupe with about 48K on it that looks brand new. Only $17,999

I had one of those with the 5sp and enjoyed it until the head gasket blew. As I recall I paid about $4500 for it with 50XXX miles in early to mid 1990's and maybe a year and a half or so later after getting a quote of $1200 for the repair I decided to do it myself including sending out the head to be redone. A few months earlier I replaced a leaking heater core DYI that required removal of the dash which was also a [non-permissible content removed] of a job but I saved a ton on labor on both jobs. After those 2 issues I lost confidence and sold it with around 65XXX miles for about $3500. But I loved the look and the ride and although it was moderately quick for its time by today's standards it was slow.

nyccarguy · October 2021

Technical question for those of you who are more mechanically inclined than I (the overwhelming majority). I recently joined a HONDA PRELUDE facebook group. Someone suggested that since I have to change my timing belt & tensioner (among other things), that I should use an aftermarket "manual tensioner" instead of the factory OEM "auto tensioner." A few people said that the OEM "auto tensioner" is a common failure point, even when replaced preventatively with each timing belt change.

Here's a link to the "maunal tensioner:"

https://www.kstuned.com/products/h22-timing-tensioner

qbrozen · October 2021

@nyccarguy said:
Technical question for those of you who are more mechanically inclined than I (the overwhelming majority). I recently joined a HONDA PRELUDE facebook group. Someone suggested that since I have to change my timing belt & tensioner (among other things), that I should use an aftermarket "manual tensioner" instead of the factory OEM "auto tensioner." A few people said that the OEM "auto tensioner" is a common failure point, even when replaced preventatively with each timing belt change.

Here's a link to the "maunal tensioner:"

https://www.kstuned.com/products/h22-timing-tensioner

Hmmm… I don’t think I like the idea of me being responsible for just how tight the belt is. A little off one way or the other and BOOM. Hasn’t someone made a superior hydraulic tensioner?

explorerx4 · October 2021

That was an interesting video. Not sure how I feel about the guy taking off the not needed engine parts. Why did the factory put them on there in the first place?
Nyc should ask his mechanic how he feels about the manual tensioner.

stickguy · October 2021

my take, leave it the way Honda designed it. At most, get an aftermarket improved hydraulic unit if you are worried about it. But it has been 20 years and a lot of miles with no issues, so why worry now? Not like you put many miles on it.

sda · October 2021

Really, just how failure prone are the Honda parts? I think like so many things discussed on forums, exaggerations galore. Stay with oem Honda.

28firefighter · October 2021

On certain German makes I’ve heard of legitimate failure points where there is an improved part. But I’m not sure this is one where I’d listen to the keyboard experts.

roadburner · October 2021

qbrozen said:

breld said:

Did I miss something about you moving to a new house?
vacation condo in myrtle beach. i probably kept those comments on the other thread.

Congrats! As I've said, if someone offers me all the money for the farm we are building a home on Seabrook Island SC.

roadburner · October 2021

A friend of mine owns this complex:

nyccarguy · October 2021

@roadburner said:
A friend of mine owns this complex:

Wow!

corvette · October 2021

qbrozen said:

Both. A property manager is meeting me there Monday.

Wow, neat looking place! Do you plan to road trip there, or fly?

I hope it works out well as a rental. My experience has been that property managers are a very mixed bag. Managing a property for someone else is often a very low margin business that requires a lot of labor.

corvette · October 2021

stickguy said:
That’s not supposed to be published yet.

Which is why I'm watching it before it gets nuked.

Edit: Ope, apparently a Ford dealer just lent one out to a couple of guys with a bunch of camera equipment? I bet they get a nasty phone call from corporate.

stickguy · October 2021

I thought they were legit. Kept talking about truecar and stuff.

but can't blame the dealers. they have stock for sale units now, so makes sense they would be given out for test drives.

once retail sales happened and actual owners were posting videos, the embargo should have been lifted. Somebody at Ford screwed up estimating when cars were going to be out in public.

corvette · October 2021

@breld - good luck with the offer! I'm sure with the upgraded garage, you could increase the size of your fleet.

fintail · October 2021

Even in Spokane that would easily be seven figures.

28firefighter said:
2 mill + by me unless you go to the way out suburbs that arguably aren't metro seattle anymore...

qbrozen · October 2021

@corvette said:
Wow, neat looking place! Do you plan to road trip there, or fly?

I hope it works out well as a rental. My experience has been that property managers are a very mixed bag. Managing a property for someone else is often a very low margin business that requires a lot of labor.

Thanks.
We’ll see how it goes. I certainly don’t want to manage it myself.
I’m flying down tomorrow. When we go as a fam, we are currently talking about splitting up, at least for this first trip. Otherwise, we may need 2 vehicles to bring down that initial stash of stuff. Makes more sense to spend $150 on two plane tickets.

The flip side is that I really wanted to bring the Jeep down for some offroading.

tjc78 · October 2021

@breld
Wow that is gorgeous! Best of luck.

tjc78 · October 2021

@stickguy said:
Here’s one for you low mile, luxury land yacht fans.

https://www.euroasianauto.com/details/used-1983-lincoln-mark-vi/79550462

Nice example… but I’m just not a huge fan of those in 4 door. The Mark should have stayed two door only.

Sandman6472 · October 2021

Feel just the opposite here, think that 4-door Mark looks great. All I'd swap out is the alloys for a nicer set. But I really like it. We had a couple of Lincoln's growing up, the '66 with the suicide doors was outstanding looking and a couple vehicles later, the '72 2-door coupe in whit over white. My mom had a '70 Caddy drop top and had a bad skid in a torrential rainstorm and the next day, went over to the Lincoln dealer and traded the Caddy in all over the phone with my dad at the country club. Thought she was crazy as I loved that '70 Caddy drop top and I drove it a couple of times in the high schools homecoming parade as the lead vehicle.

tjc78 · October 2021

What wheel would you swap for? Those lacey spokes were one of the top options. You could get the real wire wheels, but I prefer the Lacey or Turbines

tjc78 · October 2021

I was just poking around on LH and wow is all I can say. An equivalent build XC90 like ours is over $120 more a month same terms. Crazy.

Also noticed that Volvo no longer offers the S60 in the T6 power train. S60 deals are about $50 more a month than I’m paying for a $5000 less MSRP.

So glad I have until August to think about replacing it. I certainly won’t be looking at the S60 with less power and almost a second less to 60.

qbrozen · October 2021

Van shopping this morn.
Checked out the converted Transit first. I was less than thrilled. Felt slapped together. I expect more for the markup involved. And, to top it off, I don’t fit comfortably in the driver’s seat. Figure that one out.

The most annoying part was the salesman. Every criticism of ours was met with “its a cargo van!” To which I finally replied, “for $25k of add-ons, that argument doesn’t fly. I didn’t expect an $80k vehicle to have rattles, a nontelescopic wheel, and no keyless go.”

Anyway, wife spotted a benz dealer nearby and asked me to swing in. Of course, nothing available, but they had a cargo Sprint we could at least sit in. Instantly, we both felt more at home. The base cloth seat in the benz was far superior to the cushy upgrades in the ford.

Also glanced at the Promasters at Ram. They don’t seem to give a single thought to driver comfort. Mind you, I still liked the seats better than the ford, but even the upgraded ones only slid forward and aft and reclined. No tilt nor height adjustments. Weird. Oh and the steering wheel also had no tilt and was angled upward like a bus. Not great.

So, even without driving one, she is all about the Benz, I think even if it won’t fit in the condo garage.

sda · October 2021

Has the mechanic circled back with what he has found on your ML?

mjfloyd1 · October 2021

@breld said:
So you all know how dangerous it can be to just "browse" car listings. Well, yesterday, I was talking about houses with a co-worker and that made me curious about what listings there were in my neighborhood, and I happened upon a listing for this house...

Beautiful house, with all the upgrades and finishes that my wife would like to do to our house.

You'll of course notice what looks like a 4-car garage, which caught my attention. But...one of those bays is a tandem...so space for 6 cars. From the property description..."There is a 2, 100 square foot garage which includes its own furnace, 220V outlet, room for car lifts and plenty of space to enjoy and entertain."

I e-mail the listing to my wife, who responds quickly, "Oh, I've been eyeing that listing for days now. How serious are you?"

Long story short...we visited the house last night with our realtor. It hits all the right design notes for my wife (and myself too), and the garage is exquisite. There's easily room for 6 vehicles, with tons of room to spare. We are interested, but the listing agent was expecting an offer last night, so we're waiting to see what comes of that. We are not interested in competing in any bidding war.

This had me drooling...

So it’s a six car garage with an attached house

breld · October 2021

Well, doesn’t look like we’ll be hosting Thanksgiving for the CCBA group this year.

The seller came back with a couple requests this morning…full list price and a slightly quicker closing. We hadn’t offered much less than list price, so both of those conditions were acceptable and we quickly submitted a new offer only to be ghosted for 5 hours until they finally said they had an all cash offer with closing in 2 weeks.

Possible they’re bluffing, but probably not.

All is fair, but we sure thought we were getting it for a short time this afternoon.

qbrozen · October 2021

@breld said:
Well, doesn’t look like we’ll be hosting Thanksgiving for the CCBA group this year.

The seller came back with a couple requests this morning…full list price and a slightly quicker closing. We hadn’t offered much less than list price, so both of those conditions were acceptable and we quickly submitted a new offer only to be ghosted for 5 hours until they finally said they had an all cash offer with closing in 2 weeks.

Possible they’re bluffing, but probably not.

All is fair, but we sure thought we were getting it for a short time this afternoon.

Sorry to hear it. My wife would say “it wasn’t meant to be.” Or something like that.

qbrozen · October 2021

@sda said:
Has the mechanic circled back with what he has found on your ML?

Nope

jmonroe1 · October 2021

@qbrozen said:
Van shopping this morn.
Checked out the converted Transit first. I was less than thrilled. Felt slapped together. I expect more for the markup involved. And, to top it off, I don’t fit comfortably in the driver’s seat. Figure that one out.

The most annoying part was the salesman. Every criticism of ours was met with “its a cargo van!” To which I finally replied, “for $25k of add-ons, that argument doesn’t fly. I didn’t expect an $80k vehicle to have rattles, a nontelescopic wheel, and no keyless go.”

Anyway, wife spotted a benz dealer nearby and asked me to swing in. Of course, nothing available, but they had a cargo Sprint we could at least sit in. Instantly, we both felt more at home. The base cloth seat in the benz was far superior to the cushy upgrades in the ford.

Also glanced at the Promasters at Ram. They don’t seem to give a single thought to driver comfort. Mind you, I still liked the seats better than the ford, but even the upgraded ones only slid forward and aft and reclined. No tilt nor height adjustments. Weird. Oh and the steering wheel also had no tilt and was angled upward like a bus. Not great.

So, even without driving one, she is all about the Benz, I think even if it won’t fit in the condo garage.

SNOB.

jmonroe

jmonroe1 · October 2021

@breld said:
Well, doesn’t look like we’ll be hosting Thanksgiving for the CCBA group this year.

The seller came back with a couple requests this morning…full list price and a slightly quicker closing. We hadn’t offered much less than list price, so both of those conditions were acceptable and we quickly submitted a new offer only to be ghosted for 5 hours until they finally said they had an all cash offer with closing in 2 weeks.

Possible they’re bluffing, but probably not.

All is fair, but we sure thought we were getting it for a short time this afternoon.

You don’t feel any worse than we do. Maybe you can over bid and get it before it’s too late. Otherwise our wives are going to have to remember how to make that bird this year. I shouldn’t have said anything before it was a done deal. 😫

jmonroe

stickguy · October 2021

I don't remember the Transit being uncomfortable on the 1,000 miles I put on it one weekend. But I was paying $52/day to rent, not $80k to own! Not Acura or Lexus seats by any stretch, but I have had a lot worse. And this was the high roof version, so headroom, not an issue. Considering I could stand straight up and not hit anything.

stickguy · October 2021

I know white over black is not a favored combo, but is an M4 suitable? 3 pedals, no opening roof, seems to have the right stuff!

https://carsandbids.com/auctions/36Waza4Z/2021-bmw-m4-coupe

carnaught · October 2021

That M4 is detailed very nicely. Paging @roadburner to the white courtesy phone.

jmonroe1 · October 2021

@stickguy said:
I know white over black is not a favored combo, but is an M4 suitable? 3 pedals, no opening roof, seems to have the right stuff!

https://carsandbids.com/auctions/36Waza4Z/2021-bmw-m4-coupe

Given that this car has only 3,800 miles on it I think this is a car that @roadburner once owned and he’s dumping it because he thinks it’s to sloooow.

jmonroe

stickguy · October 2021

I absolutely love these. Looks like a nice one that must have sat a long time, but was refurbed correctly. Going to be more than much budget I assume. Pretty rare these days to see an original, low mile model.

https://carsandbids.com/auctions/rJlZQyaz/1982-toyota-celica-supra

for something newer, this is gorgeous. A few red flags (dirty carfax and a clutch at 11k miles) might be keeping the bidding down. Could be a fun toy.

https://carsandbids.com/auctions/3L0kbBO7/2015-ford-mustang-gt-50-years-limited-edition-coupe

stickguy · October 2021

carnaught said:
That M4 is detailed very nicely. Paging @roadburner to the white courtesy phone.

went without saying that I posted it for him!

explorerx4 · October 2021

I see a hood repaint in the future of that Mustang.

stickguy · October 2021

saw that too. the OF special.

oldfarmer50 · October 2021

stickguy said:
I know white over black is not a favored combo, but is an M4 suitable? 3 pedals, no opening roof, seems to have the right stuff!

https://carsandbids.com/auctions/36Waza4Z/2021-bmw-m4-coupe

Buyer’s remorse or just cashing in on the crazy market?

stickguy · October 2021

these days, could be either or both!

Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

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