Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

Michaell · March 2023

stickguy said:

Michaell said:

xwesx said:

Michaell said:
He will be moving up there in August, and my sister and BIL will go with him and take a small U-Haul of his furniture for his apartment (yes, I've been in touch with @fintail about life in the area). Looking on Google Maps, it turns out that it's a 1200+ mile drive and over 20 hours from SD to Spokane, only a portion of which is on interstates - most of it is on US Hwy 395 or US 95, through a lot of desolate stretches in CA, NV and OR.
No big deal, but they should make sure the trailer has good tires on it given the isolation of some stretches. The roads themselves are fantastic (in my experience) and mostly quite high speed, with the last stretch of 395 through the whole stretch of Washington nearly indistinguishable from an officially-labeled interstate.
Trailer? Who said anything about a trailer?

My sister mentioned a 10’ cube truck for the move. They would rotate drivers every few hours between the three of them.

Thanks for the feedback on the roads - that’s good information to have.
do I have this right, they are taking his car (to stay) and the truck, so the parents would have to then fly home?

did they price the truck part? They are surprisingly expensive now. a 10' box truck (from my vast UHaul experience, those are clapped out GMCs) can easily run $700-$800 just for the truck (maybe more with tax and the CDW you need to get). Plus 100 gallons of gas at CA prices (well, some Oregon/Washington). So figure what, another $400? Then of course, 1 way tickets back home. Which they would have anyway if they just drove out with him (though would not leave much room for stuff).

so figure, could you replace the stuff the truck would have for $1,200 and save the hassle? Oh, and needing to stay a night in the middle of course, because 1,200 miles in one of those straight through sounds horrible!

one option if they have it, is Hertz. and drive both ways. I did that when I moved the princess from Philly to Boston (with a detour to drop stuff off in Albany). UHaul was a fortune, but the hertz local office had a Transit van (the Long one, high roof) they rented as a normal car (actually cheapest thing they had) I think it was about $50/day, unlimited miles. So we drove that up and back, did not need a 2nd car, over a 3 day weekend, and spent about $150 plus gas (and it got nearly as good mileage as our Acura!). Bargain of the century, but that would be another 1,200 miles back.

Yes, U-Haul one way, then fly home.

We talked a bit about the cost of this, but - hey, it's not my money at the end of the day.

I'll pass along the Hertz Ford Transit idea - might give them both more room and a smaller bill.

ronsteve · March 2023

roadburner said:
I just checked my FICO score; it’s increased 12 points since I took out the car loan for the C43.

Go figure.

I know mine took a similar drop when I paid off the RDX.

oldfarmer50 · March 2023

stickguy said:

Michaell said:

xwesx said:

Michaell said:
He will be moving up there in August, and my sister and BIL will go with him and take a small U-Haul of his furniture for his apartment (yes, I've been in touch with @fintail about life in the area). Looking on Google Maps, it turns out that it's a 1200+ mile drive and over 20 hours from SD to Spokane, only a portion of which is on interstates - most of it is on US Hwy 395 or US 95, through a lot of desolate stretches in CA, NV and OR.
No big deal, but they should make sure the trailer has good tires on it given the isolation of some stretches. The roads themselves are fantastic (in my experience) and mostly quite high speed, with the last stretch of 395 through the whole stretch of Washington nearly indistinguishable from an officially-labeled interstate.
Trailer? Who said anything about a trailer?

My sister mentioned a 10’ cube truck for the move. They would rotate drivers every few hours between the three of them.

Thanks for the feedback on the roads - that’s good information to have.
do I have this right, they are taking his car (to stay) and the truck, so the parents would have to then fly home?

did they price the truck part? They are surprisingly expensive now. a 10' box truck (from my vast UHaul experience, those are clapped out GMCs) can easily run $700-$800 just for the truck (maybe more with tax and the CDW you need to get). Plus 100 gallons of gas at CA prices (well, some Oregon/Washington). So figure what, another $400? Then of course, 1 way tickets back home. Which they would have anyway if they just drove out with him (though would not leave much room for stuff).

so figure, could you replace the stuff the truck would have for $1,200 and save the hassle? Oh, and needing to stay a night in the middle of course, because 1,200 miles in one of those straight through sounds horrible!

one option if they have it, is Hertz. and drive both ways. I did that when I moved the princess from Philly to Boston (with a detour to drop stuff off in Albany). UHaul was a fortune, but the hertz local office had a Transit van (the Long one, high roof) they rented as a normal car (actually cheapest thing they had) I think it was about $50/day, unlimited miles. So we drove that up and back, did not need a 2nd car, over a 3 day weekend, and spent about $150 plus gas (and it got nearly as good mileage as our Acura!). Bargain of the century, but that would be another 1,200 miles back.

I think a rental from one of the majors would be your best bet because U-Haul gets very expensive on long distance runs since they charge a high milage fee.

Did someone say this trip is starting in CA and going out of state? I understand that rentals LEAVING CA are pretty expensive because of demand.

venture · March 2023

jmonroe1 said:

@venture said:

Mine did the same. I wonder what's going on?

Oh. We were talking about the dealer getting his spiff from getting a loan for the buyer a while ago.

I called my dealer to find out how long I had to keep the loan. He said they would have a charge back to BMW if I paid it off before June. I'm not sure I'm willing to wait that long, but we will see.

————————————————

You could be in the drivers seat with this. Negotiate with the dealer to see what it’s worth to them for you to keep the loan until June.

As always, “if you don’t ask, you don’t get”.

jmonroe

Yeah. I get that. I'm not really concerned about getting anything out of it. They have been pretty nice to me so I wanted to check before paying it off.

I don't know how much they would have got. If it's based on the amount of the loan, it wouldn't have been much. I should have just paid for it when I bought it. I don't know why I didn't except, at the time, BMW Bank would have knocked off $1,000 if financing through them. That ended a few days before they got this car in. The dealer did add another $1,000 to my trade-in.

kyfdx · March 2023

They should start planning to buy furniture, now. Once they find out the per/mile rate to drive a U-Haul that far, they'll drop the idea.

stickguy · March 2023

Pick up state does matter. When I got the 15” last year to take some stuff to the new house it was about $200 cheaper to pick it up in Delaware (about 45 minutes away) than locally in south Jersey.

Delaware was considered in the south so a place more people go to, so they need trucks up in NY where people go from.

corvette · March 2023

@nyccarguy - not sure whether this has been mentioned, but would a Pacifica or Sienna with AWD be roomy enough?

ab348 · March 2023

corvette said:
@nyccarguy - not sure whether this has been mentioned, but would a Pacifica or Sienna with AWD be roomy enough?

If it isn't, maybe @qbrozen could make him a deal on his hotel shuttle bus?

nyccarguy · March 2023

corvette said:
@nyccarguy - not sure whether this has been mentioned, but would a Pacifica or Sienna with AWD be roomy enough?

Possibly. I don't think I'm ready to drive an FCA product in excess of 20,000 miles per year. The Sienna would fit the bill, but they are very expensive right now.

ab348 · March 2023

Another Hyundai recall, though I believe this is only applicable to Canada, and applies to about 400,000 mostly older models, many of which may already be in junkyards:

https://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur/7/VRDB-BDRV/search-recherche/detail.aspx?lang=eng&rn=2023125

breld · March 2023

jmonroe1 said:

@Michaell said:

Actually, I asked Mrs. @breld about how long she's likely to keep it. I got the impression it could be in the stable a good, long time.

We also talked about how every one of "her" cars has a firm suspension - MINI JCW, Bronco and the Mach-E GT Performance, though I didn't feel that the Mach-E rode that roughly.

————————————————

Isn’t “a good, long time”, relative?

jmonroe

All of my wife’s cars have made it to registration and have plates on them. Baby steps people.

jmonroe1 · March 2023

@venture said:
Yeah. I get that. I'm not really concerned about getting anything out of it. They have been pretty nice to me so I wanted to check before paying it off.

I don't know how much they would have got. If it's based on the amount of the loan, it wouldn't have been much. I should have just paid for it when I bought it. I don't know why I didn't except, at the time, BMW Bank would have knocked off $1,000 if financing through them. That ended a few days before they got this car in. The dealer did add another $1,000 to my trade-in.

————————————————
I can understand not wanting to upset the dealer because you don’t want any problems when you take it in for service but a friendly what can you do for me with this shouldn’t hurt.

FWIW, before we got the ‘15 Genny the plan was to pay for it and be done with it. That changed when we were at the table with the salesman and he mentioned 0.9% financing for up to 5 years. Both Son #1 and I said, “huh, when did that start? We didn’t see this anywhere”. The salesman assured us it was for real, so I said, “yes, I’ll take the financing”. Mrs. j still wanted to pay it off but it wasn’t until my Son showed her why it was a good deal. Since his undergraduate is in accounting she agreed. More or less telling me I was OK with technical stuff but he had a piece of paper proving he knew something about financial stuff.

On top of that I got the $500 military discount even though I was discharged from the Navy many years ago and wasn’t on active duty. I still don’t know how they did that but they did. All I had to do was give them a copy of my DD214 form (they told me about this before we showed up at the dealership in Virginia).

jmonroe

jmonroe1 · March 2023

@ab348 said:
Another Hyundai recall, though I believe this is only applicable to Canada, and applies to about 400,000 mostly older models, many of which may already be in junkyards:

https://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur/7/VRDB-BDRV/search-recherche/detail.aspx?lang=eng&rn=2023125

————————————————-
If I had to bet, I’d say they will replace the brake lines and do the spray coating fix too.

jmonroe

jmonroe1 · March 2023

@nyccarguy said:
Possibly. I don't think I'm ready to drive an FCA product in excess of 20,000 miles per year. The Sienna would fit the bill, but they are very expensive right now.

————————————————
Gee, not wanting to drive an FCA product in excess of 20K miles per year tells me you’re not a very adventurous car owner.

jmonroe

stickguy · March 2023

jmonroe1 said:

@nyccarguy said:

Possibly. I don't think I'm ready to drive an FCA product in excess of 20,000 miles per year. The Sienna would fit the bill, but they are very expensive right now.

————————————————

Gee, not wanting to drive an FCA product in excess of 20K miles per year tells me you’re not a very adventurous car owner.

jmonroe

other than the fact that he just did drive a FCA product for a year (and probably that range models).

who do you think makes JEEPs?

corvette · March 2023

I’m assuming the cost of a Pacifica with an extended warranty is probably almost as much as a Sienna… not that a warranty saves you the annoyance of having to deal with any needed repairs.

andres3 · March 2023

jmonroe1 said:

explorerx4 said:
@Michaell,
That's why they are for sale. HA HA
————————————————
Those are the folks that are being pro active and are selling to get the 4WD version. They believe the prediction that global warming means more sunshine for southern CA and they’ll need more power to plow through it.

jmonroe

Sunshine means sandy beaches and deserts you have to plow through dunes!

breld · March 2023

Speaking of financing, this really gets me…

A local Hyundai/Genesis dealer requires you to finance through them in exchange for no markups over MSRP (other than $699 D&H

). Not only that, but on their website, you can build your “deal,” and the financing on a new GV80 is at 9.99%, despite Genesis currently having incentivized rates of 4.49% (or 5.49% with $1,000 cash incentive).

Feels like that is bordering on being illegal in some manner.

In contrast, another local Genesis dealer has the same “build your deal” tool on their website and everything is very transparent with rebates and incentivized rates, and they are even discounting off MSRP on inventory that has been there for a little while.

nyccarguy · March 2023

stickguy said:

jmonroe1 said:

@nyccarguy said:

Possibly. I don't think I'm ready to drive an FCA product in excess of 20,000 miles per year. The Sienna would fit the bill, but they are very expensive right now.

————————————————

Gee, not wanting to drive an FCA product in excess of 20K miles per year tells me you’re not a very adventurous car owner.

jmonroe

other than the fact that he just did drive a FCA product for a year (and probably that range models).

who do you think makes JEEPs?

Maybe I should rephrase that. I don't want to drive an FCA product in excess of 20K miles per year, chew through the factory warranty in 18 months, and not be able to get out of my lease or loan because it will be underwater.

au1994 · March 2023

breld said:
Speaking of financing, this really gets me…

A local Hyundai/Genesis dealer requires you to finance through them in exchange for no markups over MSRP (other than $699 D&H ). Not only that, but on their website, you can build your “deal,” and the financing on a new GV80 is at 9.99%, despite Genesis currently having incentivized rates of 4.49% (or 5.49% with $1,000 cash incentive).

Feels like that is bordering on being illegal in some manner.

In contrast, another local Genesis dealer has the same “build your deal” tool on their website and everything is very transparent with rebates and incentivized rates, and they are even discounting off MSRP on inventory that has been there for a little while.

9.99% is crazy. Probably not illegal but I’d imagine Genesis corp wouldn’t be too pleased.

stickguy · March 2023

they can give discounts however they want to. Sounds like you are free to take Genesis subsidized financing, or pay cash, if you prefer. They just will charge you more since they aren't making money on the back end.

as long as they don't have some nasty (if even legal) conditions that you can't pay the loan off early, could come out ahead (if needing a shower) to just finance with them and don't keep the loan long.

but it does sound like shady practices, and if they are playing those games with the small slice the buyer actually sees, I can only imagine what they are doing behind closed doors.

breld · March 2023

The salesman stated they don’t allow you to pay cash for new cars, that you have to finance but are certainly free to pay it off…after 6 months.

nyccarguy · March 2023

Ok, so I have kind of been forced to take the plunge and finally get my Prelude roadworthy starting NOW! I gave a call to the shop that I dropped it off at to perform the emissions inspection. The guy told me the car didn't pass. I was shocked. He said since there is no CEL that the car must sit and or I either had it jumped or replaced the battery. Yes & yes. In order to get the sensors to reset themselves, he told me I need to drive the car, then bring it back. Since the tires barely made it across town, I don't feel comfortable taking the car on the highway with them. I asked him for a price on Firestone Firehawk INDY 500 tires (205 50/R16). I ordered them from tire rack and will have them shipped to where the car is.

So they are going to mount & balance the new tires. I'm going to bring them the new suspension perches that I've had sitting in my garage for a few years. They are going to uninstall the springs and struts. Replace the perches. Reinstall the springs and struts. Put the new tires on, then perform an alignment. I will take the car for a few days and then drop it back off so it can pass state emissions!

au1994 · March 2023

nyccarguy said:
Ok, so I have kind of been forced to take the plunge and finally get my Prelude roadworthy starting NOW! I gave a call to the shop that I dropped it off at to perform the emissions inspection. The guy told me the car didn't pass. I was shocked. He said since there is no CEL that the car must sit and or I either had it jumped or replaced the battery. Yes & yes. In order to get the sensors to reset themselves, he told me I need to drive the car, then bring it back. Since the tires barely made it across town, I don't feel comfortable taking the car on the highway with them. I asked him for a price on Firestone Firehawk INDY 500 tires (205 50/R16). I ordered them from tire rack and will have them shipped to where the car is.

So they are going to mount & balance the new tires. I'm going to bring them the new suspension perches that I've had sitting in my garage for a few years. They are going to uninstall the springs and struts. Replace the perches. Reinstall the springs and struts. Put the new tires on, then perform an alignment. I will take the car for a few days and then drop it back off so it can pass state emissions!

Here’s your emissions test!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC3OP2vVALo

stickguy · March 2023

some good car spotting in that one.

au1994 · March 2023

stickguy said:
some good car spotting in that one.

Yeah, I had fun watching it for that as well. Wish I could get my hands on some old CHiPs episodes. Tons of cool stuff in the background there.

sda · March 2023

nyccarguy said:
Ok, so I have kind of been forced to take the plunge and finally get my Prelude roadworthy starting NOW! I gave a call to the shop that I dropped it off at to perform the emissions inspection. The guy told me the car didn't pass. I was shocked. He said since there is no CEL that the car must sit and or I either had it jumped or replaced the battery. Yes & yes. In order to get the sensors to reset themselves, he told me I need to drive the car, then bring it back. Since the tires barely made it across town, I don't feel comfortable taking the car on the highway with them. I asked him for a price on Firestone Firehawk INDY 500 tires (205 50/R16). I ordered them from tire rack and will have them shipped to where the car is.

So they are going to mount & balance the new tires. I'm going to bring them the new suspension perches that I've had sitting in my garage for a few years. They are going to uninstall the springs and struts. Replace the perches. Reinstall the springs and struts. Put the new tires on, then perform an alignment. I will take the car for a few days and then drop it back off so it can pass state emissions!

Nothing comes easy...

stickguy · March 2023

just do it right, then get out and enjoy it this year.

I ran afoul of that rule about 15 years ago. Odyssey was due for inspection anyway, when the battery went. so I got up early on Saturday and went to Walmart across from the inspection station to get a new one, and since I was there, swung through the DMV. and got a rejection sticker for my effort because not enough start cycles. Had to go back the next week and it breezed right through.

Sandman6472 · March 2023

Prefer a hatchback over a sedan and have for many years now. The wife is just the opposite & refused to drive a minivan when the rugrats were small. Preferred a sedan starting with a Olds Cutlass Supreme & then graduating to Toyota Camry's. Now, we both prefer small vehicles which is why four out of the five vehicles in our small family are small ones. My son-in-law drives a new Chevy Camaro and is now talking about getting a Corvette. He makes damn good money so can easily afford one I guess but being he's on the larger size, not sure he'll fit to be honest. But, it's what he seems to want according to my daughter so think he should just go for it! She's still loving her Chevy Cruze now that it's back from the body shop. Think she's also doing a diminished value claim as the accident is now on her CarFax report, like mine.

jmonroe1 · March 2023

@au1994 said:
Here’s your emissions test!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC3OP2vVALo

————————————————
I was waiting for the punch line like, “and that’s how you do an Italian tuneup”.

jmonroe

jmonroe1 · March 2023

@Sandman6472 said:
Prefer a hatchback over a sedan and have for many years now. The wife is just the opposite & refused to drive a minivan when the rugrats were small. Preferred a sedan starting with an Olds Cutlass Supreme & then graduating to Toyota Camry's. Now, we both prefer small vehicles which is why four out of the five vehicles in our small family are small ones. My son-in-law drives a new Chevy Camaro and is now talking about getting a Corvette. He makes damn good money so can easily afford one I guess but being he's on the larger size, not sure he'll fit to be honest. But, it's what he seems to want according to my daughter so think he should just go for it! She's still loving her Chevy Cruze now that it's back from the body shop. Think she's also doing a diminished value claim as the accident is now on her CarFax report, like mine.

————————————————
I’ve always gotten a kick out of the phrase, “good money”. I made good money as a paperboy, just not enough of it.

jmonroe

qbrozen · March 2023

So the lettering on the hood of the PJM (pajero mini) was in very bad shape. I thought I could just remove it and be done with it, but that was not the case. It became a matter of remove all traces and damage the paint or leave some traces and replace the graphics. Problem became finding replacement graphics. After some thinking and searching and recreating, it dawned on me to print my own, not as a sticker but as emblems that I will glue on. I’m happy with the print. Now to apply it properly tomorrow.

oldfarmer50 · March 2023

jmonroe1 said:

@venture said:

Yeah. I get that. I'm not really concerned about getting anything out of it. They have been pretty nice to me so I wanted to check before paying it off.

I don't know how much they would have got. If it's based on the amount of the loan, it wouldn't have been much. I should have just paid for it when I bought it. I don't know why I didn't except, at the time, BMW Bank would have knocked off $1,000 if financing through them. That ended a few days before they got this car in. The dealer did add another $1,000 to my trade-in.

————————————————

I can understand not wanting to upset the dealer because you don’t want any problems when you take it in for service but a friendly what can you do for me with this shouldn’t hurt.

FWIW, before we got the ‘15 Genny the plan was to pay for it and be done with it. That changed when we were at the table with the salesman and he mentioned 0.9% financing for up to 5 years. Both Son #1 and I said, “huh, when did that start? We didn’t see this anywhere”. The salesman assured us it was for real, so I said, “yes, I’ll take the financing”. Mrs. j still wanted to pay it off but it wasn’t until my Son showed her why it was a good deal. Since his undergraduate is in accounting she agreed. More or less telling me I was OK with technical stuff but he had a piece of paper proving he knew something about financial stuff.

On top of that I got the $500 military discount even though I was discharged from the Navy many years ago and wasn’t on active duty. I still don’t know how they did that but they did. All I had to do was give them a copy of my DD214 form (they told me about this before we showed up at the dealership in Virginia).

jmonroe

Look carefully at those papers you signed to get the military discount, you may have re-enlisted.

oldfarmer50 · March 2023

stickguy said:
just do it right, then get out and enjoy it this year.

I ran afoul of that rule about 15 years ago. Odyssey was due for inspection anyway, when the battery went. so I got up early on Saturday and went to Walmart across from the inspection station to get a new one, and since I was there, swung through the DMV. and got a rejection sticker for my effort because not enough start cycles. Had to go back the next week and it breezed right through.

Same thing with the car my son is babysitting. The battery had to be replaced from sitting so when the owner came back on leave he had to drive it around for a week before all the monitors had run a full cycle and he could get it inspected.

roadburner · March 2023

oldfarmer50 said:

corvette said:

This insanity showed up in my FB feed. The same dealer also had a couple of Teslas that seemed overpriced. The Solstice GXPs were highly regarded, but I don’t know who would pay this much for one.

That’s pretty pricey for a 16 year old orphan. What did they put out? 240, 260hp? I thought one of those might be nice back in 2008 but the Eclipse put out a little more horsepower and unlike the Pontiac, I could fit in it.

Oh and the original sticker on the Eclipse was $4k less than what they’re asking for that car today.

This dealer installs those beyond moronic brake light flashers on new and used cars. Its also the same dealer where I emailed the parts department to ask if they had a particular transmission oil in stock, I received a reply that they had 8 quarts on hand. I made a special trip to the dealer and the guy at the parts counter said that they were out of that oil. I mentioned the email and he tells me, "Ya shouda called, those email guys are always wrong."

qbrozen · March 2023

Today's spit take. You've been warned.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1998-subaru-22b-3/

28firefighter · March 2023

What in the…why?!

au1994 · March 2023

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

stickguy · March 2023

I looked at the car first and couldn’t figure out what the issue was. Then noticed the bids

But given what it is, not surprised. It’s a desirable special model in the collector world

QB should start being in stuff like this. Sells for a lot more money!

kyfdx · March 2023

All they had to do was wait two more years, and they could have had an unrestricted title. Seems weird.

explorerx4 · March 2023

Gives credence to the money laundering mutterings going around.
Kind of like that Golf that sold for 87k.

kyfdx · March 2023

Don’t tell anyone, but I might have made another non-serious bid on another Porsche.

stickguy · March 2023

kyfdx said:
Don’t tell anyone, but I might have made another non-serious bid on another Porsche.

Can't win if you don't play the game!

qbrozen · March 2023

kyfdx said:
Don’t tell anyone, but I might have made another non-serious bid on another Porsche.

your secret is safe on the internet

xwesx · March 2023

oldfarmer50 said:

I think a rental from one of the majors would be your best bet because U-Haul gets very expensive on long distance runs since they charge a high milage fee.

Did someone say this trip is starting in CA and going out of state? I understand that rentals LEAVING CA are pretty expensive because of demand.

Definitely agree on that! If your sister is going to rent anything, she should take it round trip for the least cost.

tjc78 · March 2023

@qbrozen said:
your secret is safe on the internet

Well at least for the 20 of us regulars

ab348 · March 2023

The Subaru cultism is a powerful drug.

Michaell · March 2023

ab348 said:
The Subaru cultism is a powerful drug.

In what way?

tifighter · March 2023

Look at previous 22B auctions. These things always bring the money.

tifighter · March 2023

Other interesting stuff-

Toyota needs to get their inventory issues under control - they are shedding market share.

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