Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

nyccarguy · June 2024

roadburner · June 2024

I think that the three car purchases my wife really liked were the Club Sport, the C43 and the Sahara 4xe.

qbrozen · June 2024

@jmonroe1 said:
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How does one go about cracking an air vent? Do you think it could have been done by pulling out the dash to do something?

jmonroe

Seems that way. It is the one below that stupid monitor growing out the top. They likely were pulling things apart to run the wires.

qbrozen · June 2024

@nyccarguy said:

I definitely glazed over something. Is it going to a new home or to a shop?

nyccarguy · June 2024

@qbrozen

It’s going to get fixed. After I had all that work done last year, coolant started pooling out of it when parked it. It is having a new radiator and silicone hoses put in as well as new coolant & an oil change.

Beautiful job on your latest JDM purchase! Looks to be in amazing shape!

carnaught · June 2024

@nyccarguy, the Prelude looks sharp. I see you're using Griot's products.

jmonroe1 · June 2024

nyccarguy said:

Got up early this morning and gave my car a quick bath before the tow truck shows up.

————————————————-
It looks like you didn’t have to rinse it twice.

Good luck with the repairs.

jmonroe

nyccarguy · June 2024

So I took the pictures of the car right after I washed it. As you can see, it looks wet and lustrous, because it is. There’s literally no wax on it, so the water just sits there I didn’t dry the car.

roadburner · June 2024

carnaught said:
@nyccarguy, the Prelude looks sharp. I see you're using Griot's products.

I've been using Griot's products more and more. Their ceramic products are particularly impressive and the fact that Griot's supports BMW CCA and the BMW CCA Foundation is icing on the cake.

stickguy · June 2024

Intriguing offer.

Michaell · June 2024

RWD and a shorter range.

stickguy · June 2024

for a cheap around town beater, works for me!

kyfdx · June 2024

stickguy said:
for a cheap around town beater, works for me!

No sales tax in NJ on EV, right? $200/mo is a bargain

CO has a further credit of $5350. At that point, they pay you to lease it!

au1994 · June 2024

I always put a Weathertech or the like cargo mat in our SUV’s and for the Jeep I put in floor mats in anticipation of muddy feet. Well this morning we needed bleach and the bottle fell over on the way home. The rear mat averted a disaster. I’m sure a big bleach spot on the floor mats is a no-no for the upcoming lease end inspection.

pensfan83 · June 2024

I went with Husky liners for the MDX this time around mainly because unlike the Weathertech mats, they extend to the door sill and don't leave a strip of carpet exposed.

au1994 · June 2024

Thats the design I went with in the Jeep. Saved my tail as the bleach just pooled up in the floor mat.

I VERY carefully lifted it out and hosed it off.

nyccarguy · June 2024

pensfan83 said:
I went with Husky liners for the MDX this time around mainly because unlike the Weathertech mats, they extend to the door sill and don't leave a strip of carpet exposed.

The HUSKY liners are fantastic. My Dad put them in his 2018 Yukon and we were astounded when we lifted them up that NO dog hair got underneath.

qbrozen · June 2024

Yesterday was fun. Spent about 5 hours pulling the AC compressor from the Maser. However, I did not follow the shop manual. I decided I didn’t completely see the need to remove the driver’s exhaust manifold, remove the engine mount bolts, and lift the engine. Getting a couple of the bolts out was a major PITA that took some creative tool combinations, but I defeated it in the end. If anyone was ever curious to see a QP engine without the surrounding plastics:

And here is where that compressor lives when under the car:

andres3 · June 2024

That was in Honda's prime years when they had all their MOJO still. Is Honda super profitable because they seem a bit lost to me.

au1994 · June 2024

Got a build date of 6/22 for the Maverick. Dealer says he could have it by July which is great but…the last payment on the Jeep isn’t till August.

stickguy · June 2024

Shipments are erratic. Could be quick. Could sit at the rail yard for a few weeks waiting to get picked up.

au1994 · June 2024

stickguy said:
Shipments are erratic. Could be quick. Could sit at the rail yard for a few weeks waiting to get picked up.

In this case, thats what I hope. The wife would be none too happy about an extra car payment for a month or two and I would hate to have to let it go. Ford dealer has no interest in the Jeep and no chance of Chrysler forgiving a payment since I’m leaving the brand.

venture · June 2024

If you remember, my son has a Land Rover. Yes, he has had problems with it. He also bought it at lease end since he was so over on mileage.

They were here over the weekend and brought her Jeep Grand Cherokee - the one with about 120,00 miles on it. I asked him why and he said they wanted to get home.

Evidently, he is having big time problems with it now. His dealer wants $4,000 to tear some things apart to find out what is wrong with it.

He told me a bunch of a combination of things it is doing - all seem to be electrical problems. He said the Googling he has done indicates a bad, or going bad, alternator. He's probably going to get that replaced to see if it fixes things. Has to be cheaper that a $4000 diagnostic session.

If that doesn't do it, he is going to wait until it gets cooler and sell it or trade it in since it only acts up when its hotter out.

He was warned.

tjc78 · June 2024

@qbrozen
That looks like zero fun at all. Do you have a vacuum pump and the gauges to charge it or will you have to farm that out?

stickguy · June 2024

sounds like your son is deep into cut your losses territory. Because it will keep sucking down money but never be worth any more.

qbrozen · June 2024

@tjc78 said:
@qbrozen
That looks like zero fun at all. Do you have a vacuum pump and the gauges to charge it or will you have to farm that out?

Was considering just charging it with a handheld can. I’m not even sure that is possible on a completely empty system.

Ah, I forgot about moisture. Guess I’m farming it out.

suydam · June 2024

Hi, guys! It’s been a long time since I’ve peeked into the forums. Are any of you considering EVs or PHEVs or have them already? We have loved our Chevy Volt and are now ready to go the EV route too. Is this strictly a gas-engine only discussion?

oldfarmer50 · June 2024

venture said:
If you remember, my son has a Land Rover. Yes, he has had problems with it. He also bought it at lease end since he was so over on mileage.

They were here over the weekend and brought her Jeep Grand Cherokee - the one with about 120,00 miles on it. I asked him why and he said they wanted to get home.

Evidently, he is having big time problems with it now. His dealer wants $4,000 to tear some things apart to find out what is wrong with it.

He told me a bunch of a combination of things it is doing - all seem to be electrical problems. He said the Googling he has done indicates a bad, or going bad, alternator. He's probably going to get that replaced to see if it fixes things. Has to be cheaper that a $4000 diagnostic session.

If that doesn't do it, he is going to wait until it gets cooler and sell it or trade it in since it only acts up when its hotter out.

He was warned.

That seems like a standard tactic since whoever sold my truck to the dealer in January pulled that scam. Lucky for me the dealer fixed the AC under warranty.

corvette · June 2024

suydam said:
We have loved our Chevy Volt and are now ready to go the EV route too. Is this strictly a gas-engine only discussion?

I really like my 2018 Volt--big upgrade over the 2007 Prius it replaced. But my 2022 Maverick is still my daily, and my road trip car.

It's very neat to take the Volt on a 120 mile roundtrip to go hiking and get 60+ MPG effective from having a full battery when I left.

I'm not opposed to going full EV or having a daily that's a plug-in hybrid, but the Maverick is roughly halfway paid for, so the dream of not having any car payments is on the horizon.

jmonroe1 · June 2024

qbrozen said:

@tjc78 said:
@qbrozen

That looks like zero fun at all. Do you have a vacuum pump and the gauges to charge it or will you have to farm that out?

Was considering just charging it with a handheld can. I’m not even sure that is possible on a completely empty system.

————————————————-
Just my 2 cents worth:

If you don’t use a vacuum pump to get the air out of the system you’ll never get the results you want. Plus the moisture in the system will contaminate the components in the system and you will be replacing them again sooner than you want to due to corrosion. It’s probably best to take it to an AC shop to have the system charged after you do the parts replacement if you’re not going to invest in a vacuum pump and gage set to do it right.

jmonroe

suydam · June 2024

We replaced our Buick Encore (what a great car that was!) with a 2024 PHEV Kia Sportage. Now we are looking at the Chevy Blazer EV. Early problems seem to have been ironed out and the price has really dropped. Plus Costco has a $1000 coupon for either the Blazer or Equinox EVs. I really love how the Blazer drives and handles. I like the controls setup too.

breld · June 2024

Well, casual browsing on Saturday turned into a punch for us today.

Wife liked her X5 just fine, but craved something with a bit more character and she loves herself a wagon.

So this slightly used Audi A6 Allroad came up…looked at it Saturday and made the deal today. It provides all the comfort and functionality of the X5 but in cool wagon form.

suydam · June 2024

Congratulations! Nice to know some things haven’t changed!

venture · June 2024

oldfarmer50 said:

venture said:
If you remember, my son has a Land Rover. Yes, he has had problems with it. He also bought it at lease end since he was so over on mileage.

They were here over the weekend and brought her Jeep Grand Cherokee - the one with about 120,00 miles on it. I asked him why and he said they wanted to get home.

Evidently, he is having big time problems with it now. His dealer wants $4,000 to tear some things apart to find out what is wrong with it.

He told me a bunch of a combination of things it is doing - all seem to be electrical problems. He said the Googling he has done indicates a bad, or going bad, alternator. He's probably going to get that replaced to see if it fixes things. Has to be cheaper that a $4000 diagnostic session.

If that doesn't do it, he is going to wait until it gets cooler and sell it or trade it in since it only acts up when its hotter out.

He was warned.
That seems like a standard tactic since whoever sold my truck to the dealer in January pulled that scam. Lucky for me the dealer fixed the AC under warranty.

Yeah. I get that. I've learned to keep my trap shut.

au1994 · June 2024

I love the Allroad!

stickguy · June 2024

The Brelds, back on the horse!

Nice looking wagon.

stickguy · June 2024

Next car I would like a PHEV. I love the hybrid Maverick and am interesting in moving up the chain. Would also be interested in an EV since it would work well for our needs. But that would be the local car, not going on our rare trips.

kyfdx · June 2024

suydam said:
Hi, guys! It’s been a long time since I’ve peeked into the forums. Are any of you considering EVs or PHEVs or have them already? We have loved our Chevy Volt and are now ready to go the EV route too. Is this strictly a gas-engine only discussion?

Wow! Welcome back!

Someone was asking about you... maybe, a year ago. Wondered where you went.

oldfarmer50 · June 2024

breld said:
Well, casual browsing on Saturday turned into a punch for us today.

Wife liked her X5 just fine, but craved something with a bit more character and she loves herself a wagon.

So this slightly used Audi A6 Allroad came up…looked at it Saturday and made the deal today. It provides all the comfort and functionality of the X5 but in cool wagon form.

I’m jealous of you on so many levels not the least of which is that you have found a wife who seems just as in love with cars as you are. You are a blessed man indeed.

Oh yeah, that car ain’t half bad either. Nice interior.

oldfarmer50 · June 2024

stickguy said:
Next car I would like a PHEV. I love the hybrid Maverick and am interesting in moving up the chain. Would also be interested in an EV since it would work well for our needs. But that would be the local car, not going on our rare trips.

With the wholesale collapse of the EV market I’m actually tempted to look at the Mach E again. If there was a super low mile lease on the performance version I think it would be nice to have had one at least once before I check out.

I wonder what they are going for monthly.

nyccarguy · June 2024

stickguy said:
The Brelds, back on the horse!

Nice looking wagon.

"Back in the saddle again!"

nyccarguy · June 2024

@corvette
"The Maverick is halfway paid for" so once it is paid off I can use the funds to add another vehicle to my collection.

ab348 · June 2024

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:
Next car I would like a PHEV. I love the hybrid Maverick and am interesting in moving up the chain. Would also be interested in an EV since it would work well for our needs. But that would be the local car, not going on our rare trips.

With the wholesale collapse of the EV market I’m actually tempted to look at the Mach E again. If there was a super low mile lease on the performance version I think it would be nice to have had one at least once before I check out.

I wonder what they are going for monthly.

I read that Ford was offering screamin' deals on the F150 Lightning. Don't know about the Mach-E though. I suspect that now that the cool kids demand was satisfied early on, they might not be selling many. I would be wary of Ford first-gen EVs myself. Don't forget that if you found a suitable deal on one, you still need a high-powered charger installed on your estate.

breld · June 2024

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:
Next car I would like a PHEV. I love the hybrid Maverick and am interesting in moving up the chain. Would also be interested in an EV since it would work well for our needs. But that would be the local car, not going on our rare trips.

With the wholesale collapse of the EV market I’m actually tempted to look at the Mach E again. If there was a super low mile lease on the performance version I think it would be nice to have had one at least once before I check out.

I wonder what they are going for monthly.

It’s incredible how quickly the market has changed on EVs. We had the absolute worst timing when we bought our Mach E, but I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone.

I also really like the Ioniq 5. A local dealer is advertising $299/month with only first payment due on an Ioniq 5 AWD Limited. That includes a $5k incentive for Colorado though.

breld · June 2024

I was chatting with @28firefighter a bit about this offline, but at some point I do want to get off the leasing carousel on our EVs, but it just makes SO much sense right now.

At some point, a lightly used one at an incredible discount would seem to make sense. But hard to say where the “bottom” is yet where you won’t continue losing loads of depreciation.

I mean, I was eyeing an Audi E-tron GT recently. 2023 with 3k miles, CPO. Original MSRP was something like $110k and this barely used version was $62k. That’s a lot of depreciation hit taken, but I suspect there’s plenty more to come.

Polestar 2’s are going for $30k’s. That seems like a decent place to start.

It’ll be interesting.

breld · June 2024

Thanks for the kind words on the new wagon.

Couple extra highlights…

For purposes of record keeping, it’s a 2023 A6 Allroad. It was purchased new 8 months ago, so plenty of warranty left (as if it matters, I know!). 5,600 miles. It’s a Prestige trim, so very nicely equipped but doesn’t have the massaging seat package (we’ll live).

We had taken the X5 to Carmax for a bid to get an idea of diminished value for our insurance claim. I was hoping the dealership would match that, but from recent experience, I’ve found dealers to be really hedging their bets on trade values, so we weren’t all that hopeful. I made an initial offer (in a very nicely laid out spreadsheet) to them, requesting a $2k discount on the Audi (knowing already that they are a “non-negotiating” dealer) and about $2k higher than the Carmax offer. They quickly said they can’t offer any discount on their vehicle, but then after what seemed like a long review of the trade, the salesman came back and said, “I think you two are gonna be happy with these numbers.” We didn’t believe it for a minute, but then he showed us the number for our trade, which was $2k HIGHER than we had asked, so $4k higher than the Carmax offer. So basically they agreed to my deal (which I never expected them to) by giving us more for the trade.

Never expected such a strong offer on the trade. And that’s with full disclosure on the recent accident. So all in all, really happy with the deal.

Michaell · June 2024

breld said:
I was chatting with @28firefighter a bit about this offline, but at some point I do want to get off the leasing carousel on our EVs, but it just makes SO much sense right now.

At some point, a lightly used one at an incredible discount would seem to make sense. But hard to say where the “bottom” is yet where you won’t continue losing loads of depreciation.

I mean, I was eyeing an Audi E-tron GT recently. 2023 with 3k miles, CPO. Original MSRP was something like $110k and this barely used version was $62k. That’s a lot of depreciation hit taken, but I suspect there’s plenty more to come.

Polestar 2’s are going for $30k’s. That seems like a decent place to start.

It’ll be interesting.

Remember, there is a $4K tax credit on used EVs as well. That should help the used market.

nyccarguy · June 2024

@breld

Congrats on the allroad! I've always liked the looks of that generation.

au1994 · June 2024

I've enjoyed the PHEV Jeep. Now without the "hybridness" the mileage is atrocious as you would expect from a turbo 4 pushing a brick through the wind.

While I didn't go hybrid on my Maverick, we would certainly consider a hybrid or PHEV. Full EV sounds great but lack of infrastructure, cost and range anxiety would still play on me or my wife. She is the ideal candidate though...15 mile round trip daily commute.

oldfarmer50 · June 2024

breld said:
I was chatting with @28firefighter a bit about this offline, but at some point I do want to get off the leasing carousel on our EVs, but it just makes SO much sense right now.

At some point, a lightly used one at an incredible discount would seem to make sense. But hard to say where the “bottom” is yet where you won’t continue losing loads of depreciation.

I mean, I was eyeing an Audi E-tron GT recently. 2023 with 3k miles, CPO. Original MSRP was something like $110k and this barely used version was $62k. That’s a lot of depreciation hit taken, but I suspect there’s plenty more to come.

Polestar 2’s are going for $30k’s. That seems like a decent place to start.

It’ll be interesting.

A guy at work bought a Polestar 2 and though he likes the car he is aghast at the depreciation. Well over 50% in two years.

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