Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

greg1288 · June 13

nyccarguy said:
The Camry came with carpet floor mats. While they seem high quality, they aren’t going to fly. Instead of ordering from weather tech or husky, I ordered from this company 3W Liners. My friend bought some for his new Corolla and is thrilled with how well they fit. They had a 30% off coupon so for $98 I got 2 front and one rear mat.

https://3wliners.com/

My Crown apparently came with every option including Bi-tone Paint, mud guards and Toyota all weather mats which are pretty good. However I think the Factory Cadillac all weather mats in the wife's XT5 are thicker and higher quality.

roadburner · June 13

I use the AMG OEM carpet mats in the summer and switch to WeatherTech in the winter. I bought the Jeep rubber mats for the Wrangler as they incorporate the factory drain plugs. The Club Sport uses BMW OEM carpet mats all year as it never sees ice/snow. That said, the BMW slush mats have always worked well in my other Bimmers.

au1994 · June 13

I put Coco mats in my ZHP. Those were great. And dang, I miss that car.

stickguy · June 13

I got excited tonight for no reason. at dinner I asked the boss if we needed to stop anywhere on the way home and she said she wanted to stop and buy a car! Turns out I missed a letter and we needed to stop and buy a sympathy card. Darn.

fintail · June 13

I have OEM rubber mats in the wagon, and I use the factory carpet ones as mats for the rear cargo area (I seldom haul anything dirty, so they stay pretty much as new - but I need to finally get a rear rubber mat while still possible). My only complaint is that the rubber mats don't go up the sill like some aftermarket types.

Fintail has coco mats, a period look.

tjc78 · June 13

@stickguy said:
I got excited tonight for no reason. at dinner I asked the boss if we needed to stop anywhere on the way home and she said she wanted to stop and buy a car! Turns out I missed a letter and we needed to stop and buy a sympathy card. Darn.

I “bought “ my truck for the third time today …. Maybe eventually they will get the paperwork right.

explorerx4 · June 13

Since we have winter, I always get all weather mats, usually the factory one's, and leave them installed 24/7 365.
I had a bag with 5 sets of never used carpet mats in my garage but the mice got to them, so I'll never get them again.

jmonroe1 · June 13

stickguy said:
I got excited tonight for no reason. at dinner I asked the boss if we needed to stop anywhere on the way home and she said she wanted to stop and buy a car! Turns out I missed a letter and we needed to stop and buy a sympathy card. Darn.

————————————————
With the initial excitement you had then lost, your wife should have bought a sympathy card for you too. You must have felt like an ocean of cold water hit you. That’s the least she should have done for you.

jmonroe

ab348 · June 13

Last year when I was moving stuff out of the basement I found a cardboard box with new cocoa brown OE carpet mats inside still in the plastic bags. I had forgotten that I bought them on eBay nearly 15 years ago for my 2011 Regal. Since the 2011 Regal sold poorly and 90%+ had black interiors instead of cashmere, and since the 2012-up used different anchor spacing for the mats for reasons unknown, the demand for said mats is nil. Maybe I could list them on eBay as a rare collectors item.

stickguy · June 13

We have a rule. We refuse to waste money buying each other cards. Occasionally I get an old one given again (she saves them) since I won’t remember. But normally we go to the card aisle. Find what we like, hand it to the other to read and laugh at, then we put it back and go home.

corvette · June 13

@stickguy - Cards are pretty cheap at $1.25Tree, and they even. have the Hallmark logo!

stickguy · June 14

we actually discovered that, and will go there if convenient, for birthday cards. Not sure if they have father's day or not (also needed those) but we got some for $2.99 @ Target (and a sympathy card for $.99!)

jmonroe1 · June 14

stickguy said:
We have a rule. We refuse to waste money buying each other cards. Occasionally I get an old one given again (she saves them) since I won’t remember. But normally we go to the card aisle. Find what we like, hand it to the other to read and laugh at, then we put it back and go home.

————————————————
I’ve never heard of anyone (or in the case of your household) 2 folks who are that cheap.

jmonroe

nyccarguy · June 14

Here's my plan to sell my Tacoma. I have an appointment at Safelite this afternoon to have the chip in the windshield repaired. Some time tomorrow I'll give it a wash and "shine it up real nice and pretty." I'll get quotes from the online sites. Thursday we have to take my son up to camp. On the way back there is a CARMAX that I will stop at to get an appraisal. If I like what CARMAX has to offer, then I will drop it off there and sell it to them on the way home from taking my daughter up to camp on Sunday. If not, it will go to the highest online bidder. Wish me luck!

Got a call from the Acura Dealer in town asking if I'm interested in selling them my 2017 Honda Pilot. Funny guy. Does he write his own material?

stickguy · June 14

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:
We have a rule. We refuse to waste money buying each other cards. Occasionally I get an old one given again (she saves them) since I won’t remember. But normally we go to the card aisle. Find what we like, hand it to the other to read and laugh at, then we put it back and go home.

————————————————
I’ve never heard of anyone (or in the case of your household) 2 folks who are that cheap.

jmonroe

we prefer to think of it as frugal and practical.

stickguy · June 14

nyccarguy said:
Here's my plan to sell my Tacoma. I have an appointment at Safelite this afternoon to have the chip in the windshield repaired. Some time tomorrow I'll give it a wash and "shine it up real nice and pretty." I'll get quotes from the online sites. Thursday we have to take my son up to camp. On the way back there is a CARMAX that I will stop at to get an appraisal. If I like what CARMAX has to offer, then I will drop it off there and sell it to them on the way home from taking my daughter up to camp on Sunday. If not, it will go to the highest online bidder. Wish me luck!

Got a call from the Acura Dealer in town asking if I'm interested in selling them my 2017 Honda Pilot. Funny guy. Does he write his own material?

and buy another car to get home from Carmax?

Oh wait, it's Bradd, not Breld. My bad.

au1994 · June 14

If I had the space and money I would absolutely have a basic, regular cab pickup sitting around.

tjc78 · June 14

@au1994 said:
If I had the space and money I would absolutely have a basic, regular cab pickup sitting around.

I had a 99 S10 for about 5 years as a second beater vehicle. It was perfect for the task.

nyccarguy · June 14

au1994 said:
If I had the space and money I would absolutely have a basic, regular cab pickup sitting around.

I really like the look of that F-150 LOBO and the 5.0 V8 under the hood. I don't like the beautifully painted bed, it needs a spray in bed liner. Good lord, the price tag of $58K! Yikes! No heated seats or steering wheel either. Some of the Lightning prices have gotten very cheap. They have a nice 24 month lease program now too on the XLT.

explorerx4 · June 14

@nyccarguy,
About the same price as a Tacoma. HA HA.

jmonroe1 · June 14

stickguy said:

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:
We have a rule. We refuse to waste money buying each other cards. Occasionally I get an old one given again (she saves them) since I won’t remember. But normally we go to the card aisle. Find what we like, hand it to the other to read and laugh at, then we put it back and go home.

————————————————
I’ve never heard of anyone (or in the case of your household) 2 folks who are that cheap.

jmonroe
we prefer to think of it as frugal and practical.

————————————————
The water doesn’t run that high around here so you can’t float your boat doing that.

jmonroe

nyccarguy · June 14

explorerx4 said:
@nyccarguy,
About the same price as a Tacoma. HA HA.

You know what, you are 100% correct. Tacomas get more expensive too. MSRPs close to $70K. While I think a Tacoma Trail Hunter is very well done, I'm not interested in spending anywhere near that amount of money on a Tacoma. The SR5 is the sweet spot that stickers in the $40s and leases really well.

oldfarmer50 · June 14

tjc78 said:

@stickguy said:

I got excited tonight for no reason. at dinner I asked the boss if we needed to stop anywhere on the way home and she said she wanted to stop and buy a car! Turns out I missed a letter and we needed to stop and buy a sympathy card. Darn.

I “bought “ my truck for the third time today …. Maybe eventually they will get the paperwork right.

Remind me, what was the screw up? Wrong VIN or something?

oldfarmer50 · June 14

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:
We have a rule. We refuse to waste money buying each other cards. Occasionally I get an old one given again (she saves them) since I won’t remember. But normally we go to the card aisle. Find what we like, hand it to the other to read and laugh at, then we put it back and go home.

————————————————
I’ve never heard of anyone (or in the case of your household) 2 folks who are that cheap.

jmonroe

If you want cheap, when my wife and I were dating I used to give her hand-made cards made out of white cardboard package liners from where I worked. She liked them better than store bought (or at least she said she did).

oldfarmer50 · June 14

au1994 said:
If I had the space and money I would absolutely have a basic, regular cab pickup sitting around.

It’s funny with trucks, you never need them….until you do.😄

tjc78 · June 14

@oldfarmer50 said:
Remind me, what was the screw up? Wrong VIN or something?

I haven’t mentioned anything yet. At the end of the day they keep screwing up the section where it states where your first payment is coming from and when the following payments are.

It’s because it was a no money out of pocket lease (not even first payment). The second time I kinda thought it was wrong but let it go through

The financials all check it was just the one box they keep doing wrong.

They are in a tough spot. They haven’t paid my trade off and sold it. I was in the car yesterday driving to a friend’s house two hours away and mentioned I wouldn’t be able to sign for a few hours. They said that they really needed it signed by 4:30 to get in the mail. I ended up pulling off the road to sign it for them.

If it’s wrong again - I’m seriously considering telling them to pick up their truck!

stickguy · June 14

see if you can string them out for 3 years then give it back. a free lease.

corvette · June 14

I really like the matte copper/brown color on this Santa Fe.

jmonroe1 · June 14

oldfarmer50 said:

au1994 said:
If I had the space and money I would absolutely have a basic, regular cab pickup sitting around.
It’s funny with trucks, you never need them….until you do.😄

————————————————
And when friends and/or family know you have a truck, you won’t have to worry about any dust settling on it.

jmonroe

stickguy · June 14

that color is nice. too bad it is on such an ugly car.

corvette · June 14

I think the rear quarter on the Santa Fe looks a lot like a Land Rover.

explorerx4 · June 14

I'm not a fan of the H H theme.

stickguy · June 14

looks like a lego car

corvette · June 14

@roadburner will get a kick out of this one. The CHMSL on my dad's Ranger was acting up and it was leaking. He thought it was due to an incursion with the garage door, but upon disassembly, discovered that Oxmorons Ford (where he bought it) had neglected to install a screw and had badly spliced a wire when they put their stupid flashing third brake light gizmo on it. He ordered a new brake light.

Also, it's back from having the valve body and some other parts in the transmission replaced, and seems to be driving better.

qbrozen · June 14

Son now has his salesman certification, or something like that.
He seems to be in an odd fluid position since they are still figuring it out. Story is he gets $25 for walking someone through the door from service to sales, and $50 more if they buy. But he gets the full salesman spliff if salespeople are all busy and he sells one himself. And, at any time, if salespeople are all busy, they could give him an up from the floor instead of from service. And this is, of course, on top of his base pay. So it sounds like he has good potential. We’ll see.
Because of his inherited car knowledge, everyone has been very impressed. Some have already started asking him product questions after just 2 weeks. Go figure.

roadburner · June 14

corvette said:
@roadburner will get a kick out of this one. The CHMSL on my dad's Ranger was acting up and it was leaking. He thought it was due to an incursion with the garage door, but upon disassembly, discovered that Oxmorons Ford (where he bought it) had neglected to install a screw and had badly spliced a wire when they put their stupid flashing third brake light gizmo on it. He ordered a new brake light.

Also, it's back from having the valve body and some other parts in the transmission replaced, and seems to be driving better.

Yep, minimum wage "technicians" hacking into factory wiring harnesses. Who wouldn't want to pay hundreds extra for that upgrade?

au1994 · June 15

explorerx4 said:
I'm not a fan of the H H theme.

Me either. The Santa Fe was once a handsome little CUV.

corvette · June 15

Happy Father's Day to the dads (and dog/cat/pet) dads out there!

jmonroe1 · June 15

corvette said:
Happy Father's Day to the dads (and dog/cat/pet) dads out there!

————————————————
Unique way to get yourself into the game. Now tell me, what did your dog get you for Father’s Day? A walk around the block?

jmonroe

28firefighter · June 15

Happy Father’s Day, you mothers.

graphicguy · June 16

corvette said:

I really like the matte copper/brown color on this Santa Fe.

Seeing these on the road now. Pretty sharp. I like that copper color. Also looks good in Black, which is unusual for me to like.

roadburner · June 16

Saturday my wife and I traveled to Lexington to meet with the Bluegrass MBCA chapter for lunch at a local restaurant followed by a visit to James Motor Company, the Lexington M-B dealer. I drove the C43 of course- and I even left it in Geezer (Comfort) mode for most of the trip. We weren't the youngest people in the group, but we were close. A nice bunch overall, but only a couple of the people were what I consider gearheads.
One guy brought his SL 65, which meant there was only one real AMG, mine being an AMG Lite. Another guy drove his S124 E Class wagon- very nice. One lady also owned a new X5, and she told me that she missed her old X5, because she hated the new X5's touchscreen.
The GM was a real car guy and explained how a massive renovation of the dealership was about to begin to meet M-B's new dealership standards. He also mentioned that most new sales are SUVs.
My wife saw a GLC 43 that she really liked, while the only car I saw that I liked better than my C43 was a new GT63 S E Performance: 0-60 in 2.7 seconds and a top speed of 199 mph. Unfortunately, the price of admission was $229k.

qbrozen · June 16

Not sure I mentioned, but I’ve been chasing the emissions leak on the Maser for a long darn time. I replaced all of the EGR pieces and ran a smoke test. Couldn’t find the darned leak and still had a stumble off idle under load. Oh and gas cap was holding pressure. After studying the overly complicated gas cap for a bit, I decided I really had nothing left but to replace that. It cost $90 on eBay. Well, I can report that the stumble seems to be gone now. I’ve cleared all the lights on the dash, including TPMS since I replaced all the sensors, too. Fingers crossed, arms crossed, and toes crossed that the CEL stays out, at least until something new happens.

In case you are wondering, the gas cap has a valve built in. So the gasket can hold tight but if that valve is bad, I assume that’s a problem.

oldfarmer50 · June 16

I had an annoying evap code on my PT Cruiser that was a devil to track down until my mechanic discovered that the POS gas tank had rusted out at the top.🤯

28firefighter · June 16

oldfarmer50 said:
I had an annoying evap code on my PT Cruiser that was a devil to track down until my mechanic discovered that the POS gas tank had rusted out at the top.🤯

If I were going to write a story about Chrysler, it would probably be named "My POS Gas Tank Rusted Out: A Stellantis Quality Tale"

tifighter · June 16

@28firefighter said:
If I were going to write a story about Chrysler, it would probably be named "My POS Gas Tank Rusted Out: A Stellantis Quality Tale"

How’s the Jeep?

28firefighter · June 16

@tifighter said:

@28firefighter said:
If I were going to write a story about Chrysler, it would probably be named "My POS Gas Tank Rusted Out: A Stellantis Quality Tale"

How’s the Jeep?

Gas door is still intact, and not a single error since the first week. Should go burn an offering to it or something…

fintail · June 16

roadburner said:
Saturday my wife and I traveled to Lexington to meet with the Bluegrass MBCA chapter for lunch at a local restaurant followed by a visit to James Motor Company, the Lexington M-B dealer. I drove the C43 of course- and I even left it in Geezer (Comfort) mode for most of the trip. We weren't the youngest people in the group, but we were close. A nice bunch overall, but only a couple of the people were what I consider gearheads.
One guy brought his SL 65, which meant there was only one real AMG, mine being an AMG Lite. Another guy drove his S124 E Class wagon- very nice. One lady also owned a new X5, and she told me that she missed her old X5, because she hated the new X5's touchscreen.
The GM was a real car guy and explained how a massive renovation of the dealership was about to begin to meet M-B's new dealership standards. He also mentioned that most new sales are SUVs.
My wife saw a GLC 43 that she really liked, while the only car I saw that I liked better than my C43 was a new GT63 S E Performance: 0-60 in 2.7 seconds and a top speed of 199 mph. Unfortunately, the price of admission was $229k.

Seattle MBCA events were like that for some time, I was usually among the youngest if not the youngest, made more fun by being in one of the oldest cars there. Lots of nice people and a few gearheads and old car enthusiasts, but the general vibe was a retiree who has a SL that's washed with a diaper and never driven in the rain. With any luck I will make it to that stage too

As time went on, some younger enthusiasts would appear, cars like a W202 C43 with an E55 engine swap and a youngish guy with a 6.9 come to mind, along an occasional tech/trust fund type with a wild special order vehicle, or just unique younger people with W123s - it's always a 123 for that crowd.

nyccarguy · June 16

It was an expensive trip to the Toyota dealer today. Not THAT expensive since I know how your minds automatically go places. The Highlander has been screaming for service for about a week. With close to 73,000 miles, it needed a full synthetic oil change & tire rotation. It also needed a new left rear door handle that my daughter broke off trying to not fall off of a long board on our driveway.

That’s before I got “the video” showing me the dirty cabin filter, telling me the rear wiper blade that is in dire need of replacement, the tear and slight bubble in the (now) right rear tire sidewall, that I should buy 2 tires and need an alignment.

I get a call from my service advisor. Wants to go over everything with me. “Cabin filter & rear wiper, I know you do that yourself.” “They tell you that you should replace tires with the AWD system, but I’ve never seen an issue with Toyotas, but it is up to you.”

He said the tires are at 6/32 or about 50% worn. I told him I got the tires at Costco and they have road hazard. He told me to bring it there then, no problem. I told him the problem with Costco is that it’s not going to be quick. The tire is $242 on tire rack and if he can get it today and get close then I’ll take it. I also told him the car drives fine and I haven’t noticed any unusual wear patterns or driving issues so I’ll skip the alignment . Again. “No problem. I’ll get the tires here later this afternoon and get the car back to you today .”

Grand total: $1,137.15

Michaell · June 16

nyccarguy said:
It was an expensive trip to the Toyota dealer today. Not THAT expensive since I know how your minds automatically go places. The Highlander has been screaming for service for about a week. With close to 73,000 miles, it needed a full synthetic oil change & tire rotation. It also needed a new left rear door handle that my daughter broke off trying to not fall off of a long board on our driveway.

That’s before I got “the video” showing me the dirty cabin filter, telling me the rear wiper blade that is in dire need of replacement, the tear and slight bubble in the (now) right rear tire sidewall, that I should buy 2 tires and need an alignment.

I get a call from my service advisor. Wants to go over everything with me. “Cabin filter & rear wiper, I know you do that yourself.” “They tell you that you should replace tires with the AWD system, but I’ve never seen an issue with Toyotas, but it is up to you.”

He said the tires are at 6/32 or about 50% worn. I told him I got the tires at Costco and they have road hazard. He told me to bring it there then, no problem. I told him the problem with Costco is that it’s not going to be quick. The tire is $242 on tire rack and if he can get it today and get close then I’ll take it. I also told him the car drives fine and I haven’t noticed any unusual wear patterns or driving issues so I’ll skip the alignment . Again. “No problem. I’ll get the tires here later this afternoon and get the car back to you today .”

Grand total: $1,137.15

What size are the tires? With all the other services, that doesn't seem like that bad of a total.

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