Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

xwesx · October 21

andres3 said:
I agree, though it would probably be some high threshold like 10 cars in 10 years and @breld would definitely be the right customer for that. (Also they'd probably limit it to 20% off or something). Most of us would fail I think. Also, they have to still be around and honor the deal years later so it's a bit risky.

Well, for the customer, yes.... for the business? Not risky. If they aren't in business, then they aren't in business. If the customers were repeat buyers, though, then the "plan" still worked out. Yeah, agreed on parameters, but if they played it right, I can see them being able and willing to give the repeat customers a free (or highly discounted) car. With proper parameters and cash management within the business, it could be an impressive incentive and great PR on those occasions where a car was actually handed out (in itself, a very rare occurrence... except for the folks that buy chronically, and even then it would likely be a few years).

xwesx · October 21

stickguy said:
I run the tank until the flame goes out. No waste on my watch.

Same here! I keep four 20# tanks and usually refill them "in bulk." They don't make the trip into town unless they are empty!

corvette · October 22

Got the Ariya registered today... After many, many years of offering a "free pass" for credit and debit cards, our county clerk's office is now surcharging them. The waiting room was almost empty, so I asked the clerk if I could run back to my car and get my checkbook. About $1,300 later, the sales tax and fees are paid, and I'm registered through March of next year.

Sandman6472 · October 22

Just remembered one more concert. Peter, Paul & Mary at the Yale Bowl. Was a highlight of my life!!!

Sandman6472 · October 22

Breld, absolutely love your new BMW!!! Totally awesome vehicle! Great color also. Mazel Tov! Enjoy it well. Must be wonderful to have 6 vehicles to play with! My dream if I win the lotto is to have 7 vehicles, one for every day of the week!

Sandman6472 · October 22

Another conference for my CPA wife in Orlando this week. Dropped her at the train Monday morning and our oldest picked her up in Orlando during her lunch hour. Having dinner again tonight it seems. Coming home Thursday night around 6 or so. Then it's off to St. Augustine for about a week in mid November to help the other daughter either buy or rent another apartment until the end of 2026. So depending on her plans, we will adjust ours. Think it's best that we live near her but not in the same house but told wife I'll do whatever you two girls want. As it is, we'll be house guests in the beginning until our place is done, if we go that route. Think it best to sell the current abode before we buy a new one. Luckily, the prices are a bit lower up there so we'll be able to bank a nice chunk of change while going down to a 3/2. I'd just take one of the bedrooms for my office as would she. As much as I'd like a 3-car garage, it isn't necessary as we don't keep much out there. And think a 1500 or a 1600 square ft. house would be plenty big. A living room isn't needed as we use the family room for entertaining/t v watching.

sda · October 22

If a propane tank runs out when my wife is grilling, oh boy. I have back up tanks. Amused, she isn’t.

suydam · October 23

First full month charging at home on a newly installed Level 2 compared to using the public DC fast chargers near us, and also to local gas prices. Wow, what a difference! Even in California where electricity is expensive compared to other states. Not to mention the convenience of charging overnight at home. We charged 3 times to 80%, so to about 240 miles range each time. It cost a little over $34 total. Gas locally is around $4.40/gallon, so it’s more than twice as much. Kind of ballpark because there is no way to know what the mpg would be, but I was overly optimistic guessing 30 mpg. Ditto fast charging even with a subscription pass.
We would still use public chargers on trips out of town of course. An EV just makes economic sense here, and the added bonus is a vehicle I really love!
What I’m learning from other EV owners is that people don’t tend to let the range get really low, since it’s so easy to charge at home. We’re charging when it drops down to around 50-60 miles range. How about other EV owners here? How often do you tend to charge your vehicles?

corvette · October 23

@suydam - I did a full charge on Saturday after returning from a hiking trip, and haven't charged since. The battery is now down to 70%, and I'll plan to charge tomorrow so I'll have a full battery for doing stuff over the weekend (the Ariya lacks an option to stop charging at a certain percentage, so it will charge to 100%).

suydam · October 23

I didn’t know the Arica lacked that option. Interesting to know. You can even set the percentage of charge for most PHEVs, although I don’t know why anyone would. The 2017 Volt had that feature.

tjc78 · October 23

@suydam
I’ve been charging up between 20 and 30% and taking it to 80%. I used it for work this week so that’s one charge on Wednesday night.

Tonight I plugged it in at 60% because I’m taking it to the shore tomorrow and wanted a 100% charge.

Our car has an option to limit max charge. Typically I leave it at 80% but change it when I want the extra capacity.

tjc78 · October 23

28firefighter · 8:17AM

Fleet update...

i5: The BMW spent about 3.5 weeks in August down for the count, waiting for a recall on the HVAC system to be performed that required dropping the high voltage battery and re-routing some tubing. It was fine until this week when the car started continuously cycling the HVAC, shaking the car, and then eventually it just stopped cooling. It also tossed a "see service center immediately" light, as well as a slew of errors for the passenger restraint system. Suffice to say, it's back at the dealer - tech has seen both issues before and likely the battery has to come off again. Woof. To quote the service advisor "this is probably going to take a million years."

911: For the moment, this car is absolutely perfect. I'm daily driving it while the i5 is in the shop and it is such a joy. No issues whatsoever. And to say thank you for that, I'm going to get a slew of fluid services done on it in the near future (oil, gearbox, etc).

Jeep: My wife loves the car, but even she admits the electrical system of it is quirky. She says the Infotainment does weird things (like if she shifts into reverse with carplay on, the cameras come on, she shifts back to drive, carplay screen is black). We've also had a few random charging errors here and there but nothing crazy. Her take is she'll love it for the 2 years (coming up on one year with it soon) and then happily hand it back. I enjoy the extra space and ride height over the Q5 and our other past vehicles - particularly when hauling sports stuff, doing transfer station runs, or other home improvement projects. It is also dramatically more comfortable when her parents are in town and we all go somewhere in one car.

Michaell · 8:20AM

28firefighter said:
Fleet update...

i5: The BMW spent about 3.5 weeks in August down for the count, waiting for a recall on the HVAC system to be performed that required dropping the high voltage battery and re-routing some tubing. It was fine until this week when the car started continuously cycling the HVAC, shaking the car, and then eventually it just stopped cooling. It also tossed a "see service center immediately" light, as well as a slew of errors for the passenger restraint system. Suffice to say, it's back at the dealer - tech has seen both issues before and likely the battery has to come off again. Woof. To quote the service advisor "this is probably going to take a million years."

911: For the moment, this car is absolutely perfect. I'm daily driving it while the i5 is in the shop and it is such a joy. No issues whatsoever. And to say thank you for that, I'm going to get a slew of fluid services done on it in the near future (oil, gearbox, etc).

Jeep: My wife loves the car, but even she admits the electrical system of it is quirky. She says the Infotainment does weird things (like if she shifts into reverse with carplay on, the cameras come on, she shifts back to drive, carplay screen is black). We've also had a few random charging errors here and there but nothing crazy. Her take is she'll love it for the 2 years (coming up on one year with it soon) and then happily hand it back. I enjoy the extra space and ride height over the Q5 and our other past vehicles - particularly when hauling sports stuff, doing transfer station runs, or other home improvement projects. It is also dramatically more comfortable when her parents are in town and we all go somewhere in one car.

Oh, dear. @breld is having HVAC issues with his i5, as well. I'm afraid to pass these along to my sister, as I don't think they'd be thrilled to know this is a weak spot with the car. But, if they can secure a loaner, I suppose it wouldn't be too bad.

ab348 · 8:23AM

Ahhhhh, BMW.

tjc78 · 8:55AM

@28firefighter

I'd be livid... the #1 reason I lease our cars is to be "trouble free". If this was my wife's car she would be telling me to dump it ASAP!

As for the infotainment... yeah, that's a UConnect thing. Both my 22 and 25 Rams have similiar glitches. One thing it does often is zoom the Carplay map in and out at various times for zero reason.

tifighter · 9:14AM

@28firefighter said:
Fleet update...

i5: The BMW spent about 3.5 weeks in August down for the count, waiting for a recall on the HVAC system to be performed that required dropping the high voltage battery and re-routing some tubing. It was fine until this week when the car started continuously cycling the HVAC, shaking the car, and then eventually it just stopped cooling. It also tossed a "see service center immediately" light, as well as a slew of errors for the passenger restraint system. Suffice to say, it's back at the dealer - tech has seen both issues before and likely the battery has to come off again. Woof. To quote the service advisor "this is probably going to take a million years."

911: For the moment, this car is absolutely perfect. I'm daily driving it while the i5 is in the shop and it is such a joy. No issues whatsoever. And to say thank you for that, I'm going to get a slew of fluid services done on it in the near future (oil, gearbox, etc).

Jeep: My wife loves the car, but even she admits the electrical system of it is quirky. She says the Infotainment does weird things (like if she shifts into reverse with carplay on, the cameras come on, she shifts back to drive, carplay screen is black). We've also had a few random charging errors here and there but nothing crazy. Her take is she'll love it for the 2 years (coming up on one year with it soon) and then happily hand it back. I enjoy the extra space and ride height over the Q5 and our other past vehicles - particularly when hauling sports stuff, doing transfer station runs, or other home improvement projects. It is also dramatically more comfortable when her parents are in town and we all go somewhere in one car.

IDK, the answer here seems pretty simple. You just need moar 911’s.

au1994 · 9:25AM

I’d be torqued about the i5 as well and would like to say I’d give them one chance and then I’d dump it if it happened again. I would guess these may be heavily incentivized leases? Thus making it difficult to dump it.

uConnect is quirky but aren’t they all? A quick restart usually takes care of the issues for me.

I like the idea of a fleet update so here we go:

—X1: All in good working order as it approaches 80k and living its best life in college. We threw some money at it last year (tires, brakes, motor mounts) and it is not getting a lot of miles so hopefully it gets him through 2.5 more years.

—Q5: Wife is enjoying it for the most part. It’s a looker and has plenty of power and luxury that she was looking for. However…the Audi MMI absolutely sucks. Random drops, slow to connect and thats really inconvenient and a little dangerous when she’s on her own and using a navigation app to get somewhere. S/W has been flashed and I have done hard resets on my own which works for a bit but it comes back. We have just over a year on the lease and she is lobbying hard for a Macan. I’ve looked at some former service loaners and it looks like it would be doable. I’ve told her she won’t be able to be too picky on color combos though.

—Grand Cherokee: I’m really enjoying it. Other than the quirky uConnect and one rattle that was fixed, I have had no problems. It’s getting an avg of 20 mpg and just does everything well. I know there are probably better rated midsize 3 rows out there but in complete transparency, the JGC gives me the ‘look’ I want over a Pilot or Grand Highlander. I am about halfway in on it so I am sure I’ll consider everything in the meantime but if it was today I’d look at a 4Runner, JGC and a Maverick.

roadburner · 10:14AM

I had my first "issue" with the Wrangler; the battery coolant heater failed- triggering a CEL and causing the engine to run with no EV mode available. I was able to schedule an appointment with my dealer within two days. When the service writer recorded the mileage her tablet scanned the fault codes and she immediately said, "It's the coolant heater- an easy fix and it's covered under the 10 year 100k mile hybrid system warranty." It was ready a couple of days later. Looking on the 4xe FB pages and other forums I'm amazed at how many dealers are still almost totally clueless about the 4xe powertrain. Some people have had to make multiple trips to the dealer for the same issue I had- due to ridiculous diagnostic errors.

xwesx · 10:19AM

Well, congrats on getting a good service center at your dealer!

stickguy · 10:52AM

My wife would be like Tom’s. She would have no tolerance for that nonsense and once she does not trust a vehicle, it needs to go because she won’t change her mind.

Fleet update? Mine never changes and they barely move. There’s your update.

andres3 · 11:05AM

Knocking on wood -

all the TTS needs is rear brakes and fresh fluid for the annual November HPDE the weekend before Thanksgiving at Buttonwillow. Also planning to do the 9.5 year old battery as a preventative measure.

Macan has been great. I have noticed some drive train chatter/hop maybe wheel slip / traction control activation???? on hard lower speed high acceleration cornering (like say turning right from a 30 MPH roadway onto a freeway on-ramp where you want to get to 70 MPH in a couple seconds. The sensors can still be annoyingly sensitive to proximity especially in drive-throughs. It doesn't have blind spot monitoring lights but that's OK, never learned to fully trust those lights/indicators anyway. Funny I'm not sure I fully noticed that missing feature during the test drive. Shows I don't miss it.
Tiguan - my wife suggested she needs a new car because her side mirror housing is all jacked up. Well it's jacked up from her hitting the side of the garage on the house backing out of it, so I told her she would just jack up a new one too, so that's not a good reason to get a new vehicle! Ha! Plus, the DV on the Tiguan might still be significant due to her low mileage from her two not-at-fault collisions that we didn't get any DV compensation on because both were minor, both were either uninsured or had fraudulent insurance that wouldn't take responsibility anyway.

breld · 11:18AM

@28firefighter and I exchanged some texts - it would seem we are in similar situations with the i5 HVAC issues. Mine has been in the shop for two weeks now. I had to drop off the second key for the BRZ yesterday so i stopped in the service area and spoke with my service rep. He was great - took me back to see the car with all sorts of hoses undone under the hood as they plan to flush those for any debris, reattach and then…cross fingers. The service rep brought up his 240k mile E46, so we struck up a conversation about that and other vintage BMWs - I think he was surprised and pleased at my enthusiasm since I simply had an i5.

Next step would likely involve the evaporator, which as others have pointed out, requires a removal of the dash.

The thing that cracks me up is I canceled my order on the Polestar 3 in favor of going with the more established brand. To be fair, the service experience is great, and that would not have been the case for Polestar.

28firefighter · 11:20AM

My wife is telling me to dump it. And I can via lease transfer. But I’m not quite ready to do that yet. Nothing really interests me in the same budget.

laurasdada · 11:46AM

The A7 had a couple of electronic gremlins recently, both fixed with a reboot:

Vehicle data showing 100% electric use since last gas fill (nope, some dinosaurs gave their all since). And listing km vs miles as programmed
SXM, while lit up, was not making a sound

My update:
A7: Still smooth, silent and stylish
M240xi: Still uber-fun and wearing Estoril Blue ever so well
X3: She loves it

nyccarguy · 12:29PM

@au1994 said:
I’d be torqued about the i5 as well and would like to say I’d give them one chance and then I’d dump it if it happened again. I would guess these may be heavily incentivized leases? Thus making it difficult to dump it.

uConnect is quirky but aren’t they all? A quick restart usually takes care of the issues for me.

I like the idea of a fleet update so here we go:

—X1: All in good working order as it approaches 80k and living its best life in college. We threw some money at it last year (tires, brakes, motor mounts) and it is not getting a lot of miles so hopefully it gets him through 2.5 more years.

—Q5: Wife is enjoying it for the most part. It’s a looker and has plenty of power and luxury that she was looking for. However…the Audi MMI absolutely sucks. Random drops, slow to connect and thats really inconvenient and a little dangerous when she’s on her own and using a navigation app to get somewhere. S/W has been flashed and I have done hard resets on my own which works for a bit but it comes back. We have just over a year on the lease and she is lobbying hard for a Macan. I’ve looked at some former service loaners and it looks like it would be doable. I’ve told her she won’t be able to be too picky on color combos though.

—Grand Cherokee: I’m really enjoying it. Other than the quirky uConnect and one rattle that was fixed, I have had no problems. It’s getting an avg of 20 mpg and just does everything well.** I know there are probably better rated midsize 3 rows out there but in complete transparency, the JGC gives me the ‘look’ I want over a Pilot or Grand Highlander.** I am about halfway in on it so I am sure I’ll consider everything in the meantime but if it was today I’d look at a 4Runner, JGC and a Maverick.

The look is part of it. I love our Highlander, but it is the furthest thing from cool. I think they did such an awesome job with the styling of the 6th gen 4Runner. Seems like the SR5s are leasing out well-ish.

nyccarguy · 12:31PM

@xwesx said:
Well, congrats on getting a good service center at your dealer!

+1 @roadburner having a good service department for your Jeep.

nyccarguy · 12:32PM

@28firefighter - your i5 issues really stink. I’m so glad you are enamored by your 911 and continue to enjoy it.

@breld - glad you two have been able to commiserate offline.

nyccarguy · 1:01PM

Fleet update for me:

The Prelude is resting comfortably in the garage with 168,XXX miles. It needs to go back to the mechanic to find a transmission fluid leak. He’s going to do a drain & fill with a tracer dye, have me drive it, then find & fix the leak. I’ve also got to purchase tail light gaskets. The leaking tail light gaskets have prevented me from washing the car and it is absolutely filthy.

Our Highlander has crossed over the 80K mile plateau last week.

My plan is to give it to my 16 year old once he gets his license. It’s got room for his goalie gear. It is almost paid off.

The Camry is doing great for my wife. She likes it much better than driving an SUV. Last week I calculated its worst gas mileage. An abominable 38 mpg. My wife still is having intermittent issues with the radio.

We plan to add to the fleet so I have something to drive during the winter months and my 19 year old son has something to drive when he gets home from college & has to go to work.

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