Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

oldfarmer50 · November 15

jmonroe1 said:

au1994 said:

fintail said:

corvette said:
@fintail - I think you are correct. The Si had body colored bumpers, and the S did not, per the brochure. Weirdly, the Si did not have power door locks, you had to step up to the 4WS to get those. "Memory recline" on manual seats in a coupe was pretty cutting edge at the time. I know my dad's 2003 New Beetle had that on both front seats, though.
That link brought back the memory of the wheelcovers on less fancy models too. I have to imagine FI makes a noticeable difference.

That brochure was a lot of fun to read.
——————————————————
The print was way too small for me to read on my phone but the pics were nice.

Got a question, I haven’t been in a new car dealers showroom for I don’t know how long, do they still have brochures that are free or do you have to commit to buying the car first.

jmonroe

Some still do but usually for the models that aren’t selling and they are trying to push. I think any sports car brochure gets pilfered by staff and sold on line.

greg1288 · November 15

jmonroe1 said:

au1994 said:

fintail said:

corvette said:
@fintail - I think you are correct. The Si had body colored bumpers, and the S did not, per the brochure. Weirdly, the Si did not have power door locks, you had to step up to the 4WS to get those. "Memory recline" on manual seats in a coupe was pretty cutting edge at the time. I know my dad's 2003 New Beetle had that on both front seats, though.
That link brought back the memory of the wheelcovers on less fancy models too. I have to imagine FI makes a noticeable difference.

That brochure was a lot of fun to read.
——————————————————
The print was way too small for me to read on my phone but the pics were nice.

Got a question, I haven’t been in a new car dealers showroom for I don’t know how long, do they still have brochures that are free or do you have to commit to buying the car first.

jmonroe

The Conn. Lexus dealer where I bought my used Toyota did have brochures and looked throught them while waiting . Years ago I I very much enjoyed taking them home and looking through them. Of course now you can get an online PDF.

I was interested in the Saturn Aura immediately before the GM bankruptcy which was not widely known to be coming. Looking at the brochure at the dealer I was struck by what they called the "Moroccan Brown" leather option on their top of the line XR model. Believe it or not it was only a $100 option. They did not have an Aura on the lot with it. I told the salesman if they get one in I'll take a look at it. I wound up with a fully loaded (for the time) 2008 XR , white with brown leather interior. MSRP was around $30K and with a pre-bankruptcy discount paid $24K. The wife drove it for 8 years and brought it up to 70K miles. The transmission was replaced after 7 years under extended recall. All in all it was a great car and I I really liked the interior:

tifighter · November 15

Jeep’s gritty adventures continue-

jmonroe1 · November 15

@tifighter said:
Jeep’s gritty adventures continue-

——————————————————
That’s the worst way to scrub away engine sludge.

Jeep isn’t the first manufacturer to have that problem. You’d think by now they’d spend a little more time flushing engines. It seems to me that would be the best way to stop that from happening. It’s got to cost a fortune having recalls like that because of a well know manufacturing flaw.

If I was better at chemistry I’d create a sand dissolver additive and retire again. I know the first industry I’d peddle that potion to.

jmonroe

28firefighter · November 15

@tifighter said:
Jeep’s gritty adventures continue-

Goes along nicely with the “don’t recharge your plug-in hybrid” recall and “park outside” notice we already have.

jmonroe1 · November 15

Hey, it looks like everyone sold all their cars. That’s a first.

jmonroe

28firefighter · November 15

By the way, my wife's office has put up signs that she can't park her Jeep in the garages. Apparently this is my fault.

au1994 · November 15

So it’s gone in how long???

benjaminh · November 15

In the unlikely event anyone is interested in one of the last of the 2025 Outbacks, which I think might be overall a better car than the new 2026, Subaru has 0% for 36 months or 0.9% for up to 72 months to get the last of those out the door.

https://www.subaru.com/shopping-tools/special-offers.html

28firefighter · November 15

@au1994 said:
So it’s gone in how long???

It’s mine to drive now during the week. I called Jeep to see what they’ll do, but trade value is $25k after 6 months. So I’ll ride it out as long as I need to.

28firefighter · November 15

Hit the Seattle Auto Show with @tifighter - great hanging out, as always. Smallish show, Toyota seemed to have 30% of the show floor alone. No BMW, Volvo, Porsche, Infiniti, or any exotics.

On the way back, crossed 500 miles on the Tacoma and figured I’d give a quick write up. Not really organized well - just some thoughts.

I really like this thing. It drives better than it has any business doing - the 4 cylinder turbo is VERY good and the transmission does a great job of keeping it in the power band at all times. Arguably quick. The premium package option (which is $9000!) adds all of the luxury amenities one could want - heated and cooled seats, 360+ cameras, full leather, heated steering wheel, adaptive cruise, front and rear park assist, extra bed lighting, power tailgate, bigger screen, and more. It’s a very pleasant place to spend time and my wife has commented that it is really even nicer than the Jeep. Hardly a penalty box for daily driving. Gas mileage has also been shockingly good. Upper 20s in mixed city/highway with lots of traffic and hills.

The infotainment is basic, but works super well, lots of buttons around the interior. Not much hard plastic anywhere. The crew cab backseat isn’t huge but plenty of room for the class.

Very pleased overall. More in another few weeks after I cross 1000.

stickguy · November 15

sounds like my wife. even though the Maverick is no luxury car, she actually seems to like it.

corvette · November 15

If I could get a well equipped used JGC 4xE in the $25k range, I might be tempted to swap the Maverick.

stickguy · November 15

not a car but got to do some house shopping today. Not for us. Our daughter and new hubby are looking to move out by us, and a couple of houses popped up this week they were interested in. They are in PA for a wedding, so the wife and I saw one with their agent and went to an open house at the other. Did facetime walk throughs on both.

agent house was pretty sad. Potential that would cost a ton to realize. and not priced appropriately. so they nixed that one on the spot.

the open house one, was actually really nice and they fell in love with it over video. after some discussion they talked to their agent and made an offer. Lot of pressure on us, since they are taking a lot of our word for it!

of course it is in a prime area (the housing market up here has not slowed down much, at least not in the hot towns) they already have a few offers in so put in a best and final deadline for tomorrow evening. So at least they should know by Monday. Curious to see where this one ends up.

stickguy · November 15

car related, one house had a MB E class wagon in the garage, and the other one advertised having an EV charger which made sense, since there was an EV in that garage (I think a newer Tesla CUV style).

tifighter · November 15

Photo of aforementioned show-

@stickguy ’s new Prelude. Zoom in for the price.

stickguy · November 15

Funny that the Albany NY show had more brands than the Seattle show. All depends on the local deal association, since it seems that all of the cars were from them. At least for the big shows like Philly, in the old days, most of it was from the manufacturers. These were all brought in from dealer lots. Downside, no fancy electric feeds that keep the car alive. Amazing how many cars are total bricks if the battery is dead.

One CUV, I hope had the battery in the engine compartment because you could not get into the hatch, and could not fold down the seats from the cabin. And a couple of the EVs with the silly electronic pop out door handles you could not get in even if unlocked.

28firefighter · November 15

I said that to @tifighter - dealers must not be seeing value. And none of the brands were staffed by manufacturer reps. All dealer reps.

Michaell · November 15

28firefighter said:
I said that to @tifighter - dealers must not be seeing value. And none of the brands were staffed by manufacturer reps. All dealer reps.

It's been that way for a few years in Denver.

laurasdada · 8:12AM

I do so miss the days of the true auto show, The Colosseum with dad and solo later years at The Javits. While Boston (New England) was always disappointing compared to the NY show, it's really tailed off the past few years.
'26 show is in November, perhaps I'll go. No real car-folk around me.

nyccarguy · 9:28AM

There was a point where my 19 year old son was maybe 12 and had been to 13 NY Auto Shows. We stopped going and went back 2 years ago and it was disappointing. I went last year with my now 16 1/2 year old son and it was just meh.

oldfarmer50 · 10:01AM

nyccarguy said:
There was a point where my 19 year old son was maybe 12 and had been to 13 NY Auto Shows. We stopped going and went back 2 years ago and it was disappointing. I went last year with my now 16 1/2 year old son and it was just meh.

Interesting, I was at the NY show two years ago and I thought that the overwhelming focus on EVs made it less exciting. I thought that was just me.

fintail · 10:22AM

I recall back in the day the Seattle show seemed kind of small compared to the size of the metro as well - even 20+ years ago the Vancouver show seemed like a world apart, a good excuse for a weekend trip (spring show) as it would have more brands on display, more concept cars etc. I don't think I have visited the Seattle show in 10+ years, looks like not much has changed.

Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

Comments

Helpful Tools

Most popular vehicles

Your Privacy