what do you drive?

[mkt]

If it was recently as in this year, they should be trying to offload the 16 RS for $35k or under, no questions. Tons of dealers shot themselves in the foot by marking up a freaking Focus and because of that reputation, the cars didn't move as fast as they thought they would.

Also, all 2016s and most 2017s need the HG recall done. Fun car, but needs a tune to really wake it up. I'm going to get one at some point.

It was last month. The dealer had it at $35k, but they kept adding things to the paperwork, and I'd send it back.

Finally, I said, give me a purchase order with the price as advertised + tax, tag, and title - or I walk. They added $2k to the price, so I walked.

It's still unsold.

 

[trainplane3]

It was last month. The dealer had it at $35k, but they kept adding things to the paperwork, and I'd send it back.

Finally, I said, give me a purchase order with the price as advertised + tax, tag, and title - or I walk. They added $2k to the price, so I walked.

It's still unsold.

Yep, that sounds right. I can't believe they're still doing that. As much as I love the car, you made the right move. Dealers wonder why no one's buying them...

I was lucky to get a test drive at the one dealership. They wanted me to do 90% of the deal before I could touch a RS. I was about to walk and they had a change of heart. It's a hopped up Focus, not a Ferrari. A salesperson would be with me, so I couldn't pull any stunts if I ever wanted to. I just don't get it.

Fun fact, a Corvette was $1 cheaper to insure then the RS. And the RS was about $250 cheaper then my turbo Cobalt SS.

 

[mkt]

They wanted me to do 90% of the deal before I could touch a RS. I was about to walk and they had a change of heart.

During my 2015 "I moved back to the states" car search, a Subaru dealer did that to me on a BRZ. However they let me walk. The car was on their lot a month later at a lower price, I pulled in with my Mini, and the same salesman walked up to me and remembered me. He asked me if I was still interested, and I asked him to bring out his manager for all of us to "talk shop". When the manager came out, I said "I just wanted to see what I bought from a dealer that didn't make me jump through hoops! A car that cost $5k more than the BRZ!" It felt nice.

Fun fact, a Corvette was $1 cheaper to insure then the RS. And the RS was about $250 cheaper then my turbo Cobalt SS.

I work for an insurer now - granted, in their marketing team as creative director, but I had to learn the basics. Yet why some cars are priced differently to insure is like black magic to me - I don't understand it! It fascinates me how expensive some seemingly ordinary cars are to insure, yet how cheap some high performance cars are to insure. I looked at adding a second car back in January, an leased base model Alfa Romero Giulia, and it would have tripled my premiums. Yet a comparable 3 series (320i MT/M-Sport Package) cost the same as my JCW to insure, and both the C-Class and A4 cost a bit less to insure!

 

[Peridot25]

Got my family a new Subaru Forester that I'll drive to Disneyland California this summer. I'm just waiting for my replacement set of Toyo tires I ordered online to arrive. Excited to go on a lot of trip with my family.

 

[mkt]

So, fiancee needed wheels. She likes crossovers, so we started to look at CPO'd Buick Enclaves. Then she realized she hates owing money, so we put aside $4k, to buy an older Honda CR-V/Toyota Rav4.

Last week Friday, we bought a one-owner 2003 Honda CR-V with only 117,700k miles and a full dealer service history from new. It's been a Florida car its whole life, so no issues with rush - just faded paint, plus a few dings and scratches. But for what it cost, we didn't care: We paid $2500 for it after sales tax and DMV fees (thank god FL allows you to transfer license plates).

We proceeded to spend $500 on brand new tires and a four wheel alignment, $200 to change the lock cylinder and rekey the driver's door lock since they're a weak point on Hondas and it had a replacement lock with a different key, and $10 for a new Honda grill badge because it was missing.

I couldn't do much preventative maintenance because I don't have a garage in Miami. But we wanted to drive to Orlando, and figured it's a Honda - so we drove it up last night. It performed flawlessly.

Once here, I started to put a shopping cart together for a full synthetic oil change, when my aunt mentioned that the local dealers do ridiculous specials in the summer. For less than the retail cost of materials, the Honda dealer down the street from where I'm staying would do a full synthetic oil change, tire rotation (not needed, but hey, why not), and tell me what the car needed.

An hour and $40 later, an almost perfect bill of health. Tires are prefect (duh), brakes are at 80%, all fluids are healthy - only issue, the valve cover gasket needs to be replaced - but that's a $200 dealer job, or less elsewhere. Since it's not an expensive job, I might go ahead and let a dealer handle this to keep the service history 100% dealer, but I am really impressed. Beyond that, it's missing a windshield washer reservoir cap (ordered on amazon, should arrive today) a rear Honda badge (which are shockingly expensive)

Total spent so far $3250 for what should be a reliable commuter car for the foreseeable future.

Here it is the day we brought it home:

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I finally got rid of my ugly 2003 Oldsmobile Bravada that had no AC and you could hear coming from a mile away.

I got this instead...

Brand new 2018 Honda Civic EX-L. Got it two weeks ago. I'm a bit of a rebel. My parents have always owned GM vehicles, and so they wanted me to get a GM vehicle. But I went out and bought a nice Japanese car. I regret nothing.

 

[flynnibus]

So, fiancee needed wheels. She likes crossovers, so we started to look at CPO'd Buick Enclaves. Then she realized she hates owing money, so we put aside $4k, to buy an older Honda CR-V/Toyota Rav4.

Last week Friday, we bought a one-owner 2003 Honda CR-V with only 117,700k miles and a full dealer service history from new. It's been a Florida car its whole life, so no issues with rush - just faded paint, plus a few dings and scratches. But for what it cost, we didn't care: We paid $2500 for it after sales tax and DMV fees (thank god FL allows you to transfer license plates).

We proceeded to spend $500 on brand new tires and a four wheel alignment, $200 to change the lock cylinder and rekey the driver's door lock since they're a weak point on Hondas and it had a replacement lock with a different key, and $10 for a new Honda grill badge because it was missing.

I couldn't do much preventative maintenance because I don't have a garage in Miami. But we wanted to drive to Orlando, and figured it's a Honda - so we drove it up last night. It performed flawlessly.

Once here, I started to put a shopping cart together for a full synthetic oil change, when my aunt mentioned that the local dealers do ridiculous specials in the summer. For less than the retail cost of materials, the Honda dealer down the street from where I'm staying would do a full synthetic oil change, tire rotation (not needed, but hey, why not), and tell me what the car needed.

An hour and $40 later, an almost perfect bill of health. Tires are prefect (duh), brakes are at 80%, all fluids are healthy - only issue, the valve cover gasket needs to be replaced - but that's a $200 dealer job, or less elsewhere. Since it's not an expensive job, I might go ahead and let a dealer handle this to keep the service history 100% dealer, but I am really impressed. Beyond that, it's missing a windshield washer reservoir cap (ordered on amazon, should arrive today) a rear Honda badge (which are shockingly expensive)

Total spent so far $3250 for what should be a reliable commuter car for the foreseeable future.

Here it is the day we brought it home:

Nice score.

I hate used car shopping.. and dealing with my kids needing cars has sucked so much life out of me.

 

[mkt]

Nice score.

I hate used car shopping.. and dealing with my kids needing cars has sucked so much life out of me.

This was a lucky Craigslist buy. Showed up, handed over cash, left with title in hand.

 

[flynnibus]

This was a lucky Craigslist buy. Showed up, handed over cash, left with title in hand.

My latest issue is having nice older cars... that keep getting hit. Super cheap 1996 oldsmobile <40k miles... gets hit.. causing over 1k in damage. 1999 civic with only about 100k miles.. gets rammed in parking lot costing over 2500 to repair.

I've gone to hating cars when you have to deal with cars that aren't 'yours'

 

[mkt]

99 civic with 100k miles?! It's not even broken in

 

[flynnibus]

99 civic with 100k miles?! It's not even broken in

It went till about 4 years ago with only about 45k on it Then kids got old enough to drive and kid #2 claimed it. Kid #1 could never master the 5speed

 

[Goofyernmost]

In 2008 I bought a 2005 Cadillac DSL with low mileage and 80K and 5 years left on the bumper to bumper warranty. This car had every switch, button and whistle that was ever made. It even had a built in fan in the seats that blew cold air up ones backside to prevent swamp butt. I bought it because I knew I was going to retire in a couple of years and I wanted a nice car to drive during my retirement. This picture is exactly what it looked like. I loved that car. It was the nicest car that I ever owned and was proud to be seen in it.

However, after I retired and the warranty ended this $60,000. car (not what I paid, but, the original selling price) started to shed all it's parts one at a time. I would no sooner get one thing fixed and some other ultra expensive thing would go bad. Even the battery cost $250.00 and was a special super battery that enabled it to run all the electronics. This car was immaculate even with it's advanced age of 11 years old. Then it decided to blow a head gasket and the cost of repair was $6000.00 for a car that at that point blue booked for $900.00. Sorry.. I sold it for $1000.00 and leased a 2016 VW Passat.

I still miss my Caddy, but, this little VW is a very fun car to drive and special bonus it gets 38 mpg. Not a lot of major "extras" but a comfortable car that cost me less to lease then the Caddy was costing me to repair per year. And I will now have a new vehicle every 3 years.

 

[mkt]

Enjoy the Passat - I own a 2013 Manual trans Passat back home in PR that I adore.

 

[mkt]

My latest issue is having nice older cars... that keep getting hit. Super cheap 1996 oldsmobile <40k miles... gets hit.. causing over 1k in damage. 1999 civic with only about 100k miles.. gets rammed in parking lot costing over 2500 to repair.

I've gone to hating cars when you have to deal with cars that aren't 'yours'

Well, the car survived its first road trip. 713 miles, Miami to Orlando, onto Tampa, then St. Pete, back to Orlando, and back to Miami. It threw a code towards the beginning of the drive (literally a mile from my house in Miami), so I read the code (P0661, valve sensor), took a risk and cleared it... and has not returned.

While in Orlando, I took it to a local Honda dealer who had a $30 synthetic oil+filter change and tire rotation deal. It was literally cheaper than buying it and doing it at home. The dealer gave the car a once over and gave it a clean bill of health, but needing to change the valve cover gasket, and the rear brake pads were at about halfway.

I took that seriously... right until the following day before we started the Tampa-St Pete part of the drive. I decided to change the engine and cabin air filters. The engine air filter was in OK shape and probably would've gone another 5k miles, but the cabin air filter was disgusting and had mold. The dealer had given both of those items a clean bill of health, so I have decided to ignore their valve cover gasket warning until I see the car is running low on oil or is leaking oil- which neither has happened.

Also, while opening the air box to replace the air filter, I noticed that the cover had a crack internally that had been fixed with tape and the valve air hose was also taped. I'm sure that's fine, but my OCD was triggered. Yesterday I went to LKQ and got the hose for $4 off of a junkyard CRV (dealer wanted $90), and today I got a new airbox on Amazon for $10 thanks to some amazon credit I had.

All that's left after this is spark plugs/ignition coils, and the car should last a while.

 

[mkt]

Well, the car survived its first road trip. 713 miles, Miami to Orlando, onto Tampa, then St. Pete, back to Orlando, and back to Miami. It threw a code towards the beginning of the drive (literally a mile from my house in Miami), so I read the code (P0661, valve sensor), took a risk and cleared it... and has not returned.

While in Orlando, I took it to a local Honda dealer who had a $30 synthetic oil+filter change and tire rotation deal. It was literally cheaper than buying it and doing it at home. The dealer gave the car a once over and gave it a clean bill of health, but needing to change the valve cover gasket, and the rear brake pads were at about halfway.

I took that seriously... right until the following day before we started the Tampa-St Pete part of the drive. I decided to change the engine and cabin air filters. The engine air filter was in OK shape and probably would've gone another 5k miles, but the cabin air filter was disgusting and had mold. The dealer had given both of those items a clean bill of health, so I have decided to ignore their valve cover gasket warning until I see the car is running low on oil or is leaking oil- which neither has happened.

Also, while opening the air box to replace the air filter, I noticed that the cover had a crack internally that had been fixed with tape and the valve air hose was also taped. I'm sure that's fine, but my OCD was triggered. Yesterday I went to LKQ and got the hose for $4 off of a junkyard CRV (dealer wanted $90), and today I got a new airbox on Amazon for $10 thanks to some amazon credit I had.

All that's left after this is spark plugs/ignition coils, and the car should last a while.

Update. Oil leak arrived, and the valve cover gasket DID need to be done, so I took care of it today. First time doing it, so I did what all DIY mechanics do nowadays - watched a 20 minute youtube video, put the car on jack stands to make sure there weren't other leaks, and wrenched away. I may also need to replace oil pan gasket, but I cleaned off all the oil to make sure it wasn't dripping down from the valve cover. If I have a clean oil pan this weekend, I should be good to go, and if not, I get dirty again.

In the meantime, hopefully the airbox arrives tomorrow or Saturday and I can take care of that. Then all that's left are spark plugs/ignition coils.

 

[mkt]

1- Rob calls dealer to ask question about potential pulga replacement, because multiple left ankle sprains have made driving a manual transmission occasionally painful.
2- Rob researches the car a bit more and decides against it
3- Rob tells dealer that, thank you anyway no longer interested
4- Dealer has three different managers call Rob repeatedly to pressure
5- Rob gives them a bad FB review
6- Salesman calls Rob asking to take down the review.
7- Salesman calls Rob an when refused.
❤ Miami

 

[mkt]

Do I want this?

https://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/cto/d/2001-nissan-xterra/6677607941.html

 

[flynnibus]

67k? wow... I would have said no, until that number. Would be curious to know why they want to sell now... would have been a great barn car for my kids

 

[mkt]

67k? wow... I would have said no, until that number. Would be curious to know why they want to sell now... would have been a great barn car for my kids

I've been looking for a comfortable daily driver/beater. Really, I've been looking for a Saab 97 or 92 (ie, the non Saabs so parts availability shouldn't be an issue), then the Xterra came up.

 

[mkt]

Update.
I made an offer on an NA automatic Saab 9-2x here in Miami and it was accepted :X

Here's the pics from the ad