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Red Robin Hood posted:I've only ever owned Mazdas... I really like them. I'm getting a loan from the bank. Should I try a dealership or stick to craigslist? As I've learned, don't be afraid to search far outside of your home city. I bought my MS6 from Jersey and had it shipped. Here's one! http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ctd/3318351529.html
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Oct 15, 2012 20:37
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Rhyno posted:As I've learned, don't be afraid to search far outside of your home city. I bought my MS6 from Jersey and had it shipped. 90,000 seems high but I guess I don't know. I DO know that my 10k is a sad amount but I was hoping for fewer miles. What should I try to talk him down to? My loan will be for 10k and I'd like to walk away and keep it at or under 10k even with the tax and licensing crap.
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Oct 15, 2012 20:46
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Leperflesh posted:Keep in mind that the dealer list price on any used car is a hilarious number that nobody should ever pay. They expect to be talked down (even if they don't really want to act like that's true). When shopping at dealerships, after finding a car that I liked one of my first questions was always "can you work with me on this price?" and the answer 100% of the time was some variation of "yes." I assume this true after they include whatever incentives etc? The Internet sales guy from the local dealership sent me an email with a few cars he thought I might be interested in after I had talked to him about what I'm looking for last week. When he sent the quotes he included some other details, e.g.: [Dealer] Discount: -$ 3715 Cash Back Rebate: -$ 1500 Your Internet True Price: $ 29000 +Tax, Title & Documentation Fee** It turned out that I decided not to go with any of the cars he suggested but I'm sure I'll go through this again with whichever dealership I end up buying from. Also, he seemingly suggested in not so many words that a dealership is generally able to negotiate down ~7%; is that the rule of thumb or does that sound about right/way off?
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Oct 15, 2012 22:09
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Red Robin Hood posted:90,000 seems high but I guess I don't know. I DO know that my 10k is a sad amount but I was hoping for fewer miles. What should I try to talk him down to? My loan will be for 10k and I'd like to walk away and keep it at or under 10k even with the tax and licensing crap. That's just one example and I searched for 30 seconds, I'm sure you can find others. Maybe a year older, probably find some with fewer miles. If age of the car isn't a big deal expand you search to Proteges or Mazda6s. There's so many options and you should be able to find a large number of cars that fit your criteria.
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Oct 15, 2012 22:12
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Rhyno posted:That's just one example and I searched for 30 seconds, I'm sure you can find others. Maybe a year older, probably find some with fewer miles. If age of the car isn't a big deal expand you search to Proteges or Mazda6s. There's so many options and you should be able to find a large number of cars that fit your criteria. Due to the loan I will have to narrow my search between 2001 and 2010
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Oct 15, 2012 22:23
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Sorry for double post but I need immediate advice. I went to a dealership and drove a very nice Mazda 3 with 61,xxx miles on it for 11k out the door post taxes and etc. http://www.kbb.com/cars-for-sale/de...461632005870300 What do ye' goons think? My loan would be (with co-signer) $205/mo for 5 years at 3.45% apr. The body is really clean and very nice, it drives wonderfully and sounds excellent! Or did the salesman just make me want it this bad 
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Oct 16, 2012 04:29
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You should really keep looking - you're about to be one of the those suckers who buys the first car they drive.
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Oct 16, 2012 04:31
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Bovril Delight posted:You should really keep looking - you're about to be one of the those suckers who buys the first car they drive. This. Go drive at least 10 cars, some not Mazda just to be sure you are most comfortable with it.
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Oct 16, 2012 04:34
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Rhyno posted:This. Go drive at least 10 cars, some not Mazda just to be sure you are most comfortable with it. OK. Lets say I drive 10 cars and still think I love it. Is that a good price?
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Oct 16, 2012 04:41
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Red Robin Hood posted:OK. Lets say I drive 10 cars and still think I love it. Is that a good price? Check Edmund TMV and KBB and do everything you can to talk them down.
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Oct 16, 2012 04:49
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Red Robin Hood posted:OK. Lets say I drive 10 cars and still think I love it. Is that a good price? No. At least not around me. Try going to edmunds.com and appraising your car. I saw dealer retail for $7500 (and that's before negotiation). Having said that, I am in a cheaper car area, and I didn't include any options. Enter it in there and see what they say. I think you're going to find it's overpriced though.
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Oct 16, 2012 04:50
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Grumpwagon posted:No. At least not around me. Try going to edmunds.com and appraising your car. I saw dealer retail for $7500 (and that's before negotiation). Having said that, I am in a cheaper car area, and I didn't include any options. Speaking of appraisal, my car has a hole in the front bumper requiring the entire deal to get replaced as the foam behind it collapsed. The cost to repair is $740 and my car is valued at ~8500 trade in as "average" and 10094 at "great. Would it be in my best interest to pay to have the body work done or just straight up trade it in?
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Oct 16, 2012 05:07
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Captain Narwhal posted:I assume this true after they include whatever incentives etc? I was speaking specifically about used cars. For new cars the situation is much more complicated. Some new cars are in high demand, and in that case the dealer has no incentive to negotiate at all. There are even cars occasionally that go for well above MSRP due to demand far outstripping supply. Some new cars prove unpopular, or have large factory incentives (to the dealer), or are being replaced with newer models on the lot. And your market matters as well, since both of these factors can vary from one area to another. Used cars are much simpler. The dealer paid something for the car, and they want to make a profit, so they want to sell it for more. However, every day it sits on the lot is an opportunity cost (the space isn't available for more cars!) and they have to be washed regularly too, and the dealer has to carry the cost of registration, and so on. The longer a car sits the more incentive the dealer has to unload it, and in some cases they may even be willing to take a small loss just to get something off the lot that's been there for way too long. The salesman also wants his commission, wants to hit sales numbers, wants to minimize how much time he spends making each sale, and wants to sell more cars than the other salesmen on the lot. So while his boss will be pleased if he sells a car for lots of profit, there's still some minimum profit level that his boss will approve that still gets him a sold car for the month and you are aiming for that number. At the end of the month, that number is usually lower. quote:
This looks like a new car to me. The dealer discount is a factory incentive or something, basically it's not actually a discount at all; same with the rebate. Both are probably factors that apply to every dealership selling that car near you. So I would guess that your "internet true price" still has some wiggle room. But again, if it's a new car, that may or may not be the case. quote:It turned out that I decided not to go with any of the cars he suggested but I'm sure I'll go through this again with whichever dealership I end up buying from. For new cars there's no "rule of thumb" for the reasons already mentioned. For used cars there's also no rule of thumb because of the changing factors affecting a given dealership. Ultimately the amount you can talk them down on a price can't be pinned down to an easy number. Instead, you should decide what you think is a good price for a specific car, and refuse to pay more than that. Probably you should lowball that number, to leave room for them to talk you up a bit. Part of the reason there's no rule of thumb is because you have no idea what they paid for the used car. If it was a trade-in, they might have given a customer a high value in order to avoid discounting a new car; or they might have given a really low value because the customer just didn't give a poo poo. Or they might have gotten it at auction, for a steal or overpaid. In any case they might have had to dump a bunch of money into it to repair problems that would prevent a sale, or not, and if they have an in-house mechanic, that cost might or might not be spread out across all cars they sell. So you never really know what number represents "we make no money at all on this sale" for a given used car. As an example (which, with a sample size of one, is essentially meaningless) I bought my 2003 Mazda Protege5 with 49,000 miles, in very clean condition but with some poorly repaired flaws in the paint, on the last day of August 2011 at an Infiniti dealership on the San Francisco peninsula. The sticker price was $9,999 and I paid $8,300 plus tax and registration. I offered $7,900 and was talked up to $8,300. I feel a good private party value for that car in that area at that time was around $8k to $9k. It was probably a trade-in for a new Infiniti, and was on the low end of the types of cars that dealership had in their lot, so probably not many walk-in customers were super interested in it, so maybe I got a better deal due to that as well. So in that case I got 17% off sticker. But again, a sample size of one is basically meaningless. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Oct 16, 2012 |
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Oct 16, 2012 05:48
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This is great. Thanks
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Oct 16, 2012 06:55
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Panda Time posted:any suggestions much appreciated They make 4x4 Westfalia Syncro vans that go for about $15,000 or thereabouts.
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Oct 16, 2012 08:52
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Proposed Budget: 10,000 € (note the currency) New or Used: Used Body Style: 2 or 4 door compact or midsize Primary use: 200km commute 5 days a week / normal errands Most important aspects: (1) reliability (2) cost of ownership/maintenance (3) power Hi there. I just got a new job in Germany and am looking to upgrade from a 1.6L gen4 Golf. Although I've owned the Golf for over a year without issue, its lack of power makes for unpleasant (and actually pretty inefficient) autobahn driving. My commute will be about 200 km daily, and I would prefer to have a vehicle that can handle sustained speeds of up to 160 kph (100 mph) without much issue. Paradoxically, efficiency would be appreciated, as the price of fuel is 1.60€ per liter on a good day, or around $8 per gallon. All things considered, the small diesels have caught my eye as compromise. I've driven several of them and have been happy with their performance on the highway. I am personally unfamiliar with their reliability records; however, my wife's father swears by his 2004 turbo-diesel Mercedes, which he has owned without issue since new. Am I on the right track? I'd be very interested to hear any thoughts about this plan, as well as any specific recommendations. There are tons of Opels, Fords and VWs on the roads here, and, considering my budget, I have started my search there. What about the French brands? I know next to nothing about them, and, from what I can gather, their reputation might be along the lines of what I'm looking for. Please also include links to outside websites if you have them. English or German are both fine. Sits on Pilster fucked around with this message at 10:58 on Oct 16, 2012 |
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Oct 16, 2012 10:47
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After driving and mulling over a bunch of cars, I settled on an '07 Mustang GT. It has a whole pile of performance mods, and about 100k (km) on the clock. The thing is, my financing from the bank was just approved today, so I haven't bought it yet. I'm still waiting for the owner to cough up service records. While all this is going on I realized I could get a 2011 Camaro with 16k for only a few thousand more. It still has a factory warranty and hasn't had much time to get abused. This is something of a follow-up to a few pages ago. I realized driving stick in my situation gets tiring fast, taking out the CTS-V, and the new American muscle cars were just more comfortable than the G37s I was also eyeing. Thoughts?
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Oct 16, 2012 17:12
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flyboi posted:Proposed Budget: 40-50k New Cadillacs are quite good. You could get a new ATS if you want the latest and greatest in build quality, which is a tiny bit larger than the 3 series, for your budget. Or a used CTS-V, but that doesn't quite fit your needs. But if you want to just lay out 12k on a CTS, that is a pretty cheap buy.
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Oct 16, 2012 17:40
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CmdrSmirnoff posted:After driving and mulling over a bunch of cars, I settled on an '07 Mustang GT. It has a whole pile of performance mods, and about 100k (km) on the clock. Mods are generally a big red flag but it depends what you mean. An exhaust, grill delete and cold air intake is a different animal from someone who has gotten inside the motor or swapped rear ends or something. There are a million Mustangs out there, I'd be careful.
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Oct 16, 2012 17:56
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Xguard86 posted:Mods are generally a big red flag but it depends what you mean. An exhaust, grill delete and cold air intake is a different animal from someone who has gotten inside the motor or swapped rear ends or something. Body kit, Roush exhaust, Saleen suspension, CAI, chip. Owner is an old Persian guy who drove it to work in summers (though who knows what his kids were up to). Good condition, but there was some creaking in the suspension that I need to check out.
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Oct 16, 2012 19:02
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I gave the salesmen my number last night and the dealership has already called me twice this morning... I'm going to see how low I can get him on the price and then tell him no 
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Oct 16, 2012 19:04
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flyboi posted:Speaking of appraisal, my car has a hole in the front bumper requiring the entire deal to get replaced as the foam behind it collapsed. The cost to repair is $740 and my car is valued at ~8500 trade in as "average" and 10094 at "great. Would it be in my best interest to pay to have the body work done or just straight up trade it in? I'd get it fixed because if the foam bumper reinforcement is damaged, you're now selling a structurally unsound car and I would not want to deal with any of the potential legal headaches surrounding that.
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Oct 17, 2012 00:14
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Red Robin Hood posted:I gave the salesmen my number last night and the dealership has already called me twice this morning... I'm going to see how low I can get him on the price and then tell him no Dude I'm getting calls from a dealer 18 months after I bought my car. They put you in their system FOREVER until you buy a car from them.
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Oct 17, 2012 00:39
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Rhyno posted:They put you in their system FOREVER Haha, you think they stop once you buy a car from them.
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Oct 17, 2012 01:09
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I'm kind of excited! It reminds me of when I was graduating high school and the Marines wouldn't stop calling me so I told them I was a felon 
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Oct 17, 2012 16:17
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Proposed Budget: < $20,000ish. New or Used: Either. Body Style: Either 2 or 4 depending on "trunk" space of the hatchback. How will you be using the car?: This is a commuter car. What aspects are most important to you? I am looking for a hatchback with good amount of "trunk" space. Or whatever you call that space in a back of a hatchback. If the space can be adjusted by having the rear seats removed is a definite plus. Manual transmission. Power windows and power locks. My goal is to have a music enthusiast commuter. I am planning to install audio and visual enhancements to the car. Already looking at Subaru Impreza Volkswagen Golf Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback sub-consciously adverse to Honda Fit and Toyota Matrix.
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Oct 17, 2012 16:28
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AznKwaiJai posted:Proposed Budget: < $20,000ish. Add the Mazda 3 to your list, although I don't know if it has an easily replaceable double-DIN stereo. I think that's going to be your priority if you want to put good audio in it. Easily replaceable stereo and speakers.
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Oct 17, 2012 16:55
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TL;DR version: just read the bold parts. Proposed Budget: $8,000 I guess? Boy I wish I didn't have to borrow money for this. New or Used: Used Body Style: Hatchback or wagon. How will you be using the car?: 5 mile commutes in the city, 500-mile road trips on the highway, and carrying around bicycles and bicycle tools to support my bicycle racing habit. What aspects are most important to you?: A manual transmission, 4 doors, and the ability to carry bicycles and other dumb large cargo with ease. I'm currently driving a 2003 Ford Focus ZX5 hatchback 5-speed, and I absolutely loving love it BUT it's starting to show a lot of not-minor problems. I got it two years ago with 97,000 miles on it, it's around 130,000 now. It seems like every 4-6 months it needs another $500 in parts and labor put into it. I have a shop I trust that's kept it running well for me, but even their fair prices are starting to add up, as new problems keep developing. It started making noise again a few weeks ago, which is (again) really frustrating, because of that whole I just had this worked on feeling. I love driving it so much, but all it does is take take take. I want out of this abusive relationship. So I'm going to take it to the shop again soon, and depending on the repair costs for its current problems, I will either have the Focus repaired and then drive it while I look for a replacement car, or I will immediately try to find a replacement and just sell/scrap the Focus as is. So I guess I'm in the market (or will be soon) for a 5-speed, 4-door hatchback or wagon, around or below $8000. Am I missing anything? Is this stupid? I have a decent understanding of what most Car Stuff costs (and I like my mechanic), so I'm not worried about getting screwed on repair bills. I guess I'm worried about buying something and going through another few years of ~$300-500 problems every 4-6 months. Is this just a (oh god I hope this isn't a  ) problem with Ford Focuses falling apart after 100k miles and any other 5-speed hatchback would've been fine? Is this typical for cars above 100k and I should look to spend some more money on a lower-mileage car?
RadioPassive fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 17:16
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Red Robin Hood posted:I'm kind of excited! It reminds me of when I was graduating high school and the Marines wouldn't stop calling me so I told them I was a felon The goverment registered me (and another friend of mine who also goes by his middle name) up twice for the draft under two names, so we got twice as many annoying calls from military recruiters.
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Oct 17, 2012 17:32
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If you think that buying a sub-8k used car is going to allow you to escape maintenance, good luck with that. What kind of problems has your Focus been having? Every car will need some maintenance attention in the 100-150k mile range, especially if routine scheduled maintenance was neglected. Regardless of make. $300-500 mechanic visits are very cheap in terms of mechanic visits, and theoretically whatever parts they replaced should be good for another 100-150k miles. The problem with buying in the sub-8k used market is that most of those cars will have 100-150k miles and a questionable maintenance history. It's the devil you know versus the devil you don't. The kinds of things that a mechanic only charges $300-500 for tend to be very minor issues and also the kinds of things you can easily learn how to do yourself with a socket set, the internet, and a couple hours of patience.
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Oct 17, 2012 17:35
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RadioPassive posted:Am I missing anything? Is this stupid? I have a decent understanding of what most Car Stuff costs (and I like my mechanic), so I'm not worried about getting screwed on repair bills. I guess I'm worried about buying something and going through another few years of ~$300-500 problems every 4-6 months. Is this just a (oh god I hope this isn't a Putting $1000 into repairs every year instead of eating depreciation isn't that terrible a deal, if that's really what it's costing. You are also replacing things that have a service life of about 10 years or 100k miles, so after you've fixed something right that component should be good for another 10 years or 100k miles. If your engine and transmission are solid, and your body doesn't have rust or much body damage, hang on to your car! Any car you're getting for $8000 will need maintenance and regular repairs as well, and still has a way to depreciate while that Focus is pretty fully depreciated already. If you want a new car and can afford it, that's one thing, but if you like your current car and don't want to spend more money on your car you should generally keep fixing it. Twerk from Home fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 17:36
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Proposed Budget: 10-15k New or Used: Either Body Style: 4 door compact or midsize How will you be using the car?: Commuter car I guess. What aspects are most important to you? I only really care about gas mileage and longevity. My previous car got hit while parked and was totaled. It was just a beatup 99 Contour but I was going to keep it until it died then get a new major car. Major as in it will be the first car that hasn't been junk since I graduated and got a job. Since it happened so quickly I haven't really had time to do alot of research. So far I see Mazda3's suggested alot and that there are long lasting cars beyond Honda/Toyota. I just don't know what they are and would love any suggestions.
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Oct 17, 2012 18:24
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Guinness posted:If you think that buying a sub-8k used car is going to allow you to escape maintenance, good luck with that. I don't, but I had hoped that the maintenance costs and/or the frequency of problems would be lower. Weinertron posted:Putting $1000 into repairs every year instead of eating depreciation isn't that terrible a deal, I felt like $1000-1200 per year in maintenance was a bit high, but maybe it isn't? Guinness posted:What kind of problems has your Focus been having? I had both front wheel bearings replaced about 6 months apart, two tie-rods on the front end also needed replacing within about 6 months of each other, and some flex joints in the exhaust system rusted off. I've also had a couple of flat tires, but these were both caused by road debris and don't really add to my argument. I think the current noise is a bad exhaust leak (which makes sense to me given the rusted out flex joints), but I'm also worried (paranoid?) of transmission problems, because the clutch doesn't feel quite as tight as it once did. I'll find out tonight, hopefully. It's not the most monstrous repair list, but it has felt like every 4 months something comes up that makes me worried to drive it more than 20 miles from home until I get it looked at and fixed. I guess this is me realizing that I wish I could have paid $2000 more up front for my Focus and not had to deal with all the unreliability and downtime that I've gone through. Weinertron posted:If your engine and transmission are solid, and your body doesn't have rust or much body damage, hang on to your car! The engine runs fine, and while I have some concern about the condition of the clutch, I don't have any decent evidence that it's bad yet. The body is in rough shape, though. There are plenty of big dents, a handful of small rust spots, scratches from various bicycles hitting it, and one headlight assembly has all of its mount points broken off (though this doesn't cause any actual problems). I don't really care what it looks like and I don't mind driving a car that looks beat up so long as it rolls, brakes, and drives fine. Guinness posted:The kinds of things that a mechanic only charges $300-500 for tend to be very minor issues and also the kinds of things you can easily learn how to do yourself with a socket set, the internet, and a couple hours of patience. I'm actually really mechanically inclined and completely not intimidated about doing my own repairs, I just don't want to spend the time. At all. At this point in my life, it's worth it to me to pay money to a mechanic rather than pay time to my car, but of course I'd rather not have to do either. Weinertron posted:Any car you're getting for $8000 will need maintenance and regular repairs as well, and still has a way to depreciate while that Focus is pretty fully depreciated already. Hmm, I hadn't considered that aspect of depreciation. Good point, thanks. RadioPassive fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 19:24
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RadioPassive posted:but I'm also worried (paranoid?) of transmission problems, because the clutch doesn't feel quite as tight as it once did. I'll find out tonight, hopefully. When was the last time you bled the clutch/brake system? That's a routine maintenance item that is supposed to be done every 2-3 years. If you've got old hydraulic fluid and/or have air in the lines your clutch and brakes will feel squishy. Also possible that the master or slave cylinder are leaking. Fortunately those tend to be cheap and easy to fix. quote:I'm actually really mechanically inclined and completely not intimidated about doing my own repairs, I just don't want to spend the time. At all. At this point in my life, it's worth it to me to pay money to a mechanic rather than pay time to my car, but of course I'd rather not have to do either. That's totally fine, I understand that, and there are definitely maintenance items that I'm happy to pay someone else a big premium to do for me for various reasons. But you will never be able to avoid maintenance if you want your car to last and not be full of problems, and if you're going to pay someone else to do it all for you it's going to cost you regardless of the car you drive. Paying a mechanic to do even little things is going to be expensive considering most shops charge $100+/hr in labor alone with 1hr minimum labor charge and/or a diagnostic fee. So even a trivial repair that only takes a $50 part (marked up to $75+ because it's a shop) and 2 hours of labor quickly turns into a $300 mechanic visit. If you get out the door of the mechanic for less than $500 chances are it was something pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. Sorry for possibly getting a bit off topic and ranting a bit, but sometimes people in this thread (not talking at you directly) seem to think that cars should never require maintenance and that mechanics are a scam and that an 8 year old car that needed a couple of $500 repairs over the course of a year or two is "on its last legs". Cars are loving expensive no matter which way you slice it, and even preventative care and minor issues are going to cost several hundred or even over a thousand dollars a year. But it's still cheaper than a car payment plus massive depreciation. Guinness fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 19:36
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Guinness posted:When was the last time you bled the clutch/brake system? Oh yeah, about 2.5 years ago I actually had the clutch master cylinder replaced after it started leaking fluid onto the floor, I forgot about that. Guinness posted:Sorry for possibly getting a bit off topic and ranting a bit, but sometimes people in this thread (not talking at you directly) seem to think that cars should never require maintenance and that mechanics are a scam and that an 8 year old car that needed a couple of $500 repairs is "on its last legs". No worries. Similarly frustrating trends exist in the Bicycling Megathread, I know what it's like. I'm going to drop it off at the shop after work this afternoon and see what happens. Thanks for the help.
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Oct 17, 2012 20:02
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I much rather have pretty reliable transportation that needs 500 bucks worth of maintenance every 6 months than a 300 dollar a month car payment. If you run the numbers it's almost always cheaper to keep fixing the car than buying a new one. Even if you blow a transmission and pay 1200 bucks to get it back on the road, that's less than 100/mo for a year. Right now I have a co-worker talking to me about buying a new car. They're 5000 upside down on their current vehicle, and there's nothing really wrong with it, but they fear the 'transmission' is slipping and 'want to get rid of it before it causes problems'. It's a strange response since we only really apply that logic to cars. If your A/C unit on your house dies you don't go buy a new house, you fix the A/C. Even if she has to replace the transmission in her car in the end she'll come out way ahead of going out and buying a new car.
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Oct 17, 2012 20:55
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skipdogg posted:I much rather have pretty reliable transportation that needs 500 bucks worth of maintenance every 6 months than a 300 dollar a month car payment. If you run the numbers it's almost always cheaper to keep fixing the car than buying a new one. Even if you blow a transmission and pay 1200 bucks to get it back on the road, that's less than 100/mo for a year. This helped me reassure myself that I should just hang on to my '89 B2200 with 107k miles and fix the heater blower motor. Thanks 
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Oct 17, 2012 21:05
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Don't get me wrong, new cars are great. I personally LOVE LOVE LOVE new cars. If you can afford to drive a new car, DO IT! It's just not a smart financial decision. I choose to use a good chunk of our disposable income on nice cars, it's not a smart idea, but we do it. But if your at the crossroads where your choices are spend a few hundred here and there keeping your current vehicle fixed, or taking on an uncomfortable car loan that you don't really want, it's almost always financially better to keep fixing the car. Keep 1000 bucks in an emergency account. 1K should be enough to fix most things that go bad on a car, or give you a little down payment on something new.Red Robin Hood posted:This helped me reassure myself that I should just hang on to my '89 B2200 with 107k miles and fix the heater blower motor. Thanks If the rest of the truck is solid, definitely keep the truck and fix the motor. Never worked on one of those but the blower motor in a truck can't be that hard to fix yourself.
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Oct 17, 2012 21:13
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skipdogg posted:If the rest of the truck is solid, definitely keep the truck and fix the motor. Never worked on one of those but the blower motor in a truck can't be that hard to fix yourself. The only other thing that might be wrong with it is something to do with fuel(?). A year ago I had to replace the EHR(?) valve because it was hesitate every time I tried to accelerate and idled terribly. The engine was shaking something fierce. The blower motor started sputtering more and more and finally stopped working so I had it replaced for $60 (the mechanic said it was rusted on the inside  ) and the pull-a-parts one worked well for about a month before making GBS threads itself out of the blue. Now it idles great (never has liked to run cold) but for the past two or three weeks it has had reduced power and when I accelerate it would almost completely cut power or clug a bit and then continue normal. I started going to a Shell gas station instead of the Costco station and I THINK it has stopped. Who knows though V V
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Oct 17, 2012 21:34
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skipdogg posted:Don't get me wrong, new cars are great. I personally LOVE LOVE LOVE new cars. If you can afford to drive a new car, DO IT! It's just not a smart financial decision. I choose to use a good chunk of our disposable income on nice cars, it's not a smart idea, but we do it. I'm also going to agree and reiterate this. There is nothing wrong with buying a 'nice' car, whether it is new or used. There are many reasons people choose to buy cars, and different people get different enjoyment out of the type of car they choose to drive. If you can afford to drive a nice car that is luxurious, high tech, fast, flashy, convertible, or whatever and that is what you will get enjoyment out of, then do it! If everyone bought cars based purely on practicality, fuel efficiency, and reliability then the car market would be terribly, terribly boring and many carmakers simply wouldn't exist. THAT SAID, don't try to justify it as a financially sound decision. It is not, and never will be. If you want to get a new car because you just want something new and nice, that's fine, just admit it! As long as you can actually afford it, by all means go for it! There are plenty of examples in this thread of someone who said they are looking to spend 30-50k on a new car and no one started yelling about how dumb of a financial decision it was because they were honest about what they wanted and could afford. But if you, like so many posters in this thread, claim that above all you just want a simple, cheap, and efficient transportation appliance and then try to rationalize dumping your perfectly reasonable early-mid 2000s car with a few minor, easily-fixed problems for a brand new car as a move that will save you money: it won't, and we will call you out on it. Guinness fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 21:36
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