AI meets BFC: Car Buying Thread: No Rentals and No Salvage Titles

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > AI meets BFC: Car Buying Thread: No Rentals and No Salvage Titles

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Michael Scott posted:

vvv welp that was a joke and all I could grasp because you think I'm an idiot without explaining why. Thanks for nothing, unfunny jerk.

This is what he means.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2016 03:08

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# ¿ Apr 23, 2024 22:20

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Dahbadu posted:

Thanks again. I really appreciate it.

Is this website a good indicator of getting fair prices or deals? https://www.edmunds.com/

All car sites are getting the same data from the dealers, re:pricing. Some of the sites have better price contextualization features.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2016 23:45

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

The Flex was the most comfortable car I've ever been in. The front seats were heavenly. Spacious and comfortable, and the ride was nice. Didn't handle snow all that well, but whatever. Climate change is rendering that moot.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2017 06:37

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Tom McParland from Jalopnik will do that for you. He's got everything clearly laid out on his website and will even do a free intro call. I'm totally using him the next time I need to buy.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2017 23:31

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:

Anybody have any experience putting an infant carseat in a Golf R?

Does a GTi cover it? https://www.cars.com/articles/2016-volkswagen-golf-gti-car-seat-check-1420685137612/

# ¿ Mar 24, 2017 00:08

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

I forgot to mention in trying to avoid land yachts. I currently drive a 97 ranger, so something with near the same footprint would be awesome.

God. I miss my 97 Ranger so much. What a perfect little truck.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 02:18

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

The Ford Flex is the most comfortable car I've ever been in.

# ¿ May 24, 2017 18:06

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

nwiniwn posted:

Yeah I went to the dealership and they think what happened was one dealer bought it from another one and then used it as a corporate car for a while.

In other news, how can I find out what my car is actually worth through trade in?

I have a 2015 Mazda 3 hatchback itouring 6-speed with 29k miles. Admittedly, i hosed up the bumper scraping it pretty badly to the point it would need total replacement which is about $8-900. Everything else about the car is completely fine in my opinion, including new tires that are less than 2000 miles old.

The dealership I just went to offered 9500 initially, and said they wouldn't go higher than 10000, saying my car was in "fair condition" not including the damage and used some site called VIN Viper. Blue book puts me at $11,400 in good condition for trade-in, and clear book estimates it at like 13-14k for some reason. One of the guys at a Mazda dealership said the car was in high demand if I ever wanted to trade it in, but I'm thinking that was just salesman talk at this point.

That Subaru is definitely exactly what I want and they said they don't negotiate on the price of their cars, so I'm just trying to see what my car is actually worth.

You could try doing a quick offer on Cars.com.

https://www.cars.com/sell/

# ¿ May 31, 2017 23:45

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

big crush on Chad OMG posted:

Step 1) create throwaway email
Step 2) submit form
Step 3) get a bazillion lovely lowball offers
Step 4) never do this again

With less chance of murder than craigslist.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2017 03:08

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Grifter posted:

I am thinking about buying a new car. One of my concerns is whether my car seats (two small kids) will fit in the back, because car seats are super expensive and I don't want to buy new ones for a new car. The issue is that I'm not sure what spec to look at. My current car (2009 Corrolla) fits the sits with a few inches to spare, so I thought I'd look up the specs on the corolla, then compare that to cars I was considering. I found this site, which gives a bunch of dimensions.
The problem is that I don't know what these terms mean. What I need is the distance between the back seat and the back of the front seat (where a car seat goes). Does one of these give that?

https://www.cars.com/news/car-seat-check/

# ¿ Jun 25, 2017 03:18

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Michael Scott posted:

2 things.

1. No pictures which is very frustrating, would avoid.

2. No free carfax included on Cars.com, it's possible they have one through the dealer but why would they screw up and not put it on Cars.com?
You can tell because it says "Get Carfax" instead of "Free Carfax"

2- It's because that dealer is not actually a customer of Cars.com, and Ford is just paying to list all of their CPO inventory. You can tell because it's a franchise dealer with no new car inventory.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2017 23:15

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Bibendum posted:

Just an impression from checking out a Flex a while back. It doesn't look huge on the street but it's 6" to a foot longer then the competitors. If parallel parking is a thing you might do or if you live in a city with tight roads keep that in mind.

My dad went from a Ridgeline to a Flex and was worried about the size difference. Parked next to the Flex at the dealership to make the switch and was flabbergasted that they were the same size.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2017 01:03

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Michael Scott knock offs are somehow even worse than the original.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2017 00:36

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Tom McParland from Jalopnik has one of those companies. Automatch is his. He�s the only Jalopnik writer I really like, so I�ve been tempted to use him in the past.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2017 15:01

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

euphronius posted:

Kbb is unusable at the moment because it wants you to disable all ad blockers. Same with Nada.

Don't know what to do honestly.

https://www.cars.com/sell/book-value/

# ¿ Jan 17, 2018 18:20

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Your Loyal Vizier posted:

My girlfriend just moved to the States from Berlin and is looking to buy her first car. She's really excited, knows less than nothing about cars and car-buying, and she's throwing weird, 10+ year old vehicles from Facebook Marketplace at me left and right, way faster than I can research each one (I'm no expert either).

I haven't done this in a while, and Edmunds doesn't seem to be the research tool it once was, it looks like more of a sales platform now. Where do you guys recommend finding quick pros and cons info on specific year/make/model, so I can narrow the field and not have to post each one here?

US News has my favorite layman�s terms pro/cons for cars. (Which pains me to say this as a person who works for a different not-US News car site)

# ¿ Apr 21, 2018 16:07

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

https://www.cars.com/dealers/24153/carson-city-toyota/reviews/

# ¿ Apr 22, 2018 09:13

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Internet Explorer posted:

How about a Ford Flex? Have you taken a look a those? I hate American cars and was super impressed with the one I road in.

The Ford Flex is the most comfortable vehicle I�ve ever been in. Ford should�ve spun of Flex into its own line of boxy, comfortable weird-rear end cars.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2018 03:38

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Aggro posted:

Hrm. Outside of Craigslist, is there a reliable way to sell to a third party, or am I better off taking what a dealership can give me? Car is only 4 years old, but it�s unfortunately a discontinued model.

https://www.cars.com/sell/

# ¿ Jul 20, 2018 14:42

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

The Flex has been axed, sadly.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2019 22:24

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Flex is the most comfortable car I�ve ever been in.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2019 17:27

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Something Offal posted:

Here you go, after some google fu:

How CarGurus resolved the legal claim by removing IMV (Instant Market Value) in TX: https://www.fi-magazine.com/321663/texas-dmv-closes-case-against-cargurus

The original complaint by Texas: https://www.fi-magazine.com/321639/texas-dealers-could-face-fines-over-cargurus-business-practices

So apparently IMV constituted a 'discount or savings claim'. Hence it's now removed for TX vehicles. Pretty funny that it's still readable, please post a link

A key paragraph from the complaint article:

I mean this seems like a completely asinine quote. Why is he suggesting that a company doesn't have the right to rate products or businesses? How would Consumer Affairs be around? Stupidity nonetheless it is a law on the books in Texas and the dealer lobby successfully used it against CarGurus. Yet another point in the 'please abolish dealers' column.

Used to work for a car site. Ziegler is a huge piece of poo poo who makes videos for car dealers under the name alpha dawg

If there is anything you think is anti-user friendly on a car shopping website it�s because Jim Ziegler has whipped up a mob of the worst loving dealers in the country to call your ceo and cmo until it changes. He ducking *hates* anything that implies a dealer might not be telling you the 100% truth

# ¿ Feb 16, 2019 22:06

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

nm posted:

Gen 2 priuses at least are terrible for tall people. I'm 6'4" and the seat doesn't go far back enough and the seat doesn't go low enough, so half my vision is blocked by the mirror. My daily is a mazda2, so this isn't small car things.
OP, try a gen3, but drive it around enough to see if it bothers you. I had one as a work car for a bit and it seemed fine over short distances, but driving distances was downright painful.
That said, otherwise a used Prius is perfect.
I'd recommend a mazda2, though my ac is a bit weak on 100f+ days.

Agreed. Am 6� and the Prius driver seat was unusable for me.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2019 23:25

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Suburban Dad posted:

I'm Suburban Dad already, not Suburban Dad-to-be (guess that's true too, though). One is already rear facing and we already went through buying lovely fitting car seats once and then selling them to buy different ones. Current one is a Chico convertible that sits pretty upright but it's still massively deep. Might have a look at lower profile ones but all the measurements seem similar and with adjustable recline I'm not sure how comparable the numbers are anyway. Wife and I both have the same one so there's potential to buy 2 more of a different brand still anyway once baby 2 graduates from the infant carrier.

Thanks for the recommendations, will try to lug the seat to dealerships and see what fits. I'm just figuring it has to be massive and most midsize sedans and SUVs won't cut it. Bummed to give up the GTI since new car will be a downgrade in features most likey.

https://www.cars.com/news/car-seat-check/

# ¿ Jul 9, 2019 11:16

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Am 6�0� with a very tall torso and cannot fit behind the wheel of a Prius.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2019 00:27

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Boxman posted:

My parents Honda Element just died. They liked the higher ride and the roomy interior. They�re older, so something they can slide into rather than sit down into is important. They also enjoyed the...let�s say unique styling of the Element.

I don�t have a firm budget for them (and I�ll check back in if they give me one,) but they�re retired and don�t drive much, so I�m assuming keeping the price down would be preferable.

The answer here is the Kia Soul, right?

Flex?

# ¿ Jan 23, 2020 01:05

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

I read a story about the sorts of people who show up on Antiques Roadshow. The most annoying are people who come in with an object and a infer full of research. They then proceed to tell the appraiser everything about the object and its provenance and similar auctions. Then they stop and go �what can you tell me about it�. And the appraiser just looks at them and goes �the gently caress are you asking me for? You�re probably the world�s expert on this�

# ¿ May 14, 2020 05:36

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# ¿ Apr 23, 2024 22:20

Trevor Hale: Dec 8, 2008; What have I become, my Swedish friend?

Residency Evil posted:

Link!

I editorialized slightly

posted:

I�ve had people show up at our table, put down a work of art, then drop down a notebook two and a half inches thick and say something to the effect of, �I�ve spent the last 13 years researching this piece. What can you tell me about it?� Literally! And it�s like, �Wow, sir, you�re the world expert on this, what can you tell me about it? Because there�s nothing I could possibly add.� If somebody comes in who knows everything, it�s not going to be good. The producers don�t want that on television.

https://tv.avclub.com/what-happens-behind-the-scenes-before-an-antiques-roads-1798267205/amp

# ¿ May 16, 2020 18:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > AI meets BFC: Car Buying Thread: No Rentals and No Salvage Titles