Flappy Paddle is the one true shifter. [Car] Thread.

chrishallett83

Wagons are the best. Don't believe me?

emp123

WTB Audi S4 Avant . Incidentally, its one of 2 (possibly 3) Audi's Id buy. The others being the S5 and the new TTS. Id also probably take the RS versions of those cars, but the price and gas consumption might make me reconsider.

Also, yes please:

saltiness

I've always liked the S4 but they haven't offered the Avant in the US for some time and it'd be a bit of a stretch to afford a new one anyway. I wouldn't touch a used one.

emp123

Oh shit, the 2012 RS4 is only going to be sold in the Avant variation (according to Wikipedia anyway). Why doesnt America get the cool Audis? Oh well, one more reason to move to Europe.

chrishallett83

Dude, if you can afford an RS model, you don't give a fuck about the cost of fuel...

emp123

Well, base RS5 is $95,574.4553 (using Google currency converter) and the base TTRS is $74,605.0131 and the base RS3 is $64,990.6296 so I assume the RS4 will be somewhere around the TTRS's price (based partially by comparing the cost of the TT, TTS, A3, S3, A5, S5 and the A4 and S4). Is $80,000 a lot of money for a car? God yes, but being able to throw down $80,000 on a car doesnt make you immune to gas prices. Factor in the RS5 is $17,000 more expensive than the S5 while getting 9 less MPG (I think, apparently the S5 gets 35MPG combined and Im concretely too lazy to convert UK MPG to US MPG), factor in the amount of driving you do and even being able to throw down $80,000 doesnt mean you want to afford the gas price difference.

Im sure most people spending $80,000 on a car probably dont care about spending $100/week on gas, but for me, the number on the left is less daunting than the number on the right, even though my financial situation at the present time makes both numbers a fantasy.

AngelHedgie

Okay, the lead comment on this Nice Price or Crack Pipe cracked me up:

The conversation in my head is going something like this:

Left brain - Psh it's a Lambo therefore it will crush our wallet.
Right brain - Dude.. Lambo.
Left - Yes, we can afford $29k for the car, but it will cost a small mint to get it running again.
Right - Dude.. Laaammmmbooorrrghini.
Left - Bro, seriously. Think about it. OK, we get it going and on the road for, what, 40k? We can do that. Then, what, $10k a year in maintenance?
Right - LamBOOOOOOOOOOO!
Left - Our wife will murder us!
Right - Lambo's can get us a new wife.
Left - You know she'll get it in the divorce and promptly drive it in to a tree.
Right - Lambo? (sad eyes)

Penis - GUYS, IT'S FREAKING BROWN AND BABY SHIT GREEN.

saltiness

emp123 wrote: »

Well, base RS5 is $95,574.4553 (using Google currency converter) and the base TTRS is $74,605.0131 and the base RS3 is $64,990.6296 so I assume the RS4 will be somewhere around the TTRS's price (based partially by comparing the cost of the TT, TTS, A3, S3, A5, S5 and the A4 and S4). Is $80,000 a lot of money for a car? God yes, but being able to throw down $80,000 on a car doesnt make you immune to gas prices. Factor in the RS5 is $17,000 more expensive than the S5 while getting 9 less MPG (I think, apparently the S5 gets 35MPG combined and Im concretely too lazy to convert UK MPG to US MPG), factor in the amount of driving you do and even being able to throw down $80,000 doesnt mean you want to afford the gas price difference.

Im sure most people spending $80,000 on a car probably dont care about spending $100/week on gas, but for me, the number on the left is less daunting than the number on the right, even though my financial situation at the present time makes both numbers a fantasy.

I dunno man. I wouldn't spend $80k on a car unless I was earning at least twice that per year and if I were making $160k I wouldn't really care about a few mpg.

Malkor

saltiness wrote: »

emp123 wrote: »

Well, base RS5 is $95,574.4553 (using Google currency converter) and the base TTRS is $74,605.0131 and the base RS3 is $64,990.6296 so I assume the RS4 will be somewhere around the TTRS's price (based partially by comparing the cost of the TT, TTS, A3, S3, A5, S5 and the A4 and S4). Is $80,000 a lot of money for a car? God yes, but being able to throw down $80,000 on a car doesnt make you immune to gas prices. Factor in the RS5 is $17,000 more expensive than the S5 while getting 9 less MPG (I think, apparently the S5 gets 35MPG combined and Im concretely too lazy to convert UK MPG to US MPG), factor in the amount of driving you do and even being able to throw down $80,000 doesnt mean you want to afford the gas price difference.

Im sure most people spending $80,000 on a car probably dont care about spending $100/week on gas, but for me, the number on the left is less daunting than the number on the right, even though my financial situation at the present time makes both numbers a fantasy.

I dunno man. I wouldn't spend $80k on a car unless I was earning at least twice that per year and if I were making $160k I wouldn't really care about a few mpg.

You can live at home, and constantly complain about the price of premium fuel.

I know this person. He is a real person.

saltiness

So I found myself driving by a Subaru dealer and had some time to kill so I tested a WRX again. I must have that car. Apparently there are no more 2012's coming in so I'm safe for now until the 2013's start arriving.

Chimera

belligerent wrote: »

Sorry Chimera, I should have come to you first.

I got the Kia soul base for 1% over invoice (they were literally the last place I looked, apparently the new souls are hot this year). I stuck with them instead of waiting because they offered me 4k on my wife's 06 taurus, which had been in an accident that was listed as structural damage (no one else was offering more than 2k for it). 500 down, good rate (my credit sucks but her's is good).

I didn't realize how much shit she still had in the trunk. it took me 20 minutes to clean out the car of her crap.

That's okay, I can help out next time!

Krieghund

Malkor wrote: »

saltiness wrote: »

emp123 wrote: »

Well, base RS5 is $95,574.4553 (using Google currency converter) and the base TTRS is $74,605.0131 and the base RS3 is $64,990.6296 so I assume the RS4 will be somewhere around the TTRS's price (based partially by comparing the cost of the TT, TTS, A3, S3, A5, S5 and the A4 and S4). Is $80,000 a lot of money for a car? God yes, but being able to throw down $80,000 on a car doesnt make you immune to gas prices. Factor in the RS5 is $17,000 more expensive than the S5 while getting 9 less MPG (I think, apparently the S5 gets 35MPG combined and Im concretely too lazy to convert UK MPG to US MPG), factor in the amount of driving you do and even being able to throw down $80,000 doesnt mean you want to afford the gas price difference.

Im sure most people spending $80,000 on a car probably dont care about spending $100/week on gas, but for me, the number on the left is less daunting than the number on the right, even though my financial situation at the present time makes both numbers a fantasy.

I dunno man. I wouldn't spend $80k on a car unless I was earning at least twice that per year and if I were making $160k I wouldn't really care about a few mpg.

You can live at home, and constantly complain about the price of premium fuel.

I know this person. He is a real person.

Then I hope to hell you make fun of him every single time he opens his mouth about being so stupid. FFS I use premium and I drive a damn Mustang. But I do see this kind of dumbassery all the time as well. Working at a gas station you see it a lot with leased cars. I usually tell the people that ask, regular probably won't hurt their car, but if there is ever an engine issue, and the dealer decides to look at what you're putting through it, they might deny you if you are using the wrong gas.

Didgeridoo

So I thought maybe somebody might have some experience or advice, since you all seem very knowledgeable in the car department!

I'll be looking for a used vehicle in about a month. Hoping for a hatchback with good mileage, if at all possible. I can spend about 8-9K on it and I'll be paying for that in full, no financing. I was looking at the Chevy Aveo or Nissan Accent possibly, but does anyone have suggestions, or experiences with models around that price range?

Also since I will be paying in full, will that give me more leverage going into the dealership? Or would that put me at a disadvantage since the dealers get commission on loans?

One more question-- is it worth it to get a warranty on a used vehicle? It'll most likely have around 60-80K miles on it, judging by searches I've done for cars in that price range.

Thanks for any advice!

MushroomStick

Aveos are terrible cars. If it was between an Aveo and walking, I'd walk.

Beltaine

@Didgeridoo, do you plan on doing any work on the vehicle yourself, or will you be taking it to a mechanic if something breaks?

Didgeridoo

A Mechanic. I'm not terribly handy with cars, unfortunately

Beltaine

I can't give you any advice on warranties as I usually do all the work on my car myself which means my only repair expense is parts and my time.

As far as purchasing goes, you should be at an advantage because you only have 1 haggling point, the price of the car. You should look at what your local sales tax on cars is, and also the cost of license/titling so you can figure that in to get what your sticker price needs to be to stay in your budget. Taxes and license/title will typically add a few hundred dollars more on top of the purchase price.

Don't let them sucker you into paying any sort of document fees or what not. In my opinion the cost of documentation is just something that occurs when someone is in the business of selling cars and they should operate their business with that cost in mind on the front end.

TehSloth

In kind of a similar price range I picked up an 08 focus a couple years ago for about 12.5k certified pre-owned with warranty and whatnot under 30k miles.

It was the coupe base model with manual everything (at the time I didn't even think manual windows still existed) but I'd imagine the wagon and hatch models couldn't be too much pricier. Actually I'm pretty sure they only had a coupe and sedan model in 08 for some reason, but you might have luck with an 07. I've heard the automatic transmissions on them are pretty awful though, but I'd imagine a similar car today with 50-60kish miles would be worth 8-9k.

Only issue I've had was that It blew a strut about a year later but that was mostly covered by the warranty, they ended up charging me like $100 for an alignment and "tightening" something or other

SiliconStew

Krieghund wrote: »

Malkor wrote: »

saltiness wrote: »

emp123 wrote: »

Well, base RS5 is $95,574.4553 (using Google currency converter) and the base TTRS is $74,605.0131 and the base RS3 is $64,990.6296 so I assume the RS4 will be somewhere around the TTRS's price (based partially by comparing the cost of the TT, TTS, A3, S3, A5, S5 and the A4 and S4). Is $80,000 a lot of money for a car? God yes, but being able to throw down $80,000 on a car doesnt make you immune to gas prices. Factor in the RS5 is $17,000 more expensive than the S5 while getting 9 less MPG (I think, apparently the S5 gets 35MPG combined and Im concretely too lazy to convert UK MPG to US MPG), factor in the amount of driving you do and even being able to throw down $80,000 doesnt mean you want to afford the gas price difference.

Im sure most people spending $80,000 on a car probably dont care about spending $100/week on gas, but for me, the number on the left is less daunting than the number on the right, even though my financial situation at the present time makes both numbers a fantasy.

I dunno man. I wouldn't spend $80k on a car unless I was earning at least twice that per year and if I were making $160k I wouldn't really care about a few mpg.

You can live at home, and constantly complain about the price of premium fuel.

I know this person. He is a real person.

Then I hope to hell you make fun of him every single time he opens his mouth about being so stupid. FFS I use premium and I drive a damn Mustang. But I do see this kind of dumbassery all the time as well. Working at a gas station you see it a lot with leased cars. I usually tell the people that ask, regular probably won't hurt their car, but if there is ever an engine issue, and the dealer decides to look at what you're putting through it, they might deny you if you are using the wrong gas.

All that really happens is the computer retards the ignition timing a few degrees. But I suppose that would show up in an ODBII scan if the dealer is that much of a dick.

Krieghund

Dealer trying to get out of warranty work and make the owner pay? Never!!

Daedalus

So the SAE and ACEA (Europe's version of the SAE) just standardized a Level 3 high-voltage DC quick-charger plug...

...and it's completely incompatible with the CHAdeMO quick-charger plug that's already on some electric cars from Nissan and Mitsubishi.

Groan.

oldmanken

So, if I am looking to buy a used car between $5000-6000, I know that will mean I am looking at cars from the late 90s and the early 00s. So, what should I be avoiding here? How much mileage is too much?

I live in SoCal, and really only need something that will get me to work. Work is only 5 miles away, so while I would like something that doesn't guzzle gas, the car doesn't need to be ridiculously sippy. I'm mostly looking for something that will be reliable enough, and has reasonable maintenance costs. If I can get something that is fun and nice, that would be a bonus, but I don't expect that to be likely.

So yeah, any help would be great.

(Also, though I know they don't give a full picture, does having access to a decent CARFAX help?)

iguanacus

Any restrictions on type of car or transmission? NA Miatas are generally easy to work on, easy to maintain and get pretty good gas mileage. Don't really know the market out in SoCal so I can't really get a bead on what might be in your price range but Focus hatch's should be in that price range as well.

oldmanken

I've only ever really driven automatics, but I did learn to drive on a manual, so I'm not opposed to buying a stick. I've seen one 1999 Miata on cars.com that has 168k on it, which obviously seems like a lot. I know I can probably get an old Corolla or Civic and be safe, but I've also been looking at old BMW's and Volvo's at around the 100-120k mileage mark, just for the hell of it. My biggest problem is not wanting to get smacked by huge maintenance costs, or having to put the damn thing in the shop every other week/month.

L Ron Howard

I can only highly suggest you avoid American made cars of that era, outside of a very select few, which would be out of your price range anyway.
If you go with BMW, expect to pay too much for parts and labor and everything, because they're BMW. Even if the car is 30 years old, it will still be significantly overpriced compared to most other German cars, let alone American or Japanese.
Volvo's aren't too bad, but I don't know what their reliability is from that era. I think that was before Ford ruined them, though I'm not sure; and I'm too lazy to go look it up right now.

oldmanken

Yeah, I expected the BMW's to be a potential money pit.

The more I look at Miata's the more interested I am. There is a 2001 nearby which is just a smidge over my budget, but appears to have a clean record and under 100k mileage. There is also a '96 with 150k mileage, but is in budget and has a hard-top package.

I mean, I do live in California, so a convertible would be nice...

Six

I've got a BMW from that era, and while I love it, I wouldn't recommend getting one over 100k miles unless you're fine with doing almost all the work on it yourself. At 100k miles you're going to start running into transmission problems on the automatics, and that will be pricey.

Since I do the majority of the work myself, I haven't found it to be too mad, maintenance-wise. But it's not going to be cheap, no matter what. I got mine with 45k miles on it and have around 65k now.

TehSloth

I've got a few friends with early-mid 90s miatas that they still love and drive daily. They're very mechanically inclined, so I don't know how well the mechanics would hold up otherwise but I've only ever heard good things.

CommunistCow

TehSloth wrote: »

I've got a few friends with early-mid 90s miatas that they still love and drive daily. They're very mechanically inclined, so I don't know how well the mechanics would hold up otherwise but I've only ever heard good things.

I know this is a single data point but my '95 miata has some issues (not related to my turboing it) at 139k miles but I think the previous owner used a retarded monkey to maintain the car.

AngelHedgie

CommunistCow wrote: »

TehSloth wrote: »

I've got a few friends with early-mid 90s miatas that they still love and drive daily. They're very mechanically inclined, so I don't know how well the mechanics would hold up otherwise but I've only ever heard good things.

I know this is a single data point but my '95 miata has some issues (not related to my turboing it) at 139k miles but I think the previous owner used a retarded monkey to maintain the car.

Which, as we all know, is an improper use of a trunk monkey.

CommunistCow

Do we all remember this lovely thing when I first got the car?



I wonder where those spark plug prongs went. :rotate:

Chimera

Okay chumps, do I go with a 2009 Subaru Forester 2.5x or do I go with a 2008 Jeep Patriot 4x4? Both have about 38k miles on them. The Jeep gets better gas mileage and has a better AWD system for off road use. The Forester is a bit better known for reliability and has a bigger interior for the front passengers as well as a tad bit more ground clearance. Both will have a bumper to bumper warranty on them and the Jeep is about 2500 dollars cheaper. Both score great with Edmunds and get decent to good reviews. I have owned four Jeeps (3 Cherokees, 1 Grand Cherokee, 1 Liberty), and my family had a first generation Forester when I was learning to drive.

What are your opinions? I am leaning towards the Jeep due to the better mpg (23city/28hwy vs 18city/23hwy).

Chimera

I am replacing my Liberty because a deer dove into it's engine compartment during my last chase.

CommunistCow

I love Subarus but if the reliability isn't /terrible/ on the jeep it might be the better choice with it being 2.5k cheaper and better MPG. I guess you just have to weight saving money now with initial cost / MPG improvements over savings you might see from repairs later on.

Also a little nit pick but I don't think the jeep has an "AWD" system. It is probably 4WD which is different; better for off roading but not as good as AWD in bad road conditions.

L Ron Howard

IMO, the Jeep sounds like a better deal. I'd only be worried about the maintenance on it. I don't know how they are, as I haven't owned one.

Chimera

CommunistCow wrote: »

I love Subarus but if the reliability isn't /terrible/ on the jeep it might be the better choice with it being 2.5k cheaper and better MPG. I guess you just have to weight saving money now with initial cost / MPG improvements over savings you might see from repairs later on.

Also a little nit pick but I don't think the jeep has an "AWD" system. It is probably 4WD which is different; better for off roading but not as good as AWD in bad road conditions.

I used to work for Jeep and can tell you that in the Patriot it is equipped with Freedom Drive I which is Jeeps AWD system. I know the difference between AWD and 4x4. If I didn't I would be a horrible car salesperson.

Freedom Drive I is a light duty full-time electronically controlled all wheel drive system with a locking mode to set the front/rear torque split for especially slippery conditions in the Jeep Compass and Patriot. FD1 is on par with the Forester's AWD system in snow, ice, and on wet roads and is a bit above par when driving off road.

Chimera

The Patriot is based on Chrysler/Mitsubishi GS Platform and shares the same platform as the Compass and Caliber (which is why the body of the Caliber and Compass and Compass rally look the same). The Patriot differs from the Compass and Caliber in its ability to preform off road. In addition to a better suited suspension system the Patriot comes available with Freedom Drive I and Freedom Drive II. Freedom drive I (FD1) is available in both the Compass and the Patriot, but in the Patriot it comes a more aggressive version of Jeep's Brake Lock Differential (BLD) system. You can also get Freedom Drive II (FD2) which comes with the most aggressive version of BLD as well as a softer suspension system with more travel and a CVT transmission with a low range ratio that replaces your typical 2 speed transfer case system found a typical off road 4x4. Lastly you also get a traction control system that is better designed to handle loose, off road conditions.

The BLD in the FD1 and FD2 AWD system is designed to keep the vehicle moving forward when traction is lost in both a front and rear wheel at the same time. A normal AWD vehicle with open differentials would be stranded in that circumstance. This is where the Jeep stands above the Subaru in off road performance.

MyDcmbr

CommunistCow wrote: »

Do we all remember this lovely thing when I first got the car?



I wonder where those spark plug prongs went. :rotate:

Stuck in the catalytic convert probably.

MyDcmbr

Double Post.

Thanks Obama.

CommunistCow

I take that back I wouldn't buy any vehicle that named its AWD system "Freedom Drive"

Then again I guess I shouldn't expect much since they already named the car "Patriot."