The Automobile Thread

Haaaa, look what Im gonna buy! No gasoline bill, no electrical bill! Top that!!!

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Obsidian said:
I am just trying to talk myself into one.
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Do it

SnakeCharmer said:
Have you considered the online purchasing sites?
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Just last night I thought, what about Costco?

I will look into that today.

tick said:
My electric bill is $30/month, gasoline bill is $0, driving 20,000 miles/year.

For the price of a Nissan Titan or Dodge Ram, you could buy an EV and solar panels.

The choice is yours.
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How many solar panels can I put on my van to charge my EV? I don't have a home.

Danimal said:
I Look at it this way, if it takes me 8 hours to save a grand, that's $125 / hr I just made
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I have ZERO interest in that though. I can earn double time at work every weekend if I want, but I don't want to. I want to work LESS than 40 hours a week so I can ride my bike more. Losing 8 hours on my personal time is a non starter for me.

Y-not said:
My fast bike (not my picture)
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My current bikes. One is fast, one is fun o_O

(I actually ride the fun one WAY more, and it isn't even street legal)

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Our best mileage vehicle was the wife's 2014 Passat TDI. Her daily commute was 65 miles one way, and it went straight through LA. She got a steady 40-45 miles per gallon. The few times we got that thing on the open highway, it was closer to 60 mpg at 75 mph. She put 100,000 miles on it in the two years we owned it, and it still had the original tires and brakes. :eek:

Of course, @DangerDirtyD will point out that VW was skimping on the pollution control, and I was killing the planet...
 
Faust29 said:
Our best mileage vehicle was the wife's 2014 Passat TDI. Her daily commute was 65 miles one way, and it went straight through LA. She got a steady 40-45 miles per gallon. The few times we got that thing on the open highway, it was closer to 60 mpg at 75 mph. She put 100,000 miles on it in the two years we owned it, and it still had the original tires and brakes. :eek:

Of course, @DangerDirtyD will point out that VW was skimping on the pollution control, and I was killing the planet...
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Someone started a thread about that somewhere here, but it wasn’t me.
 
I've posted this before but Tom McParland from Jalopnik has a well-respected car finder/purchasing business. Basically $500 to have him find the best deal and work out all the details, including shipping if it is located out of the area.
https://automatchconsulting.com/
I've never used him as I am a Craigslist guy, but always keep it in the back pocket if I'm ever in the position to need a vehicle.

As mentioned, Costco's car buying program is really well respected as well.
 
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So glad there were no cars to test drive last year when we were looking to replace the then $500+ per month gas guzzling Benz my wife drove. Otherwise we probably would have a large SUV burning gas right now versus the EV. If she were still driving that premium gas thirsty thing we’d be eating cup o noodles for dinner every night. :Roflmao
 
Cornholio said:
So glad there were no cars to test drive last year when we were looking to replace the then $500+ per month gas guzzling Benz my wife drove. Otherwise we probably would have a large SUV burning gas right now versus the EV. If she were still driving that premium gas thirsty thing we’d be eating cup o noodles for dinner every night. :Roflmao
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Hey?! I eat cup-of-noodles every night. That's all I can afford with my $400/month car payment!
 
Sidewalk said:
Do dealers still have monthly quotes and such these days with the car shortage?
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Rumpled said:
Maybe, a lot of salespeople have been let go. Less cars to sell? Maybe dealerships are making more per car sold?
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I assume this is quotas? I can only speak for my dealership, but yeah, quotas are out the window right now. Also, in normal times dealerships would get volume based incentives from the manufacturers, which is why, in the past, a dealership might sell a car below invoice cost. Those are also no more, which is why dealerships are taking a hard line on pricing. In some cases ADMs are what is keeping dealerships from having to furlough sales staff. Most manufacturers have also increased MSRP, and in turn invoice cost, pretty dramatically for the new model year, usually squeezing a little more profit out of the dealerships' piece of the pie.
 
Sidewalk said:
Drove up to Barstow last night with the intention of driving a new GR86 home. I sit down with the sales lady, and she says "Oh, that has a $7000 mark up".

Stood up and walked out.
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The car doesn't warrant it. It's a great little car and all but the used car market is flooded with them.

Toyota of Thousand Oaks has one. Maybe give them a call to see if there's a mark up? Our sales tax here is only 7.25%.

https://www.totoyota.com/new-Thousand+Oaks-2022-Toyota-GR86-Premium-JF1ZNBF12N8751233
 
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Sidewalk said:
Drove up to Barstow last night with the intention of driving a new GR86 home. I sit down with the sales lady, and she says "Oh, that has a $7000 mark up".

Stood up and walked out.
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Sucks you had to drive out there to find that out :-/

Faust29 said:
@redwoods and I saw one of these on the street near JPL. I'll admit I was a little underwhelmed seeing it up close.
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The consensus on this one was "Cool truck, but you can't fit a bike in the bed?"
 
Sidewalk said:
Drove up to Barstow last night with the intention of driving a new GR86 home. I sit down with the sales lady, and she says "Oh, that has a $7000 mark up".

Stood up and walked out.
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If I was ever going to buy a new car again I'd take the approach a guy I knew in Oz would do. Draft up an email, explain you are buying a car, detail exactly what spec you are looking for and then invite them to quote, send your email to dealers. Wait for the quotes to come in and then give everyone a second chance to better the lowest quote/best deal. After that go with whoever provides the best deal, job done.

Not sure if it would work here because the car buying experience is very different but he always used to get some cracking deals. He would email dealers in different states and spread a pretty wide net. Quite often he'd buy out of state and the dealer would even throw in shipping just to move stock. Best bit is he wouldn't even set foot in a dealership most of the time unless he wanted a test drive.
 
Lost Kiwi said:
If I was ever going to buy a new car again I'd take the approach a guy I knew in Oz would do. Draft up an email, explain you are buying a car, detail exactly what spec you are looking for and then invite them to quote, send your email to dealers. Wait for the quotes to come in and then give everyone a second chance to better the lowest quote/best deal. After that go with whoever provides the best deal, job done.

Not sure if it would work here because the car buying experience is very different but he always used to get some cracking deals. He would email dealers in different states and spread a pretty wide net. Quite often he'd buy out of state and the dealer would even throw in shipping just to move stock. Best bit is he wouldn't even set foot in a dealership most of the time unless he wanted a test drive.
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Is that the Ozarks or the TV show OZ?

I know that sounds goofy, but I do kinda want to know.
 
Lost Kiwi said:
If I was ever going to buy a new car again I'd take the approach a guy I knew in Oz would do. Draft up an email, explain you are buying a car, detail exactly what spec you are looking for and then invite them to quote, send your email to dealers. Wait for the quotes to come in and then give everyone a second chance to better the lowest quote/best deal. After that go with whoever provides the best deal, job done.
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As far as I can tell, it is the only one in California.

Cyclotourist said:
Sucks you had to drive out there to find that out :-/
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I knew going there that this could happen. I was expecting to have to haggle down to MSRP. But when the starting mark up was that high, I just knew it wasn't worth trying. They made ZERO attempt to even slow me down as I walked out too.

I know the end of the month is the better time to buy, but I figured quotas don't mean much right now. But I don't think they care about selling it.

Jeep and Ford dealers are calling me non stop though :bang:
 
Lost Kiwi said:
If I was ever going to buy a new car again I'd take the approach a guy I knew in Oz would do. Draft up an email, explain you are buying a car, detail exactly what spec you are looking for and then invite them to quote, send your email to dealers. Wait for the quotes to come in and then give everyone a second chance to better the lowest quote/best deal. After that go with whoever provides the best deal, job done.

Not sure if it would work here because the car buying experience is very different but he always used to get some cracking deals. He would email dealers in different states and spread a pretty wide net. Quite often he'd buy out of state and the dealer would even throw in shipping just to move stock. Best bit is he wouldn't even set foot in a dealership most of the time unless he wanted a test drive.
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In the before times, that was a pretty good technique in The States as well. Probably still is, but just not as much.
I still think Costco's deals are the best around right now.
 
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