OT: Scaredycat scared to buy car

[jimmyle]

Great deal, you can’t even find used 2011 Accords at this price.

[quote=squat250]bought new Accord today for $17,999 plus tax, title and reg.

Spreen Honda. They honored their carwoo.com internet price.

I’m just too scared to buy a used car. I cannot handle that risk.

And too scared suddenly to drive my old car with my kids in it.

.09% financing for 60 months.

Not .9%, but .09%. With nothing down.

I think the payment is $329.00 a month or thereabouts.[/quote]

[scaredyclassic]

i am concerned a bit about maintaining the reputation of my law school, since status, hierarchy and ranking matter, especially in the law…

One item that goes into the US NEWS AND WORLD reprt ranking system is percentage of alum who donate to the school. it’s supposed to be an indicator of alumni loyalty and involvement.

Therefore, i donate a quarter every year.

I even make it on the $100.00 and under gift lists for the alumni.

I don’t think driving a crap car would hurt the US NEWS AND WORLD report ranking though.

[Coronita]

[quote=squat250]i have always driven my Honda Civic in a way to minimize the RPMs in order to make the engine last as long as possible. So now i have a cosmetically thrashed civic with a strong engine with 250,000 miles.

I’ll probably drive this car the same way.

but no eating in or dogs throwing up in the car this time. Also i’ll close the windows so cats don’t come piss in it during the night.

now, let’s see, a custom pattern for a vinyl design. i’m going to need to ponder that. I need a logo….

There would have been a satisfying dissonance between a thrashed 80’s civic and license plate holders from an ivy league school and a top law school…but I never went there…

i remember in the old days seeing bumperstickers saying “don’t laugh it’s paid for”…havent really seen those around for a while. “Don’t laugh…the financing’s real cheap” isn’t quite as punchy…”don’t laugh…my lease is almost up?”

if i had bought a midlife sports car, maybe “Powered by Viagra”?

i am too scared to put insulting bumperstickers on. Don’t want to make anyone too angry at me needlessly.[/quote]

Well, don’t trash the engine during the first 10-15k miles (though these days, it doesn’t matter as much)….But there afterwards in all seriousness, honda engines are pretty well made, and hard to mess up.. They might end up leaking oil around the oil pan seals after many many XXX,XXX miles, but they can take a beating mechanically. AFTER your first or second oil change, you can consider switching to full synthetic, and that should also help prolong things even further. If you do end up servicing at the dealerbring you’re own synthetic in and have them fill it so they don’t charge you more (or worse, charge you more and still stick regular dyno oil in)…Costco usually has Mobil 1 on sale in the 6 quart box for like $4-5/quart. You can most likely take 5w-30. Also, for just routine oil change, I don’t think you’re required to go to the stealership..

[spdrun]

Lugging the engine is actually worse than revving it out. Though if you have a autotragic transmission, it probably won’t allow the motor to lug.

[Coronita]

[quote=jimmyle]Great deal, you can’t even find used 2011 Accords at this price.
[/quote]

A good portion of late model preowned at dealers/etc are lease returns or loaners. Most of them are fully loaded (at the time of 2011). You’ll end up paying for options. Great if you feel you need those options. Others, folks don’t care for those options…Furthermore, there’s a change the following year, some of those “options” end up being standard equipment.

Depending on your equipment selection, you might end up doing much better new versus preowned…So if you stick to your guns and go easy on the options group, you might do considerably better with new versus preowned. Also, factory-dealer incentives galore might end up make an current year vehicle effective base price much less.

When I bought, it was the first year mid-cycle update. More items went into the standard equipment package than the year right before it. So while the 2010 model preowned about $2k cheaper than 2011…it didn’t have the updated turboed engine (had the older 3.0 N/A engine that was 40hp less), didn’t have Bluetooth/usb integration, didn’t have the roof rails/etc)…It had a bunch of other stuff like heated seats, etc that I didn’t care for. For me, (and again personal choice), it made sense for me to go with the newer model.

One wouldn’t really know unless one plays in the game.

[spdrun]

How about “Financed with Bernanke Bucks” or “Shalom-Shalom” or perhaps even “Our Other Car is a Helicopter?”

[bearishgurl]

[quote=flu][quote=jimmyle]Great deal, you can’t even find used 2011 Accords at this price.
[/quote]

A good portion of late model preowned at dealers/etc are lease returns or loaners. Most of them are fully loaded (at the time of 2011). You’ll end up paying for options. Great if you feel you need those options. Others, folks don’t care for those options…Furthermore, there’s a change the following year, some of those “options” end up being standard equipment.

Depending on your equipment selection, you might end up doing much better new versus preowned…So if you stick to your guns and go easy on the options group, you might do considerably better with new versus preowned. Also, factory-dealer incentives galore might end up make an current year vehicle effective base price much less.

When I bought, it was the first year mid-cycle update. More items went into the standard equipment package than the year right before it. So while the 2010 model preowned about $2k cheaper than 2011…it didn’t have the updated turboed engine (had the older 3.0 N/A engine that was 40hp less), didn’t have Bluetooth/usb integration, didn’t have the roof rails/etc)…It had a bunch of other stuff like heated seats, etc that I didn’t care for. For me, (and again personal choice), it made sense for me to go with the newer model.

One wouldn’t really know unless one plays in the game.[/quote]

Heated seats and on-demand AWD are the sh!t! I drive in the snow so these options will be in my next vehicle, along with all the other goodies. Excepting that I would prefer paper maps over Navigation (with its annoying voice leading me down the garden path) and am a good parallel-parker so don’t need a “backup camera,” lol.

I don’t like newer Cadillacs because they talk too much and won’t shut up.

[spdrun]

Navigation is (IMHO) useless in 2012, when Velcro and a tablet/saved maps are cheaper. With the added bonus that if you keep the car for more than a few years, it’s much easier to upgrade the tablet than an integrated NAV system. For that matter, give me an old-school radio in a DIN slot that you can upgrade as well by removing it and splicing some wires.

I’ll take on-demand AWD as long as it starts out with the rear wheels being powered. Understeering front-wheel-driven pigs need not apply. However, RWD + winter tires does pretty well in snow as well — it’s more about the tires than the driven wheels.

I’ve made more than a few ski trips in a Miata. Hardtop, snow tires, ski rack slung off the trunk, and I was actually PASSING idiots in SUVs.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun] … I’ve made more than a few ski trips in a Miata. Hardtop, snow tires, ski rack slung off the trunk, and I was actually PASSING idiots in SUVs.[/quote]

Lol, spdrun … back in the day, I made a few ski trips in a 280Z with the same kind of roof rack and it handled VERY well in the snow with just snow tires! However, we never had to put chains on.

When the chain law is in effect, I have to put on my cables. This has happened to me many times in the sierras. One time, I had to put them on and take them off 3x before I got all the way thru the sierras (US 50). This is time consuming and not that easy to do properly in a storm and/or in the dark on a car that doesn’t have very much clearance between the tires and wheel wells.

I’m tired of this routine and want to get away from this requirement.

[Diego Mamani]

[quote=bearishgurl]Heated seats and on-demand AWD are the sh!t![/quote] I rented a VW hatchback in Germany back in the spring of 2007, and I accidentally turned on the “butt warmer” feature. Yuck! I hated the sensation… well, the weather wasn’t cold at all, and I’ve lived all my life in mild weather places like coastal So. Cal., so I guess I don’t really know what “freezing cold” means…

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]How about “Financed with Bernanke Bucks” or “Shalom-Shalom” or perhaps even “Our Other Car is a Helicopter?”[/quote]

Can’t beat em, join em….

I love cheap financing dollars for well qualified people….. Because I’m well qualified.

[spdrun]

I do too, but only inasmuch as they can be translated into passive income. My goal is to work as little as possible and be a parasite.

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]Navigation is (IMHO) useless in 2012, when Velcro and a tablet/saved maps are cheaper. With the added bonus that if you keep the car for more than a few years, it’s much easier to upgrade the tablet than an integrated NAV system. For that matter, give me an old-school radio in a DIN slot that you can upgrade as well by removing it and splicing some wires.

I’ll take on-demand AWD as long as it starts out with the rear wheels being powered. Understeering front-wheel-driven pigs need not apply. However, RWD + winter tires does pretty well in snow as well — it’s more about the tires than the driven wheels.

I’ve made more than a few ski trips in a Miata. Hardtop, snow tires, ski rack slung off the trunk, and I was actually PASSING idiots in SUVs.[/quote]

You need to have practical experience using all the types of navigation system to understand why they exist….I can tell you one very obvious reason why any navigation system would be preferred to your proposed solution of mobile phone/tablet based navigation… Go into the middle of the desert, turn on your favorite android device, and launch google navigation and tell me how well the navigation will work for you… Because while you’ll probably get the GPS signal, good luck getting data service that you also need to run Google Nav (well, at least up until Jellybean, which takes care of this issue… sort of…).

Also, attempt to navigate in the city with Google Navigation, good luck with any sort of rerouting…By the time your tablet/phone can recalculate an alternative route, the information will already be too late, because you already passed a few blocks where you were suppose to make the alternative route decision.

In SoCal, AWD is absolutely not necessary. Even on wet traction, AWD is generally not needed. where it makes a difference is snow and ice, and only on the proper set of tires. Most All Seasons with snow grade is acceptable with AWD.

AWD makes it interesting when it comes to tire time…you’re suppose to replace all 4 at the same time….Well full time AWD that is.

[spdrun]

Google Maps is going to allow for offline map storage:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/06/google-maps-for-android-gets-offline-support/

If you don’t want to use Google Maps, there are also other navigation apps that store maps offline.

[Coronita]

dup.

[Author]

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