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I still have my small 4 door Audi A4--It is nearly 10 years old with nearly 80k miles and I love it.  It has enough space for 2 large car seats, decent trunk space, and despite being a 4 cylinder it has excellent power, acceleration, and gas mileage even in the mountains.  Plus--it is too old to have touch screen controls, it has the dial.  I HATE touch screen!  That reason alone is enough for me to drive the car as long as I can. 

Cup holders are sparse--and the ones I have are pretty small.  One is so small it is unusable--perhaps a subtle way for European cars to shame us Americans with our oversized drinks.  My kids car seats have more that the rest of the car put together. 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

In case anyone was wondering, the car buying experience still sucks. We spent 9 to 3 driving around to dealerships trying to test drive a car. At the first one, I had an email saying it was still in stock. Got there and it was gone, sold the night before. So they said they would open up a new one for us to look at. Then they couldn't find the keys. Turns out someone had the keys in their pocket and took them home. So then they had to track down another car. We spent an hour dealing with this nonsense. Then the guy had to go find a business card, and he was out. It was such a disaster, there's no way I would trust that dealership to put in an order for us. Next we tried another dealership about 15 miles away. Same story, car was sold last night. At least the guy figured it out quickly, like within 15 minutes. Then we went to lunch before driving back home to drop off the bicycle in my car and drive 2 cars to the next dealership knowing that we only had about an hour until we had to split up to pick up kids. They found the truck and as we were looking through it, someone else decided to buy it. So then we couldn't test drive it. They did finally manage to find one we could test drive. By that time, the deal fell through on the one we really wanted. Looking back at my last car buying experience in this thread though, it also took them forever to get their act together at the dealership. Car buying is actually worse than buying a home, IMO.

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We picked up the truck on Friday. They gave us less than 1/4 of a tank of gas and forgot to put on the temporary plates and had to email them to us Saturday. Eff that place.

We filled up and it was over $125 because it's a 30 gallon tank. However, so far we are doing about 25% of the miles as electric, so that's not too shabby considering we drove quite a few highway miles this weekend.

The GPS system through Android Auto is not so great. The warnings are way too late and we drove all over West Seattle because my husband kept missing turns. But he's also driving super cautious because it is a BOAT and requires a lot of stopping distance.

Looking at the now published towing capacity, the Lightning was never going to work out anyway. Max towing of 10,000 lbs is based on tons of upgrades. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ugh. I feel so bad for my car. I need to drive it like it's a paid off car and be careful but instead last night I was on a curvy road  and suddenly there was a median and I hit the curb of it head on because I didn't react in time. If you're going to put up some dumb median paint it so it stands out. My hubcap popped off and I am sure I probably broke something else that will crop up later but man, a Toyota can take a beating. It is still running and nothing leaked under the car over night. I can tell my alignment is off. I need/want to enjoy a paid off car for much longer but at the rate I drive... I was so mad at myself last night.

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11 hours ago, perfectsim said:

Paid off cars are the best, but it's always something with the suspension/steering. Or brakes. Or an oxygen sensor.

My husband's cars always end up with electrical troubles. Mine always have the engine seals fail or a sensor fails somewhere that makes it undrivable. Once I had a transmission sensor go out as I was driving down US1. That was fun.

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9 hours ago, Destiny Skywalker said:

My husband's cars always end up with electrical troubles. Mine always have the engine seals fail or a sensor fails somewhere that makes it undrivable. Once I had a transmission sensor go out as I was driving down US1. That was fun.

Are you driving German cars? For some reason I've had the worst luck with electronics and German cars. It's like they figured out everything except electricity. 

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Lol, first one was a Mercedes, 2nd one was a Volvo. We gotta stop buying European cars. Let's see, what have we had and how did they die...

1995 Chevy S10. Got it used because the first owner blew up the engine and dropped a 4-cylinder engine in it just to resell. Decides to throw a piston through the hood on I-95 in 2005.

2000 Dodge Avenger. Broken door handles, aforementioned transmission sensor. Even needed a new paint job after 5 years because the factory paint was crap. Every engine seal failed and needed a complete clean out in 2008 at 108k miles. Sold to some poor 18-year old whose dad was willing to clean up the engine himself.

1999 Mercedes SLK 230. Bought used 5 years old. MIL spun out on US 1 a week after my husband pointed out the tires were bald and she called him a pussy for not wanting to drive it. Back end needed completely replaced and we found a missed bent control arm 4 years later. We had so much fun in that car until we had kids. Then I was pissed that it only had 2 seats and that made me solely responsible for daycare drop off and pickup, and then it started having random total electrical failures WHILE DRIVING IT. Made him trade it in for a sedan in 2013.

2008 Toyota Highlander. Bought brand new, was our major car for 12 years. I planned on driving it to 200k miles but it only made it to about 112k because honestly, we only put about 10k miles a year on our cars, if that. Gave me zero problems until the last 6 months I owned it, but both my husband and my MIL got into minor fender benders with it, and the car got a complete paint job 5 months before we got rid of it. One O2 sensor went out and made it undrivable, and cost $1k to fix. 6 months later, same problem. A friend let me borrow their computer and the error code said it was either another O2 sensor again or a cracked cylinder head. Didn't want to find out so we just traded it in.

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  • 1 month later...

So I have a mechanic friend whose Dad also worked on cars into his 70s.  He built a 1946 Chevy Coupe upgraded with a 350 V8 for a customer some 10 years ago, and the owner ended up selling it back to my friend's Dad.   The Dad wants to sell it wanting $18,000 for it, but is not getting any bites.   It's been sitting for 2 years now, but driven on weekends.  I am just in love with this car!   I came into an inheritance which I really want to save for retirement, but damn tempting to offer my friend's Dad $15K cash for it!  I can't stop thinking about it, actually.  Someone stop me!  I need someone to reason with me, and give me a reason not to buy, seriously.

Here is a pic of a car that looks really close, but has a different shade of red...

1948-chevrolet-business-coupe.jpg.83b700f73af7996340687c3d2f326b54.jpg

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11 hours ago, perfectsim said:

Assuming you can cover your butt with the impending economic downturn... maybe this car can be a part of your retirement plan. Just know it will cost money to keep it in really nice condition and you won't ever really recoup your "investment."

See the economy scares the hell out of me the way it is, which is mainly why I haven't pulled the trigger.  Plus, I don't have a garage, just a car port, and I'd have to park this car in the sun with a car cover.  Here I am talking myself out of this!   Dammit!

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Is $15k going to make or break your retirement? Do you make a lot of $15k purchases? Would you really be in the hole if an emergency home repair happened? Those are the kind of questions you need to ask yourself. I don't think its a stupid purchase, it's a fun one, and I don't think it's necessarily irresponsible unless you're answering yes to those questions above.

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10 hours ago, Destiny Skywalker said:

Is $15k going to make or break your retirement? Do you make a lot of $15k purchases? Would you really be in the hole if an emergency home repair happened? Those are the kind of questions you need to ask yourself. I don't think its a stupid purchase, it's a fun one, and I don't think it's necessarily irresponsible unless you're answering yes to those questions above.

No I don't think the $15k will break retirement, though it probably would be smarter to invest it into a Roth IRA or something.  I rent my home so I don't have to worry about house repairs.  But then again, it would be nice to own my own home, and $15K would be a nice down payment.  The more and more I think about it,  the less smart it seems to buy this car, assuming I can even get if for $15K.  I'll talk to my mechanic friend about it though.

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So I resolved to make an offer on the 1946 Chevy today.   Unfortunately, after talking to my mechanic friend, his dad GAVE the car to him!  Good Dad though!   My friend is not interested in selling right now, but he will let me know if he decides to sell.   The good thing is my friend has agreed to help me upgrade my cylinder heads on my Chevy Nova, which will be good for at least 40-50 horsepower!

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  • 3 months later...

Well--looks like we are buying a truck.  I am leaning towards a Jeep Gladiator.  EV comes out next year, but I think it buying a used one this year versus a brand new EV next year, I am looking at 30k difference in price. 

Anyone have a Gladiator or looked at one?

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