regfootball

Ranier only because it is unique.

this falls under another episode of your friends car shopping and asking your advice but never really wanting to hear what you say. and again, no big deal. so, my buddy who has a honda pilot and a chevy malibu (work fleet car given to him, he sold his passat) is looking to replace their pilot after extending the lease several times. the two vehicles they have settled on....another Pilot (UGH!) or a Hyundai Santa Fe. I have him talked out of a Santa Fe. THANKFULLY. The Pilot they want because they like the way Honda has treated them. I understand that. Problem is, the new lease terms for essentially the same vehicle are WAYYYY more now in the new economy. Higher interest rate, lower residual, less incentives. About a 150-200 a mo more payment. for a lease. Since he likes his Malibu, and his mom just got an HHR, I said have you looked at the Traverse? He said actually they do like the Traverse and his wife likes it even (A true import lover, she likes the traverse). He said they had not shopped one yet. I think I have encouraged him enough to go out and price shop but here is the thing. The Traverses are just as pricey or more so than the Pilots depending on config. And its much harder to determine the real price of the Traverse.....many chevy dealers still are not one price (he wants the one price up front to keep things fast and simple). The problem with Traverse at least in base trim is no alum wheels, no power seat. AWD he says is not needed but if he is buying i think in this area I would recommend it. (winter) for resale. So I am hoping they at least go Traverse shopping. He's had a hell of a time shopping all the Honda dealers in his area and they do not get to their best deal right away. I also said to look at MDX lease to compare vs. Pilot. Who knows, it might be better right now. They hate the CX9 by the way. ANother buddy, making good coin. His wife is finally letting him ditch the mid nineties saturn coupe. He asked me about mid size cars like the Altima and Accord and slightly used lux cars like the Infiniti G. I tried to steer him into a Fusion, Regal if he could wait, Malibu, A CC, A legacy, and 2011 Sonata. Ultimately I knew that he wanted a luxury brand car to keep up with his corporate joneses and got a used G35. Not really a bad choice. I told him about my Altima rental and after he looked at one and a couple other mid sizers that he really wanted the reward car....or mid life crisis car as he put it. I think I could have got him in a Regal if he had time to wait, but oh well. Clearly he wanted something to flaunt his new position in the world. I guess I would too after suffering through that saturn for like 15 years. Let's just hope the first buddy goes Traverse. Any other way I can swing him? I told him the new Pilot is SOOOOO ugly! He doesn't seem to think so. TRAVERSE!

My dad emailed me. He sold his 92 Seville! ARGH! 3700 bucks to an 18 year old. the kiddies these days buy cadillacs and other old GM cars and have clubs like GM car clubs etc. For me, this blows because now I can't ask to borrow the car this year if I need to unload one of mine to remain solvent in this 'new economy'. I think he got a good deal, and its just a car. But man, I thought he would keep that car forever. No biggie. Just sad! disclosure -i would not be sad if it was a 92 camry he was selling-

this is 2010, if someone wants to buy a car and its not available, there is no reason to wait. myself, i would bail and buy something else.

i know GM is trying to keep up with Equinox orders. TBH, if she cancelled it and bought one of the others at this point that would be fair. Please though! tell her to look at a CX-7, Outback, and Sorento too while she can, anything to avoid the CVR RAV4 and forester. those three are all terrible vehicles. . I would even add the outlander as one to look at. I am sure she is frustrated by this point. It kind of sounds like maybe the dealer is not top drawer either. A CPO Vue is not entirely a bad option either. My gosh even the new Tucson is pretty nice! The popularity of the CVR RAV4 and Forester is actually beyond comprehension to me. Maybe its because those are overtly feminine/p-y whipped male vehicles that to me are weak fluff, delicate and cheap, and really tailored for people who prioritize the worst attributes in car purchasing. Even if she still gets the equinox now, she'll hate it for sure, only because of having to jump through hoops to get it. probably is better off to just let her bolt and fulfill the prophecy of domestic downers incorporated.

a car company needs to consider an engine application for all its global markets, and honestly the US and maybe saudi and AU are about the only places where big displacement motors are marketable now. Euros place tax on high displacement, Japan culture is to make high revving small displacement. Fuel economy pressures lead development money towards smaller displacement. while the arguments for the pushrod v8 make sense to some degree you also need to consider that if a company is designing a series of modular engines, then they want to develop similar manufacturing processes and capabilities across a wide swath of the products. For example, the combustion chamber design of a cylinder on a DOHC motor can then be used for say, a 2.4 litre four, a 3.6 litre six, and a 4.8 litre v8. The investment in design, manufacturing and tooling can have application and be amotized over many more models and justify the continuous R&D that is needed to keep pace. If you can prove on a balance sheet that you can make enough aluminum block pushrod v8's that will meet epa needs and sell in adequate volume to justify the whole separate program for basically three areas of the world in mostly niche vehicles, then baby play on. The fuel economy issue is real. We know the large v8 gets great mpg in the corvette, but look at the terrible mpg the G8 GXP got (epa and real world). and that was without the added drag of an AWD system which many buyers consider a requirement these days. You know too, the rpm issue is a real thing to consider. For example, GM was never capable of making its pushrod v6's feel as eager or smooth as the best v6's from its competition. In v8's they can match better. But large displacement pushrod motors have had the rap deserved for not quite cutting the mustard, mostly in v6's. GM should have applied all it knew to make them better performers in all the facets needed. Maybe one reason the huge displacement motors can't keep up is the long bore and high piston speeds. I'll also assume longer bore engines generate more rocking forces if their configuration is not inherently balanced. I'd like for you dwight to address this. Cuz if I am revving a small block to 7000 rpm i just want to know how that compared to a smaller motor. More specifically a good turbo four in a lighter vehicle. If i were developing one vehicle from scratch myself I would probably do a small displacement inline 6 with turbo. v12, if it were a luxury car. a mid engine flat six would be interesting too. I have always been intrigued by a boxer four also.

it would be so nice not to have to get a passat wagon if a wagon was what one wanted....

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

i had the 3 slat grille. i remember removing those grilles for when we repainted the car. i had a combo in the back of horizontal and vertical taillights. I think I do have more pics, but I need to find where those are. I actually might revise this thread to include all my old past rides as I am going through some old pics and finding a couple here and there. I found some pics of the 77 electra and such. It had A/C. Timing chain, I am not sure. I had the car from about 86 until (can't recall)...early to mid nineties and my dad sold it to a coworker for his son and they drove it a little while after that. I think the car was in service til about 98 or even later. There was TONS of room under the hood. The tiny v6 ....my cat used to sleep in the engine compartment.. One day I took off on a drive and about 1/8 mile down the hwy, a few thunks and I looked in the rvm, and i saw kitty bounce across the pavement. I thought he was dead, but as good cats do, awhile later (days or weeks) he came back..his tail was a bit mangled, so was his face. I have never gotten such a stern look from a human before, much less a cat. Shocked he didn't pee in my face when i was asleep or something to get back at me.

a lot of the asian cars are really light.. believe it or not, the heavier domestics have more inherent ballast to hold the road in winter and low rolling resistance tires do not help either. i had 2 diamantes, which actually were not super light. the tires were different on each one. the first one had slick yokohamas that were useless in winter. did a couple 360s in it. the next one had different tires that made a world of difference. some day i want an AWD car with stick and snow tires. my 95 tbird was an atrocious winter car. almost 58% on the front made it a skate. the hard as rubber wide firestones made it even more terrible. and one of the first gen traction control and abs systems made it a winter death trap...snow tires made it barely drivable. i wouldn't have wished that car on anyone.

chrome wheels = no (must be aftermarket). also, any saab i get is a stick.

that sure was teh heyday. i was sooooo jealous of my buddies with cutlass supremes.....

it all goes back to what the new cars are now selling for. almost nothing is under 20k. most folks can score credit on 20k for 5 years. most folks who buy new will lengthen their terms if their trade is not worth anything.....they will go 4-6 years now. Late model used can often be financed for those same length of terms, the main financial advantages to a late model used vs. new are less depreciation hit, less due on the loan, and a lesser payment. but all that is weighed against maintenance and repair costs that will arrive sooner than with a new car. for a car like this one, anything that crosses that 6-7 year range....when cars start to become money pits.....you have to practically build into your expenditure to expect to fix stuff. but a car like this, you may be repairing less than one that is hashed and has say 115k on it. Now cars in this class are not financed as easy or as often. Folks will pay cash or somehow save their dough to buy these kinds of cars. If they do get financing its usually through higher rates and shadier operations. And the term is probably not very long. So being able to find the well cared for long used car is important. Ideally a car like this you would trade something else and pay cash for the balance and have zero to owe, and then hope nothing needs fixing any time soon. Problem is one fix on a car like say 3k on a tranny or 4k on an engine can negate the approach you had in mind for purchasing in the first place. Where 5 years ago, the cost of an engine or tranny relative to the cost of a new vehicle was a much higher percentage. Nowadays an expensive fix, while being expensive, when its compared to the cost of a new car, is less of a gamble. So many new cars that you want to drive are 30k plus now.....this is what is driving demand for used. My dad had kind of looked at new Lucernes a couple years ago, but gave up and scored his used DTS for 8 grand. I was kind of upset with him because his northstar kept stalling. I told him it was on the net....crank position sensors. I told him to just get it fixed and don't be tight. Well after a year and half he finally gave in and invested the couple hundred. THAT is a very cheap fix. Point being, his DTS was sort of a creampuff, he certainly didn't overpay at all for it, but that same car now would probably be 11-12 grand because the new one is that much more still. He probably wouldn't pay the 11-12 today for that car although compared to where the market is at now it probably still wouldn't be overpaying, even with possibly having to fix something small like that. dave is right.....people do not take care of their cars anymore. that scenario he described is probably more and more typical than everyone would care to know these days.

My dad felt it was not right to spend the extra money for a 77 Cutlass Supreme coupe...so i had to settle for a Century coupe...not even a Regal! Dug up an old pic. RWD! real car! LOL less than 100hp! I miss this car, even though I would have preferred a Cutlass. I even had mounted an under dash CD player in this thing. One of the first mobile CD players there was, from radio shack. Self applied pin stripe from probably K Mart! is that a SWEEPSPEAR i see?

MKt is no navigator replacement, however, it is one of the finest crossovers out there with ecoboost. It needs time to get ingested into the market. its price is way too high, which is part of the problem.

anyone near this joint in MA? 05 AWD magnum cheap i'd rather have this than an old w body anyways

buying private party is as big a pain as buying from a dealer. some times the people are normal.....a lot of times they are weird psychos in some way shape or form. CPO used cars are a great way to buy but those you really do get ripped off....but lots of people who buy them that way love the backing and the experience. I have a buddy who's bought and overpaid handsomely for 2 CPO volvos now. He just got an XC90 or whatever. He coulda got a new Traverse vs. what he paid for the Volvo with many miles on it. But, the Traverse is AMURCHAN ya know........ I think he got peeved when i told him my Taurus X shares the chassis with his precious VOlvos and costs thousands less.....like he was in denial......i said, 'look it up'..... i buy my used ones under 15k miles and still on warranty, under 10k miles if i can help it....

i'm not buying it. it has more to do with the condition of it compared to typical fare is exceptional, the car is rare (olds, 3.5) and it has low miles. shopping for used cars is a wasteful cycle anyways. you can always find a better deal, then the question becomes, why do you want to spend hours upon hours chasing down vehicles. been there, done that. spending x extra time to try to find 5,000 more miles and 500 bucks. after awhile its just a headache.....which is why i usually buy close to new. i helped a buddy get a used HHR for his mom recently. he asked me to search. i spent literally an hour on the computer. there is a ton of them. i ended up finding one in the orange his mom wanted with only 4k miles on it, for the same price he paid for the one he ended up buying with over 30k miles on it. i told him, 'you gotta go check out the orange one, its damn near new!'...his deal was, 'i have today off from work, i don't want to drive an extra 20 miles to the other deal......i can just drag my mom out there today and its out of my hair'. to me that's a sin to leave that many miles on the table for a car equipped the same. the orange one was even a year newer. I really am more interested from the standpoint of this being one of the few W bodies I would ever consider, because its an olds and has the overhead cam powertrain. I've always really liked the introgg.

that's a nice blazer. new replacement cost for that vehicle is what, 30k? car dealers won't give up the car unless they can make 3 grand or preferably 5 grand on the deal. they play the game of holding on to it to maximize profit per unit. they don't want to get a rep of giving cars away because then everyone will try to -negotiate- them down on everything on their lot.

most cars around here are very hashed by 7 years old. winters, salt, rust, poor maintenance. the paints on the cars around here are toast. this thing i am guessing was garaged in winter. that, and a hell of a buff job. inside and out, doesn't look more than about 3 years old. there's lots of recent lease returns that don't look near as good as this car did. tires are even good shape.

a lot in town here last summer had a 98 olds 88 that was pretty much exactly like my father in laws old car, except it had only 36k on the odometer. they wanted 6 grand for it.....6 grand for at the time an 11 year old car.

wholesale shure, but the dealers need to make their 5 grand killing on every car they put on a lot it seems. if this car were private party, you could offer them 4 or 4500......and it would probably be a go. keep in mind this equivalent car new is now closer to 25 grand than 20 grand these days it seems.....

i would normally agree with you. but since the crash, used cars have gone up in value 3-5 grand or more. the lower ceiling has been set higher due to the shortage of used cars and people rejecting buying the new stuff. i saw a 2000 saturn with over 100k on a lot a couple weeks ago for 6 grand. it seems to me this is two years newer, nicer, much less miles, and two grand more. when i turned my 500 in on lease, right before the crash, sept 2008. i could have bought the car on the market for like 12 grand but my buyout was 16. so i turned the car in. one year later, sept 2009, it would have been a sensible decision to buy the car for the buyout price. the contraction in new car sales really changed the market. used cars are at a premium now, everyone is in short supply, there's not a lot of rental returns or lease cars coming back. new cars want to be profitable so msrp's are going up sharply driving the top ceiling and replacement cost up as well. go look at the lacrosse. 40k for a freakin epsilon car with a v6? myself I would consider as much as maybe 7 grand. IF it needs nothing. 6 would be an ok price for this i think.

i want to see the mpg on the ecoboost also.

the difference between the pre 010 fusion and the 010 fusion is HUGE. i have no doubt the improvements to the edge are as great or greater, and the edge was pretty good to start with.