Rant - Cars

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CardsofSTL
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Re: Rant - Cars

Post by CardsofSTL »

My Impala is starting to have a lot of little things needing done. It's my car for work and I was planning to drive it until the wheels fell off but now I'm getting bothered by the nuisance repairs. Think it might be time to sell it and get something else.

Michael
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Re: Rant - Cars

Post by Michael »

CardsofSTL wrote:
August 15 21, 8:57 am
My Impala is starting to have a lot of little things needing done. It's my car for work and I was planning to drive it until the wheels fell off but now I'm getting bothered by the nuisance repairs. Think it might be time to sell it and get something else.
Speaking as someone who was in the car market (and left) it is a historically bad time to buy a new or used car. I'm going to wait until Jan.

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CardsofSTL
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Re: Rant - Cars

Post by CardsofSTL »

Michael wrote:
August 16 21, 12:21 pm
CardsofSTL wrote:
August 15 21, 8:57 am
My Impala is starting to have a lot of little things needing done. It's my car for work and I was planning to drive it until the wheels fell off but now I'm getting bothered by the nuisance repairs. Think it might be time to sell it and get something else.
Speaking as someone who was in the car market (and left) it is a historically bad time to buy a new or used car. I'm going to wait until Jan.
I could dump the Impala and just drive my jeep for a while before I get something else. But good tip just the same. I know prices have gone up and inventory is down over the lack of semiconductor chips.

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IMADreamer
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Re: Rant - Cars

Post by IMADreamer »

Prices are going to get way worse too. Toyota is cutting production by 40 percent starting next week. This shortage isn't even close to over and car prices are going to get even more crazy. If you can make what you drive work or a few more years you'd probably be better off.

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Smith Corks One
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Re: Rant - Cars

Post by Smith Corks One »

Thanks for the bump, nikkireed. Was hoping to find a cheap, high quality bed through the cars rant thread on GRB.

Anyway, my wife has a 2018 Elantra with like 30k miles on it. Obviously, any time there is an issue we take it to the dealership, as it's under warranty. There have been a couple of oxygen sensor or other check engine light type issues that they've fixed without issue.

Couple months ago, I notice a "whooshing" sound coming from the dash area any time I'm turning in either direction with the a/c on. Doesn't happen when the a/c is off. Wife said she also felt water dripping on her legs one time when she was driving. So I take it to the dealership, since I assume it will be covered. She assures me that it will, unless it's something due to "outside influence," but that's unlikely.

Get a text and phone call - well guess what, it was outside influence. Said a [expletive] rodent of some kind had gotten in there and chewed through the cabin air filter. Water everywhere. Had to charge me $119 for the hour it took to find the problem, then another $119 for an hour of labor for them to fix it. On top of that, he said the blower motor didn't survive the ordeal; video he sent showed it making a loud clicking sound when he turned it on (I had noticed the clicking sound on the way to the dealership, so it was legit at least). $250 for the blower motor. $50 for the cabin air filter that I usually replace myself for like $12. All said and done, I'm in well over $500 for this damn thing.

Here's the kind of funny part. Maybe a week later, probably less, my wife goes out to lunch with a friend. They both take their babies and are at the place for a couple hours. When they leave, my wife - parked in the middle of a parking lot with no trees in sight - suddenly notices a tiny baby squirrel running around her feet, trying to climb in the car with her. She kind of freaks out, and is running around the car. Her friend runs over with a cup, scoops the baby squirrel up and takes it over to some grass on the side of the parking lot. Before my wife can even get the baby in the car, the squirrel runs back over and keeps running around her legs. Finally, her friend catches it in the cup again and just takes it home to - I don't know, release it? Keep it as a psychotic pet? I never did figure that part out.

Now, three weeks after THAT, I'm driving MY car - a 2014 Sonata - to work, and I notice the exact same sound. I look over at the passenger side, and see just a little bit of water dripping down. I'm kind of pissed, as I really don't feel like dropping another $500. Instead of calling the dealership, I google local places and look for reviews (had always gone to one particular place that I loved, but they sold it a couple of years ago and it's gone completely to [expletive]). Found two places in particular that had great reviews. Called one, they told me it would be a month. No thanks. Called the other, they said a week. That sounded good, and still passes the Shlabotnik test. Dropped the car off the night before they were supposed to look at it.

The owner/main mechanic calls me the next day. First thing I notice, even before he gets into the details, is he's just dropping f-bombs left and right. Now I can certainly see how that would turn some people off, but it didn't bother me. Guess the guy isn't afraid to be himself no matter the situation. Wonder what he would be like at a funeral. Anyway, he finally gets down to the nitty gritty. My hope was that the blower motor would not have gone bad, and his labor would be less than $119/hour, so I would at least get out of there well under $500 (forgot to mention that when it happened, I had immediately pulled out the cabin air filter and it looked fine, not even wet - maybe a little damp?) So I figured at least my damage was not as far along as my wife's had been. The guy tells me that there was a spider nest "or some [expletive]" in the evaporator coil, and he "cleaned that [expletive] [expletive] out" and it should be just fine now. I told him I had assumed it was a rodent based on my wife's recent experience, and he said, "Oh yeah, those [expletive] bastards will get up there and tear that [expletive] up." Finally tells me he'll charge me $40 for half an hour of labor (actually, asked me if that sounded okay) and said I could pick it up any time. Hell yeah, that sounded okay. He said they were "technically" open until five, but "we're always here way [expletive] later than that."

Afterword: I arrive at 4:30 and immediately notice a "closed" sign on the door. Undeterred, I try the door, and it's open. There is nobody at all in the front/lobby/customer service area, but I can hear people talking in the garage area. I walk back there, and see two men - one has the hood of a truck open, working on it, and the other is standing there holding a drink. A few f-bombs later it's clear that the guy standing there with the drink is the owner. After just standing there for a couple minutes listening to whatever they were talking about, the owner looks over at me and, presumably having no idea who I am, says, "Want a drink?" 30 minutes and a large, delicious Jack and Coke later, I pay him $40 and go on about my way.

I've found my new mechanic.

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GeddyWrox
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Re: Rant - Cars

Post by GeddyWrox »

This post makes me [expletive] happy. LOL

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IMADreamer
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Re: Rant - Cars

Post by IMADreamer »

Pro tip the more f bombs the better the mechanic. That is fact.

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IMADreamer
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Re: Rant - Cars

Post by IMADreamer »

I was chatting with a couple friends in the car sales business and they told me today things are going to get way worse before they get better. One is a manager of a big auto conglomerate you guys in the STL area have all heard of and he said Ford told them wo more years minimum until something resembling "normal" is a thing. However he said he doesn't expect most dealers to go back to the model having huge inventory, but trying to push customers to ordering new from the factory.

It's going to get interesting in the car world.

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heyzeus
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Re: Rant - Cars

Post by heyzeus »

Had to put in a new starter in my '09 accord over the weekend. I don't really wanna buy a new car right now and pay the PYITA prices and fees, but this car is giving me more problems now than it's worth.

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sighyoung
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Re: Rant - Cars

Post by sighyoung »

I'm facing the issue of wanting to buy a used car for my daughter, who has headed off to college in a small town and could use the independence. But used-car prices are insane right now, and I'm juggling finding something that is safe and maintainable but also isn't the equivalent of buying a new car.

I have a couple of options, but don't know if they'll pan out. One is an experienced mechanic who repairs cars that were in accidents but weren't structurally damaged. I purchased a Nissan Altima from him years ago with only 56,000 miles from him, and wound up giving it to one of my brothers: it lasted many years. But I don't know if the person is still in business.

Another is an option in-state in which the mechanic picks up Nissans, Toyotas, and Hondas at auction and fixes them up. A friend of mine went this route, purchased a Toyota from the guy that had 150,000 miles, and still has the car five years later. And the prices are still very low, although these cars are from the early-to-mid 2000's.

Another challenge is my daughter's height: she's just over 5 feet tall, and she needs to try out the car to make sure she can see properly.

Either way, it's a real frustration.

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