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sanchez posted:New car interest rates in the US are so comically low (2%) that if you have 30k or whatever in the bank to drop on a new car, you're probably better off keeping it for a rainy day or for investment purposes and borrowing for the car. Not to mention that if you always pay cash for everything you don't build up a solid credit history which means when you do need to finance, lease, or get a mortgage you end up being poo poo out of luck and have trouble getting approved for a decent rate. If you can secure a car loan anywhere from 0%-1.9% for 60 or fewer months then take it and the minimal interest charges are outweighed by having money in the bank or money to invest along with the credit history benefits.
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Sep 23, 2013 15:31
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sanchez posted:New car interest rates in the US are so comically low (2%) that if you have 30k or whatever in the bank to drop on a new car, you're probably better off keeping it for a rainy day or for investment purposes and borrowing for the car. Borrowing money because you can't afford something is dumb but borrowing money to maintain liquidity isn't (within reason.) If you wipe out your rainy day fund maxxing a down payment or paying cash outright, and then the rainy day comes and you're putting expenses on a credit card with 3x-6x the interest rate, you haven't helped yourself. If you borrow and that rainy day never comes, you can think of the interest as an insurance payment. Where 'new' and not so new adults get in trouble often isn't buying new vs used, it's buying whatever at facerape interest terms because their credit history is a mess / nonexistent, they don't know what they're signing up for, and they end up with a $40k Altima. At least in the States, but I assume Aus isn't that different.
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Sep 23, 2013 15:45
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Coredump posted:Don't you live in Denmark? Yeah, I do. Which I admit changes the circumstances a bit from what you guys in the US face. For instance... kill me now posted:Not to mention that if you always pay cash for everything you don't build up a solid credit history which means when you do need to finance, lease, or get a mortgage you end up being poo poo out of luck and have trouble getting approved for a decent rate. Credit ratings aren't really A Thing here, at least nowhere near to the extent that they are in the US. Of course banks etc. rate their customers internally and give benefits to those who invest heavily, have large accounts or loan big and pay on time, but as long as you have a steady income, you can take up a loan or a mortgage. Of course there are consequences to not paying your debts on time, but they're not front-loaded like the US credit rating, where you basically can't get a loan worth poo poo without buying everything on credit for a couple of years first. Hell, I don't even have a credit card and I had absolutely no trouble getting a decent rate on my mortgage, I could get 3,5% fixed just by walking through the door and asking. Which I'm not going to do since my rate right now is 1% flexible, but you get the point. I've never had a credit card and I've only ever had my mortgage and a car loan that I've since paid out. The US credit rating system is institutionalized debt hell.
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Sep 23, 2013 17:38
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Hell, I don't even have a credit card and I had absolutely no trouble getting a decent rate on my mortgage, I could get 3,5% fixed just by walking through the door and asking. Which I'm not going to do since my rate right now is 1% flexible, but you get the point. I've never had a credit card and I've only ever had my mortgage and a car loan that I've since paid out. [/quote] Holy poo poo, is this an American style 30-year fixed rate mortgage or some European product that is shorter term? I thought US mortgage rates were crazy low.
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Sep 23, 2013 17:40
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Weinertron posted:Holy poo poo, is this an American style 30-year fixed rate mortgage or some European product that is shorter term? I thought US mortgage rates were crazy low. 3,5% is on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. My 1% is a 30-year flexible rate with the first 10 years being interest-only. I'm using those 10 years to pay off the bank loan part, which is 20% of the total amount I borrowed. I believe I'm paying 8% on that, so it's in my best interest to get it out of the way as soon as possible.
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Sep 23, 2013 17:44
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KozmoNaut posted:Yeah, I do. Which I admit changes the circumstances a bit from what you guys in the US face. holy poo poo, I think you've finally cracked that nut of why Denmark always seems to top those lists of "world's happiest people"!
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Sep 23, 2013 18:36
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tobu posted:Has anyone had any experience with these and the POWERSHIFT auto that comes with them? I hope it's better than the powershift in the Focus. I've experienced some problems with mine -after extended periods of driving in warm/hot weather, it will start making an audible grinding noise. Just look on the Focus forums and read through some of the transmission related threads. http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=124 
Mental Hospitality fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Sep 23, 2013 |
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Sep 23, 2013 19:08
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Wow, this derail about buying new vs. used had some dogmatic posts worthy of being in PI. AI is a pretty accepting place most of the time, where we can discuss low-level Ford Fiesta's right next to the guys buying high-end cars without starting a dogpile over credit ratings. The guy asked about the car; just give a drat answer on topic. If it was off-topic, send him to the right place.
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Sep 23, 2013 19:28
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TrinityOfDeath posted:Wow, this derail about buying new vs. used had some dogmatic posts worthy of being in PI. AI is a pretty accepting place most of the time, where we can discuss low-level Ford Fiesta's right next to the guys buying high-end cars without starting a dogpile over credit ratings. The guy asked about the car; just give a drat answer on topic. If it was off-topic, send him to the right place. Being newish to SA i found the credit derail to be of surprisingly good quality for a car forum. But, i shall restrain myself from any un-murrican inquisitiveness about the evil socialist paradises and their relatively functional economic systems in this section of the forum. Hashal posted:I don't know how I feel about this small of a turbo engine. I feel like the price of a turbo isn't worth the small gains in small displacement engines. The car is going to perform like an appliance either way. Similar with the Chevy Sonic. I like both cars, think the turbo would make it a little more fun to drive, but not worth the cost in the end. I think the thing that gets overlooked when comparing turbo to non-turbo engines of similar power is that the turbo engines generally make more torque, and make more of it more often, than the n/a larger motor. So it will feel significantly more powerful during normal, low-rpm, part-throttle driving even if it is not MUCH faster at WOT. I think that has a LOT of value. My 1.0L car (honda insight) has an electric motor that gives a similar effect. In fact, the inverted powerbands of my gas and electric motors adds up to me having 90%+ of peak power (not torque.. power) from 3-6k rpm. So while the car is not fast, you dont have to drive the snot out of it either. You literally have ALL the power available at normal driving rpm. While the turbo 1.0 is not going to have AS flat of a powerband, it'll still make the N/A motor look like crap at 'normal driving rpms'. And then, of course, it's also much easier to ADD power when you get a little bored. 
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Sep 23, 2013 21:56
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Vigo327 posted:Being newish to SA i found the credit derail to be of surprisingly good quality for a car forum. But, i shall restrain myself from any un-murrican inquisitiveness about the evil socialist paradises and their relatively functional economic systems in this section of the forum. Except the advice to always buy used cars is overly broad and, in some cases, dead wrong. Not every car depreciates at the same rate, so claiming that buying used is always financially sound is ignorant. Buying a brand new Camry every 15 years can be a very financially sound practice while buying a new 3 Series ever five years can be destructive. In the US, buying a <3 year old car used can be a terrible idea or an okay deal, but that depends on the car. A 2 year old Prius with 40k miles can actually appreciate in value compared to its invoice price and pickup trucks can easily be had with 4-5 figure discounts: making both vehicles ideal candidates for purchasing new. However the market is flood with ex-rental Malibus and such, which drags down residual values quite a bit. When my wife and I bought her car, we limited the price to $13k, because that's what we had saved up to buy a car. We ended up with a 2007 Saturn Aura; the car has generally been pretty reliable, but we've definitely put significantly more money into maintenance into it over the past 60k miles than we would have had we bought a different car. The car is probably worth $6-7k now and needs a few hundred in additional maintenance. Had we bought a new Forester at the time, we'd have spent around $10k more, but the car would still be worth $10k more and we almost certainly would have invested much less in maintenance. In addition, we'd would have another five years of mostly worry free driving. The data that I've collected suggests that buying a new mid-sized sedan is better financially than buying a slightly used car. Anywho... http://www.autoblog.com/2013/09/23/chevy-corvette-z06-spy-shots/ It's interesting that the C7 was just released and Chevy is already testing out the Z06. I figured they would save that for the mid-cycle refresh, considering the rear end-beating the Vette has given the competition already. oRenj9 fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Sep 24, 2013 |
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Sep 24, 2013 00:21
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A Chris Harris video on the Alfa 4C: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnuNv77rB0Q Price in Germany 50500 €. AC, satnav and heated electric mirrors are no cost options. Reference prices in Germany: Lotus Exige with AC 68300 € Lotus Elise S ("comfort" pack) 48910 € Porsche Cayman (no options) 51385 € Porsche Cayman S (no options) 64118 € Corvette C7 from 69900 €
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Sep 24, 2013 06:20
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KozmoNaut posted:3,5% is on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. My 1% is a 30-year flexible rate with the first 10 years being interest-only. I'm using those 10 years to pay off the bank loan part, which is 20% of the total amount I borrowed. I believe I'm paying 8% on that, so it's in my best interest to get it out of the way as soon as possible. My apartment mortgage is at 2,76% right now.  My KTM is at 6,99%. 
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Sep 24, 2013 06:28
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DoLittle posted:A Chris Harris video on the Alfa 4C  Those weird spider headlights are an option right? We had seen some concepts earlier that had more normal looking lights. I assume it's also going to be pretty limited production and all of them will be spoken for quickly.
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Sep 24, 2013 06:44
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Well where are all those sperglords who were pining for manual steering? Your car is here.
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Sep 24, 2013 06:53
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Throatwarbler posted:Well where are all those sperglords who were pining for manual steering? Your car is here. I loving want one. I'll just probably have to add seat pads.
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Sep 24, 2013 07:01
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Hog Obituary posted:I really want to like this car but that area where the back of the window, the roof, door, and intake come together is just such a mess stylistically. The weird spider headlights are your only option. The earlier concepts had more normal headlights, like on the Giulietta. I have no idea why they went with the weird spider-looking things for the production model. And production is limited to 3500 cars, AFAIK.
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Sep 24, 2013 07:45
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Throatwarbler posted:Well where are all those sperglords who were pining for manual steering? Your car is here. It was the guy with his 1985 IROC-Z, the pinnacle of automotive engineering who was going stupid about it.
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Sep 24, 2013 09:23
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CharlesM posted:It was the guy with his 1985 IROC-Z, the pinnacle of automotive engineering who was going stupid about it. Richard Hammond is more of a Mustang guy if I remember correctly.
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Sep 24, 2013 09:30
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KozmoNaut posted:The weird spider headlights are your only option. The earlier concepts had more normal headlights, like on the Giulietta. I have no idea why they went with the weird spider-looking things for the production model. Official reason for the spider lights is weight savings, real reason probably tooling and homologation costs on a low production car. The production is limited to 3500/year (not overall) because of the production capacity for the carbon tub. I think the first year production has already been sold. If you place an order now, the projected delivery is late 2014. Edit: AutoCar first drive: http://m.autocar.co.uk/car-review/alfa-romeo/4c/first-drives/alfa-romeo-4c-first-drive-review DoLittle fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Sep 24, 2013 |
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Sep 24, 2013 14:01
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I wonder how the carbon tub will age long term. In 50 years are we going to see bunch of early 2000s carbon-tubbed supercars still roaming around since they don't rust?
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Sep 24, 2013 15:51
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Hog Obituary posted:I wonder how the carbon tub will age long term. In 50 years are we going to see bunch of early 2000s carbon-tubbed supercars still roaming around since they don't rust? It's Italian, so the electrical problems will kill it eventually.
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Sep 24, 2013 16:00
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oRenj9 posted:http://www.autoblog.com/2013/09/23/chevy-corvette-z06-spy-shots/ They rolled out the c5 and c6 Z06s about a year after the base model was released, a year isn't that much testing time if you're changing a bunch of stuff. Hog Obituary posted:I wonder how the carbon tub will age long term. In 50 years are we going to see bunch of early 2000s carbon-tubbed supercars still roaming around since they don't rust? It ages pretty well, CF doesn't really lose strength unless it's exposed to heat. The biggest issue with useable life is that it develops cracks which eventually shatter when stress is placed on it, however the cracks can be fixed. Muffinpox fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Sep 24, 2013 |
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Sep 24, 2013 16:36
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Hog Obituary posted:I wonder how the carbon tub will age long term. In 50 years are we going to see bunch of early 2000s carbon-tubbed supercars still roaming around since they don't rust? If they've been exposed to too much sun or have been kept somewhere humid then no, they'll be unusable.
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Sep 24, 2013 18:15
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I really thought the 4c would be more expensive. With the new Elise and Exige not making it to the states this is a really interesting option. Availability will be an issue though.
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Sep 24, 2013 18:53
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As someone who is very interested in picking up a lightly-used Porsche Cayman S in the future, this new Alfa 4C is a very interesting development given its price. My biggest concern would be parts and service availability/cost. Porsches may be expensive, but at least there's no shortage of parts or people willing to work on them. But a low-volume model of a brand not known for its reliability that has been effectively dead in the US for the past 20+ years? I don't know if I could get over that concern...
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Sep 24, 2013 19:28
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They basically have all of Fiat and Chrysler backing them. If they can make use of that, parts availability shouldn't be too bad.
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Sep 24, 2013 19:50
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Those spider lights look like someone attacked it with a Bedazzler
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Sep 24, 2013 21:04
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Guinness posted:As someone who is very interested in picking up a lightly-used Porsche Cayman S in the future, this new Alfa 4C is a very interesting development given its price. My biggest concern would be parts and service availability/cost. Porsches may be expensive, but at least there's no shortage of parts or people willing to work on them. But a low-volume model of a brand not known for its reliability that has been effectively dead in the US for the past 20+ years? I don't know if I could get over that concern... A lot of the parts are going to end up in the new smaller Chrysler/Dodges, so parts shouldn't be too out of whack. There is a rumor floating around allpar that they are toying with some sort of Dodge based on modified version of the platform too.
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Sep 24, 2013 21:27
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fknlo posted:I really thought the 4c would be more expensive. With the new Elise and Exige not making it to the states this is a really interesting option. Availability will be an issue though. Wait, so is Lotus pulling out of the US market?
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Sep 24, 2013 22:59
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I remember claiming that the 4C would never hit production with them lights so y'all can make fun of me. Edit: my concern wouldn't be with parts availability - a lot of it is Fiat partsbin. My concern would be when you whack it in to a light pole that it will take the better part of a year to get fixed because about six guys in the world are qualified to do collision repair on structural CF.
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Sep 25, 2013 00:57
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On the new Mazda 3: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2013/09/capsule-review-2014-mazda3/#more-523737 quote:There is very little body roll, while the suspension is composed over rough pavement. The steering is sharp, direct and nicely weighted. Mazda engineer Dave Coleman told us that his target was his LeMons car, which uses a manual Miata steering rack. It's encouraging and somewhat endearing if this is true.
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Sep 25, 2013 01:03
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Some of the poo poo Dave Coleman writes about on MotoIQ is just insane. Check out his Miatabusa project over there if you get the chance.
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Sep 25, 2013 01:15
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blk posted:On the new Mazda 3: The sedan looks like a smaller duplicate of the Mazda6. Not saying that's a bad thing. The hatch version looks like it has a massive nose for a front engined/FWD car.
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Sep 25, 2013 02:41
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Augmented Dickey posted:Wait, so is Lotus pulling out of the US market? I don't think they are, but I don't think the Evora sells well enough to keep them going here? I was going to be really interested in picking up a lightly used Exige S in a couple of years. The new models not coming seems to have caused the prices on the previous gen to jump back up too.
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Sep 25, 2013 03:13
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blk posted:On the new Mazda 3: "unlike the thristy boat anchor of a 1.8L engine fitted to most early Miatas." Did he really just poo poo on the BP? And thirsty is misspelled. While the early Miata 1.8's weren't as fun as the GTX and LX Protege's. Only the 93,94 OBD1 1.8's were thirsty for the time. For their small size and lack of forced induction they're very flexible, torquey, not mention extremely long lasting engines. Boo! I also find the 5 door hideous? I'm just glad Mazda is still alive and kicking. Guy Random fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Sep 25, 2013 |
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Sep 25, 2013 03:26
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You Am I posted:The hatch version looks like it has a massive nose for a front engined/FWD car. It's another clown shoe car.
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Sep 25, 2013 03:46
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The BP is/was a great little motor, but it is pretty thirsty. I averaged like 22-24mpg mixed in my '95 Miata, which isn't all that good in a 2200lb car with a 1.8L 4 banger. Bulletproof as all hell though and loves getting wrung out hard. Granted it's a fair bit newer, but the 3.0L straight six in my E46 that weighs 1000lb more gets about the same mixed gas mileage as my Miata did, and actually does slightly better on the highway. Guinness fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Sep 25, 2013 |
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Sep 25, 2013 03:50
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anonumos posted:It's another clown shoe car. The mirror is literally in the center of the car in that picture from the article.
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Sep 25, 2013 03:55
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blk posted:On the new Mazda 3: poo poo, dave Coleman is an engineer at Mazda now? (or has he always been?) he used to write some excellent technical articles for sport compact car back in the day.
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Sep 25, 2013 06:00
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Linedance posted:poo poo, dave Coleman is an engineer at Mazda now? (or has he always been?) he used to write some excellent technical articles for sport compact car back in the day. Yeah, he was heavily involved with the suspension design for the second generation of Mazdaspeed 3, among other cars, from what I understand. His articles are awesome, I wish there were a digital archive of SCC that works better than the terrible Modified website.
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Sep 25, 2013 06:31
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