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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask / Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Tell us stories about every crappy car you owned Someone in my family have had for years one of those stand-up water coolers where you put the 5 gallon jugs of water on top. They bought the cooler for $100 at Costco maybe 15 years ago, and have been filling up the 5 gallon jugs for a dollar each at the grocery store. They are getting older, and its a little harder to haul the water jugs and heft them up onto the cooler. Then the cooler broke, and no longer cools the water, but dispenses it at room temperature. Instead of spending $150 to replace the water cooler with a new, bottom loading one (no lifting required), they bought a water delivery service with a cooler rental from a door to door salesman for $15/month. Now they still have to lift the water jugs to install them, and are paying an extra $13/month for water. Fortunately, they cancelled it after a year and have one of the bottom loading coolers now. LorneReams posted:To add, I used to be in this boat and would always buy a 2-4 year old car which would be 50% the price of the new one. However with the last car I looked at, the used price was like 20% of the new price and I was like gently caress that give me new. Used/New pricing structures seem to be way different now then when I was growing up. I wonder if better reliability in general is feeding into this. Yeah, that's what I observed with the Honda Fit. Part of that is the "Honda Tax", but it's not a totally fair comparison. If you're buying from a private party, you're not paying sales tax like you would new or used at a dealer. I got used car financing for 1.92% from a bank for a $10k 36 month note by finding them on Bankrate.
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May 29, 2014 18:41
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canyoneer posted:Yeah, that's what I observed with the Honda Fit. Part of that is the "Honda Tax", but it's not a totally fair comparison. If you're buying from a private party, you're not paying sales tax like you would new or used at a dealer. I got used car financing for 1.92% from a bank for a $10k 36 month note by finding them on Bankrate. Depends on the state. In Washington, sales tax is assessed when you transfer ownership. We pay sales tax on used cars even on private party sales.
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May 29, 2014 18:45
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canyoneer posted:If you're buying from a private party, you're not paying sales tax like you would new or used at a dealer. Depends on the state, in MA they add the tax right on the registration based on the car's VALUE, not the sale price in private sales. E:fb, but to add, this is to keep people from going I bought this car for 1$ like I remember my parents doing all the time when I was a kid.
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May 29, 2014 18:47
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canyoneer posted:If you're buying from a private party, you're not paying sales tax like you would new or used at a dealer. That really depends on where you live - in Quebec, you have to pay taxes on the vehicle to transfer the title, unless it's between family members. When I bought the Malibu from my grandfather, I would have had to bring my birth certificate and my mother's to prove a family relationship... We were already at the DMV, so I just said gently caress it and paid the taxes; it was a couple hundred bucks. (Chasing down the paperwork would have taken a couple of weeks, and grandpa's health wasn't that great so going back to the office would have been a giant pain) Edit: As per above, it's assessed on the sales price or the blue book value, whichever is higher. When I shopped for cars in September 2012, I'd get 8% financing on used cars, and 0-2% on 2012 model years new. I ended up buying a Camry, for a used car to be worth it financially I'd have had to look at 2007 - 2006 or so... gently caress it. I did let the dealer talk me into the upgrade package, which was a bit dumb, but hey, electric seat controls, and the satellite radio trial subscription is still going strong two years in. I wouldn't pay for it, I don't think it's worth it unless you drive a lot in areas where Earth stations are lovely. Feels like there's been a huge drop in quality of programming since they came out.
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May 29, 2014 18:49
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I paid cash for a Mini Cooper S that I don't really drive enough to justify. While I really do need a vehicle to get anywhere, I'm a loser so I don't really need to get anywhere.
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May 29, 2014 19:04
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canyoneer posted:The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask / Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Tell us stories about every crappy car you owned Does this person live somewhere where tap water isn't potable or something?
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May 29, 2014 19:21
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canyoneer posted:The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask / Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Tell us stories about every crappy car you owned Related story - I was at my grandfathers' house a while back and got some water from his stand-up cooler. I didn't know he still got water deliveries, and the water was low in the cooler, so I asked my aunt where the spare jugs were so I could replace it for him. "Oh, he doesn't have any, he just fills it up in the bathtub now" 
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May 29, 2014 19:26
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rrrrrrrrrrrt posted:Does this person live somewhere where tap water isn't potable or something? More likely it's just not palatable. A water cooler is a hell of a lot cheaper and healthier than the other common way to deal with bad-tasting tap water - a constant soda habit.
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May 29, 2014 19:30
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There's also a brita pitcher at about the same price per month as the cooler water, with a much lower startup price.
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May 29, 2014 19:59
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Nail Rat posted:There's also a brita pitcher at about the same price per month as the cooler water, with a much lower startup price. Same price? I buy the 10 pack of filters for < $50 and that lasts over a year. http://www.target.com/p/brita-ultra...arAA5E2HXfD_BwE
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May 29, 2014 20:20
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LorneReams posted:Same price? I buy the 10 pack of filters for < $50 and that lasts over a year. Well it depends how many coolers they're getting per month. If they're getting one per week, yeah, it's about the same price(a dollar per jug remember).
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May 29, 2014 20:22
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This probably isn't much of a revelation to many of you, but since the thread has turned into Car Talk... Because of my job I've had run-ins with rent-to-own businesses and title loan businesses. Rent-to-own companies seem to do pretty well by renting high-end televisions to low-income or welfare recipient customers. The 65" LED TV goes into the customer's hovel, they make a few payments, and then the product is either reclaimed after non-payment or "goes missing" and the customer has to pay the store's price for the set. Best case scenario for the customer involves paying far too much for a TV they cannot afford in the first place. Paying $2000 for $1000 worth of electronics would be painful to most people with sound finances, but for these people (whether they realize it or not) it's proportionally a much more severe blow, money-wise. Title loan customers get a loan of a few thousand dollars, repaid with interest, and the car title acts as security on the loan. I always assumed the rates on the loans were usurious, but I never suspected that the annual interest rate on the loans exceeds 100%. These are obviously high risk loans, and there are many unhappy endings. Nail Rat posted:There's also a brita pitcher at about the same price per month as the cooler water, with a much lower startup price. That's what I use, although my fiancée loves spending $ on sparkling water. LLCoolJD fucked around with this message at 20:27 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 20:25
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Nail Rat posted:Well it depends how many coolers they're getting per month. If they're getting one per week, yeah, it's about the same price(a dollar per jug remember). Oh yeah, I was comparing to $15 a month.
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May 29, 2014 20:26
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rrrrrrrrrrrt posted:Does this person live somewhere where tap water isn't potable or something? e: quick google, but according to the EPA, 15% of Americans rely on their own wells for drinking. Not sure how many more use wells for house water, but don't drink from them, like above. Anne Whateley fucked around with this message at 21:00 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 20:56
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i like nice words
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rrrrrrrrrrrt posted:Does this person live somewhere where tap water isn't potable or something? There are several places in the US where the tap water is disgusting. Safe to drink yes. But tastes awful.
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May 29, 2014 23:12
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Plus if your water isn't actually safe to drink (E.Coli, what have you), a Brita filter's not going to help. I mean I'm against the commercialization of water as a commodity in general, out of principle, but there are situations where buying bottled water makes sense. I keep a couple of litres in my pantry just in case.
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May 29, 2014 23:18
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My sister's family lives in Utah and the tap water there tastes awful. Water in my area (Silicon Valley) is meh, tastes neither good nor bad. We previously lived in the Seattle area and the tap water was awesome.
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May 29, 2014 23:29
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Lowness 72 posted:There are several places in the US where the tap water is disgusting. Safe to drink yes. But tastes awful. Philadphia has awful water for anything but cheesesteaks.
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May 29, 2014 23:47
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LA water tastes great, and its free!
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May 30, 2014 00:00
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I live in LA but my building is 100+ years old so there's no way I'm drinking whatever's coming out of the pipe unfiltered. On the plus side, rent is less than 1/3rd of my net income for a decent spot in Korea Town.
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May 30, 2014 00:55
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Anne Whateley posted:e: quick google, but according to the EPA, 15% of Americans rely on their own wells for drinking. Not sure how many more use wells for house water, but don't drink from them, like above. I don't know if that stat includes cisterns, but when for many years my family had our water delivered by truck once a month. We kept a water cooler in the house because if there was a lengthy blackout (which inevitably happened a few times a year), that would mean no cistern pump - ergo, no running water. Being on a cistern, and by extension having to time your showers and keep track of how many times you flush the toilet, really does instil some good utilities habits for later life.
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May 30, 2014 02:13
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Rick Rickshaw posted:Agreeing with the guy above me. How long did she have the vehicles? If she spent $10k on the two vehicles and only needed $5k in repairs between the two, depending on how long she had them, she probably didn't do too badly. Did she pay cash for them? As far as I can tell, each $5k car needed at least $5k in repairs during the 3-4 years she complained about them on a daily basis. This is someone someone who bought used cars with cash because her bad credit prevented her from financing a new car, not someone who performed a cost-benefit analysis and determined that she'd actually be better off driving beaters.
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May 30, 2014 07:12
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Nail Rat posted:There's also a brita pitcher at about the same price per month as the cooler water, with a much lower startup price.  )
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May 30, 2014 14:57
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Haifisch posted:There are some cases where Brita does jack poo poo to improve water's taste. The house I grew up in had horribly salty-tasting water, and we tried Brita for a bit. No help at all. But buying a jug of water for a buck, tossing it in the fridge, and refilling it for 30 cents at the grocery store was reasonable enough that we just did that instead. (Although I haven't seen those refilling stations since I moved...possibly because the tap water here is palatable. That sucks(as does the e. coli example). I'm glad I live somewhere that a brita does the trick. I wouldn't have the room for a cooler and I used to throw away so much money on soda/bottled water.
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May 30, 2014 15:06
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With summer arriving, does anyone have any good beach condo time share stories?
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May 30, 2014 16:20
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LLCoolJD posted:With summer arriving, does anyone have any good beach condo time share stories? My sister said that she "keeps telling Mom and Dad they should buy a timeshare." I started talking about what a terrible idea it was but stopped short of calling her a moron.
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May 30, 2014 16:56
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LLCoolJD posted:With summer arriving, does anyone have any good beach condo time share stories? I sold my wife's timeshare from her previous marriage on Craigslist for $100. The guy I sold it to is bad with money (because he bought a timeshare).
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May 30, 2014 17:45
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What are the yearly fees on it? Because at a hundred bucks it might not be terrible... If you enjoy that style of vacation I guess.
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May 30, 2014 17:46
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I just got hit with an autorenew bill for $150 worth of webhosting and domain name registration for poo poo I never use, as well as a $25 subscription fee for an online service that I never use, and a $30 fee for someone else's webhosting that I will never get reimbursed for. That $205 could go a long loving way this month. This is not the first time this has happened either. I am bad with money. These autorenewing things really kill me because I think "I'll totally cancel this" and of course I never do. Now I get to go spend god knows how long on the phone trying to get this poo poo canceled and at least some of my money back.
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May 30, 2014 17:57
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Leroy Diplowski posted:I just got hit with an autorenew bill for $150 worth of webhosting and domain name registration for poo poo I never use, as well as a $25 subscription fee for an online service that I never use, and a $30 fee for someone else's webhosting that I will never get reimbursed for. That $205 could go a long loving way this month. This is not the first time this has happened either. Do you have an iPhone? Every time I sign up for a trial period I use Siri to create a reminder of the exact day to cancel. Hasn't failed me yet.
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May 30, 2014 17:58
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Leroy Diplowski posted:I just got hit with an autorenew bill for $150 worth of webhosting and domain name registration for poo poo I never use, as well as a $25 subscription fee for an online service that I never use, and a $30 fee for someone else's webhosting that I will never get reimbursed for. That $205 could go a long loving way this month. This is not the first time this has happened either. For what it's worth, I had this happen to me with Godaddy to the tune of 65 bucks. I emailed customer service and they canceled it and refunded my money. It's worth a shot for that much money.
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May 30, 2014 17:59
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EgonSpengler posted:Do you have an iPhone? Every time I sign up for a trial period I use Siri to create a reminder of the exact day to cancel. Hasn't failed me yet. I've got a Google calendar set up with all of my annual things. I've got a two week reminder, a week reminder, and a 48 hour reminder for everything to either renew/cancel.
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May 30, 2014 18:01
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EgonSpengler posted:Do you have an iPhone? Every time I sign up for a trial period I use Siri to create a reminder of the exact day to cancel. Hasn't failed me yet.
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May 30, 2014 18:16
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LLCoolJD posted:With summer arriving, does anyone have any good beach condo time share stories? One of my coworkers and her husband bought a time share at a resort in Mexico. They've had to cancel their vacation twice since they bought it a year and a half ago because of travel advisories and/or hurricanes. And they're stuck at the same all inclusive resort for all their vacations for the rest of time
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May 30, 2014 18:21
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Nail Rat posted:For what it's worth, I had this happen to me with Godaddy to the tune of 65 bucks. I emailed customer service and they canceled it and refunded my money. It's worth a shot for that much money. I've done something similar with a goon-recommended web host. I bought an original 2 year package and never used it, got autobilled for ~$120 or something and did get it refunded. They were pretty snippy with me, as if I would have remembered it had been 2 loving years since I bought the hosting. Yep, definitely couldn't automate an e-mail a week before it gets autobilled, no sir.
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May 30, 2014 18:38
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Blue_monday posted:I've got a Google calendar set up with all of my annual things. I've got a two week reminder, a week reminder, and a 48 hour reminder for everything to either renew/cancel. The worst part is I had technology reminding me about these charges. I just put it off and then forgot because I am an irresponsible golden manbaby. Maybe I need to get back on piracetam. In good news, I just got the $30 charge back. E: And there's the $150 charge 
Leroy Diplowski fucked around with this message at 18:49 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 18:43
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Leroy Diplowski posted:Maybe I need to get back on piracetam. 
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May 30, 2014 20:44
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Uranium 235 posted:That would be bad with money. I credit it with my current promotion.
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May 30, 2014 21:28
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FrozenVent posted:What are the yearly fees on it? Because at a hundred bucks it might not be terrible... If you enjoy that style of vacation I guess. Started at $800/year in maintenance fees when I met her, quickly ramped up to $1400/year before I could dump it. That's only to stay in that one particular timeshare in a destination which really isn't a high demand vacation destination. If you want to join a trading network to stay elsewhere it's several thousand in one-time administration fees, a few hundred in network fees yearly and another couple hundred for a booking. Selling a used timeshare is a lot like selling a used engagement ring and I got drat lucky to find some other fool to sell it to. The original plan was to will the timeshare to a list of charities we didn't like with specific instructions in the will that it not under any circumstances be transferred in ownership to any member of our family.
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May 30, 2014 21:44
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It's good with money to convince your parents to buy a timeshare because then you get free timeshare access and don't have to pay for it.
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May 30, 2014 23:15
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