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The Frontier and old Ranger (through 2012) are cheap and reliable. They are not as reliable as the Yota, and the Frontier has a dire interior, but they are honest little trucks. You can probably buy twice as much Frontier for your money versus the Toyota and that's where I would look first.
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Jun 12, 2020 15:07
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:The Frontier and old Ranger (through 2012) are cheap and reliable. They are not as reliable as the Yota, and the Frontier has a dire interior, but they are honest little trucks. You can probably buy twice as much Frontier for your money versus the Toyota and that's where I would look first. Thanks-I used to have a Frontier. I loved everything about it but the turning radius. Holy poo poo everything was a ten-point turn. Edit: car passed inspection. I did some more research last night and apparently this system is so hosed up that the airbag light can stay on just because some switch not being activated on the passenger seat. I literally sat on the seat for 10 seconds, got off the seat, started the car, and no more light. nwin fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Jun 12, 2020 |
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Jun 12, 2020 16:46
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that's working vaguely as intended. there is a sensor in the passenger seat so you don't blow the passenger side bag if there isn't anyone in the seat. the sensors do go bad eventually, and when there is a fault in the system it triggers the light. edit if you liked old frontiers you'll love newer ones because they are fuckin old school as poo poo
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Jun 12, 2020 21:16
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Let's try this again since my car, 2011 BMW 328xi, has an oil leak right now that would cost half of its current value to fix and I cannot allow myself to procrastinate or put this off any longer. 3rd time's a charm after all. Proposed Budget: 15k - 20k. I can go over 20k but I'm trying to avoid that. New or Used: Used. Body Style: I'm thinking hatchback, coupe, or sedan. I'm used to cars with 2 doors but it isn't necessary. How will you be using the car?: Going to the store, seeing family, poo poo like that. I don't drive a lot now and am trying to cut back on my driving as is. Unless I had a job I'm only filling up my car probably once a month. Since COVID I've gone through a quarter tank of gas since the end of February. What aspects are most important to you? Reliability and maintenance. I would like it to have audio distance sensors in the front and back but I can always install that myself. When I looked it up it didn't seem that hard. Back-up cameras are useless to me and looking at them makes backing up harder. If it has it no big deal but having it won't help me. I also live near Chicago so something that is good in winter/snow would be a plus.
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Jun 13, 2020 20:35
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What is the oil leak problem? It's rare that a current BMW owner shows up and does not care at all about driving dynamics, but since you appear not to, Honda Civic. If you care slightly more about driving dynamics, Mazda3. Higher trim levels on late models have parking sensors.
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Jun 13, 2020 20:42
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I think it's understood that it means "
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Jun 13, 2020 21:08
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:What is the oil leak problem? When I took it into the dealership they told me its probably a gasket that is known to leak. Its got 107,000 miles on it and I guess this is par for the course for these vehicles. Its also low to the ground and I'll admit its hard for me to see speed bumps sometimes so I'm worried when they start fixing it they'll find more poo poo. They said it would cost so much because to get at the gasket they basically have to take apart the entire front of the car, its mostly all labor. I also know it will only get more expensive to fix as time goes on and I can't afford that. I bought the car new in 2010 because I had a bunch of money from an insurance settlement and found the looks/price point to be what I wanted. It was also one of the only cars I found that I could get in manual transmission and even then it had to be custom ordered from Germany. Since most of that insurance money is gone and I've changed in the past 10 years I feel like I need to be more frugal now and having a "sports car" just isn't as important. From what little research I've done in the past hour on autotrader Honda Civics were looking like my best bet. I also noticed a lot of Toyota Corollas. There's a Subaru Impreza that looks great but its at my price limit.
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Jun 13, 2020 21:10
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Residency Evil posted:Yeah, I'm not sure my wife realizes this beyond always wanting a 4Runner. I'm not super pumped about a 2009-era car, but they keep making them and people keep buying them. It looks like the Limited would be the trim level for us to look out for I guess? Well, between the Audi A4 Allroad and the 4 Runner, she likes...the A6 Allroad.  The 4Runner is a very close second though. She hated the ipad on the dash of the A4, and I’ll admit the air suspension on the A6 was incredible on the highway and over potholes. I’m sure it’ll be reliable. The 4Runner was much better than expected, although there’s no question you’re driving a truck.Still gong to test drive a Mercedes and Volvo before buying anything, especially CPO. Residency Evil fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Jun 13, 2020 |
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Jun 13, 2020 22:33
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Air suspension on anything with significant miles on it is a financial disaster waiting to happen once it’s out of warranty.
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Jun 14, 2020 00:12
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JnnyThndrs posted:Air suspension on anything with significant miles on it is a financial disaster waiting to happen once it’s out of warranty. How so? This seems like very outdated information. I can get all 4 air struts for my Cayenne turbo for under $1700. That's as compared to $700 for the struts/springs would cost on a non-air-suspension model. The labor is going to be comparable. Sure there are other components, but other than the compressor (rebuilds for under $200, rebuild yourself for $40 in parts - it's the same Wabco that's on like everything) you are unlikely to need them unless you do something massively stupid (like me).
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Jun 14, 2020 00:52
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limp_cheese posted:When I took it into the dealership they told me its probably a gasket that is known to leak. Its got 107,000 miles on it and I guess this is par for the course for these vehicles. Its also low to the ground and I'll admit its hard for me to see speed bumps sometimes so I'm worried when they start fixing it they'll find more poo poo. They said it would cost so much because to get at the gasket they basically have to take apart the entire front of the car, its mostly all labor. I also know it will only get more expensive to fix as time goes on and I can't afford that. Which gasket is it? a bunch of them are known to leak. I'm guessing valve cover although there are a few other candidates. you have to put the car in Service Position but that's par for the course with German cars. if you are going to the dealership stop right now and find a good BMW independent. valve cover gasket on my M5 (and there are two of them, plus a lot of other bullshit) was like, $1100 in labor roughly. the Impreza is underwhelming at best. i get the feeling you think you need AWD and you almost certainly don't. the speed bumps thing is crazy. do you have a drop on it or something? a civic or corolla is going to be functionally just as low to the ground.
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Jun 14, 2020 02:11
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Which gasket is it? a bunch of them are known to leak. I'm guessing valve cover although there are a few other candidates. you have to put the car in Service Position but that's par for the course with German cars. if you are going to the dealership stop right now and find a good BMW independent. valve cover gasket on my M5 (and there are two of them, plus a lot of other bullshit) was like, $1100 in labor roughly. I'm not sure which gasket or valve cover. Just that its something that is prone to leaking. I'll check an independent garage but at this point I'm willing to just accept I've gotten everything out of this car and its time to move on. I just can't afford the maintenance and its only a matter of time until something else goes wrong and I have to dish out another couple grand for a car that's worth maybe 7k. The best offer I got was as a trade in at Toyota for $6,500 and that wasn't easy. I was looking at AWD and a few safety features that the others don't have. I don't think its worth the money but wanted to mention it just in case Imprezeas were amazing for some reason. The car has the M-sport package and is quite low to the ground. When I talk about speed bumps or pot holes its more I don't notice them since I don't have depth perception and go over them faster than I should. I've scrapped the bottom of the car on those longer speed bumps you see in residential neighborhoods a few times and It doesn't happen often but its something I still worry about. The alignment also gets hosed easy from potholes and low profile tires and I just can't afford to keep fixing things. Even if a civic or corolla is around the same height off the ground it still has to be cheaper and easier to replace parts on those than the BMW. The mechanic at the dealership wanted to buy it off of me for 5k even with the leak and I'm thinking about taking him up on the offer.
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Jun 14, 2020 04:07
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Motronic posted:How so? This seems like very outdated information. This is good to know, I always assumed air suspension was terrible from a long term cost perspective too.
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Jun 14, 2020 08:11
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limp_cheese posted:
JFC take your car to an independent mechanic. Your valve cover gasket is $700-900 and should last another 100k that the first one did. Taking a 10 year old BMW/any brand to the dealership is you volunteering to empty your wallet every time you show up. It’s not just because you drive a BMW. My FIL took his 2006 Honda Odyssey to the dealership to be inspected. Quote was $3600. It needed a new catalytic converter that was quoted at a local shop for $250. You are rightly scared shitless of future bills if you’ve only ever seen quotes from the dealer for this car.
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Jun 14, 2020 08:54
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Residency Evil posted:Well, between the Audi A4 Allroad and the 4 Runner, she likes...the A6 Allroad. Thanks for the update, I was curious how it went. Which 4Runner trim did you drive?
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Jun 14, 2020 15:05
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ThirstyBuck posted:JFC take your car to an independent mechanic. Your valve cover gasket is $700-900 and should last another 100k that the first one did. that cat price is too good to be true and i mean in the "your FIL has a stolen cat on his car now" limp_cheese posted:I'm not sure which gasket or valve cover. Just that its something that is prone to leaking. I'll check an independent garage but at this point I'm willing to just accept I've gotten everything out of this car and its time to move on. I just can't afford the maintenance and its only a matter of time until something else goes wrong and I have to dish out another couple grand for a car that's worth maybe 7k. The best offer I got was as a trade in at Toyota for $6,500 and that wasn't easy. i think it's sound to try to get in something with a lower total cost of ownership, but keep in mind that continuing to fix things is almost always cheaper than buying a new car. you'll gain a bit of height with a regular car. however if your depth perception sucks and you hit speed bumps or potholes you should consider a cuv. modern cars also have low profile tires for a wide variety of reasons. your BMW has 18" wheels. the mazda3 also has 18" wheels on all but the lowest trim. what safety features does the impreza have that its competitors do not? that mechanic at the dealership is gonna make bank off of your car just fyi. you can probably fix the valve cover gasket leak and immediately sell the car private party for $8K. Msport package manual transmission cars are quite desirable.
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Jun 14, 2020 16:25
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:that cat price is too good to be true and i mean in the "your FIL has a stolen cat on his car now" That seems an entirely possible price. It's not a Prius. Autozone even sells CARB compliant ones starting at about $250-$500. Don't care about Cali? 
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Jun 14, 2020 18:18
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incogneato posted:Thanks for the update, I was curious how it went. Which 4Runner trim did you drive? We drove the Limited. Honestly, it seems pretty great for what it is, although after sleeping on it my wife is afraid that it's too much car for us right now (it is), and that she'd prefer something more wagon-sized. She will put 15-20k miles on this thing each year (splitting the rest of the time with her old car), mostly on the highway, which means any warranty is going to get chewed through pretty quickly. I'm loathe to pay the depreciation on a new Audi A6, and I imagine the maintenance out of warranty is going to be terrible (but maybe not when compared to our Macan). Still, the 4Runner would be great on running costs. We'll drive the E wagon tomorrow as well as maybe the V90 at some point this week. I'm not in a super big rush to buy anything in any case, but if the right deal comes up on the luxury stuff, maybe we can jump on it.
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Jun 14, 2020 19:20
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PirateDentist posted:That seems an entirely possible price. It's not a Prius. Autozone even sells CARB compliant ones starting at about $250-$500. part only
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Jun 14, 2020 19:44
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Motronic posted:How so? This seems like very outdated information. That sounds like a fantastic price for Porsche parts, and it’s been 5 years or so since I dealt with a lot of air suspension, so I’ll backpedal a bit, but holy crap, if I had $100 for every car that came in dragging on the pavement when I was doing general automotive, with leaking bags/actuators, a burned-up compressor and owners that looked like they wanted to weep, I could...poo poo, I dunno, but it would be fun. Between the Lincoln Town cars that everybody retrofitts w/Crown Vic struts/springs(same with Navigators-to- Explorers), to the multitudes of old Mercedes that ruined their diffs because of overtravel—->broken cast-iron diff case—->fluid leaked out——> $$$$$$, I’m just not a fan unless it’s a lease or I’m going to trade it in before the factory warranty is up. I mean... if you Google pretty much any older vehicle that came with air suspension, one of the first hits is always ‘How to save huge $$$ by converting it to standard springs’.
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Jun 14, 2020 19:46
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limp_cheese posted:
That mechanic has been excitedly telling his buddies about some rube with an msport with an easy gasket fix that he's gonna flip for twice what he paid. Also, complaining about the cost of wearing out parts and deferred maintenance and planning on saving money by getting another used car suggests to me that maybe you haven't run the numbers on doing this? For low milage driving the up front cost is huge and something like improved reliability and fuel economy don't come into play enough to defer it. Edit: gosh that sounds harsh now that I re-read it! Do get an estimate from an independent and do not sell it to the dealership mechanic for peanuts. Blitter fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Jun 14, 2020 |
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Jun 14, 2020 21:24
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I get it - it's not as cheap and reliable as struts/shocks and springs. But I'm consistently amazed at how many people are 100% afraid of air suspension. It's transformative to the ride, and I particularly love the fact that it auto-levels when I'm towing. Yes, it takes more maintenance, but if you bought something with air suspension you're already likely driving something luxury or luxury-adjacent, so the air suspension is hardly the worst of it. I also get what you're saying about what you saw coming into the shop, but that's not because air suspension sucks. It's because those owners suck, and ignore problems. There are plenty of other things people who don't do maintenance and turn up the radio rather than taking their heap to a shop break due to negligence, ignoring the service schedule, and either not recognizing or just outright ignoring sounds/problems. Most of the failures I've seen on rovers and porsches have been simple repairs. One of the bags/a strut is bad. There's a simple leak. This gets ignored until that one problems turns into multiple - air pump goes bad because it's been running 100% of the time for the last 4 months trying to keep up with the leak, then the related damages of driving around dragging rear end on the ground and finally, finally when one morning it just won't move anymore it gets addressed. Prices for this stuff is down because it's being rebuilt. And even when you can't find a rebuild, if you have time on your hands you can probably track down the same thing elsewhere. I recently pulled a boneheaded move when preparing for last year's NEFR. I left the suspension air pump intake detached from the air filter. So I barely made it home. All 4 valves were clogged.....fronts wouldn't drop, rears wouldn't raise. I made it home in suspension lockout and the was still freaking out on occasion. The valves were $250 each at the usual suspects, even more at the dealer. I found the OEM in Germany and paid $180 for all 4. The pump got trashed from ingesting dust. I got a full rebuild kit on Amazon for $35 or so. Bottom line, if you DIY or have a decent shop that isn't trying to gouge you - and I mean a decent shop like they know your particular brand so they see this poo poo all the time and know the kinds of things I said above, it's utterly maintainable and totally worth it.
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Jun 14, 2020 21:29
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Soooo...are you saying I should buy a new Audi A6 Allroad?
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Jun 14, 2020 22:41
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I don't think I'd bat an eye at a new car with air suspension, but I wouldn't ever take on anyone's used car with air suspension. Also, most of the people in this thread should not be buying cars with air suspension. poo poo the on-highway truck guys run air almost exclusively and it seems to work fine.
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Jun 15, 2020 00:05
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poo poo he’s convinced me, I’m going to start shopping for Audi Allroads, it’s a drat good looking car.
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Jun 15, 2020 00:24
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:I don't think I'd bat an eye at a new car with air suspension, but I wouldn't ever take on anyone's used car with air suspension. Eh.....if it's alredy working it's already working. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Also, most of the people in this thread should not be buying cars with air suspension. Point taken. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:poo poo the on-highway truck guys run air almost exclusively and it seems to work fine. To your earlier point, because those trucks are professionally maintained. And have f-off huge belt drive air compressors that do not give a poo poo about running 24x7x20 years (they need to run the brakes too after all). Neither of those are the case that we're talking about here. Motronic fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Jun 15, 2020 |
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Jun 15, 2020 00:41
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Also it seems to be more common now? You can get a C-Class with Airmatic, not to mention all the Ram trucks.
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Jun 15, 2020 00:44
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:I don't think I'd bat an eye at a new car with air suspension, but I wouldn't ever take on anyone's used car with air suspension. Also, most of the people in this thread should not be buying cars with air suspension. Thank you for saying exactly what I was trying to say in a succinct manner.
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Jun 15, 2020 01:05
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:that cat price is too good to be true and i mean in the "your FIL has a stolen cat on his car now" It was just some no name universal cat they threw on a 14 year old van.
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Jun 15, 2020 02:39
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Hello gentlemen and ladies! Some shitstick totalled my beloved Celica, so I'm back in the market. I'm considering buying this and am wondering how insanely stupid that would be, in your learned opinions. https://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/sarnia/mint-condition-1989-pontiac-firebird/1504082413 (  rubles and kms)I know, 6 cyclinder auto from 1989 is pretty drat gutless, but I've always liked the 80s Firebird styling.
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Jun 15, 2020 11:59
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SilvergunSuperman posted:Hello gentlemen and ladies! No. If you're thinking of it as a daily driver, absolutely not. It's unsafe, inefficient, slow, astoundingly unreliable, and poorly built compared to anything modern, or even from the late 90s/early 2000s that's sitting at the bottom of the depreciation curve right now. If you're thinking of it as a fun impractical weekend car, it's still not a good choice. Save up a bit longer and keep an eye out for something with a V8. If you're thinking of buying it as a good-condition shell for a third gen F-body restomod project, maybe, but you wouldn't be asking about it here if you could take on that project without getting in over your head.
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Jun 15, 2020 12:13
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Motronic posted:Eh.....if it's alredy working it's already working. I just don't trust PO fuckery in pretty much any circumstance and figure that things which can be abused most certainly have been. all you have to do is professionally maintain your air suspension car and preventatively replace components! 
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Jun 15, 2020 14:15
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SilvergunSuperman posted:Hello gentlemen and ladies! you couldn't give me that car for free
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Jun 15, 2020 14:16
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Thank you for the replies!
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Jun 15, 2020 14:27
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:I just don't trust PO fuckery in pretty much any circumstance and figure that things which can be abused most certainly have been. You don't have to preventatively replace components, you need to replace things when they go bad before it causes a cascading failure. And professional maintenance.....uhh....yeah? The Cayenne I bought was always maintained at the dealer, and I have the receipts/service history. That's not some kind of insurmountable barrier to entry. It's actually quite common on the kinds of vehicles that would have air suspension.
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Jun 15, 2020 15:55
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SilvergunSuperman posted:
Friend had one for years. Not fun to drive, not very practical. Terrible backseat and not fuel efficient. As said before, save up for a V8 in that era if you want a fun car, if you want a good daily driver look elsewhere.
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Jun 15, 2020 16:05
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There’s a 2020 Mercedes wagon “executive demo” with 7k miles on it close to me. Original sticker was 79k. What would a good price for it be? They want 69k.
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Jun 15, 2020 18:12
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Motronic posted:You don't have to preventatively replace components, you need to replace things when they go bad before it causes a cascading failure. Cayenne, sure. B6 Allroad, nah.
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Jun 15, 2020 18:24
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:you couldn't give me that car for free I'd gladly take it for $free.99 but then I can't decide if I'd either jump right on the LS swap it so desperately needs, or try to make a Youtube empire out of seeing how much boost the 2.8 will take before it launches chunks into low earth orbit.
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Jun 15, 2020 18:31
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I originally wrote that I would take the car for free if I had a strong hankering to do an LS swap but decided it wasn't even worth it. It needs a LS swap and a full suspension refresh at minimum.
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Jun 15, 2020 19:30
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