Advice for Luk on purchasing and maintaining vehicles..

[Januari]

I have no sage car buying advice. I just want a Subaru Forrester AWD next. With heated seats. And a sun/moon roof. And preferably a green color but not obvious bright green.

Not being picky at all.

 

[oralaccents]

Wasn't Luk in a few Kia Soul commercials?

 

[Aquagal]

.....

 

[Luk]

Keeping Que as a pet is a charitable write-off.

 

[Que]

Keeping Que as a pet is a charitable write-off.

Most people assume that humans domesticated cats when in fact the reverse is true.

 

[Januari]

This morning I saw this gray-ish blue Honda CRV that caught my eye. This morning I saw this gray-ish blue Honda CRV that caught my eye. I have always bought preowned vehicles because my best friend works in the car industry and he nags me about how much value a car loses the minute you drive it off the lot. But just once I want to buy a brand new car with all the features I want. Since I tend to drive my car’s for long periods of time, I think I should do it.

 

[RobDownSouth]

This morning I saw this gray-ish blue Honda CRV that caught my eye. This morning I saw this gray-ish blue Honda CRV that caught my eye. I have always bought preowned vehicles because my best friend works in the car industry and he nags me about how much value a car loses the minute you drive it off the lot. But just once I want to buy a brand new car with all the features I want. Since I tend to drive my car’s for long periods of time, I think I should do it.

And THAT is the kicker: if you keep a car for a long time, buy new.

I usually buy used (1 year off-lease from Enterprise rent-a-car, my last 3 cars) but I decided to buy new for once, because reasons.

I have a neighbor who is in auto sales and VERY successful, he begged me to let him negotiate a deal with the sales guy (he sells Mazdas, I wanted a Dodge). We went shopping one night and he twisted and tied up that poor salesman every which way but loose. Got one helluve deal, I think the dealership may have walked away with $100 profit (normal is $1600-1800 he says). He enjoyed "negotiating from the other side of the table" for once.

 

[Januari]

And THAT is the kicker: if you keep a car for a long time, buy new.

I usually buy used (1 year off-lease from Enterprise rent-a-car, my last 3 cars) but I decided to buy new for once, because reasons.

I have a neighbor who is in auto sales and VERY successful, he begged me to let him negotiate a deal with the sales guy (he sells Mazdas, I wanted a Dodge). We went shopping one night and he twisted and tied up that poor salesman every which way but loose. Got one helluve deal, I think the dealership may have walked away with $100 profit (normal is $1600-1800 he says). He enjoyed "negotiating from the other side of the table" for once.

I’ve been able to drive for, ugh, 27 years now and am on my fourth car. In fairness, my sister wrecked my first car while I was off at college. Otherwise, it likely would have been three cars.

 

[oralaccents]

Wasn't Luk in a few Kia Soul commercials?

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/0c/c7/14/0cc714290c4b7e918c6de93fcdea179b--kia-soul-tv-commercials.jpg

 

[Buttercups88]

In another thread it came up that Luke seems to have a lot of misconceptions about how one acquires, maintains and pays for cars specifically in a business realm.

I don't think he's necessarily looking for advice on for example of what kind of personal car impresses "the wimminz" (He self-reports great success with his new Kia Sorento despite the off-putting off-gassing of all the various synthetic materials.)

He isn't exactly clear on the number of vehicles he needs to maintain but he has bragged about buying several Kia Souls, which is not a particularly bad choice since I don't know California prices but you can usually pick them up for about 14 Grand give or take. It doesn't sound like he's done the math though on what kind of mileage he's getting and what sort of Maintenance costs he might expect in the future. Especially concerning was that apparently he's financing these cars which just seems like throwing money down the rat hole.

I don't have any experience with leasing or so I don't really understand all the tax ramifications by wondering if he might not have been better off going that route if he was expanding beyond what his working capital would enable him to buy.

Does anyone with a little more experience on that subject care to chime in on what Luke ought to do about his future transportation needs. He hasn't really specified things like how many miles he racks up for how many boxes of copy paper he might need to transport at any given time and that sort of thing but it sure looks like he could use some help and I know there's some business owners here who could probably give him a lot better advice that I could.

KIAs are an interesting choice given they usually run a little higher on the maintenance if you follow the suggested guideline. If Luke is running a good sized fleet of vehicles he should looks towards Dodge or Ford's commercial line which can give him access to fleet vehicles and better pricing. Every vehicle is going to have different recommended maintenance and most will have a detailed schedule in the vehicle guide book that comes with the vehicle or available from who you purchase the vehicle(s) though. Gas powered vehicles will have cheaper maintenance but need replacing sooner than diesel. Diesel vehicles are great if you're racking up the mileage. You'll have higher maintenance costs but they will last longer in the end. Avoid fancy trim items if you can because then you have one less thing that is going to break.

 

[Luk]

Most people assume that humans domesticated cats when in fact the reverse is true.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/0c/c7/14/0cc714290c4b7e918c6de93fcdea179b--kia-soul-tv-commercials.jpg

Luk has never had a cat but he currently owns all of the pussies in this thread.

 

[oralaccents]

Luk has never had a cat but he currently owns all of the pussies in this thread.

"Rory Logic."

 

[Luk]

"Rory Logic."

I've had 2 girlfriends from the Lit - you have stalked both of them.

 

[RobDownSouth]

I’ve been able to drive for, ugh, 27 years now and am on my fourth car. In fairness, my sister wrecked my first car while I was off at college. Otherwise, it likely would have been three cars.

My brother drove his first Toyota 280,000 miles. He drove his second Toyota 230,00 miles before it fell apart, and complained "Toyota doesn't make cars like they used to".

 

[HisArpy]

I've had 2 girlfriends from the Lit

Emphasis on HAD.

Meanwhile in real life...

 

[Januari]

My brother drove his first Toyota 280,000 miles. He drove his second Toyota 230,00 miles before it fell apart, and complained "Toyota doesn't make cars like they used to".

I have a Honda sitting at 140k miles. I would like to hold off another car for two more years (reasons I won’t share here). This gives me hope since my daily commute is 20 miles each way with regular trips to MI and OH. I’ve started renting cars for those though.

Yeah, I may have had to YouTube how to get a seat to move up. All that fancy button control doing the work for you. What happened to finding the crank thing and pushing back or forward to adjust? Sheesh.

 

[Que]

If it's not burning significant amounts of oil there's no reason you can't make it to 200,000 miles in that car.

If you're not already in the habit get in the habit of checking that oil every time you fill up with gas if not more often.

 

[HisArpy]

If it's not burning significant amounts of oil there's no reason you can't make it to 200,000 miles in that car.

If you're not already in the habit get in the habit of checking that oil every time you fill up with gas if not more often.

At 140K miles I'd say that unless it's burning oil, checking after every 3 fill ups is probably safe. More if it shows low on the dipstick, less if it's not.

Modern engines can easily go 300K or more if you take care of them. Change the oil when it's needed or before (never after if you can help it - PLAN your oil changes and do them early or on-time) and use full synthetic oil. Full synthetic oil doesn't actually cost any more than dino oil. Yes the cost is 3x dino oil but it lasts 3x as long. It's just a bigger bite at oil change time than the more frequent little nibbles of dino oil, that's all.

 

[Que]

I run Mobil1 high gas mileage 0-20W with a good filter. I use either Napa Gold (made by Wix) or if I'm buying supplies in the middle of the night at Walmart I get the Mobil 1 filter. A good filter will cost 8-10 bucks. I can get Mobil 1 full synthetic oil for about $27 for 5 quarts. I change the oil every five to seven thousand miles, whenever it even thinks about looking dirty.

I am at 383,000 miles. I will make it to 600,000 miles but I have less cold-start miles than normal mortals. I don't really baby the car, I just drive it as smooth as possible and try to avoid the brakes. Brake pads on the car are at least a 110,000 miiles old and they've got more than half left. I'm not shy about driving it like I stole it if I have to get somewhere quick.

 

[TontoedRanger]

I do whatever fluids the vehicle I'm driving has been accustomed to and documented with. I'm old school that way.

If it's something I cannot "fix" myself - I gladly pay top dollar to a trusted mechanic if the vehicle is worth it.

 

[Ann_Tagonist]

I have a guy. He does stuff and I hand him a credit card.

 

[Hal9000_]

I am at 383,000 miles.

Beats me. One of my vehicles is only at 264,000.

I've only had to replace the U joints, fuel pump, starter, alternator, and a knuckle because a wheel bearing race welded itself on to the spindle.

 

[Que]

Beats me. One of my vehicles is only at 264,000.

I've only had to replace the U joints, fuel pump, starter, alternator, and a knuckle because a wheel bearing race welded itself on to the spindle.

I have that happened in my Toyota four-wheel drive after I foolishly loaned it to someone to make a trip to Walmart. Instead of taking the 45 miles on blacktop they did 50 or 60 miles through torturous terrain and through a riverbed entirely wearing out $500 worth of rear tires and (I didn't find out till my next trip) washing all of the grease out of my wheel bearings

 

[Hal9000_]

I have that happened in my Toyota four-wheel drive after I foolishly loaned it to someone to make a trip to Walmart. Instead of taking the 45 miles on blacktop they did 50 or 60 miles through torturous terrain and through a riverbed entirely wearing out $500 worth of rear tires and (I didn't find out till my next trip) washing all of the grease out of my wheel bearings

That reminded me Ive had to regrease my ball joints a couple times.

Nothing worse than dry ball joints.

 

[von_Bismarck]

I have a guy. He does stuff and I hand him a credit card.

Wrong thread. The thread about going to male prostitutes is that way. --->