Buying a car?

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S

Solariss

Golden Squire
141
13
Swagdaddy_sl said:
i bought my first new car a year ago, being raised in a poor ass family I still have a hard time justifying the 300$ a month car payment

still have 2 more years before I could even come close to selling it and paying off the loan a pretty sizable lost, miss my old 1998 ford escort SE
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I feel the same way. I had a really hard time justifying the purchase and started freaking out when the time was getting closer to go pick it up. But I've spent my whole life saving money, and start thinking, "what's the point?" Time to live my life. I mean, I'm not gonna go out and buy a bunch of expensive shit, but I want to enjoy some of the nicer things while I can.

Drew_sl said:
I have a 2013 Fusion Titanium. You have to learn the right pronunciation for it work. Luckily I work in the smart phone industry so I've been trained on how to talk to voice recognition for years. It works pretty well once you get it down. The navigation will get the address right but always seems to give you more address options so you have to pick the right one on the touchscreen.
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Sounds like you have a nice ride! The Titanium was a bit out of my price range, but so was the SE Hybrid. I was originally going to get an Elantra, lol. Yeah, I have the voice navigation working pretty well now... and I actually like the navigation on the car more than my Garmin GPS surprisingly.

Brando_sl said:
Did you test drive any other cars before deciding on the Fusion? I liked the look of the Fusion the most out of all the cars I test drove before getting the Camry Hybrid but I thought the drive was the worst out of the 6 cars I test drove. It almost felt like it was underpowered for the weight it has in comparison to the other cars. That and it felt like I was in a bubble of plastic while inside. Nice looking car though.
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I actually test drove the Camry first and immediately knew I wasn't going to buy the car. Although, I really had no interest in the Camry to begin with. My parents were actually in the market to buy a hybrid, and I was looking at the Elantra. I decided to go test driving with them, and we checked out the Camry, then the Fusion. I'm kinda on the other side of the fence from you with the Camry. As mkopec said, it's pretty bland in style, and looks much like anything else on the road. I didn't like the interior much, but the backseat was extremely spacious.. much more so than anything I've seen, which I couldn't care less about. The transition from electric to engine was also not as smooth as the Fusion I noticed, and I don't think the Camry can go up to 62 mph on electric motor. The Camry may have more power, but that means little to me when I'm buying a Hybrid for fuel efficiency. I don't find it difficult at all to pass people in the Fusion if I need to, and it speeds up rather quickly. I don't really notice much of a difference between the Fusion and my 2005 Cobalt in terms of acceleration, and I wasn't in the market for a fast car. Anyways, it's not bad.. people have different opinions. Sounds like you got a good deal on your car too. The main thing I love about the Fusion is it looks unique.
 
taebin

taebin

Same trailer, different park
973
450
Not sure if this is the right place, but I know we have some mechanics who post here....

Yesterday I got my 2007 Kia Sportage front and rear axle brake pads replaced. At like 97k miles and were starting to squeak. Rear had like 5% left, front 20%. They bled and flushed the brake fluids and did some rotor work. When I went to pick it up, they said they had a real hard time bleeding the main cylinder and I had a really soft brake pedal. Said it was starting to harden up and to give it a few days, but if it doesn't get better to bring it back and they might have to replace the main cylinder. I put about 75 miles on it yesterday, and I was having to press pretty hard to get it to brake fully. What's strange is when I initially press the peddle, it brakes slightly. But then it feels like 4-5 inches of pressure on the pedal before the brakes are being fully applied. Was hoping it would be better this morning, but it seems to have gotten worse. Having to press even harder.

Is this common when getting brake pads replaced and fluid flushed? It certainly wasn't doing this before I took it in. When they hand you the keys back and say, "Hey something else may have broke while we were working on it. If it keeps giving you trouble, bring it back and we'll talk about charging you more to fix what we broke" it kinda rubs me the wrong way.
 
Soygen

Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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It could be a bad master cylinder or they didn't bleed it well and/or got air in the line. I would bring it somewhere else and ask them to bleed it again and see if they say the same thing about the master cylinder. Just having them bleed your brakes shouldn't cost much(I'm not sure, though, as I do my own).
 
Zodiac

Zodiac

Lord Nagafen Raider
1,200
14
I agree with Soy, sounds like air in the line. deff bleed them again before you go replacing parts.
 
Lambourne

Lambourne

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
2,950
7,033
Assuming they did indeed bleed the lines as best they can, try this: press the pedal as hard as you can and see if it keeps sinking slowly, if it does they killed the master cylinder pumping it to bleed the lines. Otherwise, it's probably air in the master cylinder (meaning they ran the reservoir dry while bleeding, master cylinder needs to come off for bench bleeding). Both are basically junior technician screwups that they should fix for free imo.
 
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Itzena_sl

shitlord
4,609
6
On the other hand, they've fucked up bleeding the brakes once so I wouldn't exactly trust them to fix the problem if you take it back. Do what Soy suggested - find a decent local mechanic and get him to look at it.
 
Soygen

Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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Come pick a Wakandan up. Ft. Lauderdale by the sea.
 
Cad

Cad

scientia potentia est
<Bronze Donator>
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taebin_sl said:
Not sure if this is the right place, but I know we have some mechanics who post here....

Yesterday I got my 2007 Kia Sportage front and rear axle brake pads replaced. At like 97k miles and were starting to squeak. Rear had like 5% left, front 20%. They bled and flushed the brake fluids and did some rotor work. When I went to pick it up, they said they had a real hard time bleeding the main cylinder and I had a really soft brake pedal. Said it was starting to harden up and to give it a few days, but if it doesn't get better to bring it back and they might have to replace the main cylinder. I put about 75 miles on it yesterday, and I was having to press pretty hard to get it to brake fully. What's strange is when I initially press the peddle, it brakes slightly. But then it feels like 4-5 inches of pressure on the pedal before the brakes are being fully applied. Was hoping it would be better this morning, but it seems to have gotten worse. Having to press even harder.

Is this common when getting brake pads replaced and fluid flushed? It certainly wasn't doing this before I took it in. When they hand you the keys back and say, "Hey something else may have broke while we were working on it. If it keeps giving you trouble, bring it back and we'll talk about charging you more to fix what we broke" it kinda rubs me the wrong way.
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Or they got air in the ABS actuators, which are hard to properly bleed. Sounds like you're dealing with idiots.
 
Burren

Burren

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
4,450
6,017
taebin_sl said:
Not sure if this is the right place, but I know we have some mechanics who post here....

Yesterday I got my 2007 Kia Sportage front and rear axle brake pads replaced. At like 97k miles and were starting to squeak. Rear had like 5% left, front 20%. They bled and flushed the brake fluids and did some rotor work. When I went to pick it up, they said they had a real hard time bleeding the main cylinder and I had a really soft brake pedal. Said it was starting to harden up and to give it a few days, but if it doesn't get better to bring it back and they might have to replace the main cylinder. I put about 75 miles on it yesterday, and I was having to press pretty hard to get it to brake fully. What's strange is when I initially press the peddle, it brakes slightly. But then it feels like 4-5 inches of pressure on the pedal before the brakes are being fully applied. Was hoping it would be better this morning, but it seems to have gotten worse. Having to press even harder.

Is this common when getting brake pads replaced and fluid flushed? It certainly wasn't doing this before I took it in. When they hand you the keys back and say, "Hey something else may have broke while we were working on it. If it keeps giving you trouble, bring it back and we'll talk about charging you more to fix what we broke" it kinda rubs me the wrong way.
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Agree with other's sentiments so far. Sounds like they did it improperly. It's not common for a master or slave cylinder to just stop working like that on a car that young. Would be a good idea to get a second opinion. If you have to pay someone else to do it right, it's worth it.
 
taebin

taebin

Same trailer, different park
973
450
Burren_sl said:
Agree with other's sentiments so far. Sounds like they did it improperly. It's not common for a master or slave cylinder to just stop working like that on a car that young. Would be a good idea to get a second opinion. If you have to pay someone else to do it right, it's worth it.
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So I had it originally worked on last Tuesday. I gave it until Thursday, still had an extremely soft brake pedal. I called them up and said it wasn't getting any better and wasn't doing this before I brought it in for a simple pad replacement. He said to bring it back in and they would try bleeding the lines again for free. I had already dropped about $625 for front and rear axle pads + rotor scraping and repair + brake fluid, so I really didn't want to spend another couple hundred taking it to NTB or a brake-chain place just to have the lines bled. Just bought a house, furniture, home theater, etc, so free > $$.

I take it back up there Thursday morning. Thursday late afternoon rolls around, I still haven't heard from them. I give them a call, say What's the fucking deal here guys? They tell me their brake expert is out of town and has been out of town all week, it was their B (fuck, maybe their C team) doing my brakes originally. They've basically taken apart the master cylinder, rods, etc and can't seem to figure out why I have a soft pedal and don't feel confident putting it all back together and handing the car back over to me until their brake expert can diagnose it. He'll be back in Monday (2 days ago). So the weekend I'm moving from a 1/1 apartment to a 4/3 3800 sq ft house, I don't have my car. Awesome.

Monday rolls around and they call at like 10:30am. "Uh yeah, Daryl came in and fixed it immediately. He said we were making things too complicated." I went and picked it up that afternoon and pedal is just as sensitive as it's always been, if not more so. They also didn't charge, so happy ending for me.
 
mkopec

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
26,513
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taebin_sl said:
S I had already dropped about $625 for front and rear axle pads + rotor scraping and repair + brake fluid,
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Umm, WTF? Is this like a Lamborghini? Also you should learn to do this shit yourself. Changing break pads and replacing rotors is like $150 for the entire car and it takes about a hour.

Im no car mechanic and I dont really want to fuck with that shit either, but hearing stories like yours just makes me cringe and Im glad I do it myself. For one, the price is fucking outrageous. Second, wtf are they bleeding your breaks for a simple break job? There is absolutely no need to ever change and flush your break fluid. Ive had cars go 250K miles on the same break fluid/topping it off.
 
Soygen

Soygen

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While $150.00 for replaced rotors and 1 hour isn't really right(my rotors alone are over 300.00 and that's not including paying a shop any labor or the actual brake job), paying 650.00 for a resurface and pad replacement is highway robbery.
 
mkopec

mkopec

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Rotors can cost anywhere from $30-$200 ea. So yeah you are right. But why the fuck are you gonna spend $200 for a rotor? The average price is about $50 for a good rotor, so thats $200 for all 4. Non metallic pads run $35 for a set of fronts and rears so thats another $70. And im sure the shop is using those same generic parts. In fact I see no reason to spend $200 for rotors if you can get good ones for $50. And yes you can do it yourself in a hour or two depending on how gung-ho you are...

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Again, not saying you have to buy the above cheapest ones. But either way, its an easy job to do yourself and as you can see you can save yourself a ton of cash if you do it yourself. Its literally taking the wheel of and unscrewing 2 bolts on most cars.

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taebin

taebin

Same trailer, different park
973
450
Here's a breakdown of the bill. Looks like half the cost was labor. $68 each for front and back pads. $50 for rear rotor. $33 for brake fluid. $220 for parts, $376 for labor. Fucking mechanics. They couldn't have worked on it for more than 4-5 hours. Even at 5 hours, that's still $75/hour. Lawyer fees almost
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taebin

taebin

Same trailer, different park
973
450
mkopec_sl said:
Second, wtf are they bleeding your breaks for a simple break job? There is absolutely no need to ever change and flush your break fluid. Ive had cars go 250K miles on the same break fluid/topping it off.
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They told me it was pretty gunky, and they aren't the first place to have told me that. I thought "Hey replace brake fluid, can't be more than $40." Little did I know that it came with a $78 labor fee attached, along with the price of fluid.
 
Harfle

Harfle

Lord Nagafen Raider
1,055
69
I had to go to the shop one time because a nut was fused and I couldn't remove one rotor made me cry inside
 
Kaige

Kaige

<WoW Guild Officer>
<WoW Guild Officer>
5,589
12,763
How's that Fusion for leg room? I'm like 6' 4" so trying to find a car for a tall guy like me that doesn't have my nuts hugging the wheel.

A couple other recommendations from reports were the Sonata and the Altima.
 
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