Buying a car?

Deathwing_sl said:

When do you guys decide it's time to buy a new car? And I mean just financially, not a "my family doesn't fit in my porsche anymore". I have a spreadsheet where I track how many repairs I put into my paid off 2000 Civic and their cost. And while $1800 for this year's repairs is a bummer, I figure that still less than what I'd pay per month for a new car(even a comparable model, but not same year) and increased insurance. I set an arbitrary limit of $200/month, if car repairs ever creep over that amount, or my transmission or engine goes, I'll buy a new car.

Any flaws to this reasoning? Something I'm not considering? I am tracking mileage, it's almost at 90k. But considering I put maybe 5k a year on it, I don't think mileage is going to be an major factor for many years.

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I think your reasoning is ok but $1,800 in repairs could be 5 to 9 months of car payments. Insurance varies from person to person, but I wouldn't automatically assume the new car premium increase will be huge. Call up the insurer and ask. Some new cars sip so little gas that low-cost refueling offsets the montly payment quite a bit.

Personally, I don't like vehicles out of warranty, and I don't mind financing if it is at a low rate for a good vehicle. I just make sure I put enough down, or get enough in trade, that I always have some potential equity. I think of it as leasing to myself, and it allows me to buy a new vehicle every few years if I want to.

Deathwing_sl said:

When do you guys decide it's time to buy a new car? And I mean just financially, not a "my family doesn't fit in my porsche anymore". I have a spreadsheet where I track how many repairs I put into my paid off 2000 Civic and their cost. And while $1800 for this year's repairs is a bummer, I figure that still less than what I'd pay per month for a new car(even a comparable model, but not same year) and increased insurance. I set an arbitrary limit of $200/month, if car repairs ever creep over that amount, or my transmission or engine goes, I'll buy a new car.

Any flaws to this reasoning? Something I'm not considering? I am tracking mileage, it's almost at 90k. But considering I put maybe 5k a year on it, I don't think mileage is going to be an major factor for many years.

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When I start paying 1K+ year in repairs is when I ditch my car. Having to take a car into the shop blows goats.

Yeah, it's not so much the money that is put into repairs(which would almost never equal a years worth of new car payments), but the horrid inconvenience of having a non-functional car while it's in the shop. Unless you have backup vehicles available at all times, being without a car for more than 1 day means I'm car shopping.

Deathwing_sl said:

Married and I hardly ever go anywhere(5k/year wasn't a joke), so the inconvenience of repairs, beyond my wallet, is just that, an inconvenience. If you think repairs would never go over the cost of a new car(and my data so far verifies that), does that mean people never have a hard financial reason to buy a new car? Which is fine, plenty of other reasons to buy a new car. I'm thinking at this point, I'm probably going to buy a new car just to get a whole slew of (technological)options that my new car is and will be missing.

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Honestly, over the past five years we've come to realize that for our company's fleet, there really isn't much reason to keep it super up to date. My dad used to turn the fleet over constantly, with hardly any vehicles older then 3-5 years. We have about 12-15 trucks and vans at any one time, and at this point the majority are older than 5 years old, and the cost of repairs and maintenance doesn't go anywhere near justifying replacing any of them, with the exception of an old Ford E450 diesel cube van that was costing thousands of dollars every month or two to keep on the road. But otherwise, we've got a slew of trucks purchased between 2006 and 2009, and after reviewing our needs for next year and the amount of repairs over the past couple years, my bro and I decided to only get rid of an old 2002 E350 service van, a 2005 GM crew cab, and a 2006 E450 cube van (also diesel, not been as bad maintenance wise). So the majority of our fleet will still be 5+ years old, with a handful of newer vehicles. It's really not worth trying to sell a vehicle after 3-5 years to get some resale out of it, I'm finding we're far better off just driving the damn thing in to the ground and getting a thousand bucks for scrapping it when it's no longer worth fixing.

Granted, I think there's been a pretty huge shift in the past 10-20 years on how well built and reliable most vehicles are. We've had 4 Nissan Titans from 2006/2007, and despite them not having a great reputation for reliability, all 4 are over 200,000 kms being used as work trucks, and have had minimal significant mechanical issues. It's pretty impressive.

Won't your customers think you're cheap or less successful and thus not worthy of their $$$? Does image count for nothing in the world of trucks? What is it your dads company does anyway, Big E?

For fleet trucks I imagine it also matters what kind of buisness it is. I work for a private oil/gas company and they buy 5-10 new F150s every month. They sell the old trucks at 60K miles like clock work. When a truck hits 60k someone drives it back from the field and some HR guy sells it. Protip - never buy a used truck that's been in the oil/gas field. The field guys run those things at like 80mph down washboard dirt roads. According to the HR guys just after 60k miles shit just starts falling off the trucks lol.

Yea those engines are tanks. You must have had bad luck on it.

Izo_sl said:

Won't your customers think you're cheap or less successful and thus not worthy of their $$$? Does image count for nothing in the world of trucks? What is it your dads company does anyway, Big E?

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Dad's been gone nearly 5 years, it's the bro and I. We're a mechanical contracting company, new construction of multi-family and commercial projects. I don't think anyone, at least in the market that we operate in, gives much of a shit what kind of trucks we have on the road.

Anybody have any experience with paint protection film (aka clear bra) such as Ventureshield and Xpel? Thinking of getting it put on my ride as my paint shows swirls/light scratches like there is no tomorrow.

mkopec_sl said:

My last car was a 99 Grand prix I bought new. And it had a slew of problems that were not mechanical. Like trim panels on doors separating, rear speakers not working...etc... As for the mechanical shit, It had a leaky head gasket at like 90K miles. So debating on either keeping it and dishing out the $1200 to fix it, I decided to fix it. Well, it was the wrong move. The fucking thing blew up like a year after that. Driving to work one day the motor started t rattle and shake and I lost all my oil. The thing literally blew up. Little bit over 100K miles.

Still I had it for just shy of 13 yrs so it all worked out. Aside the head gasket replacement, I think I only bought new tires for it two times, and obviously changed the oil and breaks by myself when it needed it. Oh, and I replaced the battery once. So thats probably about $3K I had to put in for the life of the car after the initial 5yr payments. I think the original cost was around $19K, loaded GT, leather, etc... Its kinda sad because I heard nothing but good things about the GM 3800 6cyl engines. But I guess I just got a lemon. Shit was just not the same when I sprung that head gasket leak.

I replaced it with a 2012 fleet Impala with 30K miles on it. Came with a 2yr warranty and I got it out the door for just shy of $16K.

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Late 90s Pontiacs were SO shitty. I had a brand new 99 Grand Am(first car I bought new fresh out of college) and it basically fell apart in about 5-6 years. Automatic window motors failing(twice on the passenger window, once on driver-side window), trim coming off like you experienced, automatic locks just completely stopping working(the device in the door, not my keychain thingy), etc. Nothing really major or mechanical with the engine, but a bunch of little annoying crap that attested to the poor build qualiy. My mom had a 01 Grand Prix and it had a lot of the same problems. Shocking Pontiac went under...

I had my 99 Grand Am for just over 5 years years and then had to buy my current vehicle(05 Escape purchased the fall of 04), and I've made it to 140K miles on my Escape with probably 1/10th of the problems that my Grand Am had in just 80K miles by the time I got rid of it.

Biggest piece of shit I ever owned was a 93 Dodge Intrepid. That bitch blew a motor once, transmission twice, and had paint problems across all of the fleet. I owned it in '98 / '99, so we are talking about a 5-6 year old car with paint hazing and physically peeling off. At first I thought my car was a dud, but every other Intrepid I saw had the same paint issues. I've never owned a Dodge since.

Frenzied Wombat_sl said:

Anybody have any experience with paint protection film (aka clear bra) such as Ventureshield and Xpel? Thinking of getting it put on my ride as my paint shows swirls/light scratches like there is no tomorrow.

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Are you talking for the whole car? Or just the clear rubber stuff on the bumper and/or hood?

Eomer_sl said:

Are you talking for the whole car? Or just the clear rubber stuff on the bumper and/or hood?

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I got a quote of 5K (gulp..) to do the whole car with no seams, and $1500 to do the whole hood, bumper, and fenders. In a perfect world I'd do the whole car, but I can't bring myself to spend that type of cash on paint protection, so I'm looking at the frontal package, as the hood shows off swirls and scratches the most.

Normally, I've never even entertained the idea as I always wash my car by hand, or at least take it to a hand car wash, so scratches/swirls have never really been a problem on my old cars. The new Audi I got three months back I paid an extra $1000 for "estoril blue crystal effect" paint, and never in my life did I think a color choice could impact car maintenance so much. I've owned black cars and they don't even come *close* to picking up scratches/swirls as much as this paint does. Of course googling after the fact reveals numerous people with the same complaint-- it seems like the clear coat used is somewhat softer than normal for this color, and the crystals in the paint amplify the visibility of fine scratches/swirls. Seriously, anything but a micro-fiber towel leaves marks on the paint.. I've had to have the car professionally buffed/detailed twice since I've owned it.

So basically, the only way I can save my sanity (I'm ocd about scratches/swirls) is to have paint protection film applied, so I'm looking to see if anybody has any personal experiences with the stuff..

If anybody is out there looking at an Audi, stay away from Estoril Blue Crystal unless you plan on driving it straight from the dealership to the PPF workshop.

That is some bullshit on a brand new car.

That's really weird, I'd complain to Audi about that shit. I've had the clear 3M film on my past couple cars, but just on the front bumper and partways up the hood. It seems to do a pretty good job protecting the paint from rock chips, although a big enough rock will blow through it. I wish I'd actually done my whole hood on my current cart, instead of just the first 12-18", as there's some chips further up that would have been prevented. I also got a strip on the back bumper to protect it from getting scratched when I take my hockey bag or other shit out of the trunk. There's really no downsides to the stuff, other than cost. But I'm pretty sure I didn't pay much more than $500-600 to have my car done as described. $1,500 sounds pretty ridiculous.

Jysin_sl said:

Biggest piece of shit I ever owned was a 93 Dodge Intrepid. That bitch blew a motor once, transmission twice, and had paint problems across all of the fleet. I owned it in '98 / '99, so we are talking about a 5-6 year old car with paint hazing and physically peeling off. At first I thought my car was a dud, but every other Intrepid I saw had the same paint issues. I've never owned a Dodge since.

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My stepfather had the exact same car. The engine had to be rebuilt once, and his transmission went once. Finally, a deer decided to cross the highway while he was driving around 70MPH and the deer totalled the car (my stepfather was inches from death they said) - the entire thing was also filled with blood and guts. The moral of the story is never buy a 93 Intrepid.