RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

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RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by bk7794 »

So I'm burned out looking at cars. I've actually started looking at automatics. A freaking Land Rover and a Lexus were the latest on my list. The 250 with a stick keeps coming up though.

How does one get by that new car fear? The other week I was going to look at a brand new Tacoma. I then clipped my car with a snow blower and determined that there's no way a new car will be parked in the driveway I park in.

So...does this ever happen to you where you burn yourself out looking at cars?
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by potownrob »

bk7794 wrote:So I'm burned out looking at cars. I've actually started looking at automatics. A freaking Land Rover and a Lexus were the latest on my list. The 250 with a stick keeps coming up though.

How does one get by that new car fear? The other week I was going to look at a brand new Tacoma. I then clipped my car with a snow blower and determined that there's no way a new car will be parked in the driveway I park in.

So...does this ever happen to you where you burn yourself out looking at cars?
at first i thought you were nuts, until i read your last line and realized i've been burnt out before looking at cars. it's usually when i need a car, like when i crashed the accord. in that case, i was NOT up to looking at cars. it probably didn't help i was having issues at work at that same time. i delayed and delayed looking at cars. i had a rental malibu and they kept telling me i had to bring it back, finally got the rental extended and still had trouble looking at cars. there are all kinds of dealers out there, and all kinds of cars for sale by private sellers, but i couldn't seem to find any good dealers and for some reason wasn't good at finding privately sold cars. it was a shitty time and felt even worse knowing i am really a car guy (or at least relative to the average jill). i settled on one of the first cars i saw, and it was a mistake. i didn't really like the car (02 impreza wagon), knowing it was overpriced, underequipped and not the right car for me. i jumped on it since i was sick and tired of looking and had pressure to find a car. i say, if you don't need a new (newer) car yet, try to find solace in that there's no big rush. if you do need a new(er) car now, i hope you don't settle for something you don't really like; if you have that feeling that a car's not the one, try to move on. if you think you can deal with the things you don't like about it for more than a year, then it may be worth taking the plunge, if you need a car right away. Feel free to PM me with any questions or concerns, or just post in here.

Edit: as for the new car ding fear thing, i rest assured that there is a little leeway in the damage allowed at lease turn-in. i also may refinance and buy out the lease eventually, which would eliminate the lease aspect. also, most people don't expect a car to stay in perfect shape forever, and they'll even buy one that's a little dinged up. sure, it'll diminish the value, but that's all part of the game.
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by IMBoring25 »

Can't help you there. When I got burnt out looking at cars, what I did was buy one...

I'd been looking for just the right manual F-250 for 18 months while driving the truck an uninsured and judgment-proof red-light runner had jumped out from behind other traffic and totaled. Eventually I decided I put too many miles on for the mileage of a gasser, 7.3s were getting older than where I wanted to buy a daily, I didn't trust 6.0Ls, I didn't trust 6.4Ls, and 6.7Ls didn't come with manuals when a Ram 2500 I liked hit CraigsList and I called it close enough.
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by Rope-Pusher »

2018 Model Year is less than a year away!

2018 Subaru WRX and WRX STI coming with big performance improvements
"For those buyers who prefer a manual transmission, Subaru says it has “significantly enhanced” the currently notchy shifter feel of its six-speed transmission with a new synchro design producing less friction. We think that’s even more reason to forget the CVT even exists in a performance car like the WRX."

Read more: http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/20 ... z4UziCZCGx
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by Teamwork »

I don't think necessarily I get "burnt out" looking at new cars but I will grow tired of bad dealerships. I'm probably in the minority but when it came to getting my GTI I went to over 16 dealerships and before that for my lease in 2013- I went to 20+. In both of those experiences I've literally had probably 3-4 dealerships/salespeople that I genuinely thought were decent. The problem I have with the "bad" (aside from being bad) is that they all suffer the same fate; 1) getting caught in a lie, 2) outright being unknowledgeable, 3) not seemingly like they care at all. That gets real old, real fast considering how this industry works.

I end up plotting dealerships against each other though in the end. I realize what my top 3 is in terms of product and assess the sales experience that goes a long with it. I've never bought my number 1 car in either event and I would feel like I ended up being mostly/completely satisfied regardless.
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by theholycow »

bk7794 wrote:I've actually started looking at automatics.
I kinda know that feel. In early-mid 2016 when I thought I was going to buy a vehicle (possibly a temporary car while the Buick went offline for upgrades, or possibly more permanent) I had the same exasperation.
How does one get by that new car fear? The other week I was going to look at a brand new Tacoma. I then clipped my car with a snow blower and determined that there's no way a new car will be parked in the driveway I park in.
Choose a less obvious spot and whack it with a hammer the first day, so that the first dent will already be done and you won't have to hold your breath waiting for it. :lol:

I swear, every new(ish) car I get almost immediately gets its first bit of damage, then goes 5 years or 200,000 miles before it gets even the smallest additional ding. I'm sure I've told the story of my truck; shortly after I got it, brand new in 2002, I installed my new TracRac ladder racks and tested to see if they'd make it through the car wash like the more aggressive car wash grabbing ladder racks of my last truck. They didn't. I sat in the driver's seat, rapt, slackjawed, staring with awe up out the window as the brush crammed itself between the rack and truck, crushing the roof. Eventually I snapped out of it and put the truck in Reverse, but not before the roof was kinda crushed and the bed rails (where the racks mount) were deformed.
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by theholycow »

Teamwork wrote:I end up plotting dealerships against each other though in the end.
My best friend did something like that. He knew what he wanted, and he emailed/faxed (this was maybe 10 years ago) a specification list to the internet/fleet sales rep at every dealer within a few hundred miles asking for their best offer. No BS, no time wasted, just blast it out and see who wants the quick sale. It worked exactly like it should.

I haven't bought a new car since then, but if I do (and if a family member with connections doesn't help and insist I buy from his preferred dealer) then that's probably what I'm going to do, especially since I'll almost certainly know exactly what I want.
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by bk7794 »

The annoying thing about my car is that someone vandalized it...and I Don't really want to sue my own insurance over it. So everyday I've gotta look at it. Every time I bring it to a body shop, they quote me 800 or so bucks to get it done. I remember on CL a long time ago I saw this Camry with the v6 5 speed. It had like 250k miles on it. lol :lol: That would be the ultimate daily crasher. I then would get something, an MG or something similar as a weekend/nice day cruiser.

I feel the ultimate daily is a car you don't care about.

Thoughts?
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by tankinbeans »

I will admit that I tend to be impulsive when it comes to cars and have never really had a nad experience. Then again most of the dealerships near me are no haggle so I just go in, tell them the car that I want and do the paperwork. Most cars in the compact class don't really hit my radar so it makes choosing that much easier.

The only bad dealership that I have ever been in didn't get my money. I was test driving a Snuze for my then sister-in-law (1.8, manual, gutless). The salesman was blathering on and on about this piece of garbage and one thing he said that sticks out had to be the most half-hearted attempt at selling the virtues of the thing ever, "got a lot of pep fer a 4 cylinder dud'n it?" I greatly preferred Clifford as he was easier to drive and didn't feel like a baleen.

The only bad car, on a relative scale, that I've bought was the Kia. That was only bad in that the transmission ruined it. I'm not a power junky, and don't really ever take the car to the limit (I know the limits to my ability are much lower than most cars can handle and I'd rather not risk damaging people by being stupid) and don't go out of my way to find exotic kit. The issue with that particular car was its propensity to deny me access to 4th gear and the fact that I could never go more than a week without stalling (I learned too late that it wasn't a good car for a noob). After 18 months I couldn't take it anymore and bought my Focus SE.

With regards to lot rash, my Kia and Focus had a busted windshield within 3 months. The Kia was rear-ended (minimal damage with 3 weeks) and the Focus ST had a cracked bumper with 6 months. Oh and low-profile tires are a PITA; keeping the wheels sans scratch can be a challenge.
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by Teamwork »

A ton of good stuff here to quote..
theholycow wrote: I swear, every new(ish) car I get almost immediately gets its first bit of damage, then goes 5 years or 200,000 miles before it gets even the smallest additional ding. I'm sure I've told the story of my truck; shortly after I got it, brand new in 2002, I installed my new TracRac ladder racks and tested to see if they'd make it through the car wash like the more aggressive car wash grabbing ladder racks of my last truck. They didn't. I sat in the driver's seat, rapt, slackjawed, staring with awe up out the window as the brush crammed itself between the rack and truck, crushing the roof. Eventually I snapped out of it and put the truck in Reverse, but not before the roof was kinda crushed and the bed rails (where the racks mount) were deformed.
I baby the crap out of my car but I'm a realist. I know at any given moment, someone's bad day, misfortune, etc. my car could be damaged. Hit and run, fender benders with parked cars happen on a daily in NY. I go out of my way really pretty much everywhere I go which might sound ridiculous but I really force the hand and take the time. I get ridiculed at work as people know I park half a mile away from the building in the very back. I also regularly take a spot up against a divider so I know absolutely that no one can park to my right side and only my left side (but no one's parking this far back). I constantly employ this tactic on an OCD level whenever I can (parking really far away and forcing the ability to have only one side that strangers can park on).
My best friend did something like that. He knew what he wanted, and he emailed/faxed (this was maybe 10 years ago) a specification list to the internet/fleet sales rep at every dealer within a few hundred miles asking for their best offer. No BS, no time wasted, just blast it out and see who wants the quick sale. It worked exactly like it should.

Buying a car is a lot of psychological warfare really. When I am really set on one or two cars among a long laundry list I'll start plotting those two competing brands against each other and if it comes down to it I'll internalize conflict between different dealerships of one brand. I've essentially done this successfully plotting Mazda vs. KIA the first time around on my lease and then VW vs. VW this time around.

Mazda offered a pretty decent deal to me on a mid level I at the time. I picked and chose my words carefully (didn't necessarily lie) but used this leverage to KIA and the sales person nearly pooped his pants knowing I was half way out of the door. He chose to match the Mazda offer to a tee but the thing was I was comparing a mid level I deal to what was essentially a fully loaded SX for the KIA. I felt like I stole the shirt off his back but he wanted the sale more.
I feel the ultimate daily is a car you don't care about.

Thoughts?
I would most likely never daily drive a car in a price bracket any higher then my GTI currently (so in the 30-35k range). There's just too much uncontrollable, out of hands, bull that you'll stress over and obviously at higher stakes if you allow for it. I earned my way here and went through the trenches to get it so I wanted to feel what it was like but I've dailyed beaters in my past. The only bad experiences I've had driving a total beater was the misc stuff that can randomly go wrong and cripple you. I had probably one of the world's most reliable beaters but it still had over 150k on the odo and things would go wrong. I've only been stranded once with that car when the radiator poopted the bed and the car was overheating and un-driveable but I'd say it's still a semi-negative walking down that route. When I can't allocate as much money to a car and I'm past being a harder edge enthusiast I'd probably honestly want a newish Honda Fit or Mazda 3 to settle into though and just not have to worry as much.
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by AHTOXA »

Buying a car is very exhausting and requires a lot of legwork in most cases. That is, unless you walk in, tell them what kind of payment you want and drop your trousers for the raping you're about to receive.

When I was buying my Subaru a year and a half ago, I used TrueCar to get educated on the price, invoice, holdbacks and all that. Then I contacted dealers through TruCar and put them against each other. The manual Forester was especially hard to shop for as there were very limited numbers and most have been spoken for in advance. In fact, the one I ended up buying was a cancelled customer order that had the exact options that I wanted. Otherwise, I was still a month out from my delivery.

When I was buying the Ford, I also went through TrueCar. Then once again I put a few dealers against each other. I did have the advantage of buying at end of calendar year and end of model year when the 17's were about to roll out, so I had some leverage. Still, it was a good amount of legwork and some shady tactics by the dealer. The dealer I actually bought the truck from tried to strongarm me into a sale by asking me to sign for a truck w/o the truck being there. Told me the offer stands for one day only. I walked out, and guess what, still had the same offer next day. If the deal wasn't as good as it was, I wouldn't have been back there due to the strongarm tactic, but it all worked out in the end. I got a smoking deal on the truck and a smoking tradein value, great APR and a standard term. Didn't even take a bath on the Subaru.
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by AHTOXA »

bk7794 wrote: I've actually started looking at automatics.
That was true in my case as well. To tell you the truth, I was tired of being limited to lower end trims of cars or missing out on options I wanted just because I wanted a manual. I got honest with myself, and realized that there were other options I wanted more than a manual (that I couldn't get with a manual), and I realized that I wanted a specific type of vehicle that simply doesn't come with a manual.
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by Teamwork »

AHTOXA wrote:Buying a car is very exhausting and requires a lot of legwork in most cases. That is, unless you walk in, tell them what kind of payment you want and drop your trousers for the raping you're about to receive.

When I was buying my Subaru a year and a half ago, I used TrueCar to get educated on the price, invoice, holdbacks and all that. Then I contacted dealers through TruCar and put them against each other. The manual Forester was especially hard to shop for as there were very limited numbers and most have been spoken for in advance. In fact, the one I ended up buying was a cancelled customer order that had the exact options that I wanted. Otherwise, I was still a month out from my delivery.

When I was buying the Ford, I also went through TrueCar. Then once again I put a few dealers against each other. I did have the advantage of buying at end of calendar year and end of model year when the 17's were about to roll out, so I had some leverage. Still, it was a good amount of legwork and some shady tactics by the dealer. The dealer I actually bought the truck from tried to strongarm me into a sale by asking me to sign for a truck w/o the truck being there. Told me the offer stands for one day only. I walked out, and guess what, still had the same offer next day. If the deal wasn't as good as it was, I wouldn't have been back there due to the strongarm tactic, but it all worked out in the end. I got a smoking deal on the truck and a smoking tradein value, great APR and a standard term. Didn't even take a bath on the Subaru.
Truecar leverage I have used but it's been hit or miss for me in terms of success rate. I think it's very dependent on location- but the amount of true car "certified" (not sure if this is the correct term/word) dealerships are pretty few and far between depending on the brand around here. Some dealerships that aren't certified though with let you use this as a bargaining chip for negotiation purposes and others will downright be offended that you referenced it.

I just wanted to make an emphasis on how crappy Subaru dealership networks are around here. They are EASILY the worst of any brand within my 10-20 mile thresh hold and you're really picking between 3 dealerships ranging on bad, worse, and worst. Old salesmanship techniques, condescending mentalities, and my favorite "we're the best with no competition" motto's. I was ready to pull the trigger on a '15 WRX (which was my number 1 in terms or product this outting) but even had a bait and switch technique pulled on me and I tore up my contract. It was the last straw on what I originally made excuses for to try and get the product that I really liked.
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by theholycow »

bk7794 wrote:I feel the ultimate daily is a car you don't care about.
Not quite. If you don't care about it then you won't fix the little stuff that inevitably breaks. Then one day you realize you absolutely hate that uncomfortable unpleasant piece of crap that now additionally has every damn thing broken, and you've been miserable every day for a significant portion of your day -- altogether, a significant portion of your life. Don't spend a chunk of your life miserable because you're worried about damage.

Striking a balance can be ok; a beater that you care about a little, that you like, but that is imperfect and disposable so you won't feel bad...
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Re: RANT: I have been looking for cars for too long and now I'm sick of all of them.

Post by watkins »

I love my car. Having a boring car is stupid. Why would you want to spend so much time in something you dont enjoy?
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