Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

In a bad mood, drove rental corolla with the parking brake two clicks up for three blocks. Smoked rear brakes. I feel slightly better now.
 
OoooOOOOoooh...so *you're* why I had to use the curb as a wheel chuck the last time I parked (on a hill) in a rented Corolla. :lol:
 
If you were in Columbus Ohio, yes! :)
 
I had such a dumbass moment this evening. I was bleeding the brakes on my BRZ as a last ditch effort to figure out the massive vibration when braking before i start doing high dollar things like new stoptech rotor rings and caliper rebuilds. After i finished bleeding, i let the air out of the power bleeder tank, removed the cap on the master cylinder and topped off the fluid.

Then I closed the hood and went for a test drive. Without putting the master cylinder cap back on.

When i returned home and smelled brake fluid, i realized what i had done and popped the hood. Luckily the cap was still sitting on the suspension mount and there were no signs of brake fluid spilling out of the master cylinder reservoir. Still felt like a dumbass though.

Worse still, the vibration hasn't changed. I borrowed my friends rotors (he has the same brake kit i do) and i will be swapping those on this week to hopefully narrow the issue down.
 
Bright white? As opposed to dark white? What?

Well, some white are more, uh, white-er than others. The difference between an Arctic White and a Vanilla White is pretty noticeable. Shit-stupid article, though.


I had such a dumbass moment this evening. I was bleeding the brakes on my BRZ as a last ditch effort to figure out the massive vibration when braking before i start doing high dollar things like new stoptech rotor rings and caliper rebuilds. After i finished bleeding, i let the air out of the power bleeder tank, removed the cap on the master cylinder and topped off the fluid.

Then I closed the hood and went for a test drive. Without putting the master cylinder cap back on.

When i returned home and smelled brake fluid, i realized what i had done and popped the hood. Luckily the cap was still sitting on the suspension mount and there were no signs of brake fluid spilling out of the master cylinder reservoir. Still felt like a dumbass though.

Worse still, the vibration hasn't changed. I borrowed my friends rotors (he has the same brake kit i do) and i will be swapping those on this week to hopefully narrow the issue down.

If you haven't already, grab a cheap HF dial gauge and mag mount and check your rotor runout. Way easier than swapping rotors around and it'll tell you for sure whether they're warped or not.
 
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Yesterday it snowed in the morning, today the car was frozen. Winter is coming back, as it seems. Wasn't so fun this morning, as for quite some minutes my pop-ups refused to go up. Took the engine heat a while to clear it. Luckily I have fog lights that can be used as DRLs/lights, otherwise that would've been really, really bad in dawn.
 
Wasn't so fun this morning, as for quite some minutes my pop-ups refused to go up.

You could've at least had some warning that pop-ups were blocked.

:drums:

Should be converting my old locking differential into cash later, fingers crossed the guy isn't a time waster.
 
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A guy I work with just mentioned he's seen advertised Hellcat Charger lease deals for $300/mo. I haven't been able to substantiate that claim, but I did find a Hellcat Challenger lease deal for $399/mo, which still seems incredible for that car http://www.shumanmotor.net/specials/new.htm

But on that topic, something that grinds my gears. I hate the way dealers advertise lease deals. There really needs to be reform. Currently to get the advertised price, you need to be an employee, a senior citizen, a military vet, a recent college grad, in a union, recently married, and trading in a car that's a competitive make but the same model to qualify for the price. In other words, no one ever leaves the dealer paying the advertised price. I experienced this when I went to a dealer to discuss a $159/mo F-150 deal I saw and was told that I needed to be trading in an F-150 to qualify. My fianc?e's is a Chrysler retiree and pays $80/mo more than their advertised price because he doesn't qualify for all the fine print. Dealer advertising needs to show the price that your average person can actually get the car for, not the price that brings people in the door. Though I guess its working for them because people come in determined to leave with a car, and then say fuck it to the extra charges - not everyone comes in like me and says "I'm walking if I don't get the price I want." Its technically not false advertising if only one person in a thousand gets the advertised price, but it really should be.
 
I always leave the headlights up when it's cold, for that reason.

I didn't expect it being that cold anymore... though it snowed yesterday (and today), so I should've known better. Will do today ... although I always imagine people messing around with them because it sticks so out.
 
If you haven't already, grab a cheap HF dial gauge and mag mount and check your rotor runout. Way easier than swapping rotors around and it'll tell you for sure whether they're warped or not.

My friend has one and I guess the place he works also has a table thats certified to be 100% flat (forgot what those are actually called) and he said he would use that to check my rotors and the hats to make sure both are flat.
 
A guy I work with just mentioned he's seen advertised Hellcat Charger lease deals for $300/mo. I haven't been able to substantiate that claim, but I did find a Hellcat Challenger lease deal for $399/mo, which still seems incredible for that car http://www.shumanmotor.net/specials/new.htm

But on that topic, something that grinds my gears. I hate the way dealers advertise lease deals. There really needs to be reform. Currently to get the advertised price, you need to be an employee, a senior citizen, a military vet, a recent college grad, in a union, recently married, and trading in a car that's a competitive make but the same model to qualify for the price. In other words, no one ever leaves the dealer paying the advertised price. I experienced this when I went to a dealer to discuss a $159/mo F-150 deal I saw and was told that I needed to be trading in an F-150 to qualify. My fianc?e's is a Chrysler retiree and pays $80/mo more than their advertised price because he doesn't qualify for all the fine print. Dealer advertising needs to show the price that your average person can actually get the car for, not the price that brings people in the door. Though I guess its working for them because people come in determined to leave with a car, and then say fuck it to the extra charges - not everyone comes in like me and says "I'm walking if I don't get the price I want." Its technically not false advertising if only one person in a thousand gets the advertised price, but it really should be.



But if they tell you the actual price, people will just buy it outright. Why fuss with a lease when you can own it? Unless it is for a business, it just does not make sense in my opinion.
 
But if they tell you the actual price, people will just buy it outright. Why fuss with a lease when you can own it? Unless it is for a business, it just does not make sense in my opinion.

Huh? I don't get your reasoning. Why would people buy it outright if they saw the real lease price? Local dealer advertises Chrysler 300s for $269/mo with all the rebates. If your average person walked in off the street, that same car would probably be $349/mo. If they don't drive much and don't want the headache of ownership, leasing is probably the better option for them. Why would they pay $40,000 for to be stuck with a car they'll barely use when they can pay around $4k a year for the same car, always be covered under warranty, and get a new car every 2-3 years. My parents just leased a MKZ since my mom only drives about 8k miles a year now. Apart from being a mechanical nightmare, her 5 year old TL had lost so much value that the trade in offer was laughable.

But that's besides the point. My complaint was that dealers advertise prices are impossible for your average customer to qualify for. Even for buying, though from my observation, its a much bigger problem with leasing. And I know they always preface the number with "as low as" but when so few people actually qualify for that price, I don't think its ok.
 
You have to basically be a cross-eyed one armed safety patroller to get the good deals. I agree that it's boneheaded and plain asinine to even advertise it like that's the usual price.
 
Huh? I don't get your reasoning. Why would people buy it outright if they saw the real lease price? Local dealer advertises Chrysler 300s for $269/mo with all the rebates. If your average person walked in off the street, that same car would probably be $349/mo. If they don't drive much and don't want the headache of ownership, leasing is probably the better option for them. Why would they pay $40,000 for to be stuck with a car they'll barely use when they can pay around $4k a year for the same car, always be covered under warranty, and get a new car every 2-3 years. My parents just leased a MKZ since my mom only drives about 8k miles a year now. Apart from being a mechanical nightmare, her 5 year old TL had lost so much value that the trade in offer was laughable.


First, lets get one thing out of the way. All trade ins are given a terrible price, period. End of story. You want the value back out of your car, you need to sell it yourself.

Now that $269 lease deal is equiped with all the same caveats and disclaimers as the Hellcat. So that is not the price you will pay. I bet if you call and get a real quote, it will be about $300-$325 a month for a two year lease with only 10k miles a year. Almost everyone I have ever known that got a lease vehicle has played hell with keeping it under the mileage because they underestimated how much they really drive, or fall under the spell of "I gots me a new toy" syndrome and drive more than usual. Either way, it costs more at the end.

So now you are right about the same cost per month for the lease, and you get nothing back. This also fails to cover the ways to save money when buying a car. Are they still offering 0% loans these days?

But that's besides the point. My complaint was that dealers advertise prices are impossible for your average customer to qualify for. Even for buying, though from my observation, its a much bigger problem with leasing. And I know they always preface the number with "as low as" but when so few people actually qualify for that price, I don't think its ok.


I agree, car sales advertising is terrible. It offers an as low as lease price to sucker you in, then softens the blow with it is still cheaper than buying it, but in my arms length experience, it is the same or worse when it is all over.
 
First, lets get one thing out of the way. All trade ins are given a terrible price, period. End of story. You want the value back out of your car, you need to sell it yourself.

Exceptions exist. See my Audi TT for Mustang trade. I got about $2k more than I paid for my car (and $4k over book value) after owning it for 5 months and putting 11k miles on it. Granted, examples like that are well outside the norm and few and far between, but you can't claim "end of story" that definitively.

Now that $269 lease deal is equiped with all the same caveats and disclaimers as the Hellcat. So that is not the price you will pay. I bet if you call and get a real quote, it will be about $300-$325 a month for a two year lease with only 10k miles a year.

Right, thats why I rolled into my initial complain. I was just surprised to even see a Hellcat advertised that cheaply.

Almost everyone I have ever known that got a lease vehicle has played hell with keeping it under the mileage because they underestimated how much they really drive, or fall under the spell of "I gots me a new toy" syndrome and drive more than usual. Either way, it costs more at the end.

I only know 5 people who lease consistently. One of them gets really close to going over, but usually he manages to get into the 3 month early trade in time frame for it to not affect him. Everyone else is right around the line they pay for.

So now you are right about the same cost per month for the lease, and you get nothing back. This also fails to cover the ways to save money when buying a car. Are they still offering 0% loans these days?

I disagree that you always save money when buying a car. And I haven't seen a 0% loan in a while now, but I haven't been paying that close attention to the market.

I agree, car sales advertising is terrible. It offers an as low as lease price to sucker you in, then softens the blow with it is still cheaper than buying it, but in my arms length experience, it is the same or worse when it is all over.

Right, so we agree about the advertising. That was what I was trying to get at. Like I said above, I believe the advertised price should be the price your average customer can get into a car for, not the special price for gold-shitting unicorns. The whole stealership industry needs massive overhaul.
 
OoooOOOOoooh...so *you're* why I had to use the curb as a wheel chuck the last time I parked (on a hill) in a rented Corolla. :lol:

Should mention I was sitting a stop light with smoke pouring out from the back. A guy crossing the street looks at it. Jumps a bit and proceeds to tell me that it looks like my brakes are stuck on. :)

Before driving with the parking brake on, I was stopping by yanking the parking park. :) just because.
 
I only know 5 people who lease consistently. One of them gets really close to going over, but usually he manages to get into the 3 month early trade in time frame for it to not affect him. Everyone else is right around the line they pay for.
It's all very regional, a lot of people in NY lease and don't go over miles, in some cases not even close despite doing few long "holiday" drives. Simply because they don't commute by car or if they do they are short drives, like my wife who does 4 miles a day or so.
 
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