Car Enthusiast Club [Now Motorcycle friendly!] - First thread to 150k! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Bitter]

2 hours ago, vetali said:

Only thing I can suggest is to have your ducks in a row when you walk in. With a situation like you explained it actually gives the dealer more leverage to try to do scummy shit. Have your down payment ready to go, don't deposit any money on a used car unless its something that will move fast. Interest rates suck right now so dealers are gonna be pushy to move used inventory that isn't moving as fast recently.

 

I have been eyeing 23 Accord Hybrids as my commute is gonna go from 20 miles to 55 miles one way. Even my dealer is pushing me to do it before the month end. We just got a touring in thats not remotely a color I want and they are like "dude, just get it lol". Told them I want to drive it over the weekend. Already know their sales target is unreachable for the month so oh well.

Yeah, literally put in the brokerage transfer this morning when I saw the car. I can't make the banks run any faster. Just wrong dealer at the wrong time of month for me, oh well. For what they're trying to push out used for I think I'm just going to look for new or just get something older and pay straight cash and maybe re-evaluate in a few years when things are maybe better but be sure to get something good enough to carry through in case things in fact do not get better.

[vetali]

Misfire fixed... wanted to grab some pics of the job but they were pushing me to finish for end of the month and I had lots of dumb issues that cost me time.

[Beerzerker]

5 minutes ago, vetali said:

Misfire fixed... wanted to grab some pics of the job but they were pushing me to finish for end of the month and I had lots of dumb issues that cost me time.

Yeah, gotta make it look good on the books no matter how the repair itself turns out, which BTW will always be your fault, no matter for what or why when it goes bad.
Been there, done all that before myself and I don't miss it either.

[Bitter]

Oh oh that's a header gasket! I know cars.

 

So I'm in the shop working on a dash pull on a 10 Terrain for a blend flap, not working terribly fast and doing a few other things at the same time (some cleaning/organizing and some paperwork tasks it's kind of a slow friday). I hear a strip of fireworks followed by a few louder booms and then a distinct 'clink' sound. 4 houses down the street was an attempted car jacking or car theft with a lot of shots fired. Thankfully I knew those weren't fireworks and stayed away from the garage door behind the brick walls, went to the office and alerted my boss and the customer who said "oh if it's gettin real out there my boo about to be runnin in here". Not more than 30seconds later a woman pulls her truck around, slams it into park, and jumps through out front door. I stayed out of line of the overhead doors until the police were in the area and then went out and checked for any damage to cars in the lot or the building, everything looked fine.  The clink was either a stray or ricochet hitting something on the building somewhere on the roof or one that someone said hit some road signs near the building. I drove past the Mustang I saw people ducking behind and I assume the target (ok I peeked around the corner to see out the overhead door window a little bit) but couldn't see anything in the hard rain storm.  3rd shooting I've witnessed at work during work hours.

[Bitter]

Ordered a Mazda3 base this morning, $25,186 out the door. No add on bullshit. No pressure to buy dealer added options. Asked if I wanted the all weather mats, said nah I think I got some that'll fit and if they don't I'll buy em from service when I grab the car. I asked about PPF, said they have a detailer around the corner they use a lot, they can leave the peels on it and the detailer can peel it and put the PPF right on so there's no scratches. Def need to ask them about doing door edges, sills, etc. I went for the dark blue. Salesperson was nice, no pressure, everything was clearly laid out and made sense.

 

I mentioned I'd looked at a used 3 at another dealer in the city and had a bad experience, he asked which dealer, I said I don't like talking bad about anywhere, he said 'Oh it was "dealer blah wasn't it". I just made that Jim meme face from The Office I guess and he said 'yeah, we run into that a lot with them'. Not sure how much that was truth or how much that was just salesperson talk, but the fact he was able to correctly and confidently guess which of 3 dealers it could have been without a moment hesitation...

[vetali]

58 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Ordered a Mazda3 base this morning, $25,186 out the door. No add on bullshit. No pressure to buy dealer added options. Asked if I wanted the all weather mats, said nah I think I got some that'll fit and if they don't I'll buy em from service when I grab the car. I asked about PPF, said they have a detailer around the corner they use a lot, they can leave the peels on it and the detailer can peel it and put the PPF right on so there's no scratches. Def need to ask them about doing door edges, sills, etc. I went for the dark blue. Salesperson was nice, no pressure, everything was clearly laid out and made sense.

 

I mentioned I'd looked at a used 3 at another dealer in the city and had a bad experience, he asked which dealer, I said I don't like talking bad about anywhere, he said 'Oh it was "dealer blah wasn't it". I just made that Jim meme face from The Office I guess and he said 'yeah, we run into that a lot with them'. Not sure how much that was truth or how much that was just salesperson talk, but the fact he was able to correctly and confidently guess which of 3 dealers it could have been without a moment hesitation...

Nice, was the other place an actual brand dealership or an independent sales lot?

 

My personal advice is to have a 3rd party do the door edge film and stuff. If the guy installing it is getting paid .3 to install them, it ain't gonna look good.

[Bitter]

5 hours ago, vetali said:

Nice, was the other place an actual brand dealership or an independent sales lot?

 

My personal advice is to have a 3rd party do the door edge film and stuff. If the guy installing it is getting paid .3 to install them, it ain't gonna look good.

The bad dealer is under the McGrath name, not sure if it's brand or independent but looked like brand, they sell new cars at all of them so... There's a whole bunch of McGrath dealers around the city I assume all under the same network umbrella but honestly this isn't my area of expertise.

 

The good Mazda dealer I just ordered from is over in NW Indiana called Art Hill and is next to a Lincoln/Ford dealership with the same name. Looks like just those three dealers and did not feel like a shark tank at feeding time when I walked in.

[bcredeur97]

3 hours ago, Bitter said:

The bad dealer is under the McGrath name, not sure if it's brand or independent but looked like brand, they sell new cars at all of them so... There's a whole bunch of McGrath dealers around the city I assume all under the same network umbrella but honestly this isn't my area of expertise.

 

The good Mazda dealer I just ordered from is over in NW Indiana called Art Hill and is next to a Lincoln/Ford dealership with the same name. Looks like just those three dealers and did not feel like a shark tank at feeding time when I walked in.

I love how up north it's McGrath car dealerships, and around where I live, it's all churches/Christian schools

[Bitter]

They sent a follow-up text the other day....I replied politely.

Quote

Unfortunately no, Brad was so very clear that it would be sold before the end of the month that I went to that "podunk" dealer over in Indiana and ordered a brand new car into the dealer for less out the door than the 2020 base model McGrath was offering with that absurd $1,600 CPO fee. I'd like to thank you for being an awesome person and a good sales person and I'd like to especially thank Brad for pushing me to pursue the purchase of a new vehicle from a competing dealership. I hope you can pass this along to him for me, without him this wouldn't have been possible! Thanks for following up.

 

[iDeFecZx]

Meet the new shed

[vetali]

18 hours ago, Bitter said:

The bad dealer is under the McGrath name, not sure if it's brand or independent but looked like brand, they sell new cars at all of them so... There's a whole bunch of McGrath dealers around the city I assume all under the same network umbrella but honestly this isn't my area of expertise.

 

The good Mazda dealer I just ordered from is over in NW Indiana called Art Hill and is next to a Lincoln/Ford dealership with the same name. Looks like just those three dealers and did not feel like a shark tank at feeding time when I walked in.

That maps thing just shows near me, was confused when there were no dealers in Washington/Oregon with Mcgrath lol.

 

6 minutes ago, iDeFecZx said:

Meet the new shed

Lift when

[Bitter]

37 minutes ago, vetali said:

That maps thing just shows near me, was confused when there were no dealers in Washington/Oregon with Mcgrath lol.

Ah I didn't know it didn't include the original region from that address, I assumed it was in the hash.

[bcredeur97]

52 minutes ago, vetali said:

That maps thing just shows near me, was confused when there were no dealers in Washington/Oregon with Mcgrath lol.

oh...

[bcredeur97]

Considering they build cars in decent numbers now, why are Porsche engines so expensive? Not many other manufactures have 5 figure used engines, for 5 figure cars, no less lol

[Bitter]

25 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

Considering they build cars in decent numbers now, why are Porsche engines so expensive? Not many other manufactures have 5 figure used engines, for 5 figure cars, no less lol

Because

[711jrp]

19 hours ago, iDeFecZx said:

Meet the new shed

Just like my old shed, been a great work car over the years, sadly going to brake it soon due to that idiot Mayor

 

[Neroon]

On 10/27/2022 at 5:19 PM, Neroon said:

Well I finally got it, everything got fixed, sadly between my migraine and it being rush hour right now (17:15 here) I ain't driving around, but will be driving around tonight.

 

Btw I got some plans for this car, as it looks rather standard right now. I want it wrapped with something between yellow and orange, with black accents, it will be a while before I do that, because I really want to get info as to where I should get it done, and what modifications I want to do. To be clear, any modification will be minor, and I absolutely will not lower it.

 

 

It's been a while since I posted this, and wanted to give an update. I finally got it sprayed. I originally wanted it wrapped, but there were a few reasons not to.

The main one was the fact I went with different bumpers + sideskirts, I wanted the M sport ones, and they are almost impossible to get second handed, but there are great replicas for these cars. They however only have primer, and reputable wrappers told me that you don't really want to wrap on that. So if I needed to get it all sprayed, I figured I might as well look into getting it all sprayed, especially since then you get the inside of the doors etc all done as well. Basically unless you start stripping the car or look inside the engine bay, you won't see it's original colour.

 

Aside from the aforementioned parts, I also added a spoiler, got new side blinkers (smoked LED), gloss black grill and mirror caps. 

I'm gonna get the chrome around my windows wrapped gloss black, painting just wasn't an option, gonna get 18 inch OEM BMW wheels, and paint them gloss black as well, and gonna replace the tips of my exhaust, they just don't look that great anymore. I also got a front spoiler, but that will be placed underneath soon, gonna be fairly simple. It's about accent, I do not want to lower my car, especially not where I live. And yes it will lower it by about 1cm in the middle of the bumper (which is the mostly likely part to get damaged with speedbumps - though I've never had that issue so far with this car)
Inside I do want to wrap the trim pieces, once I get in a wrapping shop, I will see if they got something that closely matches the car, and get that for the inside. That I will definitely do myself.

 

So it's a work in progress still, but work and investment wise, I'd say I'm about 80% done.

 

 

Got pretty much completely stripped, which was apparently quite difficult because a lot of the rubbers are glued to the car, due to it being a convertible.

 

 

They did primer, white basecoat, 3 layers of yellow, because it's a tough colour to get an even finish. Then 2 layers of clear.

 

 

 

I goes from a bright yellow with a tint of orange, to something much darker depending on the light.

I've driven it twice now, and man I got a lot of attention. What's the great part is that most people tell me they would never get a yellow car, and my colleagues saying they didn't know what to expect, but they all love how it came out, that if you go yellow, this is the one.

This is btw Atacama Gelb/Yellow which was a specialty colour for the BMW Z4 like 10 years ago.

[Bitter]

Depending what your interior colors look like there's some really nice and durable wood grain textured vinyl in darker colors that can look amazing when used correctly and really 'class up' the interior.

[PandaCopyRight]

1 hour ago, Neroon said:

It's been a while since I posted this, and wanted to give an update. I finally got it sprayed. I originally wanted it wrapped, but there were a few reasons not to.

The main one was the fact I went with different bumpers + sideskirts, I wanted the M sport ones, and they are almost impossible to get second handed, but there are great replicas for these cars. They however only have primer, and reputable wrappers told me that you don't really want to wrap on that. So if I needed to get it all sprayed, I figured I might as well look into getting it all sprayed, especially since then you get the inside of the doors etc all done as well. Basically unless you start stripping the car or look inside the engine bay, you won't see it's original colour.

 

Aside from the aforementioned parts, I also added a spoiler, got new side blinkers (smoked LED), gloss black grill and mirror caps. 

I'm gonna get the chrome around my windows wrapped gloss black, painting just wasn't an option, gonna get 18 inch OEM BMW wheels, and paint them gloss black as well, and gonna replace the tips of my exhaust, they just don't look that great anymore. I also got a front spoiler, but that will be placed underneath soon, gonna be fairly simple. It's about accent, I do not want to lower my car, especially not where I live. And yes it will lower it by about 1cm in the middle of the bumper (which is the mostly likely part to get damaged with speedbumps - though I've never had that issue so far with this car)
Inside I do want to wrap the trim pieces, once I get in a wrapping shop, I will see if they got something that closely matches the car, and get that for the inside. That I will definitely do myself.

 

So it's a work in progress still, but work and investment wise, I'd say I'm about 80% done.

 

 

Got pretty much completely stripped, which was apparently quite difficult because a lot of the rubbers are glued to the car, due to it being a convertible.

 

 

They did primer, white basecoat, 3 layers of yellow, because it's a tough colour to get an even finish. Then 2 layers of clear.

 

 

 

I goes from a bright yellow with a tint of orange, to something much darker depending on the light.

I've driven it twice now, and man I got a lot of attention. What's the great part is that most people tell me they would never get a yellow car, and my colleagues saying they didn't know what to expect, but they all love how it came out, that if you go yellow, this is the one.

This is btw Atacama Gelb/Yellow which was a specialty colour for the BMW Z4 like 10 years ago.

Not gonna lie .. the color suits the car 

[Neroon]

12 hours ago, Bitter said:

Depending what your interior colors look like there's some really nice and durable wood grain textured vinyl in darker colors that can look amazing when used correctly and really 'class up' the interior.

Interior is all black. I had wood grain vinyl in an old car of mine, which was ok, but never truly liked it. This car feels a lot more modern, so while the right wood in the car can look great, I'm going with something yellow. There is a yellow carbon look wrap that I might try getting. It's not available where I live, so depending on how a gloss yellow looks, I may or may not get this one.

 

 

12 hours ago, PandaCopyRight said:

Not gonna lie .. the color suits the car 

I think so as well obviously. I looked through images a lot, and saw some with either atacama yellow or speed yellow from BMW, and they had all black trim pieces as well, and it just looked right.

[711jrp]

51 minutes ago, Neroon said:

Interior is all black. I had wood grain vinyl in an old car of mine, which was ok, but never truly liked it. This car feels a lot more modern, so while the right wood in the car can look great, I'm going with something yellow. There is a yellow carbon look wrap that I might try getting. It's not available where I live, so depending on how a gloss yellow looks, I may or may not get this one.

 

 

I think so as well obviously. I looked through images a lot, and saw some with either atacama yellow or speed yellow from BMW, and they had all black trim pieces as well, and it just looked right.

I was just going to say I bet that would look great if you wrapped the trims in black or got some oem shadowline ones. I just bought a E92 a few days ago for a daily. 

 

[Bitter]

I'm not a fan of gloss interior but it can look good. If they have that in satin or matte....yes!

[Radium_Angel]

On 3/27/2023 at 2:09 PM, Bitter said:

Ford floating grounds anyone? Both A pillars.

JHC, how old is that Ford "product" to be rusted out like that?

[Bitter]

1 hour ago, Radium_Angel said:

JHC, how old is that Ford "product" to be rusted out like that?

2007 I think

[Radium_Angel]

6 minutes ago, Bitter said:

2007 I think

Unreal....

rust in a "modern" car is simply unreal...