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

[Bitter]

28 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

yeah everyone sees the people who are thrown from the car... that's probably the lucky ones. 

I still honor the argument that seatbelt's shouldn't be government enforced. WOAH WOAH WOAH put the guns away; hear me out: Not wearing a seatbelt is completely STUPID, you're a complete idiot for not doing it. But I do at least see some value in the argument that it's your own decision, even if it's a stupid one

Ok but no. It should be enforced. Who pays the bills when they're injured or killed? We all do. Get paralyzed in a car wreck because you weren't belted OR you paralyze/kill someone else because your leg broke over their neck or head, who's footing the bill for your disability payments from Social Security? We are! Same deal with helmet laws, a minimum level of rider protection should be mandated and enforced to prevent harm to the idiot masses. Don't like it? Too bad, start your own country.

[vetali]

4 hours ago, Bitter said:

Pulled out the seatbelt on a customer car to take it for a test drive....fluffy mold growing on it right where it's nearest my face. Pulled that thing back around into the shop and soaked the seat belt with some industrial de-greaser it's whole length. That's absolutely disgusting and confirms they don't wear a seatbelt while driving. Reminds me of woman in scrubs who had one of the seat belt cheaters plugged into the socket. I scolded her about it and asked if she was a nurse 'yeah I work in the ER', I said 'so you know what happens to people without seatbelts?' she just looks down and says 'yeah' well next time car is in guess what? SAME THING. I mean if you want to die there's easier ways???? That are less expensive and painful!!!!!

Its either ejecto seato cuz or flesh ping pong ball off the steering wheel. Can't understand not wearing a seatbelt.

[Bitter]

So this thing has a serial data comm enable circuit #5986 that's pulling 30k ohm ground at the power steering control module and at connector X200. Thought it was just a dead PSCM but looks like it's a problem in the dash wire harness. Can't just send power into the circuit because it's a tiny unfused wire that'll go up in smoke like Cheech and Chong. Going to cut it near the PSCM and feed just that the 12V enable and see if the PSCM starts talking and working. If it does ..... Eh we might just run a lightly fused jumper and get power steering working. The one airbag SDM isn't talking either but the serial data gateway is. Really weird. I'll post all the diagrams tonight. I feel like fucking Rainman over here with this shit but it's actually dead simple.

[711jrp]

Well this joined the fleet, guess we're going to find out if N54 life is all it's cracked up to be.....

 

 

[Bitter]

I'm going to look at a 2020 Mazda 3 sedan base model tonight...8000 miles.

[vetali]

 

MRW a B1 misfire finally rolls in.

 

[Bitter]

Dealership was shady. Saleswoman was great, salesmanager was a dick and his handshake was limp. I repeatedly explained that I can put a hold deposit down right now on my credit card and initiate the bank transfers when I get home and bring in a cashiers check for the remainder of the down payment next week. 7 business days is likely the time frame but if they need I can bring 50% within a few days since it's not coming from an investment account. What they wanted to do was put a big down payment on my credit card and write up a contract, I leave with the car on a terrible contract with horrible payments and interest, then come back with the down payment, they void the first contract and write a new one and that's the real deal then. Why? Because it's the end of the month and they can't carry a deal from one month to the next.

I walked. It didn't seem right.

[vetali]

12 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Dealership was shady. Saleswoman was great, salesmanager was a dick and his handshake was limp. I repeatedly explained that I can put a hold deposit down right now on my credit card and initiate the bank transfers when I get home and bring in a cashiers check for the remainder of the down payment next week. 7 business days is likely the time frame but if they need I can bring 50% within a few days since it's not coming from an investment account. What they wanted to do was put a big down payment on my credit card and write up a contract, I leave with the car on a terrible contract with horrible payments and interest, then come back with the down payment, they void the first contract and write a new one and that's the real deal then. Why? Because it's the end of the month and they can't carry a deal from one month to the next.

I walked. It didn't seem right.

Yeah, run. They can carry a deal month to month. They just dont want to lol.

[Bitter]

19 minutes ago, vetali said:

Yeah, run. They can carry a deal month to month. They just dont want to lol.

Yeah. I know that. She knew that. Brad the limp handshake bro knew that.

[vetali]

18 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Yeah. I know that. She knew that. Brad the limp handshake bro knew that.

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.

[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