Author Topic: Auto Musings  (Read 3599 times)

hans

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Auto Musings
« on: July 26, 2010, 11:34:01 PM »
So, while it's probably going to take me forever to pick a new ride, I've moved on from the FIT and begun thinking about getting a small SUV like a CR-V or more specifically an '08 Acura RDX. There are a few RDXs in my area that look pretty interesting. The only thing that sucks is the gas mileage looks terrible.

Anyone here drive one of these? I'm going to go take a look at a couple this week I think, unless I find another car to obsess about, like maybe an EX35.
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hans

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2010, 05:23:08 PM »
Well, this morning my car yelled at me for low coolant; I took a look and sure enough my res tank is low and there's a small puddle underneath my car. I brought it in and they said it's a coolant flange and they want about $470 for a the fix. Gah!!!

I got a rental for the day (finally an A4 and a 2010 at that) and drove over to the other side of town to go look at the RDX and some others. First I drove a Subaru Outback; nice but I'm sure I'm an SUV person quite yet. Then I drove the RDX which I liked the feel of better and some of the stuff. It was nicer than I was expecting and would probably be an OK decision. While I was at the Subaru dealer (they're the same place) I saw they had a black/black WRX limited sedan. It was in the showroom so I couldn't take it for a drive, but I liked it. It has all the bells and whistles that I'm looking for and it's a fun car. I've driven the STI version a guy at work has and I like the feel of the car. My brother approves of the WRX (although he thinks I should get STI) and I kind of like the sedan vs the 5-door even though I'd lose cargo ability. Practically speaking I rarely need to carry anything so getting an SUV is probably unnecessary.

I'm having a hard time justifying buying a new car but I have plenty of extra cash to be able to do it right now and I've become so frustrated with my Audi that I don't want to drive places for fear of what's going to break next and require being towed. And dropping all the cash into the Audi to fix it seems wasteful at this point since I'm not really going to get much back on it.

So, I might be taking the afternoon off tomorrow to go drive the car and come home with my first brand new car. I'm expecting to have far fewer issues with this one. I have to run the numbers too and see if I might end up leasing it instead of buying it too, since I have a tendency to want to swap out cars every 4-5 years. The 6yr warranty didn't sound too bad either (extra 1.5K or so) to easy my fears of unexpected repairs if I buy the car. Although my brother has told me multiple times that I wouldn't need to worry about fixing it like I do the Audi.

Gots me some thinking to do tonight and pondering what other options are out there for that price as well that I could be happy with.
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hans

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2010, 05:31:15 PM »
For those of you smart people, any idea how much I should try to hassle them for since this is an end of the model year sort of thing pretty soon? I'm pretty sure they're going to be coming out with the 2011s in the fall. But honestly, I prefer the body style of the 2010 instead.
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hans

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2010, 05:55:08 PM »
Ah, there's a blue premium version (non-leather) that's a 5-door at the dealership on my side of town. I'm going to take a look tonight at it and maybe have them look at my car and see how much they'd give me on trade. Maybe I can play the two dealers against each other a bit and get a better trade value on my car or something.
Note sure how much I really like the blue, but driving the white Audi today as the loaner made me think twice about getting a white car with all the dirt and crap it got right way. And I'm on the fence with the 5-door.
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Jake

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2010, 09:43:07 PM »
tgm. get the sti. if you don't, you will wish you did three months from now. Just do it. STi. do it. you know you want to.
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hans

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2010, 12:29:35 AM »
Sorry, I ended up getting the blue WRX (premium). The blue grew on me and after the test drive I was hooked. I've driven an STI and they say this one has more HP than the older ones. It's WAY fun to drive. I'm having a hard time not throwing the gf into the backseat off the line. She likes it though. In the end, I think the hatch is a great choice and I splurged on the 72/60k b2b warranty since they gave me about a grand more on my trade than I was hoping. All in all I think the choice was good, but I still feel funny about paying so much and buying a brand new car. The financially responsible part of me nags, but the live life now you have plenty of money from being financially responsible say weeeeeee.
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hans

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2010, 12:29:58 AM »
Pics to come.
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Jake

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2010, 01:00:33 AM »
congrats.

but the sti come sin blue too



go switch it!
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micah

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2010, 11:29:27 AM »
a former co-worker of mine had a blue wrx about 7 years ago.  I rode it in once with him... it was fun (for him, I was scared shitless at his driving).  I heard a year later that he rolled it over on the highway and totaled it.
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hans

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2010, 11:45:23 AM »
I don't consider myself a scary driver, but with this car, it tempts/begs you to be more aggressive. Like a powerful bike, responsible driving is a must or you can easily get into trouble. Which is also why I'm not going to let my brother drive the car, who will likely try to drift it into a curb (I should find the pictures of his busted Mustang he did that with).
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hans

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #10 on: December 01, 2010, 11:59:31 AM »
I know I still owe nice pics of the car, but it'll have to wait for the spring (and hopefully when I get coil overs). But for now, my winter wheels showed up last night and I slapped them on this morning (my butt is still cold from sitting on the garage floor).

Here ya go (needs a wash). Nothing fancy, just plain old steelies fitted with Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D tires. I'll review when we get some better snow soon.
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webwhy

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #11 on: December 01, 2010, 12:49:05 PM »
i like it

we don't get much snow and ice down here...what are "winter wheels"

hans

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #12 on: December 01, 2010, 01:57:09 PM »
I run summer high performance tires normally, but when the temps get cold (~40F), they don't give great traction and can be a little bit too much fun with snow and ice. So many folks up here have a second set of wheels for winter that are basically cheap rims (usually steel) and winter specific tires which are designed to do better in snow and ice and colder weather (but are not great in warm weather). Some people like my boss just swap out the tires on their stock rims. The tires I got are supposed to give better performance on pavement which for the most part is what we drive on up here a day after the snow comes, so I thought the winter performance tires would be better. We'll see how that works out. I feel like I'm getting better traction than my summers, we should get some snow this week to give a good try.
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hans

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #13 on: December 22, 2010, 03:41:48 PM »
Got my first service appointment. I washed the snow out of my wheel wells and noticed that the passenger rear liner had popped from the inside to the outside of the bodykit. I'm guessing it's due to the snow but it's kind of odd. The guy on the phone asked if the clips where gone and I told him they don't have to have any there (on either side). The bottom is clipped in and so is the inside, but oddly, there don't seem to be any clips along the edge of the bodykit even though it looks like there are holes for them. I thought that was odd the first time I washed my car in the summer but what do I know.

So, we'll see how they do and what sort of hassle I might encounter. I'm nervous that they'll say it's not covered under warranty, but since I only have 4500 miles on the car, they'd be getting an earful. Here's to hoping things go smoothly.
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hans

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Re: Auto Musings
« Reply #14 on: December 29, 2010, 10:41:28 AM »
So they put the mud guard part back on but didn't take care of the bulge in the liner. I really don't think the tech even looked at it since they didn't tell me how much it would be to fix it, or even ask if I wanted it fixed. (I hate service guys, I doubt he even told the tech)

I posted on some WRX forums, but I think I need to call them back and complain more or take it to another dealership and get them to do it.

Here's a shot, tell me if you've ever seen this, or think it could have been caused by snow. To me it looks like a bad cooling off the mold, but I couldn't say if it's been there all the long as you don't notice it from the side.

I hate to whine, but the service guy even pulled the card that I needed to spend more money (when I told him I came from an Audi and never had snow problems). He said he guesses that's the difference in price between the cars. Ya, pretty bad. I told my brother I don't understand why they even have the service guys since they usually don't know much about anything (sort of like first level tech support). I thought buying a brand new car would be better, but I guess it's always something and I've yet to find a good dealer experience where I'm impressed with the service.

Here's my thread on the other forum:
http://www.wrxtuners.com/forums/f51/looking-reference-picture-rear-fender-liner-30022/

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