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Used car market gets even more bizarre

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Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre

#291

Post by u801e »

csteubs wrote: post #83
lastofthemojito wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The narrative earlier in the pandemic was that the reduction in driving was brutal for mechanics as it meant a reduction in need for auto maintenance and repair. Fewer of us are staying at home these days, but it looks like we're still not quite back to pre-pandemic levels of driving[0]. I'd imagine it's probably a bit of a mixed bag for mechanics, depending on what sort of vehicles they specialize in, where they're…

Might be anecdotal but on top of that, I've noticed that many car owners who previously only had services performed by a shop began doing their own maintenance. A friend who works as a service manager at CarMax had similar observations in conversations with some customers, including one DIY-er who forgot to torque their oil drain bolt correctly, lost the oil, and is now the recipient of a refurbished engine. I had on…

I've never gone as far as replacing suspension parts, mainly because the bolts tend to be very difficult to remove. Even brake rotors are hard to remove in some cases. The last time I changed the rotors, I had to use a sledgehammer and "lightly" tap on the rotor to get it to come off the hub.

As for fluids, I've done oil and automatic transmission changes. I haven't tried brake fluid or coolant though.

Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre

#292

Post by reasonabl_human »

gremloni wrote: post #160
dlmiller wrote: post #2

My car died, needing a new engine, so I was forced to get one in October. I usually only buy used, but prices are so inflated it didn't seem worth the premium. Used 2017-2020 Toyota Rav4's with 30-60k miles were the same price as a new 2021 model, if you could get one. I knew it was bad, but I was shocked of how bad it was. I went to multiple mega dealerships with 500-1000 cars that were all spoken for. Most had 0 ne…

I bought a new car about a year and a half ago. With 3 years 0% interest, I put the entire amount in an index fund and have been paying installments. At this point I’ve paid ~18,000 but because of market profits and taxes it has only been around $8000 I’ve really ended up paying.

You’re saying you invested the equivalent of the car’s sticker price into an index fund upon purchasing, and draw from that to pay the installments on the loan used to purchase the car? How is this different than just investing all your spare cash? Mindset shift reserving the capital to cover the cars value, like the envelope budgeting approach?

Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre

#293

Post by eitland »

u801e wrote: post #291
csteubs wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be anecdotal but on top of that, I've noticed that many car owners who previously only had services performed by a shop began doing their own maintenance. A friend who works as a service manager at CarMax had similar observations in conversations with some customers, including one DIY-er who forgot to torque their oil drain bolt correctly, lost the oil, and is now the recipient of a refurbished engine. I had on…

I've never gone as far as replacing suspension parts, mainly because the bolts tend to be very difficult to remove. Even brake rotors are hard to remove in some cases. The last time I changed the rotors, I had to use a sledgehammer and "lightly" tap on the rotor to get it to come off the hub. As for fluids, I've done oil and automatic transmission changes. I haven't tried brake fluid or coolant though.

> The last time I changed the rotors, I had to use a sledgehammer and "lightly" tap on the rotor to get it to come off the hub.

I used a 2"x4" wooden beam. Felt a lot safer.

Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre

#294

Post by noduerme »

egypturnash wrote: post #284
noduerme wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Havoc due to hacking is already possible today But it's still legal to buy and drive a car from the 80s that can't be hacked. Looking ahead, my concern is that we'll begin to see laws that restrict human controlled vehicles from autonomous lanes and eventually whole roads. This would take a lot of burden off the manufacturers. If cars can use a common protocol to communicate across brands, you don't even need traf…

How... how would pedestrians cross these streets?

You could still have crosswalk lights without having traffic signals. Cars on the network would slow, reroute or stop if the pedestrian crossing lights were active. But if there were no pedestrians they could run through intersections at full speed at 90deg angles to each other, as long as they were all timed with the cross-traffic.

To me this is an extremely dystopian outcome, but it's inexorably where we're going once we have full self-driving. And the Tesla fans, not to mention people who are like "oh humans shouldn't even be allowed to drive! Too dangerous!" will be living in this and looking back wistfully at the days when you could make eye contact with a driver and know whether it was safe to cross the street.

Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre

#295

Post by grp000 »

Cd00d wrote: post #281
grp000 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll probably be less time efficient than a full-time mechanic though.

I'm sorry, but this is an unnecessary and negative comment. I don't know why you made it. Of course a professional will accomplish tasks faster than a DIY'er checking YouTube. But, as OP says, there's savings AND personal satisfaction involved. Why is time-efficiency the metric you're weighting in value?

It has nothing to do with negativity. Maybe OP is accounting for an efficiency loss rate, but they didn't mention it, so I brought it up. What good are inaccurate calculations?

Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre

#296

Post by csteubs »

u801e wrote: post #291
csteubs wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be anecdotal but on top of that, I've noticed that many car owners who previously only had services performed by a shop began doing their own maintenance. A friend who works as a service manager at CarMax had similar observations in conversations with some customers, including one DIY-er who forgot to torque their oil drain bolt correctly, lost the oil, and is now the recipient of a refurbished engine. I had on…

I've never gone as far as replacing suspension parts, mainly because the bolts tend to be very difficult to remove. Even brake rotors are hard to remove in some cases. The last time I changed the rotors, I had to use a sledgehammer and "lightly" tap on the rotor to get it to come off the hub. As for fluids, I've done oil and automatic transmission changes. I haven't tried brake fluid or coolant though.

Those suspension bolts are no joke. The control arm bolts on my sedan took 25 minutes of the 'blow torch --> upside down canned air' cycle get them to budge with a breaker bar. And the first drive to the alignment shop is enough to induce cold sweats on occasion.

Coolant is typically pretty easy and the intervals are longer, although I end up sticky with glycol every time I do a flush. If you ever decide to tackle the brakes, I picked up a $10 vacuum hand pump on Amazon that saved me from jury-rigging a 2liter bleeder bottle and finding someone to pump the brakes for me. Highly recommend.

Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre

#297

Post by noduerme »

postsantum wrote: post #159
hyperman1 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, not being allowed to drive your own vehicle is probably a good thing. See e.g. https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index... . From the first few paragraphs: Road traffic crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States for people aged 1–54 More than half of those killed are pedestrians, motorcyclists, or cyclists. Drivers risk other people's lives, hence, other people have a…

I am sure it would work great with the upcoming quarantine of 2038. Fellow citizen, for your own good, your car has been geofenced to your local grocery shop

This is my cubicle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Projecting 6 different insta feeds on the walls and floor and ceiling will be so freeing for our kids. They can save up for a Meta subscription with GTA GFE. Just like driving in a real car with a real girlfriend, but better.

Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre

#298

Post by Andys »

KiranRao0 wrote: post #182
latortuga wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another flip side effect. My dad is a CFO at a car dealership and tells me that the banks are having problems due to the lack of cars as well. A dealership will normally float all their inventory on a big bank note but they basically have no cars on the lot to sell which means the banks underwriting those notes are making no money on interest. Multiply it by thousands of dealerships nationwide and this has big impact…

This seems like a really good thing for the dealership. They are able to operate with ~0 inventory and ~0 inventory holding costs.

The Tesla model. I wonder if any of them will realise they can just sell cars without a flashy dealership showroom with sales staff and demonstrators?

Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre

#299

Post by gremloni »

reasonabl_human wrote: post #292
gremloni wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a new car about a year and a half ago. With 3 years 0% interest, I put the entire amount in an index fund and have been paying installments. At this point I’ve paid ~18,000 but because of market profits and taxes it has only been around $8000 I’ve really ended up paying.

You’re saying you invested the equivalent of the car’s sticker price into an index fund upon purchasing, and draw from that to pay the installments on the loan used to purchase the car? How is this different than just investing all your spare cash? Mindset shift reserving the capital to cover the cars value, like the envelope budgeting approach?

It’s not really different except it’s better than paying for a car outright during this market and you’ve already put the money aside so you don’t have to worry about coming up with it each month.

Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre

#300

Post by hyperman1 »

noduerme wrote: post #294
egypturnash wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How... how would pedestrians cross these streets?

You could still have crosswalk lights without having traffic signals. Cars on the network would slow, reroute or stop if the pedestrian crossing lights were active. But if there were no pedestrians they could run through intersections at full speed at 90deg angles to each other, as long as they were all timed with the cross-traffic. To me this is an extremely dystopian outcome, but it's inexorably where we're going o…

What's missing in this analysis is everything not a car or pedestrian. Bikes, scooters, ... So this vision can't become truth. Now I understand these are rare in the US, so maybe you're from over there?

My guess is we'll establish a maximum speed allowed to drive for humans, say 30km/h up to 50km/h. Speeds above this are reserved for robotic drivers, outside inhabited zones. Some of these roads are vehicle only, like we have E- routes in the EU or I-routes in the US. Here, non human traffic is forbidden. Then there are the secondary routes, where high speed should be robot-only and robots have to take care for other traffic. Roads can have markings adapted for easy optical recognition, but driverless cars are required to drive safely without them.

Eye contact with a driver does not at all make it safe to cross a street, as current death toll proves.

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