Ongoing General Automotive Thread 2.0

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Some folks seem to have a weird switch that goes off in their head when things become mildly scarce.

Yeah it seems like a sense of urgency kicks in and people start getting a little irrational. Yes vehicles are scarce on lots but you can still order from the factory and get one in 6-8 months or so. I don't understand why anyone would spend over MSRP on a lot vehicle right now. I understand that there may be cases where maybe your current ride was written off, your current vehicle is breaking down, etc but it seems that for the most part we have become extremely impatient when it comes to consumer goods.

[calgarygeologist]

My mom bought a used, compact car last summer because she wanted something small and fuel efficient for the city. She paid $6000 and she sold it to a Ford dealership last week for $6500 because she didn't want it anymore.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by 81MC

I honestly have no idea what would inspire someone to buy new right now? Catastrophic failure of your only vehicle and don’t want to risk driving a beater for a year?

Dealerships and new vehicles are a terrible value proposition at the best of times. Record low inventory, terribly high prices, and a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude from the leeches waiting to suck you dry with interest rates and add-one? No thanks.

Manufacturers treating customers like they’re doing them a favour by selling them unrelenting money pits. Craziness.

I will never buy a new vehicle in my life. Sure it would be cool. But that is a bold financial decision that is no where near necessary. It’ll never happen, ever.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

My mom bought a used, compact car last summer because she wanted something small and fuel efficient for the city. She paid $6000 and she sold it to a Ford dealership last week for $6500 because she didn't want it anymore.

This is the glorious secret of the ~$5000 car world. I have done the same thing with vehicles I owned for 2+ years. Sold for basically what I paid.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

This is the glorious secret of the ~$5000 car world. I have done the same thing with vehicles I owned for 2+ years. Sold for basically what I paid.

The only part that sucks is the maintenance side of things. Repairs can start to get expensive with those types of vehicles.

My mom could have gotten more in a private sale because the dealership listed it for over $11,000. The issue with private is that I would have had to help her a lot through the process and I really didn't want to invest the time. I told her to drop it off at Regal Auctions and take the easy way out as I expected about $6500.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

The only part that sucks is the maintenance side of things. Repairs can start to get expensive with those types of vehicles.

My mom could have gotten more in a private sale because the dealership listed it for over $11,000. The issue with private is that I would have had to help her a lot through the process and I really didn't want to invest the time. I told her to drop it off at Regal Auctions and take the easy way out as I expected about $6500.

Well repairs costs are partially vehicle dependant. The little commuter types are cheap for most things like oil changes, tires, etc…

I’m also a big supporter of forgoing a couple grand to not have to deal with tire kickers. Sell it to a dealer for cash and move on. Good call.

[81MC]

Heh, I was really lucky. Last two cars I sold went for asking price, in cash, to the first person to contact me and were sold less than 24hr after posting. I had dealers offer me pretty much what I listed for (stupid me should have priced higher), but I’d so much rather not support those guys.

[speede5]

Originally Posted by FLAME ENVY

I had no idea, asked my wife. 2011 Tacoma written off from a collision, he had no vehicle.

Understandable, I was more wondering why they had no choice to go buy a brand new one at retail+. I've heard this statement a few times over this period. Kind of the same sentiment as the overuse of the word 'need' to justify purchases.

As for used cars, I have been commonly in the ~$5000 sector, but only because I'm not scared to do pretty much anything mechanically and have been really fortunate not to take on a major engine or transmission issue. Good vetting I guess. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone.

My son bought a brand new Elantra and I was fully supportive because a) he lives 1600 km away and b) he can barely use a tire pressure gauge much less a wrench. (I tried, his talent turns out to be music not mechanics.)

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

This is the glorious secret of the ~$5000 car world. I have done the same thing with vehicles I owned for 2+ years. Sold for basically what I paid.

That's the thing about vehicle depreciation; on a long enough timeline, the depreciation curve flattens out. If a vehicle is in good running condition, the dashboard warning lights are not lit up like a Christmas tree, and the body is in reasonable shape, you really shouldn't lose a lot of money on it in the $5,000-and-under range.

[FLAMESRULE]

Need some help here. We have a 2010 Subie Forester that has run into electrical gremlins and left my wife stranded a few times. We've replace the battery 3x and the alternator once.

Basically the car will run perfectly fine and then she'll turn it off. This could be 3min to do an errand or hours at home. At home I've.got it on a trickle charger. But when she's out, like today in a car wash, shell try and restart and it will be COMPLETELY dead. Like barely clicks. So it's being drawn down in under 10min when it happens.

It's not all the time and I'm pretty sure the alternator works. I've seen a recall on a CANBUS issue that creates a big parasitic draw but that was 2015-2020 models.

Any ideas or thoughts?? She doesn't run heated seats, stereo, etc and is now basically done with it. So I get a new toy (M40i elec?) We've got it at ALL Makes today.

[GGG]

Is the battery dead in these instances if you measure it?

How is the grounding to the frame? How are all the major electrical connections?

Essentially is something lose or corroded causing arcing or poor connections which is frying batteries and alternators. In this case the battery wouldn’t be dead but either you’d have a high voltage drop preventing the car from getting any current through the system.

[FLAMESRULE]

The battery seems completely dead...but thats only been tested by me when I use the jumpers to see or when it's died in the garage and the trickle charger says under 25%. I haven't actually tested it, no meter at home.

Could that be from a short on the main battery ground? I feel like it's related to the steering column/ignition since it feels like it's happened a few times with the key in the ignition (eg waiting for someone to come out of the house) but engine off.

[GGG]

Do you have access to a voltmeter to check the alternator? It might be that it is no longer putting out enough current to charge the battery so your battery never recovers from starting.

This would explain chewing through a lot of batteries.

[81MC]

Get a multimeter, they’re stupid cheap these days.

Check voltage at battery posts. Start car and should jump from 12ish to 14ish. You can’t really ‘be certain’, but that’s a good indicator. If you’re not seeing that increase, your alternator is bad. Don’t assume because you replaced it that it is good...most people buy whatever’s cheap and they’re all rebuilt off shore and there is like zero guarantee that it’s not bad.

Assuming your battery is charging and shows 12v when off, disconnect a terminal from battery and jumper the terminal/cable looking for Amps. You’ll need to keep this jumper we uninterrupted for the time period. When things go to sleep, anything over 30mA is excessive. But if dying in 10-15 minutes? You would need to be seeing an awful lot of amperage draw.

Could be a solenoid or module gone bad, but most likely is the replacement alternator has failed.

[bigrangy]

Had a similar issue with a Chev truck. Just randomly no power. It was a loose battery cable. Really had to clean the posts and tighten the crap out of it. Idk if that helps.

[Fuzz]

Ya, the alternator sounds suspect. Check the wiring for it as well as what 81MC suggested. Ideally you'd want to have a shop do a load test on it, but you said it is going into a shop today?

[Northendzone]

so on the weekend i was driving out to lake louise and my front windshiled starts to frost up. set my heat control to defrost and no change. I determine that no matter which heat setting i use, the air is only coming out of the dash vents. Get home and start doing some searching and the internet suggests the issue is with an actuator that is in some awful spot behind the speedo - so i figure this is a $1,000 touch to fix.

Took my vehicle to ARA here in calgary and was somewhat pleasantly surprised that the bill was "only" $550 and they were able to look at and it fix it in the same day.

[Fuzz]

My truck had that problem, but I fixed it with $2 of vacuum line under the hood. Presumably yours was an electrical actuator?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by FLAMESRULE

Need some help here. We have a 2010 Subie Forester that has run into electrical gremlins and left my wife stranded a few times. We've replace the battery 3x and the alternator once.

Basically the car will run perfectly fine and then she'll turn it off. This could be 3min to do an errand or hours at home. At home I've.got it on a trickle charger. But when she's out, like today in a car wash, shell try and restart and it will be COMPLETELY dead. Like barely clicks. So it's being drawn down in under 10min when it happens.

It's not all the time and I'm pretty sure the alternator works. I've seen a recall on a CANBUS issue that creates a big parasitic draw but that was 2015-2020 models.

Any ideas or thoughts?? She doesn't run heated seats, stereo, etc and is now basically done with it. So I get a new toy (M40i elec?) We've got it at ALL Makes today.

My wife's Outback was doing similar things for about a year. I would take it to the car wash and then out of the blue the idiot lights would turn on and the car wouldn't turn over. 15 minutes later all good. It then happened to her months later at the grocery store parking lot. The battery was recently replaced and fine so we took it into the dealership and they found that the intake piping was not properly fitted after the air filter and it solved the issue. What ticked me off is that the only people that touched the intake plumbing was the dealership as they clearly didn't re-assemble the intake properly after last changing the air filter.

[agulati]

My dad picked up an S580 in Selenite Grey Magno that has finally arrived. Thought this might be a good place to ask with regards to PPFs.

Is it worth getting the full car wrapped in XPEL STEALTH PPF or only the front? Does it impact the color much?

Also any recommended companies that offer great quality in applying PPF?