That sucks man, hopefully it doesn't screw anything up with your credit.

But just curious. Why do you care about the date of the contract?

The car was in your possession, so why not just start paying it off instead of bothering trying to go through all that (you had to know something like this was likely to happen)?

In retrospect I wish I had. But it would have been inconvenient as the way we budget we would have had to shuffle money from savings in order to pay it, plus with the due date only two days from when we first received the bill, we would have had to pay it over the phone which incurs a "convenience charge" (ha!). Plus it just plain bugs me when things aren't right.

Well, here's our Mazda 5 story, and phatj might want to take note. People have noted that the Mazda 5 has cool looking wheels and low profile tires. It does give a certain snazzyness to a minivan. But, there's a downside. Mrs. Vulture was on a bad road, and more or less hit a pothole pretty hard. Tire was blown out. It turns out those tires are hard to find. You say, but TV, you live in the middle of friggin nowhere, what did you expect? And you'd be right. We went to the dealer to get the tire replaced, and they didn't have one. We went to a big ol' tire store in Shreveport, and they didn't have one either. Finally, we realized that the best option was to have one of our local tire shops order the tire. Also, the rim was bent, so we ordered one of those too.

lethal wrote:The Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner is actually a rebadged Mazda Tribute (which also qualifies for the tax credit).

minor update, would love to be corrected here, but as I understand it, the Mazda Trib Hybrid is only available in California. I don't think we're going to buck up for the highlander hybrid which leaves us at the CRV/Rogue/Rav 4 thing.

I also have a pet theory that if they can make it through the next 6 months or so, the next yuppie movement is going to be towards American cars (buy local for food, why not buy local for cars?)

TenuredVulture wrote:Well, here's our Mazda 5 story, and phatj might want to take note. People have noted that the Mazda 5 has cool looking wheels and low profile tires. It does give a certain snazzyness to a minivan. But, there's a downside. Mrs. Vulture was on a bad road, and more or less hit a pothole pretty hard. Tire was blown out. It turns out those tires are hard to find. You say, but TV, you live in the middle of friggin nowhere, what did you expect? And you'd be right. We went to the dealer to get the tire replaced, and they didn't have one. We went to a big ol' tire store in Shreveport, and they didn't have one either. Finally, we realized that the best option was to have one of our local tire shops order the tire. Also, the rim was bent, so we ordered one of those too.

Those low profile tires also "bubble" on the sidewall rather easily when you hit a pothole. Trust me I know

Bucky wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:Well, here's our Mazda 5 story, and phatj might want to take note. People have noted that the Mazda 5 has cool looking wheels and low profile tires. It does give a certain snazzyness to a minivan. But, there's a downside. Mrs. Vulture was on a bad road, and more or less hit a pothole pretty hard. Tire was blown out. It turns out those tires are hard to find. You say, but TV, you live in the middle of friggin nowhere, what did you expect? And you'd be right. We went to the dealer to get the tire replaced, and they didn't have one. We went to a big ol' tire store in Shreveport, and they didn't have one either. Finally, we realized that the best option was to have one of our local tire shops order the tire. Also, the rim was bent, so we ordered one of those too.

Those low profile tires also "bubble" on the sidewall rather easily when you hit a pothole. Trust me I know

I know some people who live in cold climates have replaced the wheel/tire combo.

TenuredVulture wrote:Well, here's our Mazda 5 story, and phatj might want to take note. People have noted that the Mazda 5 has cool looking wheels and low profile tires. It does give a certain snazzyness to a minivan. But, there's a downside. Mrs. Vulture was on a bad road, and more or less hit a pothole pretty hard. Tire was blown out. It turns out those tires are hard to find. You say, but TV, you live in the middle of friggin nowhere, what did you expect? And you'd be right. We went to the dealer to get the tire replaced, and they didn't have one. We went to a big ol' tire store in Shreveport, and they didn't have one either. Finally, we realized that the best option was to have one of our local tire shops order the tire. Also, the rim was bent, so we ordered one of those too.

Ah, crap.

We had a similar experience with my wife's Protege5 last year (had a blowout in the middle of nowhere, and spent the next several hours trying to track down a tire in the right size), and it was something we were a little concerned about when shopping the Mazda5. We asked the dealer about it and were assured that the tire was a common size and so we didn't worry about it further. Yet another reason to never go back to North Penn Mazda.

Bucky wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:Well, here's our Mazda 5 story, and phatj might want to take note. People have noted that the Mazda 5 has cool looking wheels and low profile tires. It does give a certain snazzyness to a minivan. But, there's a downside. Mrs. Vulture was on a bad road, and more or less hit a pothole pretty hard. Tire was blown out. It turns out those tires are hard to find. You say, but TV, you live in the middle of friggin nowhere, what did you expect? And you'd be right. We went to the dealer to get the tire replaced, and they didn't have one. We went to a big ol' tire store in Shreveport, and they didn't have one either. Finally, we realized that the best option was to have one of our local tire shops order the tire. Also, the rim was bent, so we ordered one of those too.

Those low profile tires also "bubble" on the sidewall rather easily when you hit a pothole. Trust me I know

So you're saying we were better off just getting a blowout then and there.

jeff2sf wrote:

lethal wrote:The Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner is actually a rebadged Mazda Tribute (which also qualifies for the tax credit).

minor update, would love to be corrected here, but as I understand it, the Mazda Trib Hybrid is only available in California. I don't think we're going to buck up for the highlander hybrid which leaves us at the CRV/Rogue/Rav 4 thing.

I also have a pet theory that if they can make it through the next 6 months or so, the next yuppie movement is going to be towards American cars (buy local for food, why not buy local for cars?)

From the Mazda web site, that does seem to be the case.

As far as the other point, I'm not sure if the yuppie movement will be buy local for cars. People buy local food because its trendy for 1) environmental reasons, 2) community reasons and 3) health reasons. Part of it, obviously, were reactions to food quality scares in China and part of it was that local ingredients bought from farmer's markets, etc, are what the Alice Waters movement of chefs is working toward. The quality of the local food is perceived to be higher and hey, its helping out your neighborhood farmers anyway.

I don't see that with cars. American cars are still made all over the country and in Canada, not your backyard auto plant (unless you live in Michigan). Japanese car makers make cars at random places in the US, mostly in the South. Lastly, the perceived quality of American cars is much lower than Japanese and European cars. People pay for that and hey, if it helps the local guy, great.

My generalizations about cars:

1) No such thing anymore as a dewshbag car. Even American cars have good design and reasonable reliability.

2) IF buying new, the big advantage to Japanese cars (Honda, Toyota) is that they keep their resale value. And they remain the most reliable.

3) Japanese cars are, largely, utilitarian. Point A to Point B. If you want a true driver's car, you need to go European. A cheap Jetta has better feel and feedback than most American or Japanese cars.

4) Buy what you need, don't get sucked into some green initiative. You will likely guess wrong anyhow.

5) I freakin' love my diesel VW. I have a 2005 Passat (you can no longer get a diesel Passat) and I get 42 mpg in mixed driving and 50 mpg highway. An Accord sized car with Prius mileage, and not a tin can death trap. Yeah, diesel costs 20 cents a gallon more than regular. Thing really scoots, too, with the turbo.

Bottom line: If you are gonna keep the car for 8+ years, buy the car with the features you want. If you are gonna need to trade it in sooner, do not buy American.

I have a seven year old Toyota Avalon with 75K miles on it. It's a total champ. It was the first "loaded" car I ever bought and I'm glad I did it. It's a V6 that still gets decent mileage and its fast. I can seat four grown-ups very comfortably (as opposed to a Malibu or Maxima where the back seat passengers would be resting their knees on the backs of the driver/passenger seats). The equivalent German car for the cost would have been half the size or would have cost almost twice as much, never mind the increased cost of service. No way could I justify the expense. I'll easily get another five years out of it, if not more. It looked dull the day I bought it (seriously, look up any line drawing of a "car" and that's what they designed the Avalon against), but at this point I don't care.

Bucky wrote:

TheDude24 wrote:It is basic economics that buying a new car is not a good investment.

phatj wrote:

BigEd76 wrote:true, but if you own the car for 6-10 years and the first 5/50K or whatever is covered by warranty, it's worth it

The more reliable the car, the less likely this is to be true.

I'm with BigEd here. The wife is big on the theoretical "buy a car after the first two years of depreciation" thing. But in practice, these seem to be cars off lease. And owned by lesees who don't give a crap about the car because it won't be theirs very long.

SO, if you want to keep a car past 100K and beyond, acquiring it new and making sure it's properly maintained really will help you get past that 100K mark and well beyond.

My wife is nearing the end run of the third "two year old" car she's had in the same period I've owned my new car. I expect the count will be four or five of her "two year old" cars by the time my "new car" is ready for the scrap heap.

Now I realize that this won't work for everyone...not everybody wants to drive a 10-12 year old rattle cage. But as long as its reliable and gets me through the snow, the condition of the car doesn't really bother me.

Well the wife replace her 2001 Passatt (purchased in 2004) with a 2006 accord yesterday.

So that marks the fourth car which has resided in the driveway next to my purchased-new 2000 CR-V. I win.

New versus used discussion is always interesting. I would generally say that for most people a used car is a better purchase due to lower cost and the ability to skip financing, which should be your goal.

On the other hand, I buy new. I do this because I drive them to death over a long period of time (my current car is a 1999 with only 70K miles). I buy with the least options because after market is generally both better and cheaper. I also buy in cash, so what I do is I make the car payment to my banlk account so I can run the cycle again. I should say that the 1999 is a Passat with a stick shift and cloth seats. The option was the sun roof and aluminum wheels (sunroof was cheaper as a roof and wheel package by like $100 over just the roof - go figure).

right now if you do indeed have a clunker is an extremely good time to buy new- you get the 3500 or 4500, plus whatever very good rebates are being offered now and most dealers will sell most vehicles at invoice.

We just replaced a company car (alas not mine) last week under the program. Got rid of a Bravada with 150K miles and got an Escape rather cheaply sticker was $28K and with rebates and clunkers program we got it for 20K

TomatoPie wrote:My generalizations about cars:

1) No such thing anymore as a dewshbag car. Even American cars have good design and reasonable reliability.

2) IF buying new, the big advantage to Japanese cars (Honda, Toyota) is that they keep their resale value. And they remain the most reliable.

3) Japanese cars are, largely, utilitarian. Point A to Point B. If you want a true driver's car, you need to go European. A cheap Jetta has better feel and feedback than most American or Japanese cars.

4) Buy what you need, don't get sucked into some green initiative. You will likely guess wrong anyhow.

5) I freakin' love my diesel VW. I have a 2005 Passat (you can no longer get a diesel Passat) and I get 42 mpg in mixed driving and 50 mpg highway. An Accord sized car with Prius mileage, and not a tin can death trap. Yeah, diesel costs 20 cents a gallon more than regular. Thing really scoots, too, with the turbo.

Bottom line: If you are gonna keep the car for 8+ years, buy the car with the features you want. If you are gonna need to trade it in sooner, do not buy American.

I haven't had a car in over 12 years. But I may be forced to get one in the next 6 months... I hate most care designs ... won't by German -- I'm thinking Alfa Romeo despite its lousy repair record... seems fun to drive, had one briefly an older one I bought for my sister when she moved to Cally...

Why won't you buy German?

The Red Tornado wrote:right now if you do indeed have a clunker is an extremely good time to buy new- you get the 3500 or 4500, plus whatever very good rebates are being offered now and most dealers will sell most vehicles at invoice.

We just replaced a company car (alas not mine) last week under the program. Got rid of a Bravada with 150K miles and got an Escape rather cheaply sticker was $28K and with rebates and clunkers program we got it for 20K

Cash for clunkers is ending Monday because all the money has been spent.

Interesting enough, the places that take car donations are really taking a hit because of the program.

Uncle Milty wrote:

phatj wrote:Why won't you buy German?

You're not that far off...

PTK in all seriousness I hope it's not for some silly reason you read in an e-mail forward, or some other conspiracy urban legend

German cars run on Jew tears. I read it in the New York Times.