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[South Carolina Redfish]

My wife called me on the phone the other day crying.  She took her car for an emissions inspection, and it flunked.  I told her is was probably nothing, and we took her car to Meineke and dropped it off.  As we were leaving Meineke, she yells back, "and tell me why my antifreeze is brown."  $240 to fix the emissions problem.  The brown antifreeze is caused by a cooling coil that comes from the transmission is leaking into the raditor.  She needs a new radiator, hoses, and all the things that goes with correcting the transmission for an extra $2,100.  Her car is a 1996 and going on 19 years old.  I said, "now you can start crying."  I didn't know what else to do, so we went ahead and had the emission problem fixed, and we're hoping the car will go until next spring.  By then, I hope we can figure out how to get another car.  I hope I wasn't stupid for putting the $240 into it for now, but I just didn't know what to do at the time.

without the inspection you wouldn't be able to drive it legally right?
now drive it until the engine goes and hope you can fund another.

That exactly what I told my wife.  The radiator has been like that for about 1 or 2 years.  She only drives a few blocks to work and back, so who knows how long the car will last.  I told her to drive it till it blows up and then drive my truck until we can come up with a solution.  And yes, she still has to pass the test to drive it. Meineke told her to drive the car for about 150 miles to reset some thing, and then have it tested again.  She has till the end of the month.

at least you have a 2nd vehicle.
150 miles seems high, in NY it was only 50. you could drive around all day and have checked in the afternoon or next day.

Meineke told her to drive it around, then stop back before taking it to be inspected, and they would check it first to make sure it will pass the inspection.  So we'll see what happens at the end of the week.

50 miles is all the computers require to reset and clear the not ready message that the inspection station gets when they connect to your computer, normally a fail sticker is good for a full 30 days after you get the fail sticker.

Now I'm basically worried about hoping the car will make it another 6 months or so, and then what kind of car to replace it.  My wife just drives around town, so I'm thinking about the cheapest, best rated, high mileage car I can find.  But what, and I have to be able to fit into it..   I may subscribe to Consumer Report, and read up on cars.

You don't even need to do that.  Problem is cost of "highly rated" used cars is so high, you're almost better off getting a new one.  Lot of nice reliable cars for under 20K.

I guess I'm just dreaming of a new car at the moment. But I was looking at used cars on Cars.com and your right.  Some of the used cars were almost as much as the new ones.  Also I was looking at two identical cars at the same dealer.  One had 2,000 miles on it and the other had 30,000 miles and they were priced the same...?  God, I hate car dealers...

My 2 cents worth at no charge but I have bought plenty of vehicles and until this year drive plenty of miles.

Don't waste your money on consumer reports, just use Edmunds online for free.  More information and more reliable.
Nice clean used late model low mileage cars at dealers are seldom a significant savings and sometimes even more than new ones when you shop for rebate programs and no interest financing values on new ones.
Hyundai has some high quality good value cars that get great fuel milage don't overlook them
Don't pay extra for Hybrids you don't drive anywhere near enough miles to come out ahead
Don't buy a Fiat!!!
Don't believe anything a dealer tells you
Do your homework online before stepping foot on a dealers lot while they are open.  I like to go while they are closed and check things out, frequently find several unlocked so you can seat test them.

Thanks...  I'd like to have a Hybrid, but like you say, I'd never recoup the higher cost of the car.  Hyundai and Kia have that 10 year 100,000 warranty that looks attractive.  I really want some thing that will be reliable and will last a long time.  We never go anywhere except around town.  I see allot of deals on the Nissan Altima too.  I've often thought about going to a dealership and sitting in their repair department, say I waiting one someone, and then talk to the people that are bringing their cars in for repair..

IMHO based on rental cars driven and friends who have owned them the Hundai is a far superior car to the Kia.  Altima is a nice car too.

[South Carolina Redfish]

San Cristobal Revilation selected, excellent cigar. Just water at the present time I spent way too much time at the Jester King Brewery yesterday but they had one hell of a little band playing and I could not leave.  Whooo had to ask goggle where I lived to get home.  The place is way out in the country.

[Bad Dad]

San Cristobal Revilation selected, excellent cigar. Just water at the present time I spen way too much time at the Jester King Brewery yesterday but they had one hell of a little band playing and I could not leave.  Whooo had to ask goggle where I lived to get home.  The place is way out in the country.

Sounds like fun....  I keep trying to get my wife to go out, but she's always too tired from the night job.  I've often thought about just going out by myself..., but watching a movie at home and smoking a cigar always seems to win out..

[South Carolina Redfish]

San Cristobal Revilation selected, excellent cigar. Just water at the present time I spen way too much time at the Jester King Brewery yesterday but they had one hell of a little band playing and I could not leave.  Whooo had to ask goggle where I lived to get home.  The place is way out in the country.

Sounds like fun....  I keep trying to get my wife to go out, but she's always too tired from the night job.  I've often thought about just going out by myself..., but watching a movie at home and smoking a cigar always seems to win out..

We rarely go out at night we go check out all kinds of places to eat and drink on day trips and there are literally thousands of places to check out around here, including some pretty good breweries. I hate going to movies so that almost never occurs.

[Bad Dad]

I found a Tabak Negra in my humidor, in which I'm about to partake.  I'm going to take a little break. bbl.

[Travellin Dave]

My wife called me on the phone the other day crying.  She took her car for an emissions inspection, and it flunked.  I told her is was probably nothing, and we took her car to Meineke and dropped it off.  As we were leaving Meineke, she yells back, "and tell me why my antifreeze is brown."  $240 to fix the emissions problem.  The brown antifreeze is caused by a cooling coil that comes from the transmission is leaking into the raditor.  She needs a new radiator, hoses, and all the things that goes with correcting the transmission for an extra $2,100.  Her car is a 1996 and going on 19 years old.  I said, "now you can start crying."  I didn't know what else to do, so we went ahead and had the emission problem fixed, and we're hoping the car will go until next spring.  By then, I hope we can figure out how to get another car.  I hope I wasn't stupid for putting the $240 into it for now, but I just didn't know what to do at the time.

without the inspection you wouldn't be able to drive it legally right?
now drive it until the engine goes and hope you can fund another.

That exactly what I told my wife.  The radiator has been like that for about 1 or 2 years.  She only drives a few blocks to work and back, so who knows how long the car will last.  I told her to drive it till it blows up and then drive my truck until we can come up with a solution.  And yes, she still has to pass the test to drive it. Meineke told her to drive the car for about 150 miles to reset some thing, and then have it tested again.  She has till the end of the month.

at least you have a 2nd vehicle.
150 miles seems high, in NY it was only 50. you could drive around all day and have checked in the afternoon or next day.

Meineke told her to drive it around, then stop back before taking it to be inspected, and they would check it first to make sure it will pass the inspection.  So we'll see what happens at the end of the week.

50 miles is all the computers require to reset and clear the not ready message that the inspection station gets when they connect to your computer, normally a fail sticker is good for a full 30 days after you get the fail sticker.

Now I'm basically worried about hoping the car will make it another 6 months or so, and then what kind of car to replace it.  My wife just drives around town, so I'm thinking about the cheapest, best rated, high mileage car I can find.  But what, and I have to be able to fit into it..   I may subscribe to Consumer Report, and read up on cars.

You don't even need to do that.  Problem is cost of "highly rated" used cars is so high, you're almost better off getting a new one.  Lot of nice reliable cars for under 20K.

I guess I'm just dreaming of a new car at the moment. But I was looking at used cars on Cars.com and your right.  Some of the used cars were almost as much as the new ones.  Also I was looking at two identical cars at the same dealer.  One had 2,000 miles on it and the other had 30,000 miles and they were priced the same...?  God, I hate car dealers...

My 2 cents worth at no charge but I have bought plenty of vehicles and until this year drive plenty of miles.

Don't waste your money on consumer reports, just use Edmunds online for free.  More information and more reliable.
Nice clean used late model low mileage cars at dealers are seldom a significant savings and sometimes even more than new ones when you shop for rebate programs and no interest financing values on new ones.
Hyundai has some high quality good value cars that get great fuel milage don't overlook them
Don't pay extra for Hybrids you don't drive anywhere near enough miles to come out ahead
Don't buy a Fiat!!!
Don't believe anything a dealer tells you
Do your homework online before stepping foot on a dealers lot while they are open.  I like to go while they are closed and check things out, frequently find several unlocked so you can seat test them.

Thanks...  I'd like to have a Hybrid, but like you say, I'd never recoup the higher cost of the car.  Hyundai and Kia have that 10 year 100,000 warranty that looks attractive.  I really want some thing that will be reliable and will last a long time.  We never go anywhere except around town.  I see allot of deals on the Nissan Altima too.  I've often thought about going to a dealership and sitting in their repair department, say I waiting one someone, and then talk to the people that are bringing their cars in for repair..

Not Kia.  Hyundai is a solid economical car. Nissan reliability is sometimes in question, Toyota and Mazda are solid, Honda good too but a bit of price creep.  Ford has some nice cars on the lower end and GM has some offerings as well (but I have a long standing bias against them).

You can still find 2014's around that are priced better than 2010-2012 used versions, plus many with 0% financing.  November/December is a good time to buy (also Jan/Feb) as money is budgeted for the holidays now and nobody likes to go car shopping in the worst winter months.

[Travellin Dave]

San Cristobal Revilation selected, excellent cigar. Just water at the present time I spen way too much time at the Jester King Brewery yesterday but they had one hell of a little band playing and I could not leave.  Whooo had to ask goggle where I lived to get home.  The place is way out in the country.

Sounds like fun....  I keep trying to get my wife to go out, but she's always too tired from the night job.  I've often thought about just going out by myself..., but watching a movie at home and smoking a cigar always seems to win out..

Cheaper and probably a better choice in keeping you out of trouble.

[Travellin Dave]

San Cristobal Revilation selected, excellent cigar. Just water at the present time I spen way too much time at the Jester King Brewery yesterday but they had one hell of a little band playing and I could not leave.  Whooo had to ask goggle where I lived to get home.  The place is way out in the country.

Sounds like fun....  I keep trying to get my wife to go out, but she's always too tired from the night job.  I've often thought about just going out by myself..., but watching a movie at home and smoking a cigar always seems to win out..

We rarely go out at night we go check out all kinds of places to eat and drink on day trips and there are literally thousands of places to check out around here, including some pretty good breweries. I hate going to movies so that almost never occurs.

There sure are Mr. Growler!

[South Carolina Redfish]

San Cristobal Revilation selected, excellent cigar. Just water at the present time I spen way too much time at the Jester King Brewery yesterday but they had one hell of a little band playing and I could not leave.  Whooo had to ask goggle where I lived to get home.  The place is way out in the country.

Sounds like fun....  I keep trying to get my wife to go out, but she's always too tired from the night job.  I've often thought about just going out by myself..., but watching a movie at home and smoking a cigar always seems to win out..

We rarely go out at night we go check out all kinds of places to eat and drink on day trips and there are literally thousands of places to check out around here, including some pretty good breweries. I hate going to movies so that almost never occurs.

There sure are Mr. Growler!

LOL I did not even fill the growler this weekens.  They had some cedar plank aged farmhouse ale yesterday that was really good, also about  a 10% ABV. 

[South Carolina Redfish]

My wife called me on the phone the other day crying.  She took her car for an emissions inspection, and it flunked.  I told her is was probably nothing, and we took her car to Meineke and dropped it off.  As we were leaving Meineke, she yells back, "and tell me why my antifreeze is brown."  $240 to fix the emissions problem.  The brown antifreeze is caused by a cooling coil that comes from the transmission is leaking into the raditor.  She needs a new radiator, hoses, and all the things that goes with correcting the transmission for an extra $2,100.  Her car is a 1996 and going on 19 years old.  I said, "now you can start crying."  I didn't know what else to do, so we went ahead and had the emission problem fixed, and we're hoping the car will go until next spring.  By then, I hope we can figure out how to get another car.  I hope I wasn't stupid for putting the $240 into it for now, but I just didn't know what to do at the time.

without the inspection you wouldn't be able to drive it legally right?
now drive it until the engine goes and hope you can fund another.

That exactly what I told my wife.  The radiator has been like that for about 1 or 2 years.  She only drives a few blocks to work and back, so who knows how long the car will last.  I told her to drive it till it blows up and then drive my truck until we can come up with a solution.  And yes, she still has to pass the test to drive it. Meineke told her to drive the car for about 150 miles to reset some thing, and then have it tested again.  She has till the end of the month.

at least you have a 2nd vehicle.
150 miles seems high, in NY it was only 50. you could drive around all day and have checked in the afternoon or next day.

Meineke told her to drive it around, then stop back before taking it to be inspected, and they would check it first to make sure it will pass the inspection.  So we'll see what happens at the end of the week.

50 miles is all the computers require to reset and clear the not ready message that the inspection station gets when they connect to your computer, normally a fail sticker is good for a full 30 days after you get the fail sticker.

Now I'm basically worried about hoping the car will make it another 6 months or so, and then what kind of car to replace it.  My wife just drives around town, so I'm thinking about the cheapest, best rated, high mileage car I can find.  But what, and I have to be able to fit into it..   I may subscribe to Consumer Report, and read up on cars.

You don't even need to do that.  Problem is cost of "highly rated" used cars is so high, you're almost better off getting a new one.  Lot of nice reliable cars for under 20K.

I guess I'm just dreaming of a new car at the moment. But I was looking at used cars on Cars.com and your right.  Some of the used cars were almost as much as the new ones.  Also I was looking at two identical cars at the same dealer.  One had 2,000 miles on it and the other had 30,000 miles and they were priced the same...?  God, I hate car dealers...

My 2 cents worth at no charge but I have bought plenty of vehicles and until this year drive plenty of miles.

Don't waste your money on consumer reports, just use Edmunds online for free.  More information and more reliable.
Nice clean used late model low mileage cars at dealers are seldom a significant savings and sometimes even more than new ones when you shop for rebate programs and no interest financing values on new ones.
Hyundai has some high quality good value cars that get great fuel milage don't overlook them
Don't pay extra for Hybrids you don't drive anywhere near enough miles to come out ahead
Don't buy a Fiat!!!
Don't believe anything a dealer tells you
Do your homework online before stepping foot on a dealers lot while they are open.  I like to go while they are closed and check things out, frequently find several unlocked so you can seat test them.

Thanks...  I'd like to have a Hybrid, but like you say, I'd never recoup the higher cost of the car.  Hyundai and Kia have that 10 year 100,000 warranty that looks attractive.  I really want some thing that will be reliable and will last a long time.  We never go anywhere except around town.  I see allot of deals on the Nissan Altima too.  I've often thought about going to a dealership and sitting in their repair department, say I waiting one someone, and then talk to the people that are bringing their cars in for repair..

Not Kia.  Hyundai is a solid economical car. Nissan reliability is sometimes in question, Toyota and Mazda are solid, Honda good too but a bit of price creep.  Ford has some nice cars on the lower end and GM has some offerings as well (but I have a long standing bias against them).

You can still find 2014's around that are priced better than 2010-2012 used versions, plus many with 0% financing.  November/December is a good time to buy (also Jan/Feb) as money is budgeted for the holidays now and nobody likes to go car shopping in the worst winter months.

I agree with Travellin Dave's comments.

[South Carolina Redfish]

San Cristobal Revilation selected, excellent cigar. Just water at the present time I spen way too much time at the Jester King Brewery yesterday but they had one hell of a little band playing and I could not leave.  Whooo had to ask goggle where I lived to get home.  The place is way out in the country.

Sounds like fun....  I keep trying to get my wife to go out, but she's always too tired from the night job.  I've often thought about just going out by myself..., but watching a movie at home and smoking a cigar always seems to win out..

We rarely go out at night we go check out all kinds of places to eat and drink on day trips and there are literally thousands of places to check out around here, including some pretty good breweries. I hate going to movies so that almost never occurs.

There sure are Mr. Growler!

You need to find your way back down here.

[A Friend of Charlie]

Good evening, gents.  My Steelers let me down again but that's ok.

[KC]

Thanks...  I'd like to have a Hybrid, but like you say, I'd never recoup the higher cost of the car.  Hyundai and Kia have that 10 year 100,000 warranty that looks attractive.  I really want some thing that will be reliable and will last a long time.  We never go anywhere except around town.  I see allot of deals on the Nissan Altima too.  I've often thought about going to a dealership and sitting in their repair department, say I waiting one someone, and then talk to the people that are bringing their cars in for repair.. -----BD-----That 10 year/100,000 mile warranty from Hyundai/KIA is pure, unmitigated BS.  I know first hand.  Cynthia bought a new 2013 KIA Sportage, and at 15,000 the engine seized.  She had all the maintenance done at the dealer, on time.  They put a re-manufactured engine in it, under warranty, but whined about doing it.  At 28,000 miles, the engine seized again.  The car was 1.5 years old.  They refused to honor the warranty, saying "Someone put salt water in the engine".  Pure BS.  It was anti-freeze.  I had a computerized oil analysis done, proving that there was anti-freeze in the oil, and they still claimed it was salt water that someone put in the engine, and refused to honor the warranty.  We got a lawyer, sued Hyundai/KIA under the Florida Lemon Law, and we won.  KIA has to refund the full purchase price plus interest, and rental car costs, and take the POS back. 

[A Friend of Charlie]

What's KC doing here on a Sunday?  Bad weather in your neck of the woods?

[KC]

What's KC doing here on a Sunday?  Bad weather in your neck of the woods?

Huge front been moving over S FL all day, into tonight and tomorrow.  Been raining all day.