What vehicle do you drive?
- Thread starter Marmac
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Did the Explorer have the ten speed automatic transmission? I'm anxious to see what that's like.
Fucker
Log Wizard
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Siliconemelons
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Ehh, I drive Nissans, so CVTs or in the case of the leaf, no transmission - so any "gear" transmission to me is annoying- I like no shifting and just a smooth gradual curve of acceleration. But as all the new exploders have the 10 speed, I suppose I did drive it, I did not pay much attention to it really... the thing is big however feels larger than the model it just replaced although its not that much bigger in reality.
Ehh thats what the people told me, as the new explorer was meant to be back on a RWD truck platform. But looking it up, yeah one is a CD6 platform and the other is T6.
Siliconemelons
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Fixed that for you...
But I guess I do have a question about carmax, did they offer extended warranty and were they well priced and good coverage?
ShakyJake
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Yes, I never thought I would ever purchase a vehicle from CarMax. Every time I looked at their pricing they seemed WAY over priced. And, generally, they are. But I found this particular Mustang priced at around what they had base, no-option Mustang GTs at. It was weird.
From what I understand they will reduce the price of a vehicle until either it sells or they move it to auction. My best guess is this car wasn't selling because of the color? I got it for a damn good price. Also, I had a trade-in and they gave me the upper-end of the KBB price range which, frankly, shocked me.
They offered an extended warranty, but since the car only has 9,000 miles it has the manufacturer warranty still. So I didn't bother.
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TheYosh
Trakanon Raider
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Stay away from Carmax's max care warranty service. They do not cover the common parts of the car that actually breakdown and do cover obscure things like fuel lines knowing full well that the chances of items like that failing is slim to none. With that being said Carmax cars generally are in pretty good shape and if you're not too sure about getting a car checked out yourself you're in pretty safe hands buying a car from them but you are paying for the peace of mind though.
Burns
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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The sports car market drops hard in the winter, since most of the country has frozen roads on their mind. So, it's the best time to buy. They are upwards of 20% cheaper from dealers because no one wants them sitting on their lots, and on their books for 4+ months.
Getting a good price from Carmax is rare though, since they can, and will ship to their locations all over the country. If it didn't sell over the summer/fall and wasn't getting much action on the website (dunno if they track this), they could have brought it down, fairly close to dealer auction price (within 10% - 15%), just so they didn't have to put it on a truck to Manheim (largest auction co. in US).
When I had access to Manheim's MMR pricing tools (black book), the cars I looked at on Carmax, had upwards of a 30% markup over the dealer auction prices. Therefor, I ended up rarely checking Carmax because they were always bad, so I am sure I missed a decent price or two.
As an aside:
When I was looking for my car, 6 years ago, the only "dealer" that I found that was consistently close to dealer auction price (at least for the make/model I wanted) was an Ebay seller called Texas Direct Auto (usually under 15% markup). Their whole business model was thin margins on high volume, directly from auction. So they paid all their employees hourly and kept a minimal (under) staff. For the vehicles, all they do it detail them, snap some pictures, and move it out the door. I didn't buy from them, but I would use them as a starting point to check prices, if I was looking today.
I even made a short spreadsheet when I found the exact car that they bought in the Manheim comps list (they auction so many cars, it's usually too difficult to find the exact auction):
And here are some screens of what the dealer pricing tool looks like at Manheim (from 2014), if anyone is interested (I dont have access anymore, but it was fun to play with):
Getting a good price from Carmax is rare though, since they can, and will ship to their locations all over the country. If it didn't sell over the summer/fall and wasn't getting much action on the website (dunno if they track this), they could have brought it down, fairly close to dealer auction price (within 10% - 15%), just so they didn't have to put it on a truck to Manheim (largest auction co. in US).
When I had access to Manheim's MMR pricing tools (black book), the cars I looked at on Carmax, had upwards of a 30% markup over the dealer auction prices. Therefor, I ended up rarely checking Carmax because they were always bad, so I am sure I missed a decent price or two.
As an aside:
When I was looking for my car, 6 years ago, the only "dealer" that I found that was consistently close to dealer auction price (at least for the make/model I wanted) was an Ebay seller called Texas Direct Auto (usually under 15% markup). Their whole business model was thin margins on high volume, directly from auction. So they paid all their employees hourly and kept a minimal (under) staff. For the vehicles, all they do it detail them, snap some pictures, and move it out the door. I didn't buy from them, but I would use them as a starting point to check prices, if I was looking today.
I even made a short spreadsheet when I found the exact car that they bought in the Manheim comps list (they auction so many cars, it's usually too difficult to find the exact auction):
And here are some screens of what the dealer pricing tool looks like at Manheim (from 2014), if anyone is interested (I dont have access anymore, but it was fun to play with):
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ShakyJake
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Yeah, I've been in the market for a Mustang for about a year now. I've been constantly scanning Autotrader and various large dealerships looking at their inventories. This particular one at CarMax stood out as being very reasonable. So I kept watching and, bam, they dropped it another grand. It was at that point I pulled the trigger to transfer it.
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Siliconemelons
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Has anyone...used carsaver? It's "Wal-Mart" of car dealers.
They "partner" with a bunch of dealers and offer a lifetime powertrain warranty - main stipulation is you have to get oil changes etc done by a shop and documented.
I think they offer an upgrade to that for $$ to be nigh B2B.
I found a 2016 XC90 in Miami with about 8 months of factory warranty left. Decent price. Options I want, interior color I want and 2nd choice ext color.
They "partner" with a bunch of dealers and offer a lifetime powertrain warranty - main stipulation is you have to get oil changes etc done by a shop and documented.
I think they offer an upgrade to that for $$ to be nigh B2B.
I found a 2016 XC90 in Miami with about 8 months of factory warranty left. Decent price. Options I want, interior color I want and 2nd choice ext color.
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We're talking about getting one of those. They get amazing reviews. Glad to hear it's good in snow.
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Burren
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I've owned 3 subies over the years and loved them all. They were perfect for living in New England and could do anything. I would plow through snow that had trucks and SUVs stuck every winter. Don't need them now in Texas, unfortunately. But, I dont think they make a car I'd want anymore, which is too bad. I used to love their gusto for performance models.
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Ronaan
Molten Core Raider
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So I sold the red and bought the black. It's not a truck or a sports car or anything super exciting but it's a nice family car with a clean 1.6TDI (116HP) and runs on ~5.5 liters of diesel per 100 km (over 42 mpg), helps with the commute.
Bonus pic of panorama sunroof and 15% of my face
I wanted to get an electric (VW Golf or Hyundai Ioniq) and the wife didn't so here we are. Happy wife happy life.
Already have new rims for summer and some smaller "add-in" stuff like a mat for the trunk and such.
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Porkchop
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Yep this is my second subie. I just traded in a 2017 Forester 2.5 and I loved the size and capability, but the performance was lacking. I drove the impreza and crosstrek and couldn't justify going smaller and getting less HP. So I started looking at performance suv's and they had just announced the 20 outback is going to have a turbo and a 12 inch touchscreen? Then they announced the blacked out Onyx edition for $34K? Hell yes. I went to drive it and loved the drive but didn't care for the weird "vegan" interior, so I got the XT Limited instead.
ShakyJake
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I had a 2005 Legacy GT. Oh wait, I still have a picture lying around:
Great car. Had a COBB access tune. Thing made 290HP with just the flash.
Sold it in 2008 for an 08 Mustang GT. Kinda wish I had kept it but would've definitely been gone by now.
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Sledge
Trakanon Raider
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Picking it up from the fabricator this weekend! Finally got a front bumper to go with the rear. A few skid plates and I'm pretty much done modding it. Edit: I'm going to use a paint pen to color the parking sensors black!
What year is that and do you have any more pictures?