Car Cost Curve

Car/truck/automotive news and discussion
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Car Cost Curve

Post by kevm14 »

Adam wrote:
kevm14 wrote: I do have a 98 Civic EX auto anecdote and it's not good. And this was back when it was not even a 10 year old car.
Go on...
I will see if I can get him to give me a summary of his ownership experience. He is not anti-Honda; he still has his 89 Acura Legend which was in his family for a long time.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Car Cost Curve

Post by kevm14 »

He got back to me. There was a twist I didn't know, or forgot.

Here's how he started:
Well I am not 100% sure it was the car or the dealer. I think executive honda of wallingford deliberately sold a car that was totaled and put back together without claiming insurance. There was bondo, unmatched paint, and body bolts missing.. And the long and short of it is everything on that car failed, sans the engine. The tranny breaking was when I donated it for scrap. Very untypical honda experience, but again. I feel fault might lie with the dealership. Again, that place soured me to car buying. from any dealership, what more Can I add?

The engine was zippy enough for an EX, gas mileage appropriate. The interior was Cheap cheap cheap plastic. I had to keep the stock stereo via Y-cable attached even with aftermarket as the main relay, and dome light sensor were integrated into it.
What else,,, well again off topic, but the dealership stripped the threads on my oil drain pan.. I always did my own oil but they claimed I had a "free oil change" due my way so I cashed it it...
I was left with a broken oil pan, and 2 days of arguing with the foreman (keep in mind this would have been at least a month later as i discovered this when the oil was next due to be changed), they would only pay half the repair,, $400+ out of pocket on my end.
Fair to say some of his dissatisfaction with the car was not due to what he suspects was a prior accident. And even if it was, I guess it has to be repaired improperly for it to impact reliability. So all I can probably say is it is unfair to say 100% or 0% of his issues were from a prior accident.

He added some specific problems:
... Yeah sure, headlight harnesses melted, alternator went twice, power steering went, main relay went, blower motor went, wiper motor went (that was an interesting one, it broke in a way that would make the wipers go off when you went over a hard bump....scratching the hell out of the windshield over time), lots of other minor issues too, I just forget over time.. I think it only had 140 to 145K when I got rid of it... total garbage.
Trans was slipping at the end he said.

I'll also say if you want to hold up a 90s Japanese car for indestructibility, it would be hard to top the Corolla...
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Car Cost Curve

Post by kevm14 »

kevm14 wrote:
bill25 wrote:
Yes, and every other one I've seen has not had any of that strange seat wear or even the heavy steering wheel wear (light steering wheel wear, yes). So...I blame the previous owner.
We saw multiple pictures of wrecked STS interiors including the steering wheel issueand the plastic plate coming off the back of the driver's seat.
I'll give you the trim on the driver's seat. That does commonly break. But do also remember that all of the cars we looked at that were ruined were bottom of market cars that were selling for 8-10% of their original MSRP (in extreme cases, 4-6%!). Let's look at a bunch of everyone's favorite cars for 8-10% of their original MSRP and see how perfectly mint their interiors are.

Any STS for real money (like $7500+) was not trashed. If they were just shitty cars, they'd all be shitty.
I see no one ever responded to this one. I made some good points here!
bill25
Posts: 2583
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2013 2:20 pm

Re: Car Cost Curve

Post by bill25 »

Let's look at a bunch of everyone's favorite cars for 8-10% of their original MSRP and see how perfectly mint their interiors are.
Sounds like a good reason to not buy bottom of the market.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Car Cost Curve

Post by kevm14 »

Yes, if you are buying blindfolded...
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