[RJ2112]

The weird thing with my Corolla and the CVT it has, it's pretty quick 60-80. gutless off the line, and gutless with 4 adults in the car.... but it gets almost 40 MPG all day long drinking the cheapest swill I can find.

 

[riverszzr]

After about 1400 miles of driving to look at vehicles...........

I found this one about 80 miles from home....
So the subaru in one week........... 1700 miles............... that is more miles than I put on all 4 wheeled vehicles combined in 2021 or 2020.......... or the first 7 months of 2022 before moving much further away

2014 VW Passat with a manual transmission.... 118k miles

1 owner, all service records back to 3.8 miles on the car, brand new set of tires (cheap ass tiawanese crap sadly), fresh oil/filter, new air filter, new cabin air filter, new wiper blades and no accidents
clean carfax............

purchased form a dealer, a 1 price store....they really weren't 1 price, I beat them up over $1000

I did get it up on a lift in the service bay, got a printed carfax and printed of reconditioning detail report and a comprehensive list of what they did (their detailer should be fired!- carpets are pretty dirty for being detailed as are the door jambs that had a yellowish hue)
the door jambs were easy enough to take care of when I washed and waxed it for her, found one lone door ding but no chip right in front of the left rear tire

But she has now driven it about 200 miles and likes it very much.gets about the same mpg as her focus did
focus 1.0L 3 cyl turbo.......... 6 speed manual spinning about 2750 rpms at 70
passat 1.8L 4 cyl turbo....... 5 speed manual spinning about ?????????? I have no idea even though I did drive it last night to dinner and pre the purchase

Likely to find a set of winter tires for it quickly. make her winter driving the next 3 months a bit safer
and then since the work order says they installed SN-6 oil ??? but I am sure they just went to their bulk oil

I will change to a full synthetic I want to continue to use as long as she has it (it is clean and full on the dipstick)

I have zero idea what is the difference between the "euro spec" oil with the exact same credentials SG/SJ/SN etc.... as something not smeared with the words "euro spec"...besides the $10+ per gallon price increase.........

Saturn is up for sale, alot of no brains with the stupidist fucking inquiries ever, but two people that have signs of intelligence coming saturday
both sent me pictures of the crisp hundreds I stated in the ad...........

and when you respond to a no brain with;
Are you fucking stupid? geezus christ, the only thing you send me is ..... "$1000" ...... and nothing else and you haven't even seen it and your profile page is completely blank- you aren't even worth talking to- BLOCK

facebook gives you a 6 day banning.......... so now I cannot respond to anyone even if I wanted, atleast I gave my number to the people for Saturday.......... they can text

fucking crybaby retard fucking loser leftists!!!!!!!!

 

[RJ2112]

I had an instructor while attending the most technical of all the myriad courses while in the Navywho had a philosophy about cars:

1) they have to stop, go where you point them, and start. Most are meant to keep the weather off you while doing so. Anything ELSE that they may do, is a function of your ego.

2) All cars have a minimum threshold price, where they perform the above tasks. That value in $ is determined by demand for safe basic transportation. (I no longer have a good impression of what that # is, probably around 2.5-3K. That was my pre-Covid #)

3) If you can buy a very cheap ugly car for cash, invest what has to be to meet #1, and drive it until it drops cost/mile driven will be less than making payments. When it dies, buy another beater and repeat.

4) auto payments which exceed the predicted life of the vehicle are insane. 84 payments, 60 payments in order to drop the monthly cost a few dollars are penny wise, pound foolish. Paying interest for multiple additional years will frequently increase the cost of purchase by a factor of 2 or more. Leasing is worse, imho.

 

[riverszzr]

My problem with the logic in the above post.......

I really do not like having to be forced to work on a car.......... which with used and abused "cheap" shit you are.... ( I am not really sure any of the cars on the market today for sub 15k are worth buying unless you are willing and ready to spend a few thousand more on them- or atleast have that money available or......... are mechanically inclined and do not value your time to be forced to work on them often to save the $100/hr+ garage fee

that 1800 saturn has me over 4k into it plus I can't even say how many days or part of days I had to work on it to be able to drive it another day/week/month (realistically I am sure I have 20 hrs work time in to the pile of cowdung, 20x85=1700............ so now it is a 6000 dollar pile of dung and it still needs a muffler, rear shocks and rear springs if one wants it to be quite and ride good.doing those would push it to a 7000 dollar pile of dung. and at 170,500 miles it could blow the engine, break the timing chain or tensioner or burn up the clutch or any number of major expense things--all things that would garner it a junkyard car not worth fixing

That isn't what I want out of a car........

and for Cherie's car........... I don't like working on her shit either
I mean I don't mind doing oil changes, belts, filters, a battery or two, mounting and balancing tires when needed or even installing new brakes......... But I don't want to have to replace rusty crusty garbage suspension or exhaust or be forced into doing shit that takes more than an hour and gets me dirty and especially I do not wnat to be forced to it needs it RIGHT NOW, as it is her only vehicle....... (I borrowed her the saturn shitbox--the only vehicle I own I would even consider letting her or anyone else drive that I own.on numerous occassions while having to fix her previous cars or while they were in the bodyshop getting repaired for 7-10 days........... this won't happen any longer once the Saturn is gone, I told her to add rental car coverage to her policy since if it breaks she will need a rental)

and with used stuff you end up having to do those things....... plus there is that huge unreliability factor of getting stranded or needing to be towed, missing work etc and if you are not handy that shitbox 3k car can cost you more than a good 10k car in a couple of years..and if you keep throwing away the 3k car everytime you need to spend more than 1k on it, you may as well buy something brand new.....you would be out the same money or only slightly more for far better reliability and performance and way less headaches is really what you are buying with the new car payment

thus I tried pushing her to buy something new, she simply refused to spend the money--- she will just beat me up to fix shit so she doesn't have to pay what it really costs to fix.....

thus why I got tired of working on the shitbox saturn and did buy something new for myself.......... I know with pretty good certainty I have atleast 5 years with no issues but routine maintenance, and quite likely longer......

~ Saturn is about 4k into it, if it sells at 2200......... 1800 use for about 19 months (plus atleast 20 hours of my time working on it..... another 1700) ....so 3500 for 19 months $185/month to use it and loads of inconvenience.... I would rather spend 250 or even 300 a month and zero inconvenience and loads of reliability

I absolutely agree........ taking out a loan for 6,7,8 years is idiotically dumb and costly...you can easily double the cars "sale" price financing that long

even 4 and 5 year loans garner a few thousand in interest (if you have good credit, I mean 720+ good) and if you have crap credit even these terms can get you to double the price of a car, especially used cars where they interest rate gouge you

any vehicle sub say 10k should for sure just be purchased with cash, and for many people 15k and under should be the cash threshold.... unless you can get 0 interest or something damn close

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ story time....

so a guy arrives today to look at saturn, has his 15 or 16 yr old daughter to translate. uggg, been in the country 15+ years and still refuses to speak english---my attitude is .... go back! you clearly refuse to assimilate and adjust to this country!!!!

anyways........ he listens to it run after starting it, touches nearly every surface on it inside and out, then after about 10 minutes (through his daughter translating) he offers 1600 (2400 ask price)....I flat say no, and explain I have someone coming tomorrow am around 830am with 22 crisp hundreds (they sent me a picture and I even showed her the picture and messages)..they go back and forth for a bit, he gets to 2000 --no---then some more back and forth still 2000, then some more back and forth between them, finally gets to 2100
I stood firm on the 2200 and then she tells me he wants it but can't pick it up until tomorrow about 9am (other guy is set to show up at 830am) I explain this to her
he still says 2100? tomorrow at 9am or did he agree to 2200..who the fuck knows ( I searched, there are about a dozen saturn vues with the same or more miles and years and zero service history and they range in price from 2500 to 5500 and a couple outlyers in there for around 1000 but do not run or run but wont shift or or or........... 2400 is the right asking price for this for a fast sale of a decent vehicle, I could have asked 3500 judging by what is out there, and then waited for a sale........and might if neither of these people buy it........ 3500 ask may net 3000 or 3200??? or I could install that new 200 muffler and the new 250 worth of shocks and springs and waste another 5 hours of my life then ask 4500.......... fuck em!!!

Well I guess if guy A is a no show at 830am I will give my address to guy b to come around 9am
guy A only read my very descriptive multi-paragraph ad with 20 pictures and we had some back and forth online and then a couple texts, no actual talking on phone and no actually physical seeing or hearing it yet (he works! I work....)

guy B, had his brother reply to the ad, no real questions other than 1 day later asking for the address to come see it ( I explained I have it at work so you'll have to come here to see if if coming now)
Guy B, no cash, not even sure he read the ad and understands he has to bring me crisp clean 100 dollar bills or no deal......... he also did not drive (even had he asked I would have said no without the money in my hand, all of the money)

there were atleast 25 other replies to the ad all with dumbfuck stupid shit..........

 

[RJ2112]

My dad's logic on used cars was that you can buy pretty much any brand without fear of major work needing to be done, so long as the car was less than 5 years old, and had less than 50K miles on it. You should be able to get to 100K, without issues as almost all of the common wear parts were designed with that sort of a life span.

This should hold true anywhere in the US; body rot is an issue anywhere that salt is applied to the roads routinely, but that hasn't really had time to get in and cause the dangerous sort of cancer it will as it progresses further.

I hedged my bet further, over many years and pretty much reduced the list of used cars I would consider to just Toyotas.

From there, buying new and keeping it through many hundreds of thousands of miles became the norm.

 

[riverszzr]

Anything for sale here sub 5 years old and sub 50k on the odometer is listed at more than brand new retail money........

and up here with all the brine and salt applied for 7 months out of the year........... Car by year 5 already have cancer, and by year 7 or 8 or 9 it has eaten through the body around all the wheels and both rocker panels.. unless they simply are not driven or the owner washes and completely dries it nearly every drive all winter long

My brother is die hard toyota .............. thus I can't stand them and actually hate them

I have owned about 30 maybe even 40 fords and never had any issue with any of them, but then again hardly any were ever driven past 75,000 miles, and rarer still to own any to year 5 .. I actually think only my 02 super duty with the 7.3L was actually driven past 100k..... 198k when I sold it in year 11 and it had cancer through both rear wheel wells and I was a ............ wash it often driver and rarely took it out when the roads were terrible and it sat in the garage for weeks or months on end most winters

5 or 6 rams now....my experience ... they even hear the word rust or salt and they fall apart, so this one has only seen 1 trip in salt and snow... its very first winter (forced commiefornia trip to get gf's moms belongings in january), otherwise doesn't even leave the driveway all winter

this is the second subaru, a trusty justy back in the late 80's and now this impreza wagon.....
there was a dodge omni and a couple of gm products in there too

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturn sold at 7:45am ..the non english speaking guy arrived without his daughter and suddenly could speak enough english I could understand. I was already in the driveway chopping up some ice after scraping the frost off the windows when he arrived, he greeted me with extended hand full of 22 not crisp hundreds.....

as far as the other guy, he sent a message at like 12:45am via facecrook asking for the address, I do not get facecrook on my phone and refuse to do internet things on the phone.......So he snoozed and he loosed, fucking idiot..... we texted, why not send me a text you dipshit loser.........

 

[Scumbag]

I think if you shop around and pay attention and research what it is and the potential motor problems you can get a decent daily for 10k. My daughter just turned 15 I found a decent jeep liberty 2015 with 80k miles for 10k cash. They was selling it cheap because it rode like a hay wagon and I noticed it had like 12 ply tires on it. Bought it threw a set of normal Passenger tires and used those truck tires on my old farm truck and it runs and drives pretty good. Good enough for her to bounce off shit for the next couple years. She so clumsy she can’t walk from point a to b without tripping so I wasn’t going to buy her anything nice.

trucks are tricky tho. I prefer Silverado’s for work trucks but you have the AFM bs that goes bad and the trans that takes a shit around 100k. My Current one is a 16. I did the afm delete at 15k Miles was a few grand and it’s just hit 110k so I already bought a trans 3200$ and have it waiting for when it takes a dump. My last one and my god fathers both went between 95-100k. But I figure once I pass that stage on this one I should be good another 200k being the replacement trans last longer. So 6k on top of the price I paid for a decent truck for a few hundred k”s is about as good as I can expect. I’m 45 figure if it will last me 10 more years I buy one more new truck and take it to the grave lol. I live at the park now and don’t work at the store anymore and have bikes when it’s warm and a couple old vintage cars so I don’t mile my truck out as bad

Toyotas are the best bang for the buck tho. My son has my old Tacoma it’s gotta be close to 400k by now and since new it’s had a ac compressor a starter and a few batteries. This is had the crane recall so it got a new frame about ten years ago. I had them just give me the frame and we did it at the shop replaced all new suspension stuff and coated it and under the truck super good and it’s held up. No noticeable rust so far. Looking and driving the truck you would never think it had that many miles. I wouldn’t be surprised if it runs another 500k. We change the oil every 3k and the last few times it’s using maybe a 1/4 of a quart of oil between changes. Ya just can’t beat Toyota motors.

 

[Scumbag]

Honestly tho I’m almost 100% decided my next and last new truck will be a ford. Idk. My god father got a ford for the first time last time he got a truck. It was after all the gm government bail out bull shit and idk. Just left a bad taste in my mouth for Chevy. I think is new super duty is one of the nicest trucks I have ever drove. It’s more comfortable and for sure has more power than the Chevy he replaced it with. He always goes 3/4 ton and I go 1/2 ton so we can use his for any towing reasons and that ford tows like a champ. We have a 40 foot enclosed Trailor and with two cars in it that truck just pulls. We took it and the Trailor and my 1500 without a Trailor to pick up a bunch of auction stuff in atlanta and he only had two bikes in the back of the Silverado and I had the Trailor full behind the ford and coming over the big mountian in Asheville to Tennessee I just left him pulling up the mountian. It pretty much pulls the same empty as it does as much as we have ever loaded it. And it got about the same MPG as my Silverado. Of course that’s comparing apples to oranges but still. I just think adding in the bail out bullshit and the difference in the truck quality I’m sold on the new fords. I just never owned one. I’m one of those type of people who just sticks with what they always have and hate change type. But best time I think it’s time for change.

 

[RJ2112]

I bought my first Toyota in 1983, a used ‘78 Corolla lift back. Compared to the junk I had been driving between’76 and that point, it was one of the most boring cars I had ever owned. Didn’t do anything exceptional, just kept running and no matter what I did got almost 30 mpg.

It kept me alive and in good health when I crashed it. Rolled it 3 times, every piece of glass except the back hatch broken, A pillar on driver’s side pushed in a few inches….. when it came to a stop, I drove it home.

I went through around 4 US mfg vehicles after that, none of which made it past 100K without a significant repair needed. They were all junkers, no history or anything to judge them on.

Bought a brand new Dakota in ‘88, bent the rear bumper within weeks after being assured that it could tow a horse trailer. Multiple issues with collapsed lifters on top of that. Dumped it and bought a brand new ‘89 Cutlass Supreme FE3 with a 3 year bumper to bumper warranty with a $25 deductible.

All the interior carpet fell off. The dash vinyl failed. The hood latch spring failed. The upgrade OEM auto reverse cassette radio killed all the dash lighting. All of that fixed under warranty and I drove it just through 100K miles when the ECU died. (‘95?)

Dumped that for a used’93 Camry wagon. Been on Toyotas ever since.

 

[riverszzr]

Meet Blaze................ new shop dog...Came from a south dakota reservation where he was attacked and had some of his inards eaten right out of him.uggg
Was brought to paws and claws humane society in Rochester MN last june, 3 surgeries and rehab until December before going to someones home (adopted out)
but they brought him back

So last friday I went and rescued him from his kennel life of misery and lack of fun and exercise...
According to all the health documents and surgery paperwork etc....
he was 37 lbs when he arrived, 43 lbs in December after his final surgery and lots of eating with little exercise
and I got him home and picked him up and weighed him.....fricking fatso is 56 lbs.......... and looks all of that 15 lbs overweight.....
and since they use whatever food is donated- so no consistency to diet.....I changed him up to a dry no grain food mixed with my homemade blend of (loosely based on the ingredients list of -the farmers dog-)so $66 at the grocery store and 2.5 hours making (baking, grinding, and some went into the vita mix blender, then packaging into 4 ounce servings to top his dry food with)- it made 36 4 ounce bags, so enough for 18 days.would have been more except I kept eating a bunch of it while making it......while no seasoning made it a bit bland it was actually still quite good
chicken
beef
salmon
turkey
carrots
pumpkin
sweet potato
russet potato
brown rice
zuchini
cauliflower
apples
blueberries
honey dew
strawberries
a liter of chicken broth and I am sure a few more ingredients......

(the meats I kept seperate- until it was time to mix them with the other ingredients, so he has some taste variety...thus far he loves them all, but I think he loves the salmon the most)

...............................................

and I was throwing stuff away in the dumpster at work the other day and found all of these toys.plus about 20 more that I gave to cherie to give to her clients kids as gifts..............
Blaze has zero interest it seems, thought maybe he would like them for fetch or chew toys, they all light up when moved, some squeek.guess they will all go to cherie sans maybe a couple of the footballs to keep around?

................................................

and lastly........someone who shall remain nameless (unless they out themself) sent me some 05 forks...........

dirtiest internals I have seen in forever........... oil smelled like sewer water and looked the part
new oil and dust selas, new bushings, and fully cleaned of grossness, all back together and useful once again.........

and yes I did finally get the suspension table up to work......woohoo
I do need to get the shelf behind it to hold tools and some oil, paper towel and brake cleaner etc, plus the notched/clamped attachments to the shelf to hold the forks themself............ but that stuff is just screws to detach and attach......
maybe some paint on that back wall to keep the oil from soaking in and another light right over the area to see better........

 

[riverszzr]

Dog food or human food.............

I ate 2 scoops of the salmon mix in the red bowl and 1 scoop of the chicken mix in the glass bowl..considering they have 3 or 4 ingredients I hate and everything is mixed together..it was actually not bad albeit very bland with no seasoning
stranded on an island I could eat either.........better than eating bugs and worms..... and I imagine the vitamins and protien count is pretty decent......

1 full week eating ~4 ounces of this + 1/2 cup -grain free "healthy" dry twice per day and Blaze has lost 2.3 lbs and his coat is getting shinier and his scratching and itching is much less

 

[Scumbag]

So it is dog food? I knew a chick once that her mom pretty much only ate cat food. Strange lady. As you can imagine.

 

[riverszzr]

So it is dog food? I knew a chick once that her mom pretty much only ate cat food. Strange lady. As you can imagine.

It is all food from the grocery store...........

but I made it for my dog...........

So which is it?????????????

 

[riverszzr]

Welcome to the first day of spring in Minneshithole................

While the snowpiles have definitely gotten smaller........... they are still pretty damn big...... I think we are "officially" at 92 inches for the winter season
The one at the bottom of the driveway is now about 8' tall and still extends out into the street a good 3'
the one alongside the driveway on the east is about 6'6" and on the west side it is much wider but only about 5' tall
where the snowplow runs- it is up to the mailbox still all along all residential streets.....

of the 79 days thus far this year....... 33 days in 2023 it has snowed and 4 days in 2023 it has rained....thus you can now walk on top of the hard ice/snow piles that officially states snowdepth to be 14" but in my front yard it is still over 24" and my back yard (sunny side of house) it is about 18"
3 of the 4 rain events have been around 1" of rain
7 of the snow events have been in excess of 8 inches, 2 of them over 16 inches

12* getting up to about 35* today (likely only above freezing for a few hours)
and then some more rain and more snow tomorrow and Thursday

 

[RJ2112]

I feel for you, Lloyd. It got down to 20F last night, here. Haven’t seen any snow at all this winter

 

[RJ2112]

….. and I for one, really like you rescuing your new shop dog. Whether your food is suitable for the dog is more my concern than whether his is suitable for you, lol.

 

[Scumbag]

….. and I for one, really like you rescuing your new shop dog. Whether your food is suitable for the dog is more my concern than whether his is suitable for you, lol.

100%. Rescue dogs are always the best dogs. About 2 months ago my wife wasn’t paying attention and let two dogs back in the house after the last potty break instead of 1. She immediately got into the shower. I was sitting at the table going over invoices. My dog was at the water bowl drinking and at the same time I felt her against my leg. So I reach down and pet her and was like. Wtf am I petting. Looked down and seen the cutest little pit bull mix and was like where did you come from? So we did the normal stuff trying to find its owners. Few days and nothing. We just can’t have a second dog so we took it it to a rescue and sponsored it and figured if no one claims or adopts it we will.
About a week ago we got the call this really nice couple came in and fell in love with her and rescued her. Bitter sweet. We had sort of talked ourselves into getting her. But least she went to a good home. We drove out and meet the people. She is a house dog now. The wife text back and forth with my wife.

It happens down here at the park. People will just dump them and they find their way to our house. This one was very sad. Just a puppy maybe a month old. We found 3 others in a box dead. But the one who made it was Skunk sprayed to death. Covered in ticks and soaking wet. And laying in our road 90% dead. So small she thought it was a piece of trash someone threw out. Rushed it to the vett. They revived it. And now it’s our house dog. Best dog I have ever had. Super loyal and loves live. She sleeps in our bed and goes to work with my wife everyday. It’s almost like when you rescue or save them they know and just turn out to be better dogs.

And Lloyd. Every shop needs a good shop dog so you did good. And we also make our own dog food from beef scraps and what not. My wife does it so not sure the process. But she loves it

 

[Scumbag]

This is the baby we saved. I don’t have pics of when we found her. I’m sure my wife does. But she was so close to dead. Idk how people can just dump dogs like that. Pisses me off. But I’m glad we got her. She has a good life now.

 

[Scumbag]

This is the last one. the night it wandered in.

 

[Scumbag]

And this is its new owners who adopted it.