SOLVED! Post 2853 Leaking Injectors, Dealer Techs Rock! Extended Cranking after Engine Swap 3.4L 5vz

It's pretty nice for the price!! Thanks Keakar! I'd consider it. But I'm hoping for a sunroof, and I'd consider this many miles but would prefer less miles.

 

I always hate used car dealers. I've never found on that's operating completely honest and above board.

To be honest if I were buying from that sort of place I'd beat them up as bad as I can and see if they'd drop. Whatever you do, don't finance through one of those places unless they've been around for more than 10 years. They are the type to sell off information to credit thieves as well as likely to rope you into a loan you don't want to be a part of. I'm speaking from the personal experiences of family members here.

 

We are only (so far, anyway) shopping at reputable new car dealers. I agree, the used car lots are just too much. The new dealers are no picnic either!! A few have been fairly nice, normal people, but for the most part it's been creepville big time!!

And don't worry, we will fight for a fair price with all the info we can muster, pointing out blue book values, flaws in the vehicles, spots in their shiny carfax reports, etc...it's all part of the fun filled game of car shopping, woo hoo!

 

At least you know though with most of the major car dealers whether they are any good or not in the first few seconds. You can never tell with those small independent lots until your credit card is maxed out lol.

 

Yeah, it really was shocking though, to go to certain Honda & Toyota NEW car dealerships and be greeted with a bunch of nonsense.

There was the guy that literally wore a furry blue puppet on one hand the entire time we were there (I guess as a sales gimmick? didn't make us want to buy, made us want to run, FAST).

Then there was the one that patronized me for asking intelligent questions about why the engine sounded different than it does in other Hondas. I asked if they'd have notes in their computer from the tech that inspected it when it first came in. At first he laughed at me and said they don't keep track of what tech looks at each car, as if that was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard.

Do I really look THAT stupid? Blonde jokes aside, REALLY?

Then when he finally admitted that maybe they DO have SOME way of knowing who looked at it, he tried to tell me that, "There's NO WAY a tech would be able to explain why an engine sounds different!!"

I really, really had to bite my tongue hard to avoid pointing out how incredibly stupid what he'd just said actually was.

Yeah, we had a ton of fun car shopping, and can't wait to do more of it!!

 

Random question, what would you guys pay for an 03 Taco with ~100K miles that had a V6, 4wd, xtra cab?

I realize this is a vague description, but gimme your best ballpark rough estimate please!

 

$6750 up to $8000. Always start low.

 

Wow, that's really low though isn't it? C'mon, you'd never even CONSIDER parting with your '04 for anything in that ballpark.....

 

Oh yeah. @koditten , let's revisit that idea!! I'll trade you a really nice Civic for your '04? Whaddya say? C'mon, you just said yourself that you LOVE working on vehicles!! Hell, my sig says it all! You won't even have to lick Bigfoot's taint, you can just work on the Civic to your heart's content!! I bet if we fixed the brakes we could make it to Michigan!! Let's do this

 

What's a fleet vehicle?

 

Oh boy, this is going to turn into another first gen fap fest. I'm out .

 

Vehicle that was owned, likely through a lease, for business purposes. Think about all those gas company vans, city trucks, and cars used by big businesses.

Sometimes they are immaculate, but lots of the time they are neglected. Try to see if they have a log of the maintenance.

 

I say somewhere around $12-$14k and $10k-$12k for 2wd

 

What do you mean TURN INTO????

I am not ashamed to admit that there's nothing I enjoy blabbing about more than how much I lovemytacolots

 

its a Toyota, those miles are low and mean nothing, its a Toyota, just like your taco it will go 300k miles. anything under 200k miles on a Toyota is low mileage, just like your taco

any car is going to average 10k miles a year if its driven "normally" as in not a lot of excess driving, so if you want a car with 50k miles you have to do the math and only look at cars less then 5 years old and those are going to be priced at "near new" prices for those.

that is why you are better off buying a new car and paying one extra year of notes, instead of buying someone elses problems (if its less then 5 years old they got rid of it for a reason) and you only save a two or three thousand dollars for taking that huge risk.

oh, and sunroofs are nice but its one more thing to break or have leaks, just sayin

 

Agreed. On all counts. You don't want a ten year old sunroof.

 

We've found several Civs and Corollas in our area for $13-15K with moderate miles AND sunroof. Honestly I think about any of them would work fine for us, and we probably just need to pick one.

EDIT: .....found several that are a few years old, not 10 years old.

At this point I think the only reason we are stalling on selecting one is that we just aren't excited about it, either one of us, really at all. We look at the cars and there's not even a little bit of "oooh, new car, hurray!" It's like, wow, this is not that attractive and we'll do all of NOTHING fun in it, ever really. Can't wait to start paying a few hundred a month to have it. Yee haw. Ya know? I suppose what do you expect to feel like when you purchase a practical commuter car, I don't know. I keep hoping one of them will stand out from the others I guess. That grey 2 door Civic we saw on Saturday stood out in a good way to both of us, but we put our heads back on straight and realized how much we really do NEED 4 doors, not just want.

Honestly if I was going strictly on looks in a small car, I like the way those Mazda 3's look, and I've always liked the way Golfs look. The new Civs just aren't that attractive to me - the whole aerodynamic design just looks weird to me.

 

Ugh, good luck with a Mazda 3 or Golf.

Commuter cars are just that. If you want a fun one, look for a V6 Mustang that's 4 or 5 years old. Just keep in mind it's a coupe and won't work worth a crap for what you want.

Another option, if you want fun and small, would be a 4-5 year old Subaru WRX. They usually take a lot of maintenance though.

 

OK, I just remembered the other reason I feel strongly about getting something used instead of new, beyond the cost difference.

I like not worrying about the resale value of the car, and being able to eat/drink/have dogs in there and not worry about messing it up. If I buy a car that has 50-75K miles on it, and I do my homework and choose the RIGHT car, then hopefully I will be it's last owner and will take care of it and drive it until it's death at some super old Honda/Toyota age, like 200k+. So I can just relax and spill my drink and let my dog shed hair on the seat and not stress it when someone dings the door in a parking lot and.........you get the idea. If I buy a new car that isn't going to last til 200K+, then I'm probably going to try to get some resale value out of it at some point. Which means I gotta be more careful about stuff like scratches and dog hair and spills. Screw that!!

 

I have a 13 Ford Focus fleet vehicle that is assigned to me...every tank of gas, every wiper blade, oil change, tire rotation, plus information on EVERY trip goes into a log that stays with the vehicle...but I might overdo things.

Howard