Car Talk

Aaron

Moderator
Oct 10, 2008
16,241
11,098
168
South Louisiana
I’ve never spent money at a car wash place before. I got water and a bucket and soap. Three times a year is about right for me also.
 

JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
Oct 11, 2008
29,662
13,880
168
41
Hyrule
I’ve never spent money at a car wash place before. I got water and a bucket and soap. Three times a year is about right for me also.

You can't be serious. You're saying in your entire life you have never taken a car to a car wash place? That's wild.
 

JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
Oct 11, 2008
29,662
13,880
168
41
Hyrule
That legitimately astonishes me. It's like saying you've never been to Burger King like not as wild as never being to McDonald's But still pretty freaking wild.

So how often do you wash your car yourself?
 
Last edited:

JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
Oct 11, 2008
29,662
13,880
168
41
Hyrule
Maybe 3 or 4 times a year, or whenever it really needs it.

What about vacuuming the interior? even when I don't eat in my car and I try to keep it clean you still drag shit in on your shoes all the time. And trying to vacuum your car with your home vacuum or a dustbuster kind of sucks. If I only vacuumed three or four times a year, the interior of my car like all the floorboards would be totally disgusting.

I don't know the fact that you've never been to a car wash like really never is hard for me to comprehend. It's like fucking shocking.
 

JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
Oct 11, 2008
29,662
13,880
168
41
Hyrule
Learning this car wash thing about you is such a fascinating development.

Am I the crazy one here guys? Someone else chime in. Never once having been to a car wash is kind of odd. Especially for someone who lives in a metropolitan area.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: scotchandcigar

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
29,154
15,164
168
Toronto, ON
So I made my last payment on my car today. This attracted the attention of the car dealership where I bought the car. So a sales guy called me. He made some valid points so I went in to see what the numbers would look like. I wound up deciding I will wait. However, I did notice how different car dealerships are now. The cheapest option was to order a new car. I would have to wait 3-6 months for it. The cars I could have 'today' was cars with 600-1500 kms on them. 2024 models. But not only would I not get a slightly-used discount, I would have paid about $8000 more for them. And yes, the warrantee would have started when it was initially received. The extended warrantee would have started upon my purchase.

ETA: Car prices are significantly more expensive now than they were in 2019.
 
Last edited:

HecticArt

Administrator
Oct 19, 2008
51,772
18,545
168
Toledo, Ohio
I haven't had a car payment in 12 years.
It's freaking awesome!!!!

If you're not spending money regularly on repairs, save some cash for a while.
For my last car I saved up some cash, got a couple of dealerships bidding against each other, and had a trade in.
They weren't going to take any more off for paying cash, but Ford had a deal that they would knock another $1000 off the price if you used Ford financing. So I took the deal and paid the car off in 3 months. I hate paying interest.

I saved a crap-load.
I'm saving up to do it again soon.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
29,154
15,164
168
Toronto, ON
I haven't had a car payment in 12 years.
It's freaking awesome!!!!

If you're not spending money regularly on repairs, save some cash for a while.
For my last car I saved up some cash, got a couple of dealerships bidding against each other, and had a trade in.
They weren't going to take any more off for paying cash, but Ford had a deal that they would knock another $1000 off the price if you used Ford financing. So I took the deal and paid the car off in 3 months. I hate paying interest.

I saved a crap-load.
I'm saving up to do it again soon.
You still planning on doing electric? The other thing I forgot to mention, once I found the features I wanted it was cheaper to do the hybrid than the option addition to the pure gas model. This was not pure electric but I think makes the most sense as I would not be a huge fan of waiting to charge.
 

scotchandcigar

All I wanted was some steak
Feb 13, 2009
25,812
20,576
168
Vacationland
That legitimately astonishes me. It's like saying you've never been to Burger King like how does wild as never being to McDonald's But still pretty freaking wild.

So how often do you wash your car yourself?
Mrs. Scotch bugs me to take my car to the car wash. It's like $12 or $14 bucks. If I lived in a warm climate, I'd probably just wash it myself. Actually, when I lived in NH, I used the do-it-yourself bays which were $1.50 per cycle. You can soap, scrub, and rinse your car for $3 bucks. I'd still do that if it was available here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sadchild

JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
Oct 11, 2008
29,662
13,880
168
41
Hyrule
I wound up deciding I will wait.

When I bought my venue at the Hyundai dealership in May, that was the first time I've ever really spent any time in a car dealership. I don't know. It seemed kind of normal to me and there wasn't like wait times. I was at a random one in Melbourne Florida. Like I could have gotten like a way fancier car if I had the money and I could have driven it off the lot like I don't know whatever the fancy hyundaes are. They definitely had them there on hand.

Anyway that's besides the point and I'm ranting. Dude deciding to wait is a fucking super smart decision. You just paid off your car. The first thing you do is not go buy a new car. Be happy for a couple years that you have a car that is fully yours. You own it. It's yours. That's fucking awesome!. Of course you always want this shinier nicer grass is greener new thing. But like you own your car right now, you should feel really good about that. You should take pride in that like, well done man. Enjoy!

Also, you now have one less monthly payment to deal with. That alone is always an awesome feeling. Like dude if I decide to like not pay for HBO Max for 2 months I'm happy about it. You don't have a car payment anymore. Like stop thinking about new shit and just be fucking happy. Smell the roses bro. You did it. Enjoy your payment-free car for a couple more years and then go get something fancy and start the process over.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
29,154
15,164
168
Toronto, ON
Mrs. Scotch bugs me to take my car to the car wash. It's like $12 or $14 bucks. If I lived in a warm climate, I'd probably just wash it myself. Actually, when I lived in NH, I used the do-it-yourself bays which were $1.50 per cycle. You can soap, scrub, and rinse your car for $3 bucks. I'd still do that if it was available here.
My car dealer runs a free car wash every Saturday when the weather is warmer than 5c (42f). Since I was down there today I was going to do it. Usually I do it around 10:30 and wait about 15 min in line. I have been a bit later sometimes and waited about an hour in line. Today since I spent so much time talking to the sales guy, it was about 1pm when I went to get in line. The line was significantly longer and likely would have been a 2 hour wait. I elected to pass. I suspect that this would likely be the last weekend until spring which is why it was longer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scotchandcigar

HecticArt

Administrator
Oct 19, 2008
51,772
18,545
168
Toledo, Ohio
You still planning on doing electric? The other thing I forgot to mention, once I found the features I wanted it was cheaper to do the hybrid than the option addition to the pure gas model. This was not pure electric but I think makes the most sense as I would not be a huge fan of waiting to charge.
I'm still seriously considering it.
I've been working on an EV training facility at work and have been doing a lot of research on the subject and have gotten some tours of places and been talking to a decent number of people that drive them. I think that it's really viable for my driving habits.

I only have a 20 amp circuit going out to me garage, so I need to upgrade that, and there aren't a lot of the car that I'm looking at on the lots yet, so I'll probably wait till spring before I do it.
 

JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
Oct 11, 2008
29,662
13,880
168
41
Hyrule
If I lived in a warm climate, I'd probably just wash it myself. Actually, when I lived in NH, I used the do-it-yourself bays which were $1.50 per cycle.

You bring up some interesting points here. So first off you say if you lived somewhere warm you would just do it yourself. Yeah guess what when it's like 100% humidity all the time and you sweat after like 3 yd out the door you ain't doing that shit yourself. Half the time I get a car wash. I don't even vacuum because I'm too fucking lazy to get out in the heat and do it.

On the other side of the cross street from my office is one of those do-it-yourself car washes and my God that thing makes money. It constantly has at least one or two cars in it even at like 3:00 in the morning because when I step out my door I just look to the left and I can see it... And on the weekends it literally has a line out into the street of people wanting to wash. Also the last two bays they rent out to this like dude with a small business that details cars. He rented a spot at my place once and we got to talking about it and it seems like a cool side hustle.

But those two bays and the people that go to them are all like 30-year-old men who like to think they're in the fast and the furious so they're kind of not my style. They drive like chargers and Durango and shit and all of them have this obviously expensive paint job on the side that says Mopar cartel so they're like a fake gang they're like not tough enough to be like a hells angels, but they like rolling around thinking that they're like a little tougher than you and me. Even though I bet we could probably at least put up a pretty even fight against most of them.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: scotchandcigar

JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
Oct 11, 2008
29,662
13,880
168
41
Hyrule
I'm still seriously considering it.
I've been working on an EV training facility at work and have been doing a lot of research on the subject and have gotten some tours of places and been talking to a decent number of people that drive them. I think that it's really viable for my driving habits.

I only have a 20 amp circuit going out to me garage, so I need to upgrade that, and there aren't a lot of the car that I'm looking at on the lots yet, so I'll probably wait till spring before I do it.

Don't you get range anxiety? I mean I thought about electric because I don't pay a power bill and I could charge it from my apartment and that would save me a lot of money on gas But doing stuff like that somewhat random trip to Tennessee 850, mi each way would have been more of a hassle. I mean I know the cars tell you exactly where to go to charge but still the charging infrastructure is nowhere near the gas station infrastructure right now.

Even going to Disney would give me anxiety. The Wawa right by my shitty motel does have chargers. My shitty motel doesn't and I don't want to sit at Wawa for like an hour charging my shit up. Disney has charges too but they only have a few of them and every time I walk past them all of them are taken.

But if all I was doing was local driving then yeah I think an ev is totally the way to go.
 
Last edited:

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
29,154
15,164
168
Toronto, ON
Don't you get range anxiety? I mean I thought about electric because I don't pay a power bill and I could charge it from my apartment and that would save me a lot of money on gas But doing stuff like that somewhat random trip to Tennessee 850, mi each way would have been more of a hassle. I mean I know the cars tell you exactly where to go to charge but still the charging infrastructure is nowhere near the gas station infrastructure right now.

Even going to Disney would give me anxiety. The Wawa right by my shitty motel does have chargers. My shitty motel doesn't and I don't want to sit at Wawa for like an hour charging my shit up. Disney has charges too but they only have a few of them and every time I walk past them all of them are taken.

But if all I was doing was local driving then yeah I think an ev is totally the way to go.
A lot of apartments are banning EV charging from free power circuts. Some install pay chargers others just outright ban it. Don't count on it remaining free for long once you start using it for those levels.