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No I maintain my vehicles. The brakes just completely wore out due to overuse (I do live in Southern California :lol: ) and the entire system needed to be replaced, not just the pad. I remember stepping on the brake pedal and it sounded like a cement mixer. I took the car to my mechanic and I remember the estimate he gave to build a new brake system was something like $5,000. I decided it wasn't worth it.
 
No way was it going to cost 5k. You were being taken for a ride. Even for a new caliper/rotor at every corner it would have been 1.5k MAX including labor.

If it sounded like a cement mixer it likely just needed pads and rotors. That's a $500 job including labor + full flush and bleed of the fluid/system.
 


This was like 10 years ago, I wound up buying a new car anyways but the car had more problems than just the brakes (I can't remember everything that was wrong but there was enough that I was fed up with it every time I drove somewhere). I did get a pretty decent deal on the trade in though, it was about what I was going to spend on the new brakes.
 


Yeah that's true, I have been burned on trades before. But the dealer I got my car from gave me a good deal on it, because when I bought it, it was the end of summer when dealers are looking to unload inventory. That's the best time to buy. Worst time to buy - usually the week *BEFORE* a major holiday. :lol:
 


Yeah my next car I think I'm going to go through Car Max. I took my brother's old car to trade in because he was living in New York and didn't need it (not to mention his car had like 150K miles on it), but while I was there I saw this amazing looking 2011 Ford Taurus SHO model fully loaded (Navigation, leather seats, camera, the works) for less than what I got my current vehicle for. And it only had like 20K miles on it. If I had seen that, I would have probably bought it on the spot. :lol:
 
Oh God I hate CarMax. They are right up there with Monsanto in level of Evil. Re-titling totaled cars as clean, lying about and faking higher invoice prices, lying about vehicle history, rolling back odometers are just a few of the things they have been convicted of and lost court cases over. They are awful and they are only good for getting rid of old cars for some quick cash.

I have a friend, who bought a 2010 VW Jetta from someone private party. The car had an issue where no matter what you set the AC/Heat to it would blow humid air. She took it to VW and they said the car has a salvage title for water damage that took place before the car was even sold in 2010. She had VWoA run the VIN and they said it was sold at auction with a salvage title to CarMax with ~100 miles on it. Then it was sold by CarMax with a CLEAN title in 2011. Anyway, she opened a case with CarMax and they agreed to buy the car from her for the price she paid for it to cover their "mistake" (intentional lie). CarMax even state that while they do not sell cars with frame damage, they DO buy cars damaged in other ways, repaid them, and sell them.

If you see a car fir sale at CarMax for blue book price or lower, DO NOT buy it. This is a well known rule of thumb in the car enthusiast community.
 


So that giant display they have hanging in their stores that say "WE DON'T BUY LEMONS" is a total lie?
 
Yes correct. They definitely do buy lemons and I have a receipt to prove it. We sold my dad's 2005 Camry to CarMax with a bad transmission back when I was in HS. They were happy to give us $8000 for it. I guarantee they hit a local junkyard, threw a used trans in it of unknown origin, and put it on the lot.
 


I bet that's exactly what they did with my brother's old Corolla. And I'm also sure that's probably what happened to my old Pontiac. :lol:
 
I have financed cars, but it's a loan that's usually easy to pay off quickly. Right now we don't have any car loans. Our mortgage is the only significant debt. It always blows my mind to read about the average credit card debt in this country.
 
It's nuts. In my opinion unless you actually have the money to buy the car in full, you cannot afford it.

Generally speaking the best way to "borrow" money to buy a car is through your home equity line of credit. It is by far the cheapest way to do so.

The most expensive car I have ever bought was $16,000 and I paid cash for it, so I'm not a great example.
 
Yeah well, he just needs a new side mirror and he said the interior is in good shape. I notice the front bumper has some paint missing, but it doesn't really matter because, t'know, cheap first car. The fact that he got a car is pretty amazing considering what his family was forced to move last month.
 
I drive a Honda Accord. Great car. It's got about 130,000 miles on it, runs great and all. I just feel though as if the horsepower/torque has diminished quite a bit since last year. I am by no means a car guru, but is that an indication I need an oil change? I've driven 4000 miles on the vehicle. Or maybe it's air filters and other stuff I really don't know about 😛

The only issue is that my tires get really low always. I fill up the air monthly almost, and after two days the indicator that they are low is on. They're supposed to be on 32psi and one was on 9psi!
 
I was thinking of something funny that Adam Carolla was talking about a while back where he said that at a certain point in the lifespan of a car, that the dealer plates have to come off. You really think that somewhere out there, there's a 1979 Toyota Camry with 275,000 miles on it and the front bumper is falling off and being held up with duct tape and the tinting on the windows is peeling off, do you really think that Long Beach Toyota still wants their license plate frame on that thing? You think they really want that kind of advertising? :lol:
 
Figured I'd throw this out there for anyone who is interested. Hard Disk Sentinel Professional is free for a limited time. I had never heard of this program before but after downloading it I can say it's very well thought out and quite informative. It's a better HDD/SSD monitoring program than anything I've ever used before. And it's free 😛

http://slickdeals.net/f/8107656-free-hard-disk-sentinel-pro-for-windows-v4-50-sharewareonsale

Pretty useful for a free program.
 

Thanks for the link.
 
Sure man. I was kind of iffy at first but after installing it the program is pretty useful. Nothing other programs can't do of course but I've never seen a single program that does as much as this one seems to do.

It even has a lightweight benchmark tool.
 


No needing an oil change doesn't affect the performance of a car at all. Actually oil thins out as you use it, and really old oil will actually GAIN you 1-2hp. 4000k is not enough to need an oil change. If you are using basic conventional oil, do it at 5k, if you are using synthetic do it at 8k.

Air filter doesn't affect performance either.

Sounds like you have a dirty bead on one or more wheels and it is leaking air. Any tire shop should be able to dismount the tires, polish the beads, and remount for like $80. Driving with 9psi in your tire is very dangerous. You are damaging the wheel, tire, suspension, and risking a serious accident.
 


I'm going to go ahead and say yes they definitely want that advertising. If they sold that car new, it would be a huge testament to Toyota that after all these years and miles it is still on the road. FWIW my brother got rid of his 89 Corolla with 380k miles on it and the only thing replaced aside from wear parts was the alternator.
 
I don't remember how many miles I had on the Lemon (disguised as a Neon) when I was finally able to unload it. I'd been too broke to replace it for a long time, so I'm sure it was over 100K. I know I had at least 76K on one of my Escorts.
I put "Restore" in the oil on the Escort, and it really smoothed out the idle and gave back some performance. TV, is that stuff reasonable to use, or does it cause long-term problems?
 
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