Oil Change #1 for 2016 

After 2205 miles of driving, I got another oil change today.  Didn't need it but since I was in to do my brakes, I thought I would get it done.  Richard said that it had been months since I was in last for an oil change.  I reassured him that, no, that I was in recently as November.  He was looking at an old oil sticker date of August 24, 2015. Turns out that I got it changed only December 3, 2015, not even two full months ago.  Doesn't matter. My car runs better on clean oil, and I get better gas mileage.  

The mileage on my last change on 12/03/2015 was 180279.

The mileage on today's oil change was 182484, a difference of 2205 miles.  So I was due.  

If You Are Determined to Buy a New Car, Here Is Where to Start Shopping

Gary North - January 08, 2016

Costco.

A site member reports.

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My time is short, so friends have been encouraging me to spend on myself. I have never before bought a new car. I always buy used and pay cash, always.

A friend visited who drives for Uber and he showed us his new Ford Fusion Hybrid plug in model. The quality was amazing and that started me thinking. I wish to take a long trip around the USA soon, so why not splurge.

First I went to the local dealer to see if the car would fit me and I liked it. I did, so then I called Costco and signed up for their program. They offer their pre negotiated deal on new and used cars and trucks. No used ones could be found for what I wanted.

Turned out that my closest Costco approved dealer is the same one that I had first visited, so I asked for the same great salesman. They gave me the Costco price and I asked if they could beat it and save me even more. No, they said that they can't even come close to the deal because it was arranged between Ford and Costco. The dealer just gets paid to deliver it. 

The savings was over $3100.

It might even pay to go to a state with Costco just to save the money.

Tell your friends. While this is the right sub forum, I hope that those from the "General" portion find this. . . .

I just signed up for car insurance from Costco. My Geico was costing me just over $1100 for 6 months and now I pay $708 for six months. I found that Geico had added in a few charges that I didn't need, but still it would have been around $1000 for 6 months. . . .

My good friend just showed me his September 2015 issue of Consumer Reports on how the various states deal with pricing. I highly recommend that you read it, as you may be very surprised.

This friend comes from 28 years in the insurance industry, so he knows something about the issues. He claims that about 30% of the insurance companies left California a few years ago due to over regulation.

http://www.garynorth.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=27&ThreadID=42889#

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Start shopping here.

If you are a skilled negotiator, you may choose not to use Costco. If you don't like face-to-face negotiating, Costco is good.

Here is a good assessment. What will amaze you is this: Costco has offered this service ever since 1989. Who knew?

Promoted with vehicles placed near the entrances of nearly all its 449 warehouse stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, the Costco Auto Program (CAP) doesn't allow you to drive away from Costco with a car. Franchise laws still guarantee that nearly all retail new-vehicle purchases must go through dealers; Costco can't make direct sales. Instead, the CAP is a buying program that connects Costco members with dealerships promising to sell specific cars at specific prices.

Established in 1989, the CAP has counted more than 1 million sales over just the last five years. But it's not alone; buying services are also available through auto clubs, credit unions, and other organizations. About 1500 such "affinity groups," including the USAA, many AAA clubs, American Express, and Consumer Reports, offer vehicle-buying services like Costco's, funneling buyers through a network maintained by TrueCar Inc. TrueCar also operates the TrueCar.com website and Auto Lease Guide, which determines residual values.

While the services may vary in detail, they all operate similarly: Affiliated dealers pay the service a marketing fee or, in Costco's case, a set amount each month, which varies dealer to dealer. For TrueCar, its fee is levied for each car sold, usually $299 for new cars. The dealers are basically paying to leverage Costco, AAA, and other entities to help lure more buyers. In turn, the dealers offer set discounted prices to those clients. That effectively eliminates the nerve-racking negotiations over price that many buyers dread.

But while a buying-service price is good, it's rarely the rock-bottom figure for which a dealer will sell that car. Those prices are still the product of thorough research, shopping around, and hard-nosed negotiation. Also, these services typically don't deal with trade-in values or financing and usually aren't much use when it comes to determining exactly which new car or truck is best for a buyer. It can also be a hassle if the dealer to which the service refers a buyer isn't local or is otherwise inconveniently located.

Buying a commodity product such as a Toyota Camry, Honda Pilot, or Mercedes-Benz C250--cars that dealers stack like cordwood--will be pretty straightforward through Costco. But it's problematic for more limited-production vehicles. If you want an oddly optioned or a highly sought-after car, such as a 2014 Corvette, the dealer isn't likely to offer you much of a deal.

For anyone rattled by the buying process, the relative ease of Costco's program takes out the shakes. It's a solid deal that comes with some peace of mind. Even guys who chew through dealership salesmen for sport may find the Costco price a good tool for starting negotiations. After all, information is power, and there's no such thing as being too powerful when it comes to getting a deal.

Business Insider reports.

Costco is becoming a huge force in the auto world.

Through partnerships with auto dealers, the warehouse retailer sold 400,000 vehicles in 2014, twice as many as in 2008, Bloomberg Business reports.

"Without fanfare, the membership-only merchant better known for selling flatscreen TVs and jumbo-size boxes of cereal has pulled within spitting distance of No. 1. car retailer AutoNation, which sold 533,000 vehicles last year," according to Bloomberg.

Customers prefer buying with Costco to traditional car dealerships for one reason: fixed prices.

"The Costco Auto Program helps members purchase new and select pre-owned vehicles from exclusive participating dealerships in their market area that have been selected, trained and certified to provide a top-notch buying experience, and offer vehicles to the member at a great value," Costco told Business Insider in a statement. "Additionally, we bring more business to our participating dealerships' service departments; with the 15% parts, service and accessories discount available to Costco members."

This means there is none of the notorious haggling or upselling of traditional auto dealers. Many buyers told Bloomberg this resulted in less anxiety during the process.

Dealers take advantage of single women. This is the way to fight back.

". . . over 5 years of age, a tire begins to deteriorate . . ."

from Jerry Reynolds at Car Pro.

We were talking on the air last Saturday about all the loose rubber you see on the road these days.  I suggested much of the problem is underinflated tires.  As many of you head out on the highway for the holidays, taking a few minutes to verify you have the proper tire pressure can save you a breakdown and possibly your life.

Back in 2000, I was Chairman of the Ford National Dealer Council at the time when Explorers were rolling over. I was in hundreds of hours of meetings on the subject and did over 150 TV and media interviews. The burning question was whether it was the vehicle or the Firestone tires. It seemed pretty obvious to me…most of the rollovers were in Texas, Arizona and Florida, the states with the hottest weather.

I recall the day that Ford figured out the source of the problem, which was that the bad tires were coming out of a particular plant in Ohio. Most people don’t know this, but Firestone refused to do anything in spite of the fact that the evidence was indisputable. Ford stepped up and paid for the entire recall itself. Millions of people got brand new tires, although at my dealership, over 100 customers never took advantage of their free new tires in spite of the fact that they could get seriously hurt.

Although it never made big news later, the government ruled that is was in fact the tires. Through all this, I got a real education on tires and I wanted to share that with you.

I did not realize until this issue that the belts in a tire were glued to the sidewall. That was the problem Firestone had…poor glue that once it got hot, the glue melted and the tires came apart. Hence, worse problems in the hot  weather states. We also learned that the age of tires was a huge problem AND as you know from listening to the Car Pro Show, under inflation is a huge issue and something I talk about often.

The studies done at the time showed that at over 5 years of age, a tire begins to deteriorate regardless of the miles on the tire. I also learned that it’s not uncommon for people to buy brand new tires that have been on the shelf for MORE than five years. Luckily, each tire has a stamp on it that you can read for yourself and it is really quite simple to determine the age of any tire.

Each tire has a Department of Transportation number on the sidewall that you can identify because it starts out with DOT followed by 10, 11, or 12 letters or numbers. The last four numbers are the ones to pay attention to. These four numbers indicate the week and year the tire was made. As an example, if the last four numbers of the DOT code were 1510, this would signal the tire was made in the 15th week of 2010 and you’d know not to buy that tire  because it is over 5 years old. You should check this on your current vehicle AND when you buy new tires.

One other important note: the identification number on a tire is not unique to that tire like your VIN is to a car. The numbers on your tire are intended to identify batches of tires, like in the case of the Explorers above. The entire number on a tire tells NHTSA which factory made the tire in question. Never buy a tire that is not stamped DOT, those have not been deemed safe by the Department of Transportation.  There is pending legislation now to identify every single tire with a unique number, and would be registered to you so you can be identified in the case of a recall.

One last thing, nobody can eyeball a tire and tell if it is 20% low on air.  Go to a tire shop or get yourself a good tire gauge.  Tire pressure should be checked monthly and certainly before any trip.

On selling used cars . . . .

In some areas, it's still the good old print classifieds (newspaper, Thrifty Nickel) where most vehicles, boats and RVs are sold. If you have a mechanic who's serviced the car, let him know that you're selling it, and mention it at church, work, etc. Word of mouth can be very helpful. We're still not quite to the point where everything is done online.

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Get it thoroughly detailed inside and out, call a used car lot for their resource ($65 here, done same day in two hours) or do it yourself.

Be certain all four tires match and show equal wear or bite the bullet and buy budget replacements, $200 tops.

Get an oil change and provide a receipt.

Take a couple dozen pics after the detail to supplement your Craigslist ad.

Pump up the service history but only if you're the original owner or have files. Mention if it was garaged. Include a free AAA membership ($68) and state the benefits in the ad.

Start your price more toward the high end relative to competition including other makes and lower the price in $50 increments every few days depending on response rate.

Request that the potential buyer agree on a firm, fixed price subject to their inspection and approval of the car before meeting. That weeds out tire kickers and will save you time and aggravation.

Don't hold out for too long, the new models are coming out now and those will automatically reduce older year book values.

On the bill of sale, always state the vehicle is sold AS IS.

In my town, they're plentiful, good luck!

http://portland.craigslist.org/search/cta?query=chrysler+300m

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Cashier's checks and money orders are not necessarily reliable - can be forged. My understanding is that the safest transfer of funds is to meet at the buyer's bank and have them make out a bank check to you or meet at your bank and deposit the buyer's cash into your account. M

**************************************************************** What Marcia says is the only way I do it. I meet the buyer at the bank, have him write a check and I verify the check with the bank and either deposit it or cash it (if small amount) before I leave the bank. B. ****************************************************************

If you don't bank at the same bank that he does... couldn't he empty his account as soon as you leave to take the check to your bank? Wouldn't it be better to get a cashier's check-- or am I misunderstanding? ****************************************************************

A. If he banks at a different bank, and if the amount is more than I want to receive in cash, we go to his bank and have the money wired to my account at my bank. I would only accept a cashier's check if I'm at the bank and see them create it since cashier's checks can be forged. B.

Tires

Big O Tires

Reset Maintenance Required Light

Recent Oil Change & Then Some . . . 

I had my oil changed this morning at 176, 008 miles on August 24, 2015.  The last oil change I had was back on May 26, 2015.  I didn't write down the miles, so I can't tell how many miles it had been between changes unless I locate the receipt from May 26th.  So the change this morning cost me $21.08.

Richard's new mechanic said that the brake pads AND a resurfacing is due for my front disc brakes.  I don't know.  I have been feeling lately that Richard looks for things to charge me on.  I don't like that if, in fact, that is what he is doing.  Then I learned that the head gasket is leaking. Well, Leif changed that back on July 22, 2014--just one year ago.  Why is that failing me?  This makes me doubt his work.  I don't know what to make of it, of these developments.  Can't tell if people are doing right by me any more.  I have to just learn this auto-mechanic stuff on my own I guess.  Also, there is a leak coming from the oil pan gasket.  It's one thing after another.  Richard said that he would charge me $185 for the brake pads and a resurfacing.  I told him that I would show up tomorrow morning.