theres a first time for everything *rant*

Topic: theres a first time for everything *rant* (Read 6346 times) previous topic - next topic

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #15 – November 02, 2016, 05:54:05 PM

A little off topic, but in addition to the reliability there's also the safety factor. A drunk driver plowed into me a year ago and my head would have gone through the window if it hadn't been for the side-curtain airbags. Never even saw it coming and definitely wouldn't have walked away if I was driving the Cougar at the time. With all the texting / drunk idiots on the roads these days, a car payment is worth it in my opinion.

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #16 – November 02, 2016, 07:19:32 PM

So I followed every part of your rant except for, "moving the spark plug wires 2 posts over". What does that do? And sorry about your $500 car, Ive got stuff that I cant get rid of, but I do try to honest with people to know what theyre looking at.

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #17 – November 03, 2016, 01:36:49 AM

The dist cap.had the firing order written in permanent marker improperly. Either the dist was.dropped in wrong or they just labeler the spark plug wires wrong. I simply moved them back, didnt verify timing yet, but it felt much better and drove better. I planned on doing the timing afterwards, I did the tune up on my day off and ran out of time.

I am actually quite enjoying this thread, havent seen shawn or zonda around in forever.

Im no spring chicken either, I turn 30 this spring and joined the forum when I was 16.

Right now I do have a back up car to drive, my dads 2011 fiesta. Been staying with my dad since my divorce in 2013. Although the fiesta is nice, I am 6'5. I fit, but it is not comfortable. I now live about 45 miles from the city where my kids are. I sometimes make that 45 mile drive 2 or 3 times a week. In the fiesta my butt falls asleep and I gotta get out and stretch. When I drive either of my cougars, I take the long way home and try to find places to drive past in between. Plus at the 80mph speed limit, the fiesta gets about 34mpg while my 86 got about 26mpg. With 160k less miles im hoping to get this 88 up to about 28mpg at 80mph. The $1 or so extra I spend in gas each way is definately worth it since my kids fit behind the driver's seat better and it's much easier to get them in and out of.

I would like a new car, I really would. With how much driving I do though, I hit as much as 4k miles in a konth, averaging 2k. Just not worth the payment, the car will be worn out before it's paid off. Right now I am trying to catch up on child support and pay off all my bills. Starting a new job in a week or two that should make everything way better.

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #18 – November 03, 2016, 08:47:36 AM

My commute used to be 40 miles each way for work. I know the feeling of racking up the miles faster than you can pay it off. I ran out of my warranty quick. I've since bought a house, and now the commute is 30 miles each way.

When I had my 86 GT convertible, I took it out to CatJam. It was a 7 hour ride, and on the way back, I locked in cruise control at 65mph. I averaged 29mpg. I was pretty happy with that. My Trans Am would average 21mpg, but them my Shelby Chargers would average 30mpg. The FRS is getting me around 32mpg. It seems petty to really care much about fuel mileage until you have to drive 30+ miles twice a day.

I understand not getting into a new car under the cirspoogestances you're under. For me, buying my car gave me an added financial burden, but it really did help me in the long run. Because of my car loan, and being diligent on my payments, it made it insanely easy for me to get a home loan. The credit boost was worth it in itself.

I am trying to hang around here a bit more. I have a lot of other stuff going on, but I do want to get back into another bird. Unfortunately, it will be a few years out. One reason is...well...my car payment.

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #19 – November 03, 2016, 09:07:04 AM

Quote from: Tbird232ci;457616

and being a mechanic for a living,

That's my close high school friend, and people forget that all he does all week is turn wrenches and fight with rusty POS parts on big trucks. Now...he's got a '90 Vette with a TPI 383 stroker that's getting a hairdryer this winter, and he's doing everything himself...but I know well that sometimes he'd rather do literally anything else on the weekend besides fix THINGS.

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #20 – November 04, 2016, 12:03:25 PM

Buying a new car makes sense, in a couple of cirspoogestances. If you can afford a new car it's a good option for a couple of reasons:

For the first 5 or so years if anything breaks it's fixed for free!

The car starts every time without issue.

It's much safer (better structure, airbags) than even a 10 year old car.

There is a catch though (besides the upfront cost): you can't trade it in either before you pay it off or even right after you do. Trading in a car at 50K miles is silly. You can easily get 150K out of most cars sold now with minimal issue. Trading it in at 5 years old is a bad idea and wastes quite a bit of money/useful life of the car. If you keep a $20K car for 10 years it's almost like buying a $2K car every year for 10 years (well if you get really low financing

)

But to each is own. I prefer my daily driver to be something I bought new and know the maintenance history of. But I'm in a position to have that option. What is right and works for one person may not for another.

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #21 – November 07, 2016, 02:44:58 AM

You can trade your car in any time you would like. The issue then becomes the value of the car versus the loan. If your car value and loan value are equal, you basically just start over with a new car. If you owe more on the car than it's worth, you will tack that additional amount onto the loan of your new car.

Some people are into trading a car in every few years, or leasing a car. If you're used to a certain payment, and are comfortable with it, you might as well enjoy the option of swapping cars and seeing what you like. It's not an option that I will partake in.

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #22 – November 07, 2016, 02:37:47 PM

Monetarily, buying a new car generally never makes sense. My last two cars were 2-3 years old. Gets a lot of the initial depreciation over with while still being new enough to enjoy the tech goodies and safety improvements. However, you could buy a 4-5 year old car and save even more. While you're at it, you could get a 6-7 year old car....and so on. :D

Adaptive cruise control and LED headlights? Sign me right up!

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #23 – November 07, 2016, 04:21:10 PM

The real shame is that your first year or so of your car payments almost all go towards interest. So even without depreciation, you didn't pay dick towards to prinl and end up behind if you wanted to trade in.

I will say, although I have a bare bones daily driver, it has seen been an awesome experience.

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #24 – November 07, 2016, 04:51:20 PM

Yeah, gap insurance isn't a bad idea for new cars.

I've got a 3% rate on my car. Will end up paying 7% of the car's initial value in interest if I don't pay it off sooner. Not too bad.

My house mortgage is a lot worse. 3.5% rate will have me paying 62% of the house value over 30 years. At least the house value doesn't depreciate to nothing!

/thead 'jacked!

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #25 – November 07, 2016, 07:53:45 PM

Spent about three hours working on the car. All the exhaust manifold bolts are out except two to hold it in place. All front dress and upper and lower intake are also off. Pretty much just need to unbolt the y-pipe then I can pull valve covers and get at all the head bolts. So far I am really surpised how clean everything is and how well it's coming apart. Well, except I broke the dipstick tube mount. It was rusted through and broke right off.
Not sure I'll get it done tomorrow, gonna take the intake to the car wash, its filthy under the upper, covered with sandy like grease. Gonna make tdc on the ballencer first thing then pull exhaust and then heads and go to town. Id like to have it all done wednesday. Cant imagine too many more 65°f days are left in November. Usually have snow by now.

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #26 – November 09, 2016, 03:39:38 PM

I buy a brand new car, pay it off, and keep it until it dies. I get my money's worth out of it and all I end up paying for after the first 4-5 years is gas and insurance. That works for me but for others maybe not so much. If you trade a car in you have to be above water on it to do so. In my case I never worry about that as I'll just be paying it completely off and keeping the car indefinitely any way.

I'm not really worried about interest payments. I'm in a position where I really haven't paid any interest on any new car I've purchased. Both my wife and I bought out 2011 Focus and 2012 Mustang brand new with $0 down and 0% for 60 months. After the first couple of payments the car was always worth more than we owed on it. The 2017 Accord we just bought has the highest interest we've paid on a car, 0.9%. I've yet to make a payment on the car and it's still worth almost exactly what we owe on it.

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #27 – November 10, 2016, 12:53:19 PM

haystack,
let me know if you need a part or two .. i owe you one anyway!
jcassity@frontier.com or call

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #28 – November 10, 2016, 03:58:53 PM

Quote from: Haystack;457722

Spent about three hours working on the car. All the exhaust manifold bolts are out except two to hold it in place. All front dress and upper and lower intake are also off. Pretty much just need to unbolt the y-pipe then I can pull valve covers and get at all the head bolts. So far I am really surpised how clean everything is and how well it's coming apart. Well, except I broke the dipstick tube mount. It was rusted through and broke right off.
Not sure I'll get it done tomorrow, gonna take the intake to the car wash, its filthy under the upper, covered with sandy like grease. Gonna make tdc on the ballencer first thing then pull exhaust and then heads and go to town. Id like to have it all done wednesday. Cant imagine too many more 65°f days are left in November. Usually have snow by now.

You know, that majority of 5.0's I took apart had that same sand/grease. It almost feels like a sound deadener or something like that.

theres a first time for everything rant

Reply #29 – November 14, 2016, 03:32:14 PM

So I got the head off. There was so much grease I couldnt see the head bolts. Unbolted the exhaust manifold and valve cover. Got the head off, and there is nothing wrong with the head gasket.

Most of the bottom head bolts were finger loose and slightly stripped. One bolt head is broken off. Im guessing they tried to tighten it instead of loosen it when they loosened the other bolts for no reason.The head bolts under the valve cover were all tight. Pretty sure it's the oem head gasket, it says ford on part of it.

Gonna try to get a pipe wrench and see if I can spin the head bolt out.