[HN Gopher] 4chan's used car buying guide
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       4chan's used car buying guide
        
       Author : carabiner
       Score  : 58 points
       Date   : 2023-04-19 17:05 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (i.4cdn.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (i.4cdn.org)
        
       | diarrhea wrote:
       | Seeing Rust as a con in a Hackernews post, never thought I'd see
       | the day!
        
       | WorldPeas wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/Me1KM
        
         | everybodyknows wrote:
         | Note that this is a ~10 Megapixel image.
        
       | officeplant wrote:
       | God I haven't seen one of these since around 2009. Completely
       | forgot the auto board used to work these up.
        
         | throwawaymobule wrote:
         | The design reminds me of logicalincrements before it became a
         | website.
        
         | dsfyu404ed wrote:
         | The older versions of this guide were way more "witty".
         | 
         | The 4Runner would probably have had some quip about a roof top
         | tent, balls in wife's purse. The Miata would have had the
         | quintessential homosexual reference. The CTS would have had a
         | joke about being a geriatric mfer. Stuff like that.
        
           | mock-possum wrote:
           | Oh 4chan
        
         | carabiner wrote:
         | It's a really good guide.
        
       | jpeter wrote:
       | I would love something like this for germany
        
       | danlugo92 wrote:
       | Everytime I ask someone who knows their way around cars, they
       | recommend a Toyota.
       | 
       | Why doesn't everyone just have a Toyota then? It's what every car
       | guy I know recommends
        
         | cactacea wrote:
         | Personally I recommend Toyotas because they're no drama. You
         | get in, turn the key and go where you need to go. When they
         | fail they generally give you plenty of warning and will keep
         | going anyway. Usually if you just do basic maintenance they'll
         | run forever though. 300k miles isn't uncommon at all. I've put
         | 130k on my 4Runner so far with absolutely no problems
         | whatsoever (and I've taken it places in the desert most people
         | have never heard of). I wouldn't hesitate to get in and drive
         | 100 miles off pavement on a whim even with all that mileage,
         | runs like the day I bought it.
         | 
         | If you do need to work on them they're put together in a way
         | that doesn't make you wonder wtf the engineers were thinking.
         | I've owned and worked on cars from all of these brands as well
         | as a few I'm probably forgetting:
         | 
         | Toyota Chevy Ford Volkswagen GM (Saturn, Pontiac)
         | 
         | My Saturn SL2 was the easiest American car I've ever worked on,
         | lots of clearance to get to things. Ford was by far the worst,
         | in order to remove the AC compressor I also had to remove the
         | radiator (which necessitated a coolant drain and fill) and
         | power steering pump because there was 1/4" less clearance than
         | needed to pull the bolts. If I'd paid someone it would have
         | been thousands in labor.
         | 
         | By contrast I pulled and replaced the entire suspension on my
         | 4Runner last summer in about 10 hours with just hand tools
         | (upgrade, not replacing failed components).
        
         | glofish wrote:
         | It is the safest bet for someone you don't know much about.
         | 
         | Much above reliability (that everyone wants) with tradeoffs
         | (that we are unable to judge for others)
        
         | lancesells wrote:
         | Toyota owns Lexus. Maybe they can be included as well?
        
           | cactacea wrote:
           | Lexus is just a division of Toyota so yes.
        
         | jnwatson wrote:
         | It is kind of like asking an orthopedist about the best sport.
         | They'd probably pick something boring like water aerobics.
         | 
         | Reliability isn't always the most important characteristic of a
         | car, especially now that reliability across all brands is
         | dramatically better than just 30 years ago.
        
         | doubled112 wrote:
         | I find most of them boring to drive, which is exactly what most
         | people want. If you have to ask, you probably fall into this
         | category.
         | 
         | It's going to get me there. It's going to keep running. It's
         | not going to leave me stranded someplace.
         | 
         | I like adventure, so I keep buying 15 year old German cars.
         | 
         | What code will it throw today? Will it start? Will it run? Will
         | something important fall off? Why are there electronics burning
         | in the dash?
        
           | to11mtm wrote:
           | > 15 year old German cars
           | 
           | That's a masochistic trait if I ever saw one.
        
             | tobias2014 wrote:
             | German cars not built in Germany, at least that's what I've
             | heard about it.
        
             | doubled112 wrote:
             | I've kept my wife (and therefore kids) in something else
             | all the years I've been driving.
             | 
             | At least I'm enjoying myself by myself. If I have to push
             | the car into a ditch and Uber, I will.
        
           | tetris11 wrote:
           | If you have endless money to throw down a hole for the sake
           | of adventure, then I recommend getting into antiquing. It's
           | fun, and it will destroy you.
        
         | aynsof wrote:
         | I recently looked at used cars, and there was an additional
         | $20k 'Toyota tax' when comparing a Toyota to a similar model of
         | Ford, Kia, Hyundai, etc. The features and feel of the Toyota
         | were also about 10 years behind the other cars - the Toyota
         | felt cheap. I ended up going for a different brand, despite my
         | friends' recommendations to get a Toyota for reliability.
        
           | to11mtm wrote:
           | The 'Toyota'/'Honda' tax on used cars is real. I'd say Toyota
           | is the main one who has earned it [0]
           | 
           | The 'Subaru' tax less so... [1]
           | 
           | Mazda is somewhat the exception here; a lot of their stuff is
           | some branch of the Ford tech branch lineage, but they at
           | least went down the path of 'not leaking coolant into
           | cylinders' with their engine design.
           | 
           | But I digress.
           | 
           | It's an information problem because the owner may or may not
           | know about engine/transmission/electrical[2] The the first
           | two parts of that are -fairly- consistent across models...
           | you'll see some cars that frequently sell at certain mileage
           | points, and _sometimes_ part of that is because savvy owners
           | know that it 's near a hard maintenance point (or common
           | failure point.)
           | 
           | [0] - Shift Flare on Aisin(Toyota) transmissions is far less
           | of a real problem than many Honda 5 speeds, for example.
           | 
           | [1] - I've found my Subaru, despite having a reputation for
           | being 'touchy' was perfectly fine _up to the point an oil
           | change was borked_. After that it 's been a slow downhill.
           | 
           | [2] - These are the biggest 'money pits' in my experience,
           | baring 'cooling system' issues that were actually engine
           | design issues (looking at you, AMC I6 Grand Cherokee!)
        
       | lesuorac wrote:
       | Definitely not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be
       | a bunch of generic advice.
       | 
       | I've never tried this one but I've heard you should write that
       | you're looking for a project car and that'll get people to tell
       | you every little issue the car has.
        
       | oriettaxx wrote:
       | note: north america only
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-19 23:03 UTC)