Started the day out with 2 Cars and Ended with 4

[Paratus]

I can say the used car market is insane right now and we might be as well since I ended up with two new cars in one day.

Long Story coming up.

Last weekend we had our old 2009 Malibu LTZ and 2015 Suburban. We also had my 2013 Subaru BRZ which we had been planning to replace with a Tesla.

We bought it 3 years ago and I loved driving it. The problem is it’s been unreliable. The engine was rebuilt twice because Subaru screwed up a recall. The previous owner also abused the transmission. The throw out bearing grenaded and had to be replaced along with the clutch and flywheel. Then the transmission failed and had to be rebuilt.

I checked 3 different dealers and ended up selling it to CarMax in the middle of the week for only $2K less than I bought it for which is insane. If I had sold it myself I could have probably sold it for what I paid for it.

To replace it I wanted an EV. Put in an order for a Tesla Model 3 long range the same night I sold the BRZ. Tesla was quoting 1-13 weeks for delivery. After ordering they offer up the choice of looking at current inventory. Turned out they had one almost the same as what I ordered. Took it and the next day they said it would be available Sunday (today).

One problem came up in that Texas requires 3 days to generate temporary tags after proof of insurance if a car is not bought from a dealer. Tesla offered up picking it up on Monday or Tuesday which isn’t ideal since it’s an hour out and back from our home and on a workday. Instead they offered up home delivery to us yesterday (Saturday) and they’ll email us the temp tags next week and we can print them ourselves.

So now it’s sitting in the garage taunting me since I can’t drive it yet without tags. The electricians will be here tomorrow to put in a 240V plug. (120V plug 4-5 miles/hr, 240v plug 30 miles/hr) and I’ve ordered the 240v plug for the charger.

It was a nice surprise to get the Tesla yesterday since we weren’t expecting to pick it up until Monday.

So how did we end up with a second new car? Well my daughter turned 16 earlier in the week and we’ve been talking about getting a fourth car for this summer since both of my teens will likely be working or at least before school starts again in the fall.

My wife found out our local Hyundai dealer had a new 2020 Elantra still on sale for over 1/3 off. So we went to check out before it disappeared and ended up buying it for just a few $K over what we sold the Subaru for. It comes with 3 years of maintenance, 5 years of bumper to bumper, 10 years of power train and a supplemental life time power train warranty through the dealer. So anything goes wrong they fix it not me.

what makes the deal even more remarkable is used 2020 Elantra’s are going for more than this new one. Again the used car market is insane right now.

Never in my life would I have thought I’d get two new cars in one day. Now I just have to pay for it all and insurance with two teens.

 

[pcgeek11]

Never in my life would I have thought I’d get two new cars in one day. Now I just have to pay for it all and insurance with two teens.

You have my deepest sympathy.

 

[NutBucket]

The deal when I got my car was I was responsible for gas/insurance. That'll learn ya quick!

 

[Paratus]

The cars are in my name and my wife's name. The kids are responsible for the gas they use. Will see about contributing to the insurance as they get after school jobs (once they are fully vaccinated).

The deal when I got my car was I was responsible for gas/insurance. That'll learn ya quick!

 

[pcgeek11]

There has to be skin in the game. IMO

 

[Ichinisan]

My driveway claimed another car on Friday.

2019-02-20: Lightning
2021-03-26: EF-4 tornado

 

[Paratus]

My driveway claimed another car on Friday.

2019-02-20: Lightning
2021-03-25: EF-4 tornado

Did you piss off Zeus?

 

[Brainonska511]

The deal when I got my car was I was responsible for gas/insurance. That'll learn ya quick!

Same. The car remained in my parents' name, but I had to pick up the everyday costs and the bump in insurance to have me as the primary driver of the vehicle. Good thing it was a late 90s Taurus in the 2005.

 

[ponyo]

Congrats! Great choices. But I have a feeling you'll be driving the Elantra and your daughter will take the Tesla. At least that's how it would work in my family.

 

[Paratus]

Congrats! Great choices. But I have a feeling you'll be driving the Elantra and your daughter will take the Tesla. At least that's how it would work in my family.

Well so far everyone has been driving it (just short trips so far). My daughter can’t take it (or any car) to school yet because she won’t be eligible for a parking spot until next year. Kind of sucks because it would make our lives a lot easier if she could take herself to school at 6:30am. (Normally I’d make her take the bus but we’ve been avoiding that with COVID)

I also went ahead and changed out the wheel covers.

Went from this:

to this



I think I like this look better. I’ll save the aero covers for the occasional long trip.

 

[Ichinisan]

Did you piss off Zeus?

Maybe Zeus is jealous of my Mario Kart 64 battle mode skill.

 

[Herr Kutz]

The deal when I got my car was I was responsible for gas/insurance. That'll learn ya quick!

Consider yourself lucky. I was responsible for paying for my car too.

 

[NutBucket]

True. But the car was 10 years old so it isn't like I got something right off the lot.

 

[zinfamous]

True. But the car was 10 years old so it isn't like I got something right off the lot.

Yeah, I basically had zero responsibility for the car when it was handed to me....but it was also 12+ years old at that point, 2nd engine, and sometimes decided that it wanted to cut off on the highway. ('84 Accord). Never did figure that out, but I think it still sold for like $500 @190k miles (maybe 60k added to that engine; no idea the miles on that engine when it was installed), haha.

 

[ponyo]

Well so far everyone has been driving it (just short trips so far). My daughter can’t take it (or any car) to school yet because she won’t be eligible for a parking spot until next year. Kind of sucks because it would make our lives a lot easier if she could take herself to school at 6:30am. (Normally I’d make her take the bus but we’ve been avoiding that with COVID)

I also went ahead and changed out the wheel covers.

Went from this:

to this

View attachment 42308

I think I like this look better. I’ll save the aero covers for the occasional long trip.

I like it better with the aero covers. I used to think aero wheels looked dorky, but now I dig it. I haven't seen the new aero design in person but it looks good in the pictures.

 

[Paratus]

I like it better with the aero covers. I used to think aero wheels looked dorky, but now I dig it. I haven't seen the new aero design in person but it looks good in the pictures.

The new Aero covers are a bit better than the older ones. I may switch back. It only cost me $25 for the hub and lug nut covers and another $25 for the aero cover storage bag. Not a bad cost to change how the wheels look.

 

[CZroe]

My driveway claimed another car on Friday.

2019-02-20: Lightning
2021-03-26: EF-4 tornado

Pics:

Full
It’s under there somewhere.

Full
Front and rear windows shattered. Damage everywhere. Insurance totaled it.

It actually picked my car up before the tree fell on it since the tires were on top of PVC pipes that were stored above a workbench. It was a manual transmission so I always used the handbrake. I was the first house on the street and a white VW at the end of the street was left entirely upside down. There are obviously no obstructions to slow the winds on an empty street allowing the winds to pick up speed before flipping the car on/against another car.

Gallery:

https://imgur.com/a/jXzMyA9

 

[Paratus]

Pics:

Full
It’s under there somewhere.

Full
Front and rear windows shattered. Damage everywhere. Insurance totaled it.

It actually picked my car up before the tree fell on it since the tires were on top of PVC pipes that were stored above a workbench. It was a manual transmission so I always used the handbrake. I was the first house on the street and a white VW at the end of the street was left entirely upside down. There are obviously no obstructions to slow the winds on an empty street allowing the winds to pick up speed before flipping the car on/against another car.

Gallery:

https://imgur.com/a/jXzMyA9

Was your home ok?

 

[CZroe]

Was your home ok?

Balcony gone, much of the roof gone though you wouldn’t know it looking at the front, chimney gone, some window damage, walls splitting all over the place, siding damage, lawn equipment and central air crushed under the balcony, etc but the stuff inside was mostly OK. I’d say we got off extremely lucky for a direct hit. Some of my neighbors had absolutely nothing left with not even a wall left standing, which is how they confirmed this was an EF-4 in my neighborhood (total track was 39 miles).

I uploaded a bunch of footage to YouTube but I could barely move with all the police barricades and detours and couldn’t get on the streets even after getting the tree off my car:

https://youtube.com/channel/UCCpQiTeP82ZRWpvK-F4n1mg

This neighbor who moved out months ago rides his little Honda Grom by the house with a GoPro at 20:00 and goes on to show flipped cars and empty foundations around me:

That little thing can slip the barricades and squeeze past debris to go where I couldn’t reach for over a week.

I did get injured when I fell through the ceiling trying to put up a tarp where the roof used to be. MRI shows it’s a fracture at the rotator cuff. Can’t use my shoulder so my arm is still in a sling.

Never expected people to start meme-ing their destroyed houses with Wizard of Oz references. Put this on Imgur the other day:

https://imgur.com/a/jXzMyA9

 

[Paratus]

Balcony gone, much of the roof gone though you wouldn’t know it looking at the front, chimney gone, some window damage, walls splitting all over the place, but the stuff inside was mostly OK I’d say we got off lucky. Some of my neighbors had absolutely nothing left, not even a wall left standing.

I uploaded a bunch of footage to YouTube but I could barely move with all the police barricades and detours and couldn’t get on the streets even after getting the tree off my car:

https://youtube.com/channel/UCCpQiTeP82ZRWpvK-F4n1mg

This neighbor who moved out months ago rides his little Honda Grom by the house with a GoPro at 20:00 and goes on to show flipped cars and empty foundations around me:

I did get injured when it started raining again and I fell through the ceiling trying to put up a tarp where the roof used to be. MRI shows it’s a fracture at the rotator cuff. Arm is still in a sling.

Put this in Imgur the other day:

https://imgur.com/a/jXzMyA9

I’m damn sorry to hear about your home and arm. I’m glad you guys are survived. My wife grew up in tornado alley so we’ve got some strong respect for them.

We also had house damage from a storm. We had the eye of a hurricane pass over our current house several years ago. Ripped the roof up and the rain collapsed the ceilings. Had to take 1/3 of the house back to studs. Damage was over 6 figures and took us several months to fix it and another 18 to finish fighting with the insurance.

We’re you guys covered by home owners insurance? Lumber prices are going to make it costly to repair so the timing really sucks.

 

[CZroe]

I’m damn sorry to hear about your home and arm. I’m glad you guys are survived. My wife grew up in tornado alley so we’ve got some strong respect for them.

We also had house damage from a storm. We had the eye of a hurricane pass over our current house several years ago. Ripped the roof up and the rain collapsed the ceilings. Had to take 1/3 of the house back to studs. Damage was over 6 figures and took us several months to fix it and another 18 to finish fighting with the insurance.

We’re you guys covered by home owners insurance? Lumber prices are going to make it costly to repair so the timing really sucks.

I’ve been through ice storms and the tropical depressions of gulf hurricanes that bring down loads of trees but never anything like this. I can’t even recognize half the streets around me. At least 1,800 homes/businesses damaged an untold amounts of trees ruined.

Landlord had home insurance but it won’t cover our stuff. My car was insured so at least that was covered. Other than stuff like clothes and bedspreads, our things including the game collection were mostly OK. Got a bit of water damage on an AV Famicom box which I will gladly tolerate if that’s the worst of it. We did have water dripping onto our media shelves a couple weeks later but I caught it before it could ruin anything.

Sorry to hear you’ve been through similar. No idea how much it’s costing my landlord and his insurance. Don’t mean to jack your thread... just thought I’d add some context to Ichinisan’s anecdote about the killer car-eating driveway.