I don't have it yet, but I will be getting a 2013 Honda Accord V4 EX-L when I graduate High School. My mom drives a 2014 Mercedes C250. My stepdad has a 2013 Toyota Tundra SR5 (the pic is the closest I could find). My dad has a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe. My stepmom has a Honda Odyssey (forgot the year).
All of you kids who didn't have to or aren't going to have to pay for their own cars... I have no words. I'm 18 and have bought both of my cars, used, with my own money. The first, a '96 VW Jetta that I got from a family friend for $400, was possessed. It had a bad battery, so it required a jump most of the time, but when the hood was opened and the calipers attached to both batteries, the Jetta's alarm would activate and drain any charge it may have received. It died one rainy Saturday morning on my way to the university, and I missed a class that I couldn't afford to miss. The good news was that I got $350 for scrapping it. I then bought my current car, a 1999 Toyota Camry. I had to replace the engine in it, as I was getting on the highway one day and it just blew a fist-sized chunk out of the front of the engine block. It still ran, but not well at all lol.
I know. I'm very lucky. And I know that car will last me years as long as I don't do anything bad to it. My grandma's other Honda Accord (she got rid of it to get this new one) was a 1999 EX-L and it was still running fine, only problems ever was a radiator replacement.
I know what you mean, I went to a huge high school with many kinds of people from different backgrounds including kids form very wealthy family's who would buy there 15 year olds brand new or late model cars. A friend of my friend who I eventually got to know had wealthy parents who bought him a brand new Mustang to his specifications when he turned 16 . This was right after they came out with the new body style and my friend and I were so jealous, especially since the kid was only a sophomore. The kid (Gideon) got a black GT (yes with a 5.0 V8) and with a stick shift which he barley knew how to drive (my friend convinced him to get stick so he would get to drive it). Well suffice it to say it was too much to early, but Gideon thought he was so cool even though he sucked at driving stick, despite this he would always ask me to race him (of course I always said NO). I did get to drive his car once though I told him he could drive my POS Camaro if he let me drive his Mustang (he took the bate ) and I've got to admit it was a hell of a car, plenty of power, handled nice. Naturally I broke the rear tires loose a couple of times and he gave me crap for it. I ended up telling him something like "Oh what does it matter, your just going to wreck it anyways". Just 3 months later hauntingly yet predictably he did, at 2:00 am coming home from a party. Feel bad for him we haven't talked since HS. Such a shame, but that is why one must earn what they are getting. And performance cars for young drivers are a bad idea unless they bought or built/restored the car them self.
Yeah I hVe a friend whose brother got a 05-sigh mustang for his 16th birthday. It's not a gt but it's still got. Good but of power. He's gonna wreck it I know it. This is the same guy that managed to drive 100 yards with 4 people on/holding onto his car. Even when we were running along beside him smacking the windows he kept going. He didn't stop until his dumbass friend opened the sunroof cover thing and saw a person. Anyway he shouldn't be getting such a nice car.
Meh he isn't really a jerk or a bad driver. I gotta give him credit there was a lot going on and it was dark. It's surprisingly fun to be on the roof of a honda pilot at 25 mph
lol Admittedly I did some dumb ass stuff with cars when I was younger. Me and my friends would find a large parking lot or field and get our cars going 15-25 mph sometimes faster. we would then climb out of the moving car onto the roof or hood climb in from the other side and stop the car before we hit a curb or sink in a creek. We did other crazy stuff but thank god no one ever got seriously hurt. Yep very true, but those who work for the things they get will be far more successful people. So they say
Yeah that was pretty damn fun to be completely honest. No one got run over or fell off so no harm done. Stuff like that is the exact reason I want land. Kinda like a Dave's farm type of thing without the pedophelia.
Yep, most of the stuff we did was not on public roads so that was good, and are cars weren't really that fast so that helped save are spines. Also yea it was a lot of redneck stuff like Davids farm, but no pedophilia.
I was originally gonna pay $500 for my Corolla. But the previous owner totaled it and received the $500 insurance check so it was given to me. There's a certain satisfaction to buying your own car though. There's a greater feeling of accomplishment, having worked so hard for it. There's never a day when I don't wake up, look out the window and say, "Wow, that hunk of crap is mine," very proudly. And I still have that $500 for me to fix it myself too. - - - Updated - - - I find my 105 (more like 90... fine, 86) HP to be plenty.
My mom bought me my first real registered insured car, the 1995 Buick Centruy Custom. POS. After that, I bought all my cars myself. A little work and a lot of dedication go a long way. Now I OWN my 2012 Mazda3 and 2012 Tacoma. Bought the Tacoma with 10K cash down and financed the rest, only to pay it off after 8 months, and bought my Mazda3 Cash. I bought my 2004 Saab 9-5 cash too, but that was a cheapo-car, I got it for about 6,000. (sold it 3 weeks ago for 2500...had problems). I got the Mazda from my job, it was a trade in for a Chevy Cruze (lady said the Mazda was too sporty for her lol) So I snagged it before it even went into the shop to get prepped for resale. It was going on sale for 17,500. 2012 3s 6 speed 2.5 with Bose stereo and Sunroof, with dealer installed leather and 17" alloys (optional, not the standard rims). We took it in for 12,800 and I got it for 13,500 WITH the extended warranty. Working at a dealership has it's perks lol And if you have the personality for it, car sales is a pretty decent profession to get into, especially not having much college experience. I'm 24 and I am projected to make at least 50K this year, and that is without any side work, or General Motors bonus cash and "spin" money. Best decision I ever made, coming to work here. (also, I work for the largest auto group in NY...NY Auto Giant. We have over 23 dealerships and counting, so I can always bounce around). I got into the industry at 18 detailing and valet-ing at West Chester Mercedes Benz in West Chester, PA and from there moved back to NY to work at Rallye BMW as a lot attendant. That was when I was 19. Fast forward 5 years and I couldn't be happier. You just have to look out for the douche managers and dealers with bad reputations. I have been fortunate enough to secure these positions. All I had to do was put on a smile, be confident, and stop smoking ganja for 3 weeks before the drug test. lol Have faith in yourselves, you may be more successful sooner than you think. - - - Updated - - - Oh god, that would NEVER work for me on Long Island. All the major highways are like fuckin race tracks, and no one will let you in coming off an On-Ramp. 90 hp will get you killed. I did it somehow with my 1990 Corolla 4A-FE 3 speed auto, albeit not without some road rage and people ready to ram me onto the shoulder lolol
Glad you've had so much success working at a Chevy dealership (at least i think thats were you work judging by what you said above). I've heard many people say "Oh Chevy, GM ALL BAD, no pay, you don't want to work there" but I know 2 people who work or have recently worked at a Chevy dealership and both have had great experiences and pay. One of the guys I know who is a friend of my uncles and still works there to this day works in the new car sales department. He says he likes the job way better than the Honda dealership he worked for since the 90's to like 2010, good pay, nice people, and he gets to drive all the cars. He really likes his job. Another guy I know who worked in the service department is now my boss, he worked there for about 5 years and all in all had a good experience. Best pay of any of the 4 dealerships he worked at and the only reason he left was because he got a muscle disease, so he could no longer pick up heavy loads. Although I would imagine with all the recalls GM has been having the public might be a little apprehensive about buying GM, hopefully they can get that all squared away ASAP. Also I agree 90hp may not cut it for highway driving but the point is a performance tuned V8 with 315HP and plenty of torque, RWD, and with the word MUSTANG on the back is likely not the best car for a new driver. Especially if that car was given to them. A lower HP I4 or V6 will do the job just fine without getting the kid killed. That's one of the things that's actually good about kids who modify Honda's and such, there loud and maybe the kids think there fast but in reality they really aren't. You can put the pedal to the floor and not be that serious of a threat to society. But if a kid puts the pedal to the floor of a big V8 Mustang, than something bad is going to happen.
My GM apprehension actually comes from experience with Opel vehicles and word of mouth for the few chevy's being sold over here as being worse than the Opels. My corsa has been the car from hell. My stepdads insignia was the car from hell. My dads corsa was the car from hell. Our courtesy car astra broke down moments after getting it. Mates astra is constantly going in for work. Mums friend with a zafira seems to spend more time in garages than out. Know someone who's zafira power steering sensor failed, according to ODB after the following incident the ECU had registered the power steering sensor fault and should have simply disabled the system, what actually happened on the road? Full lock left at 40mph on a straight road, insurance write off.
there was actually a recent article a few weeks back regarding the GM recalls, and how sales really have not suffered much. I started here in New sales, transferred to BDC (Business Development Center) and now I transferred 40 mins from home to our other GM store and now I sell Used cars. Much more holdback in pre-owned cars, and much easier to sell. Way more money to be made here as well. I think the fact that GM got rid of Saturn Hummer, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and scaled back a bit in global sales, has definitely showed in the newer cars. The new CTS/ATS are amazing cars, the new Chevy Malibu and Impala are great (Impala beats Avalon and Maxima in most categories, is rated #1 by consumer reports, etc) and the 2014/15 redesign of the Silverado/Sierra are worlds better than they were, which says a lot since the pre-updated trucks were still great, and STILL command a decent resale value. They aren't all that bad, it's just after a few incidents, and GM's negligence, the government has a very sharp eye on everything GM does, and GM is covering it's ass by recalling every little tiny thing (the Traverse had a Stop-Sale recall, which basically equated to a tiny little piece of metal cord inside the seatbelt pre-tensioner, etc). There are TONS of recalls out there for every manufacturer, it's just the nature of producing millions of cars. GM happens to be under the microscope. Takata's airbags are causing havoc for MANY manufacturers, such as BMW today recalled something like 500K 3 series cars because of faulty airbags (they deploy too powerfully and throw shards of metal at the driver...talk about a big no-no!!) Otherwise, traffic here (weather walk ins or Online/Phone call traffic) is up from last year and everything seems to be moving in the tight direction...Plus, we have the new Colorado/Canyon coming back out and THAT is going to be a door buster. But I am sure there will be QRD issues upon shipment and delivery, but they will be ironed out and people will be buying those suckers OUT. (Might trade my Tacoma 4.0L in for a 3.6L Camaro-powered Crew Cab Colorado). That being said, I still prefer Japanese cars mostly, especially Mazda sedans, as they are just far superior to any other car in the segment, such as Civic, Corolla, Sentra (BLECGHGHGH) and Cruze.
Interesting, now are the Chevy's being sold in the UK identical to the ones sold in the US? I've never worked on an Opel however most of them appear to be ugly versions of Chevy's and Buick's but mechanically similar or identical. I've worked on god only knows how many hundreds of GM cars from different eras and of different designs. I have also worked on many Japanese cars as well. I feel that many of the cars GM has made after 2011/2012 are far better cars than ones from before those years. Why? because GM has to make better cars if they are going to survive. As GM seems to be finally getting there head in the game some companies like Honda seem to be on a slight downfall of quality and design. It seems they are more interested in that robot that falls down stairs and making jet engines than making word class automobiles (sort of a joke but there may be some truth to that). One of the thing I like about GM cars even from the crap area was some of there engines. Sure some were crap but others like the 350, 3800, Northstar V8 and a few I4 engines were absolutely bullet proof, and there often very simple design makes them easy to work on. In seems like on any given GM car, there were things GM did very well and there were things they didn't do well. As apposed to some companies like Honda or Toyota (in there prime) would make cars that were very good all around, and of course a few total crap boxes.
Check out the Iron Duke I4 engine...AKA Quad Four 4 cyl engines. Remarkable in their design for the era in which they were produced. My mother used to own a 2 door 1989 Olds Cutlass Calais with the 2.3L Quad Four and 5 speed tranny...she drove the heck out of that car when I was a little kid and I always thought it was such a fast car. Still is, somewhat, as it had about 160 hp. That's almost more than my 2.5L Mazda engine lol (and that car weighes less than my mazda and it got 40mpg hwy, my mazda gets an abysmal 28 if im LUCKY lol). Lots of Youtube videos of people turboing and hooking up their quad four cars, such as the Chevy Beretta, Cutlass Calais, Olds Acheiva, etc etc. Even some cavaliers were pretty bad ass. People look at those cars like they are shit, but bulletproof and quick is really what they were...Not the prettiest, but performance-wise, among the best of that era. Wiki of the Quad Four : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_4_engine
None of the opel vehicles are rebadges. They may utilise GM engines etc, but as for them being ugly versions of Chevys or Buicks its actually a cae of Chevy and Buick rebadging the Opel vehicle *not* Opel rebadging the US vehicle. Opel in the UK are sold as vauxhalls, that is just a straight up right hand drive + rebadged Opel, only exception being the Vauxhall VXR8 which is an HSV Commodore and the Ampera which is a Chevrolet Volt (no idea why they dont just sell it under the Chevy naming in the UK). Saturn have also rebadged Opel vehicles. I know at the moment Saturn offer the Sky which is based on the old Opel GT (seems to be a case of Opel discontinuing it and Saturn picking it up). The saturn Aura looks an awful lot like (and is noted as sharing the same platform) an Opel Signum. The 2nd generation Vue is an Opel Antara. The Saturn Astra is an Opel Astra. My stepdads old car was the Vauxhall Insignia, Sold as a Buick Regal. Buick Encore is an Opel Mokka. Buick Verano is the sedan model of the Astra. 97-01 Cadillac Catera was an Opel Omega (the Holden Commodore of the same era was also Omega based, but widened). 2000-2005 Saturn (again) L-series was a Vectra. Chevy in the UK offer the Camaro (which is also based on the commodore platform actually), Aveo, Orlando, Spark, Captiva, Cruze (saloon, hatchback and station wagon versions) and Trax. The weird one is the Spark also being available from daewoo, the Holden Barina in the US used to be a rebadged Opel Corsa but is now a rebadged Spark. Cadillac also operate in the UK. The euro branch of Cadillac only offer the ATS, CTS, SRX and Escalade. I only know for sure that you can get an Escalade here, their popularity is probably somewhere alongside removing your own eyeball with a wooden spoon. In my life I have seen a whopping 1 escalade, left hand drive, wasnt fitted with UK plates.
