What are your next major purchases?

[Zaxxon]

We also just had a motorized awning installed over our back deck/patio. Might have put that one off until next year had I known the wind gods were about to strike. Sure do like it, though.

We're thinking about that as phase 2 to our deck add-on. Do you mind sharing the brand?

Eclipse.

[malchior]

We also just had a motorized awning installed over our back deck/patio. Might have put that one off until next year had I known the wind gods were about to strike. Sure do like it, though.

We're thinking about that as phase 2 to our deck add-on. Do you mind sharing the brand?

Eclipse.

Awesome - thanks!

[Zaxxon]

We also just had a motorized awning installed over our back deck/patio. Might have put that one off until next year had I known the wind gods were about to strike. Sure do like it, though.

We're thinking about that as phase 2 to our deck add-on. Do you mind sharing the brand?

Eclipse.

Awesome - thanks!

NP. If you want more details at any point, shoot me a PM.

[RunningMn9]

You're smarter than me.

I started with a Tikka T3X CTR in 6.5 Creedmoor. It a great rifle but I've only been able to shoot it 2 times (when I've taken it to Montana and Michigan). It's impossible to find anywhere around here to let it loose. So $1K in rifle and $1.5K in glass doing nothing.

The Ruger 10/22 and RPR rimfire (bolt action .22) both get a ton of use. Each well under $500, $100 red dot and a $150 scope respectively.

I settled on .308 because most indoor ranges around me will let you fire it. The place my friend and I went a few weeks ago sets .308 as the highest caliber they permit, but the range safety guy cleared my friend to fire his 30-06 M1 Garand. That was a lot of fun, and stopped everyone else at the range.

Eventually we will get to an outdoor range which will let this stretch it’s legs a bit more, but it will be a while before I need anything more substantial than this.

[LawBeefaroni]

My range let me sight in the Tikka with 5 rounds but after that there is no point in shooting at a 25 yard indoor range. Especially at 6.5 Creed prices.

If you get the RPR or Ruger American .308 they have .22LR versions with the same MaOA and you can even lengthen the bolt throw.

[RunningMn9]

Yeah, the intent is to get outside with it, which is likely more reasonable out here amongst the hill people of NJ / PA, then your neck of the woods.

[Daehawk]

This thread has a serious lack of English.

[Kurth]

We may just end up buying her a new car (maybe electric if we can find one) and let the kids drive her CRV. More money than I wanted to spend, but that may make the most sense in the end.

Ok. I think we're in. Decided the path forward is to buy an electric primarily for the kids use. They drive all the time, but almost exclusively local trips. So, looking for an electric that won't break the bank ($30K or under would be great; $40K is ceiling) and is safe (basic driver assists) and reliable, but don't need anything with a large range or with a ton of bells and whistles.

Recommendations?

Also, does it make any sense to be looking at used electric vehicles at this point? Seems like the price delta between new and low mileage used is almost nonexistent right now. Plus, if I understand correctly, used vehicles don't qualify for any electric vehicle rebates or tax help. Seems like the only reason to buy used today is because you actually have a chance of buying a used car . . . today. No one seems to have any new stock of anything.

[Zaxxon]

If reasonable features, not crazy price, and actual availability are your priorities, I would check out the Nissan Leaf. Mine was a 2017 which bears little resemblance to today's models, but it was competent, reasonably fun to drive (which is a baseline for instant-torque power trains found in all EVs), and with the fed and state tax credits it cost me $0 to own for 18 mo. (I sold it for about what I paid minus the credit amounts when I got my 3.)

[geezer]

We may just end up buying her a new car (maybe electric if we can find one) and let the kids drive her CRV. More money than I wanted to spend, but that may make the most sense in the end.

Ok. I think we're in. Decided the path forward is to buy an electric primarily for the kids use. They drive all the time, but almost exclusively local trips. So, looking for an electric that won't break the bank ($30K or under would be great; $40K is ceiling) and is safe (basic driver assists) and reliable, but don't need anything with a large range or with a ton of bells and whistles.

Recommendations?

Also, does it make any sense to be looking at used electric vehicles at this point? Seems like the price delta between new and low mileage used is almost nonexistent right now. Plus, if I understand correctly, used vehicles don't qualify for any electric vehicle rebates or tax help. Seems like the only reason to buy used today is because you actually have a chance of buying a used car . . . today. No one seems to have any new stock of anything.

Try and find a lightly used BMW i3. Surprisingly roomy and practical.

[Kurth]

Test drove a Leaf today. It was a 2020 with 10K miles on it. They wanted $31K for it. A new one goes for $33K with $10K in tax credits. Pricing on used vehicles is insane! Of course, that's because no one has much in the way of inventory on new vehicles.

[Zaxxon]

That's nuts.

[Carpet_pissr]

A few thoughts on cars, since I have
1. Bought 2 used cars
2. Totaled (not me) 1 of those cars
3. Sold a used car
4. Bought a new car

All in the current accursed market (just took delivery of my new one yesterday).

Partly due to the circumstance, but mostly just me being me, I did WAY too much research, and overthought, and overanalyzed, etc. Ask me anything so you don't have to go through that.

1. Buying used: last time I checked (1-2 months ago, so things could have shifted, but I don't think so), prices of used cars (since the start of the Great Car Crush (The Great Carbacle?) have outpaced the price of new by quite a bit (relative increase in price). It's why when you check Carmax for that 2022 CR-V, it's within $1k (or less!) of a new one that you got an OTD quote for at your local dealer.

Note also that the used cars out there are what dealers call "edge", i.e. sus, i.e. shitboxes, i.e. you do NOT want to be buying a used car in the current market unless it's from family, or a neighbor, or someone you know. Of course you could get lucky, but Carfax (ESPECIALLY in this market) is very far from foolproof. Not only does it not make fiscal sense (compared to new), even with any assurance, or extended coverage, etc., do you want to take an increased chance of that vehicle being in the shop constantly? Time and convenience is worth something!

2. Electrics: This was my first choice (Mach E), but the wait time on these in general has gotten absurd. You can find them on Carvana and Carmax, with VERY low miles (like less than 1K) but you won't get that sweet $6-$7500K tax credit, AND you will pay the 'Carvana tax' which is a lot worse than most local dealers bs with markups. I did have a Kia dealer constantly badgering me about an all electric Ioniq 5 they got in stock, but it was the lowest or very low trim (and one of my dealbreakers is a cloth interior, which this one had). Also too small for my wants. Note that there are a metric crap ton of new models from almost all makes coming into the market RIGHT now...but not sure I would want to buy the very first of any model, from anyone (YMMV, and certainly in this market....you have to let some stuff go - unless you're me, who can't ever seem to let anything go...)

3. New: IMO, buying new is the way to go in this market, and NOT off the lot for a few reasons: 1. you are more likely going to run into a $2-$12K "market adjustment" for the ability to buy "now". 2. That car has not been sold for a reason - maybe it's black, and you live in a hot climate, maybe it's charreuse, and you have eyes, maybe it' gets 7MPG. Again, everything I say should have a "unless you get very lucky" at the end. Note that things are so bad that many manufacturers have STOPPED taking orders from customers. They are simply building what they can (the most common wants) and just shipping those as fast as they can to dealers, who have NO idea what they are getting most of the time, until the truck shows up (this varies by make).

4. Buying services: Specifically TrueCar, which is used by everyone seemingly, from no-name online credit unions, to warehouse clubs, to brick and mortar banks....everyone wants a cut of the serious buyer. You can of course go through TrueCar directly (but will not get any of the perks that most of the places I mentioned above offer you for going through THEM). Truecar is normally very good IMO...but in this market it is worse than useless, because it wastes your time that could be better spent. Ask me how I learned this. If anyone is interested in more details about why Truecar doesn't work in the current market, I will be happy to explain, but this is already long.

My recommendation: buy new, but buy from a dealer who can see that something is coming that you want...and put down a deposit on it before it arrives. I had several dealers giving me ETA spreads of 5 weeks doing it this way, and because they have gotten burned by giving too early ETA's, I think they have learned to be very conservative.

I should also note that I am a very picky buyer, so most people would not go through the mostly self-inflicted bs that I did, so yes, you CAN go buy a car RIGHT NOW. But you will probably get a car that most people don't want, or get fleeced mightily, or both.

Finally, from my experience, here are the cars that are "hardest" to "easiest" to buy, in order. Hard meaning both hard to find AND will carry a massive premium/markup due to popularity:
1. Popular EV's that still have note met the federal tax credit: Mach E, F-150, etc.
2. 2022 Kia Telluride (good luck!) You can find them, but you will very likely pay $10K markup. This is also here because literally every car review site has lost their collective shit over this model (including CR). Too bad it gets shit MPG or I would have probably bought one. They are as amazing as the reviews IMO.
3. Hybrids
4. non-hybrids

[Kraken]

Apparently my next major purchase will be capital gains tax on the house we just sold. Gotta figure out how that works.

The internet tells me that we have to pay tax on the difference between the home's value when we inherited it versus when we sold it, minus the cost of repairs, and that the tax will probably be 15% of that number. It doesn't tell me if we can file a separate form to get it out of the way now, or have to do it on next year's income tax return. I would like to pay the tax now, before we split the proceeds and close the estate.

[Zarathud]

You’ll pay on your own income tax return next year. The estate files a final tax return showing how much income you pick up as beneficiary.

[Kraken]

You’ll pay on your own income tax return next year. The estate files a final tax return showing how much income you pick up as beneficiary.

The wrinkle is that the income will be divided between Wife and her surviving brother 60/40 after repaying our expenses. So for each of us to pay our fair share of taxes, the estate's return would have to show how the money is being apportioned, not just the total amount of money. That is, (using round numbers for simplicity) we got $120k for the house. Wife spent $35k and BIL spent $8k on it over the years. So the estate pays us $35k and BIL $8k, leaving $57k to be split 60/40, which is about $34k for us and $23k for BIL. Total distribution would then be $69k for us and $31k for BIL. These numbers are before taxes. If the estate's statement reflects the actual disbursements, then it's fine that we each pay the capital gains tax on our actual share.

The estate has never filed a tax return. I didn't know that was a thing and I hope that's not a problem -- it hasn't had any income in the past three years, only expenses. Do I have to hire my CPA to file a tax return for the estate, or is this something simple enough to do myself? We do have a lawyer overseeing the estate but she has nothing to do with taxes.

[Zarathud]

Talk to a CPA and they will apportion based on distributions after your house investment costs (including CPA fee) are reimbursed as an estate expense. This is where a tax estate lawyer differs from a regular lawyer who does estates. And why they cost more.

[Kraken]

Talk to a CPA and they will apportion based on distributions after your house investment costs (including CPA fee) are reimbursed as an estate expense. This is where a tax estate lawyer differs from a regular lawyer who does estates. And why they cost more.

Thanks, I'll lay this all out in an email for our CPA this week.

Our "regular lawyer who does estates" is Wife's childhood friend, so she didn't cost much at all. Nor did she have to do much. She does still need to "close the estate," whatever that means, which I presume will have to be AFTER the CPA handles the taxes.

[Kurth]

Just put a deposit down on a new Leaf SV with technology package. Was disappointed to find out they were baking the OR state $2500 rebate into the price. Still, even with the BS “market adjustment” it’ll end up netting out at about $27.5K after the Federal $7500 tax credit.

Paying too much for this car, but that’s where the market is.

[Zaxxon]

Sweet. Do they have a solid ETA? FWIW, the SV was the clear sweet spot trim when I got mine, at least.

[Kurth]

Sweet. Do they have a solid ETA? FWIW, the SV was the clear sweet spot trim when I got mine, at least.

June 2. But we'll see if that slips. Dealer seemed to think it was pretty locked in.

[msteelers]

Sweet. Do they have a solid ETA? FWIW, the SV was the clear sweet spot trim when I got mine, at least.

June 2. But we'll see if that slips. Dealer seemed to think it was pretty locked in.

Is it a refundable deposit? We put a deposit down on a car that was supposed to be just one week out. They gave us a delivery date, but that then slipped to the end of the month. Then the middle of the following month…

Luckily we were able to get our deposit back without any issue when we canceled our order. And we were able to use that to help negotiate with other dealers. “I put a deposit in with Dealer X to buy a car for this specific price. Can you beat it?”

[Carpet_pissr]

My deposit was non-refundable and the non-marked up price was contingent on financing with them. The absurd thing was they wouldn’t/couldn’t tell me what my rate would be before I agreed to the deposit! Wtf. Words were said about that I literally said to the guy ‘so you want me to put down a NON REFUNDABLE deposit for a car, promise to finance through you, without knowing the financing terms? Would YOU do that if you were buying?’

Wasn’t happy about that of course but that’s the market and I needed a car. Was planning to finance anyway, and it’s hard to complain about 2% rate for 60 months.

From what I can tell (and reading lots of Reddit experiences) they either get you upfront with a blatant $XK markup, try to hide it behind actual (but worthless) dealer addons ($799 - nitrogen filled tires), or they do what happened to me: ‘force’ you to finance with them.

Excepting this market, dealers make a lot more money on financing and trade-ins, and pretty much everything BUT the car price.

[Zaxxon]

Do you have a 240V outlet in your garage? If not, I have a suggestion for an entry into the your next minor purchase thread.

[geezer]

We're adding a Wrangler 4xe to my wife's Mini SE whenever it (the Jeep) arrives - moving slowly toward all electric-ish for our main transportation. Full solar and battery backup for the house up next...

[ImLawBoy]

Reading this thread is making me very happy that I bought my car in November and didn't put it off any longer!

[stessier]

Just put a deposit down on a new Leaf SV with technology package. Was disappointed to find out they were baking the OR state $2500 rebate into the price. Still, even with the BS “market adjustment” it’ll end up netting out at about $27.5K after the Federal $7500 tax credit.

Paying too much for this car, but that’s where the market is.

Does the Leaf still qualify for the Federal tax credit? I would have thought they sold 200k Leafs eons ago.

[Zaxxon]

Just put a deposit down on a new Leaf SV with technology package. Was disappointed to find out they were baking the OR state $2500 rebate into the price. Still, even with the BS “market adjustment” it’ll end up netting out at about $27.5K after the Federal $7500 tax credit.

Paying too much for this car, but that’s where the market is.

Does the Leaf still qualify for the Federal tax credit? I would have thought they sold 200k Leafs eons ago.

You'd think that since it's been around forever in EV terms, but it's never sold particularly well in the US. They're getting close but they're not there yet.

[stessier]

Just put a deposit down on a new Leaf SV with technology package. Was disappointed to find out they were baking the OR state $2500 rebate into the price. Still, even with the BS “market adjustment” it’ll end up netting out at about $27.5K after the Federal $7500 tax credit.

Paying too much for this car, but that’s where the market is.

Does the Leaf still qualify for the Federal tax credit? I would have thought they sold 200k Leafs eons ago.

You'd think that since it's been around forever in EV terms, but it's never sold particularly well in the US. They're getting close but they're not there yet.

Yeah, I just looked it up. Only 165k sold in the US as of January. It's been around 11 years!! Crazy.

[msteelers]

My deposit was non-refundable and the non-marked up price was contingent on financing with them. The absurd thing was they wouldn’t/couldn’t tell me what my rate would be before I agreed to the deposit! Wtf. Words were said about that I literally said to the guy ‘so you want me to put down a NON REFUNDABLE deposit for a car, promise to finance through you, without knowing the financing terms? Would YOU do that if you were buying?’

Wasn’t happy about that of course but that’s the market and I needed a car. Was planning to finance anyway, and it’s hard to complain about 2% rate for 60 months.

Yikes. That's rough. I don't think I could have moved forward with that deal, but we didn't need to replace the wife's car ASAP. We had time, so that made it really easy to walk away from any deal that we didn't like.

FWIW, I dealt with three dealers. The first two I dealt with lied to my face. The first dealer said their $5k markup was the cheapest around despite being the most expensive out of all the dealers I called. They also said the markup was non-negotiable, and then immediately negotiated with me on the price. They then said they couldn't possibly accept any more in trade-in, before suddenly being ok with nearly doubling what they were going to offer me. The 2nd dealer kept getting the car delivery date wrong, but the bigger issue was that they said we could lock in special-financing rates before the car was delivered only to tell us a few days before the deal expired that we couldn't actually do that.

[pr0ner]

Just put a deposit down on a new Leaf SV with technology package. Was disappointed to find out they were baking the OR state $2500 rebate into the price. Still, even with the BS “market adjustment” it’ll end up netting out at about $27.5K after the Federal $7500 tax credit.

Paying too much for this car, but that’s where the market is.

Does the Leaf still qualify for the Federal tax credit? I would have thought they sold 200k Leafs eons ago.

You'd think that since it's been around forever in EV terms, but it's never sold particularly well in the US. They're getting close but they're not there yet.

Yeah, I just looked it up. Only 165k sold in the US as of January. It's been around 11 years!! Crazy.

I see plenty of Ioniqs and Mach-Es in Northern Virginia already but I don't really see any Leafs around.

[Kurth]

The variance between dealers is crazy. The one we reserved our Leaf at required $500, taken over the phone via credit card, fully refundable.

Another dealer wanted $3K down and required us to come into the dealership to do it in person.

And the mark-up differential is huge, too. I'm seeing $2.5-$5K.

[Carpet_pissr]

Yeah, if the current bs doesn’t put a bullet in the head of our absurd dealership model, nothing will.

Should have died a long time ago.

[Isgrimnur]

My deposit was non-refundable and the non-marked up price was contingent on financing with them. The absurd thing was they wouldn’t/couldn’t tell me what my rate would be before I agreed to the deposit! Wtf. Words were said about that I literally said to the guy ‘so you want me to put down a NON REFUNDABLE deposit for a car, promise to finance through you, without knowing the financing terms? Would YOU do that if you were buying?’

Wasn’t happy about that of course but that’s the market and I needed a car. Was planning to finance anyway, and it’s hard to complain about 2% rate for 60 months.

You can always refinance, making sure they didn't sneak in a prepayment penalty.

Down here, we have a firm that does leases and they are not dealer-dependent. They have new and used leases, and I imagine there's the post-rental car market to consider as well.

[Carpet_pissr]

My deposit was non-refundable and the non-marked up price was contingent on financing with them. The absurd thing was they wouldn’t/couldn’t tell me what my rate would be before I agreed to the deposit! Wtf. Words were said about that I literally said to the guy ‘so you want me to put down a NON REFUNDABLE deposit for a car, promise to finance through you, without knowing the financing terms? Would YOU do that if you were buying?’

Wasn’t happy about that of course but that’s the market and I needed a car. Was planning to finance anyway, and it’s hard to complain about 2% rate for 60 months.

You can always refinance, making sure they didn't sneak in a prepayment penalty.

Yeah, the sales guy kept telling me I could refinance after three months, and I specifically asked if there was an early payoff penalty (no) before agreeing.

The rate is good enough that I’m happy with the way it turned out, I just don’t appreciate having my elbow twisted as a customer. Especially for ‘blind’ terms.

[malchior]

You can always refinance, making sure they didn't sneak in a prepayment penalty.

One of the few pros in NJ - no prepayment penalties on any loans. That's baked into the rates offered here but still the big upside is I shop the best rate for the best payment terms. That gives a lot of flexibility. I can trade off rate and payment and a target for what I'm actually going to pay.

[Kraken]

The scope of my tree work grew considerably yesterday after my neighbor did a major pruning of his side of our mutual oak tree, a very large old shade tree that I wish he'd left alone. But he didn't, and now my side of the tree has a LOT more weight than his does. So I have to even it up for safety's sake. That added $800 to what would've been a $1,600 quote.

Altogether I'm going to pay $2,280 to remove a medium-sized dead maple and a small, broken Bradford pear; to do the major oak trim; and to do minor pruning on four other trees. I had set a limit of $2,000 before the oak tree came into play, so I'm happy with that total price.

[Zaxxon]

One of my first home ownership lessons back in the day was that trees can be friggin' expensive.

[coopasonic]

In another 20-30 years our trees may be big enough to be a concern.

[Isgrimnur]

In another 20-30 years our trees may be big enough to be a concern.