Uh, your Odyssey probably cost around $23,000 in 1995. That’s around $36,000 in 2015 dollars. Of course a new $20,000 Civic will feel cheaper.

Yup. Your savvy consumer isn’t usually buying this kind of car, and if they are they’re especially not buying one from this kind of place.

If this happened at a normal place, sure...but this is South Florida, capital of scumbag used car lots, repos, and boiler rooms. This place hardly stands out there.

Driving and stopping are two different things.

There is a minimum thickness spec on pads and rotors which is easily measured by a micrometer. Have them show you the spec and your rotor - on your car - using the measuring tool. Any honest shop will have no problem doing this.

“We can’t let you leave” is pure BS, but “We won’t let you drive the car off the lot, you have to tow it” can be 100% accurate - in one case, where the rotors were worn away to the point that the brake pads came out of the brake calipers and the caliper pistons popped out, draining the fluid from the system. Total…

When I went there maybe 10 years ago looking for a fender for a 1970 deville convertible they *were* jerks. They changed the price after I picked one, changed the terms too (fender trim and marker not included - even in the higher price! - all of a sudden when I had my wallet out to pay). I had gotten a firm price on…

Have you read those complaints? Many of them lack any details, or even basic information like the year, make and model of the car. They’re useless.

My Fit has a tiny battery which will die if you sit in the car listening to the radio for a bit, or leave the hazard flashers on for an hour. It’s getting a bigger battery soon...

The phrase your looking for is TMDT. “This model does that”. For example, all 1991 Saturns have engine vibration you can feel through the steering wheel. They fixed that issue for 1992 by adding an upper engine mount. No fix is possible for 1991s and dealerships that treated the issue like a failure and tried to fix…

It is normal for tires to (very slowly) leak air over time. I’ve seen it in literally a thousand (or more) customer vehicles - cars, trucks, motorcycles, trailers - in the several decades I’ve been in the repair business. Obviously I haven’t worked on everything, everywhere (and if your tires are perfectly sealed…

Sure, but $9k used cars don’t come with an additional 100k of power train warranty, and they're used, so you're taking your chances on previous maintenance and unknown repair bills. If you buy the new car, you don't need to worry about that while the warranty is in effect. Not to mention the cheaper finance rate for…

Most people can’t afford to spend $18,000 on a second car that can only go around 35 miles from home. Add that to the general uselessness of the car outside of that one specific task and you have a car that people are lining up *not* to buy.

44 mpg is a measure of a sort of performance... and I think Mirage buyers care a lot about price.

Or you could buy a Honda Fit for the same $18k and get an actual, usable, roomy car that you can drive for more than an hour at a time on the highway.

If you can find one that runs and hasn’t already been tuned to death and/or wrapped around telephone poles a few times by any of the (usually many) previous owners.

Also see: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech…

Tires also gain about 1 psi for every 10 degrees increase in ambient temperature, plus 3 psi if the tires are driven on for a while.

Seriously. Mom’s ‘07 Mazda 3 (not the speed3) went through 12 of the 205/50-17 tires and a wheel for pothole damage in 60k miles in the northeast over 6 years. At $160 per tire, the 8 replacement tires and wheel added up to about $1500 out of pocket.

Good tip!