What Did You Do To Your Car Today?

[RRocket]

Aldi is amazing! Fantastic prices and nice quality stuff....The only thing that irritates us is that they frequently change what they stock, so you get used to a certain product, and then suddenly it's no longer available. On the flip side, they always have new stuff to try, but it's still annoying to lose access to something that you really like and have to source it elsewhere for way more $.

I freely admit....I'm an Aldi fan boy.

We used to go several times a year and stock the pantry. The canned/dry goods are spectacular and the pricing unbelievable...all for quality goods as Firm says.

[Firm]

Cheese & Meat is amazing too, at least here. Nice block of Aged Irish Cheddar, $4, 3 decent Black Angus Grilling Steaks (probably not a fancy cut) $12.
Kroger is the other major grocery chain in our area, much wider selection, but prices are terrible by comparison.

[RRocket]

Cheese & Meat is amazing too, at least here. Nice block of Aged Irish Cheddar, $4, 3 decent Black Angus Grilling Steaks (probably not a fancy cut) $12.
Kroger is the other major grocery chain in our area, much wider selection, but prices are terrible by comparison.

Get the Kroger discount card.

You can frequently get 10 for $10 and then you'll get a free bonus items (buy 10 cans tomato sauce get free pasta).

But no idea of the program there is the same as Detroit area

[GreatBigAbyss]

So my Brother in Law's 2023 Subaru Outback got appraised the other day for hail damage (his daughter had taken it to work in my neck of the woods when the storm hit).  $16 600 worth of damage. 

We each had a look at our respective cars when we visited this weekend, and I would guesstimate the Prius to have almost as much damage as his Outback. 

So, given the $ amount to his car, I'd say it's not looking good for the Prius to NOT get written off. 

If MPI does write off the Prius, depending on the buy-back amount, I'll probably just buy it back, pocket the rest of the money and drive it around dented.  The powertrain and interior is still in great shape, so it would serve its purpose as a cheap commuter.

[Firm]

Definitely buy it back. I'd wait ~6 months for the post hail storm frenzy to fall off and then find a paintless dent guy, one who has his own shop/location. Tell him you can leave the car with him for a week and work out a cash deal. Those guys are going to be flush with insurance work right now, but in 6 months they'll be drying up and a nice cash deal he can work at a slower pace will be pretty sweet.

[Gurgie]

Definitely buy it back. I'd wait ~6 months for the post hail storm frenzy to fall off and then find a paintless dent guy, one who has his own shop/location. Tell him you can leave the car with him for a week and work out a cash deal. Those guys are going to be flush with insurance work right now, but in 6 months they'll be drying up and a nice cash deal he can work at a slower pace will be pretty sweet.

^this!!

[GreatBigAbyss]

I had the Prius appraised today.  Over $14k worth of damage.  It's going to be write-off. 

Now the only question will be, what will MPI value it at?  There isn't a single Prius Prime in Manitoba for less than $20k.  Granted, they have half the kilometers, but they're also base models, where mine is the fully loaded Tech. 

[Bridgecity]

^ Good luck with that GBA.  If they're anything like SGI, they'll low ball you with pre-Covid values and you'll have to fight for every dollar. 

When I was working with them for when my Dad's truck was written off just over a year ago, they wouldn't accept any comparables for valuation unless it was the exact same year and model (same for junior's car a few years back).  How many '05 Titan LE's do you think are for sale is SK?  It was ridiculous.  And then when you ask what they are using for valuation, they won't provide any information. 

[Blueprint]

I had the Prius appraised today.  Over $14k worth of damage.  It's going to be write-off. 

Now the only question will be, what will MPI value it at?  There isn't a single Prius Prime in Manitoba for less than $20k.  Granted, they have half the kilometers, but they're also base models, where mine is the fully loaded Tech. 

I have access to Trader's value guide if it helps.

[Blueprint]

Crosstrek received the 42 mo/70,000 km service today (at 42 months and 22,000 km...). Basically an oil change and a few looky-sees for $150+tax.

[Firm]

Did an undercarriage inspection on the Escalade ahead of our trip to Pensacola Beach next week and noticed that the front sway bar bushings and links were pretty well shot...mostly dry rot. So went out and grabbed a set and swapped them. Since these old GM trucks are designed well, with servicing in mind, it took less than an hour and I didn't even need to use a jack. Shockingly, the original links came off without breaking or needing to be cut. Sitting right at 190K miles, or 306K kms.







Today I swapped a water pump in a 2018 Grand Cherokee (3.6L) for a girl from work...Also a pretty straightforward job. She ran it really low on coolant a couple times, and it survived OK. I really think these 3.6L units are pretty solid.  Oil cap was really sludgy though, and dipstick at the 'add' mark....she didn't know how long it had been since it's last oil change, but the service minder on the dash wasn't on.   

[GreatBigAbyss]

^^^ Turns out the 3.6 suffers from a 'pentastar tick' where the needle bearings in the rocker arms wear out and fail.  If it's not addressed immediately, it turns into an expensive job.  The problem is most people probably don't know enough about it to catch it early enough.

[Revelations]

Had my share of Pentastar experiences. The one Ron mentioned, its fun because that seized up roller gobbles up the camshaft (Hemis also suffer from this) not a huge issue really as changing out cams isn't a real difficult job. Oil coolers like to leak, usually due to over torquing the oil filter cap. The dual stage oil pump solenoid that fails. That'll throw you in limp mode, you can scrape by resetting the ECM and keeping RPM under 3500 until you find time to remove the oil pan to change it.

Otherwise they really are a solid engine. I buy trucks off one fleet that had a bunch of 3.6 Rams and they said it was one of the lowest repair cost/frequency of any truck they've had. Most had over 200,000 kms too. I find though, like any CJDR product they get poorly maintained. Overheating and low on oil says it all.

[Firm]

The seized roller thing, assuming it's like the Hemi, is usually related to idle time. Not enough lubrication at idle, so vehicles with lots of idle hours suffer the failures, those that do lots of highway miles are fine. The oil cooler thing is a big PITA, for some reason the later models seem more susceptible to that...I know someone with a 2022 that's on it's 3rd oil cooler/filter assembly. This 2018 mentioned above still has it's original at around 95K miles, no leak.

[Revelations]

The seized roller thing, assuming it's like the Hemi, is usually related to idle time. Not enough lubrication at idle, so vehicles with lots of idle hours suffer the failures, those that do lots of highway miles are fine. The oil cooler thing is a big PITA, for some reason the later models seem more susceptible to that...I know someone with a 2022 that's on it's 3rd oil cooler/filter assembly. This 2018 mentioned above still has it's original at around 95K miles, no leak.

Who knows with the Hemis. I have a fleet unit here with 415,000 km and its chirping, no missfire yet but it isn't happy. I have all the service records ands the engine is all original. It has 4700 idle hours and 6200 drive hours, that's a lifetime of idle time in itself. Have another from the same outfit and it had a complete engine replacement at 264,000 km. They do have a widespread cam/lifter issue, some say at idle the cam doesn't get splashed with oil enough, some say the oil pumps don't put out enough volume, some say its just crappy roller lifters right from the factory, some say a simple ECM tune to allow them to idle at 700 RPM is the fix, some say a hellcat oil pump, some say an extra 3/4L of oil......

My personal truck is a 2018 Ram that I bought at the dealer auction. Low km at 143,000 and showed only 800 some idle hours. Nobody cared to mention the loud tick and missfire so I was stuck fixing it. Been running great and I've put close to 40,000 km on it.