Tag: cars

It only took me 21 years

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

When I was a wee lad, obsessed with cars and Initial D, I wanted little else than a really fast Japanese car.  One to become a drifter with, or just plain go fast. 

Although Initial D shit on them, I really was fond of turbo-charged cars that were all-wheel drive.  Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions, Subaru Imprezas, Nissan Skyline GT-Rs, etc. Obviously the latter would never be available in America but I really would have liked to have gotten my hands on an Evo or an Impreza at some point in my life.

Well it’s been like 21 years since those days, but I’ve finally got my turbo-charged, AWD Japanese car.  A Mazda CX-9.

Not quite the same thing, huh?  But yet it does fall possess those variables I wanted when I was a kid.

Regardless, this is the culmination of my recent car search where I decided to capitalize on the fucked up car market, and upgrade to the larger car that my famiry will ultimately command, while the opportunity was hot.

Sure, most people are innately aware that car values are bloated like an HP computer out of the box, but at the same time trade-in values are also insane as well.  My new car’s MSRP is well north of $40,000 and more so due to current market bloat, but when I had my previous ride appraised, it was insanely high and that’s what got the wheels in motion.

Yes, all numbers were pretty all over the place, but I like to look at it from the perspective of the facts that I don’t think I would’ve been in a position of having nearly $9,000 in positive equity to put towards a new car in three years when my previous one would’ve been paid off.  Yes, the sticker price of my new car was a little bit bloated, but my total out-the-door cost was substantially lower than the MSRP of it, so I take solace in that above all else.

But most importantly, I’ve filled the anticipated need of having a large famiry vehicle for my famiry to grow into, as opposed to feeling progressively more and more cramped from my prior car as my kids grow and their needs evolve and they start amassing tons of shit.

And now I can make the dad-like jokes about how I have the AWD turbo car that I’ve been pining for, for over two decades.  Nobody has to know that it’s also 4,400 lbs and can seat seven.  Might as well be the Evo that beat Tiff Needell, even though he was cheating.

Car conundrum

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Recently, I took my car to the dealership to have some maintenance done. Prior to my appointment, I got a message asking if I wanted to get an appraisal done on my car towards a possible trade in.  Considering I’ve already been thinking about a larger car since two kids have already made my current one feel like a Ford Festiva sometimes, I figured why not?  I was already going to be waiting there so there was no harm in seeing what my current value was.

Especially right now, where the car market is as volatile as the housing market and there’s been lots of speak about how used cars were supposedly netting way more than people were owing on them.  I’d gotten emails and snail mail over the recent months claiming that my car would be worth well over $20,000 which was amusing to me considering I still owed around $13.5 on it. 

I figured such estimates were bullshit and that there was no way my car would fetch that much once I were to get it officially appraised.

Well turns out that it’s not that much bullshit, because the dealership estimated my car at $24,000 to trade in.  It’s a 2019 with under 20,000 miles and in fantastic condition because I take care of my shit and the pandemic really prevented me from doing any real hardcore driving.

So, despite me not being that serious about switching cars just yet, these kinds of numbers make it very interesting towards the possibility of doing so now.

I get that the car market is similar to the housing market right now and I read the news too; I’m aware that the car business has been hit with staggering inflation right now and that cars effectively have become haggle-proof.  The demand for cars versus inventory means that if someone tries to be cute and haggle too much, the dealerships can pass and someone will purchase it for less trouble.

In “normal” circumstances, I would look in two years when my car were to be paid off, and I’d hope to appraise for like $4,000 and then haggle the shit out of 2-3 dealerships before hoping to get $4,000 down from a not-so inflated sticker price.

However in two years, my kids will be older and probably be in command of a whole lot more shit than they have now and I could already be too late in needing bigger then; especially when I have the opportunity now to potentially upsize and be ready for the future.

So what I’m looking at right now, is the opportunity to have nearly 8-9k in equity to put towards a new car, which is more than I’ve ever put down in the past.  Sure, it restarts my clock of payments back to the start for the next 60-72 months but frankly car payments are about as certain as death and taxes, and it’s really the exception to be without them.

I’ve been casually looking at numbers and basically $8-9k towards an inflated sticker price still seems like a more attractive option than waiting for then car market and it’s potential trade market to cool and hope to look for a bargain and that my car doesn’t appraise for peanuts in two years.

Currently, I could flip my $30k car and aim for a $40k+ car but only needing to finance like $35k~.  I feel like there’s no guarantee I’ll be able to do such if I were to wait.

However on the flip side, I’m concerned about the future of gas prices considering how easy it is for the price at the pump to flip on a whim, and mythical wife and I have had discussions about the disadvantages of owning a car that isn’t gas powered.

And that’s where I am now. Leaning hard towards capitalizing on my car’s current trade-in value and upsizing to a more famiry-friendly dadmobile, but hesitating on what exactly to change to.

Waiting and standing pat doesn’t seem as appealing because my car now already feels too small and capitalizing while the market is volatile seems like a good idea. I just don’t want to make a rash choice that I might regret, but time doesn’t exactly feel like it’s on my side.

Getting an appraisal was clearly a mistake, lol

Time to opine about the gas prices

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I can’t remember if it was 2008 or 2009 or some other year around then, but I do remember when Georgia was in the midst of one of their national embarrassments, when we had a major fuel crisis.  Memories of going to gas stations that had all their pumps taped up because they had no gas whatsoever.  People relying on Twitter and social media to get leads on which stations had any gas at all, and the stations that had any, would usually have people lined up like it was the 1980 fuel crisis. 

I remember one specific evening where I caught wind of one station that had gas, so I made a trek out at like 10 pm to wait in a line, and when it was my turn, learn that there was a $40 limit per vehicle, and my 13.3 gallon tank would be short about three gallons from full, but it was better than not having enough gas and being unable to go to work.

Do the math, and it was roughly $4 a gallon, in the midst of an actual crisis.

The photo above was a picture I took while I was in Midtown, so this really is the tip of the gas prices as far as Metro Atlanta is concerned.  But still, $4.69 a gallon, is pretty absurd to see, especially in Georgia, which is considered one of the “cheap” gas states in the country.  Acquaintances out in California have already shared photos of $5-6+ out in SoCal, not to mention their octane rules make their gas shittier than most other places.

Obviously, it comes off as insensitive to say that what’s going on in the Ukraine isn’t a crisis, it most certainly is, especially to the Ukrainian people and those in the country, but it’s not the same circumstances as a busted pipeline, guzzling crude into the ocean.  It’s more like much of the world is simply sick of Russia’s bullshit right now, and in the midst of violence occurring somewhere on the planet, gas prices spontaneously combust.  I know it’s a little more complicated than such a statement, but honestly, that’s really what it feels like.

The other day, it cost me $45 to fill up my wife’s car.  Just like that, I’m fairly certain that that’s the most I’ve ever spent on a tank of gas for a personal vehicle, and it’s just really depressing to think about the financial bleeding that this has on the vast majority of the people on the planet with gas-powered vehicles, and the general reliance we all have for having them.  I’m very fortunate to be in a position where I can afford to fill up my tanks, but I feel for all sorts of other walks of life where the current gas prices really do make people have to stop and think and compare apples to oranges to whether they can fill their cars or fill the stomachs of their families. 

Regardless of the circumstances, mythical wife and I have given a lot of thought of getting an EV as our next vehicle.  Conflicts being simply the availability of adequate EVs that fit our spatial needs due to the size of our famiry, and the fact that cars in general, much less EVs, are also at their highest point ever as far as prices go, so it’s not necessarily the best time to be purchasing.

I guess it can really be summed up that thanks to Russia’s bullshit, as well as all the supply chain bullshit that occurred over the last few years thanks to coronavirus, this is a good example of some really horrific global inflation going on, primarily due to the fact that the world is a shitty place full of greedy people who can never seem to have enough money to where they’re completely content on ruining lives of countless people in order to make more money than they’ll ever actually use in their lifetimes.

Back to the gas prices, it really sucks that all this shit is happening, because I’ve just begun commuting again, several days a week.  Now I’m sure the advent of remote work over the last two years is going to be revisited by many if this gas price bullshit doesn’t calm itself down eventually, but honestly, I like going into the office, because I’m more productive there, plus it’s where I can actually go to the gym and exercise again.  Frankly, I didn’t realize Russia was such a player in the global fuel supply because I always figured that that distinction really was more belonging to the Middle East, but here we are.

The scary thing is that I have yet to need to fill up, while the prices continue to escalate.  I was “fortunate” to have filled up just a few days ago where prices were climbing, but weren’t yet quite fuck you insane yet.  But quite literally, from the time that I had filled up, to when I was on my way back home and passed the same gas station, prices shot up another 30¢/gal in the span of two hours.  My last two fill-ups were “lucky” to have seen gallon prices with a leading $3, but it doesn’t seem likely that I’ll be able to avoid a leading $4 the next time I need to fill up.

A $50 fill-up for a 13 gallon tank is not something I am looking forward to, but it seems pretty inevitable.

Not sure how I feel about this

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

When I read this story about an Initial D café out in California, I was a little skeptical.  Initial D is a property that I’ve been pretty passionate about, and frankly of all the anime series that have ever existed, absolutely none of them can say that they’ve been able to keep my interest for 18 years.  My interest in Initial D could legitimately vote. 

Kare Kano, Ranma 1/2, Evangelion, Rurouni Kenshin; none of these properties, among many others, as much as I loved them when I did, had the ability to keep me coming back for more throughout their existences.  With Initial D, I would watch whatever I could, but then in later years, when I’d learn that more of it existed, I would search and watch it and catch back up, until the point came when the series was out of episodes.

As suspect as I thought the ending kind of was, my love for the series was unmistakable.  Frankly, almost all anime have shitty endings, and Initial D’s was far from the worst out there.

Anyway, this Initial D café out in California; of course it’s in California.  And as much as I like the execution of the place, and the obvious love for the property that the owner has, there’s just one thing that bugs me:

Fujiwara Tofu Cafe, while not formally endorsed by Initial D’s creators, 

It’s a business that’s completely more or less unauthorized.  And in spite of the lack of endorsement, the place is completely smattered with Initial D stuff all over the place, and has completely lifted its entire identity from a property that they more or less don’t have the endorsement to use.  I’m no legal expert, but I wonder about the legality of using so much official stuff for a business not sanctioned by the creators of it.

I think it bugs me because I’m such a fan of the property and generally protective of my fandom of it, and this is definitely something that I wouldn’t have done, at least without trying to gained some approval from those in charge of the property in the first place.  I mean, who’s to say the guy who owns it hasn’t, but the thing is if I don’t get the green light from Shuichi Shigeno, then this is definitely a venture that I don’t embark on.

But that’s just me.  Otherwise, I have some respect for the fact that the duder’s family has an actual history with making tofu, which gives a degree of legitimacy to the business, and wasn’t just some mega fanboy opening an Initial D café, but then just selling hot dogs and/or other weeaboo-ey Asian food.

However, the lack of endorsement from the creators, and the fact that the guy is making a living on intellectual property that isn’t endorsed kind of rubs me the wrong way.  Would I go to this place if it were in Atlanta and not California?  Absolutely, I am that much of a fan of Initial D that I would.  But knowing the backstory of the whole place and that it’s not officially endorsed still gives me this trepidation that I’m probably doing a shitty job describing.  It just rubs me the wrong way, and I feel like a property that I love so much, is getting a little bit of a raw deal, with fans making a buck on their name without their approval. 

I like everything but the name, part 2

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I’ve casually been looking at cars over the last few months, because I have this idea that I’ll be able to trade in my current car for way more than the amount I owe on it, because of this mythical shortage of cars on the market leading to this mythical demand of cars, where dealerships are paying premiums for, and I’ll be able to upgrade to a larger dad-mobile instead of a Fairlady Z.

Somewhere along the lines, I saw this car that I found to be pretty attractive, clearly a Toyota.  At first, I thought it was a Highlander, because I didn’t think there was any reason for them to make something within their own umbrella to compete with the iconic RAV-4, but it did look a little small.  But then I found out the name of this vehicle: the Corolla Cross.

As much as I liked what I saw, this wasn’t a viable option for my future, because it’s no bigger than my current car, and with just a 2.0 liter engine pushing 160 horsies, I really have skepticism over this car’s power to weight ratio, and that Toyota’s obsession with fuel economy might be hurting cars like this that will probably drive like a Ford Fiesta if the motor can’t, well motor enough, to move the vehicle.

But I can still appreciate the design of the vehicle, the general interior and exterior aesthetics that I find pleasing.  Honestly, if this were 2019, there’s a very good chance that I might’ve considered this car when I was in the market for a new one then.

…Except the fact that I would probably taken a pass on it, because of, the name.

Why the fuck does Toyota keep making new, logically pleasant vehicles, but then calling them Corollas?  First, they had the Corolla Hatch, which I thought looked really good and seemed like a great bang for buck starter vehicle/fuel sipper, and now they release this perfectly decent seeming CUV, but then slap Corolla on this one too.

As I stated in the link right above, the name Corolla is indeed synonymous with reliability, fuel economy and being outstanding vehicles, but they’re also synonymous with being boring, vanilla and giving up on life.  Corollas are what you get your kids as their first-ever vehicle, because they’re safe, fuel economic, reliable and cheap, so when they inevitably destroy them, they’ll likely live and you won’t be out a billion dollars.  But they’re also the vehicle you get when you’ve lost everything and you need a car period, but don’t want to go used, because they’re unsafe and unreliable, and then realize that a Corolla is in the exact same budget.

And by slapping Corolla onto a hot hatch or a logical CUV, they’re sandbagging their potential, by associating such unfortunate perceptions onto them, thinking that they’ll be of more benefit than detriment.

Like I said, I have a 0% chance of getting one of these in the first place at my current juncture, but if it were 2019, I most definitely would have passed on the Corolla Cross solely because of the lameness of the name.  I wouldn’t want to tell people that I drove a Corolla Cross, because all they would ever hear is “Corolla” and assume that I’ve given up on the rest of my life seeing as how I am middle aged and not a first-time driver.

I would wish Toyota well with this endeavor, but it does not appear they’re interested in doing the Cross any favors by slapping Corolla on it in the first place.  Poor form.

This could be a good mid-life crisis car, if I weren’t already there

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Obviously I don’t have the time to stay on top of car news, much less any real news in the world, my city or even my own community, so I have no idea how long this has been in the works, or how much of not-new news this is.  But I recently saw some photos of the 2023 Nissan Fairlady Z, and I couldn’t help but be very impressed with its aesthetics and think it’s one of the more visually appealing cars I’ve seen in a very long time.

Frankly, I suppose I’m the one becoming out of touch and the world of design is leaving an old like me behind, but I haven’t been impressed with lots of cars of today.  They’re boxy, ugly and turning into space ships as far as I’m concerned, and I am disliking a lot more cars than liking them as they’re being released, supply chain be damned.

But the new Nissan Fairlady, now this is something that’s sleek and classic looking, with just enough touches of modern technology that creates an aesthetically pleasing package that is just enough throwback, but implementing a lot of popular elements of today.

From the front, and the side, it doesn’t look too far off of the current 370Z in terms of silhouette and lines.  Maybe looks a little thinner, which I’m good with because I think the current generation looks too fat, caving into the pathetic fat widening of the citizens of the world today.

But it’s the rear end that catches my attention and makes me take longer looks and show some interest in the vehicle beyond just the first aesthetic glance.  It has a very retro-looking hatch, and I love the taillight cluster that definitely harkens back to the 300ZX that was discontinued in the late 90s.

Yes, if I had to pick, I would probably definitely be an ass man, all about that butt.  And the new Fairlady definitely has one that stops and makes me the meme.

The funny thing is that as a whole, the entire car reminds me more of a classic Nissan 180SX in terms of shape and silhouette, but it has the taillight cluster of a 300ZX.  And given the fact that the front does not have retractable lights, it almost feels like a modern take of the Sil-Eighty that I always dreamed of getting/creating myself.

All this being said, one of the first things I said to myself was that this car could very well be a strong candidate for my inevitable mid-life crisis car.  But then I realized that I’m basically already 40 now, which is the stereotypical age in which men stereotypically start going into them, stereotypically getting a muscle car, and dressing like stereotypical douchebags.

And considering the ages of my children, and the inevitable need for a large dad-mobile, short of me becoming wealthier than I am currently and being able to afford an extra, fuck you car, or be willing to recklessly become car-poor, my mid-life crisis car might have to be pushed back a decade or so, to where this car will probably long be gone, and the used versions of them will be modded to oblivion and be basically worthless.

But I can still appreciate great car design, and fantasize about what ifs.  Maybe I’ll turn back the clock, LARP as Gordon (Liu), the guy in the market for a new car, and go test drive one, just to feel what it feels like and get it out of my system.

2 Under 2: No time like the present (#068)

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

About a month ago, I wanted to write a post about how I was embarking on my paternity time for the second time, on account of the arrival of #2.  How I was looking forward to not having to worry about work for 12 weeks, and all sorts of ideas of ways I could be productive and get shit done with no work looming over me.

Well it’s been about a month since I’ve started my paternity leave, and unsurprisingly I have not accomplished nearly as much as I hoped I would prior to the start of it.

Who would have guessed that juggling two kids would consume so much of my capacity, even without having to worry about work?  Pff certainly not me.  In all fairness, our Disney trip consumed nearly two weeks of my leave, since it encapsulated a Tuesday through a Wednesday, and trying to accomplish anything before or catch up afterward just weren’t going to happen.

But going into my paternity leave, I made goals of accomplishing several tasks:

  • Refinance my home: rates are crazy low and with a second child in tow, refinancing my mortgage to try and bring down my monthly payment and free up some cash sounded like a tremendously good idea
  • Look for a new job: the cat is out of the bag by now, and most everyone knows I’m quite unhappy with my job, and would like to seek out a new one now
  • Explore the possibility of upgrading to a larger car: my car of two years and less than 15,000 miles is already too small for the size of my rapidly grown family, and I would like to capitalize on the potential of the also-hot used car market, and try to trade in my car for maximum value, so that I may upgrade to a larger vehicle
  • Yard work: there are some shrubs I want to get rid of, and some general cleanup I’d like to do around my driveway and walking paths, as well as reclaim some of the wild land in the field adjacent to my home, while the poison ivy is wilting and the snakes are going into hiding

So nothing too lofty, provided there’s a reasonable amount of time to do them, but therein lies the biggest problem – there’s just simply never any fucking time.

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