Slys dating site advice help thread.

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Never seen a timing belt sticker. Are you from the us? No maybe you’re thinking of the accessory belt. The timing belt is inside the engine. It keeps the crankshaft and cam shafts in time so the valves open in time with the piston coming up and down. To change it you have to remove the timing belt over. On my old car that required removing the alternator and left side engine mount. A long and tedious task. Some people cut their timing belt over to be able to remove it without removing the mount. You also had to remove the valve cover. Lost a few bolts, stripped one on the valve cover.

But atleast it didn’t use a chian. Those are even harder to remove especially on a v6/8
My sisters car before her last car had a slipping timing chain.

She’s had 5 used cars in 14-20 years. Not counting the new one.

I’m not saying it’s impossible but if everyone could do it there wouldn’t be mechanics.
I can’t do it. I lack the skills and also important the strength to do most jobs. I had to have my ex friend help me with a bunch of it. He’s strong. I’m weaker then some women.

Finding s good car is like finding a needle in a haystack. Most people I’ve known take the first car they go see. If you wait it sells before you come back. Yup people price junior cars too high. And others hen price ok or good cars too high like paying 12,000 for a 18,000 car. Wouldn’t it be better to just buy it New at thst point?

I don’t have friends anymore to help me fix cars or drive me around to find one or look it over. I have a acquaintance who is a good mechanic but he doesn’t have the time or the will to help me with my cars besides buying them for cheap to fix and sell.

If you can diagnose and afford the tools there’s ways to check the engine. You can preform compression checks. It’s called complicated, it’ll tell you if seal is good. I dont know how you’d test a transmission without a dianisosis tool if it’s newer or putting it on a testing machine all you can do is drive it and shift it to see if it shifts feel right. Transmissions and engines are often cheaper to just replace then repair. Even still looking at 1,000or more for each unless it’s a older manual transmission. Some older used engines can be had for $500 same for manual transmission. And the new uses ones might also have issues lol. But shocks, springs, steering and brakes can also be costly. Espical if you have to say get all new brakes and replace the brake components and or brake Line. Replacing a gas tank is $300. Quite a few jobs require a lift. You can’t just jack it up in your drive way.

For most stuff in the engine bay asides from pulling engine or trans or remeoving engine mounts you can get away with it yourself but you may need expensive specialized tools for some jobs. Like I had to rent a crack shaft pulls puller to check the crack shaft seal after I had a massive oil leak. (Yeah I had to remember the left engine mount and timing belt cover twice) seal was fine. There was a cut out in the head that the previous owner just filled with sealant instead of buying the $12 part.
Oh and with used cars your see a lot of that. This one guy permantly welded the alternator bracket. So it’s permanent, ie no changing the belt when it wears. He lost the bolt and wanted a quick fix so he could sell it. He was a mechanic at a shop. Lots of guys at the school wouldn’t tighten the lugnuts back properly and they’d come off. Bunch of Mechanics cut all kinds of corners it’s not very ethical. Some are quite scary. Time is money. It’s cheaper for them to cut corners then do stuff properly. Surely thst head doesn’t need all the bolts, I know more then the engine designer. Be careful where you take your cars for work. This one shop broke my car then sat on it for months rather then fixing their error.

Not really. It's called inspecting it, or paying a mechanic to inspect it more thoroughly - but there's not much they can check for that anyone can look at themselves. Also, test drive it. Obvious problems are obvious. Minor defects are usually acceptable in a used car. It's not as bad as finding a needle in a haystack to find a good used car. Sure, you've got to rule out a bunch of crap ones, but so does everyone who ever shops for a car.


Not sure if you're referencing my car purchase with those numbers or not ?? as I paid $12K for a car that stickered at $18k. It's a 2013 & sat on the lot, unsold, for 4 years. It had ~147km on the odo - under 100 miles. It was new - still has the same brand new 5 year 100k km warranty as when they were sold for $18k in 2013. No one else ever owned it before me. It's a new car. It wouldn't have been worth paying another $6k+ taxes etc for a 2017 model year if that's what you mean by buying new at this point. ?? Why would I want to pay 50% more for the same new car 4 model years newer when the 2013 was 1/3rd off with the same warranty?? But maybe you weren't even talking about my personal example at all. :p

The Audible free trial is legit. I've used it myself.

It's good for one book, there is no time limit. You can take as long as you want to listen to it.

Proper timing belt replacement kits always come with a sticker to indicate mileage and the date of replacement.

Kit?
Here he belt is sold alone. You get just the belt and nothing else.

Never meet anyone who didn’t buy the first car they look at nor anyone who taken it to be looked at. How does thst even work. Do you have them drive it certainly they not just going let you borrow the car for few days unpaid. And shops require appointments made in advanced. Even that’s not set in stone as if a job takes long the bays busy still.

No I’m talking about people and car lots selling cars wirh 60,000 plus miles on them for 12-15,000 while they are 18,000 new. Same thing happens in gun world. People try to sell their used guns for almost new price. Or in some cases the exactly new price. They want to get everything or most everything they paid back.

Sorry sir or man your 120,000 miles 2000 Corolla is t worth 12,000 dollars, nor is one.
Even the dealership prices their 50,000 mile used cars for 16,500. So to save 2,000 you get a car near it’s first parts replacement yay. Which could cost about 1,000 or more . My sister actually paid 2,000 less for her new 2017 Corolla then their used 2016 Corollas were selling for. I’d priced it at 10,000.

MANY people look at multiple used cars before buying one. Most people, in fact. Unless they happen to find exactly what they want the first time.

What do you mean how does that work? You've never heard of a test drive before? Also, it doesn't take a few days for someone to inspect a car by themselves or have a mechanic do it. Anyone can look over a car in under half an hour. Take a look underneath for rust/leaks, start the engine, check that lights and electrical work, make sure the brakes work, etc.. check fluids, ask about maintenance, very basic stuff. You can either make an appointment or drop in to some shops. Some mechanics have mobile services to come inspect used cars. Often people just bring a friend with them that's a mechanic, or at least more mechanically inclined. This is not rocket surgery stuff, sly.

Ah. As for your used cars on car lots examples.. those are asking prices and they're ALWAYS high. There's typically WAY more profit in selling a used car than a brand new one. Those prices are asking prices and are ALWAYS negotiable. They price them high because if they can get some sucker to pay that much they'll gladly take their money, but the fully expect people to negotiate with them for a better price & so prices are set high to build in that buffer.. the dealership sales manager agrees to discount the price down to where it should be and the buyer feels like they got a good deal for negotiating a couple thousand dollars off the asking price, and the dealership and the sales guy still make more profit/commission off that used car than a new one in most cases. Asking prices on used car lots are not firm fixed retail prices.

This is it exactly.

It also helps to get the blue book value of a used vehicle. A lot of cars in the used lot might be priced at $8k and up, but the actual value is far less. It may be running perfectly fine and still be only worth $3k-$4k. As long as you show up informed, you can haggle the price down to within $1k of the asking price, the salesman still gets a fat commission, and you have a ride.

Maybe in candis but in Oregon people don’t do that. Maybe during shops dead season you could just drop by but in its busy season no luck. I’d have my car towed to them and they wouldn’t get to it until day or two later that’s how busy shops are here. If you just dropped by they’d tell you no luck al our stalls are full.

Test drive is take it around the block a few times no more then 5-10 mins not drive it half way across town for an hour.
We test drive the last one for 7 mins and they were freaked out texting us “where are you?” They thought we stole it.

Did all that and the cars were still crap. Brakes working don’t mean they won’t fail in a month. Same goes for anything. Only proper diagnostic can tell if a car is good or not. Looking it over is just guess work. It seems fine doesn’t mean it is fine as I’ve found out over and over car after car after car.

Even if you haggle many of the cars will still be over priced. I doubt they haggle down more then 1,000 you won’t get them to take 4.5k off a car price. The price we got for my sisters car was due to corporate price reduction to get rid of the many 2017 corollas they had before the 2018 came in.
This place alone had like 5-6 of them in one color then a few others in white and black.

I just don’t think you understand how it’s like here. People and places are different.

Look I don’t need a car, I can’t afford a car, I don’t want a car.
There’s a lot better ways that I could spend my savings then on something that will take me into further debt just at the hopes of pleasing women which it won’t as I don’t have a good job

I’m not the only person riding the bus

Annual LTD ridership: 11 million boardings
Average weekday ridership: 37,000 boardings
23 percent of riders surveyed were commuting to work
41 percent of riders surveyed were commuting to school
65 percent of riders are age 30 or younger
66 percent of riders have household incomes of $25,000 or less

Your depression is distorting your perception of used cars, the inspection process, their value, their reliability etc. I’m not going to agree with your absurd statements that all used cars are overpriced junk and so on. That’s simply not the real world. Period.

No one said rush out and buy a car. We suggested it’s a good long term goal to strive towards AND can be done by a trained mechanic (you) for a lot less money than shelling out $18k+ for a brand new car. The process of getting your health and finances in order would also benefit many other areas of your life IF car ownership again were a long term goal of yours. All of those things, and having a car on the road itself, would make you a more datable sly - which is your goal. I’m going back and forth with this conversation for those reasons. IF eventually having a car in the road motivates you to work on yourself and do all the self improvement things required that’ll make you healthier and wealthier, then a long term goal of getting another car would be fantastic for you & your life, sly. Never ever would I suggest you should go buy a $500 car tmw. I’d suggest you make a start by working on building yourself up until you’re the sly that can way more easily buy a used car and keep it on the road - not for the car, but for all the self improvement you’ll have to do along the way to get there.

If you go to an auto auction, or a police auction, you can definitely get a decent car for around $2,000-$3,000.

I once bought a car for $1,400, cash, and it ran for at least five years. My wife gave the car to one of her relatives after we had it around four years. I heard stories about it working for at least another year.

It was a 1990 Mercury Tracer, bought about 1999.

Cars haven't gone up that much in cost over 20 years.

That's impossible!

So were all the cars I've bought & driven around for cheap, cheap, too.

C'mon kk, if it didn't cost at least $18k USD & wasn't bought brand new then it didn't happen!! !

*Obviously I'm just messin' with sly with this post. Sly, our points are one in the same: There are plenty of used cars that are very reliable for a low price. That's simply reality no matter what your distorted perceptions are making you believe. Your thoughts on the matter are simply symptomatic of your depression & anxiety and should serve as further evidence to yourself that you ought to get those things under control. Not only will it make simple conversations about cars better for you, but every aspect of your life - including your "datability factor."

It’s not about owning a car/having money. It’s about freedom and having options. Owning a car opens you up to more jobs in more locations. Better jobs open you up to a better standard of living. Higher standards of living make you available to more datable women.

If your ability to work and increase your income is the problem, you need to decide whether that is something you CAN and SHOULD fix.

If not, believe me, it’s OK. Make peace with it and live your life to the fullest. Don’t let depression and anxiety suck you in and stop you from enjoying the quality of life you have already. If you’re serious about a relationship, though, and if you’re ready for what it’s going to take to get you there, you do better to stop shooting down good advice.

Probably most of us have been in desperate situations where it was easier to wallow in grief than to dig ourselves out. I’ve been with an abusive woman. I’ve been homeless. Heck, I’ve even seen my wife ripped open with her guts hanging outside her body because she can’t deliver a baby naturally. I’ve been in that place where it seems no one decent would ever want me, where what few relationships I did manage to have quickly disintegrated, and even I have been in those places where distance and doubt led me to cheating on my gf. We may not all have been homeless, some of us probably never ever cheated on a girl, and maybe a few of us took the initiative and 86’d a relationship that was going nowhere good before things got ugly. We may not all agree on everything, but we do know what we’re talking about.

I did okay until I was 37----when I got my license.

Nobody ever said, "you need a car in order to get a girl." Ever.

I had cars since then, but didn't "fully" own a car totally on my own until I was 51. Before, I co-owned cars with my wife.