Team-BHP > The International Automotive Scene


Reply
  Search this Thread
3,031,610 views
Old 11th June 2015, 03:41   #4801
Senior - BHPian
 
maddy42's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Coorg
Posts: 2,163
Thanked: 1,486 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Congrats Chevelle! Thats a nice interior you got!

Thanks for that info Viper! I was scared how it would affect the car long term with the squeaks and rattles and unwanted rusting.

Did anyone change the stock music system or the speakers in their vehicle? Tips and suggestions or pros and cons? Does this affect warranty? The GLA's system sucks! Turning up the volume feels like your increasing the noise and not the quality.

Maddy
maddy42 is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 12th June 2015, 03:25   #4802
BHPian
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 25
Thanked: 14 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Quote:
Originally Posted by maddy42 View Post
Did anyone change the stock music system or the speakers in their vehicle? Tips and suggestions or pros and cons? Does this affect warranty? The GLA's system sucks! Turning up the volume feels like your increasing the noise and not the quality.

Maddy
I upgraded the stock speakers of my 2014 Subaru Forester to Kicker branded speakers and tweeters last year. That made a world of difference to the sound quality. Kept the same stereo though. Kicker was recommended by Subaru and my researches proved that the quality is very good. As the speaker quality increases, the highs and medium notes will be pronounced and there will be need for better low end sound reproduction. As a result I added a Rockford-Fosgate compact sub woofer(local mechanic recommended; awesome deep bass).

As far as I know, replacing speakers voids only the warranty of audio components. They have to prove that the upgrade caused the failure of any other part that comes under warranty.
vineeth47 is offline   (3) Thanks
Old 12th June 2015, 12:20   #4803
BHPian
 
VLOCT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Las Vegas, USA
Posts: 558
Thanked: 633 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Congrats, Chevelle. It sure is the funkiest looking SUV out there. Have fun.

Last edited by VLOCT : 12th June 2015 at 12:22.
VLOCT is offline  
Old 12th June 2015, 18:14   #4804
Senior - BHPian
 
amitoj's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Windham, NH USA
Posts: 3,390
Thanked: 3,366 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Congrats Chevelle! That's a sharp looking CUV. It's a CUV, right? I get confused with all these vehicle classifications

Viper, that was a nice detailed post! I've also suffered from range anxiety a couple of times on my car and it's not even electric or hybrid. It has always always reminded me of this:
amitoj is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 12th June 2015, 20:17   #4805
Senior - BHPian
 
Technocrat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: GTA
Posts: 14,815
Thanked: 2,703 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Quote:
Originally Posted by chevelle View Post

Got a brand new 2015 Nissan Murano last weekend. Pics are attached.

Initial ownership coming up soon. I am loving it though.
Congrats Dude

Would be waiting for the Ownership report.

Quote:
Originally Posted by VLOCT View Post
It sure is the funkiest looking SUV out there.
+1, it sure has a very funky look.
Technocrat is offline  
Old 12th June 2015, 21:42   #4806
BHPian
 
VIPER_SRT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: FL
Posts: 440
Thanked: 194 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Quote:
Originally Posted by chevelle View Post
Thanks! Congo to you too. Must have been lot of fun with Tesla.
Went through Nissan site and figured that Bose is standard on SL Trim with 2 subs! How does that sound? Those wheels look great as well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by amitoj View Post
Viper, that was a nice detailed post! I've also suffered from range anxiety a couple of times on my car and it's not even electric or hybrid. It has always always reminded me of this:
Thanks amitoj! The range anxiety has definitely taken a toll on how I used to drive naturally in that trip. Its a great car for daily drive to work and for weekend get together's but not for interstate driving without superchargers. Most of these other electric chargers (Non-Tesla) are at 30 Amp or 40 Amp which takes a long time to charge. At home, we had the wiring done for 100 Amp and with dual charger installed in the Tesla, the charge rate is around 62 Miles per hour which is fastest next to Tesla superchargers (80% battery charges in 30 min). But the drive, tech and maintenance supersedes the above issues! Still have to explore the Autopilot option and self parking in the garage!

Last edited by VIPER_SRT : 12th June 2015 at 21:56.
VIPER_SRT is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 15th June 2015, 04:02   #4807
BHPian
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Chennai
Posts: 261
Thanked: 419 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Hello BHPians, would appreciate if anyone could help me with my shopping.

4 months old in Denver CO and USA now. Been using the Light Rail for daily commute to office and weekend groceries with my wife. Looking to buy a car with a very limited budget of $5k or around that price range.maybe an extra $1k.

Inclined towards Toyota, Honda, Nissan and may I dare say Subaru . I4 preferred over V6 for the time being and the next few years.

Saw many many examples in Craigslist, carguru etc but havn't seen a piece with criteria of less than 100,000 in Miles clocked and in the tight price range with a decent history.

Will be applying for my driver's license in the week to come.

Any help with neighbourhood BHPians appreciated very much.

Thanks Folks
TorqMaster is offline  
Old 15th June 2015, 23:09   #4808
Senior - BHPian
 
chevelle's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: sacto
Posts: 1,299
Thanked: 553 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Quote:
Originally Posted by VLOCT View Post
Congrats, Chevelle. It sure is the funkiest looking SUV out there. Have fun.
Thanks! Yes, its different. Sure gets lot of heads turn (bad/good).

Everybody who has seen it up close says they haven't seen anything like this on road.

Quote:
Originally Posted by amitoj View Post
Congrats Chevelle! That's a sharp looking CUV. It's a CUV, right? I get confused with all these vehicle classifications
Thanks! It is classified as a Mid Size SUV by IIHS. Not really into classification so not sure if its a CUV/SUV/Crossover?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Technocrat View Post
Congrats Dude

Would be waiting for the Ownership report.

+1, it sure has a very funky look.
Thanks! Ownership report is ready, but photos are not.

Quote:
Originally Posted by VIPER_SRT View Post
Went through Nissan site and figured that Bose is standard on SL Trim with 2 subs! How does that sound? Those wheels look great as well.
Hi Viper, Yes it has some 11 speakers and 2 Subs. Its sounding good with my Sony mp3 player connected via AUX. I listened to Bluetooth and quality is not that good. Haven't tried HD Radio yet. Will report back with it.

I can only compare it to HK System in C250 my friend has and compared to that, this is good as far as low end notes goes. Also the clarity is better in bose. But source are not the same so it may not be best comparison (usb vs aux).

I haven't spent lot of time with it so will report back after a while.
chevelle is offline   (2) Thanks
Old 15th June 2015, 23:27   #4809
Senior - BHPian
 
amitoj's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Windham, NH USA
Posts: 3,390
Thanked: 3,366 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Quote:
Originally Posted by TorqMaster View Post
Looking to buy a car with a very limited budget of $5k or around that price range.maybe an extra $1k.

Inclined towards Toyota, Honda, Nissan and may I dare say Subaru . I4 preferred over V6 for the time being and the next few years.

Saw many many examples in Craigslist, carguru etc but havn't seen a piece with criteria of less than 100,000 in Miles clocked and in the tight price range with a decent history.
Toyotas, Hondas etc run for many many miles. You should consider increasing your mileage limit in order to find a car in your budget.
amitoj is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 16th June 2015, 07:32   #4810
BHPian
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 89
Thanked: 29 Times

Hi BHPians,
I just moved to San jose,California about 2 months back. I bought a 2011 used civic done about 55k miles. While I test drive the car everything was fine. From about last 2 weeks I am getting a kind of whining noise which increases as I accelerate. Also I see mild vibrations in the cabin when I cross 65mph.
Any idea what could be the reason for this?
Also can you suggest me a good independent mechanic to get this fixed. I heard dealers will rip you apart.

Thanks in advance for the response.
flycatcher is offline  
Old 16th June 2015, 18:25   #4811
Team-BHP Support
 
aah78's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: NYC / BOM
Posts: 4,699
Thanked: 3,303 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Quote:
Originally Posted by TorqMaster View Post
4 months old in Denver CO and USA now.

Inclined towards Toyota, Honda, Nissan and may I dare say Subaru .
In Colorado, I know they love their Subarus.
You'll probably find a bunch of them with manual transmissions as well.
They last forever.
aah78 is offline  
Old 16th June 2015, 18:59   #4812
Senior - BHPian
 
amitoj's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Windham, NH USA
Posts: 3,390
Thanked: 3,366 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

I helped a friend change his rear rotors and pads on his Honda Accord. Fun little activity!
Those guys at Autozone are really quite helpful! We were stuck on a stuck bolt that was refusing to budge no matter what. So we went down to the nearest Autozone to get a breaker bar. However they didn't have the size we wanted in stock. So, the sales guy said we could either drive down the road to the next auto parts shop or we could use a metal pipe on the small wrench we have for extra leverage! Simple trick that we didn't even think of and it worked like a charm!
amitoj is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 16th June 2015, 21:46   #4813
BHPian
 
josejoseph's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 664
Thanked: 407 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Quote:
Originally Posted by flycatcher View Post
Hi BHPians,
I just moved to San jose,California about 2 months back. I bought a 2011 used civic done about 55k miles. While I test drive the car everything was fine. From about last 2 weeks I am getting a kind of whining noise which increases as I accelerate. Also I see mild vibrations in the cabin when I cross 65mph.
Any idea what could be the reason for this?
Also can you suggest me a good independent mechanic to get this fixed. I heard dealers will rip you apart.

Thanks in advance for the response.
Sorry not sure what the problem is. I have a 2010 Civic with 50K which is running fine. I take the Civic to this place - http://www.yelp.com/biz/winstons-aut...ce-santa-clara.

This guy may be bit pricey, but unless he gets your consent he won't change a nut. Also, you can be with him while he works on your car. He will also give you a donor car if you don't want to wait.
josejoseph is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 17th June 2015, 00:27   #4814
Distinguished - BHPian
 
ninjatalli's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 3,928
Thanked: 16,857 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Insurance suggestions solicited

Having moved to North Carolina, I'm caught with the predictment of my auto insurance quotes literally doubling inspite of claim/ticket free 6 months US driving, due to a regulatory rule of NC which doesn't recognize driving history outside US (&Canada & Purto Rico); which puts me in the <1 year of driving experience.

Now I have gone through atleast 8-10 firms (including most of the top players) and the only one that has given me a decent quote is Nationwide. Feedback solicited on this firm - anyone out here who knows anyone (or has) experience with Nationwide?
ninjatalli is offline  
Old 17th June 2015, 06:50   #4815
BHPian
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Chennai
Posts: 261
Thanked: 419 Times
Re: Buying, Owning, Driving and Maintaining a car in North America

Quote:
Originally Posted by amitoj View Post
increasing your mileage limit in order to find a car in your budget...
Well, I am ok if its 110,000 or so. A colleague bought a 90k miles run 2004 corolla for $6700(Stevinson Toyota if am not wrong). Love those models .

I am 6 foot and on the larger side of life, so would prefer a car which wont make me stoop too low to get in, like the example i mentioned above.

Accents and Elantras are also available but will need to be vigilant for the recall history of Steering Judder.
TorqMaster is offline  
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks