New ride (4-wheels) for us: The missus & I are blessed!  By  oldchopperguy (Read 806 times)

Great news and well deserved, Leo. The best part is that you visted Houston. You should have stayed a little longer to attend the Rodeo.

God Bless you and your wife, Good Sir! 

I now own a 2007 Mercury Milan that was my mother and father's last car - he passed in 2011 and, when my mother could no longer drive in late 2013, she passed the car on to me - at that time (November 2013) with 13,500 miles on it!    Now it is up to 81,000... 

At the time, we had a 2000 Dodge Caravan with about 203,000 miles that ran well, but the starter died soon after we got the Milan.  We gave the Caravan to my wife's nephew who flips cars on the side, and he replaced the starter and sold the van - using the proceeds to pay for some of the things his new baby would need (his wife was pregnant at the time).

What goes around comes around... 

Thanks one and all for the kind words! We REALLY needed another car but could not afford one at all... We never asked for help, but did a lot of praying. When Cyndi told us she wanted us to have her Christmas bonus to replace the car she gave us 11 years ago, we were totally knocked out!

I didn't think a car THIS perfect could be found for under $7,000 but here she is! And, I didn't expect to find a truly honest used-car dealer either, but for anyone in Texas, I can recommend CRANSH AUTO SALES in Arlington. They specialize in CAR FAX certified one-owner cars with over 100K, and less than 200K miles. Seems most cars I found on the Internet that looked good were at that store! So, I checked out their site and after a visit and test-driving numerous cars the missus and I fell in love with this one!

Initially I wanted a similar Accord V6 coupe with 6-speed manual tranny, but after driving it, I found my arthritic knees would not be a good mix with the hefty clutch...  The salesman then dug this one out of the shop (it was just completed minutes before, and wasn't even listed on the Net yet!) and he picked us a winner!

These are mid-mileage, accident-free "cream-puffs" and CRANCH has a huge shop (almost a factory) in which they totally refresh EVERYTHING that often needs replacement at the 100K mark... They pull the motors, fix anything leaking, replace all belts and hoses... water, power-steering, (especially those pricey Japanese timing belts...). They usually replace the front drive CVT axle joints, ball-joints, wheel-bearings, rotors, pads, filters, flush/service auto-trans... repair any interior issues, make sure all electronics are right... (this Accord has a wild dashboard, with dual climate-control, CD changer radio and such, ALL controllable from the STEERING WHEEL without looking at the dash.) And it all works perfectly.

They make every effort to put the car on the lot in % "as-new" condition. A really different concept from most stores.

They place the boxes from all the replaced parts in the trunk with a list of work done, and all that replacement work is done whether it's actually needed or not... It's just part of their prep-routine. The original timing belt was in my trunk, and it showed NO visible wear, but had been installed at 60K miles. Same with the motor-mounts. The CVT joints had slight wear showing.

This car feels SO tight and true, it would pass for new. The steering wheel has ZERO play, and moving it 1/8-inch left or right moves the wheels left or right. The "pride-of-ownership" with this car (even that great leather smell) is identical to a brand-new one.

They offer no warranty, but should the car exhibit problems after the sale, they will fix it at-cost, and their cost is less than half the "book-rate" for parts and labor. They also use factory OEM parts whenever possible.  They do this work SO much in prep, that they can pull an engine/tranny, repair and replace, or totally rebuild the entire front end in less than an hour.

They do offer higher-mile, bargain-priced, clean but non-refurbed "AS-IS" cars under $4,000 but their bread and butter is the 110K to 150K miles totally refurbished mint models. I am MORE than impressed... They depend on volume, and repeat business to keep the lights on, and they do a very good job of it...

And, they're located at the end of a "used-car strip" in Arlington with dozens of stores where you might get hepatitis from sitting on the furniture, and you need to count your fingers after shaking hands... HOW REFRESHING!  And they keep the asking prices well below "retail".

We only put about 1,000 miles a year on a car nowadays, so if I drive it until I'm 100, she'll have only around 140K miles... Then I can leave her to a great grand kid needing a vintage car that will FLY! (She IS surprisingly F-A-S-T!)... Faster than any muscle car from my youth!...  0-60 in 5.4 seconds by my stopwatch, and a LOT of gas-pedal left at 135-mph... THAT is MORE than fast enough for this old geezer!

Honda DOES make great products... I've had several Honda bikes over the years which I liked a lot, but I like this car even better! It spoils me... LOL!

Ride safe one and all,

Leo in Texas