What was your quickest turn around time on a vehicle?

[repoman0]

Just curious. I'm thinking about selling my nice shiny new (to me) 2014 Subaru that I bought in early May and going back to something more in the "beater" category -- possibly an older Outback or maybe even get back in another E46 BMW -- something always draws me to that platform. I like my new car, but already hate the payments. And at this point I wouldn't even lose any (or much) money.

Seems to me like 3-4 months could be a record, can anyone beat it?

 

[jlee]

Back in 2005, I bought a 1984 Ford Bronco II for 100 bucks. I did some rust repair and was getting it ready to get back on the road when a friend put his '98 Tacoma up for sale for $5k. I bought that and promptly sold the Bronco II. I don't remember how long I had it, but as I never even got it registered, it wasn't long...month maybe?

I'm not sure that counts, though.

 

[Ferzerp]

I thought this was going to be about how quickly you received your vehicle after putting in an order to have it built.

 

[repoman0]

Back in 2005, I bought a 1984 Ford Bronco II for 100 bucks. I did some rust repair and was getting it ready to get back on the road when a friend put his '98 Tacoma up for sale for $5k. I bought that and promptly sold the Bronco II. I don't remember how long I had it, but as I never even got it registered, it wasn't long...month maybe?

I'm not sure that counts, though.

Not bad, not bad! Seems a lot more reasonable on a $100 vehicle though

I thought this was going to be about how quickly you received your vehicle after putting in an order to have it built.

Yep, that would make a lot more sense as a thread topic ...

 

[jlee]

Not bad, not bad! Seems a lot more reasonable on a $100 vehicle though



Yep, that would make a lot more sense as a thread topic ...

I even sold it for $300!

I think I turned a slight profit once you factor in the amount of materials I had to put floor pans back in it...since it had rusted out so badly that someone had used metal real estate signs as floors.

 

[repoman0]

I even sold it for $300!

I think I turned a slight profit once you factor in the amount of materials I had to put floor pans back in it...since it had rusted out so badly that someone had used metal real estate signs as floors.

Stick some foam on those to block road noise and you're good to go

I told my GF about my silly plan to go back to my old car after 3 months and she was fully supportive of it once I explained my reasoning ... doesn't hurt for her that early 2000-vintage BMW interior is very comfy, nice sound system, and doesn't sound like a truck over larger bumps. Already e-mailed a couple craigslist manual 330xi ads Looks like I might be back to replacing random obscure failed parts in the city streets.

 

[heymrdj]

Leased a 2012 Civic, old man totaled it at 8 months, later got 2014 Ford Fiesta, traded for 2016 Jeep Patriot, kept that 11 months and now have a 2017 Silverado.


(Spam removed)

 

[SearchMaster]

I have a relative who went through 6 cars in about 2 years in his early 20s. As long as you're buying used, it's not low risk and he made a few hundred on each car anyway (he did car detailing on the side so they always looked showroom-fresh when he went to sell them). He didn't do it to make money, he just got bored of them.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

I've owned just 2 cars. The first for 8 years, the current for 10+. So... 8?

 

[monkeydelmagico]

New car would be around 18 months. It was a 2002 honda accord that we just didn't like. Traded it in on a 2004 G35. Lost a bit of money but the G was a lot more fun.

Used car would be less than a month. I sometimes buy random cars with the intention of keeping them or working on them. Sometimes they stay sometimes they go.

 

[Muadib]

Just traded my 2015 Q7 for a 2017 Ford Explorer. Had the q7 for just under 2 years. We just didn't love the Q7. It's too early to tell with the Ford, but I loved the Explorer I had in the 90's.

 

[BurnItDwn]

first car ... ford escort POS ... kept 3 years, the 3rd time the transmission failed, I sold the car to a tow truck guy for $50. Was done with that nightmare.
second car ... Pontiac Grand Am ... kept it 4 years ... traded it in
third car ... Chrysler 300M ...kept it 7 years ... sold it private party after spending too much $$ dealing with bad wiring, starter, alternator, etc ... (Car ran well for 5+ years to the person I sold it to)
fourth car ... 2008 Subaru Forester ... have had it for 7 years as of now.

 

[repoman0]

Well, here's the new ride ...

2004 330xi with 92k miles -- 6 speed manual, heated seats and fold down rears, AWD, one owner for $4800. The owner is a nice older sounding woman who took excellent care of it and has a big stack of maintenance records. I sent her a check, she's sending the title, then I get plates, fly out and drive six hours home. Now to see what I can get for my two month old car .. theoretically more than I paid according to all valuation sites, but we shall see.

 

[Cerebus451]

2 days
Bought a new Ford Mustang GT on a Saturday, found out the lizard misquoted me on the insurance rates and it was going to be a lot tougher to afford the insurance than I thought, traded it in the following Monday for a lease on a Taurus. Rolled a bit of negative equity into the lease, but didn't come out too bad.

Don't expect I'll get beat on this one. At least not on a new car. I normally average about 3 years on car replacements.

 

[Meghan54]

2 days
Bought a new Ford Mustang GT on a Saturday, found out the lizard misquoted me on the insurance rates and it was going to be a lot tougher to afford the insurance than I thought, traded it in the following Monday for a lease on a Taurus. Rolled a bit of negative equity into the lease, but didn't come out too bad.

Don't expect I'll get beat on this one. At least not on a new car. I normally average about 3 years on car replacements.

Got me beat. Mine was about 1 month. Bought a '99 Golf from my brother after he'd unsuccessfully tried selling it for 6 months. Paid him $1400 for it.

Drove it home (NOVA to GA). Spent 3 days cleaning...no wonder no one wanted to buy it. Spent another week fixing niggling little problems, like having to find the vacuum leak in the power window setup, along with having to replace the vacuum pump itself.

But the drive down to GA taught me something.....I couldn't stand the seats. Wife ended up hating the seats, too.

Put it on ebay. Sold it for just north of $4k. Ironically, the guy who ended up buying it from me lived within 2 miles of where my brother had the car sitting.

He's still pissed about this.....and it's been a decade.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Got me beat. Mine was about 1 month. Bought a '99 Golf from my brother after he'd unsuccessfully tried selling it for 6 months. Paid him $1400 for it.

Drove it home (NOVA to GA). Spent 3 days cleaning...no wonder no one wanted to buy it. Spent another week fixing niggling little problems, like having to find the vacuum leak in the power window setup, along with having to replace the vacuum pump itself.

But the drive down to GA taught me something.....I couldn't stand the seats. Wife ended up hating the seats, too.

Put it on ebay. Sold it for just north of $4k. Ironically, the guy who ended up buying it from me lived within 2 miles of where my brother had the car sitting.

He's still pissed about this.....and it's been a decade.

Sounds like you did $2400 worth of detailing, troubleshooting, and fixing the car....

 

[Yuriman]

One time, I took a highway on-ramp too fast and had a complete turnaround in about 10 seconds.

 

[rh71]

I've only owned 2 cars in 23 years of driving. First for 14 years and now on my second one for 10 years come December. Still love/d them both like day 1 and still hand-wash.

One thing that's interesting about favoring quick turn-around on a vehicle - if you are against leasing and buy it outright, you need to own it for years before you come out ahead anyway. Just lease. It took me 7 years to come out ahead.

 

[repoman0]

I sold and dropped off my Subaru this morning for about a $3k loss, including all the taxes and fees I paid on it. Sucks a little, but I chose the easy sale to a local car buyer rather than a difficult private sale while I still have a loan, and I'm going from a $22k financed car to a $4800 car owned outright that NADA says is worth $7700. Plus insurance is $500/yr cheaper, fuel another $300-500 due to economy improvement and regular vs premium.

I missed the E46. Sound system is so much nicer and the steering is amazing. I am picking it up tomorrow. Lesson learned ... I belong in old cars. Pics to come

 

[compcons]

Bought a demo 2000 Isuzu Amigo (WTF?!?!) and drove it for about 3 months. My brother then decided he was going to trade in his low-mileage, 1992 Galant VR-4 so I sold the Amigo at Carmax for what I owed on it. I kept the Galant (#458/1000) for about 10 years and ended up at about 300 whp and 350 ft-lbs of torque - a true AWD beast. I should have turned it into a rally car but I sold it to some guy in MN to get it back on the road. I still miss that damn car...