Are These Myths About Cars True?

There's no shortage of rumors and urban legends surrounding the car buying process. So what is true and what is total crap?

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[rcw]

I’m retired State Trooper and many years ago I was in traffic court with a woman who insisted she wasn’t speeding and I only stopped her because her car was RED, and red cars look like they are going faster than they are actually going. It was humorous to hear Judge Pritchard tell her he’s had red sports cars for most of his life and had never been stopped for speeding. She was found guilty. 😂

[dallasdrift]

My daily is an F10 M5, it’s at 115k miles right now, when I got it it was around 80k, never had any major service done, but it was an LCI and had been decently maintained so I said YOLO.

On the drive home, I floored it and the car immediately went into limp mode with a drivetrain malfunction, I was freaking out, terrified of what I had gotten myself into. Turned out to be a leaky injector and I got it fixed under warranty within a few days. Since then I drive it constantly, hundreds of miles every week, I’ve hit the 300kmh limiter so many times, drifted it, etc & it never has skipped a beat. It’s been in a few fender benders (not my fault) and the other car always faired much worse, the f10 was quickly fixed each time. Complete tank and zero regrets.

I found out the car sat on the lot for almost a year prior to me buying it which I think caused the injector to leak. I’m on several F10 forums and there are plenty of people who have blown motors, transmissions, clutches, etc spending 10s of thousands of dollars on service, and I’d say probably 75% of the time their car had less than 50, 000 miles when it happened, was their weekend car, etc.

So that’s my thought on used cars, if it’s made it that many miles already why won’t it make it a whole lot more?

[timothycoyne]

CPOs can have one other benefit, and that is sometimes the manufacturer offers a better finance rate with their finance arm than buying a used car with any normal bank or credit union. Also, depending on the age and mileage of the car you're buying, with the extended warranty you may end up getting a longer warranty than if the car was brand new.

[J.R.in_WV]

The back seats for import rumor is because of the Subaru Brat and the “Chicken Tax”, both of which are parts of the long distant past now. They actually did have to install jump seats in the back of those to avoid a massive tax that would have made them far too expensive for what they were. It’s oft cited and was a majorly talked about thing back then because of the silliness of it and it started tons of strange rumors and misconceptions that are still around today.

[docsharoon]

Myth or not but Red Cars are faster than Non Red Cars :)

[paulwortman]

Preach it brother!!! I'm 59 and am able to retire cuz I didn't need to have a car payment always. Just remember that youngsters!!! Now I'm probably not going to able to buy a car from Swichcars. But... BTW how or why are guys in Twinsburg??? I live in Findlay. Didn't think something like this was around this hilljack state???

[terrytempleton]

You guys are the best auto show out there — hands down! Keep up the great informative work!

[TheRamRanch]

My fiancé comes from the ideology that you keep a car until the wheels fall off. I have had five cars in the three years we’ve been together. She doesn’t understand why I can’t just keep something. 5:51

[HELPDSK]

Always get a home inspection for a new house. New construction might be worse than “used” homes.

[qwikv]

best thing i ever did to my c5 was to pull the seats/carpet/console and insulate it with that sticky foil backed foam insulation. i did the entire floor and trans tunnel and it made a huge improvement with the trans baking the inside of the car.

[ChGT]

I have a yellow 04 Lancer Evolution and I've been pulled over before in it. But knock on wood it's been like 2 years since I was last pulled over while driving it. Since then I've installed a titanium exhaust (which can be loud) and added tints because it would just get too warm in the cabin even with AC.

People are always surprised I don't get pulled over as much anymore with the exhaust and I tell them that as long as I'm not driving around like an idiot and being obnoxious, cops for the most part don't ever bother me.

So rule of thumb, don't be obnoxious. There's a time and place for enjoying your car.

[zking]

We are renting because it's 1/3 the price of all in a house before paying to fix everything.... Sad times. Thanks for being honest

[siliconinsect]

We might need to have a few drinks. If you feel like visiting East Cleveland life can be cheap -- an old Lexus ES and century home can be had for less than $50k.

[DollarBill]

Beware buying a CPO @ Porsche West Palm Beach .None of the services or inspections have been completed.

[zking]

I wanted a Prius and didn't want to pay the prices for the used 4th cars at the time. I did research and found that the 3rd gens have head gasket issues but that the last year of the 3rd gen, 2015, got tighter rings which helped with blow by and less head gasket issues. do some research about used cars before you buy.

[JKlein]

I bought a certified pre-owned 2019 S5 in 2021. It wasn't someone else's problem. It was a lease turn in! I traded a 2018 Ford Fusion Sport because the Fusion wasn't the car I wanted it to be. The best cheap used car I bought was a 1988 Chevy Spectrum that I bought from a buy here-pay here lot. I paid $2500 cash and drove the wheels off that car. The only problem I had was when the clutch cable tore the metal and ripped through the firewall. About 45 minutes of shade tree wrenching, and it was fixed.

[gfysmiley]

I am the opposite way on used cars. The worse the better to an extent. Go thru it, let them know what i will need to do. My armada had electrical issues. Hvac issues making clicking noises, tires over 8 years old, air suspenti9n shot, needed an alighnment. Came with pictures and a list of what national averages were to fix that and dealer cut the price off most of the repairs needed and then i did the repairs myself

[RobbaKeef]

I've read studies where brighter color cars do get more speeding tickets; the same study claimed the Toyota Solara to be the most ticketed car. However,
the color has nothing to do with insurance cost .Also men and women pay the same rates for car insurance.

[bluewombat]

300 grand for a C6 (of any kind) is nuts, but someone paid 700k for a banana and a couple years ago someone paid 1.6m for a Nintendo 64 game they made 10m copies of, just because it was sealed, so in that context I guess the Corvette was the better buy 🤦‍♂️🤣💀

[triaxe-mmb]

That whole conversation about depreciation os why i am so frustrated when people say, "look at these EVs - the depreciation so hard!"...you mean liek all cars and trucks right?