Brand New Cars - what's worth doing early?

[Leroy Peterson]

Pick up a new family car in a few days. I've had brand new work cars before, but who cares about those.
It's fresh off the boat - 9kms in the storage yard, 20kms at the dealership, ~40kms after I test drive it. Obviously a few more once I take delivery.

The plan at the moment is to minimise freeway driving for the first 1500kms (being regional that's unlikely) - warm it up properly, keep it within the bottom half of the rev range with varied load etc.

I don't trust OEM paint anymore, so often it seems very thin and prone to chips (regardless of manufacturer) so I would like to get a gentle paint detail and then clear/protective wrap the whole front of the car.

Eventually get quality window tint. Eventually get some nice wheels for it (OEM wheels suck).

What have you done for your new cars? Is there anything else worth doing while the car is still fresh?
 

[GTSBoy]

5 minutes ago, Leroy Peterson said:

What have you done for your new cars? Is there anything else worth doing while the car is still fresh?

Nothing. Family cars are appliances. They get no more love than an initial wash and a coat of wax from me, then any degradation thereafter is not my fault, as I'm not driving it / washing it / checking its oil / checking its tyres.

Any money spent on PPF/ceramic presumes that the car underneath it is something worthy of being preserved, and frankly, nothing made in the last 20 years is even close to that, unless GT3RS, etc.

[soviet_merlin]

What car are you getting?

I have never owned a new car. But in my dreams I go with ceramic paint coating on cars that I buy.

[robbo_rb180]

I've done tint, seat covers, dash & floor mats on the 2 appliances I've had new and the 370z I had ceramic coated and PPF lower front & skirts.

Ceramic is easy to do. Good wash, clay bar and apply.

PPF is very expensive to do a whole car and only worth on something is expensive $160+k as around $12-16k to do. 

[Duncan]

I've had a couple of new cars over the years (one was even a Saab!)

Couple of things I do:

100% always always buy factory genuine floor mats. They are a horrible rip off, but so much better than how the carpet will look after 3,5 etc years without them

Definitely treat it hard for first thousand klm. Lots of heavy load and acceleration, little to no idle, sitting in traffic etcetc that is terrible for run in. We were nice to our 350z and it always burned oil. Nissan said 1l/5000klm oil burned is within spec, their engineers must be so proud

About 6 months out from the enf of warranty, take a list with every little annoyance back to get fixed under warranty. Don't take any shit, you pay a fortune for the car so get them to fix what they didn't get right.

Give it a nice scratch somewhere so you aren't worried about the first scratch for the next few months

[Leroy Peterson]

4 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Nothing. Family cars are appliances. They get no more love than an initial wash and a coat of wax from me, then any degradation thereafter is not my fault, as I'm not driving it / washing it / checking its oil / checking its tyres.

Any money spent on PPF/ceramic presumes that the car underneath it is something worthy of being preserved.

I get that. Trying to get the mrs to keep the car clean on the inside will be the biggest challenge no doubt.

4 hours ago, soviet_merlin said:

What car are you getting?

i30 N Line. Hatchbacks are dying so choices were fairly limited, but the i30 fit'n'finish and interior was very impressive (for the price range and being 2023).

14 minutes ago, Duncan said:

Couple of things I do:

100% always always buy factory genuine floor mats.

Definitely treat it hard for first thousand klm. Lots of heavy load and acceleration, little to no idle, sitting in traffic etcetc that is terrible for run in. We were nice to our 350z and it always burned oil.

About 6 months out from the end of warranty, take a list with every little annoyance back to get fixed under warranty.

Give it a nice scratch somewhere so you aren't worried about the first scratch for the next few months

yep, got floor mats & dash mat. I'll get a boot mat aftermarket at some point as well.

We'll see about how hard it can be driven so early. From the sounds of things the gearbox likes to be warmed up and can (allegedly) take a while to run in.

good tip about end of warranty. I just have a distrust of stealerships to a) actually fix anything b) be cooperative/attentive when describing issues. Hyundai has 5 years warranty though so maybe at 2 years I'll do that.

[Duncan]

bottom line is that warranty work is least profitable for the dealership (generally) because the manufacturer decides the price they get paid for a particular job and dealership is obliged to do it. service in warranty and service out of warranty is where they make their money

[soviet_merlin]

14 hours ago, Leroy Peterson said:

i30 N Line. Hatchbacks are dying so choices were fairly limited, but the i30 fit'n'finish and interior was very impressive (for the price range and being 2023).

Hah, I would have thought that between the i30, the Mazda 3, Corolla and the Polo, economy hatchbacks are at the best they have been since a long time. Though they don't come cheap anymore.

From what I've heard from friends they are happy with the i30. So solid choice for the family  

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Send it, we bought a brand new German shit box, first thing I did was put it into Sport mode and WOT out of the dealer. After the 1st tank of fuel, used launch control several times.

[Leroy Peterson]

On 5/25/2023 at 10:25 AM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Send it, we bought a brand new German shit box, first thing I did was put it into Sport mode and WOT out of the dealer. After the 1st tank of fuel, used launch control several times.

Do you plan to keep it after warranty is up?

Everyone recommended getting a dog hammock for children. Protects the interior from baby seats and makes cleaning it a million times easier (and spill proof). And still have access to isofix and seatbelts etc

https://kurgo.com.au/products/heather-hammock

[MBS206]

15 minutes ago, Leroy Peterson said:

Do you plan to keep it after warranty is up?

Everyone recommended getting a dog hammock for children. Protects the interior from baby seats and makes cleaning it a million times easier (and spill proof). And still have access to isofix and seatbelts etc

https://kurgo.com.au/products/heather-hammock

I'd recommend putting children in the bin. Easier to keep the car clean

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

59 minutes ago, Leroy Peterson said:

Do you plan to keep it after warranty is up?

The plan was to sell it just before warranty runs out.

However the car market is so cooked, cost of living is as bad as aids, mortgage repayments have nearly doubled so yeah nah, will keep it for now.

Also if we were to replace it with the same Tiguan, we will end up paying more and getting less safety features. 

[funkymonkey]

we've bought a couple of ex-demo's that were fully loaded with all the options (including mats). We tend to buy after the 2 year mark to exploit the first bump of depreciation in value, but still be able to novate it for 5 years. I've found that's the best bang for buck. It also coincides with factory warranty. You can purchase extended aftermarket warranty too, to cover you after the usual factory 5 year lapses.

as for what's most important... for us it's always been making sure we minimise the loss on a depreciating asset, we look at everything we do with a new car through that lens.

I've got a couple of cars now that are appreciating assets, so they're the ones we mothball or mod for fun.

[tridentt150v]

Bullbar and winch are my first mods......followed by rims and MT tyres, something 31" or better.

[niZmO_Man]

Weird drag setup but ok.

[tridentt150v]

I have my Skyline for a car....and my Dmax for a 4wd.  I don't really need another car, so a 4wd for the farm is the go.

[Ben C34]

4wd is not a car bro.

Your explanation confirms this. You are snookered.

[tridentt150v]

On 11/06/2023 at 12:08 AM, Ben C34 said:

4wd is not a car bro.

Your explanation confirms this. You are snookered.

Thank you LEO!!!!

[TurboTapin]

On 5/24/2023 at 5:59 AM, Duncan said:

bottom line is that warranty work is least profitable for the dealership (generally) because the manufacturer decides the price they get paid for a particular job and dealership is obliged to do it. service in warranty and service out of warranty is where they make their money

Back in 2019 I had a 2010 Nissan Rogue with the first gen CVT transmissions. I never had any issues with my transmission but knew they were prone to fail and Nissan had bumped up the transmission warranty to 10 years. To avoid failure down the road, I figured I'd try my hand at getting it replaced for free before the warranty was over. 

I called the dealer and made something up about it making noise; they told me to come in the same day. On my arrival they mentioned how bad they were and that it really needs to be changed. I have yet to say anything and they're already pushing for a replacement. They ask to scan the codes as they need proof for warranty claim with Nissan HQ. They come back and say there's no transmission codes but not to worry they will have a mechanic drive around with me to confirm the noise.

At this point I figure the jig is up... Mechanic hops in and tells me to get on and off the highway. I drove all of 2 km's, he states multiple times the transmission is making noises (I hear absolutely nothing) and that it needs to be replaced this week. I go along with it and say yea yea I hear it! Sounds bad, very bad! Need this fixed. 

Two days later, I had a new transmission at zero cost. I'm sure they're making money on warranty claims to make up that much bullshit to get the job lol.