Is anyone else interested in cars and motorsport?

[Sussex19]

(I wasn't sure where to put this, so say if it should be somewhere else )
I've got two main hobbies, chickens and cars.
More specifically, I'm really into rallying.
I navigate, so it's up to me to tell the driver where to go, as well as dealing with most of the organizing.
We are only just getting into it, so there's still lots to learn.
I also like driving myself, in the entry level events, and helping work on the car.
Anyone else interested?

 

[casportpony]

What a cool hobby. What car do you guys use?

 

[Chookwagn]

@azurbanclucker

 

[Sussex19]

Excuse the mess. Somehow these photos came our rather blue, and I don't have any way of changing it, but just so you know it isn't really this blue.
These photos were from a few days ago, its ready to go now, and under a car cover, so it wasn't the most handy to take new ones.

My 'office'; you can see the foot plate, with a foot switch for the tripmeter, which is on the front top of the photo.
Also a map light for night stages, and a CB radio. I now have a horn switch on the foot plate as well

I thought you might like the sticker we've got on the back window, and you also get nice view of the roll cage.

 

[eLiV8t]

The race i go to. The type area and the vehicle type used... This is a friend of mine getting ready for the race. Its called King Of The Hammers in California.

 

[Sussex19]

You are crazy! Do you drive normal on normal streets or do you drive fast?

Anywhere I might meet a police car I am the model of a well behaved driver. On some of the small back roads as long as I can see there is no on coming traffic I will go a bit quicker, but nothing to extreme. : )

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

Dirt bikes!

Almost live and breathe the darn things. What I would give to do a true desert enduro… not just 100 miles like the photo above. Baja 1000.

 

[sdm111]

View attachment 3612170

Dirt bikes!

Almost live and breathe the darn things. What I would give to do a true desert enduro… not just 100 miles like the photo above. Baja 1000.

Baja 1000 is where the Honda atc250r shined in the mid 80s

 

[mdees88]

I just bought my first ever new car from a dealership a couple days ago. I watched dozens of youtube vids (mostly from the "CarEdge" YT channel) before going. It was interesting to learn that on a new car sale, roughly 25% of their profit comes from the agreed sale price of the vehicle, and 75% comes from what happens later in the finance office. It was SO beneficial learning how they operate and make money. I would've been a deer in the headlights otherwise...

I got a 2024 Toyota Camry. I drive about 80 miles a day round trip to work so I wanted something good on gas that I could rack some miles up on.

No good pics yet, these are all I have.

For anyone interested, here's a long drawn out explanation of how it went down at the dealer and how I was able to save some money.

Spoiler: save $ at dealer

I Think I could've saved a little more but I was still able to save roughly $18,000 in interest, fees, and protection plans/packages that I didn't want on a ~$30K Camry....

First I negotiated the out the door price. The sales guy wanted $30,950. I got him down to $29K OTD after I agreed to finance the car with him. (In hindsight, i probably couldve got him a little closer to $28K, but oh well).

Once in the finance office, I was shown a "menu" with monthly payments ranging from $621-$750 for different levels of protection plans. This is where they get most people. After letting him explain each individual protection package, I asked him what my base payment was if I decided I didn't want any of the plans. He reluctantly said $488/mo. I ended up declining all of the protection plans (extended warranties, gap insurance, dealer service plans, tire/wheel replacement, auto butler car wash, etc). He spent the next 15 minutes basically telling me I'm an idiot for doing this, lol. (Of course he did, they just lost the majority of their profit through the heavy markups on these items).

He gave me a pretty high interest rate of 8% too. Which, according to the YT vids I watched, they usually mark up several percent over what you would actually qualify for based on your credit score to make them more profit (they split the profit of the additional interest with the bank).

Luckily this didn't matter with the game plan I had. I agreed to the 8% interest and we made a deal.

What they dont know is, I'm going to pay the car loan off in full before my first payment (with some cash I had saved up and a 401k loan I just took out). This means I will not pay a single penny in interest to any bank. The interest on my 401k loan goes back into my 401k, so I'm just paying myself interest. That means I paid a total of $29K for this car, "almost" like I had purchased it with cash. (This is just the route I chose and I'm not recommending anyone borrow from their retirement account without weighing the pros/cons. In the long run, it is typically better to finance the car at a very low interest rate with a bank and leave the money in your 401K to earn you ~8-12%).

Had I paid his original asking price, kept the 8% loan with the dealer, and paid the protection package he was pushing the most (the 2nd cheapest one @ $650/mo), I would've ended up paying a total of $46,950 for the car.

Had I chose his top level protection plan ($750/mo), I would've paid $53,250 for the car. I could've bought a new Camry AND a Corolla for that price....

The moral of the story is, do your homework before you go. Shop around for the best interest rates on loans before you go and know exactly what rate you qualify for. Negotiate the OTD price as low as you can with the salesman (you really shouldn't pay more than the MSRP out the door). Agree to finance with them if that's what it takes to get the OTD price even lower (make sure they do NOT have a prepayment penalty. Almost none do and any loan over 60 months will not. My finance officer mentioned they did not have one without me having to ask which was nice). Then refinance with a bank of your choice to get a better interest rate a couple weeks after you get the car. Or tell the dealer about the good interest rate you got approved for and get them to lower their rate. If you want extended warranties or dealer service plans, ask the financial officer to break those plans down into total prices (not monthly prices) so you can see how much each plan adds to the total price of the car. Then you can decide if it's worth it to you. (They WILL negotiate the prices on these plans too, as they are heavily marked up. So if they have a plan you want, get them to show you the total cost of the plan, then talk them down.)

Hope this helps someone in the future...

These were a couple of my favorite vids. The second is basically the full experience, from salesman to the F&I office.

 

[Chookwagn]

Just gonna put these here