I do like the Ferrari, I think it's one of those need to see it in person cars, but I think in Ferrari's gold yellow colour it would look good, but the AMG also looks odd however it looks sleek and sexy odd. From looking at the two in videos I would take the AMG too I think. But that Ferrari's interior is sublime. Actual buttons!!!
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The Car Thread ... !
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I do like the Ferrari, I think it's one of those need to see it in person cars, but I think in Ferrari's gold yellow colour it would look good, but the AMG also looks odd however it looks sleek and sexy odd. From looking at the two in videos I would take the AMG too I think. But that Ferrari's interior is sublime. Actual buttons!!!
diamond.g
macrumors G5
What I think is so cool about the Luce interior is pretty much everything is metal, glass or leather. no plastics on anything you would touch. Very few vehicles can say that. So to me that along with such low vehicle count (Ferrari sells like 13k vehicles a year), makes the price make sense to me.
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
Question for you all.
I went to a local mechanic, who had a good reputation. I needed two inter-related things, a brake job and what I thought was a broken emergency brake. I paid 1,925 for both axles and the emergency brake repair - That seems pricey. What do you folks think?
Two other items that seem to rub me the wrong way. First, I were to use my credit card, he told me I'd have to pay a 4% fee on top of the bill, that seems wrong in 2026. I needed to pay cash/check if I wanted the 1,925 price.
Secondly, there was a 70 dollar "Office Admin" fee on the invoice. That seems like they're just adding fees for no reason.
I normally have my work done by the dealership and of course they're never cheap. I was expecting about 800 an axle from the chevy dealership plus the work to fix the emergency brake - that puts me in the $2,000 neighborhood. If I wanted to pay dealership prices, I think I would have gone to the dealership.
What do you folks think?
I went to a local mechanic, who had a good reputation. I needed two inter-related things, a brake job and what I thought was a broken emergency brake. I paid 1,925 for both axles and the emergency brake repair - That seems pricey. What do you folks think?
Two other items that seem to rub me the wrong way. First, I were to use my credit card, he told me I'd have to pay a 4% fee on top of the bill, that seems wrong in 2026. I needed to pay cash/check if I wanted the 1,925 price.
Secondly, there was a 70 dollar "Office Admin" fee on the invoice. That seems like they're just adding fees for no reason.
I normally have my work done by the dealership and of course they're never cheap. I was expecting about 800 an axle from the chevy dealership plus the work to fix the emergency brake - that puts me in the $2,000 neighborhood. If I wanted to pay dealership prices, I think I would have gone to the dealership.
What do you folks think?
- The price seems a bit on the high sde for a local mechanic (vs. dealership)
- The credit card vs cash
- The Office Admin fee
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diamond.g
macrumors G5
for the brake job they did rotors and pads? 500 per axle in parts seems like a lot unless they are using like top tier brand parts.
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
The parts listed were Bosch Blue ceramic brake pads ($129) and Durago Titanium series DTS Disc Brake Rotors ($358) and misc parts for ($19 dollars)
Not being a car guy, I have no idea if these are top shelf or not
diamond.g
macrumors G5
I am gonna let someone else pipe in about that pricing, cause what I am seeing versus what you paid, would come across as a ripoff. Maybe someone else would have a better opinion.
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
I think I was over-charged.
I googled/asked chatgpt Bosch Blue ceramic brake pads - I found that they are considered entry level, and the price listed was a lot lower then what he charged me.
This is why I tend to go to the dealership. I know I'm paying $$ but I'm also getting GM parts, and GM quality.
The more I look into it, the more I feel that I was ripped off
They got me for nearly 2,000 but I won't be going back
Yeah... total gouge. Those are not high end parts. They are fine, but certainly not what anyone would call high end.
Those pads run around $40-50 for an axle, and the rotors are about $70-80 each. Even with a bit of a markup for added profit, they are way overcharging.
I have seen a fee for shop supplies (like rags and cleaning fluids etc) but never an office admin fee. Just a pure profit add.
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
Yeah, that's what its looking like.
The frustrating part, is I had asked around. Another mechanic who couldn't do the work recommended him. My other car was in an auto-body shop. The owner of that shop went to school with my wife - so I trusted his judgement. Various reviews online were glowing.
Oh well, live and learn.
I am happy with the work, for the first time since owning this truck, my parking brake is working
Apple fanboy
macrumors Ivy Bridge
Was the CC Amex? They charge the vendor more than other cards so I could understand the increase. But 2% is more like it.
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
I only asked what do they take. Yeah, Amex does charge more, and maybe its a small business thing, where you offer a discount for cash, and a higher price for credit cards, but overall in 2026 I've not run across any other business that does this.
I get this all the time...
They get charged a vendor's fee, so they don't want to have to pay it. Big companies don't mind eating the cost, but smaller local companies do. You have seen gas stations that charge a higher price for CC purchased gas right?
Also, I think it depends on where you live if your price for the brakes is crazy or normal. Where I am, what you paid isn't out of the world of normal. Shops make money on parts too, this is why a lot of times they will charge you an extra fee if you bring your own parts.
This is why before I went full EV, I started doing brakes myself. I would get top tier parts, and do it for less than the cost of parts alone at a shop.
I think brake jobs from shops used to be quoted more reasonably. Enough so that I paid I think twice in the 2000s to have them done. But the last 10 years, each time I ask for a brakes quote, it seems like they want about $1,000, so I buy the parts and do it myself. Pads and rotors are not that much, just paid $314 for my CR-V front/back pads/rotors and did them last month, easy peasy. Just remember: torque to spec!
I get the top tier at my local auto parts store for cheap enough that I would replace pads and rotors every time. I would get $1k+ quotes for brake jobs with resurfaced rotors... I also, being in the salt belt, take the time to lube and anti-seize the appropriate parts unlike shops. They typically do the minimum.
QuarterSwede
macrumors G4
My conpany (trades company) gives a cash discount. Our CC processor merchant fee is 5% on average. That’s a decent amount on something that can be $15K-$50K. We’re out there trying to give our customers the best price we can while still keeping the lights on and paying our teams better than average.
keksikuningas
macrumors 6502
Americans in the thread will laugh at me but I got a 140 hp Golf and it already feels too fast to enjoy, it gets to city speed limit in what feels like a second and it's not fun to drive at country road bombing speeds either because of that. Maybe it's cause I only had it for couple days and I will get used to it, but my previous car I drove for almost 10 years had 70 something horsepower and it was a hoot to row gears while getting up to 80-100 on the curves with my favorite tunes blasting on the econobox speakers.
Also it's only from 2008 but already has rev hang (or maybe it's a vacuum leak lol) and that is a detriment to driving enjoyment as well although probably can get used to it well enough
Also it's only from 2008 but already has rev hang (or maybe it's a vacuum leak lol) and that is a detriment to driving enjoyment as well although probably can get used to it well enough
Actually that thing accelerates in like 9.5 seconds, it's a slug. My 1987 Golf GTI was already quicker than that.
Very interesting you find that it feels quick...
keksikuningas
macrumors 6502
i never drove anything faster than this and I already can feel it's more than I can handle in the corners unlike my previous car where I pretty much could floor it in the corners without care in the world. Here I can feel that I have to be modest with throttle input. Once I am in a more secure position financially I am definitely gonna get some track lessons though (and in a different car since this one's meant for a family member mostly). Straight line I can see it being slow but straight line will always feel boring, you probably get desensitized to it quickly unlike actually feeling the G's while carving the curves and feeling the satisfaction of taking a good line etc
You don't need track lessons, you need driving lessons. That car with that engine you can drive in third gear full throttle all day long around a track....
Seriously I find this rather scary how you are reacting to that car.
I used to drive a Jeep wrangler with a 4.5” lift with 35” mud terrain tires. Nothing can feel too slow. I did regear the axles to 4.56 (from 3.73) so it wasn’t a dog, but it certainly wasn’t a rocket ship.
The problem here in the US, mainly in the North East (older highways, tons of bridges, and little room for expansion), with slow cars are that many of our on-ramps to highways are not up to code. They can be very short, so you have to go from 0 to 10 mph above the speed limit in a VERY short runway with very little time. It is dangerous. My closest highway constantly has accidents because it is right before a narrow 2 lane opening overpass. So there isn’t even the possibility of extending it. Because of this, I am happy to have moved over to full EVs with sub 5 second 0-60’s.
The problem here in the US, mainly in the North East (older highways, tons of bridges, and little room for expansion), with slow cars are that many of our on-ramps to highways are not up to code. They can be very short, so you have to go from 0 to 10 mph above the speed limit in a VERY short runway with very little time. It is dangerous. My closest highway constantly has accidents because it is right before a narrow 2 lane opening overpass. So there isn’t even the possibility of extending it. Because of this, I am happy to have moved over to full EVs with sub 5 second 0-60’s.
Apple fanboy
macrumors Ivy Bridge
Also with an EV you get that 0-60 mph time with no effort. In an ICE car it’s only when you give it a real thrashing you get close (and then it’s often dependent on your gear changes).
This is true, unless you move to a VERY expensive performance vehicle. For example my ‘26 TMY Performance (US model) does 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds, 0-100 mph in 7.4 seconds, and 1/4 mile in 11.5 seconds @ 122 mph. It can do this on any road, at any time. There aren’t many ICE vehicles with those numbers even in ideal track conditions with launch control turned on.
I’m always reminded of this Grand Tour clip:
MacBH928
macrumors G3
Am I the only one in the world who thinks these full screen dash board are ridiculously silly? Look at the current bmw m5 compared to much better looking interior the e39 model M5 from almost 30 years ago!!
Current M5:
1998 M5:
Current M5:
1998 M5:
When I was younger the most fun I had driving fast was on roads that had lots of sharp turns. For some reason I was never interested in high speed driving on straight roads. Years ago the most interesting car racing I could think about was F1 street racing. And now that I am older and drive on ice-covered roads for at least 6 months each year, driving too fast for conditions is something that I refrain from doing because it's too risky and expensive. That one car or another does 0-60 MPH in 3 or 14 seconds makes no difference to the majority of drivers on the roads. Maybe these are my assumptions at play? Maybe I am incorrect? If so "please take my comments with a grain of salt."
MotoGP is interesting too:
MotoGP is interesting too:
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MacBH928
macrumors G3
any one got tips on buying a used car? In my mind a used car (10+ years) is just a money pit that is "fix or repair daily". I am planning to buy an older bmw and looking for any help on the topic.
I know people look at higher mileage as a "worse car" but is a well maintained "150K miles" car really worse than a "50K miles" one that has been roughly driven with bad maintenance? any signs to look for maintenance quality?
I know people look at higher mileage as a "worse car" but is a well maintained "150K miles" car really worse than a "50K miles" one that has been roughly driven with bad maintenance? any signs to look for maintenance quality?