The Semi-Unofficial Pistol-Forum Car geek, gearhead, hot rodder, and vehicle thread

[rob_s]

What are the usual options to swap vehicles mid-lease?

My girlfriend is a senior IT QA analyst and 100% remote. Her company is going back to partial meatspace, and her IT division is based in NC. Right now it's looking like 1 week per month she'll have to drive down there.

EVs are out due to the range.

Her Toyota Venza gets 37mpg, and she is a year and a half into her lease. A Camry Hybrid and Prius both get over 50mpg. So, the thought is there that maybe it'd make sense to switch cars.

I’ve rarely been able to make mpg calculations worth the cost of changing vehicles. At various times in my career I’ve had gas cards, and then not. When I have the gas card I don’t care about mpg, and when I don’t I think k should sell the guzzler and get something else because now it’s in my dime. I’ve never been able to make the longer payments make sense.

That said I haven’t tried to do that math with a lease. Never leased a vehicle. Maybe it works out in that case.

I’d imagine the formula is similar.

One other thing I’ve often forgotten, eventually gas prices go back down again. Something to think about when you’re doing that math.

[JRB]

What are the usual options to swap vehicles mid-lease?

My girlfriend is a senior IT QA analyst and 100% remote. Her company is going back to partial meatspace, and her IT division is based in NC. Right now it's looking like 1 week per month she'll have to drive down there.

EVs are out due to the range.

Her Toyota Venza gets 37mpg, and she is a year and a half into her lease. A Camry Hybrid and Prius both get over 50mpg. So, the thought is there that maybe it'd make sense to switch cars.

IME the fees for swapping the lease will exceed any savings for MPG in all but the most extreme cases. If she's only commuting one week a month and she's already got a solid reliable 37mpg vehicle, I'd leave it be.

The only caveat would be if the dealership was so motivated to get her Venza that they waived all the costs or paid her to get it back. A friend of mine did that with a ~2014 Tundra limited 4wd he was leasing at the time, and ended up in a Camry Hybrid and walked away with a check for almost $6k. But those were much happier times in the economy and the Tundra was in much higher demand than the Camry.

[OlongJohnson]

Yes, I have! I made a decent side hustle in the 2000's at pick-a-part and u-pull style junkyards by pulling the superchargers off of the '95-97 models that were so equipped. Turns out the Ogura SC14 superchargers found in those Previas was an upgrade for supercharged 4A-GZE powered MR2's and swapped AE86's with a little fab work. Typically I'd pay less than $50-75 for the complete supercharger and I could sell them for $300-500 a piece. Simpler times!

I can't remember the last time I heard a Previa drive by, but I'm pretty sure that when it happened, I couldn't remember the last time I'd heard one drive by without the SC making horrible noises.

I hope someone out there is or has put a G25-550 .49 A/R on an MR2 SC without the SC in the way to choke off flow. Needs to be done.

[JRB]

I can't remember the last time I heard a Previa drive by, but I'm pretty sure that when it happened, I couldn't remember the last time I'd heard one drive by without the SC making horrible noises.

I hope someone out there is or has put a G25-550 .49 A/R on an MR2 SC without the SC in the way to choke off flow. Needs to be done.

Yeah most of the SC's I pulled out of Previas had neglected SC oil. In the early-mid 00's it wasn't quite so bad but the rotors were pretty much toast by the time I gave that game up in ~2010 or so.

Pretty much any modern turbo works a lot better on the Gen IV or Gen V 3S-GTE's with VVTi. Also works nicely on 4A-GE 20v's with forged rods & pistons and a proper standalone. VVTi just makes such a huge difference in spool and response when it's tuned properly.

[BehindBlueI's]

What are the usual options to swap vehicles mid-lease?

My girlfriend is a senior IT QA analyst and 100% remote. Her company is going back to partial meatspace, and her IT division is based in NC. Right now it's looking like 1 week per month she'll have to drive down there.

EVs are out due to the range.

Her Toyota Venza gets 37mpg, and she is a year and a half into her lease. A Camry Hybrid and Prius both get over 50mpg. So, the thought is there that maybe it'd make sense to switch cars.

If the value of the vehicle exceeds her current buyout price (should be the residual and some the non-interest portion of remaining payments) buy it. Then sell it, put the leftover in the next lease or pocket it.

Otherwise, leases are assumable and there are websites were people who want to get rid of their lease can partner up with someone wanting a shorter term lease then getting a new one and assume yours. You get nothing, you may need to kick a bit in, but you're out of the lease.

It's almost certainly more of a bother then it's worth to ride out the lease for it's remainder.

[CraigS]

I have talked to a couple of GT40 kit owners. The cars were both beautiful and fast and fun. But both commented that the rear visibility is so bad they are nerve racking to drive anywhere you have more than one lane on your side of the road. What about the 'it is so fast I never worry about someone behind me' brag? They both laughed. OTOH, I was in the Cobra replica community for 15 years and had a 351 stroked to 408. 450 or so hp in a very, very driveable engine. I learned a ton about 4bbl carbs, oxygen sensors diagnostics, and really enjoyed getting that 408 tuned. I now drive a 19 Stingray so I realize the Chev engine is superb but I wouldn't hesitate to build something w/ a 408 again. Mine was even carbed and I know that an efi induction system could make it even better.

[Bart Carter]

... I wouldn't hesitate to build something w/ a 408 again...

You can get an aluminum Windsor block with 427 cu. in. that weighs like a 289 (very light).

[JRB]

I have talked to a couple of GT40 kit owners. The cars were both beautiful and fast and fun. But both commented that the rear visibility is so bad they are nerve racking to drive anywhere you have more than one lane on your side of the road. What about the 'it is so fast I never worry about someone behind me' brag? They both laughed. OTOH, I was in the Cobra replica community for 15 years and had a 351 stroked to 408. 450 or so hp in a very, very driveable engine. I learned a ton about 4bbl carbs, oxygen sensors diagnostics, and really enjoyed getting that 408 tuned. I now drive a 19 Stingray so I realize the Chev engine is superb but I wouldn't hesitate to build something w/ a 408 again. Mine was even carbed and I know that an efi induction system could make it even better.

I gent I met with a Superformance GT40 MKI build solved the rear visbility problem by adding two aftermarket wide-angle reverse cameras to the rear clamshell, pointing 5 and 7 o'clock respectively, and had the monitors mounted along the headliner where a normal rearview mirror would be. Looked like it was rather effective.

[CraigS]

That is a great idea. I am pretty sure that some of the closed body imsa prototypes (correct term this year?) are doing that based on some of the in-car footage I have seen.

[hufnagel]

yea... more I think about the car situation, the more I'm betting, that parts convertible I bought will probably become my winter beater, at least for this season.
gonna need a water pump installed, and on the 2.7L that's a timing out job. doesn't look killer, just annoying to do.
hasn't totally blowed up the pump luckily; no water in the coolant yet. no more start up death rattle, so I'm wondering if it just sat for so long it gravity drained out all the way.
i'll have to visit the problem later, as I swapped cars with mom so I can do the cam seals on her PT Cruiser.

another one of those $5 part 18 hours labor jobs, which was supposedly done by a reputable shop a while ago, but apparently it either wasn't, or it wasn't done correctly. no other shops want to tackle the job, as they're all too busy doing better money making gigs, which I get.
went to 2 shops to see about getting them to evac the A/C system (save the planet!) then recharge it in like a week or so.
one can't even get me in until NEXT friday (8/12) the other won't do it. however the 2nd one said the price would be the same regardless (< $200).
so I i'm probably going to have an "accident" and all the R-134a refrigerant will accidentally leave the system.



When they did the design refresh in 06, they changed the A/C lines and their positioning, making it 10x harder to get to needed bolts to do this job.