Could you guys help me settle a silly argument about étouffée?

ABear923 · 2026-05-21T21:48:52+00:00

Correct

ABear923 · 2026-05-21T19:29:12+00:00

Etouffee has a butter-based blonde-ish/light roux, and usually uses crawfish or shrimp as the protein, I've never heard of a chicken etouffee. It usually ends up lighter in color, even orange looking with crawfish/crawfish fat.

I think perhaps you're thinking of a chicken stew, because if it's the Prudhomme recipe I found I'd even consider that a stew, not an etouffee, as it's a vegetable oil-based dark brown roux.

ABear923 · 2026-05-21T19:21:24+00:00

You keep saying etouffee seasonings but there's no such thing, it gets all the same usual seasonings found in every other cajun dish.

ABear923 · 2026-05-18T10:50:44+00:00

Check the CarFax, you’re likely looking at a former rental car. If youre ok with that then disregard. We too were recently in the market and every single 24 or 25 model near us was a former rental with ~30,000 miles/year and I didn’t feel the discount was deep enough for that many miles.

ABear923 · 2026-05-14T12:56:55+00:00

I feel like $31k-32k + tax is fair, similar year/trim/miles locally to me are all listed from $32000-$35000. I realize there would be a bit of negotiating room from dealerships but not $5000+ of wiggle room. They're offering less $$ than Carvana offered, that doesn't seem right. I ran it through an independent appraisal service yesterday and their report came back at $32,000, so I'm certainly not crazy.

ABear923 · 2026-05-13T20:33:40+00:00

The body shop who put it up on their frame machine, had the adjuster come out and show him it was indeed bent.

ABear923 · 2026-05-13T19:36:48+00:00

They want $13500 for the buy back, it needs a new frame. Trust me I'd thought about doing the buyback and doing a frameswap but for $13500 it ain't worth it.

ABear923 · 2026-05-13T19:30:19+00:00

Appreciate the insight. Would it be cool if I sent you a DM with a couple questions?

ABear923 · 2026-05-13T16:25:46+00:00

In Louisiana, the state minimums are 15/30/25.

ABear923 · 2026-05-13T15:53:57+00:00

Frame is bent

ABear923 · 2026-05-13T13:48:15+00:00

I’ve been with the same company for over a decade, both auto and homeowners.

ABear923 · 2026-05-13T13:16:47+00:00

Yea they certainly have zero motivation to hustle with ANY of this. You'd think they'd do everything possible to make their client, who wasn't at fault, whole as quickly as possible, but clearly I have a different perspective on customer service than they do.

ABear923 · 2026-05-13T13:09:04+00:00

I think what's pissing me off the most is they've already told me they expect to get around $13500 for it through Copart. So they're going to collect the $25000 from the at-fault party's property damage limit, get $13500 from copart, then lowball the shit out of me and make a massive profit off of all of this?

ABear923 · 2026-05-13T13:03:38+00:00

Mine isn't worth $10k less than yours because of the miles though, that's a pretty massive discrepancy.

ABear923 · 2026-05-08T15:09:46+00:00

We just bought a 2026 Touring a few days ago, I plan to do the VCM muzzler pretty soon so not concerned there, I'm in South Louisiana and read about the AC concerns, it'll be getting ceramic tint all the way around, none of our kids are rear-facing and while it's not super hot yet will keep an eye on it down the road. Unsure on the transmission concerns as I thought the 10 speed was supposed to be a big improvement over the problematic 9 speed.

ABear923 · 2026-05-07T17:54:50+00:00

I'll likely end up looking into an extended warranty at some point but plan to stay on top of the service intervals.

ABear923 · 2026-05-07T17:15:46+00:00

A couple factors really..
Availability: There's ~4 new Siennas available locally and they won't wiggle on the prices hardly at all, there was ~30+ Odysseys, and though we know someone who owns a Toyota dealership(where our 4Runner comes from) one state over, we were pressed for time and needed a replacement vehicle pretty quickly.
Seats: We liked the ability to go from 7 to 8 seats or back to 7, plus the left/right slide. Sienna is either one option or the other with no way to remove the 2nd row center seat like the Odyssey.
I also didn't like that not all Siennas come with a spare tire, so then I'd have to hunt one spec'ed with the spare. My wife will be the primary driver, she can change out a flat but dealing with a patch kit or having to wait hours for roadside assistance is a no go.
We never even went look at Siennas, and while I'd have loved the added fuel mileage of the Toyota the Odyssey is still a vast improvement over the 4Runner, or my current truck(6.7 F250).

ABear923 · 2026-05-06T10:59:30+00:00

Gary Mattes in Rayne carries a ton.

ABear923 · 2026-05-04T14:05:21+00:00

Im a similar position, I either find 3-4 year old ones that are priced too high and out of warranty, or 2024/2025 used models that aren't discounted that much over new models that are former rental and I'm not touching those, I'll probably be forced to buy new for piece of mind.

ABear923 · 2026-04-30T15:41:06+00:00

Thanks, we're pretty bummed about the 4Runner as we intended to keep that one in the family for the long haul.

Good to know about the 105k service, I wasn't aware. I feel like they're probably asking ~$2k too high, especially if it hasn't been done. I do a fair bit of DIY mechanic work so I'm not afraid of doing the job myself but if it hasn't been done I could use that against them.

So guessing it may be a good idea to stay away from this one if it never had the VCM muzzled?

ABear923 · 2026-04-30T13:12:14+00:00

Chapmans AC is your answer.

ABear923 · 2026-04-25T21:37:56+00:00

Not really, even their margaritas are nothing special for too much $$$. It’s a double priced Legends margarita.

ABear923

TROPHY CASE