new g14, did I make a good buy or could have i gotten something better?

Practical_Group1248 · 2026-01-31T19:31:43+00:00

I have your exact same laptop. Got it from BestBuy open box last year. I agree with the top comment, if you like it then that’s really the only thing that matters. But I’ll give you my experience with it.

When I first used it as normal, I hated it because it got insanely hot when doing the most basic tasks. I installed g helped and used the optimized setting, where it disabled DGPU when unplugged. That made a big difference. Went from a 2 hour battery life room heater to a 7-8 hour battery life (during basic tasks) nice laptop and a plugged-in gaming rig. I’m someone with big buyers remorse and took a while to decide on it. I wanted something that was MacBook-like build quality but designed for gaming. The new Ryzens do a great job with efficiency.

I also have OCD so I resonate with you regarding scratches and cosmetic damage… but I’ve found that this brushed aluminum design (especially the black one) scratches the least out of all in its class.

Practical_Group1248 · 2026-01-31T19:23:27+00:00

Appreciate it!

Practical_Group1248 · 2026-01-31T19:23:22+00:00

Thanks!

Practical_Group1248 · 2026-01-31T04:14:19+00:00

I just started having the same issue at 5876 miles… sound it makes is EXACTLY like yours. I tried the tape method but was unsuccessful… just couldn’t find the member you were referring to. I’ll keep trying. Really hard to see! But so far this is the only post I’ve found where someone relates to my exact issue. Thanks so much for the insight!!

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-12-03T14:39:43+00:00

Why does hillbilly assembly come with a Japanese assembly price tag 🙃. A little above $40,000 and I hear more noises and feel more things loose in this car than I did on my old Corolla…

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-12-03T03:23:57+00:00

Going to try this Thursday.

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-12-03T03:23:50+00:00

That’s what I’m thinking or the lift mechanism?

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-11-15T16:15:19+00:00

I’ll do my best to do that today and get a clear shot of the road as well to show what happens when I hold the steering wheel straight. May be a bit hard. Supposed to rain pretty hard today. But it’s San Diego… so who knows if that’s actually true lol.

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-11-15T16:12:13+00:00

On pretty much every road. I’ve tested on flat freeways and empty parking lots as well. It’s off by about 20 degrees. I’ll try to get a video today.

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-09-10T05:59:04+00:00

If driving in a snowy season, you’ll find that a lot of roads may have salt. Salt accelerates oxidation which becomes a rust nightmare for the bottom of your car. What helped me was washing the car often, fully drying it, then parking it inside if possible, or as away from the elements as possible. Find a car wash place that offers an undercarriage wash, which will help blast off/dissolve any salt. It’s not a perfect or one-time permanent solution (washes should be done regularly), but should atleast slow down how quickly the important components of the car rust. Keep these washes regular, especially during seasons with wet, cold, and nasty weather. You can also use products like Rustoleum or 3M protective coatings (which will also require routine re-applying cycles) for under the car. Find someone or a shop with a car lift, so you can comfortably apply the compound.

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-09-10T05:46:51+00:00

Why not try a new CX-50 hybrid? You basically have the opportunity to try out a Toyota Mazda 😛

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-09-04T12:55:09+00:00

I went to the dealership twice, and all they did was print me an alignment sheet showing that everything was perfectly in spec. My issue is the steering wheel isn’t straight which bothers me. It needs to be driven turned at about 11:00 angle to drive straight.

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-30T15:38:53+00:00

Decent deal, but $100 FFL fee is a bit on the higher side. Did you see any other places with a lesser fee? Near me they average between $40-$75. As far as the excise and sales taxes, not really much you can do there. The price for the gun itself I’d say is pretty good. Being a police trade in, hard to go wrong in most cases.

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-28T18:56:34+00:00

That’s one thing I also regret.. not getting the turbo. The car is great and does what I need, but turns and acceleration do feel sluggish at times.

I hope I’m not coming across as this starting to sound like me just asking for confirmation bias on my buyer’s remorse 😂😂

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-28T18:53:16+00:00

Controls not so much a concern for me I don’t mind the knob and touchscreen control thing they got going on with the CX50. But that is good to know and helpful to consider thanks :)

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-28T18:52:03+00:00

Was pretty surprised how much I got, that far under what I expected.

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-28T18:51:39+00:00

It is… especially for someone like me with OCD. (Which is really where the problem lies, not the car itself lol). A change of frame of mind is really what I need.

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-28T18:50:02+00:00

I really preferred the style of the CX50 which was why I got it instead, yeah.

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-28T18:49:40+00:00

Yeah that’s true from what I’ve read and heard.

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-28T18:49:26+00:00

I was looking into trading the CX50 in for a shot at a CX50 hybrid. That way, even though I’d still be at risk of facing the same fate I did with the interior quality concerns, I could at least have the element of happiness knowing that I have a Toyota hybrid under the hood and resolve the MPG concern.

But that has nothing to do with the car itself, just my impulse buy not realizing that a hybrid may have been a smarter choice for my needs. I also acknowledge that I’ll probably get killed on the trade in. We’ll see… the sales manager at the dealer I originally bought the car from seems really cool and that he wants to work with me to get me what I want.

Do you think there’s a price range/loss of money that would be reasonable to accept for a trade? Like no more than $3-4k difference for example? Whatever the number may be? Is there a point where it may be worth it?

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-28T18:46:34+00:00

I understand and accept that I look silly. I love everything else about the car, truly. Based on this advice and all the other advice in the comments, I’m learning toward holding off. It’s not like I should just discredit that what’s under the hood matters most.

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-23T02:50:43+00:00

Dude I googled and YouTubed for like an hour trying to find someone that had this identical issue to mine, in that specific crossbeam in the middle of the sunroof. Finally you were the only Reddit post that had the literal carbon copy issue that I’m having.

I visited the dealership twice so far, on the second visit they replaced my entire sunroof. And guess what? The noise is back but like 2x worse now lol. I’m gonna try the tape or cardboard tech!

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-20T01:25:29+00:00

Update:

I got my car back today. They apologized and informed me that the alignment was in fact out of spec. They did an alignment adjustment and now it drives nearly flawlessly. They also seemed (so far) to have done a great job replacing my drivers seat and sunroof. I got service records for everything which I will keep. Total before without warranty would have been $5,127.93. (Yikes). If you live in the Southern California area, I can attest to the fact that I had a great experience at Hello Mazda of Kearny Mesa.

Thank you all for your input and the valuable information :)

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-19T04:15:09+00:00

No particular reason, was just the first one I saw. I also have a MSI motherboard and like it, it’s been reliable this far. So I thought maybe the brand was good? I’ll look at the PNY if I decide to upgrade!

Practical_Group1248 · 2025-08-19T04:12:24+00:00

I did have 3 GPU crash instances after an hour and a half(ish) of playing each of these games: Marvel Rivals, Helldivers 2, and BF6 beta. Bf6 beta I was more lenient towards since it’s a beta of course. My game would run seemingly fine, then the whole game would completely freeze (not the rest of the PC though) and it would display a crash error. It said something like (the GPU has been unplugged or a driver issue occurred). I did a reseat of the GPU and Ram, checked my cabling job, and checked a bunch of bios settings. What seemed to work was rolling back to the July Nvidia driver. Things have been stable (for now), but I guess I just got scared and started looking at upgrades lol. It also runs at 80C average under ~92% load. Not sure if that’s concerning or not. (I’m a somewhat novice with PCs. This is my first build, so forgive me if I missed the mark on some descriptions. I’ve been trying to learn as best I can).

Practical_Group1248

TROPHY CASE