Happy with your car choice ?

[eight6]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Max Murdoc[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by eight6[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by Max Murdoc[/i]
<br>Last year my Saturn's front frame rusted out (huh? really it did) and the place fixing it gave me a loaner until it was finished. I fell in love with the loaner bought it and gave the Saturn to my son. The loaner is/was a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis....yup, a barge. The car is in fantastic shape and looks just like our neighborhood police vehicles (no, it's not painted like them...just the same make). Does it get good mileage? Hell no but then again, I live less than a mile from work and everyone who knows me knows that I never go anywhere. Grocery stores are also less than a mile from my house and friends and family are also nearby. My local grocery store has that 10 cents off gas for every $50.00 you spend so every 2 months I get a free tank of gas. I probably spend $30.00 a month on gas right now so it's not killing me.

I love the car cause it's comfy and it deters the local hoods from messing around my neighborhood so no regrets.
[/quote]




[i]"It's got a cop motor, a four hundred and forty cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks, it was a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas. Whaddya say? Is it the new Max Mobile or what?"[/i]

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[/quote]


You bet Elwood....cause I'm on a mission from God.
[/quote]

[i]Fix the cigarette lighter...[/i]

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[brock]

I/We don't drive much (6 & 8 miles to work), so we don't have high fuel bills like the average person. On top of that, I bike commute about half the time (mostly for the exercise but the fuel savings is a nice bonus). My SUV is a '96 4Runner, and because I was single at the time, I didn't really need it. Now married w/ kids & dog, the SUV works out well. I feel very safe in it, and it's a comfortable ride (plus I like being able to see beyond the cars in front of me). Our other car is a Passat which, I think, is kinda practical & kinda sporty. Then again, I drive like a grandma.

Today if I needed to buy another car, I think I'd opt for a slightly used pickup or SUV. Prices are falling and we still go on lots of weekend road trips and driving vacations.

When I was a kid, my parents both drove Mercedes (two teachers - go figure) and were in the Mercedes Benz Club of America. Talk about the good ol days - they used to have rallies where they'd drive a couple hundred miles a day. I think those days are long gone!!

[WolverineSyr]

[quote]Originally posted by KYYX4ever
What about in the old days, when Pop would cram all us kids into the little VW Bug for the family vacation, driving across 3 or 4 or 7 states (like we did) with no air conditioning, and [i]WE WERE FINE[/i] ?!?
[/quote]

As I recall we were not fine at all. We were ready to kill each other by the 30th mile, and a little A/C would have gone a long way in calming our urge to murder....of course that's just my family[;)] I do recall that cars were a lot bigger back then though - more room to hide a body.

Like Max, I work about a mile away from home, never go anywhere & shop at a grocery store that offers discounts.

I have a Blazer & am very, very happy with it. Living up here, the 4-wheel drive gives me a huge sense of security in the snow & I wouldn't trade that for anything. I like being up high, and also I like never wondering if "that's going to fit in the car..."

[KYYX4ever]

Well, that's cool, you guys.

Those who have SUVs and actually use them for what they are intended (bad weather, snow, lotsa passengers, loading stuff), that's fine. It's the suburban princesses who, perched up all high for a fraught-with-danger-run-to-Walmart, that bug me. Urgh ! I don't like being up all high, either (as a passenger), but OTOH, it's just as discomfitting being all short in a sea of trucks and SUVS. Aye-yi-yi !
I have a '96 Nissan Sentra (got it after the unfortunate Duster T-Boning; dang, I miss that car!) <font size=1>(even though it was a gas hog) [:(]</font size=1> , which gets around 35 or so mpg, and I only have to gas up once a month. I live right in the middle of the city, close to work (my husband does too), we can bike or walk around, so I am happy.

I was curious in my original post (with all those questions, sorry), because the drumbeat to "hate your SUV" is certainly prevalent in the media today. I was wondering how much of that is reflected in reality, or what.

[WolverineSyr]

[quote][i]Originally posted by KYYX4ever[/i]
I was curious in my original post (with all those questions, sorry), because the drumbeat to "hate your SUV" is certainly prevalent in the media today. I was wondering how much of that is reflected in reality, or what.
[/quote]

Not around here at least. I still see tons of SUVs, and the used car people are shilling them constantly on TV. I think it mostly has to do with the weather & the high number of rural areas here.

A couple of my friends have bought hybrids recently. They're cool, but I don't think I'll ever spend as much in gas as they paid for their cars...(ready to "swallow my words" mode on, now...)

[phillyidol]

So last night I went to all the car sites and funny thing is that all the cars get around 21 mpg. (excluding the tiny cars) So my sienna minivan gets 21 mpg and I want to get something smaller...then find out the smaller ones get the same mpg. I am not yet ready to get a tiny car but I think everyone will in the future. Oh but that smart car is a total joke. The government also passed a bill to make the car makers up the mpg on all cars in the next 5 years. Funny... they have the tech already.




Worlds GREATEST Photographer!

[scramjet]

The tech for improving gas mileage mainly consists of making the car lighter, which means making it smaller and/or reducing the size of the reinforcing bars in the doors and other places, which makes the car less crash-safe. Unless you can afford a titanium car those are the tradeoffs.

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[hexicon]

[quote][i]Originally posted by phillyidol[/i]
<br>So last night I went to all the car sites and funny thing is that all the cars get around 21 mpg. (excluding the tiny cars) So my sienna minivan gets 21 mpg and I want to get something smaller...then find out the smaller ones get the same mpg.

[/quote]

Same here. I drive a Subaru Legacy wagon (28 MPG freeway)and was thinking about downsizing to a Subaru Impreza or Toyota Matrix, but they get 26 MPG, so what's the point?

I consume more gas than I should b/c I have a long commute on the freeway, but OTOH I live in a neighborhood where I can do my errands on foot or bike and don't have to drive 5 miles out of a development just to buy a quart of milk . . . tradeoffs. Mr. Hex works at home so maybe he counts as my offset.

[Bitter Almonds]

<p align="justify">Fuckno[}:)] I wanna drive a metallic-orange Z350 at the very least. I drive a fuckin' 2007 corolla. Hell! I wanna drive an orange or a sky-blue Karmann Ghia. I wanna drive a bright-red Alfa Romeo Spyder. I wanna ride in fuckin' styyyyyyyyle in a goddamn metallic-grey-silver Shelby Cobra (I'll gladly take a replica[}:)] ). Something cool. Something that'll turn eyes my way[}:)]

[drsevrin]

[quote][i]Originally posted by eight6[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by DonGately[/i]
<br>I just bought a Volvo C30 and I love it. I finally gave up the Suburban. Kind of went from one extreme to the other, since the C30 is a hatchback. But it's sporty, it has a good engine, and the seats are amazingly comfortable.
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I like the C30, in fact, I'm trying to convince my wife to make it her next car. My only question is, how much does a taillight for one of those cost? It's a big sucker.

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Excellent choice. C30's rock. I'm a Volvo nut - I drive an S80 and the wife has an XC70. Whenever I take the cars in for service I insist on a C30 as a loaner. If my S80 ever dies, it's a C30 for me (or maybe an S60R). I actually had a tail light assembly replaced on the S80, and it ran $142.75 US (part only) so I guess you can extrapolate from there. Don's right - Volvo seats are the best in the industry, period, both from a comfort as well as a safety standpont.

Before the Volvo's we had a Ford Expedition. We experienced a mild rollover with both my kids as well as my wife inside. It was extremely slow-speed, but even at 10 mph the front section of the roof virtually collapsed. Following this I did extensive research on roof-crush resistance of SUV's, and as a result would never buy a domestic SUV again. Many of them are virtual death-traps, particularly the Chevy S10 series and the Ford Explorer.

[DonGately]

Yeah, I love this car. The tail lights are kinda huge, but everything else seems just about right. And the DynAudio stereo is pretty damn great.

[waldnorm]

My current car and the car I had before are Toyota Corollas--overall I'm very happy, they last, I've had few problems. I may consider getting a Camry hybrid next time, though (my sister was happy when she had a regular Camry back when).

[WLIRRIP]

Gotta Prius last August and thus far I'm pretty pleased. He's fun to drive and I usually get between 40 & 45 mpg. About 10,100 miles so far and no mechanical issues, just routine maintenance is all that's been needed.

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Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.
Psalm 33:12

[shovelbum]

I drive a Chevy Equinox. It's not a huge SUV (it's what the car industry likes to term a "crossover"), but it serves it's purpose. The men in my life (significant other and two sons) are all well over 6 feet tall, so I need something that fits their legs and heads. This car fits the bill, gets decent gas mileage, and didn't cost an arm and a leg.

However, with current gas prices I am seriously considering procuring two mules and a buggy. [:(!]

"There's safety in numbers when we learn to divide, how can we be in when there is no outside?" ~Peter Gabriel

[WLIRRIP]

[quote][i]Originally posted by shovelbum[/i]
<br>I drive a Chevy Equinox. It's not a huge SUV (it's what the car industry likes to term a "crossover"), but it serves it's purpose. The men in my life (significant other and two sons) are all well over 6 feet tall, so I need something that fits their legs and heads. This car fits the bill, gets decent gas mileage, and didn't cost an arm and a leg.

However, with current gas prices I am seriously considering procuring two mules and a buggy. [:(!]

"There's safety in numbers when we learn to divide, how can we be in when there is no outside?" ~Peter Gabriel
[/quote]

Well as $$ permits, you may have some alternatives. There are hybrid SUVs and there are some mid-sized cars that are hybrids as well. Of course being a hybrid doesn't mean you'll get crazy mileage. Sometimes it's only a 5% or 10% increase. Do your homework, but you may be able to find something that cuts you gasoline bill.

Also -- and I'm not sure how much this would cost -- you can have your car's engine altered to "digest" vegetable oil. A guy in my church has done that and he gets FREE oil from this nearby Chinese restaurant that would just otherwise dump it.

There are ways around this.

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Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.
Psalm 33:12