Car advice. New long commute

[spdrun]

Ioniq 6 if you can actually get one — it’s an electric car that’s not a Tesla and isn’t another damn SUV/CUV. A car that doesn’t pretend to be “tough” and lacks the grub-like design that most CUVs have right now.

I love the quirky Citroen-like design.

[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic]

Will a Lexus make me seem like an old white guy?[/quote]

Yes. But just “old white guy”…

…not “Grandpa old white guy”…unless you buy the Lexus LS….

[Hobie]

Flu: Very funny re trophy wife post! So true!

[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic] But now that I’m turning 60 I’m thinking maybe I want to become a guy who trades cars in every 3 to 5 years. Why am I driving shitty old cars? It’s some kind of weird mental condition political statement obstinacy cheapness. If money and environmental consciousness weren’t an issue, I’d prefer to have new, safe, reliable car.

[/quote]

There’s nothing wrong with leasing and trading in a car every 3 years. Especially when you’re already 60 and financially established. And then you really dont need to worry about reliability and maintenance. In many ways it makes more sense to do that than paying for maintenance and repairs post warranty.

And besides, lots are car companies are moving towards the subscription, pay per monthly usage anyway.

Take BMW for instance. In Europe, you can now buy heated seats on a subscription bases for an additional $18/month

https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/23204950/bmw-subscriptions-microtransactions-heated-seats-feature

Oh, god don’t even get me started with this…lol…

But seriously, you’re old enough to just try different cars out and not deal with the headache of keeping things long term. You can afford to do this.

Leasing is a lot like dating a high maintenance trophy GF/BF… If you just want to perpetually date the latest and greatest trophy GF/BF without any sort of long term commitments like marriage, then it probably makes sense just to lease and only be committed to 3 years each time versus buying and being commited to one vehicle for 20-30+years. During that 3 year lease, everyone is on their best behavior, and the amount of demand from your wallet is only limited to routine maintenance (no different then occasional exotic meals and trips)…The problems with these high maintenance exotics is the longer they are with you, the more demanding and pain in the ass they get…and when you’re out of warranty, nobody is no longer obligated to be on their best behavior… whoa you better have some pretty deep pockets…. But if you’re leasing. you then you simple trade in the previous model for a brand new one and let someone else who wants to buy preowned previous model….deal with all the maintenance issues when they are past their prime and start to break down and complain over issues….

Of course, if you do insist on a 20-30 year commitment, you probably want to just find someone a reliable Toyota, Honda, or Mazda. They do make sporty versions of Toyota, Honda, and Mazdas too that gets you to probably 80-90% of the fun, without being a royal pain in the ass too.

[Coronita]

Oh, forgot to mention. Another EV to consider is the Polestar 2. My neighbor has one. The styling is a little too Volvo-ish for my taste, but he swears it’s a great car.

https://www.polestar.com/us/polestar-2/

Geely has a long history of making electric cars in China.

[scaredyclassic]

I mean , jeez, if I kept a new car as long as my old civic, I’d be 84. Odds are my circumstances will be different. 3-5 years seems more reasonable. On the other hand I do hope to be working for at least another 15 years.

[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic]I mean , jeez, if I kept a new car as long as my old civic, I’d be 84. Odds are my circumstances will be different. 3-5 years seems more reasonable. On the other hand I do hope to be working for at least another 15 years.[/quote]

I’m not sure you can keep most new cars these days as long as the cars of yesterday. They just aren’t built to be driven into the ground anymore. New cars have so much electronics and computers that when they go bad, it’s not something you can simply go to a parts store and buy. All these new cars with LCD displays, it’s cool and all , but will they still work 15, 20 years? And if they fail , can you easily find a replacement or repairman.

EV cars are way too complicated to be serviced at home. The argument goes with fewer moving parts, things should be more reliable , but at the same time, more electronics, more computers, more software, more points of things to go wrong. Time will tell.

[Coronita]

.

[svelte]

Went out with a friend last night and he had just bought a Mach E three days ago. First time I had been in one – I was quite impressed! Nice leather, car was quiet and smooth. Great visibility out.

He got a base model for about $45K and he is extremely happy with it. I sat in the back seat and I can tell you there was plenty of leg room and head room. You can get at least four people 6ft+ in that car comfortably. The fifth person in the center back would be a little less comfy but still not bad.

Sounds like you have about a 100 mile round trip commute…even the base Mach E has 224 range so you can just recharge at night at home no problem. Could get to 312 miles of range if you bought the bigger battery pack.

Anyway, based on that one ride last night the Mach E has bubbled up to the top of our list.

[an]

[quote=Coronita][quote=scaredyclassic]I mean , jeez, if I kept a new car as long as my old civic, I’d be 84. Odds are my circumstances will be different. 3-5 years seems more reasonable. On the other hand I do hope to be working for at least another 15 years.[/quote]

I’m not sure you can keep most new cars these days as long as the cars of yesterday. They just aren’t built to be driven into the ground anymore. New cars have so much electronics and computers that when they go bad, it’s not something you can simply go to a parts store and buy. All these new cars with LCD displays, it’s cool and all , but will they still work 15, 20 years? And if they fail , can you easily find a replacement or repairman.

EV cars are way too complicated to be serviced at home. The argument goes with fewer moving parts, things should be more reliable , but at the same time, more electronics, more computers, more software, more points of things to go wrong. Time will tell.[/quote]Great point. EV might not break but it’ll get obsolete much more quickly because of continuous software updates OTA. Just look at computers. How good is your 10-20 years old computer, Mac or PC. It might still work, but software will make those old hardware a pain to use.

[scaredyclassic]

Then, environmentally, it sounds like we are making giant pieces of junk for the landfills pretty soon. Big giant obsolete computers with wheels.

There’s so much energy embedded already in my 2012 Accord, it’d take a lot of e vehicle driving to offset it. Driving an electric vehicle is probably no environmental good, at least in my case.

Maybe the best thing all around is just a cheap sedan. Hyundai Elantra. Lease it.

[svelte]

[quote=scaredyclassic]Then, environmentally, it sounds like we are making giant pieces of junk for the landfills pretty soon. Big giant obsolete computers with wheels.

There’s so much energy embedded already in my 2012 Accord, it’d take a lot of e vehicle driving to offset it. Driving an electric vehicle is probably no environmental good, at least in my case.

Maybe the best thing all around is just a cheap sedan. Hyundai Elantra. Lease it.[/quote]

No matter what car you get, I think leasing is the way to go now. Technology is changing so fast that I agree with flu – we’ve probably reached a point where new cars will be obsolete and heading for the crusher in 10 years.

It is one of the dirty little secrets about “green” EVs.

I also harbor a small suspicion that older ICE cars may become more valuable in 10-15 years…because they don’t rely on an overabundance of chips and other electronics that are no longer manufactured. They can march on as long as a gas station can be found.

[scaredyclassic]

Leasing goes against my grain, but I think it’s starting to seem much more reasonable as I approach senescence, and death.

[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic]Then, environmentally, it sounds like we are making giant pieces of junk for the landfills pretty soon. Big giant obsolete computers with wheels.

There’s so much energy embedded already in my 2012 Accord, it’d take a lot of e vehicle driving to offset it. Driving an electric vehicle is probably no environmental good, at least in my case.

Maybe the best thing all around is just a cheap sedan. Hyundai Elantra. Lease it.[/quote]

That was always my concern about electric cars. With traditional older combustion engines, they have been developed to a point where if something breaks, you can replace parts on it. And even when someone doesn’t want to deal with the repairs anymore on a car, there’s usually someone that will take a used car and either fix it up or chop it up into parts to keep something else running.

EV cars are much more difficult to do this. Yes, there are companies that can take a Tesla battery back and diagnose and replace specific cells that aren’t working. But this would be an out-of-warranty and strongly discouraged repair by Tesla. And it’s not just Tesla that will have this issue. Every EV car.

I’m not sure EV really are the end all solution to polution.

But even modern ICE cars have so much electronics, that it’s hard to keep them running if electronics fail.

I was hoping we’d get back to point where we have a “back to basics” cult where you just have much simplier cars for basic transportation and not continueously trying to turn cars in to computers.

[Coronita]

[quote=svelte][quote=scaredyclassic]Then, environmentally, it sounds like we are making giant pieces of junk for the landfills pretty soon. Big giant obsolete computers with wheels.

There’s so much energy embedded already in my 2012 Accord, it’d take a lot of e vehicle driving to offset it. Driving an electric vehicle is probably no environmental good, at least in my case.

Maybe the best thing all around is just a cheap sedan. Hyundai Elantra. Lease it.[/quote]

No matter what car you get, I think leasing is the way to go now. Technology is changing so fast that I agree with flu – we’ve probably reached a point where new cars will be obsolete and heading for the crusher in 10 years.

It is one of the dirty little secrets about “green” EVs.

I also harbor a small suspicion that older ICE cars may become more valuable in 10-15 years…because they don’t rely on an overabundance of chips and other electronics that are no longer manufactured. They can march on as long as a gas station can be found.[/quote]

I think the issue will be especially in a state like CA, it will be harder to keeping passing smog for ICE cars.

The other thing to consider is if a manufacturer stops making parts for a car. Need to stick with a car that does a large platform share with other cars. Lot’s of people who have first and second generation supras have a tougher time finding parts because the platform share on those cars is less.

Surprisingly, it’s still pretty easy to find parts for my B5 Audi A4 because so many parts on that car is shared with the rest of VW’s line up. And the first and second generation Audi’s weren’t that bad to work on. Parts are still easy to find for first generation NA Miata’s because there’s a cult following for those cars.

And the NA’s are no longer “cheap”

https://www.hagerty.com/valuation-tools/mazda/mx~5_miata/1990/1990-mazda-mx~5_miata

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