What makes this your car?
We were until recently a one car household (my wife and I both work from home). So I drove a 2019 Toyota Camry. Why? Because that’s what my wife wanted.
My sister got a new car so I bought her old one off of her so I could have a backup on the rare times we needed two. It’s a 2012 Ford Fiesta. Why? Because it was cheap ($2k) and it gets good gas mileage. I also like the car because I’m a minimalist at heart. It’s very simple and I like that.
Got a few but winter time is my P2 Volvo XC90. Why? V8 go brrr
Ford ranger - it was $500
Fuckin ford ranger
I drive a 2018 Subaru Forester. I got it because I wanted a SUV with AWD and a turbo charger. My previous vehicle was a Camaro, and while I loved driving it, having a RWD car in the winter sucks, and I had recently bought a house, so having a vehicle that can carry more than just groceries made sense.
I was driving the Camaro around Xmas time and there was a light dusting of snow on the highway. I hit a patch of it and started to fish tail, and that scared the hell out of me, so I traded it for the Forester the following fall. The Forester has handled any conditions I’ve come across so far like a champ, including heavy rain, snow, ice, and muddy hillsides.
Trading the Camaro in and getting the Forester marked the transition (in my mind) from being a young adult, to becoming an older, more sensible one. I was driving home from work one day, and a Camaro passed me on the highway. I couldn’t help but sigh and ask myself why I had to get old. The Forester is a good vehicle and very nice (got the XT Touring package), but the Camaro was way more fun to drive, and I still miss it. I’d like to get another sports car in the future, but we’ll see if that happens.
Tires make all the difference. Both the size/proportion and materials.
I’ve had RWD cars that were beasts in the snow (East Coast ice no less) because they were near perfect weight distribution and had the best winter tires on the market (Nokian).
I’ve had AWD cars that sucked, because the car was poorly balanced, the tire sidewall was too small (so the tire can’t flex much), entry level winter tires (rubber was harder), and stupid electronic traction control that tried to out think the driver but just got in the way.
RWD will still usually be more challenging to drive than AWD (I think even more so with RWD cars post 2000), though some AWD systems can be unpredictable. Part of the issue with newer RWD cars is the tire sizes - it can be hard to get proper winter tires (plus they cost a lot). I’ve seen some cars for which winter tires didn’t exist, or were exorbitantly expensive to get (it’s assumed by both car and tire manufacturers that these cars won’t be driven in snow).
Fortunately Subaru uses a dead simple AWD system (basically open diffs at each end) - the most complex thing they do is use the brakes for traction control/torque distribution, which is less likely (In my experience) to get in the way than things like electronic diffs (can you tell I’m a fan of Subaru AWD?).
I’ve driven RWD sports cars in the snow with ease. Tires are aboslutely everything. People tend to ignore their tires for WAY too long before getting them replaced, and/or get shitty all seasons that suck in every condition possible.
The trend of “I need AWD SUV because snow” terrifies me because people are buying bigger, heavier, and worse handling cars when they really just need better tires. A FWD sedan with good tires will do WAY better than an AWD SUV with crappy tires. The only upside is people will tend to put better tires on their SUV because it’s more expensive than their shitty sports car/sedan.
No car - don’t need nor want one.
2018 Kia Soul.
I like boxy cars, they’re big on the inside. And the small boxy ones don’t feel small.
I had a 2005 Honda Element for many years, and it just started falling apart. The car itself was worth less than the fix, so I got rid of it, but I got used to no car payment, so I decided I wouldn’t pay more than $300/month. Found this car for 10k. Perfect.
I like it. It’s slow to gain speed, but I’m not trying to out speed anyone. It also fits my giant 112lb dog no problem. It’s comfy, and though most would now think it’s old tech-wise, it was a major improvement in tech compared to my previous car.
2021 Chevy Bolt. Traded in a 1999 beater for it during the gas pipeline crisis. It’s a wonderful, simple, cheap car. I haven’t had any issues with it - it just gets the job done. I charge it for free at work every week or two, so I don’t even have to pay for fuel. I figure I’m gonna drive it til the bottom rusts through or the batteries die.
Good luck on both. My 2017 bolt has 321,000kms on it, driven in very rough winters and charged every day in cold weather, every other day in summer. Still gets 450kms in the summer. Still doesn’t have rust anywhere on it. No repairs, just maintenance (minus one front spring). My daughter’s likely taking it once she gets her license in 2 years.
I don’t. I tried for the license but it’s too hard and the instructor is an asshole. I hate the lack of control and pressure. I will never drive and that limits my life. We have a car at home but nobody uses it due nobody having a driving license. The times I have to go on early shift my uncle, angry, drives me to my job. I wish I would get fired already so I don’t have to deal with this pressure
Do you live in America or do you live in one of the places where they actually require you to be a skilled and competent driver before you can drive?
I don’t live in America
Is a bicycle an option to get to work? I’m guessing there’s no bus option nearby or running early enough to be of use to you.
I use my bike to get around my entire city. I even built a cargo trailer for picking stuff up. It’s not the norm, but I get to places I need to be in roughly the same time I would had I driven.
Well
It’s not, it’s 2 towns far and it’s cold at 5 am
Our family car is a Nissan Murano. One of the few 5 seaters wide enough to fit 3 car seats. I also have a LWB Nissan titan that I love to death, but is always giving me shit, and I just don’t utilize enough to justify keeping. Once I get what ever the hell is currently wrong with it it’s getting sold :(
Our family car is a 2005 Acura MDX. Best snow car I’ve ever driven, seats 7. Got it in 2013 with 68k miles. Now has 152k, only work I’ve had to do to it is routine maintenance. That did include the timing belt replacement and I wish every motor was engineered like that one.
We got it because of the “seats 7”, known good safety and AWD performance, and low mileage. The price was right and it remains one of my favorite purchases yet. It’s not very efficient but it’s powerful as hell which is really nice in the Colorado mountains.
Seems like I remember fitting a queen size mattress flat across in the back of mine… May be misremembering, but it was a great vehicle overall. Until the transmission choked up on the freeway and I couldn’t trust it not suddenly breaking down on me.
Maybe a double, but I doubt a queen.
My 2005 highlander has cost me nothing but tires, fuel and batteries. Oh, and a serpentine belt. Very reliable and gas efficient and doubles as a bit of a truck as needed. I doubt I’ll do this well on my next vehicle.
Daily: 2018 2.5 Outback. It’s nice, comfy, reliable, and overall an amazing daily driver.
Fun car: 1994 Mazda Miata. It’s a Miata.
It’s a Miata
'Nuff said (I’m only slightly jealous). A car that’s undetappreciated by too many gear heads. It’s a modern version of a 1960’s Lotus. Love it
It’s a Miata.
Let’s go!
1994 Miata
I wrecked my car recently and this might be the new one if I can’t fix it. Did you get a 94 for the reasons I think you got a 94?
94-97 have the bigger 1.8 motor which I wanted. Coincidentally the 94 was the first year to switch to the new freon for the AC system so if I need to get it recharged (which I do) I don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for ancient AC that won’t even work well.
The guy I bought it from had 4 Miatas and actually prefers the 1.6 since you have to work harder for the speed, but the car is slow enough as is. It doesn’t need to be any slower.
If I’m not mistaken, the 94 is also the only year to have the 1.8 but still using OBD rather than OBDII, which supposedly makes it easier to slap a turbo in.
Preferring the slower version is wild, haha. I’ll be moving from a VQ platform so losing ~200HP is going to be an adjustment.
Just wanted to pop in and say I have a 95 with the 1.8; It’s OBD1.
Interesting! Any idea if it’s uncommon or anything? From what I’d read (which is admittedly not a lot), 95 is when they’d switched to OBDII, but maybe they made the change in the middle of the production cycle?
I think 96 was the first model year that had it. But the OBD2 mandate took effect in 1995 (for the 96 model year).
That said I’m not turboing the car and it currently has a check engine light so obd2 would be really nice right now.
Currently no car and relieved I don’t need one any more. Before that - Suzuki Vitara. As far as new cars went in 2019, it was the best choice for a small AWD SUV.
1999 Ford F350 crew cab, long box diesel. I sometimes need to tow a heavy trailer and turns out most rental trucks don’t allow towing, getting them scratched or any of the other reasons to own a truck. I have had it for about 15 years and put maybe 40k miles on it, so it isn’t worth having any other car. Besides that 7.3 is the best engine Ford ever made.
2001 Toyota MR2 Spyder. Bone stock except for a LSD I dropped in when a bearing grenaded in the transaxle. It was my daily driver for a long time.
2003 Subaru WRX. It was my daily before the MR2, but I blew the head gaskets around 200k miles and got the MR2 while I rebuilt it. It’s now lifted, running a 2.5l ej25 with the stock 2.0l heads. It’s become my fun car that I use to tow stuff with and take out when the snow makes the 2-seater convertible impractical.
But now we mostly drive my girlfriends 2022 Honda Accord Hybrid. It’s bare bones low end model, but she likes it.
Excellent taste. I had a silver bugeye, one of the prettiest cars ever in my opinion. Was my first actually fast car. Those MR2s are rad as well, poor man’s Elise. I’m a Miata driver, they feel like kin.
