What drives you? NPF Cars

[synkr0nized]

Having moved on from the student life last year into a paying job like a real adult finally, I want to likewise upgrade from my 18-19 year old car to a new one. But I have not created this thread to fish for car ideas. I have been doing a lot of reading on site's like Edmund's, KBB, and Autotrader as well as playing with configuration tools on manufacturers' websites. I have read buying guides and "top 10" lists for categories such as sedans, high MPG hybrids, and affordable sports cars.

I thought it might be a little fun to see what cars NPF likes and what cars NPF actually drives or plans on driving in the near future.

For example, I am really excited to see that plug-in cars are gaining more traction. While I currently would not have confidence in a long trip, I can't help but feel optimistic about this being a reality in coming years. From luxury options like Tesla through plug-in/electric versions of typical sedans and electric-specific vehicles (some getting hundred of miles per charge), there certainly is a growing market for non-gas consumer travel. Likewise, hybrids are a growing market -- the Prius is still a strong choice, but the Accord, Fusion, and other newcomers to the hybrid space mesh popular 4-door designs with high fuel efficiency and affordability.


Also, 2015 models are hitting dealerships (and consumers' garages from factory direct orders). The 50th anniversary Mustangs have adopted a more European styling to coincide with increased sales aims worldwide (the Pony car's fans appear to be rather split on the trim design vs 2014), and 2015 Challengers are really rockin' the classic American muscle look. Hyundai's gotten a lot of attention with their Genesis coupe, and some luxury cars (I consider that to include most of BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc.) also have gotten design updates.



So, NPF, what are you driving? What would you like to be driving? Do you get into aftermarket tweaking or body modifications? What drives you, emotionally and literally?

Do you go for MPG? For technical features and options? Sound system? Body shape and design? Resale value? Brand reliability?


For me, the features available in the cabin hold a lot of weight, and while I am really attracted to high MPG I also am willing to admit that body style plays an important role for me. I don't want the sensible car choice to ignore the fun car choice and am trying to find a happy medium.

Lucky for me, I am going from a 1996 Accord, so MPG and technology and features in almost anything are improvements.

[Terex4]

I drive a TARDIS-blue 2008 Corolla S. What attracted me to it was the color, shape, sunroof, and the good things I've heard about these cars (I don't know anything about cars on my own :/) I didn't know it had heated seats until after I bought it and I was wondering why my butt was so warm, but I'm in love!

I like that it has pretty good gas mileage while having enough oomph to make it fun to drive.

Oh yeah, as to what I want to drive, I really, really want a motorcycle.

[phil_]

I look for <200,000 miles and <$3,000. Then I drive it until it literally and-not-figuratively-thank-you-internet bursts into flames.

I like that the CD player works in my current Bonneville. Tape deck in my last car died years before the engine burst into flames.

As far as what I want to drive, I have no idea. Never having money and all that makes me terrible at imagining spending it. If I ever have a big boy job, I'll probably just keep buying twenty-year-old cars to save on insurance and taxes.

[Satan's Onion]

Over ten years ago, my grandfather was in the market for a new car, so he bought a Prius. I don't think it was nearly so much about any exciting new advances in car technology as much as it was the fact that at the time, gas prices were pretty fuckin' high, and my grandfather was nothing if not a huge cheapskate fiscally savvy. We've gotten over a decade of extremely heavy use out of ours, at staggeringly fantastic gas mileage--as in, we've rolled over the odometer at least once--and my mother in particular loves driving it. If you can find one for a reasonable price (used, maybe, to limit the environmental damage done from manufacturing these things), they're great little everyday workhorse cars.

[rpgdemon]

I drive an old 2003 minivan, and I like it. I don't need much to be happy. I bought a tape-deck to 3.5mm headphone jack thingy, and that is nice to have. :)

Edit: Oh yeah, and Terex, please do not drive a motorcycle. :( They are super dangerous, even if you are a perfect driver. Seeing the damage that gets done to motorcycle drivers makes me terrified for them.

[Flarecobra]

I drive a silver 2004 Pontiac grand prix. Most complex thing on it is the clock on the radio.

As for what I'd love to drive... well it depends on what's available, and what I'll be driving.

[Overcast]

Despite being 23 I have yet to get my driver's license. Were I though I'd prolly be just like phil.

[Terex4]

Oh yeah, and Terex, please do not drive a motorcycle. :( They are super dangerous, even if you are a perfect driver. Seeing the damage that gets done to motorcycle drivers makes me terrified for them.
I appreciate the concern :) It's hard to resist the allure of just how fun and liberating they are though.

[mauve]

2007 Toyota Yaris, hatchback, two door, Bayou Blue. I got it from my parents back when I was in college, and I may or may not have picked out the color based solely on the concepts that A) I liked blue and B) the name of the color reminded me of the restaurant in of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (https://disneyland.disney.go.com/dining/disneyland/blue-bayou-restaurant/).

It's been a pretty reliable little car and it's surprisingly fun to drive.

[Ryong]

I walk and ride the bus anywhere I have to go.

It helps that anywhere I'd want to go in my city is within a 5km range.

I'm 23 and have no driving license. Heck, I don't know how to ride a bike.

[shiney]

2012 Ford Fusion, black with color sparklies. It's a fun car, that was bought out of necessity, when my 2004 Focus unexpectedly shat its transmission. It gets around 28 MPG. It has seats on the inside. Wheels beneath that it rolls on, stuff like that.

[pochercoaster]

2004 3 series convertible BMW. (Technically Funka's car.)

The few times I've driven it it was very comfortable and easy to maneuver (I'm not an experienced driver). It also has ass warmers which is nice, and having a convertible in Las Vegas is pretty cool too. I think the gas mileage is somewhere around 28mpg.

I like that it's compact, and if/when I get my own car some day I want it to be small just because small cars are easier to park and such. (Again, I'm a shitty driver.)

However, I guess due to age the car has taken to exploding a lot in the last two years, which has led to some expensive car repairs. If/when I get my own car I'm not going to get something with expensive replacement parts because fuck that.

In my wildest dreams, all major american cities would have subways and trains and busses that ran frequently, as that's been my primary mode of transportation for most of my life. Moving from the greater toronto area to las vegas was quite a shock, public-transportation wise. :( I take the bus for about half the week currently, and in particular one notorious bus route which provides me with an entertaining freakshow/thrill ride, as people pull knives on each other, get thrown off the bus for masturbating, introduce me to all kinds of interesting odors, help me practice tuning out distraction, etc.

[McTahr]

2010 blue Kawasaki Ninja 250R.

Drivin's for suckers.

[Revising Ocelot]

26. Driving license. No car.

I'd probably just end up "liberating" all wing-mirrors in the county, anyway.

[synkr0nized]

2012 Ford Fusion, black with color sparklies. It's a fun car, that was bought out of necessity, when my 2004 Focus unexpectedly shat its transmission. It gets around 28 MPG. It has seats on the inside. Wheels beneath that it rolls on, stuff like that.

How's the get-up-and-go of the car? I've heard it's kind of boring/shitty to accelerate from 0, but that may have been the hybrid version.

[PyrosNine]

PYROS DRIVES THIS:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4241108/smart-fortwo-06.jpg

2008 Cabrio Fortwo. Sold "like new" as the previous owner bought it new, and then traded it in at a local Toyota Dealer. Way less than 20,000 miles, Automatic Manual, 2 seats, stereo system, heated seats.

It's quite possibly my favorite car to drive. Sure, it's tiny, but parking, squeezing through traffic, and doing three point turns are crazy easy. And to any who say it's a deathtrap, I've been through some shit in this car and I don't even have a scratch or bruise on me. As long as you're not driving 75 miles per hour into a concrete wall, you'll be fine. It turns heads, it is one of five driven Smart Cars in the tri-county area, and I get checkups at the Mercedes Benz dealership alongside rich old people and their Benz's.

I've been away for a while because of 2 weeks from hell last month, wherein my little baby was smashed into by some high schooler girl trying to pull into a McDonalds. Since it was their fault, and I had right of way, I didn't have to pay for nothing, but my Smart was in the shop for three weeks!

Apparently Smart Cars are mostly modular, and it's a simple matter of getting the parts and snapping them on, but they have to get the parts by mail from the local warehouse, which was in Tennessee, so it took awhile. In the meantime, i drove a Chevy Spark LTZ with all the trimmings, which was a nice bit of class in an otherwise completely stressful period of time, but it was no smart car!

My car gets 33 MPG, and 43 MPG on the highway, assuming I can control my lead foot.

Now I just need a job to finish paying it off on my own and maybe upgrade to an electric (boogie woogie woogie).

[lazy man]

2010 Honda Accord, black, with black leather seats (aw yeah). Really nice at $18k and 30k miles on it. Getting it kinda made me broke on top of my student loans, but it's miles better than the beat up old '97 Accord I had before. Poor thing's driver side window broke before I had to give it up, but it was still driving even then.

Gas mileage is a little better than the old one at 25+ mpg, it's definitely not terrible on the wallet (I keep forgetting to do the math, but I can go about 400 miles before refilling, which usually amounts to 2 weeks of driving for me).

[shiney]

How's the get-up-and-go of the car? I've heard it's kind of boring/shitty to accelerate from 0, but that may have been the hybrid version.

Yes its acceleration is god awful and obnoxious, but it's a smooth ride otherwise. I have been enjoying it. Heated seats when it starts getting cold doesn't hurt either.

[Nikose Tyris]

1998 Dodge Van. Steel body, Propane alt fuel. Had to replace the starter, the alternator, and a firing pin in the last 6 months. However, all told I spent $750 on the Van, and less than $800 on repairs, and she's running fine again.

Propane needs to get re-certified though, and that'll be some money.

[Disclaimer: I own it but don't personally drive it. Excellent work van and moving van, though. Everything's accessible for easy repairs too. Starting to love flat nosed vans.]

[synkr0nized]

It was nice to read that I am not the only one driving an older car into the ground. But I must admit I was pretty happy to take up the opportunity to look at new and fairly well equipped vehicles.

I have to wait 6-8 weeks for my car to come in (no dealers in a 200 mile radius had the color I wanted without the various expensive options -- e.g. sunroof -- I didn't want). It's like torture to have the printout of the order sitting in my place next to the color brochure but not to have the car itself sitting in my parking spot.

So here's to my trusty '96 continuing to pull its weight like a champ. Honestly can't say enough good things about it. Honda made'em solid.


All told the car shopping experience was... interesting. Online pricing didn't go as smoothly and haggle-free as advertised, but that might have been an effect of going after a slightly more niche, new 2015 market. I advise any of you who do plan to shop for a new car soon to take advantage of the KBB, Edmund's, TrueCar, and similar sites' fair price estimates. If you know what invoice costs are and what a reasonable deal is for your area, you can make a good effort in negotiating. Just don't ever pay MSRP!

---------- Post added at 02:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:51 AM ----------

Something I noticed is that I guess there is a growing market for, like, "subcompact" cars and the like, with these little piece-of-shits on wheels.

My boss and I had a Chevy Spark as our rental car during our trip last week, and we joked that it was a moped with a small, cheap car chassis stuck around it. The dials and the like of the car were literally a piece that was attached to the top of the steering wheel rather than embedded in the dash, and it struggled to make 30 mph in a reasonable time. While out on the road, we noticed other, similar-looking cars of other makes, and I've seen that there is a whole category for these smaller, gas-sipping little punch lines on car review sites. I'm not usually one to make fun of anyone's choice of vehicle, but this category/type of car really looks to me like vehicles people only have due to budget or something, not by any real choice.

Maybe I'm wrong, though -- maybe there's a genuine interest in these cars beyond low sticker price.

[Overcast]

I kinda want to get one specifically to do the top gear thing where they got a fuckton of them and used them to play a rudimentary game of soccer with a rather large ball.

[Solid Snake]

2013 Hyundai Elantra.
Her name is Arianna.
She's beautiful.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

2006 Hyundai Elantra.

The older but proven sister of Snake's car

[Intern Nin]

A green 200X Ford Focus for the man born in the year of the rabbit (and with really noticeble ADHD).

Also occasionally riding a red 2008 Kymco People S 200, nicknamed Scooty Puff Jr., because I enjoy looking like a dork when I go to pick up groceries.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

'91 toyota camry. Looks like shit due to the accident I got into a while back in my final year of college. It runs like a champ even after destroying the other car and that's all that matters. Old car tough.

Have an '89 toyota pickup that I'm slowly getting into working order again. Just have to find a good condition head for the gasket and should be in the green.