Buying a New Car is Stupid

[Failure 101]

36 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

I work with a kid that was looking at buying a house last summer.

He's now 22 with a 2023 Dodge 3500 factory lifted instead of a house. $1,700/mo for 7 years.

Wait he's 22 and he bought a 140,000 dollar car?

[IkeaGnome]

1 minute ago, Failure 101 said:

Wait he's 22 and he bought a 140,000 dollar car?

135,000 yeah. 

[da na]

Just now, IkeaGnome said:

135,000 yeah. 

What an idiot. 

Really went and spent $135k on a car? 

Could've put that towards something far more useful.

Spoiler

 

[Godlygamer23]

3 minutes ago, da na said:

What an idiot. 

Really went and spent $135k on a car? 

Could've put that towards something far more useful.

  Hide contents

 

And you have to buy the lens too apparently.

[da na]

1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

And you have to buy the lens too apparently.

Panasonic should give this one away for free because of how cursed it is

[dumbstats]

The comments at 2:08 about Surrey and the editor's graphic at 2:10 don't make sense to me as they are not based in any truth about Surrey and I'm disappointed LTT would put that in the video. 

 

People have been saying Surrey is dangerous for the last 30+ years, before it was because it was considered more blue collar than other cities and in the last 15 years they say Surrey is more dangerous because of the South Asian and other ethnic populations in Surrey however that is completely false and not based in any objective truth. It's crucial to address this misrepresentation, not only for factual accuracy but also to avoid perpetuating racial biases. Surrey has a crime rate that is comparable to other metro van suburbs, many years lower than Vancouver and other cities in BC and across Canada, according to official police statistics and any ACTUAL OBJECTIVE OFFICIAL STATISTICS.

The video editors used a website that references Numbeo to show that Surrey has a high crime rate but Numbeo is based ENTIRELY on user surveys rather than objective data, making it susceptible to biases and manipulation. For instance, in 2017, a single individual in Sweden was able to manipulate these statistics to falsely represent Lund as the world's most dangerous city. Similarly, misleading claims about Bradford, England, in 2022 went viral despite being contested by more reliable sources. It simply measures perceived crime which is obviously subjected to people's own biases including racial bias. 

 

Here are the actual crime statistics

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv!recreate.action?pid=3510006301&selectedNodeIds=2D1,2D3,2D5&checkedLevels=0D1,0D2&refPeriods=20180101,20220101&dimensionLayouts=layout2,layout3,layout2&vectorDisplay=false

 

To reinstate how insane the editor's claim of "Surrey on top of the list as Canada's most dangerous city" is here is 96 cities in BC that had a higher Violent Crime Severity Index in 2022 than Surrey (88.6):
Stl'atl'imx Tribal (Lillooet-Pemberton), British Columbia, municipal [59002] : 298.05
Abbotsford, British Columbia, municipal [59009] : 100.3
Sooke, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59020] : 101.55
Vancouver, British Columbia, municipal [59023] : 105.99
Victoria, British Columbia, municipal [59025] : 164.49
West Kelowna, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59027] : 89.14
Kent, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59029] : 90.27
Creston, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59036] : 242.01
Peachland, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59037] : 104.71
Duncan, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59045] : 178.13
Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59708] : 95.92
Prince George, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59710] : 220.81
Agassiz, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59721] : 223.65
Chilliwack, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59724] : 143.44
Chilliwack, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59725] : 122.86
Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59727] : 104.48
South Okanagan-Keremeos, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59730] : 103.1
Langley Township, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59731] : 90.77
Mission, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59733] : 235.85
Mission, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59734] : 132.73
South Okanagan/Oliver, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59735] : 263.7
South Okanagan/Osoyoos, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59736] : 102.68
Penticton, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59737] : 156.96
Penticton, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59738] : 161.78
Princeton, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59739] : 112.1
Summerland, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59741] : 119.71
Hope, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59749] : 141.4
Ashcroft, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59754] : 96.16
Chase, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59756] : 124.08
Enderby, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59759] : 143.68
Golden/Field, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59762] : 112.55
Kamloops, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59763] : 138.53
T'Kumlups, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59764] : 124.21
Kelowna, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59765] : 123.32
Lillooet, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59768] : 335.19
Lytton, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59770] : 278.02
Vernon, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59780] : 137.95
Vernon, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59781] : 103.8
Merritt, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59783] : 229.96
Whistler, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59784] : 156.12
Cranbrook, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59792] : 142.98
Creston, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59795] : 115.73
Columbia Valley, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59799] : 111.37
Kimberley, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59801] : 102.56
Boundary/Midway, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59803] : 92.35
Slocan Lake, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59806] : 94.26
Trail, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59811] : 133.43
Parksville, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59817] : 91.75
Chetwynd, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59821] : 262.97
Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59822] : 202.71
Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59823] : 124.48
Fraser Lake, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59824] : 99.69
Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59825] : 228.31
Fort St James, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59826] : 446.25
Mackenzie, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59830] : 177.78
Valemount, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59833] : 160.42
Vanderhoof, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59834] : 131.38
Quesnel, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59837] : 230.71
Fort St John, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59838] : 186.31
Bella Coola, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59846] : 143.48
Burns Lake, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59847] : 162.34
New Hazelton, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59848] : 262.38
Houston, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59849] : 219.2
Kitimat, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59850] : 156.75
Masset, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59852] : 163.34
Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59854] : 300.08
Daajing Giids, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59855] : 89.91
Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59859] : 400.99
Dease Lake, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59860] : 137.47
Terrace, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59861] : 153.5
Terrace, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59862] : 139.53
Smithers, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59866] : 238.51
Powell River, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59873] : 110.57
Powell River, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59874] : 90.27
University, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59879] : 97.92
Alert Bay, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59890] : 118.07
Campbell River, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59891] : 157.84
Campbell River, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59892] : 139.04
West Shore, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59894] : 94.67
Courtenay, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59895] : 137.25
Duncan, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59897] : 188.31
Nootka Sound, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59900] : 95.94
Ladysmith, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59902] : 117.94
Lake Cowichan, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59903] : 151.61
Nanaimo, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59904] : 147.07
North Cowichan, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59906] : 127.93
Port Alberni, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59908] : 219.78
Port Hardy, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59910] : 294.95
Sidney/North Saanich, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59914] : 252.95
Tofino, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59917] : 223.24
Port McNeill, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59922] : 149.25
Bella Bella, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59924] : 259.36
Williams Lake, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59927] : 330.78
Castlegar, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59928] : 152.27
Langley City, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal [59930] : 196.61
Lisims/Nass Valley, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rural [59933] : 455.34

 

 

I stopped the video to find the actual true statistics because the objectively false claim of Surrey being Canada's most dangerous city is so insanely outrageous to anyone with any common sense and I've seen this claim repeated ad nauseam on the internet so I was shocked to see it in an LTT video. Now back to watching the rest of the video for me lol 

 

Edited January 21 by dumbstats

[Beerzerker]

5 hours ago, randy123 said:

anyone who buys a g*s car is out of their minds in 2024. that being said older electric cars are not as good as newer ones since the tech has evolved so rapidly

if you buy old g*s cars or any g*s car you should be ashamed

I'm not shamed, it's comments like these that makes me want to buy a gas guzzler and just drive the shit out of it.
This thread is about buying a new car being stupid (Or not), not an anti-gas agenda which you are pushing hard here.
 

 

3 hours ago, IkeaGnome said:

I work with a kid that was looking at buying a house last summer.

He's now 22 with a 2023 Dodge 3500 factory lifted instead of a house. $1,700/mo for 7 years.

I hope it came with "Shit, Shave and Shower" facilties for that much because it sounds to me he'll be living in it if he ever gets into a financial bind.
 

[DaITguy]

Loved this video. I have the same mentality with my car that it just needs an updated center console for better bluetooth and to have CarPlay since it still runs like a champ. lol just gotta get the budget for it.

[Matcha]

This is the first Time in 7 Years of Watching LMG i finally felt the need to make an account on the forum. i love the fact they finally made a car upgrade video and id love to see more of them maybe a collab with CarAudioFabrication (A car audio Youtuber) upgrade someone’s stock radio to a new High End Hi-Fi stereo maybe sponsored By Sony ES??? All in All i feel like we should have more car tech related videos because it’s still apart of the tech world 

[Jstowe56]

Heads up for those of us with pretty strict hands free laws, there are also hands free steering wheel control kits for cars that never had an option (those that did are also pretty easy) the controls have batteries but the receiver just wires to the radio on the same circuit! These devices should work with basically any aftermarket head unit (that has an option to wire in SWC). For aforementioned cars w/out optioned swc, check your local scrapyard or used auto parts lot, chances are they have a junk car with the option! Pretty plug and play after that (aside from possible missing circuits) but hey, if you are comfortable with wiring a radio harness it shouldn't be too different!

 

I did these upgrades in my 2007 chevy cobalt, it was never optioned with steering wheel controls, a used auto parts lot had a few that were.  The total for that was just around 20$! there might be some models that need programming as the SWC runs through the BCM but it should be easy enough to program with the help of a capable local mechanic. 

 

older cars are the best!

[Jstowe56]

44 minutes ago, DaITguy said:

Loved this video. I have the same mentality with my car that it just needs an updated center console for better bluetooth and to have CarPlay since it still runs like a champ. lol just gotta get the budget for it.

while researching the upgrade, check to see if your vehicle had a factory option for steering wheel audio controls, it is worth it! i did mine because of strict hands free laws here but even then it gives you a few more options for head units without (built in) physical buttons. the ones on the wheel should be enough

 

[Matcha]

5 minutes ago, Matcha said:

This is the first Time in 7 Years of Watching LMG i finally felt the need to make an account on the forum. i love the fact they finally made a car upgrade video and id love to see more of them maybe a collab with CarAudioFabrication (A car audio Youtuber) upgrade someone’s stock radio to a new High End Hi-Fi stereo maybe sponsored By Sony ES??? All in All i feel like we should have more car tech related videos because it’s still apart of the tech world 

maybe a Crutchfield.com Collab? that would be interesting they have the best customer service i’ve ever experienced super informative documents and include parts you need for free for vehicle specific mounting 

[Zodiark1593]

5 hours ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Ultimately, it depends on your reasons for buying one or the other. While electric cars are certainly faster off the line, they lack 'soul' for lack of a better term. ICE vehicles are more interesting - one reason being you can actually hear the engine, in at least newer performance oriented vehicles, and older vehicles. In electric cars, you either have artificial sound, or you just hear whirring. Obviously you have situations where an electric might be preferable in relation to driving ease and noise. As an everyday vehicle without temperature extremes, electric cars can be quite nice, especially if you just want a peaceful commute to work, or just a peaceful commute in general. The all-wheel drive systems are also superior to ICE vehicles if you have all independent motors since you can now control each wheel fully independently from the other.

There isn’t necessarily a technical reason that you cannot achieve strong sound from an EV. From my brief time with rc cars, an electric motor, smaller than my palm, spinning above 30K rpm, with 100 amps going through, sounds astoundingly beastly (and it’s not just the straight-cut gears). 
 

Probably the biggest impediment to auditory experience, is going to be the gearbox. ICE engines require multi-speed transmissions to achieve necessary torque, so it’s generally easier to hit higher rpm, even at lower speeds. Higher rpm means more happy sound. 

 

EVs are typically designed with a single-speed gearbox, as the torque produced requires robust components, and for street-legal speeds, is perfectly fine. However, this also means that to get that happy audio out of the motor, you have to be going at pretty high speeds (the Go To Jail kind). And by that point, you’ve got tire and wind noise to contend with. 
 

So, to design an EV sport car that produces solid audio, would at least require a proper transmission, so that the motor can rev higher at slower speeds. Though drawbacks include needing a transmission that can actually handle EV torque, the addition of said expensive maintenance item, and not especially useful outside a racetrack (a Tesla Plaid can already rocket you to 60 MPH in well under 3 seconds, being able to drop a gear won’t do much of anything useful on street tires, outside of producing more motor sound). 

[Matcha]

6 minutes ago, Jstowe56 said:

while researching the upgrade, check to see if your vehicle had a factory option for steering wheel audio controls, it is worth it! i did mine because of strict hands free laws here but even then it gives you a few more options for head units without (built in) physical buttons. the ones on the wheel should be enough

 

what he said^^
when you go to crutchfield.com and input your vehicle details it’ll show you compatible units and also provide you with free mounting kits after that it’ll recommend you a couple add on modules that’ll allow the reciever and car talk to each-other for the steering wheel controls/ac controls if the ac was controlled through the factory head unit 

 

 

it’ll automatically recommend to you what’s compatible 

[ahuckphin]

It's like a throwback to Linus' old Lambo - same generation of Civic, base model too, black exterior colour, just pre-facelift vs post-facelift. 

[Failure 101]

27 minutes ago, ahuckphin said:

It's like a throwback to Linus' old Lambo - same generation of Civic, base model too, black exterior colour, just pre-facelift vs post-facelift. 

what ever happens to the civic?

[atxcyclist]

10 hours ago, randy123 said:

anyone who buys a g*s car is out of their minds in 2024. that being said older electric cars are not as good as newer ones since the tech has evolved so rapidly

if you buy old g*s cars or any g*s car you should be ashamed

 

'If you cannot spend $40k on a new EV you'd better just walk'

 

Actual delusional mindset on your part. Not only does it ignore the financial position of a significant portion of people, but it ignores the huge list of other reasons people don't buy a EV:

• Not everyone lives in a house where they have a garage and overnight charging available to them
• Not everyone lives in an area brimmed with charging stations (most of the land area in North America for sure)
• Legitimate range anxiety for people without penciled-in-to-the mile driving routines
• The United States has convoluted rules about the tax credit incentive, not all EVs qualify
• Many US states have annual registration penalties for EVs, to offset the road tax loss normally paid at pumps
• Electricity costs are volatile in some areas, and very expensive in others
• Cold weather can significantly reduce range and adds to range anxiety
• EV manufacturers like Tesla have software and other trickery to force you to get service/repairs at dealers
• Many EVs rely on software updates and some features get locked-out for future buyers, limiting resale-ability

Beyond that, someone needing a new vehicle that's mostly hassle-free, can still buy a sub-$20k USD Kia Rio with a 10-year warranty, and it would take many miles of driving to offset the extra cost of an EV in fuel savings.

 

TLDR: You don't have any business calling people, "out of their minds" for making financial decisions that work for them.

[will0hlep]

This is a brilliant video, maybe the most useful one I've watched in the last year. I'm already plotting making some upgrades to my own car.

I drive a 2016 Dacia Sandero which I absolutely adore, but the stock in car entertainment system has always left alot to be desired. It is a little slow at start up. There is no apple car play or android auto. The updates for the navigation system are expensive and time consuming. There is no option to add a reversing camera.

[will0hlep]

26 minutes ago, will0hlep said:

This is a brilliant video, maybe the most useful one I've watched in the last year. I'm already plotting making some upgrades to my own car.

I drive a 2016 Dacia Sandero which I absolutely adore, but the stock in car entertainment system has always left alot to be desired. It is a little slow at start up. There is no apple car play or android auto. The updates for the navigation system are expensive and time consuming. There is no option to add a reversing camera.

 

From what I've found since watching the video, I could add a reversing camera as well as wireless apple car play and android auto to my car for only £571.97 (hopefully less after I've done some shopping around), which is so much cheaper than replacing what is otherwise a perfectly good car.

 

On top of all that, since my car is relatively new, I won't have to drill any holes in it to install the camera, and kits exist to patch the steering wheel controls into third party in car entertainment systems.

[Bismut]

3 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

you have to be going at pretty high speeds (the Go To Jail kind)

*laughs in Autobahn*

 

3 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

So, to design an EV sport car that produces solid audio, would at least require a proper transmission, so that the motor can rev higher at slower speeds. Though drawbacks include needing a transmission that can actually handle EV torque, the addition of said expensive maintenance item, and not especially useful outside a racetrack (a Tesla Plaid can already rocket you to 60 MPH in well under 3 seconds, being able to drop a gear won’t do much of anything useful on street tires, outside of producing more motor sound). 

I guess you could build a city/Autobahn transmission, but that would introduce unecessary wheight and complexity. I would be fine with pumping in noise through the speakers, if just to make people aware of the speeds they might be driving at.

 

39 minutes ago, atxcyclist said:

Legitimate range anxiety for people without penciled-in-to-the mile driving routines

Yes, but how many people qualify for that? I used to drive about an hour each way, every day. It was high-speed roads (not the Autobahn, but up to 100kph) and an EV/hybrid would have been very neat to have. I assume that most people are driving less than that, but the .1% of people that drive significantly more on a daily basis are going to have to get an ICE car for the time being. It comes back to the classic "But sometimes!" which is not realistic; I might go drive on a track once or twice, but that does not make it reasonable to have a RS3 as a daily.

 

43 minutes ago, atxcyclist said:

• EV manufacturers like Tesla have software and other trickery to force you to get service/repairs at dealers
• Many EVs rely on software updates and some features get locked-out for future buyers, limiting resale-ability

Not exclusive to EVs, unfortunately. Right to repair is important but really being torn apart by companies like Apple and Tesla, which is why I would not buy from either (also because of Teslas lack of QC; there was a case of a brand new car not having brake pads.

[atxcyclist]

19 minutes ago, Bismut said:

Yes, but how many people qualify for that? I used to drive about an hour each way, every day. It was high-speed roads (not the Autobahn, but up to 100kph) and an EV/hybrid would have been very neat to have. I assume that most people are driving less than that, but the .1% of people that drive significantly more on a daily basis are going to have to get an ICE car for the time being. It comes back to the classic "But sometimes!" which is not realistic; I might go drive on a track once or twice, but that does not make it reasonable to have a RS3 as a daily.

 

Not exclusive to EVs, unfortunately. Right to repair is important but really being torn apart by companies like Apple and Tesla, which is why I would not buy from either (also because of Teslas lack of QC; there was a case of a brand new car not having brake pads.

Here in Texas everything is a long drive, several of our metropolitan areas are hours across during heavy traffic. There are also huge parts of this state with no fast-charging available either. It’s six hours at least of driving at 120+ km/h roads to leave the state, that would be several stops in a current EV just do get down the road.
 

The issue is that if you only have room or can afford one vehicle, and if you do go out on longer drives semi-regularly and an EV will be inconvenient or hinder that, then you’ll probably not buy one.
 

My car is a basic hatchback I bought new in 2005, the only real complaint I have currently is that I have a deteriorating left knee issue from a much prior injury, and I’m tired of driving a stick shift in the traffic here. This hasn’t been a showstopper since I can easily ride my motorcycle and usually do, unless the weather is not conducive for it and I have to drive. If my next job doesn’t take me somewhere else I’ll likely be wanting to upgrade my car, but unless EVs get into price-parity with current cheap cars, I can get a much more feature-laden internal combustion vehicle or hybrid for a much more reasonable cost.

 

As far as the right to repair, I personally work on my own vehicles, and want the option to do routine-ish things if necessary. Regardless if EVs need minimal maintenance, I want the option to do what still needs to be done without being dependent on a brand dealer network. I’d feel like a stooge having a shop do something like brake rotors/pads, that’s well within my capabilities.

[Bismut]

2 minutes ago, atxcyclist said:

Here in Texas everything is a long drive, several of our metropolitan areas are hours across during heavy traffic. There are also huge parts of this state with no fast-charging available either. It’s six hours at least of driving at 120+ km/h roads to leave the state, that would be several stops in a current EV just do get down the road.

 

The issue is that if you only have room or can afford one vehicle, and if you do go out on longer drives semi-regularly and an EV will be inconvenient or hinder that, then you’ll probably not buy one.

My condolences.

I used to live in BC and everything feld designed to be done by car, but never something multiple hours away on a daily basis? I would be surprised if it took that long just to go to the shops, and would hope that places like Walmart had EV chargers if true.

And who goes on long drives like that on a regular basis? I am in Europe and it is pretty uncommon, although I have done 20h-roadtrips and might do another 8h-stint soon-ish. Those are huge exceptions though, I would only need to drive about 1h at the very most, once a week, to reach all the places I want to. A colleague used to drive for 6h every other weekend, but that is another exception.

I get that America is very different (I have experienced it myself, having lived in BC) but so much of the housing there was single family housing that might allow you to just run an extension cord to your car and just plug it in whenever you are home, even if you did not have a dedicated spot in a garage. Is Texas very different from that?

 

10 minutes ago, atxcyclist said:

My car is a basic hatchback I bought new in 2005, the only real complaint I have currently is that I have a deteriorating left knee issue from a much prior injury, and I’m tired of driving a stick shift in the traffic here. This hasn’t been a showstopper since I can easily ride my motorcycle and usually do, unless the weather is not conducive for it and I have to drive. If my next job doesn’t take me somewhere else I’ll likely be wanting to upgrade my car, but unless EVs get into price-parity with current cheap cars, I can get a much more feature-laden internal combustion vehicle or hybrid for a much more reasonable cost.

Ah, manuals. I love them and would only want an automatic if it was a hybrid or EV, also because I do not have any issues in my left knee yet.

And yeah, hybrids are a great in-between option, especially if you have to go on long drives once or twice a month but stay within a 50-mile radius during the remainder of the time. My dream car would be a hybrid or EV Porsche estate car, since I do want/need the space and capabilities but really do not care for an ICE engine

 

14 minutes ago, atxcyclist said:

As far as the right to repair, I personally work on my own vehicles, and want the option to do routine-ish things if necessary. Regardless if EVs need minimal maintenance, I want the option to do what still needs to be done without being dependent on a brand dealer network. I’d feel like a stooge having a shop do something like brake rotors/pads, that’s well within my capabilities.

As someone who knows people that pay for tire changes/rotations: yeah, it is bonkers to take a car in for that. I do get not wanting to mess with the brakes, but changing oil, coolant or tires is really simple and something you should be able to do yourself. I also do not get the slow death of the emergency tyre, as it feels incredibly stupid to have to call AAA in case of a flat.

[WhiteAirLock]

I have a Audi A6 C5 Avant 2.5TDI V6 and last year I upgraded the old Audi 2din radio to an Sony XAV-AX5650 unit. I didn't rip my CD's yet but once I do, I won't be missing the old radio. This Sony XAV-AX5650 radio has full size HDMI connector but unfortunatly I cant get wireless Apple Car Play on my iPhone 15 Pro Max and Android Auto on my S23 Ultra and Sony 1 V. However, if I use the wired option, it works without problem. I spend like 40usd worth in my local currency for the compatible adapter from Sony but it doesn't work. However, I don't mind using the USB C cable and the HDMI feature is perfect to either run my cfw Nintendo Wii, my HDMI modded PS2 with a lot of racing games or even my Xbox Series X which I bought with water damage and managed to repair it with parts from Aliexpress.

I love it when I chill with my friends at a highway parking lot and play Fifa or other games on this stereo unit XD 

I paired my Sony Unit with Kenwood KFC-1666S speakers in the doors since the old Nokia ones were falling apart and those Kenwood ones just sound amazing.

[ahuckphin]

4 hours ago, Failure 101 said:

what ever happens to the civic?

 

 

Spoiler

can skip to 3:30 

 

[dogwitch]

its funny how some older cars and suv. get better gas mileage then some of the new stuff.

with  eco mode on my  2016  nissain rogue i get on highway a total distance of 600 miles per tank of gas.