Cars these days
The first vehicle I owned was a 1950 Chevrolet pickup (van). It has high mileage on it and was sold as a surplus vehicle from the department of transportation. Straight 6, sometimes called a flat 6. Four speed shift with clutch, mirrors, and that was about it.
Just the other day Mrs. Gramps and I agreed to a three-year lease of a new Subaru Sport. It is a four litre engine, but it makes up power through the seven-speed automatic system. I can go to manual, but that means just flipping either down or up paddles with no clutch. The vehicle is a mobile supercomputer. Actually, a whole series of computers, each doing their own thing. Adjustable cruise control--slows down if vehicle in front of you is going slower. Crash avoidance systems, rear video monitor. Sound system that would make my home stereo blush. SXM Sirius Satellite system, traveling wifi, the works. There are a number of buttons I do not know what they do and probably won't for the life of the lease. Maintenance monitoring system--much more than just a check engine light.
We decided to lease the car for a few reasons. One, the lease payment is about half of a auto loan for more than six years. Two, who's to say what newer technology will be on the highways within three years. Three we do not want to saddle the other with a loan that needs to be repaid should one of us pass on before the life of a loan is complete. This is the third lease we have gone for, actually.
Amazing what they put in as standard equipment these days.
We did look at an EV. Distance is still a problem for us, but as I said, in the next three years the technology might have that solved.
Who is driving what? How has your vehicle exceeded the first vehicle you have owned? Are you discovering something new about the vehicle you never new it had?
Just the other day Mrs. Gramps and I agreed to a three-year lease of a new Subaru Sport. It is a four litre engine, but it makes up power through the seven-speed automatic system. I can go to manual, but that means just flipping either down or up paddles with no clutch. The vehicle is a mobile supercomputer. Actually, a whole series of computers, each doing their own thing. Adjustable cruise control--slows down if vehicle in front of you is going slower. Crash avoidance systems, rear video monitor. Sound system that would make my home stereo blush. SXM Sirius Satellite system, traveling wifi, the works. There are a number of buttons I do not know what they do and probably won't for the life of the lease. Maintenance monitoring system--much more than just a check engine light.
We decided to lease the car for a few reasons. One, the lease payment is about half of a auto loan for more than six years. Two, who's to say what newer technology will be on the highways within three years. Three we do not want to saddle the other with a loan that needs to be repaid should one of us pass on before the life of a loan is complete. This is the third lease we have gone for, actually.
Amazing what they put in as standard equipment these days.
We did look at an EV. Distance is still a problem for us, but as I said, in the next three years the technology might have that solved.
Who is driving what? How has your vehicle exceeded the first vehicle you have owned? Are you discovering something new about the vehicle you never new it had?
Comments
In our area, the streets are so packed that you can rarely count on being able to park outside your own house and most houses don't have off-street parking. So how do you charge a car in that situation?
I guess that if you could charge a car in the same time as you can fill up with petrol, I might look at EV. At the moment, though, it's a no.
We really like it.
We travel Bristol to Manchester quite regularly. We have to stop twice to charge up. It takes half an hour each stop. Which is a plus as far as I'm concerned because it makes my husband take a break, which he never would before!
We charge up outside our house, overnight, on the drive. It costs us very little. We spent £180 all told on electricity April 25 to April 26 charging it up.
I also like never having to go to the petrol station!
We lease the car as there's no way we could have afforded to buy a new one. But we have leased cars for 10 years now and just get a new one every 3 years. We get the full maintenance package including tyres. So there is nothing else to pay (apart from insurance). That's really good for us as we are on quite a low fixed income.
Later this year we will be looking to change cars and I've wondered if leasing was worth exploring.
1. Purchase the vehicle as a used car from the same dealer at a residual price determined at the the the original lease was signed.
2. Sell the vehicle outright, pay the residual amount to the dealer, and keep any remaining profit.
3. Trade the vehicle in for a newly leased vehicle.
4. Return the car to the dealership and walk away.
A couple of nice things about this arrangement are: (1) typically, leases require an annual mileage cap (if you drive more than that allotment of miles, you have to pay a surcharge), but under a lease-purchase arrangement, the only scenario that requires you to pay any mileage overages is #4. (2) There's a healthy tax savings, because you're only taxed on the residual purchase price instead of the value of the car at the signing of the lease.
We'd never done any kind of auto lease before this one, so it's a new experience, and we'll see how it goes.
My first car was a 1988 Hyundai Excel. It had an AM radio, and oddly, a rudimentary sunroof, but nothing else. Honda made the engine, and maybe the transmission(?), and Hyundai made the rest. My second car was a 1985 Volvo 240 DL. Burnt orange with a tan interior. AM/FM radio, but no sunroof, and to this day my second favorite car purchase. My next car was a Jeep Cherokee Sport, followed by consecutive Dodge Caravans while the kids were growing up. My favorite car purchase was two vehicles ago -- a 2017 VW Passat with what they called the entertainment package, which was essentially much better CD player/radio and speakers than the other models. It also had a sunroof, and a tan leather interior. I don't think I'll ever have a nicer, better car than that. Sadly, it dropped its transmission a year ago, and I couldn't justify the $5500 replacement. It's still sitting in the back of my driveway, which is dumb, but there it is. I now have a 2024 VW Taos. Bought it new from the dealer last month. They had a few 2024s arrive late in '24, sit through '25, and go on deep discount in 2026. Only issue with it was that as a 2024 model year in 2026, I had to pay used car financing rates. Maybe I'm a VW guy, now. In high school, all I wanted was a 2-door Saab Turbo (I was a bit of an odd duck), but for some reason I never tried to get a Saab. I've never been "into" cars. They're necessary here, though.
Not every new car or even new EV has that sort of thing. Mine isn't quite new (2021) but apart from the essential EV bits (regen braking) there is very little by way of visible electronics - no touch screen, no app, no cruise control, lane keeping, cameras, and nothing to make the tin foil hatted paranoid about it being disabled remotely. I think it has ABS. Mostly it just does standard motorised vehicle things with standard motorised vehicle controls. It even has a manual handbrake. It also, despite being a minivan, will go like the clappers if you take it out of eco mode (which I never do).
As far as the driver alert system is concerned, I believe the previous car tracked how many times it crossed the center line without signaling. It only went off once that I recall, and it was because I had passed a number of cars on the freeway without signaling. It did not like that. Son had told me about the feature later.
When we looked at the EV, it could almost get us across the state during the warm months, but its mileage is sharply reduced during the winter. It would put us in the middle of nowhere if we had to recharge. But the distance is ever increasing on them. I think in three years it might not be a problem.
Well, you asked... :-)
I have a 21 year-old Skoda Fabia 'estate' (in this case that means it has a bit of a boot / trunk - the 'saloon' version has a tiny luggage space). It's a 3-cyl 1.4 diesel. If I drive slowly (about 55mph) and the weather is warm-ish I can get 90 mpg out of it on a run - for a UK gallon, 4.5 litres.
It has 170,000 miles on it. The first car I owned - a 1971 Morris Minor van - was absolutely shot at 19 years old and 100,000 miles, and used to burn / drip a full sump of oil in 500 miles, and after three oil changes needed a head gasket changing too. After that, anything which works and which is good on fuel is OK by me. But I am not at all well-placed for changing to new tech, EVs and all that - this car strikes me as modern, because it has a CD player....and a fuel economy read-out :-)
All our cars have been automatics as Mrs Rogue refuses to drive a manual.
The main difference that I appreciate is that the driving position is much higher and kinder to my back and I can get my bike into it easily. It has cruise control which I love but Mrs Rogue hates. Another difference is that my phone talks to it so I can listen to downloads and have conversations whereas the Astra only had a CD player and the driving school cars had cassette players.
Technologically I'm sure the current car is way more advanced than the old ones but I don't notice - I just get in and drive. It is irritating that there is no spare wheel, though.
Yes, my niece has one, and loves it.
My first car was a Renault 4, the one with a horizontal gear lever sticking out from the dash board. Characterful car!
In the previous car, I could tell the feature would pull against where I wanted to place the car in the lane. I tend to be just a little right of center. The car wanted to be right on center.
The newer car does not seem want to countermand where I tend to naturally place the car, just as long as it stays in the lane and I am controlling the wheel.
After that, I had a string of Toyotas. Each of them lasted ten-ish years. 1981 Supra, 1993 Tercel, 2004 Matrix (bright yellow!), 2016 Corolla. They were all manual transmissions. Loved having that control especially on the Interstate where I could downshift to get away from the wackadoodle drivers.
Now I have a sapphire blue Lincoln Corsair with all the safety features that were available six years ago. The main reason I got it, though, was the heated rear seats for my mom. She was always cold and she deserved that comfort! My very favorite car ever, even though it's an automatic!