A new car...

[vivalarevolución]

Or get a Mazda 3 but don't fall for the 1.6L engine, it's underpowered.

We don't have a 1.6L in the Mazda 3 in these parts. Just a 2.0 and 2.5. But the Mazda 3 is one of the best deals on wheels, in my opinion.

[Half-Saint]

Or get a Mazda 3 but don't fall for the 1.6L engine, it's underpowered.

We don't have a 1.6L in the Mazda 3 in these parts. Just a 2.0 and 2.5. But the Mazda 3 is one of the best deals on wheels, in my opinion.

Looks like that's an Euro thing but I agree on the rest

[vivalarevolución]

Or get a Mazda 3 but don't fall for the 1.6L engine, it's underpowered.

We don't have a 1.6L in the Mazda 3 in these parts. Just a 2.0 and 2.5. But the Mazda 3 is one of the best deals on wheels, in my opinion.

Looks like that's an Euro thing but I agree on the rest

I was this close to buying one but I found the interior dimensions to be a little small for me.

[vivalarevolución]

Well, looks I got a Mazda CX-5 in the end. Traded in my truck for the little CX-5 and feel good about the decision already. Feels like a go kart in comparison to the truck. Not sure what is more American: owning a truck or owning a compact SUV. I would have just bought a wagon if the US automobile market actually had more wagons than German luxury vehicles.

Now if the Mazda6 wagon was available in the USA, I would have bought that baby in an instant: https://www.autoblog.com/2018/03/06/201 ... forbidden/

04-2018-mazda6-wagon-geneva-1.jpg (254.82 KiB) Viewed 7735 times

[vivalarevolución]

Also, could anybody tell me where this guy parked his car? And what sort of quality time are we talking about here?

Screenshot at 2018-06-03 17-53-40.png (1.26 MiB) Viewed 7731 times

[chuckdee]

That's actually my choice that I'm considering. I have a 6, but giving that to my daughter, and trying to see if I should get a more recent 6 or a CX-5. I wasn't considering a crossover, as I like sitting low to the ground, but the CX-5 seems like a good compromise.

As far as purchasing, I've gotten to where the only dealership I shop is CarMax. Done it for my last two cars, and those were two of the most low-pressure buys I've ever experienced. Their financing is pretty good too.

[XMIT]

Obligatory from Hacker News today:

https://jalopnik.com/heres-why-carmax-m ... 1826415410

The car market is an efficient market, so, my read of this article is that people assign a value of about $1500 to convenience in buying a used car.

We just got rid of our Mazda5. It's a great idea but somewhat poorly executed with an unbalanced engine, insufficient noise deadening, and an air conditioner that cannot keep up with summer in Texas. After about 20 hours of trial and effort we failed to find a way to seat all five of us in a way that was comfortable regardless of who was driving.

These days, I don't buy a car unless I can pay cash. I'm done with financing.

[fohat]

I have bought a couple of cars using a "buyer" to whom I paid about $350 and I feel like he saved me much more than that.

[Blaise170]

I've never understood the infatuation with giant gas guzzling SUVs and trucks in the US. I have always driven sedans and have no plans to ever change that. I have driven SUVs, crossovers, trucks, pickups, cargo vans, etc and they all feel unrefined and hard to move. I appreciate the agility of smaller cars.

[002]

I scoff at big utes / pickups too, but never to my friends who have them in case I need to do a run to the garbage dump or pick up some white-goods

[green-squid]

Recently, I have been thinking about what car will I get once I'm old enough to drive. The new cars are nice with their parking cameras on the back, but they just don't have that cool factor (besides Tesla, but nobody can afford that!). So I began thinking about old cars. Hungary still has many old cars from Socialism that are still on the road, and some of them are pretty cool in my opinion.

One of them is probably very familiar to many users here, the Trabant (or Trabi)! While it's quite the definition of a gas-guzzler, my plan has never been to drive one with a gasoline engine, screw that! I would take out the engine (or just get one without an engine, I saw one on a local used site for a mere $177 for example, though I'm sure I could just get one from a scrapyard cheaper), restore it (with some help), and put an electric engine in it! How cool is that? Very cool. And it also has a cassette player, something you just can't get on new cars! It's a big plus.

I would definitely paint it green or some other cool color. The original colors (light blue, cream, white) of paint are chipping away on the old ones I see on the road.



What do you think?

[Wodan]

How are you going to get that construction road legal?
Not sure what the requirements are in Hungary but you can't just put four screwdriver motors into a Trabbi and participate in traffic in Germany.

Tbh in todays traffic that car will simply disintegrate upon contact with a modern car and it will take days to find all the pieces of your corpse.

Just get 2005 VW Golf Diesel

[wobbled]

I think engine swaps and bodywork resprays are much more complicated and expensive than you realize, but I admire your appreciation for older cars.
Do your research is all

[mike52787]

Recently, I have been thinking about what car will I get once I'm old enough to drive. The new cars are nice with their parking cameras on the back, but they just don't have that cool factor (besides Tesla, but nobody can afford that!). So I began thinking about old cars. Hungary still has many old cars from Socialism that are still on the road, and some of them are pretty cool in my opinion.

One of them is probably very familiar to many users here, the Trabant (or Trabi)! While it's quite the definition of a gas-guzzler, my plan has never been to drive one with a gasoline engine, screw that! I would take out the engine (or just get one without an engine, I saw one on a local used site for a mere $177 for example, though I'm sure I could just get one from a scrapyard cheaper), restore it (with some help), and put an electric engine in it! How cool is that? Very cool. And it also has a cassette player, something you just can't get on new cars! It's a big plus.

I would definitely paint it green or some other cool color. The original colors (light blue, cream, white) of paint are chipping away on the old ones I see on the road.

snip
What do you think?

from what i've heard, the trabant is one of the worst production cars ever made, and has an incredibly high number of flaws which make in unusable as a daily driver. As a fun second car... sure. Your electric motor idea would only get you so far, as the original engine is only one of the many issues.


Really I'm in a similar situation to you, I need to buy a car soon. I feel like a total freeloader driving my parents cars

[green-squid]

I think engine swaps and bodywork resprays are much more complicated and expensive than you realize, but I admire your appreciation for older cars.
Do your research is all

I understand. Car restoration is in a whole different league compared to electronic things.

This will happen far in the future, like 4-5 years in the future, when I'm a big boy!

[green-squid]

How are you going to get that construction road legal?
Not sure what the requirements are in Hungary but you can't just put four screwdriver motors into a Trabbi and participate in traffic in Germany.

Tbh in todays traffic that car will simply disintegrate upon contact with a modern car and it will take days to find all the pieces of your corpse.

Then what do you say to this?

On a more serious note, I think I'll let one of these types of companies take care of an electrification instead of doing it myself . I hope there will be more of these buisnesses popping up in Europe.

Just get 2005 VW Golf Diesel

Sorry but that automobile looks very generic, AND it's got a diesel engine!

[Blaise170]

I'd probably go with a vintage Porsche or Maserati if I were going to do an electric conversion. But instead, I'll probably get a Tesla for my next car, hopefully I can afford a P100D by the time I drive my Lexus into the ground.

[green-squid]

I'd probably go with a vintage Porsche or Maserati if I were going to do an electric conversion. But instead, I'll probably get a Tesla for my next car, hopefully I can afford a P100D by the time I drive my Lexus into the ground.

I think trabants deserve electric conversions way more, since their original engines were horrible (but you couldn't do better in the GDR). And they are very iconic and cheap. But they are not my only choices, there are also Lada cars, you can also still see them on the road! I saw this one in April, but I saw a blue one yesterday when I was going home from the flea market


I hope you can get that Tesla one day! But aren't Lexus cars expensive? Just sell that and get your tesla!

[XMIT]

When it comes to big SUVs, either go big or don't go at all.

Interestingly enough, we do both.

Hard to imagine two more different vehicles: electric Leaf and diesel Excursion.

IMG_20180529_082415.jpg (943.86 KiB) Viewed 7606 times

I love the Leaf as a daily driver, but when it comes to yard waste or other utility work, the one on the right comes in handy. I feel like this picture is a metaphor for where we live, right on the border between Austin (left) and Texas (right).

(For anyone paying close attention, I've still got the white "keyboard truck" but that moved to family backup duty once we sold the Mazda5.)

[Blaise170]

I think trabants deserve electric conversions way more, since their original engines were horrible (but you couldn't do better in the GDR). And they are very iconic and cheap. But they are not my only choices, there are also Lada cars, you can also still see them on the road! I saw this one in April, but I saw a blue one yesterday when I was going home from the flea market


I hope you can get that Tesla one day! But aren't Lexus cars expensive? Just sell that and get your tesla!

Lexus are more expensive than the standard domestic American brands (Ford, Chevy, etc) but they aren't nearly as much as a P100D (around $100,000). Besides, my IS 250 already has almost 150,000 miles on it, so it's worth a lot less than it would be with 5,000 miles on it.

I think vintage supercars like Porsche are fine candidates because the old engines are woefully slow by today's standards. A 1974 Porsche 911 Carerra does 0-60 mph in 7.4 seconds. My Lexus IS 250 does 0-60 mph in 7.3 seconds.

When it comes to big SUVs, either go big or don't go at all.

Interestingly enough, we do both.

IMG_20180529_082415.jpg

I love the Leaf as a daily driver, but when it comes to yard waste or other utility work, the one on the right comes in handy. I feel like this picture is a metaphor for where we live, right on the border between Austin (left) and Texas (right).

(For anyone paying close attention, I've still got the white "keyboard truck" but that moved to family backup duty once we sold the Mazda5.)

I personally wouldn't call a Nissan Leaf an SUV. More like a hatchback sedan or maybe you could really stretch it and call it a small crossover. Wikipedia calls it a hatchback too. For me personally, I am rarely ever in need of hauling stuff so I'll just hop over to Turo and find someone renting out their pickup for $50/day.

[vivalarevolución]

That's actually my choice that I'm considering. I have a 6, but giving that to my daughter, and trying to see if I should get a more recent 6 or a CX-5. I wasn't considering a crossover, as I like sitting low to the ground, but the CX-5 seems like a good compromise.

As far as purchasing, I've gotten to where the only dealership I shop is CarMax. Done it for my last two cars, and those were two of the most low-pressure buys I've ever experienced. Their financing is pretty good too.

We might be the same person. I narrowed down my choices to a Mazda 6 or CX-5. I went with the CX-5 because I wanted the extra cargo space and the ground clearance will be nice when I toss it around on the gravel roads I like to drive on and my inevitable driving over of curbs. The 6 certainly drives better, but I wanted that hatchback for just tossing loads of stuff in the back. I'm not crazy about all the electronic gadgets and gizmos that might break and be pricey to repair, but they seem almost unavoidable kn any car that costs $20k plus these days.

I think Mazda gives you more for your money than any other car maker. They are not high performance cars, but they aren't bore-mobiles, either. Even the portly CX-5 puts a smile on my face driving around town. I would consider it more of a wagon than SUV, because it sits pretty low, even with 8 inches of ground clearance. If you care about driving experience and design, this is the choice in the segment. It's a shame that the wagon market is essentially nonexistent in the States.

I am not a huge fan of Carmax, but I do appreciate that it is a much lower pressure sales environment than dealerships.

[XMIT]

I never called the Leaf an SUV. It's a hatchback.

[Blaise170]

Hm the way you started your post made it sound like you were calling it a small one.

When it comes to big SUVs, either go big or don't go at all. Interestingly enough, we do both.

[vivalarevolución]

Obligatory from Hacker News today:

https://jalopnik.com/heres-why-carmax-m ... 1826415410

The car market is an efficient market, so, my read of this article is that people assign a value of about $1500 to convenience in buying a used car.

We just got rid of our Mazda5. It's a great idea but somewhat poorly executed with an unbalanced engine, insufficient noise deadening, and an air conditioner that cannot keep up with summer in Texas. After about 20 hours of trial and effort we failed to find a way to seat all five of us in a way that was comfortable regardless of who was driving.

These days, I don't buy a car unless I can pay cash. I'm done with financing.

The Mazda 5 was on my radar, but it had too many compromises for me to seriously consider.

I am also done with financing, as long as I can afford avoiding it. I had a small, very affordable loan on my truck, but ultimately preferred to spend that monthly income on other things than a truck that I drove less than 10k miles per year. The new used Mazda has 20k more miles than the truck, but now I don't have a car loan and it's better for my longer term finances.

Also, the border between Austin and Texas, lol.

I scoff at big utes / pickups too, but never to my friends who have them in case I need to do a run to the garbage dump or pick up some white-goods

I've never understood the infatuation with giant gas guzzling SUVs and trucks in the US. I have always driven sedans and have no plans to ever change that. I have driven SUVs, crossovers, trucks, pickups, cargo vans, etc and they all feel unrefined and hard to move. I appreciate the agility of smaller cars.

Oh, it's utterly insane. I think it has a lot to do with the American mindset of just wanting more and marketing techniques that appeal to a person's "adventurous" self image. With a crew cab truck or SUV, you get more of everything: passenger space, cargo space, power, 4WD or AWD, ride height, ground clearance, towing power. And most of it is more than you will ever need. And most people don't care at all about driving experience in the more affordable end of the car market.

The CX-5 sold me because it drives as good or better than many cars. Otherwise, I would have bought a hatchback or one of the few wagons left in the US market market. Even with a small truck, it still feels like a burden to drive.

[Blaise170]

My car is AWD and with winter tires I've only ever gotten stuck once (in about 8 inches of snow). For about $300 I can get a towing rack with 1000 lbs capacity. Otherwise I see no reason at all to get a bigger vehicle with way more crap than I need. Maybe if I had a yacht, but then I could rent like I said before.

[vivalarevolución]

I don't know where the SUV segment starts and ends. But the Nissan Leaf is most definitely a hatchback.

[XMIT]

Hm the way you started your post made it sound like you were calling it a small one.

Not exactly. I meant either get the largest SUV ever made, one that is so obnoxious as to be impractical, or don't get an SUV at all.

I guess a Miata would be more the opposite of an Excursion. I used to have a Miata.

[vivalarevolución]

My car is AWD and with winter tires I've only ever gotten stuck once (in about 8 inches of snow). For about $300 I can get a towing rack with 1000 lbs capacity. Otherwise I see no reason at all to get a bigger vehicle with way more crap than I need. Maybe if I had a yacht, but then I could rent like I said before.

I would consider AWD to be the current largest vehicle sham that the American consumer has bought into. FWD and snow tires will work fine for almost car. Ground clearance and AWD is something that people think they need for snow and view it as a safety feature, when it most definitely is not. For off road, get a proper body-on-frame 4WD vehicle. I view AWD as a performance feature that can make driving a bit more fun. AWD with snow tires just sounds like a good time to me.

[samuelcable]

I'd probably go with a vintage Porsche or Maserati if I were going to do an electric conversion. But instead, I'll probably get a Tesla for my next car, hopefully I can afford a P100D by the time I drive my Lexus into the ground.

I think trabants deserve electric conversions way more, since their original engines were horrible (but you couldn't do better in the GDR). And they are very iconic and cheap. But they are not my only choices, there are also Lada cars, you can also still see them on the road! I saw this one in April, but I saw a blue one yesterday when I was going home from the flea market


I hope you can get that Tesla one day! But aren't Lexus cars expensive? Just sell that and get your tesla!

that car gives me a "boring office worker" vibe

[Blaise170]

I would consider AWD to be the current largest vehicle sham that the American consumer has bought into. FWD and snow tires will work fine for almost car. Ground clearance and AWD is something that people think they need for snow and view it as a safety feature, when it most definitely is not. For off road, get a proper body-on-frame 4WD vehicle. I view AWD as a performance feature that can make driving a bit more fun. AWD with snow tires just sounds like a good time to me.

Most people think AWD is a replacement for snow tires.