Oh gosh. One thing that I’m paranoid about re: my next car. All of those safety features. I do NOT want my car beeping at me, flashing at me, or pulling me in a different direction. I am super noise sensitive, very jumpy and anxious. All of those features are more dangerous to me than helpful. If I light is on, I will stare at it more than the road. If a car pulls, I want to jerk the wheel in another direction and then spend the next several minutes paranoid the car is broken. I can’t keep the tracker on the “how many miles until your tank is empty” setting either. Just makes me paranoid and I can’t relax. H has a new crosstrek (he had a ‘03 Jeep Liberty) and it has all those features. I’m trying to get used to it, but so far no dice. He tried to turn it off, but some things were still beeping, pulling, etc. at least I don’t have to drive it much, but I do not want it on my next car and am afraid it’ll be standard in 6 years.
Back ups cameras are good though! The crosstrek is our first with one and it is super nice
We have a 2004 Honda CR-V that still runs well. The car we drive more is a Ford Focus. Can’t remember the exact year but it’s about 5 years old. As long as a car is reliable, I’m good.
Our farm truck is a '97 Ford F150. It still gets used to haul hay and such things. It was never our touring vehicle, but does pull the horse trailer if we’re taking ponies somewhere (rare now with us only selling a foal or two per year).
We’re in our second Ford Escape. Great car. Tows a lot and can make it up our very steep gravel/grass road to our cabin.
BUT we just discovered our 2019 model has a major problem - no connection point on the front of the vehicle for towing. We occasionally need that feature because of where we drive. More than once, my husbandhad to pull us out of a tough spot.
If we had known this when we were looking for vehicles, we wouldn’t have bought this car. My husband told that to the owner of the dealership, and the guy said he would pay for an autobody shop to install something. So we should be set.
We watched the video of the launch or unveiling or whatever it was, and they said the car battery can be used to power a house (for 3 days I think they said…?, so I don’t think it’s just a rumor. (And did you see the front trunk!) Turning the f150 into an EV a brilliant move by Ford imo. Whole new market for them.
We have an around town car (VW GtI) and a road trip car (Suburban). I love this combo! We will probably switch to a pickup or more legit off-road vehicle for the road trip car once the kids are all out of the house. But they are all so tall, we need the leg space that a full three rows provides right now. The GtI is a manual and super fun to drive. I’d buy another in a heartbeat!
We kept the ‘03 Jeep but H just drives it once a week to work to keep the battery charged. And it’s also the spare. My parents might win this one. They still have my grandparents’ two cars. My grandfather died in ‘97! I think it’s a ‘91 caprice. My grandmothers’ is a few years newer and a Buick. My parents have a newer 10ish year old car that is their main vehicle, but the other two still get driven. It wasn’t long ago they got rid of our 1979 van. It wasn’t used for years though, but it was held together by duct tape and chewing gum. (Not kidding)
BMW - We try to keep an open-mind and compare to other brands every time we are in the market for a car, but always circle back to BMW. We’ve had X5s, and 5 series, but mostly 3 series. We bought new, bought used, and leased over the years. In the past 20 years, the only other car we’ve owned was an old, used high-mileage Audi so the kids would learn to drive in a tank (they still totalled it!).
BMW is more about the driving and feeling the road, than the whistles and bells and soft, boat-like feel of its competitors. BMWs just feel sturdy, dependable, good value, and simple. We’ve been doing 3 year BMW leases lately.
The F-150 Lightning will not be the only F-150 for a while, but a version that enters a new part of the market.
Yes, it will be able to function as a house backup battery. How long it will power your house depends on how much electricity your house uses. Perhaps a more common use would be to plug power tools and other electric devices into the truck instead of having a separate generator.
Think you misunderstood my comment about the market, but not important.
@murray93 - where we come from VW is hugely popular (I think it has second highest market share after Toyota) so it was kind of surprising for us to see …not a lot on the road here. Golf was/is always highly sought after in the bracket between entry level cheaper cars and luxury ones, but Americans just seem to like bigger cars. I am not sure I’d choose a manual anymore …especially for a golf, unless they have continued to improve the clutch. VW always had a reputation for tough clutches (I learnt to drive on my then boyfriend’s VW beetle, and the golf was a big improvement on that clutch, but still harder than any other manual I’ve driven, and I’ve driven a lot of them!)
I bought my first new car in the mid 70’s, probably the worst year to buy a car manufactured in the US. It was a rolling POS. I was so disappointed that I swore I would never buy another car made by a US manufacturer. I’ve driven VW, Audi, Toyota, Lexus, Mercedes, and BMW. Currently we have a BMW X5 and a Mercedes S class and are very happy with them.
Lately I’ve been considering Tesla and the F150 EV looks interesting. Also the Lucid Air looked nice.
True! My DH has been slower to embrace the idea of our next car being an EV but he was quite enthused to come tell me about the F150 generator type possibility. He said I am MUCH closer to getting a F150 if I want if true, lol. In fact, he said HE might even buy one even if I don’t want one for myself haha. (And DH has never wanted a truck before whereas I have been dreaming of one for awhile. But then the guilt of environment issues had me thinking a Tesla instead would be more responsible. But maybe now a F150 is not so bad afterall.)
I thought our son had picked up our frugal car values. Four years ago he bought his first car, a 2005 Mustang stick that he completely re-built and loves to drive. But, he called the other day to tell us he put a $500 reservation deposit on the new all-electric Mustang Mach-E which he should get sometime around the holidays. Where did we go wrong? An EV is in our future, but not until our current new-ish car dies which will probably be a decade or more from now.
I admit I get excited when I hear of more people looking eagerly at EV’s.
But I appreciate not all feel this way!
Maybe he will pass his older mustang your way??? That would be super cool.