I’ve been drooling over the Lexus RX350 for years–it looked like a NICE mid-size luxury SUV. Unfortunately, it’s been getting larger and larger. In 2018 it became a 3-row car, built on the Highlander chassis. The NX series is built on the RAV4 chassis. Until Toyota reintroduced the Venza last August, they seemed to have abandoned the mid-sized format. I’m not a tiny guy and if I feel crowded in the front seat of a RAV4 I would expect the same in an NX.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and find a very low mileage 2017—I can dream, can’t I?
We owned 2 RXs: the original design one and the 2005 version. Sadly, by the time we decided to update the last one, the RX got redesigned with an ugly grille. Butt ugly!!! Mr. calls it the biggest fly catcher ever attached to a car. Imagine having to wash that grille after a long roadtrip through a countryside at night.
Last car we bought used and loved it; a 2011 Toyota Prius. Intended to wait a few more years to get another one but a little bit concerned about rising inflation so purchased a new Toyota Camry Hybrid…we are Point A to Point B while attempting to get good gas mileage car people.
I drive a Chevy Volt. It’s a pigpen pretty much. LOL. Now that the pandemic is behind us and I end my babysitting granddaughter gig, I plan to change that. I need to have it detailed badly. I’ve only run it thru a carwash for the exterior.
I keep a couple of umbrellas in the back seat.
I get regular maintenance service at the dealership.
I like the features that I know about or understand, LOL. I probably should look thru the manual and see what I might be missing out on! My favorite feature, other than rarely having to buy gas, is the phone charging slot.
Our other vehicle is a Jeep Grand Cherokee so we have that for snow.
My son had a 2000 Focus hatchback, manual shift and it was the cutest, best, most fun little car. I loved when he let me drive it!! LOL. I’ll bet it’s still out there somewhere. It was great.
I drive a 2017 Chevy Trax LT with AWD (prior to that a 2006 Toyota Corolla). I put a lot of miles on and wanted something small that sits up a bit. With Bluetooth…haha. The only thing I wish it had was heated seats - but keyless entry, remote start and Apple CarPlay makes up for it. I wash it every week or two and attempt to keep the inside clean.
There was a time when it was sort of natural (90’s??) that kid(s) = buy a van. We had one van - it would probably go down as our least enjoyed vehicle. After that we went with one vehicle that would have a third seat but would be an SUV (Mazda MPV, Envoy, etc.)
Now I feel (and I have to say, I’m in this camp) that vans are either beloved or taboo. Like “I wouldn’t be caught dead having a van” - am I wrong? Is this attitude out there? Even among 30’s and 40’s with families???
Vans fell victim to the idea that its better to look good than to feel good. To me, vans are more practical than SUVs. Less expensive to buy. Less expensive to insure. Less expensive to maintain. Better gas mileage. Easier for young kids to get into and out of. We had friends with an SUV years ago when our kids were younger. Their kids couldn’t get in or out of the vehicle without help. Getting a baby carrier into the vehicle was a major effort (wife was short – as is my wife). All were easy with our van.
But vans are not cool. To me, vans and SUVs are ugly boxes with little physical appeal. If you want that you get a sports car.
There was also an idea of vans becoming something of mom-mobiles. And each generation tends to want to do things differently than then one before it.
I am totally not a car guy. Get me from point A to point B. Every time. And little maintenance. 2-3 oil changes a year, new tires every 3 years or so and brakes every few years. Know people with expensive cars who every time I see them they have their car in the shop. Is there a weekly maintenance schedule? No thanks.
Loved our vans, both Windstars. When the second one was about done at 18 years, we drove it to the dealership where we bought its successor and asked if there was any trade-in value. The salesman looked it up and said, “Unfortunately, I can only give you $500 for it.” I replied, “$500! If it’s still worth $500, I shouldn’t be buying a new car. We should probably go.” DH gave me the stink eye.
(We gave it to our handyman for $500 off the price of some work he was doing for us at the time.)
We loved our Windstar when we had one - drove it until it gave its life for one of my boys in an icy road accident.
But I don’t really consider it to be a traditional van like I grew up with. Mini-vans are their own category (and what I consider our Ford Escape to be, but I don’t know what category car folks put that one into).
We are not car people. We have a Honda Civic we purchased new in 2016 and will drive it until it dies and we have a Chevy pickup truck we bought used that is about 10 yrs old.
Both are always kept cleaned inside and out, since dirty and messy spaces make me anxious.
We went to a van when the 3 kids approached pre-teen/teen years. Having 3 of them across the back seat of a sedan just made no sense. Our vans got us through a total of 9 years schlepping kids to and from college. Now we still have a 11 yr old Toyota Sienna van that has become our “truck”. It’s now moving kids when they switch apartments, haul stuff from the garden center, etc. It’s not what we take on a car vacation, but we’re going to run it into the ground.
We love our 2017 Chevy Bolt EV as our main car. I don’t think we will ever buy another internal combustion engine vehicle. That said we do have a 2005 Honda Odyssey as a backup hauler, but we all prefer to drive the Bolt. We did buy our oldest a used plug-in Ford CMax hybrid, but for ourselves it’s EV all the way baby.
As for the Ford F-150 serving as a generator for a whole house, I guess that could work if you have the right set up. We do use the Bolt to charge our phones and stuff if the power is out.
The Bolt is our second EV. We had a Nissan Leaf before that which met with an unfortunate demise due to no fault of its own or mine (bad drivers out there).
EVs are super duper reliable, very very low maintenance. Super cheap to operate, very very fun to drive. If you are at all curious about it, I urge you to go take a test drive. We bought our first Leaf used for under $10K and it had under 8000 miles on it. It was a great way to get our feet wet w/o committing.
We have taken our Bolt all over. We regularly drive it all over the state from the mountains to the sea and have taken it down to Florida and back too.
It goes through periods of being trashed (mainly from the youths) to being cleaned up. I don’t tend to keep much in there except an umbrella, some spare masks, and grocery bags.
We’re leasing an Audi e-tron, an EV SUV (but with a slightly lower roofline than the Q5, almost a raised wagon). We love it. Had a plug installed in our garage so we can charge it overnight at home; as we’re renting, that’ll be a free amenity for the next tenants. Great acceleration and a more luxurious cabin and fit/finish than Teslas, in my experience, though shorter range – about 215 miles on a full charge in the summer, 185ish in the winter. Generally fine for our needs, as we mostly drive it on short trips near us. We’ve had some adventures with longer trips: High-speed charging is easy off of 95 on the way to NYC (we’re near Boston), but we had some struggles one winter when we spent a weekend with friends who have a house in northern New Hampshire.
We’re moving to NYC in July 2022 after our son finishes high school; moved here in 2019 after some years in Europe for a job for my wife, but she changed jobs, so both of our positions would more naturally be in New York now. One benefit of the pandemic has been that she hasn’t had to commute down to NYC for most of the week, as was the original plan with her new job. Now her boss says she can stay remote until we move; their office isn’t even reopening until January. Anyway, all of that is to say we’re giving up the car at that point and will just rent as needed. I’m going to miss it. If we do ever get another car, we’ll definitely stick with EVs. We’re kind of interested in the Cadillac Lyriq.
Wow - a lot of EV interest/ownership here - more than I would have thought. I’ve got a Mustang Mach E. Had it about two months now - love it. Great combination of performance, looks, and technology.
We purchased our grad school D an old mini van (2004 vintage). She was doing one of her clinicals and the PT she was working with asked about vehicles. When she told him what she drove he thought it was really cool she was driving a van. She found that amusing.
