Automobiles

[cactuswatcher]

atpo_onm listed his cars in a reply yesterday, I thought it was a decent meme, so here are mine.

Mercedes 200, about a 1968 model, I didn't own it; my father did. But it was purchased used for my use. Extremely boxy, it was anything but sporty. Rear-wheel drive, very nose heavy and thus terrible in the snow, it was fine otherwise. I left it with my mother while I was in grad school. She drove it without changing the oil for years, which pretty much wrecked the engine. Fortunately I didn't need my own car for quite a while.

Chevrolet Citation, 1980, It had a v-6 in it. Early purchasers were saying bad things about the 4-cylinder version. The model had really bad transmissions, the original manual transmissions seemed to only last six months to a year. I had an automatic which went bad in 7 years. I didn't trust it any more given that style of GM cars' bad repair reputation, and I'd replaced the starter, the alternator and a fan-belt pulley. My brother wanted it, so I sold it to him. He got the transmission fixed, let his daughter use it. I think it lasted another three or four years before it needed another major transmission repair and was junked. It was a terrific car to drive, all kinds of power, and with a big engine and front-wheel drive it was great in the snow. I used to take my vacations in the mountains and the thing had power to spare, but it would down shift very disturbingly when climbing mountain slopes at speed. I guess I was lucky the transmission didn't fall apart when I was a thousand miles from home.

Chevrolet Nova (actually a re-branded Toyota Corolla), 1987. It didn't have the zip of the Citation, but I don't think I needed to fix anything on it. It was a little more handy in the turns, and a little less great in the snow than the Citation, but not bad. When I decided to trade it in my brother spoke up and again, and I sold it to him. I don't think he had trouble with it either.

Subaru Legacy wagon, 1996. I looked at a Jeep Cherokee, but it was too much like driving a truck. My brother suggested test driving a Subaru and I really liked it. Other than having my alignment go wonky when I had to slam on the brakes hard once, I had no problems with it. It was all-wheel drive, but being big and heavy it was yet a little more reluctant to turn in the snow, though it stopped straight and true in the snow.

Subaru Outback, 2006. Being better off financially, I went with a fancier model. Pretty much the same car as the Legacy with a roomier body. It needed air-bag replacement like so many cars of the 2000s, otherwise no difficulties. I still drive it and will keep doing so a little longer.

Comments

[atpo_onm]

Five cars, that's a very reasonable number. As I sure you do, I know people who simply must have a new vehicle every few years. I suppose that's good for used car buyers, as long as the owners don't drive the thing into the ground during those few years, since they don't intend to keep it.

The depreciation, though, whew!

I very nearly bought a Subaru Forester the last time, it was a very close choice between that and the RAV4. I liked the overall handling and interior just a smidge better on the Toyota, but then I ended up having to haggle with the dealer after I had expressly asked them not to, just to give me their best price right up front. (To their credit, the Subaru dealer did what I asked, and I very nearly walked out of the Toyota place as their guy argued with me over literally a few hundred dollars.)

I had used the Consumer Reports car pricing service to get the wholesale prices on the cars with my selected trim package, so I knew what they were paying for them. I asked for the same markup on the Toyota that the Subaru dealer accepted on their car, so I think I was being very reasonable. But no....

Anyway, in the end, they got me within literally $100 dollars of what I offer them in the first place. So what was all that haggling for on their part?

If money was completely no object, any particular car you would want to purchase?

[cactuswatcher]

When I bought my first Subaru I looked at a lot of cars including similar Nissans, Honda's and Toyotas. At that time I wanted something other than a hatchback which I'd already had on the Citation and Nova. For whatever reason the Subaru dealer had a big selection and the station wagon I bought fit my needs very well. Don't know why but the Honda dealer was a real pain in the butt compared to all the rest. As soon as the salesman walked over it was nothing but high pressure. I'd didn't even take a test drive. The same thing happen many years later in another state, when my sister went looking for new car to replace the pickup she didn't like anymore. She was interested in a Honda, but we couldn't get a straight story from them, and eventually I got mad and escorted her away with the salesman chasing after us. We even joked about it with the Nissan dealer across the street (who promised not to behave so badly!) I'm not the most agreeable car shopper, though. When I was looking around and ended up with the Citation, My brother and I were at a Dodge dealer. The young salesman (I was young too then!) wanted to interest me in a little sporty car they had and I obligingly walked over to see it. I didn't mind the exterior of it at all, but... The salesman made the mistake of asking what I thought of the interior. I bluntly said it was ghastly! (Worst looking seats I'd ever seen in a new car.) I was sure they could get one with a better looking interior, so I wasn't unhappy when the salesman totally ignored what I'd said and went on to talk about other things on car.

I've never been super interested in cars. I concentrate more on what's good in a price range I feel comfortable with rather than the upper limit of what I might get or what I could get if I won the lottery. My brother loved sports cars and my father owned Cadillacs and a Corvette, but I've always been more practical about what a car could carry (without being a truck). I looked at a Forester too, last time, but decided I preferred the bigger Outback. It might be different next time.