There's not a single new car I would buy at this point

Shibadog said:

Those old cars from the 60’s and earlier will be running decades after those built in the 20’s have been junked because some electronic widget that is no longer available croaked

Click to expand...

I would have to disagree with that. The aftermarket companies today are making these widgets because they know there will be a demand in the future. But try finding a part for a '60 Falcon.

Or, try to find a guy that can rebuild a carburetor or dress points. I used to, but at my age I'm not going to fiddle any more.

And another thing, I DID own a '60 Falcon. It always ran like crap. No matter how much I tried, or had other mechanics work on it, we could never get the choke working well enough for me to get to work without stalling a few times. THAT was not why I sold it, though. The body completely rotted thru.

I currently own a 1980 Bonneville that I am trying to keep going until I die. Getting harder and harder. It is pre-computer, and running is not a problem. But I had a minor fender bender that required a new bumper and tail light assembly. Only crappy re-chromed bumpers available and the collision shop's computer only brought up 1 tail light in all the USA. It was corroded and scratched. Having it rebuilt and chromed cost more than the whole repair.

My garage has a 23 and a 25 in it. Smooth is an understatement and the safety features are awesome. We've come along way.

DWalt said:

Some survivalists see the ownership of pre-digital vehicles as being essential as they would not be affected by EMP and would be far more easily repaired given that you also maintain an inventory of parts and components most likely to fail or require frequent replacement such as belts, hoses, spark plugs, and filters. I kept a 1952 Chevrolet going for nearly 25 years, and it was still running fine when I gave it away. And it would have survived an EMP.

Click to expand...

Actually, I believe a decent EMP is capable of killing the distributor capacitor and will probably burn out the coil.

vt_shooter said:

If someone popped-off an EMP bomb in our atmosphere almost every car and truck would be toast. How comforting .... knowing delicate computer chips control almost everything.

Click to expand...

After retiring from the Navy, I became a senior member of the technical staff at Sandia National Labs, sister lab to Los Alamos.

The Army asked Sandia hammer an Abrams tank with it's monster Z Pinch machine, the worlds most powerful radiation source. So Sandia did and the tank was inoperable.

A Ford Taurus sitting outside was unaffected even though it took a lot of energy. Don

Been in the business of auto repair since April 1969. Fixed everything you can imagine including rebuilding totals (200) as a hobby that provided me free transportation. I don't want to drive my 37 Ford 5 window coupe in any traffic today and it has been gone for a long time. When Pop died 11/16/2024 at age 103.5 I bought a new car with some of my share of his estate. At 74 crawling all over a car and fixing it is no longer an option. Paid cash. 2024 Toyota Prius. Currently averaging 65 MPG. Think 520 miles on 8 gallons of Costco regular at $2.71 a gallon, 4.4 cents a mile. I's the perfect automotive appliance. At 5k miles I checked the oil. Still full, clean as new. I could stick it back in a can and sell it for new.
Recommended change intervals are 10k miles.
Drove it home today from the pickleball courts 9.3 miles. 78 MPG electric only (no plug) for those 9.3 miles was 68%.
When I started working on cars life expectancy was 7 years. Now it is closer to 13 years. Cars were death traps back then. You got decapitated going through the windshield. 2 million people have died in auto accidents in my lifetime in the USA.
I don't have the situational awareness or the mental acuity to drive old cars any more. I still love to drive and I am learning to appreciate this car's ability to COMPENSATE for my diminishing abilities.
To each his own pathway in providing themselves transportation. This new car is the best one I have ever owned, without exception. It will literally drive itself, but you have to just nudge the steering wheel every 10 seconds or it starts B%^&*ing at you until you do. 3 times it scared the crap out of me, slamming on the brakes when some imbecile was about to t-bone me in a parking lot.

That’s pretty interesting. Any insight as to why the Abrams was smoked and not the Taurus?

I believe 1995 was the last year the manufacturers were allowed to utilize OBD1. That was the system that allowed you to read trouble codes by simply turning the ignition on and off three times. All 1996 vehicles were required by the government to be equipped with OBD2 diagnostics that needed a code reader access trouble codes.

When I purchased my 1995 Jeep Wrangler, I purchased a service manual for it ($150.00) and did all my own maintenance.

The difference between then and now is I’m no longer physically able to do the work myself even if I wanted to. I appreciate all the new features on my 2025 Jeep and will gladly let the dealership handle the maintenance.

DonnieD said:

After retiring from the Navy, I became a senior member of the technical staff at Sandia National Labs, sister lab to Los Alamos.

The Army asked Sandia hammer an Abrams tank with it's monster Z Pinch machine, the worlds most powerful radiation source. So Sandia did and the tank was inoperable.

A Ford Taurus sitting outside was unaffected even though it took a lot of energy. Don

Click to expand...

It all depends on the vehicle and precise characteristics of the radiation. There was a radar on the East coast of England where the contractors learned to park their cars at a distance. The gag was that you could drive up to the radar, but if you shut the car off, something in the RF signal would prevent it from starting again.

I totally agree, years ago while working on them and when OBD2 came along I did at the time think that it was an improvement on troubleshooting verses the OBD1 however it has gotten out of hand. We've seen some wild stuff and it absolutely is designed so you have to take it back to the dealer or to prevent the average Joe from working on their vehicle. I have turned into a self titled "generic vehicle person" especially on trucks. I want a big motor and just a handful of conveniences but the more plain the better for me, especially when it takes the price tag from 50k to 70-80k for the same truck, no thank you.
Most all my vehicles are older and I work on them, I'm fortunate enough to have a couple of Corvettes that myself and my son like to play around with and they have much more potential than I'm willing to do to them. I have done that in the past and they're fun to play with but I like a certain level of reliability.

Recently while at the Ford dealership looking for a new truck for work (law enforcement) I was looking at the new fancy Expeditions. It was at night time and I observed the steering wheels, they're tiny and flat on top. I mean they're noticibly small. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why.... then it dawns on me and I shined my flashlight on the dash, sure enough my theory was correct they have a massive tv screen that runs across the majority of the dash and they had to shrink the steering wheel where you can see it.
So in the hay day of distracted driving we have a movie entertainment center going on... thing was almost 80k so it better be nice I guess just hit for me... at all.

I don’t know, but I would rather believe that an EMP would not adversely affect an ignition coil or capacitor. Assuming that they are vulnerable, one could always store some spare capacitors and coils inside a Faraday cage.

If I were to be hit by an EMP burst I am certain that there would be many more pressing issues I would be dealing with.

Tom S. said:

There are lots of new vehicles I would buy in a heartbeat if looking for a new one. Not only are they safer, handle better, are more efficient and more powerful, they offer more features. Plus, a $20 code reader and phone app will tell you what's wrong if you get a check engine light.

Click to expand...

I own 2 Mini Cooper S and bought an OBD and the Bimer App for my iPhone and reprogrammed / disabled the things I didn’t like. With these two goodies I can reprogram the transmission, engine computer, lights, mirrors, suspension, HVAC and most other systems BUT I don’t know what I’m doing with the critical systems and don’t want to turn it into a vacuum cleaner so I’m not going to touch critical systems. Simple stuff like lights, mirrors, auto shutoff at stops, seatbelt warnings, no problem.

DWalt said:

I don’t know, but I would rather believe that an EMP would not adversely affect an ignition coil or capacitor. Assuming that they are vulnerable, one could always store some spare capacitors and coils inside a Faraday cage.

Click to expand...

Coil and capacitors wouldn’t be a problem. It’s the super sensitive IC chips that can’t take the power surge of an EMP. If you have an old AM/FM radio with vacuum tubes and no solid state you’re ok there too. Vacuum tunes will take the power surge.

I like cars and just traded my 2023 Jaguar F-Pace for a 2025 Range Rover Sport.

Had owned a Range Rover since 2005 with none kept for more than about 5 years. But when it was time to get rid of my 2017 there were literally none available thus the Jag. It was nice and fairly peppy even with a 4 cylinder turbo. “Dynamic” setting helped greatly in that regard. It was not a Rangie, though.

All Range Rovers are complex; this one is exceedingly so, and it’s taken me a fair amount of time to figure out everything. There are no dials for such things as climate, media, seat heat/cooling, etc. Everything is on a big touch screen. Screen has a haptic touch option which is helpful.

It can park itself. With adaptive cruise and lane assist selected you can take your hands off the steering wheel for ten seconds at a time. Lane assist alone is very “uncomfortable.” It fairly yanks the steering wheel!

Self parking is cool but don’t yet trust it entirely. (Driver controls throttle/brake…steers itself.)

Oops, almost forgot point of this post. Rangies become troublesome after 5 years or so per my experience and are EXPENSIVE to fix when needed. But how about this? No oil and filter chance ‘til 22500 miles.

Be safe!

I love the smell of new cars.

JMD999 said:

I think the turbos, hybrids are to increase milage #s for the mfrs vehicle lines. And we're told they are nice things for us.... until they break.
I would have to drive 50k a year to even consider the minor fuel savings.
Just my opinion

Click to expand...

My wife and I have been driving Toyota’s (her’s a 2021 4-Runner, mine a 2008 4 dr Tacoma) for years.
We specifically bought the first 4-Runner to tow our travel trailer. It had a V-6 which pulled our TAB tear drop with no problems. When my wife bought her new V-6, we gave our old 2007 with 256K on it to our oldest granddaughter. Still going strong.
I just learned that Toyota will no longer be putting V-6’s in the 4-Runners or Tacoma’s but instead they will have turbo charged 4 cylinders, supposedly to get better gas mileage.
With nothing in tow we get 20 mpg out on the road with our V-6. The new 4-Runners get 21 mpg.
So Toyota is going to overwork a 4 cylinder engine to get an additional 1 mpg increase? What am I missing here?

CAFE standards might have a wee bit to do with manufacturing decisions.

SLT223 said:

Not even close.

Click to expand...

True.
A $2000 scanner will get you some results; then you can still end up paying the factory ransoms for programs needed to actually fix (reprogram) -if you can do it at all.

Capt. F. said:

My wife and I have been driving Toyota’s (her’s a 2021 4-Runner, mine a 2008 4 dr Tacoma) for years.
We specifically bought the first 4-Runner to tow our travel trailer. It had a V-6 which pulled our TAB tear drop with no problems. When my wife bought her new V-6, we gave our old 2007 with 256K on it to our oldest granddaughter. Still going strong.
I just learned that Toyota will no longer be putting V-6’s in the 4-Runners or Tacoma’s but instead they will have turbo charged 4 cylinders, supposedly to get better gas mileage.
With nothing in tow we get 20 mpg out on the road with our V-6. The new 4-Runners get 21 mpg.
So Toyota is going to overwork a 4 cylinder engine to get an additional 1 mpg increase? What am I missing here?

Click to expand...

Last Fall I bought a Cadillac XT5. I had to wait 9 months until the dealer was allotted a 6 cyl because of CAFE standards. I could have had a 4 cyl turbo in 3 weeks, but I need a trailer towing package that's only available on the 6.

The technology is awesome. My "lifetime" fuel economy is 25 mpg. But I can check a trip mileage if I set the trip odometer. Driving to my camp is a 200 mile event. 6 miles to the interstate, and 6 miles off the interstate to camp. All 65 mph on the interstate. THAT trip gives me 36 mpg!!!!!

For my first service they gave me a loaner. Same car with the 4. Its lifetime mileage was 21.

I guess I'm missing something as well.

There's plenty of reliable modern cars. Prius and most Toyotas can easily go 200K miles. My 2011 Infiniti FX35 still has the original engine belts. Oil, gas, and fluid/filter changes only. I swapped the spark plugs prematurely at 75K miles- they aren't due until 105K.

Wife's 2017 Mercedes E350 has been a dream. Has tons of tech on it and none has failed, no dash lights ever.
Also have an MB S550 4matic Coupe. What a car! Same thing, tons of tech like self-parking, can self-drive if you like, lane-change avoidance, hands-free phone connection, seat massage plus they're heated and cooled.

Heated steering wheel as well as arm rests and center console and outside mirrors. Even has a heads-up display via hologram which is very nice to keep your eyes on the road, not the dash. Plus, I modded the ECU to over 500hp. 0-60 is near 4.0 sec. My former 80s and 90s cars seem like Tin Lizzy's.

GypsmJim said:

Last Fall I bought a Cadillac XT5. I had to wait 9 months until the dealer was allotted a 6 cyl because of CAFE standards. I could have had a 4 cyl turbo in 3 weeks, but I need a trailer towing package that's only available on the 6.

The technology is awesome. My "lifetime" fuel economy is 25 mpg. But I can check a trip mileage if I set the trip odometer. Driving to my camp is a 200 mile event. 6 miles to the interstate, and 6 miles off the interstate to camp. All 65 mph on the interstate. THAT trip gives me 36 mpg!!!!!

For my first service they gave me a loaner. Same car with the 4. Its lifetime mileage was 21.

I guess I'm missing something as well.

Click to expand...

Driving at 65 mph is an act of unnatural restraint out here and will likely get you pulled for drugs or human trafficking.

I believe your XT5 will run as a V4 under light load using a cylinder deactivation system. That was the case with a XT5 loaner we had a few years ago. 65 mph, minimal elevation changes, and running as a four could give you that mileage, AT LEAST AS SHOWN BY THE TRIP SYSTEM. Those are almost always optimistic, I go by tank to tank fills to get the actual fuel mieage.