Buying a car ... tips / tricks / advice

[wa-loaf]

Not really. Just because Dr Jeff is high income doesn't give him the right to pollute my water supply, pollute the air I breathe, or spew carbon and sulfur into the atmosphere to increase global warming. This is not 1780 where the population of the United States was a few million and most of the country was open rural space.

The pollution put out by modern cars is minimal these days. Mileage definitely plays a role. Why do you drive a GTI that takes a pretty good hit on mileage and requires premium fuel? Shouldn't you just be happy with the basic Golf for your needs or at least have a diesel? I always took you as kind of a libertarian type.

 

[Cheese]

The difference is that you're at an income level where you simply don't care about fuel economy and you don't seem to care at all about your carbon footprint.

Do you have kids?

If so, driving a fuel efficient car isn't going to make up for the damage you have already done and will continue to do to this planet simply by selfishly increasing the population. A single child has their own carbon footprint, aids in overfilling our landfills and consumes our precious natural resources. This multiplies with each child you brought into the world and increases exponentially if your children have children of their own. Recycling newspapers, glass and plastic while driving a fuel efficient vehicle will never offset the damage to our planet caused by family (population) growth.

Sorry, people that increase population then take a pro environmental stance seem rather hypocritical to me.

 

[o3jeff]

The pollution put out by modern cars is minimal these days. Mileage definitely plays a role. Why do you drive a GTI that takes a pretty good hit on mileage and requires premium fuel? Shouldn't you just be happy with the basic Golf for your needs or at least have a diesel? I always took you as kind of a libertarian type.

Doesn't he also have a suv with a v-8 that he drives to the mountain since he can't drive the GTI with ski boots on that probably never gets to operating temp which I think puts out more emissions then.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Oh Damn do we NEED SNOW NOW - too many bitching, griping and harping threads as of late -- hmm sounds almost menopausal

What folks drive is up to them -- deal with it !

BTW i drive 2 economy cars a Saab Sport combi and a corolla BUT could afford a gas hogggggg but i choose to drive stuff that gets me over 30 mpg ---- must be the economist in me

PULEEZE ULLR deliver this so we can all just shaddup n'ski !!!!!!!!

 

[Black Phantom]

How well do Smart cars perform in snow?

 

[o3jeff]

How well do Smart cars perform in snow?

With 2 or 4 snow tires?

 

[Black Phantom]

With 2 or 4 snow tires?

Will snow tires fit? Let's go with 4 for sake of argument.

I thought that skinny tires were good in the snow.

 

[Puck it]

Smart cars get crappy gas mileage for their size. BTW.

 

[HD333]

If you had a couple of kids who are active in sports and other school events more nights a week than they aren't almost year round, it might make more sense to you. Otherwise, I really wouldn't expect it to make too much sense to you in your situation. As for the washing machine thing in the vacation home, week in and week out the only clothes that travel with me are the ones i'm wearing on the way up/back. Kid clothes, since they keep out growing stuff very quickly these days are a different story And then there always the added space benefit of being able to put a kid in SEPARATE rows of seats if they're driving each other, and hence often the adults in the car too, CRAZY!

If I was a 50 something guy without kids and/or large pets and in a financial situation where I wasn't really worried about the cost of a vehicle either, what's in my garage would be different than it currently is. Different situations one is in a majority of the time can call for different choices. Right? Wrong? I guess that's all from the perspective of the primary user in each circumstance

I agree that most hulking SUV's satisfy a want more than a need. But what is wrong with that? Do we need a Tahoe, no, but it sure makes the weekly 2 hr drive a lot more comfortable for everyone, even the dog.
I am sure it will be useful once the travel soccer team starts up as well, I am no scientist but I assume 1 vehicle with 7 or 8 people has a smaller carbon footprint than 2 vehicles with 4 people in them.
When kids are gone and it is just me and the misses I can guarantee we will not be driving a Canyonaro or whatever the biggest of the big SUVs is at the time.

 

[Puck it]

And they look dumb!!!!!

 

[Black Phantom]

I prefer to drive a golf cart.

 

[Glenn]

How about those people who ski? Bunch of rich ____. All that juice the lifts use...water for snowmaking, power for snowmaking, power for making french fries lighting the lodge, heating the lodge, printing trail maps, lift tickets, people who have multiple pairs of skis. It's nuts. You can have just as much fun sitting inside, reading a book by candlelight.

www.taxpayersformygroundwater.com

www.daneagandoesnthaveacarbonfootprint/bestskierever.org

 

[wa-loaf]

And they look dumb!!!!!

These things were designed for the cities of Europe where they are a great fit. Don't really belong on the highways around here and all the safety equipment they get loaded up with for the US really puts a hit on fuel efficiency and price.

 

[Nick]

You can "parallel park" them straight in, which is kinda cool. :lol:

 

[Geoff]

The pollution put out by modern cars is minimal these days. Mileage definitely plays a role. Why do you drive a GTI that takes a pretty good hit on mileage and requires premium fuel? Shouldn't you just be happy with the basic Golf for your needs or at least have a diesel? I always took you as kind of a libertarian type.

My 2007 GTI gets better fuel economy than a 2007 5-cylinder Golf. Small 4 cylinder turbocharged engines have a weight and friction advantage over bigger conventionally aspirated engines. 93 octane fuel has less energy per gallon than 87 octane and has a slightly lower carbon footprint per gallon. 87 octane is more volatile and causes detonation problems in high compression engines. The price difference at the pump has more to do with economy of scale than production costs. 87 octane outsells 93 octane by something like 11 to 1.

I don't drive a vanilla Golf because it's a dog. No Xenon headlights. No sport suspension. No leather Recaros. No DSG transmission. I won't buy the diesel for the same reason. It doesn't have the option package I want.

I used to be a libertarian years ago until I figured out that libertarian is just secret code for self-centered. I believe in things like zoning, public transportation, equal access public education, anti-sprawl laws, and a reasonable safety net.

 

[riverc0il]

Ironically the mileage of a car really doesn't matter when it comes to carbon footprint. It's how far you drive it and how often, right?

A Prius driver that puts 600 miles a week on a car will more of an impact than a Ford Edge that is driven 250 miles a week*

*Although if you are stuck on a given distance then it matters, i.e. same person switching cars would matter

Huh? What type of apples and oranges argument are you trying to make here? Yes, a Prius driving 600 miles a week will likely burn more gas than a Ford Edge driving 250 miles a week. But for most people, which car you drive isn't an either/or proposition. You get to pick one car. Therefore, a higher MPG car uses less fuel because the mileage you will drive is a constant (unless for some strange reason you adjust what you do based on your car's MPG which is putting the cart before the horse and just plain silly).

There are a few honest to goodness full size cross overs on the market that get 30 MPG highway-ish. Then again, there are still sub-2o MPG behemoths. Get what fits your needs and lifestyle. But Geoff has a point (even if being somewhat offensive about it, LOL) in that many people buy far more car than they truly need even to be comfortable.

 

[Geoff]

There are a few honest to goodness full size cross overs on the market that get 30 MPG highway-ish. Then again, there are still sub-2o MPG behemoths. Get what fits your needs and lifestyle. But Geoff has a point (even if being somewhat offensive about it, LOL) in that many people buy far more car than they truly need even to be comfortable.

When you're kinda-sorta trolling, then yeah, it's somewhat offensive.

What full size crossover gets 30 mpg on the highway? To qualify, it needs to have some kind of 4wd/AWD system, burn gasoline, and fit four 6 foot adults.

 

[Nick]

Huh? What type of apples and oranges argument are you trying to make here? Yes, a Prius driving 600 miles a week will likely burn more gas than a Ford Edge driving 250 miles a week. But for most people, which car you drive isn't an either/or proposition. You get to pick one car. Therefore, a higher MPG car uses less fuel because the mileage you will drive is a constant (unless for some strange reason you adjust what you do based on your car's MPG which is putting the cart before the horse and just plain silly).

There are a few honest to goodness full size cross overs on the market that get 30 MPG highway-ish. Then again, there are still sub-2o MPG behemoths. Get what fits your needs and lifestyle. But Geoff has a point (even if being somewhat offensive about it, LOL) in that many people buy far more car than they truly need even to be comfortable.

I agree Geoff has a point, I'm just saying it's not really fair to criticize someone based on their car choice alone.

If I work 2 minutes from my house and drive a Hummer every day, and you work 40 miles from your house and drive a Prius, who is contributing less to pollution? Me with the Hummer. But if the two cars were driving next to each other down the road, everyone would point fingers at the driver of the Hummer as being a d-bag unconcerned with the environment while the Prius driver would be the creme dela creme model citizen. Even though the net effect on the environment is worse.

That's all I'm pointing out.... is that it's not just what you drive but how and where you drive. At the end of the day, the environment doesn't care about what caused emissions or where they came from, only the quantity of overall emissions matters.

 

[riverc0il]

When you're kinda-sorta trolling, then yeah, it's somewhat offensive.

What full size crossover gets 30 mpg on the highway? To qualify, it needs to have some kind of 4wd/AWD system, burn gasoline, and fit four 6 foot adults.

Subaru Outback gets 30mpg highway.

I don't know why you needed to throw in the AWD, that wasn't what I wrote so you are changing the argument. There are a few crossovers that get 30MPG highway. Some are hybrids.

 

[wa-loaf]

Subaru Outback gets 30mpg highway.

I don't know why you needed to throw in the AWD, that wasn't what I wrote so you are changing the argument. There are a few crossovers that get 30MPG highway. Some are hybrids.

27-28mpg and in real world it's more like 25.