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Smart Shopper What's the best vehicle for my needs?
1145 messages, Last post on Sep 17, 2009 at 12:59 PM
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Replying to: demigawd (Jun 19, 2009 6:39 pm) All wheel drive is a marketing joke for almost all vehicles. If you notice the wheels, they get into trouble and stop moving at ALL when they get in trouble. 1:52 shows this - stop, then the rear wheels transfer and it gets confused/gives up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooQRxlChvMw You can also see it here, more obviously. The problem is you need power all the time to all wheels in snow or mud. The ramp test is especially telling on some cars - you'd figure the rear wheels would lock and push past the obstruction at least like a rear wheel drive car at that moment. This also holds true in the rain - unless it can transfer power in milliseconds(read - Porsche and a couple others do this on a few high-end and others do it in some of their pro/racing cars), it's useless to have part-time awd while hitting a sudden patch of ice or water at speed. 1/10th of a second is ~5 feet at 60mph. If it takes half a second as it appears in most of these videos, that's 20-30 feet and that's well past the problem in many cases. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7dVFY5CxT0 Be patient. Ignore the first few minutes. Seriously. It sucks - be patient  What you want is at 4:40. Wet suddenly makes it a whole different game. The Volvo's part-time system engages and the instant it does, it gets in the way and honestly it would have been better to just stay in 2wd mode. Also watch the hill climb on dirt. Most any SUV or truck with 4x4 will grunt major hills as if it's not even there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDN091_WLBw That's a ski run. I chose that because it's a stupidly heavy SUV with stock equipment on it - worst case scenario. Still gets up it. http://www.expeditionswest.com/equipment/reviews/patriot/index.htm The Jeep is another way to deal with it - it locks the diffs and xfer cases so that you have temporary 4x4. The Toyota Rav-4 also has a similar "lock" mode. Of course, the trick here is to get Patriot with manual as it is then a pure 2wd/4wd system without the computers getting in the way. No low-range, though, but almost nobody really NEEDS that for snowy roads and winter driving, really. Both turn off at anything over slow speeds, though, so it's really not a true solution, IMO. The real question is whether you need a vehicle for mud and snow and winter driving or something that gives you great rain and accident avoidance. If the former, get a 4x4. If the latter, get a Subaru or Audi
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Replying to: dave8697 (Jun 20, 2009 8:43 pm) A neighbor has been buying nothing by Acuras that way. They are a few years old with something in the range of 100K miles. He has an independent Honda mechanic to whom he takes his vehicles for servicing and preventative maintenance based on that guy's recommendation--not a dealer who's selling extra servicing. He did get burned on his most recent purchase, one of his newest. A couple years old RL and lower mileage off lease. It wasn't running right and he took it to the dealer. $1300 later he had a new EGR something or other... He was not happy. |
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Replying to: plekto (Jun 20, 2009 8:55 pm) Interesting links. Like I was saying before, my biggest motive for wanting an AWD vehicle is to be able to get out of a snowed-in parking space. I rent pretty often now, and I've found that to always be the only real thing that drove me crazy about winter driving. Waking up in the morning, and seeing 6 inches of snow, plowing for 20 minutes and still having to rock the car for another 10 minutes to get out of the space. And worse, coming back in and seeing that all of the spaces are still covered with at least four inches of snow because the city didn't get around to plowing yet, forcing me to try to park over the snow - another 20 minute struggle. Generally, anything that would help avoid that (but not an SUV) would make winter driving enjoyable. I've never had any issues with winter driving once I was actually on the road. No slips or slides or loss of traction or anything else. Maybe once or twice ever the car would veer off a little bit for a second, but I always got control back right away. For anybody who has had a G35x, when it gets to around 60,000+ miles, does the maintenance cost begin to skyrocket? Or is it pretty stable for several years after that?
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Replying to: jeffyscott (Jun 20, 2009 6:40 pm) http://www.edmunds.com/apps/cto/intro.do Oh my god...according to this, it costs $7,803 in 2009 to take care of a 2004 G35x. $650.25 a month? On top of the $400 a month finance? So over $1000 a month to own a 2004 car? From your experiences, does that sound right to you? Because I currently pay $850 a month to rent a car, and all expenses except gas are included. So it doesn't seem right... |
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Replying to: demigawd (Jun 21, 2009 8:31 am) Hold their resale value as well. A 10 year old Tacoma 2wd can't be given away, yet the 4x4 versions still sell for 5-6K+. So buying one a few years used might mean well under $1000 a year depreciation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Tacoma IMO, you want a 2004 model. This is the last year of the older smaller body. Less plastic and cheaper to maintain. It should also be right in your price-range. (about 12-15K should get you a good condition low mileage one)
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Replying to: plekto (Jun 21, 2009 10:36 am) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Tacoma IMO, you want a 2004 model. This is the last year of the older smaller body. Less plastic and cheaper to maintain. It should also be right in your price-range. (about 12-15K should get you a good condition low mileage one) Allowing you want to drive a truck. There is going to be a big difference between ride quality, handling, fuel economy, and various other things comparing a G35 to a truck.
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Replying to: lilengineerboy (Jun 21, 2009 10:59 am) To be honest, it's all about degrees here. My Friend's 5 year old 4Runner is big, heavy, and smooth as glass on the highway. With the V6 in it, he gets almost 20mpg highway as well. It doesn't feel like a truck. Not all SUVs are created equal.
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Replying to: demigawd (Jun 21, 2009 8:46 am) You could look at models you are considering and see if there is a big difference...for example a 2006 GLI comes in at about $8800 for repairs and maintenance, so it looks like there would be little difference between that and the G35. In contrast the one that I mentioned being a bit scared of, the 2004 x-type comes in with almost $21,000 in repair and maintenance costs...so still scary. For most cars I have looked at there is not enough difference to affect our decisions, but once in a while there is one like that x-type. |
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With 10 of the 12 inches on the ground at 7AM, I shoveled away enough to get the door open, fired up my low ground clearance FWD and drove off on unplowed streets that had one set of tracks already that morning. The floorpan was into the snow and backing up in the unplowed street packed one of the exhaust tips. Years ago with my V6 M5 Camaro, I backed into a driveway to turn around and barely got up a very slight upward slope to get out of the driveway. There was 2 inches of snow that day. maybe it took 30 seconds of spinning to go the 20 feet. |
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| Many tire shops will store the spare set of wheels and tires for their customers for a nominal fee. You might look into this as an option since you say you're not allowed to store them in your parking space. | |
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