Car Thread II

[False]

Forget about it and move on. Only thing you can do.

When you are at home you can reflect on lessons learned, but on the road you have to be on the ball.

[Poser]

No1 Final Fantasy Fan is real?!

[Death's Head]

Dowbocop - there are a lot of idiots on the road who are either selfish, overestimate their own abilities or just don't know they are in the wrong. What you can't do is get caught up in what happens, just let it go and carry on. When you are driving you are doing so in a potentially lethal weapon and a lapse in concentration can cause an accident, so just say "mother strawberry floater" and carry on.

[Dowbocop]

Thanks for the advice everyone

I've reread my post and I have calmed down a lot since the other night! I always think I've let something go and I actually haven't (certainly in the car, but I am a bit of a brooder when I'm strawberry floated off in any situation to be honest). I've got better but my instructor still says I talk too much (about driving, not just chatting) so I probably just need to keep focused. It's obviously difficult to "train" that though, as you can't manufacture a situation where you need to exercise those mental skills. I'm four days away from my next lesson so I really want to get out there again and do better but I know I've got nearly a week of psyching myself up between lessons which probably doesn't help!

[Rightey]

Thinking about buying a new car and I'm bricking it.

The 2017 Chevy Equinox...

http://www.chevrolet.ca/2017-equinox-fu ... t-suv.html

Has $8000 in factory discounts so I could get the base model for about $25,000 including all taxes fees and everything. But the idea of spending so much money on something makes my stomach turn. I actually feel like I'm going to throw up.

I've never spent this much money on anything and I know that if I end up keeping this car for 15 years it will make sense but it's still so much money (for me at least).

[LewisD]

Maybe don't buy a brand new car then?

Maybe just a well looked after 3-4 year old car?

[SEP]

Maybe don't buy a brand new car then?

Maybe just a well looked after 3-4 year old car?

Especially one that looks nicer than that piece of gooseberry fool.

[Rightey]

The problem is for that size of car, a well looked after 3-4 year old car would be about the same price (I'm factoring in at least 2K of repairs when I first get it, like timing belt+ water pump and then something else).

Basically anything with any warranty left would not be a big difference in price.

[False]

Looks strawberry floating shite.

[Victor Mildew]

Agreed. And I drive a van.

25 grand for that banana split mobile

[LewisD]

Why do you need such a huge car?
At least pick one that doesn't look like a Transformer with a missing chromosome..

[Rightey]

The car itself isn't that large, it's technically a small SUV, although in its class it is actually one of the largest. I am looking at these cars because I have a kid on the way and the wife wants more so I need to consider the future.

I chose it because:

1) Price, I can get a base model on the road for under $23,000, other cars in this class start at $25,000, and then there are added fees, taxes which brings the total to over $30,000 in most cases.

2) Safety: Although it's not a top pick because it doesn't have active safety features, it did get good on all crash tests. http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicl ... r-suv/2017

I'm not expecting to love my new car sadly, I didn't really find any of the cars on my shortlist to be all that enjoyable, they're just something to get from point A to point B.

Anyways I test drove the GMC Terrain which is essentially a twin of the Equinox, it was as soulless as you would expect. Pidly 2.4L engine, the suspension felt floaty, and the steering was very light.

I really would rather get something used that is actually good, like a Toyota 4Runner but then I run into issues of reliability which is why I'm looking to change cars in the first place.

This was my shortlist, maybe you guys can think of something I missed:

Chevy Equinox/GMC Terrain $24,000
Subaru Forester $33,160
Kia Sportage $29,184
Honda CRV $32,479
Toyota Rav4 $32,174
Hyundai Santa Fe Sport $27,632
Nissan Rouge $29,571

Ah I forgot, I also looked at the Mazda Cx-5, good looks but doesn't have as good a safety rating, and the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport (Here it's called the RVR), also over $30K.

[karl_fletcher]

I got t-boned in Detroit yesterday. Luckily I was only driving my shitty Buick so it's going to get scrapped rather than repaired.



The rear wheel arch was scraping the tyre anytime I went over a small bump so had to get a guy at a body shop to bash the gooseberry fool out of it so I could drive back to Toronto without dying.

[Rightey]

Well that sucks. Are you ok at least?

[bigcheez2k3]

I got scared it was the RS til I read the rest of the sentence.

[Victor Mildew]

Shiiieeet, hope you're alright.

[karl_fletcher]

Yeah my wife and I were completely fine, as was the driver of the other car. Luckily it was the only point of the trip that my brother and his girlfriend weren't in the back of the car which was where the car was hit. I would never drive a nice car to Detroit as I'm not interested in getting jacked.

Funny (now at least) part is that stuff had been going wrong from the get go, with a three hour delay at the border. Then various other annoyances occurred, then my wife had a severe allergic reaction to something she ate for breakfast so we spent several hours in hospital. Then as we were leaving I said "what's going to go wrong next, a car crash?". Half an hour later this happened

[Rightey]

So, I've made a choice about a new car. I've settled on...

A Kia Optima



I saw it after going to a dealership to check out both the Kia Sorento which I was considering against the Chevy Equinox. The Sorento was slightly less miserable to drive, but not by much. Then I noticed that the Optima was pretty large, and it had fold down seats! I actually forgot some sedans have this feature as none of my cars have ever had it It also helped that this dealership had some 2016's left over and so was discounting them by about $7000 (including all taxes and fees I paid a bit over $21K).

I took it for a test drive and it was a lot nicer to drive than either SUV, not surprising really since it has the same size engine as the other two (2.4L) making roughly the same amount of power (185HP). I wouldn't describe it as very fast, but it's not slow either. Overall it seems like a pretty good car, I'll be picking it up in the next week.

What I am annoyed about though is that I just now noticed that in Europe they make a wagon version, which looks pretty good but it's not available here...

http://www.kia.com/uk/new-cars/all-new- ... ortswagon/

The only downside being that absolutely tiny engine (1.7L)

Edit: Seems like there's also a 2.0L turbo version which produces 245 HP, still not a huge amount but definitely an improvement!

[rinks]

Much better choice, and you got a pretty great deal there. I'm a bit of a fan of Kia's designs of the last few years. Just something about them that appeals to me.

Plus, you've got that huge long warranty. (Assuming you get the same over there.)

EDIT: It's an even better deal than I realised. $21k is about £12,500. You'd pay around £20,000 for the same car here. Or, for your same money, you could only get a 2014 model, 1.7, with 25k miles on it. So don't be too envious of the Euro wagon version!

[Rightey]

Thanks, I like the styling myself and it was a very good deal, I wish they had a few different trim levels available but the dealer only had the base LX, or the top SX Luxury trim, which would have been over $35,000.

Even at that price though, you get a lot of car, they had the SX in the showroom and it was really nice. Quilted leather seats, that are heated and cooled, 12 speaker sound system, a 245HP engine etc. It was really nice but outside my price range.

At any rate I'm happy with my purchase, I'm hopefully going to pick it up next week once I go down and leave my old car at my parents home.