Corazon de Leon wrote:Noob question - how regularly do you guys get your tires changed? I know precisely strawberry float all about cars(hence why I drive a 2013 plate Corsa), and am interested to know how regularly I should be budgeting for this.
As Falsey said, you need to measure them, there is no precise mileage it depends on your driving habits.
I don't know about UK currency, but here you can use a quarter, and going by how much of the queens face is visible you can know how much tread depth you have left, or you could buy a tread depth gauge if you are some sort of millionaire.
The search for my car continues. I'm going to go tomorrow to a Kia dealership to check out a Soul, AKA a sportier version of the Nissan Cube.
Pros:
+ Cheap, like very cheap, I can get a new one with some good features for the cost of a 2-3 year old CR-V or Rav4.
+ Looks roomy (Wife is thinking about the future, so need to think of putting in baby seats and the like)
+ Good on gas
+ Reliability is predicted to be Ok (Based off Consumer Reports review).
++ I can use my current rims (I bought some nicer ones for my Lexus and the bolt pattern/offset is the same which would be very nice as I spent a decent amount of money on those).
Cons:
- Not exactly fast, comes with a 1.6L @ 130HP or 2.0L @160HP if I go a bit above my budget
- Probably won't be as reliable as a Rav4, CR-V.
Because I want something for the future I'm leaning towards SUV's, it's just their all so... slow.
I did however come across something a bit faster...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_FlexI would need to get a used one as the new one is $10K above my price range of $20K, but it looks fairly decent:
Pros:
+ Fast
+ Probably nicer inside than a comparably priced CR-V or Rav4
+ Lots of Room
+ Predicted Reliability is good.
Cons:
- Maybe too much room, seats 7, I don't really need something that big right now.
- Terrible on gas, it gets 18MPG, pretty much the same as my car now, except thankfully this takes regular so it would still be cheaper for me
- The twin turbos in the ecoboost engine (which I want) is another thing which could go wrong.
Other cars I'm considering as you've probably deduced would be the Rav4, CR-V, or Subaru Forester if I can find some good condition ones but I don't really feel like I want any of those. The Soul, and the Flex at least have some interesting points about them, the others just seem so bog standard. I know the forester comes in with a sportier engine, but I would be looking at a newer one, and I don't think that's available anymore.
Any opinions?