1375
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 75 points 19 hours ago

I'm so glad I kept my car and weathered through this shitty phase of car manufacturing.

If only there was hope for weathering through the data collection, subscription-based features and the death of sedans though...

[-] pinkystew@reddthat.com 30 points 18 hours ago

I asked a dealer for a dumb-car. No fucking auto 911 dialing, bluetooth enabled, GPS service horseshit, just a normal car and he shot me

[-] dan@upvote.au 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

I think you want a 2007 Toyota Corolla lol

I've currently got a 2012 Mazda 3 but swapped the radio for one that supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. No other fancy features.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

We're looking for a new car, but unfortunately there's nothing between "sedan" and "minivan" that we want. We have three kids and a minivan, and we hardly use the extra seats or storage. It's still working fine (it's a mid-2000s Sienna), but my wife and I hate driving it, it has terrible gas mileage (20-ish MPG), we don't need the space 99% of the time, and we never need the storage space and people space simultaneously.

What I want is:

  • AWD
  • >30mpg, ideally 35+
  • flip-up third row (will be used like 1-2x/year, if that)
  • >30 cubic feet storage w/ third row unused (Prius is super close)
  • as small as possible
  • if I have to get an SUV, at least 1500lbs towing capacity (prefer >3000lbs)

If they still made them, a station wagon would absolutely fit the bill. But now, I can't have that, so I'm stuck in SUV-land.

So my plan is to completely abandon the third row and get a compact hybrid SUV. If we buy new, it'll be a Rav4 hybrid (the CR-V hybrid has a dinky 1000 lbs towing capacity, and if I have to get an SUV, I want the option). If we buy used, it'll probably be a Ford Escape hybrid, not because it's good, but because it's cheap and good enough (Escape and Rav4 can both do 1500lbs towing). I don't want either, but since there's pretty much nothing in the sedan w/ storage space market (and I want more than suitcase storage, we camp quite a bit), I'm essentially being forced to get an SUV.

I hate SUVs, but I guess that's what we're getting. I'll probably get an EV for the second car (currently a Prius), if only for the convenience of never having to fill up gas again.

[-] AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Toyota RAV4 is nice. Especially the hybrid

Edit: never mind you mentioned that

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 12 hours ago

Yup, they're just a bit hard to get ATM because they're super popular, so I'm not going to be able to haggle much to get a better deal. Used Rav4s go for the same if not more than new Rav4s.

The Ford Escape, however, is pretty decent and a lot more available than the Rav4, so I can probably get a decent discount. There are several 3-4yo Ford Escapes at $10-15k less than new that look interesting in my area.

That said, neither the Rav4 or the Ford Escape has an option for a third row/jump seats, which sucks.

I really just want a station wagon...

[-] dan@upvote.au 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

It might be too large for your use case, but have you looked at the Kia EV9? The EV6 might be worth looking at too.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

EV won't work because we do road trips quite a bit, charging infrastructure in the US sucks, and range would suck in the winter. If I'm going to get an EV, I'd need about double that range for a family car since we regularly go about 300-400 miles between charges, and often 800 miles in a day (takes about 13-14 hours driving). An EV would add a day to those trips, as well as require longer stops.

I'm planning on getting an EV for my commuter (only need about 150-200 miles of range), but not for our family car until range improves significantly.

[-] Thadrax@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

and often 800 miles in a day (takes about 13-14 hours driving)

Oh wow. After my last trip that was supposed to take like 9 hours and ended up more like 12, I decided to never do that to myself ever again. But I guess if you have multiple drivers that can share the burden, such along day on the road is still an option.

[-] dan@upvote.au 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Makes sense.

My wife and I don't commute very far so an EV is fine for us even if we can only charge it with 120V initially (until we install a proper charger in our garage). We've got a BMW iX on order.

Tesla is opening superchargers to all brands eventually. That'll help a lot, as will the inevitable changes that'll happen to gas stations where they replace some pumps with EV chargers.

Range is definitely an issue, but it's improving over time. 10 years ago, the average EV range was around 100 miles. I know BMW have tested a prototype car with ~600 mile range, and that tech should hopefully come with their Neue Klasse vehicles some time in 2026/2027. The Lucid Air gets around 500 miles range. Our current gas car (2012 Mazda 3) only gets around 360 miles until the gas light comes on, so it's not actually that different for us.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 hours ago

Yeah, we're right in that awkward window where EVs are almost good enough to replace the family car, but not quite.

We can usually get 400 miles out of our minivan, and filling up gas only takes a couple minutes. We usually pack lunches and whatnot for these road trips, so there's really no reason to stop any longer than that. I guess it's nice to stretch our legs or whatever, but we'd really rather just get to our destination and relax there.

With an EV, we'd probably get about 250 miles range since highway speeds are about 70-80mph in my area (probably a little less since fast charges aren't everywhere), and then 20-30 min waiting to charge. For a typical 700-800 mile trip, that's 3-4 stops, so if it's 30 min each time, it would add 2 hours to the trip.

If we could get 400-500 miles range, we could recharge once, which is totally reasonable. But we're not there yet, so we're looking at hybrids for the family car and an EV for around town driving.

[-] Justas@sh.itjust.works 1 points 15 hours ago

I hope that Mazda isn't a diesel one.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 14 hours ago

Well, there are some strategies:

  • data collection - remove/disable the antenna/broadcasting chip - in some cars it's as easy as removing a fuse, in others you need to take things apart to remove the TCU or modem
  • subscription-based features - don't buy them and look for hacks to enabled them w/o buying
  • death of sedans - buy sedans

Unfortunately, that's a drop in the bucket since it seems the market in general wants larger cars with more spyware, and aren't pushing back enough on subscription BS.

I'm actively looking for a car, and unfortunately the process is:

  1. find models we want to try out
  2. look up online about how to disable the spyware nonsense
  3. actually go look at cars
  4. repeat from 1 as necessary
  5. play dealership games because the private used market is essentially gone
  6. actually remove spyware

We're on step 3, and I'm not looking forward to step 5. I've actually never purchased from a dealer before, because I've bought everything before now from a private seller. Wish me luck...

[-] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago

Can I suggest auction sites for used cars. Government is always getting rid of old cars.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago

I'll have to check those out, I keep forgetting all about them. We don't urgently need a new car, so that's probably a good idea.

[-] AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 2 points 13 hours ago

Get any Infiniti with a 3g antenna. The network doesn’t exist anymore so it can’t phone home.

this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2024
1375 points (99.1% liked)

Technology

59080 readers
3521 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS