What are you driving? (1 Viewer)

Curious as to what kind of rides the wonderful folks at HTF are driving these days?


I just picked up a loaded 2014 Chevrolet Captiva LTZ a couple of weeks ago at Carmax and really love it.


My previous ride was a 2008 KIA Sentra5 which I loved and treated me well but I needed something a bit bigger for our growing family.


So what are you driving?



My ride:

2008 Toyota Sequoia Platinum Edition:

Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk.

Don't make fun...


An '07 Hyundai Santa Fe.





So far...an SUV-centric crowd here...

I had a 2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited, 3.2L, 4X4, Off Road Suspension custom built for me. It has been near perfect so far. I intend to keep it a long time so bought the Lifetime Service Contract to go with it.


I only buy and drive union built vehicles.

C-c-c-c-combo breaker! '07 Camry hybrid.

I'm driving this puppy:

2013 Ford Escape SEL. About a year and a half ago, we took my wife's old Civic in for a recall service, and while we were waiting, we took a CR-V for a test drive just for fun. It was pretty nondescript. Then I noticed the Escape in the lot, which seemed like a much nicer-looking (especially on the inside) version of the CR-V. I took it for a spin and it turned out to also be a MUCH nicer-driving version of the CR-V. I sat in the waiting room all afternoon to research the Ford on my phone, and in the end traded in the Civic for it. BY FAR the biggest "impulse purchase" of my life, even though I gave it several hours of careful consideration.


(Several months later, we traded my old Mazda 6s for a 2013 Civic, which my wife is driving.)

That's interesting, Aaron. I've liked the Santa Fe....but I fell into the trap (as I had with my old Subaru SL-1 wagon) that the repairs on the foreign made cars are just so much more expensive.


And I saw a TV ad recently for the Ford Escape which really caught my eye...or was it an Explorer? Dammit!


Oh well...it's not far from time for me to think about starting to shop for something new.

Mike Frezon said:

Don't make fun...


An '07 Hyundai Santa Fe.

So far...an SUV-centric crowd here...

Click to expand...

I would never make fun. My 08 Sequoia has 138,000 miles and I've only had one major repair (bad water pump about 2 months ago). It's PAID FOR and in good shape. It has enough room for my family of 6 and is great on vacations etc. Best vehicle I've ever had. I started to "get the itch" last month and started looked at new SUVS....and went immediately into sticker shock. I paid $54,000 new for mine in 08, and a 2014/15 similar version would cost close to $70,000 today. I'm so used to not having a car payment, I decided that I will ride this one til the wheels fall off. Too many better things to spend my $ on than a new car (like Blu-Rays!).

Car payments SUCK. My Escape had 14,500 miles when I bought it, which made the price $10,000 less than the original sticker price, which let me pay it off in one year. We paid cash up front for my wife's car, despite the dealer's offer of a very low interest rate. I guess we could drive nicer vehicles, but we'd rather have Good Enough and no monthly payments.


Mike, the Santa Fe and Escape are nearly indistinguishable (at least on the outside). You probably saw an Escape -- most current Ford ads seem to feature them. BTW, I think an Escape could fit inside an Explorer!

My everyday vehicle is a 2001 Toyota Tacoma which I bought new and just broke the 200,000 barrier. I know that the Tacoma won't last forever, so about 4 years ago I bought a used low mileage Ford Ranger.

I don't know if I will get another ten days or ten years out of the Tacoma but it is still running well. Once it dies I'll find another cheap used low mileage vehicle to repeat the cycle.

I've got a 2004 Honda Accord EX, bought new, now with 158k miles.

Maintenance costs are starting to be be competitive with a car loan for a new car; or, I'm putting too much money into a value-less decade old car. But, I really like my car, I don't relish the prospect of car shopping, and I really want Car Play in my next car. So I'm not rushing. This Fall at the earliest.

What is Car Play?

My rides...

1997 F250* 4x4 ext cab diesel (over 1 million miles)
1989 Taurus SHO (275,000)
1995 Miata (145,000)
1989 Astro* (over 1 million)
2006, 2010* and 2015* Forester (240k, 95k and 2000...respectively)
1976 Gremlin (bought two summers ago. Being redone to factory new. Cost so far, $22,500...including the $3000 I paid for it)
1979 Pacer (daily beater. Too far gone to restore)
1969 Sprite (80,000 miles)
Avalanche **
2013 E350 **
Aurora ** (first version)

* belong to the household. Keeping in mind we lease land and offer storage to farmers. So these are often used by leasees.
** uncles cars we drive, since he no longer wishes to.
Non asterisk are mine

All those are for 5 people(uncle included)

The Astro and F250 have done the Trans Canada a combined 10 times. Both have been to Yellow Knife and Hudson Bay. The F250 has been as far south as Ecuador(ferry to Ecuador).

Did not include my gf's daughters Mustang we gave her(had straight A's. Admitted to IU, going to IUPUI...birthday gift was the title)

I got the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk also(blue just like the one pictured above)I've had since last July and love it. One minor issue for me is the 9 speed transmission. I'm still not used to the odd timed shifts, especially in speeds under 40 mph.

My daily driver is a 2000 Toyota Celica GTS with 326,467 miles. It still gets about 25mpg highway. I drove it off the showroom floor 15 years ago and have had very little trouble with it. Too bad the celica was discontinued or I would buy another when this one eventually wears out in another 5-10 years.

(I would post a pic but I'm accessing HTF through iOS so I can't upload photos.)

Carl Johnson said:

What is Car Play?

Click to expand...

“Apple - CarPlay”
https://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/

And to be safe, my next car should also have this
“Android Auto”
http://www.android.com/auto/

Nice. It drives ( ) me nuts that the GPS in my phone is superior to the built-in GPS in my car (and paying extra for a MySync subscription would make the car better but still not as good as the phone). It would be great to be able to mirror the phone screen onto the car screen.

I currently drive a 2011 GMC Terrain and my wife drives a 2009 Saturn Vue -- both with the larger V6 engines. We generally keep our vehicles for quite a few years, so we can avoid car payments. Before the Terrain, I had a 2002 Nissan Altima V6 for nine years (it sucked driving in the snow, though), and before that a 1993 Toyota Camry V6 that I owned for 10 years, and then sold to my neighbor who owned it for another 10 years. My wife drove two Mercury Villagers (a rebadged Nissan Quest) before the Saturn Vue.


I really like the Terrain. It is not as fun to drive in the summer as the V6 Altima was, but then again I have not got stuck in the snow in my own driveway as I did twice with the Altima and can drive more than 30 MPH on snowy roads -- the Nissan always felt like I was driving on pure ice, even after I had the performance tires replaced with all weather Michelin's. The Terrain is also more solidly built than the Altima.