What are you driving?

[Foggy]

Whoa, that's not a happy ending!

[Estiveo]

My father bought a '67 that looked like this one.

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He neglected it horribly for 5 years, then, rather than pay to fix it back up, traded it in for a brand new '72 Pinto! (And thought he'd made a very clever deal.)

4 years later, as my parents were splitting up, I ended up with the Pinto, and my father, the smartest wheeler dealer ever to outsmart a car salesman, scored a '76 AMC Pacer.

[Foggy]

Off Topic

When my dad took me to buy my first car, a '68 VW bus, we went to the gas station where the guy who owned it was, and for some odd reason my dad decided that he needed to drop a few cuss words into the conversation, maybe to fit in? I dunno.

But unlike me, who cusses a blue streak smoothly and professionally

my dad never cussed. He was a sailor naval officer who couldn't cuss.

My only vivid memory of the event.

[Shizzle Popped]

2020 Subaru Outback: Great car. Comfortable, reasonably quiet, more than capable in bad weather, goes places I never thought I would take it.

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2022 Subaru Impreza: Mrs. Shizzle's car. Wanted something smaller and I saw this on the lot when my car was in for an oil change and knew she would like it. Loads of fun to drive. Sadly, it's been in the shop for the last two months with an SRS fault. Parts have taken a while to get and now we're waiting on a wire harness which isn't going to be in until mid-October at the earliest. I'm not happy. The dealer has been great but SOA got an earful last week.

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2009 Mazda6: Was my wife's car until we gave it to our daughter. This was a year and a half ago at about 130k miles. My wife LOVED this car. The daughter clipped the corner of the garage and did enough damage to total it about a month ago. Yeah, I don't know how. As of last night there's a black 2013 Mazda6 sitting in its place. I'm going to clay bar, buff/polish and wax that one starting tomorrow.

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[Maybenaut]

Nice car.

But doesn't look much like a Mustang.
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There were a lot of years where a Mustang didn’t look like a mustang.

1985, for example…

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[Shizzle Popped]

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Then there were the Mustang II years. Yuk.

[bill_g]

2007 Ranger w about 70k miles on it.
2009 Ranger 4WD with over a quarter million miles on it.
2013 Corolla with about 13k on it.

[northland10]

52014010906_00dc15b7fb_b.jpg

Then there were the Mustang II years. Yuk.

Ew!!!

[Foggy]

New sled ...

.

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[shannon]

2015 Subaru Forrester

[Resume18]

2010 Mazda 3

2013 Genesis Coupe

2024 Mazda CX-90

[MN-Skeptic]

2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport 2.0 Turbo Ultimate.

My husband bought this Santa Fe four months before he retired. I was driving a 2012 Santa Fe. When my sweetie passed away in April 2018, I sold my Santa Fe and started using my husband's. It has all the bells and whistles and safety features so I love it.

[Foggy]

Well, ol' Wifehorn is a superstar insurance agent, and Aetna finally paid her bonus from last year. Hay nao, do you have any idea how much money Aetna made by investing all the money it owed the agents instead of paying them their bonuses? Of course last year's bonus didn't get paid until late August.

But she is a good agent. The things she does, and we do, for her clients, none of the other agents do. We don't even bother advertising any more. She doesn't want many more clients, but new people call every week.

So she got a nice bonus, and she bought a nice car, and now I have to teach her how to use the tech and other features.

It has a very different feel than our 2017 Camry (this is a 2022 Camry). I think this one is four cylinders and the other one is a V-6. But I haven't confirmed yet, had some other stuff to do. I never could get the old Camry to do voice recognition.

Camry: Do you want to call your mom? Please answer yes or no.
Me: No.
Camry: I didn't understand that. Please answer yes or no.
Me: No.
Camry: I didn't understand that. Please answer yes or no.
Me: No.
Camry: I didn't understand that. Please answer yes or no.
Me: NO, YOU ASSHOLE! MY MOM'S BEEN DEAD EIGHTEEN YEARS!
Camry: I didn't understand that. Please answer yes or no.
Me:

[Foggy]

Car Report

1. Climate Control

Very sophisticated, compared to our 2017 Camry (this is a 2022 model), it has the "AUTO" feature, where you just pick the temperature you want and it chooses fan speed and heating or cooling. That's nothing special, but ol' Wifehorn is gonna love the "SYNC" feature, separate climate control for the passenger and driver. I like the controls for when I want off auto.

2. Software Services

We got temporarily fucked on this one. It's a good thing ol' Wifehorn told me last night that this thing used to be a rental car, because when I created an account at Toyota.com and did "Add a vehicle" and I scanned the VIN in, it told me to pound sand because it was a rental vehicle, and did I think I could simply gank it from the rental car company by just adding it to MY personal account? Oho, señor, not so fast.

So I spent some time on the phone, and some time on the internet, and some time explaining to ol' Wifehorn why she can't have the built-in map service.

[Foggy]

3. Bad Thing

This car wants to prevent me from changing lanes without signaling.

Umm ... you did know that if you *bump* your turn signal just a bit without turning it all the way on, it blinks three times and then stops, amirite? That's for signaling a lane change. I hope you knew that already.*

And if you signal a lane change correctly, the car will not object to you changing lanes. But you must *bump* the turn signal, or the car will not be psychologically or emotionally ready for a change of lanes, and it will assume you are drunk or disabled or sleeping or whatnot. It doesn't think you are changing lanes, it thinks you are drifting. Which is dangerous.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/649303bd-9 ... 4000466576

If you just change lanes because you feel like it, or if you are a certified SoCal maniac , it's gonna fight you. I once got a ticket on the 5 freeway for "continuously changing lanes to exceed 75 mph" and it was one of my proudest days. Those slow people are in my way.

But this car is going to beep three times in a most snotty fashion, and it is actually going to try to take you back to the lane you were in. It is going to fight with you for the wheel, and beep at my ass so I know I'm not following the rules.

I am who I am and I don't follow the damn rules.

So, as gratifying as it is to know I can win a fight with my car about where we're going, I gotta shut that down.




* Dear lord in heaven, ol' Wifehorn did not know that. It worked on every car we ever owned in 30 years of marriage (almost). That's really 20th century tech. It's a step up from hanging your arm out the window to signal a turn (yes, us geezers really did that).

[Shizzle Popped]

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2013 Mazda6 my daughter brought home this week. It had to be black. Ugh. 73k miles, no accidents and seems to be solid but it has a lot of scratches on the hood and trunk lid from bags or purses. I buffed some of them out but many of them were just too deep. I spent parts of the last three days cleaning it up and doing minor maintenance. I've got two hours invested in sanding and buffing out the headlight lenses alone. It's got three coats of a ceramic-based wax with a 24 hour cure between them so it should be well protected.

[northland10]

A car that forces users to actually use that funny lever on the steering wheel before they start changing lanes? I'm think I'm I love.

Around here, turn signals are optional features to cars and if they do have them they only use it halfway through the lane change. It's sort of like how brakes are only needed to tap constantly on the freeway, and not for things like 4-way stops and red lights.

[Foggy]

I learned that it has a camera built into the front windshield where the inside rear view mirror is connected. Camera in front, mirror behind it. AND something they are calling "millimeter wave radar" built into the grille. How many millimeters? The camera and the radar try to detect pedestrians and stop the car before you have a chance to hit them, which is no fun, but you can turn it off. It tries to prevent collisions with cars in front of you, and will even apply the brakes in case you are already dead or sumpin'.

I think maybe this car is banned from demolition derby. Doesn't collide well with others.

[Reddog]

I agree that google maps is better than onboard navigation, (that I’m familiar with). It shows traffic conditions ahead etc.
at this time we have a 2016 Subaru with onboard navigation. If I don’t update the maps it’s not accurate. We also have a 2019 Subaru Crosstrek with CarPlay. I like the lane change warning, maybe I’m weird, I guess.
I also have a 2009 Ranger, I had a 1998 with a quarter million miles on it and regretted selling it almost immediately. I kept checking for a standard cab with a long bed. Finally found one in Louisville, flew down with a cashier check and drove it back to Missouri.
One of the first things I done was install a CarPlay radio with reversing camera. I got spoiled on the Subarus. Should help with backing up to a trailer also.
Another feature I love us adaptive cruise. That’s one of those things that will start an argument, though. To me it does away with the constant brake tapping on the highway.

[neonzx]

Around here, turn signals are optional features to cars and if they do have them they only use it halfway through the lane change. It's sort of like how brakes are only needed to tap constantly on the freeway, and not for things like 4-way stops and red lights.

You must live in California because I hear turn-signals on vehicles are disabled by default. So drivers just nudge into traffic lanes.

But it also sounds like Florida, where drivers just zoom by stopped school buses with flashing lights and a stop sign extended.

Thus could be either.

[Foggy]

I also have a 2009 Ranger, I had a 1998 with a quarter million miles on it and regretted selling it almost immediately. I kept checking for a standard cab with a long bed. Finally found one in Louisville, flew down with a cashier check and drove it back to Missouri.

A car as old as the Fogbow community! And a Ford, no less!

I'm curious, how much did you get for selling a truck with 250,000 miles on it? Or was it a barter thing? I once traded a station wagon for a case of Heinekens (it was not able to start and the buyer towed it).

[Reddog]

Lol, I got $700. I probably got a beer or few also. Sold it to one of the sisters that own my bar of choice.
I always liked Ford. First (and one of my best cars) was a ‘71 Torino, 351 Cleveland, closed chamber heads, close ratio 4-speed with Hurst shifter, and positrac rear-end. I carried a log chain with me, I pulled people out of ditches after heavy snow. Great car I gave $500 for it in 1974. Got about 10 mpg had to use Ethyl. Worst thing was if I overrevved it I was spending money on bent pushrods. Probably shouldn’t have put in a high lift cam. Wish I had that one still.

[Foggy]

I think Ford was the only major car company that didn't need a multi-billion dollar bailout from the government in 2008, amirite?

I continue to be impressed by the stories I hear from Ford owners. It's been several hundred years since I heard:

Fix
Or
Repair
Daily

... which is what we said when I was somewhat younger.

[northland10]

I also have a 2009 Ranger, I had a 1998 with a quarter million miles on it and regretted selling it almost immediately.

When I replaced my 2002 Ford Ranger in 2016 with a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, it was the first time I did not have a Ranger since 1990. I liked the 3 I had over that period. However, they had stopped making that at that point and my current life said a small pickup was not practical. I need to be able to fit an 88-key weighted keyboard, a portable PA, music stands, and possibly a second keyboard (and the keyboard stands and the portable piano stool, etc). Yes, a pickup has a big bed but by insurance standards, it is considered outside of the vehicle and when you carry electronic equipment, that is an important consideration.

[Reddog]

When I replaced my 2002 Ford Ranger in 2016 with a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, it was the first time I did not have a Ranger since 1990. I liked the 3 I had over that period. However, they had stopped making that at that point and my current life said a small pickup was not practical. I need to be able to fit an 88-key weighted keyboard, a portable PA, music stands, and possibly a second keyboard (and the keyboard stands and the portable piano stool, etc). Yes, a pickup has a big bed but by insurance standards, it is considered outside of the vehicle and when you carry electronic equipment, that is an important consideration.

Before my 98 Ranger I had 88, also.
Other saying was Found On Road Dead

I totally understand about the equipment. My daughter played harp, we bought a 95 Blazer to haul it. She had a Lyon & Healy Troubadour lever harp at first. It wasn’t very hard to load. When she moved up to a Salvi pedal harp. It was a lot harder to load. We really needed a van at that point. Her husband’s problem now.