Makeitso

I don't own a car.

I drive a 2004 Ford Ranger (mini-truck).

My wife drives a 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander (SUV).

gruffydd

Ouch, my bad. That didn't come out right. No the GF is not 6. I meant to write that she was in the car also. (by the way, I was joking. I really wouldn't get rid of her.)

Wanderer

a 16 year old, '93, Chevy S-10, 50,000 miles. No plan or reason to change it.

dguest

2006 Chevy Silverado 1500 and a 2006 Chevy HHR both have 50 Tousand plus on them

big john

Of course I am not advocating laws regulating power. I don't care what you drive, as long as you don't threaten other people with it. I'm just shocked that we even sell such things to the public. To be fair, Chevy does offer a course at the Bob Bondurant driving school to the buyer of the ZR1, but not the Z06.
I see the people who drive these things and I don't think most of them know what they are doing.

I don't enjoy driving them myself, (I'm a mechanic at a Chevy dealer), but I've never been into the high performance car thing.

Tom Bombadil

To the best of my recollection, I have never driven a vehicle that had 200 or more horsepower. I think our current minivan with 195hp is the highest. My Integra with 140hp has reasonable quickness, given its light weight.

Jet Travis

This, of course, excludes bicycles.

Tom Bombadil

My bicycle is measured in gerbil power.

spiker

just recycled my '95 Saturn wagon (147,000 miles) for a '95 Camry wagon (155,000 miles), figure it'll last at least 4 years

StanSeven

I had this in the 320 model. I traded it in for the AMG 3.2 version that was so fast. The problem is the brakes didn't match the acceleration. But it's a fun car to drive.

Booger1

Well,it doesn't actually ride in a trailer,it just wishes it did.....

guybierhaus

Yen - "........ really like the Fiesta and rate it very high in many categories...... It could be Ford's answer to the Honda Fit. Hopefully it will drive Ford's stock back up...."

That's why I'm thinking of a purchase, kind of helping my own cause, I'm sitting on 6,000 shares of F.

Stepfam..."Don't know if it is the same as the Fiesta we have over here. Small car 4/5 seater hatchback."

As I understand what I'm reading, the Fiesta is to be one of Ford's true world products. Same car, USA gets no turbo diesel as GM managed to destroy the diesel car market. New Ford Focus to follow, same as Europe. Of course there will be minor differences. USA specs laminated windshields, believe Europe is tempered glass. USA has cat converters, Europe doesn't? Or at least different models. And I believe to be able to actually make some money on the car, the USA Fiesta will be built in Mexico.

big john

I gotta hear you explain this statement.

Retro Grouch 

So help me out.

Is a Ford that's produced in Mexico a domestic car or an import? How about a Honda that's produced in Ohio?

maddmaxx 

Doesn't it seem strange that to support american jobs we need to think about buying a Japanese car?

One of the jokes at the last Daytona 500 was that of all of the models of cars represented on the track, only one was made in America...............The Toyota

12bar

1998 F150 it's our only cage

Tom Bombadil

I saw a statistic the other day that showed the combined output of cars from the North American plants of Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Hyundai is more than the output from the N.A. plants of Ford and Chrysler combined.

The USA did kill off diesel cars by offering only lower quality, high sulfur diesel fuel for decades. The really nice diesel cars that were offered in Europe needed higher quality fuel to meet performance and pollution standards.

A majority of the cars sold in Europe have diesel engines. And their most popular body style is the hatchback. Makes sense to me. They also buy far more vehicles with manual transmissions. Cars with high mileage and high utility. And better handling too, as they use tighter suspensions in Europe.

Honda has been selling a great turbo-diesel engine in Europe for several years now and has yet to bring it to the USA. Ford & Chrysler have some nice turbo-diesels over there too, as does GM/Opel. Of course the European companies specialize in them.

jwh

2003 Subaru Outback Sedan and 2007 Subaru Forester. (So I don't have to shovel the snow in the driveway)

Retro Grouch 

I think that it depends on whether you are a Republican or a Democrat.

The Republicans are concerned about where the corporate profits go. The Democrats care about the worker wages.

guybierhaus

Well I had a long reply but hit right mouse button and it disappeared. Suffice it to say I have a V-8 diesel powered Oldsmobile for sale. Gets 20 mpg, assuming you can get it to start, and once started it will actually go 20 miles. The pop culture was not happy with these cars. Dealers did not want them back in trade ins. Pop culture didn't seem to know about VW Rabbit or Mercedes diesels. Ford execs believe the pop culture will not buy another diesel powered car. Also it seems US has taxed diesel fuel to such an extent, it costs more then regular gas now. You may be an individual and would like a 50 plus mpg diesel car. Particularly if you can mix in some used cooking oil or heating oil to lower your per gallon cost. Unfortunately there aren't enough of you.

big john

I was a diesel mechanic at an Oldsmobile dealer in 1980. It sucked, so I quit. The engines were bad. Unreliable, gutless, smoking slugs with the ability to stretch a head bolt or barf a main bearing onto the roadway. This engine was derived from a gas engine in a hasty attempt to produce a diesel car after the first "oil crisis". At one time, 1983?, there were 13 manufacturers selling diesel powered cars in the U.S. The following year, there were 2. The diesel car market died with the gas prices dropping/leveling and the histeria subsiding. People don't want to deal with diesel if gas is cheap enough.
Now, if there were reasonable diesel choices here I think they would sell better. Many car buyers today weren't even born then or at least aware of the cars.

RoMad

1997 coachman motorhome on Ford F-350 chassis- 9.5 mpg. (all around, I don't do city / highway)
1997 Nissan Sentra for Son #2. Wife bought it at garage sale. He put a new engine and transmission in it. 34 mpg
2003 Nissan Sentra for Son #3. 33mpg
2003 Honda Pilot for wife. 22mpg
2006 Toyota Tacomah extended cab 5 speed manual for me. 26mpg and bike fits nicely behind front seat.
2007 Suzuki GSX 1000 started out as Son #2's and nice dad bought it from him so he could afford to go to school. 45mpg with dad driving it. Fun to ride but definately for sale.

We have talked about buying something that gets better mileage than the Pilot but it is a great vehicle and nobody is buying SUVs right now. If we sold it and got a 35mpg car we would never get back the difference in the cost. Wife usually drives #3 sons car if she has much driving to do. It is pretty easy to get him, at 18, to swap for the pilot.
A few years back my wife and I would not consider anything but an American car, then we bought the Pilot and were impressed with the quality and fuel mileage for size. Now we are feeling guilty and will go back to supporting American workers. My Tacomah was made in the USA and it is a fine vehicle. I would like to buy a made in USA and owned by USA next time.

maddmaxx 

To the best of my recollection, I have never driven a vehicle that had more than 1200 horsepower. No more than 500 horsepower on the street..... It easy to get into trouble with as little as 100 hp so perhaps that's not the best indicator. I will go so far as to say that 90% of the drivers out there are awful. In my world, all drivers would be required to take the equivalent of a minimum race driving school. That would give them an appreciation of how far over their heads most of them are when driving.


My current newest car, a 2003 Pontiac Sunfire which at the increase of over 30,000 miles a year wont last all that much longer.

Wanted........Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris.

lubers

2001 Saturn SL1 with 139,000 miles on it, will keep it until it dies 30 mpg, my wifes car is a 2002 Saturn SL with 40,000 miles on. She walks or takes her bike to work now so it sits in the garage most of the time. Would like to buy a truck to replace mine but I'm already on my third job this year and now they are talks about cutting back so its wait and see what happens.

ThinLine

1 year old Mercedes Benz (2007) C280 4Matic.