My Prius died about six weeks ago. It was a sudden cryptic hybrid death that gave no details. I decided not to fix it since it was already eating oil, a 2010 Prius problem. I donated the car to Habitat and transferred ownership of my mother's 2009 Camry to me and that is now my vehicle. I was afraid that if my mother didn't see her car in the driveway, she'd repeat her meltdown of last year. I envy people in other countries like Bangla Desh who can't afford cars. Their old people don't define their self worth in terms of ownership of a 700 kilogram machine and the right to drive it. But the next car I buy may be an electric car. If so, it will be my last car, if I live a year or twenty years. There are no hundreds of moving parts operating at high temperature. No oil changes. A new battery every ten years but the car should last a very long time. Brake changes every 250,000 kilometers. I have nothing against internal combustion engines per se. They are remarkable technological achievements especially in their present form. They still have their advantages over electric vehicles. But that robust physical simplicity is really attractive. By the way, Mercedes Benz is halting R&D directed at development of new internal combustion engines in the next few years. Of course, public transportation would be better, but I'll probably still need a car unless I reposition into a more urban environment. If it's electric, I'll have to be happy with it until death do we part.
I suspect I have already bought my last car. It is a 2007 Honda CRV. I usually keep my cars for ten years. I have 55,000 miles on it. My life expectancy is about 12 years.
ReplyDeleteHonda keeps telling me how many people want my car. The service guy last time said he would buy it from me. I told him I was looking for an even trade, a new car for my old car.
I have a 2011 Avalon with just under 114k miles. You don't drive much, do you?
DeleteNowadays, with caring for my mother, almost all my driving is local. If I had a Prius Prime, which is a plug-in hybrid with a 40 kilometer range, I'd hardly ever buy gasoline.
DeleteWhy do you have a car in SF, Jimmy? You have those cool cable cars? In the 90's, after I had a couple Margaritas and four Irish Coffees at Fisherman's Wharf, we took the cable car to the St. Francis hotel. There I sipped a Sambucca while watching formally dressed Japanese tourists ballroom dance. Thought to myself that I should do that someday and I did.
DeleteJack we have the CRV, too. Great car for us!
DeleteStanley, that 2009 Camry might last quit a while, they're kind of like the Energizer Bunny. Was it the battery on your Prius that went? I heard they cost around $6K to replace.
ReplyDeleteWe have a 2010 and a 2015 Chevy Impala. We could save a bunch of money on insurance and licensing if we went down to one car. But not quite ready to do that yet. My husband is getting car fever because the 2015 is paid off in a couple of months. I told him he has to wait until spring. If I have my way about it the next one will be a Nissan Altima. Both sons have one. The younger one has had his for 14 years, and he's still driving it to work.
We drove absolute crap cars for years that left us by the side of the road many times. Ought to be time off purgatory. Those were the old carburetor systems, fuel injection is a wonderful thing.
My dad's last vehicle is a 2010 Dodge Ram pickup that looks like it's been in a demolition derby. God bless my sister because she takes him to church and gets his groceries for him now.
I know quite a few married couples who have "his" car, and "her" car. We never have. Whichever car is in back in the driveway is the next one up. In the old days it was whichever one would start.
DeleteKatherine, I've heard $4,500 for a new Prius battery. But not repairing the Prius and switching to the Camry collapsed a few problems and made things simpler. Yeah, the new cars are more durable. I have to say that I liked playing the game of maintaining the old pieces of junk. I used to be able to pull an engine with transmission out of a car, rebuild the engine and put it back in. These reliable cars take all the fun out.
DeleteKatherine - we're the same way: no "his" and "her" cars. We have one checking account between us, too - it's kind of surprising how many couples try to keep their finances separate.
DeleteWe do and always have. We have a joint checking a/c and credit card for household expenses. Otherwise, what is his is his and what is mine is mine. No spending fights that way.
DeleteEvery couple has to do what works for them. We were pretty young (by today's standards) and didn't have anything starting out, so it seemed kind of pointless to maintain separate finances.
DeleteDon't be too sure about the "last" anything. Ten years ago my wallet was a wreck. I didn't want to replace it until I could find one just like it because I figured the next wallet I bought would be my last. So whenever I took out my wallet it left a trail of credit cards, licenses and notes and all over the booth and table. Finally a friend put a very different wallet in front of me. It wasn't my old one, but I gave in. It wore out. I am now on my second "last" wallet. You never know about these things.
ReplyDeleteMy current car is a 2005 Jaguar XJ8E. Back seat is big enough for the Queen to have a table back there for writing thank-you notes. It's red. Of course. It was the only car that could be parked next to a Spitfire, and the Jag makers showed it that way in ads years ago. Two of the classiest looking pieces of industrial design ever. Of course, I lusted after it (and a Spit) then.
My son (who has two Teslas in the family) surprised me with it for my birthday two years ago. He said it would be like driving a Buick -- "Anyone can see you are an old fart and will stay clear of you." It's rebuilt after an accident. The first year I spent as much on repairs as I would have spent in payments if I had bought it new. Even my wife, who won't permit a Prius because it's made by a foreign country, didn't object to the Jag. Which we don't drive all that much -- just to church and our multitude of doctors. At 84,000 miles it should last as long as I do, my son says. But he could be wrong.
I may be on my last wallet. Made in America, too. The Jag sounds like fun. If you're not putting on that many miles, a Prius wouldn't make a big impact on the old carbon footprint.
DeleteTom, that's cool about your Jaguar! Do you pronounce it "Jag-yer" like they do on the British shows?
DeleteOr "Jag-you-ah" - that's kind of a British snooty approach.
DeleteOr you could be a Chicago South Sider like my wife and just call it a "Jagwire".
Early on in family life we had Volkswagens, first a bug and then a rabbit...both bought used. The great thing as I recall was that when they wouldn't start (fairly often). You could put it in gear and push it (preferably down hill) and it would start. And they were so small that you could turn around and touch a kid who needed calming down.
ReplyDeleteThen we gave up owning a car. We just rented them when we needed one (usually in the summer for vacations)..
Then we retired and renting became a hassle partly because we needed one more often to go to our fabulous cabin in the woods. Finally one day driving to the cabin we stopped to look at new cars (Toyota and Subaru). Great salesman... showed us a Subaru Forester that was immediately available. We snapped it up (and he helped us return the rented car in this smallish upstate town).
It is a very good car. We only drive it in the summer (and stick it in a friend's garage during the non-summer). It is what I think of as a "normal" car...no gadgets (that I need to know about)...so I hope it will be our last car...It's a 2014 with about 35,000 miles...Like Jack, we get pleas from Subaru to bring it in; someone else is dying to own it...and we could drive off with a brand new...
One of my sisters has a Forester. She says it is a great car.
DeleteYes Margaret, they must have had manual transmissions. You could start a car with a dead battery by rolling them and popping the clutch. Good old days.
DeleteI'd like to drive less, but it's difficult. I ride my bicycle when I'm able, but I'm not able to, very often. Everything around here is too far to walk to - the whole damn suburbia is designed for automobiles.
ReplyDeleteI've inquired about buying electric or hybrid cars the last few times we've bought cars. It's more expensive and the makes/models haven't lined up with what I've needed/wanted, so far. Would love to do it when it makes sense.
In time, electric car tech will improve as costs go down. No hurry. I'm not the first one on the block to adopt new technologies. More like the third.
DeleteI am driving my late mom's giant Merc because Raber gets snippy about sharing the Honda. Will keep the Merc until The Boy's Ford Focus dies (any minute now), and then he can have it to sell or drive. And I will go back to bickering with Raber about car sharing.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, there's something to be said for not having to share rides. Saves a lot of hassles. Especially for someone like me who has a fair degree of anxiety being a passenger.
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