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Which car would you buy?

Which care would YOU buy?

  • Ford C-Max Hybrid

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Ford Fusion SE

    Votes: 9 45.0%
  • Ford Escape SE

    Votes: 7 35.0%
  • Nissan Rogue

    Votes: 4 20.0%

  • Total voters
    20
You may have more luck finding your "sweet spot" in the back seat. :lol:
 
In that case, Toyota is out entirely. Friggin' clown cars.

I had a Toyota Corolla once. It was a real piece of crap but the most reliable car I ever had. I used to drive that thing with no oil in it at all. It had a slow leak and I'd always forget to check it. :lol: Thing started like clock work every single day, and it was hurting too!
 
I'm not ready for a hybrid since I don't think they are cost effective yet.

I very much doubt if they ever will be. A massive increase in complexity, for a very small increase in fuel economy. I do not think it will ever be possible to make a hybrid car without it costing a lot more than an otherwise comparable conventional car, and I don't think it will ever be possible for them to not have much higher overall maintenance costs.

Never forget that on top of all the usual complexity of a traditional internal-combustion-engined vehicle, you're adding the electrical propulsion system as well, a complex system to coordinate the two power sources, and a very expensive battery that has a very limited usable life before it needs to be replaced. I just do not see it as being at all possible for such a car to save enough in fuel costs to come anywhere close to making up for the higher initial cost and the higher maintenance costs.

Now the Tesla S...

That would be a different story.

From what I've heard and read, Tesla has made some amazing progress, but it still has a very long way to go. A pure electric car ought to be superior in every way to an internal-combustion-engine-powered car, but the battery remains a serious limitation. We do not have technology to create a battery that comes anywhere close to gasoline in terms of how much energy can be carried in a given mass and volume. To charge a battery at a rate that would be comparable to pumping gasoline into a conventional car, would require a source on the order of millions of watts; and I don't think we yet have any battery technology that can withstand being charged at such a rate, even if we had access to a powerful enough source to do so. If we ever really overcome these limitations, then I expect that the internal combustion engine would become obsolete very quickly. But I certainly wouldn't count on seeing this happen within my remaining lifetime.
 
I very much doubt if they ever will be. A massive increase in complexity, for a very small increase in fuel economy. I do not think it will ever be possible to make a hybrid car without it costing a lot more than an otherwise comparable conventional car, and I don't think it will ever be possible for them to not have much higher overall maintenance costs.

Never forget that on top of all the usual complexity of a traditional internal-combustion-engined vehicle, you're adding the electrical propulsion system as well, a complex system to coordinate the two power sources, and a very expensive battery that has a very limited usable life before it needs to be replaced. I just do not see it as being at all possible for such a car to save enough in fuel costs to come anywhere close to making up for the higher initial cost and the higher maintenance costs.



From what I've heard and read, Tesla has made some amazing progress, but it still has a very long way to go. A pure electric car ought to be superior in every way to an internal-combustion-engine-powered car, but the battery remains a serious limitation. We do not have technology to create a battery that comes anywhere close to gasoline in terms of how much energy can be carried in a given mass and volume. To charge a battery at a rate that would be comparable to pumping gasoline into a conventional car, would require a source on the order of millions of watts; and I don't think we yet have any battery technology that can withstand being charged at such a rate, even if we had access to a powerful enough source to do so. If we ever really overcome these limitations, then I expect that the internal combustion engine would become obsolete very quickly. But I certainly wouldn't count on seeing this happen within my remaining lifetime.
Well, this thread isn't about the Testa S, so this will be my last post on the topic.

The Tesla S has a quick change battery. Go to a Tesla station, and get a fully charges battery swapped in under 2 minutes...

 
I had a Ford Contour that went 187,000 miles before getting rid of it. My only major fix was replacing the timing belt, and I did that myself.

You had the four-cylinder Zetec engine, obviously. I had the same engine in a 1996 Mercury Mystique (which is, for all intents and purposes, the same car as the Contour, just a little bit fancier). The Mystique is, I think, the very best car I have ever had, but I always considered its use of a rubber timing belt to be a serious weakness. It's a bitch to have it replaced. I think it is very, very bad engineering for a part that is known to need to be replaced routinely to be such a big job to replace.

My present car, a 1997 Ford Contour, has the six-cylinder Duratec, which does not have this weakness. I think the biggest weakness of the Duratec-powered Contour comes from trying to cram too much engine into too small a space, making it very, very difficult to perform any repairs on it. It really makes me miss my first car, a 1969 Falcon station wagon, which was very old by the time my parents gave it to me, and which broke down quite often, but it was usually very easy to repair whatever ailed it.


It [an Infiniti] probably uses a $600 alternator as well.

I'm reminded of the very first non-American vehicle my parents ever had, a 1975 Toyota pickup truck that an uncle gave us after he upgraded to a better (American, this time) pickup truck. On one occasion, my father tasked me with replacing the alternator in it. I went to a parts store, with a blank check in hand, to buy the alternator. I don't remember the numbers, but price of the alternator turned out to be on the order of about three or four times what we thought it should be. I had to call my father at work, and ask him if we really wanted to pay that much for an alternator. He told me instead to ask for a “rebuild kit”, which ended up costing about what we thought a whole new alternator ought to cost, and consisted of the specific parts likely to wear out in the alternator. I ended up also needing to buy a few more tools to open the old alternator, after which it was easy enough to apply the rebuild kit. The repair was easy enough, other than the “sticker shock” aspect of buying the parts and tools.
 
Bobby my first car was a 63 Falcon convertible with the straight 170cu six with two speed slush-o-matic and I bought a 98 Contour SVT November of 97, that lil V6 in SVT configuration will sing like crazy right up to the hard fuel cut off of 6,850 RPM you are right they crammed that engine in there my real hate is the fact that the motor mount blows out every 60 to 80 thousand miles grrr best car I ever had was the second one, a 74 pinto hatchback with the 2.0 liter four banger
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Not a Ford man at all, but probably the Escape. My neighbor across the street is on his third. He loves them.
Of course he is an older man and just drives it around town and one or two trips to Maine to visit his mother per year.
No towing or heavy hauling. His have all been newer ones he buys new.
Nissan makes a great car that you just cant kill and are super reliable. But I find the Rogue pretty damn ugly.
 
I've been driving Nissan products for the last eight years and haven't had a lick of trouble. I had the big brother of the Rogue(FX35) and was amazed at the handling ability.
 
You should watch The Gods Must be Crazy, and then go out and buy an old Series Two Land Rover. You may not be happy, but you'll never be bored.
 
Not a Ford man at all, but probably the Escape. My neighbor across the street is on his third. He loves them.
Of course he is an older man and just drives it around town and one or two trips to Maine to visit his mother per year.
No towing or heavy hauling. His have all been newer ones he buys new.
Nissan makes a great car that you just cant kill and are super reliable. But I find the Rogue pretty damn ugly.

Well that's a matter of opinion. I love mine. Also, Lexus disagrees with you as well, because the new RX 350 looks just like a Rogue. I've even gone up to them in the parking lot, thinking they were my Rogue.
 
The Japs make fine cars that seldom require repair, the parts are expensive but if it never breaks down who cares?
This person doesn't strike me as someone that is going to keep any vehicle for 20 years
and the Nipponese cars retain their re-sale value far better than the American products so ok go with something from the land of the rising sun.
 
non of the above. I would buy a Ford F250 4x4 crew cab with a power stroke diesel.
 
You should watch The Gods Must be Crazy, and then go out and buy an old Series Two Land Rover. You may not be happy, but you'll never be bored.

Just don't let yourself be distracted by your passenger's panties, or else the vehicle might end up in a tree.
 
Just don't let yourself be distracted by your passenger's panties, or else the vehicle might end up in a tree.
Stuff happens. I had the eighth Series II made. Loved it. Don't have the patience for another, though.
 
on the order of about three or four times what we thought it should be
That is why I've always bought American (nuthin' but ferds in my case) but I keep my cars forever n ever

Bought a new 2.3 LX 'Stang in 87 still got it with 380,000 miles A 92 5.0 LX 'Stang in 96 with 65,000 thousand on it has 230,000 now.
A new 98 Contour SVT with only 110,000. I've done all the repairs required, the parts are dirt cheap.
Of course all three are manual transmission so all ya gotta do is chuck in a new clutch every so often and yer good to go.
 
This would be my choice.
 

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Looks like I'll be going with the Escape, barring any issues with the finance asshats at my dealership. :)
 
Of the available choices, which would YOU buy? ONLY these choices, please: Ford C-Max Hybrid, Ford Fusion SE, Ford Escape SE, Nissan Rogue.

It depends on whether you're buying new or used, and when.

Of the 4 cars listed, my first choice would be the Ford Fusion. However, they just redesigned it this year, and you should NEVER under any circumstances buy a car the first year of a new design. So if you're buying 2012 or older, or a 2014 model, I'd get the fusion. Don't buy a 2013.

I'd avoid the hybrid. Most people won't drive them enough to make up the difference in cost, and they all have problems with the amount of charge the battery can hold going down over the years.
 
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