What do you drive?

[Morgbug]

April to November.   

[Rob]

I do the same from about April until the early part of December - to work at least.  It's about a 12 mile round trip down the lake from my house to my office and it's awesome.  We put gas in the car maybe every 5 or 6 weeks during those months.

The new car is going with my wife, to New Hampshire where she'll have a 20 mile or so commute.

[Jesse James]

Wow 5 or 6 weeks?  I'd drop a lil seafoam in just to keep things dry and smoove.

[Rob]

Not familiar... would that still be your advice if I told you I was still driving the car every 3 to 4 days, but just wasn't going far enough to burn through a tank of gas that fast?

[Jesse James]

Ah ok, no...  You won't need to do that then.  Yeah it's just an additive to keep moisture out of fuel lines that aren't used often.  If you're starting it up and running it routinely, just not far, that'll keep it fine.  Gas goes "bad" though if it's left sit long periods and in general moisture gathers in the tank and things and that's not good so you dump a little Seafoam in... 

There are other products, Heet, etc.  All basically doing the same thing, but Seafoam is some pretty solid stuff and seems to clear up a lot of fuel issues I've found.  People put it in boats for the winter, tractors, etc.

You'll be good though running it just for short bits.

[Diddly]

2004 Silver Mustang

Still driving this one, though it has been beaten up in 9 years of ownership...

I recently saved up enough cash to put a nice down payment on a new car, but my Mustang just hit 100,000 miles this summer (it had around 20,000 when I got it, and I didn't drive much in high school or college due to bus routes and carpooling) so I decided I would use that cash to fix up my car. Spent the last week fixing up the engine (was having transmission problems) and the next step will be replacing the stereo (it's too new for a cassette deck but too old to have an AUX port for music players and phones). After the new year I'll start saving to get a new paintjob and fix a giant dent from being sideswiped in a parking lot last year.

[Jeff]

Got a bad diagnosis on my wife's 2004 Mitsubishi Galant - cracked ball joints in the front and leaking transmission fluid (badly) now.  Oh, and the friggin muffler fell off as the exhaust just rusted out. (all of this just two weeks after the water pump blew up on our Toyota. Cars, man.  )

Rather than dump a couple thousand into a car worth $1800 (again - just got all new brakes, tires, and battery last fall), we decided it was time to upgrade her ride.  She's now driving a new 2016 Dodge Durango.  Kind of a bummer to have to take on a car payment again after not having one for a few years, but that's how it goes I guess.

Here's our current stable -
2008 Toyota Sienna XLE
2009 Saturn Outlook XR
2016 Dodge Durango Citadel

The Toyota is my main drive usually.  Used to haul kids around to soccer, t-ball, baseball, tennis, school, dance, tumbling, swimming, etc etc etc.  Also used by our summer nanny to haul the kids around to summer activites (since all the kids won't fit in her sedan).

The Outlook is my main drive in the summer, also primarily used for hauling our pop-up camper or my dad's boat, as we're doing the camping/road trip across america thing, etc. 

The Durango will be my wife's daily ride. She's never been a big mini-van fan and held onto her pre-kids sedan for as long as she could.  Durango will be a nice upgrade for her though - lots of new gadgets (navigation, bluetooth, etc).  Plus, it'll be nice to have a second option now for hauling the camper or boat (as there was no way our mini-van or her old Galant were pulling the camper). 

[Matt_Fury]

When we were having our second child, my wife started to look into a minivan...I was able to talk her into a Honda Pilot...that thing is great.

A few months ago I got a new job that came with a nice boost in pay.  I'm starting to look at trading in my 2010 Jeep Liberty for a new Rubicon since Jeep doesn't make the Liberty anymore.  So far, my list of requirements are:

-Steel bumpers
-GPS navigation
-Leather heated seats

Yeah...this is going to set me back a few bucks.   

[Chris M]

Matt, get a four door model.  With kids, you will thank me for that.  Maybe you can still get a new 2016 or a 2017 before the new body style comes out next year.  Trust me, that will save you on upgrade and modification costs down the road.

If you get one and decide to start upgrading let me know.  There is a right and wrong way to do it.

[Matt_Fury]

Thanks Chris...the Unlimited version is definitely the way I'd go, even though the Pilot is "the family car".

Since we had some big purchases this year (repairs to our house as well as buying a condo for the retiring mother-in-law), I'm probably going to wait until next year's model comes out.  I think the 2018s are going to have a bigger engine in them.

[Jesse James]

Lol Jeff I keep wire coat hangars in all my cars at some point I know the exhaust will come off.  And of course up here the salt makes sure you'll need it.

My current fleet is full of lots of oldies.  Some in better states than others.  Diane owns 4, I own 3, parents 3, brother 3, and that doesn't count randoms I get to deal with.

Matt, I own a 97 and yeah Jeeps in general are so so rides, so 4 doors are a must for a family.  My 97 was Diane's first and she had kids.  It was terrible putting kids in/out of it and they were beyond kids seats to boot.  She wants a 4door but we have 2 payments going on so it's not in the near future since they're so expensive.  At least they hold value though if you take care of them.

Rose in a 2000 from here to Chicago one late winter.  Oof was that a "rough ride".  Vowed I wouldn't do that again.  I've driven a 4-door that comes here for work sometimes and it's still stiff.  Then again I find Diane's explorer to be a rough ride too sometimes.

[Keonobi]

Just traded my 07 Subaru Forester in for a 2017 Forester. AWD is a plus in upstate N.Y., Subaru have a good rep for quality, and my 9&11 yr old boys look like they're going to be roughly my size (6'2"); so rear seat legroom will be a premium in the next 5 years.
First new car I've ever owned and first time I've owned a CVT.  So far I've been besting the Consumer Reports and sticker mileage estimates, which is a pleasant surprise.
Also traded my Wife's 07 Sienna that had 125k for an 07 CRV with 30k. It was a late Great Aunt's car. It's been over maintained based on mileage, though I'm thinking we should get timing belt done just because of the age, not mileage.

[Diddly]

My Mustang mentioned above finally went to car heaven the day before Thanksgiving. I got a bad prognosis from my mechanic last week that the engine was totally shot, and replacing it would cost more than the car is worth.

So long story short, this weekend I bought a 2018 Honda Civic over the weekend! I had been looking at them since the summer, and since used Civics from within the last 5 years are only about 3k less than new ones, I decided to buy new. I was hoping to get a 2017 because of potential deals since the 2018s were out, but they weren't negotiating anything, so I decided to go with a 2018 since they were only $100 more. Plus they had the color I wanted in a 2018!

Never had a car payment before (My Mustang was paid for with cash from me, my parents, and my grandparents), so that will probably mean less Star Wars toys, but that's kind of a worthy payoff.

[Jesse James]

Diane got a Jeep renegade.  It’s a lease while we get through 2 more years of football and a wedding next year for her middle child.  After that we are looking at new Wranglers.  I try to buy US or US made and the Renegadenis the first thing that is neither but I gotta say we both kinda like it.  It’s goofy small and small tires too but 4wd, sorta zippy and small is good when in the city.  I like knowing I don’t have to give much of a **** about anything but fluid changes and brakes too.  Besides paint chips or whatever, it’ll never be out of warranty while we have it so that’s someone else’s issue later.

[efranks]

I finally got rid of my 2006 Chevy Cobalt this year, at the end of July, and picked up a 2017 Hyundai Tucson on lease. It's a decent car with some nice bells and whistles. It has all wheel drive which has come in handy the last few days here in NY.

I'm not going to miss randomly spending hundreds of $$ on the Cobalt. That was a lemon of a car and the best thing I can say about it in the 9.5 years I drove it, it never stranded me on the side of the road. Couldn't make it out of the parking lot a couple times, but it didn't strand me.

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