I don’t want to be the type of individual who appears on some forum scolding a person because they misstated some bit of car knowledge. Turns out the Carrera Whatever GTS actually wasn’t available with the wing from the GT Whocares Weissach Edition? Big deal, you goofed.
However, I will say that, as an Autopian, I do hear non-car-person normies recite – confidently – some really strange misinformation about cars.
I’ve personally had at least two people tell me that they were considering a GMC product because “it’s professional grade” and “they know trucks.” I tell them that it’s a marketing play and these supposedly “heavy-duty” vehicles are built on the same assembly lines as Chevies and, as such, offer absolutely no benefits over bowtie-branded SUVs. Naturally, they usually go ahead and buy an Acadia instead of a used Highlander, and you know how that ends up.
This is that same kind of “thinking” that gets people to dismiss our S.W. Gossin’s Sebring coupe as “nineties Chrysler junk.” Yeah, it was built on the same assembly line as the Japanese Mitsubishi Eclipse, so it’s as much of a Mopar as one of those Mercedes Crossfires. Wow, I forgot that these were really nice-looking cars:
Has anyone ever talked to you about Austin-Martins? I have, and such a misguidedly convoluted name had me envisioning Bugeye Sprites with machine guns behind the headlights.
Some of these people are the same ones who let a fuel-injected car “warm up” so that it doesn’t stall. That’s not as bad as the person who was irate when the mechanic said that their diesel car needed new “glow worms.” They weren’t going to buy that crap!
You must have heard some real eye-rollers yourself. Let’s hear a few!
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer; Empty Shell LLC
How about this one:
“We have one kid so we need a 3 row SUV”
Hey, have you seen the size of the average modern car seat and baby stroller? Not to mention a diaper bag that I could pack for a weeklong work trip with.
Honestly… people without kids or people with kids who are grown up have no idea. We have outgrown my Maverick and CRV with just 2 kids. Helllloooo Toyota Sienna.
Oh, my daughter is now 21 and it was an issue then. If we needed the stroller we just took the Jeep WJ. I upgraded to a 300M when she was born because my old SHO did NOT fit a rear facing car seat. The 300M was spacious, but a stroller took up the whole damn trunk.
My parents just used a light umbrella stroller for my brother, and never carried a week’s supplies for an afternoon trip.
It is about the space then and not the third row. In minivans the third row now folds flat or once was removable a third row in an SUV is a space hog.
We switched up to a Volvo 1986 740 wagon after about a year in a 1990 Honda civic with a one year old and a seven year old.
Of course my parents drove their two children around in the space behind the seats in an MGTD. When they had a third child they got an MG 1100. Still only two doors.
And thus drove the trade-in of the 300ZX for a Subaru wagon (1987) when we had twins arriving. I did see a hero with a 911 with two car seats in the back seat one time.
and if it was only 2 row there would be more room. I am talking about the third row and the space it takes away from a good big 2 row suv.
yeah the “average” car seat is a monstrocity because of comfort/convenience features added to them. there are so many compact car seats / boosters and upright compact forward facing seats that will fit in like any car but parents don’t gravitate to them becuse they cost more money , aren’t available at the supermarket or they don’t “look” comfortable or conveneint enough. so they buy the car that fits their carseat vs buying a carseat that fits their car. There is a youtuber called “carmom” that shows so many different kinds of car seats and how to fit 3 car seats in just about any kind of vehicle she’s amazing!
My brother got rid of his UR Mini after the third kid
I had friends who decided they outgrew their four-door Bronco when they had a second baby a couple years after the first. They upsized to a four-door Raptor. No topper because they don’t like the way it looks. Guess thieves don’t go after strollers.
This is us. But to be fair, our extended family has all started having kids at the same time, so packing in 3 little cousins under the age of 2 along with our own is something that has now happened on multiple occasions.
My mother in law, who often comes to me for car advice, insists on pressing her foot on the gas when starting her 2021 Yaris. She had to do that with her Beetle in the late 60s to get it to start. Now, she refuses to accept that it’s not needed, and probably not that good for the car.
I cringe every time she turns the key. Luckily she only drives about 2500 kms per year.
Is she looking for the choke knob? My MIL called me one day asking if I could fix her lawnmower and when I asked if she checked the oil she said “Oil?” I told her that after 11 years on the factory oil that was never checked there was nothing I could do and she bought an electric lawnmower.
I don’t remember when, but at some point VW went to an automatic choke. My owners manual states that to start the car, you pump the gas pedal to the floor once, let up, and start it. The “automatic” part is that the choke gradually turns off on its own. Starting procedure for a hot engine is to slowly depress the accelerator to the floor while cranking the engine, until it starts. And as anyone who has owned a carb’d car knows, sometimes a little extra gas is needed to get it to fire up.
I suspect she’s remembering some combination of these starting procedures, which are unnecessary on anything without a carburetor.
Yes I know I was trying for a little humor. I have even installed manual chokes on old fords after the damn vacuum line from the manifold rusted away.
Interesting, Ford’s approach to automatic chokes is different than the VWs. Auto choke on the VW is just an electric heating element on the side of the carb that, as it expands, opens up the choke. It also needs seasonal adjustment, for extra fun.
Ford must have wanted something that rust could break.
On a Ford (and probably others) holding the pedal to the floor during start is the flood-clearing mode. It’ll crank and not start!
Luckily, she doesn’t floor it. Luckily.
My grandmother-in-law thought that her old 2000 Ram 1500 single cab had more power and better towing capacity than the first gen Ridgeline that replaced it. It did not.
The other funny one was that I have a family friend who will turn off the AC/heat before turning off the car to make sure that it can start more easily later.
The heat/AC thing makes sense for older cars. All the pre-y2k cars I’ve owned haven’t had the complexity to cut out the accessory circuits when starting, and having the fans on would definitely have an impact on one with a weaker battery.
An older coworker used to shut off the fan and radio before shutting of the car. I recall looking at them like they were insane. My dad (78) never worried about it.
On old radios with the ‘turn volume to off’ knob I used to do this, but not for battery reasons – I’d turn the volume up while driving on the highway, and if I didn’t turn it all the way down (and clicking it off was a good way to make sure), when I came out to start the car in the quiet morning, the music would come on with deafening volume!
Yes, also the headlights.
Yep when I learned to drive in the 80s, my parents insisted everything electrical in the car be turned off before starting to ‘reduce the load on the starter and battery.’ Even the 70s cars I was driving accessories and the AC compressor would have the power to them cut off when the key was in the ‘start’ position.
My 83 Corolla wagon didn’t cut the accessories, and my 96 Civic didn’t either (but that might have been due to enthusiastic freelance wewiring in the car’s past).
“will turn off the AC/heat before turning off the car to make sure that it can start more easily later.”
There is some merit to that if the car has a weak battery and the owner is too cheap to replace the worn out battery.
This would describe my dad.
I recall when I was young on a cold winter morning, you’d often have maybe one or two tries to start the car. If you didn’t do it right, you’d have to get out the jumper cables and ask one of the neighbors for a boost.
Adult-me could go back to that time, I’d yell at my dad for being cheap to the point of idiocy and just replace the fucking battery… and the starter as well if it was worn out.
I have an uncle who turns off the AC every time he comes to a stop
My mom, who is absolutely allergic to technology, also turns off the AC before shutting off her Prius. She complained about how she can’t drive long distances anymore because it gets too hot, and I’m fairly certain it’s because she forgot to turn the AC back on
That EVs don’t need maintenance.
They need less maintenance. They still have coolant, brake fluid, gear oil, and brakes. The suspension and steering still have parts that wear and need replacing.
Just cause you don’t need oil changes and fuel system maintenance doesn’t mean the rest of the car is magically absolved of the laws of physics.
That hits home. I got so many weird looks and questions from folks when I mentioned I had the oil changed in my EV. Like, my dude, it has two gear boxes full of the stuff.
Repairing or maintaining a car is so mindboglingly difficult and dangerous that it can only be performed by professionals.
At the same time I see people who get a brake job at the cheapest joint in town that doubles as a drug parlour.
Repairing a modern car takes mindbogglingly expensive proprietary computer tools such that it can only be performed by so-called professionals
Haha, indeed.
Meanwhile a €10 dongle will communicate with almost all vehicles.
I mean professional just means the person doing it is getting paid. Paid in drugs still counts.
I had a friend whose grandmother had a flat. We offered to change it but she wouldn’t let us because we hadn’t been to “mechanics school to learn how to change tires.” When she was looking for a car she didn’t like any of the Fords, Dodges or Chevies, wouldn’t consider any foreign cars and couldn’t understand why such sentiments might make choosing a car difficult. She ended up with a Mazda, which she could never be convinced wasn’t a domestic. She still thinks Mazda is an American brand to this day. It’s not just that people are ignorant, they’re stubbornly, proudly ignorant.
3 members of a family, each with diy jailhouse style tattoos of swastikas, wanted me to have a look at the Kia they just bought from their brother that had a “dash lighting up like a Christmas tree”. Approaching the car, I noticed the hood had some paint missing and looked sort of charred. I looked at the dash and it was indeed “lit up like a Christmas tree” with the ABS light flashing. I looked under the hood and immediately saw the very obvious problem. The engine had been on fire, specifically the ABS motor and it’s wiring harness. I pointed at the blackened part and said, “Has the engine been on fire!? Well there’s your problem!” (by this time I had noticed all the Nazi tattoos and abandoned any attempts at being polite) “Yeah, but that ain’t it,” she said. A couple months later she came back into the shop with the same schtick. I asked if she’d addressed the engine bay fire issue, which she hadn’t (because that wasn’t the problem), and told her to leave and stop wasting our time.
I feel like we should avoid telling N@zis that their cars are on fire. I think it’s fine to let them figure that out for themselves…
“Oh don’t worry, it says good for a ‘lifetime’ so it’s fine.”
Might want to investigate a little further…
Yes, I do flush and maintain the ‘lifetime’ fluids in my Toyotas, just not on an annual basis.
Well that’s quite the topshot change!
Sometimes you gotta try on a few different tops before a night on the town. Especially if you’re trying to show off your substantial headlights.
My wipers are up here.
My grandpa had a Sebring Coupe exactly like the one in the photo. I drove it for my driving test and took it to Junior Prom. It was an incredible car, and if it wasn’t an automatic, I probably would have asked him to have it when he was done.
I’ve always thought those 1st gen Sebring Coupes were nice looking cars. Never drove one though.
“They don’t build ’em like they used too.”
No, they don’t and we are all better off for it. We don’t change out sludgy oil every 3k. No regular spark plug, wire, cap and rotor replacement: plugs and coils are good for 100k or so. No recalcitrant carburators, chokes and leaking vacuum lines: EFI works every time, all the time. No coolant flushes every year or two: the chemistries are so much better and most on sale now is EZ pre-mix – just pick the right color. Fluids nowdays tend not to leak and engine accessories last 150k plus. I haven’t replaced an alternator or starter ever on any car in my fleet and all have 150+k. The ’07 Corolla goes in the shop tomorrow to fix a power steering leak (rusted hose fitting), but the other vehicles don’t even have hydraulic power steering.
Add in safety advances like crumple zones, safety cells, airbags, ABS….
Agreed! I watch a lot of old car TV like Hot Rod Garage, and them fixing the same failed coils, or distributor, or “we wasted the points on this” is pretty comical.
I have not had to manually tension a Vee or serpentine belt since the ’84 LTD I had as a college freshman, it’s also the last carb’ed car I’ve owned. The last vehicles I had requiring ‘regular’ engine maintenance were my XJ and WJ Jeeps, both 4.0L models. They like old school copper plugs and still had older coolant chemistry. Last vehicles I have touched a thermostat on.
Haha yeah, I remember changing the distributor cap and rotor on my 4.0 ZJ. Easy job on that, it just seemed kinda quaint.
The WJ was distributorless
The advancements in fluids alone, is responsible for SO much more longevity.
It’s the definition of the saying “a rising tide raises all ships”. Regardless of when your car was made, modern fluids will increase reliability/longevity.
And gaskets. They are not rope shoved in a slot anymore.
That’s a design change as well, though. A lot of older cars you gotta use the old style seals.
Motor oil though? You can get fully synthetic oil in your weight of choice, with added zinc for your flat tappet cam, and the car will run better with it, despite zero other changes.
Yes, I’ve been on and off working on a Corvair for a friend and elastomers are one of the biggest changes. The original valve seals were NOT viton.
I think fuel injection plays a factor too. Motor oil is not diluted with raw gas (unless Honda) due to metered EFI and better piston sealing.
Oh absolutely. The late 90s/early 2000s seems to be when we hit a sweet spot for durability/longevity vs. complexity.
My point was that advancements of fluids has collectively made every era of automobile more reliable/last longer.
1000% agree the sweet spot seems to be 1995 – 2020 or so, OBDII and modern electronics without the frivolous gee-gaws. I’ll add in proven Hybrid tech by this point – I daily a 270k 2014 Toyota Hybrid.
THIS!!!
I remember 60s and 70s garbage and having to do a starter, alternator, points/condnecer/cap/rotor/plugs nearly every year. Also do not get me started on front drum brakes.
It’s gotten so much better that whenever someone mentions changing plugs because of a misfire my immediate reaction is “yeah that’s not gonna work”. Sure, coils fail and you may as well change the plugs while you’re there, but they are almost certainly not causing whatever check-engine code you have.
“Car runs well but could probably use a tuneup” = “does not run well and I don’t know why”
Yep, bought a dirt cheap Vibe as a first car for my daughter 4 years ago. It ran bad and threw a ‘misfire’ code. A set of plugs and 4 cheap coils had it purring like a kitten.
My grandfather used to talk about how in the 50’s and 60’s you couldn’t complete a road trip even 1/3 of the way across the country without some type of mechanical issue. And here I was in the late 90’s doing that distance four times a year driving between home and college without any issues.
Tires! When did you last have a flat NOT caused by road debris or a pothole/curb?
I remember having at least 1-2 flats a year back in the late 80s on my rabbit that I had my girlfriend time me once and I had it changed in less than 5 minutes. Now it is nearly only nails or other debris.
Exactly, I make 9-12 hour drives multiple times a year in maintained 12-15 year old vehicles, and the expectation is that NOTHING will go wrong.
I just want to say that this whole comment and its thread should be pinned permanently somewhere. This is COTD material minimum
“They don’t build ’em like they used too.”
My late grandpa who was born in 1930 used to say that. Then he’d follow it up with “And that’s good! They used to build them like shit”. LOL
Besides the big sturdy bumpers, he had nothing but complaints about cars he’d owned for the first 3 decades of his driving life.
I remember when he bought a new car that came with Iridium plugs, he was so excited about the 100K mile plug life, haha.
I recall how rusted out 5-10 yr old cars were in my early childhood. Even simple things like ’80s era dip corrosion protection made a huge difference.
In the 90s, I remember it was pretty rare to see cars more than 10 years old in California. Now, it’s incredibly common to see 15-20 year old cars
EZ Pre-mix coolant is 50 to 100% more expensive to buy, plus the added weight of shipping twice as much water wastes fuel in delivery.
Oh, I agree – but the average consumer won’t F’it up. Which was 80% of the problems in the old days. I don’t need distilled water, the garden hose is fine. Topping off a low tank with either full concentrate or hose water. The EASY button works. One less failure mode.
I fully dismissed the emisson controls and net fuel economy benefits to the fleet.
I had to explain to my 16 year old grandkid during our driver training about how it used to be normal to see a car on the side of the road for mechanical issues or a flat tire. One would see several every day. Now, rarely.
Back in the day, I remember people saying that the top speed shown on the speedometer of a car represents the actual top speed.
is that why 85mph speedometers were mandated for a couple years, like 1981-1982?
Yep, it was partly psychological.
Pretty much, yeah, people wouldn’t be tempted to push the car faster than it could display. And “55” had to be bolded or highlighted
“My wife slid through an intersection in the snow once, so we got her a Subaru since the AWD will prevent that.”
Had that conversation with multiple people—AWD doesn’t affect braking performance and tires are more important than driven wheels for winter performance.
I have had the same conversation at the off road park. You can have the fanciest 4wd system but with bald street tires you are not going far off road.
The number of lifted Jeeps I’ve seen slide completely through intersections with bulky mud tires (followed by generic sedans who were able to stop without drama)
“But it says Mud and Snow”
I remember one snowfall in the late 90s in MN were the number of Ford Explorers off highway 35 looked like that scene from Gone with the Wind.
I heard the same conversation… but replace Subaru with Jeep.
Scores of Subarus, trucks, and SUVs in the ditches during blizzards disprove that quite well.
When I rented an old Dodge Dart for a cross country ski trip, I passed several 4WD vehicles that had slid off the road while I just continued up the road. The rental place was named “Rent a Wreck”.
I remember an SUV commercial from the 2000’s which showed the SUV braking and dodging logs fallen from a truck trailer, then drove down a dirt incline to park. I said to the TV: I can do all of those things a lot better in my lighter FWD sedan.
But marketing works. Car dealers in the midwest don’t even stock RWD cars when an AWD model is available.
This is mostly from my youth, but my friends thought almost all cars could go 200mph. It was a regular argument we had.
Heh, I’m pretty sure half my cars can’t hit 100, or maybe can briefly followed by catastrophic damage
My mini can barely go 70mph, let alone 100. 40hp can only push so much air.
I think Chrysler advertised mine as a 100mph car in the ’40s, but the consensus seems to be somewhere in the mid 90s is probably more realistic, I’ve not had it much over 75. The Corvair, I don’t really know, maybe it could do it, but with 2 gears, its going to be screaming, I’ve never pushed it past around 85 and everytime that’s happened, I’ve thought “holy shit!, that’s too much, I better slow down”
Yeah, at 70mph, I’m pushing 4700RPM in the Mini.
Thankfully, the A series can spin at high RPM all day, or I’d be screwed.
The Honda swap, when I get to it, will do 80MPH @3000RPM, instead of the current screaming.
quadrupling the power output should help as well.
I guy told me once that his Escort ZX2 could hit 60 in first gear.
That’s nothing, a kit at my high school kid claimed he hit 60 in reverse in his 1st gen Integra.
It might be able to for a few seconds, once. 🙂
I can (and have!) hit 60mph in first gear.
On my Honda Magna 750. The tach needle juuuust touched 9k.
60km/h
LOL
Sidenote: The V12 Jags of the 1980s with the GM 3 speed auto had really tall gearing and you could hit 70mph in first gear.
“all cars could go 200mph.”
Sure… if you push them out of an airplane.
We are full of solutions here at the Autopian!
“Everything is air-droppable at least once”
Well, I got my ’80 Vanagon Westi up to 90 once, on a long downhill. I slowed down at that point as the front end started to lift.
The Chrysler 300 was “an old Mercedes underneath.”
To be fair, it had a fair bit of current-at-the-time Mercedes suspension/running gear. So they weren’t THAT far off.
There’s also a rumor it used some of the cowl and floor pan from the LH and Premier, but I’m pretty confident that is false.
Maybe some rough dimensions had to stay the same to fit the production line, or something, but they definately can’t be the same pieces
“There’s also a rumor it used some of the cowl and floor pan from the LH and Premier, but I’m pretty confident that is false”
No, it was true.
The LX program started life as an evolution of the LH platform. And the LH platform already had a longitudal engine that had provisions for RWD/AWD variants.
The problem was, the old pre-Mercedes Chrysler didn’t have a suitable RWD automatic transmission that would fit… as well as other related bits.
But after the merger, the Chrysler side raided the Mercedes parts bin because doing that was far cheaper than designing new parts or sourcing it from an outside supplier like a suitable transmission.
I read about this on Allpar and it was info that came from engineers that worked on the program.
Also note that the LH was an evolution of the Renault-AMC Premiere… which itself was an evolution of the Renault 25.
Guy: What kind of car did you say you have?
Me: An Oldsmobile.
Guy: Oh! That’s the next best thing to a Cadillac!
Me: Nope. This thing is not trying to be a Cadillac.
“Nope. This thing is not trying to be a Cadillac.”
But I bet it’s trying to Achieva that…
To be fair, the practical difference between a 98 Regency and a Sedan DeVille could be razor thin
Cranking the fan up to the highest setting to “get the heat to work faster.”
Alternatively, passengers opening the window because the car is too hot, and leaving it open long after the A/C has started blowing cold.
I also have a friend who sets the automatic climate control to max (either hot or cold depending on season) since “it will get to the right temp faster.”
That may be somewhat true in some cars, but mine do a great job of sending as much heat/AC as possible until it hits the desired temp then dialing it back.
I know several people that treat their HVAC like a switch. Full heat or full cold. Max blower or off. Those are your only options. It’s annoying but if I’m a passenger I generally don’t try to offer advice on such things.
I had that once. The fan knob in my 1999 Plymouth Breeze had stopped working, so every setting but max fan was off.
We are getting a little off topic but that’s interesting. That must be Chrysler’s failsafe – my panel stopped working and it defaulted to defrost on full fan speed. I guess if you must have a default, that’s the safest one.
So that’s typically the fan speed resistor pack has failed. Max fan is usually getting the full 12V and doesn’t go through the resistor pack. All of the other speeds do.
I knew it was something along those lines, just couldn’t remember the exact failure mode and couldn’t be bothered to look it up. Thanks for the refresher!
My grandmother lived in Miami and had a Chrysler 5th Avenue with early automatic HVAC. The controls looked like those of most manual HVAC controls of the day (3 levers) but I noticed her car had temp numbers on the temp lever.
So since she lived in Miami, the car was always set to the lowest temp setting, since she mainly did short drives – and that was required for the manual controls to get the car cooler faster. However, she and I would occasionally go on long trips, and the car was get really cold inside. Finally I showed her she could actually more the temp lever and we wouldn’t have to wear jackets in her car!
In the sense of getting the cabin to temp faster, it’ll certainly help. but only if the heat is available.
Yeah I guess I should have specified doing so as soon as the car is started and everything is still cold.
They buy Teslas over other EVs because “Teslas are self driving”.
Up until this year, self driving Tesla’s were a pipe dream. The latest software is really good. It’s common for people to rack up 98%+ of their miles on self driving. They still aren’t 100% self driving, but it’s rare to need to take over.
Full disclosure, my wife and I both have older hardware 3 cars. FSD 14.3 lite is almost as good as our friends hardware 4 car. We basically only drive in parking lots and the rare time the car does something dumb. Many people were exposed to the earlier trash versions Tesla gave everyone as a free trial of years ago.
I still drive on the fun roads, but the daily grind of commuting through city traffic or long boring highway stretches belong to the car now.
I mean, kinda true? The latest Tesla FSD is really, really good, much better than any other brands on the market. To the point that most people who own Teslas should be using it 100% of the time because it’s a much better driver than they are. Tesla hardware doesn’t appeal to me at all, but I am still considering them solely due to FSD.
Three years ago I was loudly proclaiming self-driving cars were a pipe dream, I will eat crow on that and admit I am wrong, it’s going to happen very soon.
Mostly towing misconceptions:
The rubicon wrangler package increases towing capacity (back when it did not)
Just adding a transmission cooler will increase the towing capacity.
Others:
Old cars are better and safer.
If a car needs maintenance it is a piece of junk.
I’ve heard a variant on that: If a car uses a timing belt it is unreliable.
My former mother-in-law was so upset at my then wife for buying a Buick as our family car because “we should have bought American”
The “euro-inspired” marketing taglines worked on her I guess
Not sure what year and model of Buick it was, but she’d be correct about the current lineup. It has quite low US part content and only the Enclave is assembled here. But still not Euro.
I always wonder when I see older people driving new Buicks if they know that it was made in China.
“Some are but the salesman said this one wasn’t!”
Oh, it was a Korean made Encore GX but she thought it was German or French branded lol
I could see someone really uninformed maybe mistaking Chevrolet or Cadillac for French, but Buick??
That is funny. I could see maybe French. Definitely not German.
SUVs are safer and having any quantity of kids whatsoever absolutely necessitates a $60,000+ 3 row one.
Having no kids means having a giant 3-row because a single grandkid visits once in a while
This one bugs me because I do not want 3 rows but that is becoming the default.
“What if we need to drive his 5 friends to practice?”
I’ve met your kid. This is not going to be a problem.
Here in the DC area where space is at a premium the giant SUVs wreak havoc too. You can’t go anywhere without someone in an Expedition, Suburban, Wagoneer, Grand Highlander, etc. barreling down on you because you have the audacity to only be going 15 over.
Out in the middle of no where I have less qualms with people having absolutely monstrous vehicles. I still think it’s pretty wasteful if you’re not using the capability, but Truck Guys are a sensitive bunch so I don’t want to get into that today. But in an urban area your huge vehicle becomes everyone’s problem.
I truly will never understand the iron grip these vehicles have on the normie brain. Every time someone I know has a single kid they immediately want to talk Tahoes with me and I’m just like…why? You can spend $80,000 and enjoy low teens fuel economy (or worse!) in DC traffic or spend half that much on a CRV Hybrid and get 3 times the MPG.
This is not a hard decision. Hell my sister and her husband had their first kid and immediately dropped 50 grand on a V6 Telluride because they didn’t think their Lexus NX was big enough for an infant. They’re both ridiculously smart, successful people.
…and yet she couldn’t be talked out of it. She didn’t look at a single other car. She HAD to have a Telluride.
Like most of these people who would come on here defending such purchases, I suspect your sister just wanted the Telluride and the rest is justification she felt she needed. It bothers me that so may people can’t just acknowledge they bought the oversized vehicle because they want it, but they don’t really need it. I guess then they couldn’t play victim so much when gas prices are high (all they have to do is look at the billionaires and politicians to know they can always play the victim).
That’s a big (pun intended) part of this for me. Just say you bought it because you wanted it. That’s probably 3/4s of car purchases when it really boils down to it. I didn’t need a hot hatch, I bought it because I wanted to have fun and since the whole selling point of the Ns is they’re track ready out of the box I took it to the track a couple times. I didn’t have that great of a time and probably won’t do it anymore because of how expensive it is, but still.
Just say you wanted a huge car and you bought a huge car. I don’t see the appeal, but the market sure as shit does. That’s fine, but people have a right to disagree with it because you’re objectively being wasteful. And you’re not allowed to complain about gas prices or any of the other massive costs of owning such a vehicle…like the higher insurance, higher maintenance costs, etc.
I have this same issue with gun fanatics, and I say that as someone that has legally owned firearms. Unless you rely on hunting to survive you don’t need (insert gun here), you don’t need your $1,000 sight, etc. You got them because you think they’re cool, which is fine. Shooting guns is fun! But you don’t NEED them, especially for defense. The statistics surrounding that logical fallacy are absolutely laughable.
100% agree.
“She didn’t look at a single other car. She HAD to have a Telluride.”
A close friend of mine’s wife was similar. Mind you in their case, it was when the 3rd kid was going to be coming that she wanted a giant SUV ‘for more space’.
But a buddy of mine and I convinced my friend that for his purposes, a minivan was better as it would have more space AND be cheaper… and showed him the specs to prove it.
So now they have a Honda Odyssey.
The only response is to say “I CAN TELLURIDE A KIA” every time she brings it up.
Wouldn’t the Traverse be a better comparison here, or are we just trying to meet our Toyota mention quota early today?
I would assume it ends up with many people happy with their new car.
I guess one of the most bizarre misconceptions I hear is that everyone should drive a Toyota and no other marque has any business even bothering to exist.
Wait, you’re telling me that 1.5-liter Terrain may not be professional grade?
Shit.
Older cars are way safer because they were made of metal and not plastic.
My mom was big on that one. She thought you’d be protected by tons of “detroit steel”.
These are the people who did not pay attention in high school physics class.
Or driver’s ed films.
“It looks safer to me, therefore it IS safer”
I live in the northern Midwest in a rural area. Every single person I know owns at least one car or truck. The idea of anyone being a ‘non-car person’ in insane. Unless they’re in their 90s and confined to a nursing home. Even the preschoolers in the wife’s Head Start classes loved cars.
There are people who own and drive cars who are “non-car people” they just do not think about the transportation appliance that gets them around. I have lots of North Dakotan relatives who own cars but know nothing at all about them.
Yes, Subaru and Toyota clean up with these people, Saturn did OK with the demo at one time, also
In my memory that was Saturn’s entire customer base (joke?)
Yeah, Bob Lutz claimed he saw a marketing study that positioned the brand as exactly that
I have coworkers who can’t tell you the model of the car they drive every day.
I wholeheartedly believe you.
I have a relative who believes that the Grand Highlander Max is slightly larger than the Grand Highlander. I understand his confusion but there is no changing his mind.
In fairness, I am just learning now that there is a vehicle called a Grand Highlander Max.
So many buyers that I encounter believe that the “sport” trim of a car makes it smaller and they don’t want it because of that.
I haven’t heard this one, but that’s pretty funny. Personally, “Sport” means it is the base model, because Mazda.
I had never heard of it either until I started working for Subaru and it’s definitely an older demographic that believes it. I am curious where it came from myself
Ford does this. The Explorer Sport back in the day was the two door, and the current Bronco Sport is the little crossover based one.
I think there was a Land Rover as well
Range Rover Sport… Basically a smaller, lighter, lower-cost platform but with all the Range Rover luxury features. Debatable whether it had the full Range Rover’s offroad chops. (As if anyone in the current Range Rover market segment is likely to take a late-model Rangie off onto much more than a dirt road. It can happen, but it’s not terribly likely.)
This is a marketing problem. The Ford Expedition Max is the larger one.
But the Grand Wagoneer is just a higher trim level not the longer wheelbase version of the Wagoneer! *facepalm*
This actually did confuse me at first. I assumed it was a long wheelbase version.
It’s doubly confusing because from the same brand a Grand Cherokee isn’t just a higher trimmed Cherokee, so they couldn’t even follow their own naming scheme!