Posted on 10/24/2016 1:53:54 PM PDT by Chickensoup
I have a 2013 Golf TDI Diesel that I have a strong option to give back to Volkswagen.
I have been waiting for the election because I have a feeling that Clinton will continue the leftist policies of crawling up gas prices.
However, I have been looking for a car, just in case. My goodness!
Everything out there is chock full of electronics that will make them obsolete soon.
Everything out there looks like a shiny, overgrown bug.
I think I need something a bit more more butch-looking.
I look longingly at jeep wranglers, but I am told that they are unreliable and break big things like transmissions.
I probably should have four wheel or all wheel drive. Because I live on the snow belt, at the end of a half mile drive way. Although the golf did navigate well.
I have looked at the so called SUVs, and they are just cars, none have a truck frame or the ruggedness I had with my old 90's SUVs.
Is there a vehicle out there that is moderately comfortable, good mileage, little to no electronics, and durable?
Not something that I am expected to work on, because aside from playing with the distributor cap on my old MGB, I try to stay out of from under the hood. I just found out there are no more distributor caps. Shocking!
What is a chickensoup to do?
nobody buys a first year model, they are unproven.
Seems you are just immune to good advice!
I wash my hands of you/your thread
looked at it, could not get a shot of the interior.
Speaking of EMP, I’ve recently learned that someone has engineered a very successful diesel swap for classic GMC motorhomes, utilizing the AM General 6.5 liter military spec engine used in Humvees. He’s mating it to a re-engineered, TH425 transmission originally used in the 1st ten Toronado, but with a revived “switch pitch” converter that yields a much better torque curve as well as better highway MPG.
I’ve always admired those old things, still beautiful 40 years later. Have been toying with the idea of living full time in an RV for cost benefit and mobility. Not so much cost benefit as far as purchase cost with the diesel upfit, though. Requires a new frame, engine and trans are installed, then body lowered onto the new frame.
Estimates are around $40K for the unfit, plus the cost of a decent GMC coach (I prefer the Royale with the “center kitchen” layout), running in the $10K range for a well-kept, cosmetically decent one with systems updated, but with engine problems on the original 455 V8, transmission problems or both. So, figure sub-60K, about half what a roughly comparable new diesel RV motorhome would run, military spec drivetrain, zilch for sophisticated electronics elsewhere unless added later, way cooler looking too.
http://www.mannystransmission.biz/products/
1st gen Outback.
I’ve had a couple of Jeep Patriots and been satisfied with them except that they’re a little less soundproofed than the more costly models. But I can live with a little noise; keeps me awake!
And they pi$$ off liberals, with that P word.
just saw this story on reliability:
Consumer Reports: All-new cars have more problems
Of the bottom 7, 5 are Fiat-Chrysler-Jeep products. (The other two at the bottom are Tesla and GMC).
http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/24/autos/consumer-reports-auto-dependability/index.html
Subaru seems to be moving strongly the wrong direction.
No I think it was the second year. or third.
Go ahead.
Leave me to die
alone
in the rain.
Get an old CJ ;)
Consider: if you drive 12,000 miles a year and get 25 miles to the gallon, that means you buy 480 gallons a year.
Now you're not going to get your fuel for free, so let's guess that fuel could go up a dollar a gallon. That's $480 dollars a year.
My Social Security taxes EVERY MONTH are more than that. NY State didn't have a sales tax when I bought my first car. Now it's 8.75% where I grew up, which in most cases is more than the profit the company that produced whatever one buys made on that item. But I left NY and started working in NJ when there was NO income tax here. Now I pay something around that $480 EVERY MONTH for NJ income tax and get nothing more than when I paid ZERO.
Think of how a magician deceives people by directing their attention away from wherever the rabbit comes from. The Left uses fuel prices in a similar manner. Government is most working people's largest expense.
Drive what you like driving.
ML/NJ
Had a 2008 Subaru but a hail storm beat the crap out of it and had to totaled it. If you get a used Subaru look over the headlights real close as they crack very easy in the corners. Also the liner under the wipers can crack. Was a good car for Colorado Snow.
Don
Jeep and reliability didn’t go in the same sentence a whole lot.
A few months back, I was in a parts house getting some electrical stuff for a jeep. The guy there said he has sold a lot of replacement electrical stuff for jeeps lately.
It was modern era stuff. Mine is from 1965. He thought it was funny. I’m having to custom make wiring on this one as I go.
If there is one thing I know it is that I do better with the vehicle I like — I put up with issues, better. I enjoy what I enjoy.
Get a hard top Wrangler and enjoy it.
Did not...owned one....if it got wet you didn’t care as it only had floor mats. The rocker panels actually rusted out, which is dumb considering you could pull huge plastic plugs and see into them so why they didn’t spray the insides with preventative was an engineering failure.
I will second the Subaru suggestion. Mine was great in snow and mud less than the clearance of the vehicle. I would be out when only the “big trucks” were moving. I got well over 250,000 miles out of that car and it was not lovingly maintained.
Ok I drive 25 plus per year so at 3 dollars a gallon at 25mpg it is 3000 per year. Each additional dollar it goes up is an extra 1000 dollars per year. So if costs go up two dollars that is a fuel cost of 5000 per year.
My ‘05. Jeep Wrangler has Zero problems.
Perhaps the 47k mi. May have something to do with it,,,
What’s it Worth?
I have a TDI but I am in a no-test state (FL) and I am strongly debating keeping mine. My question to you is about the airbag from Takata, which you say will not be replaced (If I understand your posting!) Where is the source of your information?
My understanding is that the owner has the option of taking the buy-back (car will be trashed) or keeping the car and getting a cash payment. As I understand the legalities, if I keep the car, the Takata airbag will be replaced at no cost to me under the entirely separate Takata recall.
Spoke to VW. There is no fix for the Takata airbag and they are not doing much about it. They are waiting for Takata and Takata is not doing much. Essentially they told me that there is not a fix, when there is a fix the southern states will bet it first, and they have no idea whether this will happen.
ML/NJ
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.