Augh – Car shopping is so frustrating!

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

The seating position seemed a bit higher than your typical minivan, more like a truck.

Live-axle RWD also made them feel more like the Ranger or the S10 for instance.

[freebeard]

Just A Car Guy: the original owner of this 2000 Chevrolet Metro stopped driving it at 402 miles, it's on Bring A Trailer, current bid $11,800, auction ends in 6 days




How far North of 11.8K do you think it will be in six days?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Even though there might be a growing appreciation for the Chevrolet Metro nowadays, I'd not hold my breath for its price to skyrocket so much.

[freebeard]

Anything twenty years old with 400-odd miles is going to fetch a good price.

What I notice is that with a fresh top coat of paint and the black side moldings, my XFi could look like that. Maybe excepting the hub caps.

[JSH]

I looked at 3 Ford Escape Hybrids today.

The first was promising - 2006 with 102K miles. When I showed up to look at it the dealer said it came from a government auction and the CARFAX showed complete service records at a Bend Ford Dealer. However, when I took it for a spin it was gutless. It would barely accelerate above 55 mph. The gauge that shows electric and regen barely moved. It would switch back to EV mode but the engine kicked on after about 100 yards of driving. My research tells me a Escape Hybrid with a healthy battery will go 1 mile on flat ground at 25 mph. A closer look at the maintenance records show that it was driven about 10K miles per year until 2015 / 93K miles. No records after and it has 103K miles today. The dealer had to replace the power steering so I suspect that somewhere are 2016 the power steering failed and it sat for 5 years until it was sent to auction. The battery likely fully discharged and sat - killing it.

The 2nd was a 2005 with 230K miles. I wasn't actually interested in it but I wanted to drive another Hybrid to determine if the assist gauge movement was a good indicator and if all of the Escape Hybrids are gutless. This car was shot - loud clunks from the suspension but it did drive. I jumped on the highway at it accelerated faster from 70 to 80 than the 1st Escape did from 50 to 60. The assist gauge moved more than the 1st but still not more that 25% either way and in engine never shut off the whole drive - even sitting at lights.

The 3rd was at the same lot as the 2nd. 150K miles with leather interior. A look inside showed seats held together with duct tape - Nope.


All in all a good day and I learned some things. The Escape Hybrid will do what we want - now I just have to find a good one. My wife was not impressed the the old-school nature of the early Escapes. She requires Bluetooth or at least AUX in so she can listen to podcasts on the way to work. I may take a look at some of the 2008 - 2012 models. They aren't much more expensive and lower mile examples are easier to find.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by JSH

My wife was not impressed the the old-school nature of the early Escapes. She requires Bluetooth or at least AUX in so she can listen to podcasts on the way to work.

I remember seeing some adaptors which enabled cassette players to play media from digital devices.

[Isaac Zachary]

Bluetooth will not be a selling point for me or my wife anytime soon seeing how it always seems to fail. The bluetooth in our Avalon does not work at all now. Maybe once the technology matures, but I'm not betting on it.

I'd rather use a tape deck to RCA converter first and foremost

[redpoint5]

I've not had any bluetooth fail, but my anecdotes are no indication of overall reliability. I'd think a failed module would be relatively cheap and easy to replace though.

Those tape deck adapters produce pretty low quality sound. My friend was running one just a couple years ago because upgrading the head unit in his car went against his aesthetic of everything fitting within the period in which it was constructed. He'll get furniture from the 70s if he's living in a house built in the 70s. Fridge too. He's a musician, so aesthetics are more important than function.

[Isaac Zachary]

I wish I knew how to fix my BlueTooth on the Avalon. But I can't find a thing on the internet that seems to work. I'm not so sure it's a failed module. More like the system is stuck in between in park and in drive settings. USB also doesn't work nor can I input addresses into the GPS. Yet I can change the display setting on the dash while driving, which shouldn't be possible.

In the repair records from the previous owner I see this same thing had happened before and was about $200 to fix at the dealer if I'm reading the receipt right.

Anywho, this is the second car we've had with a touchscreen infotainment system and is the second car for major parts of the touchscreen infotainment system to stop working.

[Piotrsko]

The fastest solution is to swap the system but it sounds like a bad selector switch or one full of crud. I dunno, I don't use mine