efficient road trip car

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Buy a motorcycle if you want a fun vehicle that gets the ladies attention. My bike is faster than just about any car that costs less than $50,000, and it can be had for $2,500.

So true. I met my wife because I was a self-proclaimed bike instructor.
I was also having a look in the Subaru WRX scene, but all it attracted were tech nerds and occasionaly, if they were lucky, their bored looking girlfriends.

In the end it is personality and mutual respect that builds relations, not good looks. But those looks have trade value, so to speak. Don't expect having a nice car to be the end of your investment in the relationship. It is just the 'here is a rich fool' opening gambit.

The Fit could be much more practical. For instance, said girl may hope you let her drive it one day, and she may not be scared out of her wits to do so.

Which brings me to the next point: wit.
Whatever you do with her, what lasts longest are the conversations. It is nice to have someone who you can talk to on a par, so if you're smart you better get a girl that is so too. If not, never mind you are doing fine

As for road trips, the Fit is bigger than the Yaris and has more practical storage possibilities (like under the folding bench on the flat floor!). The Yaris is a fine city car. The Fit goes anywhere.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

I like the 2011/12 Volt a lot. But I have been looking and they are always a few thousand more than a comparable condition/age/mileage Sonic here in Southern California. Also, the OP is looking for a road trip car. The Volt primary advantage is greatly reduced if you drive hundreds of miles a day nearly everyday for days or weeks and stop in places where recharging is sometimes impossible.

https://www.voltstats.net/Stats/Details/1579

Not really, its electric when that is feasible and gas when its not and thats the point,
for people who drive across the nation most of the time they aren't going to be able to run much electric but so what? They still will get some electric motivation when its worthwhile and if they hit mountains (and use common sense) they will average higher MPGs than even a Prius due to the 16kw battery.

On the road I was able to charge some nights at the Hotels depending on if I had a ground floor and a "lax" attendant or if they had block heater plug ins installed in the spots. Sort of like getting a free gallon of gas when I could charge.

The volt is much more comfortable for most people than a sonic or prius or whatever and gets roughly the same gas MPG, there is also a tune that raises the 87 octane gas MPG up to about 45mpg at highway speeds without electric motivation.

A volt even when just run as a hybrid can also be silent in the city by using mountain mode or hold with a small amount of planning.

Also comparing age/miles on a volt to a Sonic is laughable, you could easily add 100k onto your search range for the volt and still have fewer large repairs than a Sports car, Sonic or Cruze. Most Premium volts wear much better than your typical econo box, Mr. Balmers interior looks like new (at 370,000 miles)

Obviously there are some Gen I'rs that get burnt but its the same reliability as a Prius minus battery issues, pretty much drive and change fluids for most everyone.

The biggest repair Sparkie the Volt has had with 370,000 miles on the clock was the classic GM FWD bearings that go, everything else that was done was due to an accident in the mid 300k area. Just fluids and filters for Mr. Balmer.

Those of US with Gen I Volts are waiting to see how far Sparkie goes before total failure, it appears 500k, maybe beyond if he doesn't crunch the car again, we were rather worried when he got smashed up.

Cheers
Ryan

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by RoadTripRob

@vman455
@hersbird
corvette is stable on the highway vs a yaris which wobbles. On an icy road stability is a must. My friend gave me a new set of amazing new winter tires from his merc that he sold,(free winters for a sports car). After a small amount of research lots of people happily drive corvettes in winter\snow. I will put the corrola 2.4 on my list.

I don't see Corvettes in the winter in western Montana. I live on a hill you can forget about getting a vette up even with the best snow tires many days in the winter. Maybe running down a maintained interstate with no mountains you might be OK. My recommendation was a Camry not a Corolla. The bigger car is safer, more comfortable, more common, and probably more aerodynamic which steady state down the highway will actually get better FE than the smaller cars. A Camry with snow tires will be fine almost everywhere but over a foot of fresh snow.

[RoadTripRob]

This is based off prices near me and research on specific car forums.
All the cars will work in the Rockies in winter.(hybrids will have to stay plugged in to stop battery from freezing)

[Hersbird]

Your saftey numbers are way off. I also doubt the vette is that reliable and it's a PITA to work on when it does break. So now it looks like you are pushing a result. Just buy what you want, you don't have to convince yourself or anyone else. Even putting looks on the chart and weighting one car so high above the others shows emotion is more important than functionality. You also need to convert the cost to a score as well as the MPG.
Again, just by the Vette at least resale might be better as you are getting a better deal at that price then the others on that list.

Ps Comfort might be a consideration. Maybe you don't mean "road trip" like I do but being able to sit in the thing for at least 4 hours without a stop is a must. Now string 4, 4 hour sings back to back. A higher seat is more comfortable according to most drivers 65 or 70 series tires are much more comfortable than 40's.

[RoadTripRob]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

Your saftey numbers are way off. I also doubt the vette is that reliable and it's a PITA to work on when it does break. So now it looks like you are pushing a result. Just buy what you want, you don't have to convince yourself or anyone else. Even putting looks on the chart and weighting one car so high above the others shows emotion is more important than functionality. You also need to convert the cost to a score as well as the MPG.
Again, just by the Vette at least resale might be better as you are getting a better deal at that price then the others on that list.

Ps Comfort might be a consideration. Maybe you don't mean "road trip" like I do but being able to sit in the thing for at least 4 hours without a stop is a must. Now string 4, 4 hour sings back to back. A higher seat is more comfortable according to most drivers 65 or 70 series tires are much more comfortable than 40's.

corvette is a lot more reliable than a volt. corvette also has cheap parts that are easier to work on than a fit for example. if you actually provide proof then i will change the table, im not skewing results, im looking at car forums and noting what they say. Also i dont have the time for anymore users to arbitrarily disagree with me because of preconceived ideas, so if someone thinks im wrong; if you can even moderately prove it without using faulty logic i will look into it and make changes as needed. safety isnt just crash ratings. i have done 16 hour road trips before and more 12 hour road trips than i can count. mostly in an mx5 with a loud exhaust and no sound insulation. i did 6 hours once on the highway(100-110kph) with the top down. I have done a lot of over night 12 hour road trips before 1100km. I thought about comfort but better seats + sound insulation can dramatically change any car so its a minor consideration that can be changed relatively easily.

[Saskwatchian]

Good start on the table, but your "total" section is not taking all factors into consideration.

I would consider adding a "weight" row to the chart to use as a modifier. That way a 10 for looks won't necessarily have the same weight as a 10 for reliability, or purchase cost. You choose what's important.

To factor in vehicle costs you can use a index function in a hidden column that will be worked into the total. You could use something like this:
=INDEX({10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1},MATCH(A2,{1,2000,400 0,6000,8000,10000,12000,14000,16000,18000},1))

The same thing can be used for MPG, running costs in $/10000 km, etc.

[RoadTripRob]

Originally Posted by Saskwatchian

Good start on the table, but your "total" section is not taking all factors into consideration.

I would consider adding a "weight" row to the chart to use as a modifier. That way a 10 for looks won't necessarily have the same weight as a 10 for reliability, or purchase cost. You choose what's important.

To factor in vehicle costs you can use a index function in a hidden column that will be worked into the total. You could use something like this:
=INDEX({10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1},MATCH(A2,{1,2000,400 0,6000,8000,10000,12000,14000,16000,18000},1))

The same thing can be used for MPG, running costs in $/10000 km, etc.

good idea, I will work on it.

[Hersbird]

The average corvette isn't really used like the average forester say. It gets to sit when the weather is bad, it gets the garage space, it gets every little thing attended to. Good for a used car right? Well not so fast. To find a $12000 C5 you are looking at the only one in a 500 mile radius that is even close to that price. It has probably sat for months if not a whole year not even able to bring auction prices. Because it's a good car? Because it's the worst of the worst. Your other prices are all average and common. Cut those in half if you're willing to buy the worst of the worst in those cases as well.

[freebeard]

corvette is a lot more reliable than a volt.

How can this be? Are Corvettes all-electric and I hadn't noticed?