Automobiles: The Agony and the... more Agony

After seven years of paltry service, 45,000 miles and two crashes*, my Nissan Sentra '00 has reached the end of its time with me.
I need a car to get around, and for work of course, and so I've been searching on Craigslist for a suitable replacement within my means. My means are doing quite well right now, but I don't want to spend too much and I can't decide upon whether I should get a compact truck (for work) or a small and fuel-efficient sedan (for money-saving and environmental-consciousness). Both seem to be quite good options for me, and so the search continues.
These two are favourable options so far:

The Nissan Frontier, mid-2000s model, gets above 20mpg at least thanks to the 4-cylinder while also being able to handle somewhat of a load.


Ford Focus, 2010ish, up to 25 city and 35 highway, (Although if I'm on the upper end of my budget I could try and get a Ford Fiesta 2011 or newer as they get a bit better mileage or just anything other than Ford because, let's face it, it would have the advantage of not being a Ford.)


Either way I've decided that it's time to adjust myself to a manual transmission, and so I'm looking for that as well. This should lead to much agony, of course, and horror and delightful trading of paint in the traffic that I sometimes face here in California.
How is everyone else doing with their car issues, and how many of us can manage to not own an automobile at all?

*Neither of those two crashes happened while I was in the car. That's what little sisters are for.

If you're considering a Ford Focus,  I'd say take it one step up and go for a Fusion. I have a 2010 Fusion SE, and I love it (knock on wood, of course). I average 32 mpg.

The Fiesta's are cool though, and I really like the lime green ones. Granted I do come from a Ford family, and if I purchased a foreign car (even though Ford assembles their cars in Mexico) my dad would probably disown me.

Spoiler:

I got hit by a drunk driver back in February, which resulted in me having to get a new car. Good bye Ford Escape, good bye hatchback.

But I'm really liking my Fusion so far.

Do you have enough of a need for a pickup to be worth the hit on gas mileage?

If you are going for stick shift, the japanese cars are usually the smoothest. Makes a big difference when learning.

And one thing some young woman taught me long after I thought I knew how to drive stick: while in neutral on flat ground, you should be able to hold the clutch all the way down, shift into first gear, and gently let up on the clutch without using the accelerator to get into first. After you have that going smoothly, then you can experiment with cautiously adding gas as you let up on the clutch.

Most of us are taught to ease on the gas as you ease off the clutch, which can lead to bucking, etc. Learn how to do it without the accelerator first and you've got the hardest part licked. You'll only need the gas to shift if going uphill, so just avoid that at first.

I loathe stick shift specially on hills its a nightmare, so its automatic for me. actually I took my test in an automatic so I am not allowed to drive stick.
As for cars I suppose it depends on mileage and useage. if you have to travel a long way everyday look for comfort, air con, being able to turn your car into a snoozemobile in emergencies. theres nothing worse than going on a Hobbitesque road trip needing to get some kip but your car does an Old Man Willow and you wake up with bits of seating half way up your jacksie and your body feeling like its never going to unfold from the contorted rigor mortis sleep position you have been forced to adopt. failing that, go for red, red cars are cute.
Normally if you need urgent kip I suggest a hotel or chinzy Bed and breakfast, but I once got stuck up a Scottish mountain by a lake with a castle on it, I got invited up for New year, the people were odd, the host sat at the head of the table with stag antlers tied to his head and a barn owl on his shoulder. My friend, who was Scottish btw, was drunk under the table and nestled in some straw with the hounds. what was a girl to do? I decided it was 'prudent' to sleep in my car. I woke up damp and fuggy and unable to move my left leg for an hour. probably at the crack of dawn or some unholy hour, the castle thingie was unearthly quiet and mist was trailing through the windows without so much as a pardon me while I spook out. Drove home 300 miles and went to bed for a week.

I don't have a car and dont know how to drive one. Apparently there are some laws or other that frown on drinking buckie and driving, so given the choice between the two......

Yeah !! DONT drink & drive !!!!!
{{{ you'll spill your beer }}}

My bike just broke down.. the pedals won't turn..

That's as close as I am to getting a car.

(You'd really have no use for it here anyway though.)

Figg always has the best real life stories!

My only use for a car is for getting me the hell out of the city. Have all my camping gear in there too. The subway or even bus can't do that for you.

the other day I looked on Google maps for that castle but it seems to have done a Brigadoon. I cant find it. mind you I cant remember which Loch its on. maybe Lomond, but it was quite small and on the water. the people actually lived in a nearby cottage within bow shot of it. they had dead mice in the freezer for the owl. oooh yuck just remembered they thawed them out by the fire.

I have a 2005 Ford Focus and I've been reasonably pleased with it for the money I spent on it. Granted, I was looking for a definite cheapo option (got it for about $7500 including tags and title) and the car had 80,000 miles on it, but it does decent with mileage, though I don't drive it very much since I work so close to where I live. I'm sure more recent ones are nicer.

My stepmom is a Ford lover for the same reason as bungo's dad but I'm not really familiar with the rest of their model line. I learned to driv in my (biological) mom's Toyota Prius so it was a bit of an adjustment.

It must be an adjustment to push on the accelerator and hear noise.

It was, as was hearing noise when the car turned on and having to turn a key to make it turn on.

Decided to pay off my Fusion yesterday. Took a big hit to the bank account, but I won't miss the monthly payments.

Three years left on the loan and the bank's gonna miss out on all that interest. Boo-hoo. Wells Fargo can suck my d!¢ƙ.

Them's revolutionist talk by jingo.

I've thought about paying off my loan in one chunk but a big part of the reason why I got the car in the first place was to try to establish a credit score.  Yes, I've bought into the system. Seems to be working so far though.

I had been checking my score through creditkarma (although I don't think I would recommend their service, and wouldn't encourage anyone here to sign up for their site) and when I got approved for the loan at the dealership they showed me a considerably higher credit score than what the website had told me.

Shouldn't you have a credit score established through your student loans, Eldo? Or maybe you didn't have student loans. Idk whatevs.

It's getting awfully Fordish in here!

I'm looking for a car in the under-8k range, but am just going to buy it right out as I have the money on hand. I'm highly cynical of the world and am looking forward to my rejection of all things Credit-score related messing my life up later. Sure, it's a good idea to get started on it young and so on and blah-blah. But if worst comes to worst, I'll just move to Northern Minnesota and paintball-snipe any creditors that come snooping.

Fix Or Repair Daily


I'm looking at a Ford Ranger, 2010, only 50k miles, and it's pretty much as good as it gets for owning a truck but getting good fuel economy at the same time.

The only problem is it has a regular cab, which means not much space and absolutely no way to drive my nephews around (legally). I guess I'll keep looking...

Forest Shepherd wrote:Fix Or Repair Daily


I'm looking at a Ford Ranger, 2010, only 50k miles, and it's pretty much as good as it gets for owning a truck but getting good fuel economy at the same time.

The only problem is it has a regular cab, which means not much space and absolutely no way to drive my nephews around (legally). I guess I'll keep looking...

You may have stricter laws in CA, but in many states the law reads that you're required to use all the seatbelts the vehicle came with, so for a Ranger if you have three people belted up in the cab, you can in theory pile as many friends into the back as you want. Around here law enforcement won't bother you unless you're acting stupid. Then you get a ticket for "unsafe" not "no seatbelt". Your results may vary.

Personally I've never bought a vehicle with less than 100,000 miles on it, and I've never regretted it. That's the point where many people start selling cars with nothing wrong with them for cheap. There's often 70-100K reliable miles left on them with only the occasional water pump or distributor to replace.

I do the same, but helps if you're either handy with repairs or has a friend who is.

bungobaggins wrote:I had been checking my score through creditkarma (although I don't think I would recommend their service, and wouldn't encourage anyone here to sign up for their site) and when I got approved for the loan at the dealership they showed me a considerably higher credit score than what the website had told me.

Shouldn't you have a credit score established through your student loans, Eldo? Or maybe you didn't have student loans. Idk whatevs.

I've only done a formal credit check once but USAA started offering a rolling credit estimate that shows up whenever I sign in to their website. Dunno how accurate it is but I'd like to think it is. NB I did not have student loans. I had a merit scholarship that covered 50% of my tuition and my parents paid for the rest cause I was 14 and unemployed when I started college.

Forest Shepherd wrote:I'm looking for a car in the under-8k range, but am just going to buy it right out as I have the money on hand. I'm highly cynical of the world and am looking forward to my rejection of all things Credit-score related messing my life up later. Sure, it's a good idea to get started on it young and so on and blah-blah. But if worst comes to worst, I'll just move to Northern Minnesota and paintball-snipe any creditors that come snooping.

Are you looking through dealerships or Craigslist and the like? You probably have a better chance at finding something that cheap if you buy it directly from the previous owner. What I was told when I was shopping around was that some dealerships at least are more likely to just scrap a car that would sell for such a low price.

14 when you started college? ??

I was a fucking idiot when I was 14. Well, I guess not much has changed.

14 when I started full time, yeah. I thought I had mentioned that before, but maybe I tried phrasing it more obliquely.