Realized that with my new job I’m at $500/month for gas. Starting to seriously consider a hybrid or electric but damn they expensive. Either way might just need something more reliable than my 320k+ car.
Whatchya driving, do you like it, and why?
Let me tell you about my 2007 Toyota Yaris Hatchback manual drive.
In my opinion this is nearly as perfect of a vehicle as it is possible to get.
The 1.5 liter engine is small and efficient which means your gas bill is nice and tiny compared to the average vehicle I see on the road. It also has this weird quirk of FEELING really fast and exciting while driving while actually being rather pedestrian. A year after this vehicle was released motortrend came out with an article about the slowest cars they have ever tested: The Toyota Yaris was the 5th slowest. Probably due to the manual gear box, the sharp and agile steering, and the noise it makes, it simply feels a LOT faster than it really is. THIS IS A POSITIVE. It means you can have a good time and enjoy driving it but unless you are trying REALLY hard you won’t be speeding all that often and even with your foot to the floor you won’t be ripping away from traffic and drawing attention to yourself. That doesn’t mean you can’t red-line the engine, drop the clutch , and rip a nicely satisfying burnout, because you can… And I have.
Oh BTW… if you want to have some fun you can buy a ready to install everything included SUPERCHARGER kit for the Yaris. It’s on my bucketlist.
The cargo space is MASSIVE! because the rear seats fold flat and it’s a hatchback with a wide trunk opening and a flat-ish roof (instead of aggressively raked back) the amount of stuff you can fit in it is kind of insane. Several hundred pounds of firewood? Check. Two fully assembled kitchen cabinets to be turned into a kitchen island? Check. 55" TV in box? Check. 6.5’ Christmas tree? Check. Just look at that cavernous space!
Shoot, my wife and I regularly go car camping out of the Yaris. If you push the front seats as far forward as they go you can fit an inflatable mattress in the back with only a slight bend in it. It’s remarkably comfortable and unless you need to sleep perfectly straight as a log it serves very well as a mini RV. Back when I commuted 26 miles to my full time job and then another further 55 miles to my full time schooling I would often sleep in the back of the Yaris between the two and have very restful and replenishing sleep.
Here we are on Rollins Pass in Colorado at 11,600 ish feet:
At first having the gauges in the center of the dash was a bit weird but it comes with two bonuses. The first one took me a while to notice: You feel more connected to the road and your journey. Putting the dashboard gauges directly in front of the driver actually puts a barrier between the driver and the road ahead of them. It’s a wall of information density that permanently exists between you and the world ahead and you have to go through it before you can experience what’s before you. It might be a borderline subconscious thing but not having something that constantly wants your attention in front of you really lets your mind focus on the road ahead of you and the journey you are on. If you NEED the information, it’s still there, just politely sitting off to the side waiting to tell you whatever you need to know.
The second bonus to the center gauges? MOTHER FUCKING GLOVEBOXES BABY! THIS CAR HAS THREE! There is the standard glove box around the knees of the passenger but there is also one above that and a THIRD one above the steering column on the driver’s side. I never would have guessed how excited a grown man could be (me) about the discovery of multiple GLOVEBOXES in a car.
Almost nearly as much as I enjoy the gloveboxes I really am impressed by the setup of the cup holders. You have your standard 2 cup holders down by the hand brake in the center console but the really awesome ones are seamlessly folded into the dashboard near the doors. These aren’t your tiny popout cupholders you find in most cars that break the second time you put a big gulp in one. No… these are chunky, heavy duty cup holders that make an audible ca-thunk when deployed. The amount of times I’ve deployed the cup holder at a driver through and had the teller make a visible reaction or even stop to say something is significant. My words probably do not do them justice so look at these pictures of their location and diagram from the manual and tell me that they don’t inspire confidence.
There are only TWO things I would like changes about this car. Give me a Bluetooth enabled head unit with better speakers and a good place to put a chi charger for my phone. That is all.
I could go on for hours about this car but my last point about how epic this vehicle is and how we don’t deserve it is this: It’s a Toyota. A proper old fashioned bulletproof, reliable, affordable Toyota. Parts are dirt cheap and easy to replace.I’ve got 266,000 miles on mine and let me tell you, they have not been kind miles. We regularly take this on off road trails bouncing off of rocks and occasionally trees. I’ve torn the O2 sensor clean off of the car a couple of times and got it stuck up to the bottom of the door in deep snow while driving a dirt road pass in the Rockies. I have treated it like dirt and only done basic maintenance far less than it deserves. I’ve only had to replace the clutch once and this next summer will be the first time ever that I need to do anything even approaching major service. It’s got a water pump leak and a front timing cover leak. Neither of these stop the car from functioning at all but as long as I keep an eye on the fluid levels we are good to go.
All this and it takes it like an absolute champ. It trucks along being the best little car it can be. The snow, dirt, and mud, and neverending miles of cross country journeys this car has never failed me. I will not part with my beautiful little car for anything less then total destruction. The day that happens I will remove the logo from it’s sad lifeless carcass, frame it and hang it on my wall for all to know what an amazing being was part of our lives for so long and yet not nearly long enough.
I love my car.
Excellent read. I now want to go camping in a tiny but huge hatchback. Your car sounds amazing, I hope you have many thousands of kilometres before retiring it.
I wish I could enjoy life as much as you enjoy your Yaris, never thought such a mundane car could spark so much joy
I’m going to try and say this without sounding excessively depressing but… There are few things in my life that bring me joy or excitement so when I find something that does I latch on to it and don’t let it go. Even if it’s a small relatively inconsequential thing let it bring joy into your life no matter how little the amount.
I’ve got a 1/2 cube made of tungsten that is just satisfying to hold onto and it’s one of my favorite things.
There’s nothing wrong with that mate, society pushed us to never be content with anything, so it’s good to find some joys in life
I love the scenery in these photos.
Thanks! California, Colorado, and New York for the scenic photos. We always try to find beautiful off the beaten places to travel too and explore.
Drive a 2018 Nissan leaf, fantastic car except for the fact that it uses CHADeMO for DC fast charging (cancelled connector, getting harder to find)
Would recommend getting an EV, especially if you can charge at home. With tax credits and the savings in gas you’ll have paid the difference before you’re done with the car for sure.
2017 Leaf here. It’s my first EV and I can’t see myself going back. The fact that I never have to put gas in it hasn’t gotten old. I should note that 2017 is ancient in EV years so the range is pretty bad. I can only rely on this as my primary vehicle because my partner has a gas car.
I’m looking at getting a used leaf or a bolt. Do you know what the battery range degradation after 5 years would be approximately? 30%? Is there likely to be some sort of cascading failure at some point that would necessitate a battery replacement? Or are they good to drive to hundreds of thousands of miles with reduced range?
Mine needed a full battery replacement after almost 5 years due to a defect, many 2018-2020 models will also have gotten the same due to the same issue. If you get one of those you get a new pack with ~170 Miles (default was 155 for mine)
Before turning it in I’d gone down to an estimated 125-130ish from the 155 it started at, honestly it didn’t really feel like it’d lost much range at all, had the battery not failed due to a manufacturing efect I feel I’d have gotten at least another 10 years before really feeling the squeeze. That’s gonna depend on how often you DC fast charge vs level 1 or 2 slow charge, though. Then again, I’d mostly used DC fast charging to charge that battery so idk how much it ACTUALLY hurts the battery in the long run.
If given the choice I’d go for a bolt, preferably one with the refurb batteries from THEIR recall. Main reason being slightly more miles on the battery + CCS-1 (More common than CHADeMO and adaptable to NACS) DC fast charging
My leaf does a daily 46 mile one way commute and I get home with 35-40% charge every day, which I’d say isn’t bad at all. If you don’t road trip it, it rules
Was literally in that situation back in 2018. 110 mile round trip daily commute, ~$500/mo in gas. Had to fill up every other day.
Bought a 2017 Ford Fusion hybrid and cut my monthly gas expenditures down to about $200. Payments were about $225/mo so I ended up saving $50/mo once the insurance differential was factored in. A tank now lasted me just over a week.
As of 2020, l’m still driving it, but I’ve since moved much closer to work. A tank lasts me about a month now.
As of 2021, I work from home. A tank lasts me 3-4 months on average. Car is paid off.
Oh wow, yeh that’s the kind of thing I’ve been eyeing. I’ve never had a boring reliable, responsible vehicle but alas, the numbers don’t lie!
The new Prius is looking pretty sweet, just saying
Also have a 2017 Ford Fusion. Great car. Shows its age but runs like a champ as primary commuter work vehicle. Literally my only complaint is that I didn’t spring for the hybrid.
Living the dream, having a car but not needing to use it, only when you want to go out and have fun!
I use public transport 😎
If someone’s spending $500/mo in gas, let’s just say public transport probably isn’t an option. Also, in the US, public transport is practically non-existent outside of urban centers. We kinda suck at stuff like that.
To be honest, I have no idea what gas costs, and as such what it translates to.
And yeah, I am from Europe.
Lucky. It’s $3.20 a gallon (around $0.85 a liter), were I live in the southeast US, drive around 60 miles a day at 25mpg, so a generally around $7-8 day (I drive an older car, and don’t live too close to work), or $40-50 a week. Plus around 5-7hrs worth of driving a week.
Lmao it’s about $2.20 a liter where I live. 0.85 is a dream number here.
The US both pretty heavily subsidizes gas and we produce the most. It’s required to get around in all but a few places in the US after all. A lot of us would actually kinda prefer trains and trams, but most of the US is rural or semi rural, so that isn’t often an option.
Not everyone lives in freedom™ country
I used to. Moved to more rural area of Canada where there aren’t public transportation options. It’s been eye opening actually having to rely on a vehicle, starting to worry about tires and winter and blah blah blah. Not to mention the cost and overall environmental impact. Gross.
I’m in a similar boat. It sucks.
I am about 1 hour drive from NYC and the bus from here costs $620 per month if you buy in bulk. Otherwise, it’s a $40 round trip. There’s also a trains and ferry, and those are even more expensive than the bus. $500 in gas is cheaper than working in the city.
Wow that is… insane. I had no idea transit costs were so high in NY.
1999 Subaru Forestur
Pros - it runs
Cons - barely
In a similar vein, 2000 Ford falcon
Pros: runs
Cons: runs too well, in fact it doesn’t turn off.
2016 Toyota Camry. Up until that, I always bought used old beaters and ran them into the ground, but in 2017, my new job required a car less than 6 years old, so I bought the Camry.
I might be jinxing myself, but, besides normal (disposable) things like tires and brakes and minor tune ups, it hasn’t needed any major repairs since I bought it.
I bought a 2019 Corolla, the Camry’s cheaper cousin, for the same reason. Hoping it lasts til 200,000 miles with no issues. 300K would be fantastic. Last Toyota I had was a Tacoma and it made it to 270K buy replaced the transmission twice 😭
I bought a used 2015 Camry and have had no problems that I couldn’t handle myself. Or just ignore, like tire pressure sensors that give false failure signals.
a cheap e-fatbike. it’s almost free to ride and it has a decent range of about 30 km without pedaling so it gets me anywhere i need to go. i regret that i didn’t get one that has studded tires available, riding on ice is scary (finland). it also squeaks on bumpy roads like an old bed…
I’m imagining you grinning ear to ear while bouncing up and down on a shitty road and the only soundtrack is squeak squeak squeak squeak
Honda Fit, base model: Fukken love it. Very practical and decent hauling capacity. I mostly ride my bikes these days but it’s a great car.
I have a 2019 Fit! It’s perfect because it’s just the right size for me; it feels bigger on the inside but it’s the definition of compact. And I only spend about $80 US on gas monthly, if that!
I love the fact that I have no modern annoyances. No cacophony of binging noises to warn me about every small pointless thing: a car passing me, minor speeding, upcoming cameras, a car braking in front, reversing towards an object. Nice and quiet… just the hum of the engine. I don’t think I can drive a ‘new’ car.
Just a 2007 TT. Nothing special.
I can fix my car with a 10mm socket and a hammer.
I drive a metal bike. It’s a bit heavy but for €200 it’s good and I save on gym and stuff. I regret not getting the front basket. Please don’t repeat the same mistake I did, it’s not worth it when you go for groceries.
I got a front tray thingy, strongly recommend. It means my cargo volume is limited only by my own ingenuity with my elastic cords, i.e. still quite a lot but a bit less than with a basket.
You know you can get a trailer for the bike. I made one and use it to get groceries and it has plenty of space. Holds almost as much as my small car.
I do know but then I would occupy almost as much space as your small car. (I don’t have the storage space for your small car)
OK. I hear you but for the record I meant the trunk space of my small car, not the whole car. They make bike trailers in different sizes and some fold up.
am have feet
only energy source is food
is sustainable ._.
Very. It sounds like you won the location lottery!
Based feet haver
Running is faster than traffic in many places.
I drive a 2000 Honda Insight. It’s pretty cool.
Pro: good gas mileage, manual transmission, cheap maintenance, comfy seats. I can go ~700mi on a tank. Costs me $40 to fill. I fill it maybe 8-10 times a year assuming no road trips. It’s about 60-70MPG.
Cons: slowest car I have ever driven so I have to plan merging onto highways/motorways very precisely. Literally my only complaint.
I like that car. It’s pretty neat.
Edit:
Another con: it only has two seats. Doesn’t hurt my use cases where I generally drive solo, or at most with my love, but for some that may pose an issue. (Think about it, though, most people who drive only drive themselves, generally to and from work.)
I have an escape plug in hybrid. I get about 40 miles all electric, and about 500 miles on gas. I just took a camping trip where I towed a trailer, so my average mpg is down to about 50. Normally it rides around 70-80, since most days I drive less than 40 miles.
I like my fuel efficiency, and that I can plug it in to charge. I wish I had a little more cargo space, since I’m just shy of “project” capacity, and more “flat pack furniture”. I dislike that the towing capacity is low, since the hybrid drivetrain is more complex, and the car just weighs more, so I can only tow about 1500 lbs, which limits your choices for campers and such.
I originally started the buying process because I needed a new car, and I had a three hour round trip commute. Now I’m working from home, and it’s even better because I basically never use gas, but haven’t sacrificed range. Only my poor, beleaguered bank account. Which I don’t regret.
Almost the same, but the RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid. 50mi electric range, AWD, we almost never have to fill it and there’s free slow chargers in our town!
Thanks for the insights, all good to know!
I’ve a wee 2016 1.2tsi manual skoda fabia. I really like it, think the dashboards layed out perfectly, everything intuitive to use, the AC is simple to adjust, its reasonably efficient, and is the right size for me.
I’d prefer insurance companies to stop taking the piss with the prices, I’ve never hit anything or got any points, its literally just because I’m a young man. I’d also prefer there to be a little more space between the clutch and side wall in the footwell as I have wide feet and its easy to clip the clutch when putting my left foot on the foot rest.
I have a Tesla model 3, it is very cheap to operate but expensive to buy. The only negative thing about it is public/political perception of the car.
People on the left hate Elon, tech people think a car can’t drive itself without a weapons grade sensor array, and people on the right hate using electricity for propulsion, car people are threatened by electric car’s acceleration, or that the battery is going to die and I’ll need to get a new car.
Without all of that, owning one is super cool.
I got it because it’s fun to drive, because I hate cars but have to have one, I figure even if it’s not much better for the planet it’s at least better for my health and my family’s health to spend less time at gas stations and breathing exhaust, and because I was finally at a point in my life I could afford an expensive car.
I didn’t realize that I was making a public political decision that would make everyone hate me. It’s weird the way some pickup trucks just decide to go fucking nuts around me. It’s weird that my mother is in a constant state of fear that my car will suddenly come to life, drive itself off a cliff, and then catch fire. It’s weird that random people will be like “It’s not actually better for the planet.”
I drive one for Uber as my full time gig. I spend about $125/wk on charging exclusively at superchargers.i could mitigate this substantially of I was able to put a home charger in.
People on the left hate Elon, tech people think a car can’t drive itself without a weapons grade sensor array, and people on the right hate using electricity for propulsion, car people are threatened by electric car’s acceleration, or that the battery is going to die and I’ll need to get a new car.
I think it’s important to note that all of those fears are completely unfounded and some are just ridiculous. Also that you can lease one now for literally $250/mo, so not really so expensive to own.
