The Car is Dead/Long Live the (Next) Car

Said goodbye to my 2006 Kia Sedona (minivan) yesterday. A head gasket gave way the other night and before I realized it I'd cooked the engine pretty good. A heavy-duty sealant would probably have fixed the gasket, but nothing poured out of a bottle was going to fix that camshaft flailing around in there.

I'm not really complaining, as I got close to a quarter-million miles out of it. If I wasn't OK at working on cars, that would never have been the case. Over the years I'd replaced a couple of alternators, a couple of water pumps, the A/C condenser, pretty much the entire front suspension, and a CV joint or two. I'd never have driven it as long as I did had I been paying someone else to do that work.

Not in any big hurry to replace it -- currently the house proper has only two licensed drivers, but that will change in the next few months when the famous DaughterQuant hits the road -- so I'm pondering what to get next. Another mini-van (I like to camp and a beater of a mini-van makes a good ersatz RV)? A pickup?

Ordinarily I go into something like this with a pretty clearly defined target. But not this time. Any thoughts? Suggestions?

 

Some of the new minivans are pretty sweet, but I have been a pickup driver for quite a while. I have owned Chevy and Ford models, not a lot of difference between them. I always buy the cheapest model, with no bells or whistles.

 

Good combination of size, affordability, campability, etc., is the Subaru Forester.

As fond as I am of Toyota pickups (got 23 years out of the last one), you'll come out way ahead on mpg with a Forester.

 

Whatever I buy is gonna be waaaaay used. We have one nice (< 50,000) car in the household, which is how we like it.

 

If you like to camp, I might suggest a Honda Element. I had one about 15 years ago when they first premiered, and fell out of love with the look -- mainly the plastic mud guards. But they no longer have those. I have a Honda Pilot and will probably want to get another one because I've had a Honda since I was 16 (I'm 44) and have had nothing but good luck with them. But a Pilot, at least one with leather seats, isn't great for camping. An Element is terrific for camping though. The interior seats flip up and attach to the ceiling with carabiners. You can have a sleep set-up within the car in under five minutes.

 

Oooooh ... hadn't thought of that.

 

I have never cared about cars. Point A to Point B has been my only goal forever.

But I absolutely love my new Chevy Volt. It’s a hybrid with plug-in, but I get around almost exclusively on the electric — legit 53-mile range, takes about 4-5 hours to fully charge on 240V. (This is as opposed to the Ford C-Max we also have, which says 24-mile range but is far less as soon as you run the AC or get on the freeway.) It’s built low and handles very well. Lots of trunk space.

 

Give 'em a look, doc. Great reliability, AWD standard. $23000 brand new for the base model; can find clean used examples for much less than half that.

Should run forever if well maintained.

 

So I could basically get to the end of my driveway in the summer...

 

I hope @doctorquant buys a car with an engine I built. I wrote in tiny lettering about intersectionality on the block of his engine in paint marker with my dirty liberal hands to undermine the patriarchy along with a drawing of George Will wearing blue jeans.

 

Just spent a few perusing Craigslist ... there are several 10YO (+/-) out there in the 100,000-mile range that can be had for a relative pittance. PLUS, they can be worked on! (Engine isn't mounted transverse, so it can be lifted up and out. With most newer cars, the engine has to be taken out from below, which means you have to have a lift, etc., which no shade-tree-er like me has.)

 

Get whatever vehicle @Smallpotatoes drives.