Let's talk about cars

This thread is stone dead, like Tesla in winter.

Because Euros are wine people, not cars and guns.

Admittedly, I cannot give a sh!t about cars. At one point in my life I drove a Chrysler Town & Country to the ridicule of my 20-something friends, but I was happy because I was the go-to guy when it came to camping trips or kayaking down the Delaware River on an overnight trip. When I would go on solo climbing or hunting trips I could always stretch out in the back on an inflatable matrass, and use the outlets to watch something before passing out.

Before that monster of a car I had a Land Rover Discovery, which drained more money on maintenance than I care to mention here. Since the guy at the Manhattan Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep dealership is a crook - I ended up being roped into a Grand Cherokee after my minivan. I hate the car. I hate that I drive an American car that is deficient in every way to imports. It breaks more often than I want to admit here. But I love it also. I have abused this Grand Cherokee more than any Russian Niva has ever been abused.

The same, and I have to buy one soon. Given that I couldn't care less about them, don't need a status symbol and will rarely drive it, it's hard to know what to get.


Jim posting tends to do that.

As a fellow car ignorant, let me begin by asking you what do you want from it? I want from my car a winch, a plethora of 110V outlets, and space for a matrass. This narrows my choices. I use my car once or twice a month, otherwise I try to use public transport. Despite this, I have to pay exorbitant Manhattan insurance costs ($300-400 a month), and about $800 for the garage storage space. This is on top of the cost of the car itself. It's why we share this car.

Reliability, comfort and (important in Poland) safety.

@jon357

But do you go outdoors?

If not, how many people are you? I always love to have space so I can take whomever, but also at the same time I think my dream car is a Golf GTI so I can tell everyone to f%ck off and drive around like a little frog, and park wherever I like. Nobody will ask you to help move their furniture if you have a GTI.

Not knowing anything else, I would need to know your budget.

Whatever you do, do not buy French or American.

Just two, however we don't want a two-seater and would like the back to be comfortable since any passengers we do take are unlikely to be young and agile. It won't be used for commuting, just shopping and occasional weekend drives out of town. Budget? That depends however I never buy new cars; they lose so much value as soon as they leave the forecourt. I'd like an old Mercedes however parking is tight where I am so it really needs to be something nippier. It'll be squeezed between my neighbours' cars which are a small Merc, a Landcruiser and a vintage Jaguar. It doesn't need to be as flashy as those though.

And the buying process should be hassle free. Right now I have to sell a car in the UK for sad reasons and it's a drag dealing with all that on top of the other stuff.

There are some good leasing deals, and there are ways of getting certain discounts for specific reasons to do with the other person driving it (who will probably drive it slightly more than me anyway) and that may well be easiest.

Buy a Lexus - one of the few cars that makes you feel rich even if you are not. And the dealers...Huge places, free loaners, free car wash, coffee, snacks, internet, TV, and very good-looking receptionists to make paying less painful.

Even Bentley can't touch this dashboard...

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I think I'm the only person i the world that hates leather seats and wood in cars...

Why not? I think it is a good idea to buy American cars in America....and about French I can only say that I had 4 of them and they can be better then one can imagine.

@jon357

All factors considered, if I were you, I'd buy an old Lexus RX or if you want something less American - some kind of Audi Q5 or VW Tiguan. You got the four doors you want. It's decent enough so you don't have fits of anxiety re: your neighbors. It's got great trunk space. It's still still a ton smaller than the Q7, VW Atlas, or LX 570 - so you can park. You have the all wheel drive so you're not too bothered by sleet etc. They're reasonably economical on fuel.

To me, no wood, no sale. I remember those skinny, see-through plastic steering wheels. Yikes...
BTW, mine is real, not plastic pretending to be wood.
Trust me. Once you go Lexus there is no turning back and mainly for reliability. Just talk to MB and BMW owners.


RX350 - what America's women drive. Including mine.

You just don't see American cars much in PL; they aren't really a thing in Europe.

Nothing posh, and something that never breaks down. Definitely no sort of Chelsea Tractor. If it's quite green, all the better but no electric stuff.

In Manhattan, the RX 350 is a huge car you get charged $150 a month extra by your garage because it's "oversized". I expect it's the same in London or Warsaw.

That's why I don't live in Manhattan. Plus being helped onto the tracks at subway stations just before the train pulls in...No, thanks.

RX350 is actually the same length as Camry. 192 inches.

Soon as I have kids, or tie up the knot with my lady - I'm bustin' out of here. Otherwise it's too exciting.

Very true.Have been owning since 1998.its not only reliability but comfort too.


If in NYC one can afford a 60k car one can afford 150 bucks a month fool,you kind live off yaris then


What about those black "yukon" and "suburban" all over Manhattan.Even a freaking ford explorer is RX size now.Guess Orcs should stick to there lada.Audis are typical eastern Europeans fav car.BMU & MB are crap in the States,way overpriced and very high maintenance.

LX is superb car made on earth,I saved myself 30k cuz I couldnt find any in market last year,had LX since 1998.

Somewhere in Connecticut (Greenwich), Westchester County, or god forbid - if economic conditions do not allow otherwise - New Jersey (Bergen County).

Absolute worse case I'll move to my vacation house in Long Island and try to make it a livable place for a family. The plan, however, was not to spend more than 60-90 days a year there.

That's why I would never buy a car I can't spend 10 hours in. So my pre-purchase test is seats, noise, and suspension. Late models blow it on all three points because they want to make them "sporty". Especially seats with those idiotic bolsters that make wiggling and breathing almost impossible.

To me the opposite is true.

It's $150 on top of the $400 which is normal for a garage in Midtown (during the pandemic, before it was $650+). I don't like paying $7,000 a year for the parking of a car I use once or twice a month, even though my income allows it.

New Yorkers will be so at home in 15-minute cities.

Same in Warsaw (over 800 pln for parking near me under Plac kultury)except in Zlots,one reason I dont use a car it in Warsaw,metro,uber free now taxi and other public transportation is great like NYC.Most Poles in Warsaw keep cars as status symbol.In NYC why would you keep a car when you can rent one from 35 bucks a day,when you need it.

Hey Orc,my friends from Moscow & Armenia call Lexus LX a "Russian village car" is it true among ya hommies?When I was in Yerevan,lexus was all over the town.And whats with that 777 number plates,they told me its a prestige number same in Moscow with some VIP stickers in the windshield that lets them drive in Red Square?

There's probably more Landcruisers, X5s, LX 570s, G-wagens, and Range Rovers in Russia than there are in all of Europe. Russians are like Americans, they love their big monstrous SUVs. In the early 2000s the Hummer H2 was also popular, but thankfully has now disappeared.

The SUVs were so popular in Russia that Mercedes and BMW set up plants here to assemble the SUV models from kits shipped from the States (in order to avoid customs duties).

The 777 is ubiquitous. Not only in Russia and Armenia, but also in Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, etc. The most "popular" license plates can cost up to $100K (back in the day, not sure now).

In the 1990s it was the Grand Cherokee which was the favorite car of gangsters and the nouveau riche.

I admit that owning a car in Warsaw makes little sense with everyone being very white to make using public transportation very boring.

Of cars and transgenders...Quoting:

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The Mississippi Senate gave final approval Thursday to a bill to restrict electric car manufacturers from opening new brick-and-mortar dealerships in the state unless they comply with the same laws traditional carmakers follow.

"We're saying if you choose to have a brick-and-mortar dealership, you have to follow the same laws that everyone else has to follow," Sparks said. "Please don't tell me Tesla's car doesn't identify as a car."

What a revolutionary idea...If I can identify as a girl, Tesla can identify as a carrot or aspirin and be exempt from taxes!

I agree,last Sept/Oct I asked my ruski pal in Moscow if he can now get the new i phone after sanctions as I had to wait 3 weeks for an unlocked one,he calls me back on video call in an hr unboxing one.These sanction crap is just a eyewash.Maybe thats why Toyota stopped selling Landcruisers in the US.

BTW 570s are old new ones new are LX600 for a year now.

My new-to-me car shows 15.5 mpg from driving in my area. I hope some woke tree hugger will get a heart attack after reading this.

15.5 lol here I have better one...

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