I’m saying that I need a vehicle that fits my needs FIRST.
My last vehicle I bought was my 2014 Highlander.
I needed a vehicle that could…
. Haul 4 or 5 comfortably.
. Decent 4wd or AWD for ski trips to white mountains.
. Tow a 3,000 popup and all camping gear.
. Reliable. I tend to keep my vehicles over 300k miles.
Kind of stupid to buy the most comfortable vehicle in the world if I can’t take it to the white mountains for skiing or tow my pop-up.
When I figured out what I needed - I figured there were at least 20+ different vehicles.
Then I added in gas mileage and comfort requirement. Narrowing down the list with a gas mileage requirement of better then 20mph…that brought the list to about 8.
I figured I could find at least ONE vehicle in that list that was comfortable. I test drove 5 of them…and found all of them more then comfortable. If they weren’t comfortable I’d start over.
Nuclear power is a lot more then it has to be because each and every plant in the US is custom built. Unlike France that uses 3-4 standard designs. When you build custom plants - each time you build it there are MILLION AND MILLIONS of new variables that you didn’t have the previous one you built. Seabrook cost 16 times what it was projected to cost…and had NOTHING to do with lawsuits. Seabrook was suppose to cost 2 Billion for two plants. Instead they built ONE at a cost of 8 Billion.
We talk about “comfort”, I don’t see why good fuel economy and comfort need to be mutually exclusive. My 40+ mpg car is comfortable enough to make 300 mile trips with, it’s not like driving this car four six hours is like sitting in a wooden church pew for six hours. The heater keeps the car warm and the AC blasts cold air.
What I don’t get is how people can haggle for weeks to get the best possible deal on a new car and then not even consider that the model they got a good deal on is going to burn through over 5000 gallons of gas in the course of driving it 100,000 miles.
I dunno, maybe thrift is only cool when someone else loses and spending is only cool when someone else loses. Like fighting to pay the tab at a restaurant.
My wifes Lexus is very comfortable. It usually averages about 30-33 highway when on trips.
And gets far better gas mileage then my 73 Vega. The Lexus is almost twice as heavy, much faster acceleration…yet there’s a good 40% improvement in gas mileage.
I agree, my 70 mpg Kawasaki Ninja 300 is actually more comfortable than the 45 mpg Kawasaki ZRX 1200 I owned before. I don’t know why but 100 miles was about the limit for the ZRX1200 before I couldn’t wait to get off that bike.
There is even an entire page dedicated to addressing the seat padding on the ZRX owner’s association (ZRXOA) forum.
My car is very comfortable and gets 30mpg on the highway on a nice day.
Good mileage does not have to come at the expense of comfort.
I won’t mention Tesla. A luxury car by any definition.
This is called the Efficiency Paradox! Without any additional pressure to reduce consumption, people drive more, buy larger vehicles and the total amount consumed does not change a lot! In Europe nearly all cars are very energy efficient. but they have expensive gas (taxes), gas guzzler taxes and annual license fees based on weight and horsepower! In France the license fee would be about $1500 per year to keep the plates on a typical 5 liter US V8 powered vehicle!.
As a result, a Jeep Grand Cherokee costs about $95,000 in Holland and it burns gas costing $9 per gallon!!
So only the king and rich people can afford those vehicles!
On a past trip to France I noticed that Mannix a US private detective program was wildly popular on French TV. I think the main reason was a good looking guy (Mike Conners?) who drove an exotic high powered sports car which the average Frenchman could only dream about.
For those Europeans who dream of driving a high powered vehicle, there’s always the Ariel Atom. With it’s Honda Civic engine, it shouldn’t face too many of those fees and taxes. The original Atom only cost about £30,000.
I couldn’t remember what kind of car Mannix drove except it had a car phone. I see it was a 68 Dart GT. That’s what I had except it had the 318. I suspect the French like dark curly hair of something and maybe the taller variety.
Edit - the Toronado was done by George Barris, no less!
Here’s a complete rundown on his other cars:
“From 1968 to 1972, Joe Mannix drove a number of dark green Plymouth cars including a 1968 Dodge Dart (383 engine); a dark green 1969 Dodge Dart - (340 engine); a dark green 1969 Dodge Dart GTS convertible (340 V8 Engine); a dark green 1970 Plymouth Barracuda convertible( 340 Engine, 4-barrel carburetor); a 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible (440 Engine, 4-barrel carburetor); a 1972 Plymouth Barracuda convertible (383 Engine, 4-barrel carburetor). During the 1973-74 season, Mannix drove a bronze 1973 Dodge Challenger Hardtop (340 Engine, 4-barrel carburetor). In the last season (1974-75) Joe drove a 1974 dark blue Chevy Camaro Hardtop,”
Thanks for the clarification; my recall was a little foggy. All these cars would leave most Frenchmen wide-eyed, since at that time cookie cutter French cars were all that were affordable.
