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What are your "non-negotiables" for your next car?

1. I need this, I want this, no sale without this:
- At least 350hp - That's what I currently have, not going down.
- AWD - Canadian winters are a lot more fun in AWD cars.
- Heated seats and steering wheel.
- Automatic climate control.
- Cruise control.
- Android Auto.
- At least 4 seats.

2. Nice to have.
- Radar cruise control.
- Manual transmission*
- More than 4 cylinder*
- Naturally aspirated engine*
- 4 or 5 doors.

3. Don't want.
- FWD - I've had enough FWD cars. I'm done with them.
- RWD - Would be fun in summer, not so much in winter when the weather gets bad.

*An electric car with same level of performance and driving enjoyment as my current car would make me forgo these points.
 
I have two different sets of requirements, which will ultimately end up being two separate cars - I think that's the best way forward, all things considered.



Daily driver
Comfortable and "easy" everyday car for commuting, shopping, and long-distance travel. Lots of points I currently have with the Model 3 and don't want to miss anymore, minus (some of) the power/speed and extra cost because of power/speed, plus a few minor things.

Must:
- EV
- mid- to long-range battery, 50kWh+, with decent efficiency
- fast charging (150kW+)
- AC, heated seats, heated steering (one thing I miss a lot right now, especially after having it in mom's Mach-E), with remote pre-heating/pre-cooling
- Radar cruise-control and good lane-keeping assist
- 4- or 5-door, hatchback or wagon ideally, sedan would probably do. SUV unlikely, but not outright excluded

Nice to have:
- 360° parking camera
- CarPlay
- sunroof, or panoramic glass
- matrix LEDs



Weekend / project car
Something I realized I need after I sold the MX-5 :D

Must:
- Petrol
- 150+ hp - more is better, but doesn't need to be too powerful
- Manual
- RWD
- Convertible/roadster (gimme that open top feeling)
- Inexpensive
- Simple enough to work on myself

Nice to have:
- CarPlay, or Bluetooth, or at least AUX for audio
- AC
 
Perc said:
Non-negotiable, in (mostly) no particular order:
- AWD. We have snow on the ground several months out of the year here. On Christmas eve we got several winters' worth in a couple of hours.
- It needs to be able to defrost itself via remote control, even if not plugged in to a power socket.
- Some modicum of towing capability, say 2 tons or thereabouts. Because hobbies and stuff.
- Radar cruise control. If you've tried it, you know.
- I'm 2 meters tall and I want human beings with legs to be able to sit behind me because it's a five-seater car after all. This alone rules out about the majority of cars on the road in Finland.
- CarPlay, no matter how good the infotainment is.
- Automatic, but there are pretty much no manual cars in the segment I buy in and my next car will probably have a drivetrain that makes a manual impossible anyway.
- Heated steering wheel. No, it's not a gimmick. Something something Finnish winter.
- Matrix LEDs. When I bought my current car I got lost in the jungle of optional extras and managed to buy one of very few B8 Passats without matrix LED headlights. It has LEDs for sure, but the basic ones which pretty much nobody gets on these, so I didn't know they existed. I bought the car from the other side of the country and had it delivered to me, which is why I didn't notice my mistake until the car was here. I didn't want to be the difficult customer and send it back. IMO, Matrix LEDs is a complete no-brainer and I won't make this mistake the next time around.

View attachment 3563471
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Omfg, yes I forgot about these lights with the S-Max rental I had!
 
RdKetchup said:
No diesel or EV? 😜
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I'll happily take a PHEV convertible today, maybe soon a fully BEV convertible... but, neither exists outside of oddities like the Fiat 500C and Tesla Roadster.

As for diesel, my company pays the fuel bill so ... why? :dunno:
 
narf said:
I'll happily take a PHEV convertible today, maybe soon a fully BEV convertible... but, neither exists outside of oddities like the Fiat 500C and Tesla Roadster.

As for diesel, my company pays the fuel bill so ... why? :dunno:
Click to expand...

It was just a play on words, "essence" being French for petrol.
 
Are we talking new or used?

New:

- Must be EV
- Must have reliable range over 200km
- Must have clear readouts for range and consumption (Citroën ë-C4 was incomprehensible)
- Must be remotely heatable via app

That's about it.

Used:

- Must be compatible with any wheels I have in the storage
 
Must have? EV with at least 400 km of range, fun to drive, affordable. RWD or AWD. Some haptic-button/controller method of using the centre screen. Preferrably convertible. Would be nice to have a four-seater again.
Basically @narf's current car, only as an EV. And affordable, which rules that phantasy out immediately. :D
 
Who this has gotten out of hand - these "Non Negotiables" range from "I want disc brakes all around" to "I need a heated steering wheel".
One is ridiculously basic and standard (?) on all cars, the other is a luxury no one REALLY needs matter how cold it gets where you live....

Also I see the need for an "everyday" commuter car and a "fun" category since those are 2 completely different animals with completely different requirements.

For me, I'm quite a simple man, so my list is quite short :

NEEDS

EV drivetrain (so automatic transmission aswell)
"sufficient" horsepower or power/weight ratio. For an EV of normal size I'd say 150-200 hp is all you need really.
More is fun to have, but not really essential
Decent size battery/range (50+ kwh at least)
Decent (150+ kw fast charging speed)
Adaptive cruise control (I don't understand people who use this once and don't want this all the time)
A good aircon/heatpump
Android Auto / Apple Carplay
Towbar (because bikes)
Heated seats that you can sit in for hours without getting back ache.

WANTS

"premium" sound system
driver aids like automatic parking, lane assist, etc
remote heating/cooling via app
leather interior
LED headlights
HUD

DON'T REALLY CARE
sunroof
bigger/fancier wheels
heated steering wheel
seat cooling
Keyless go
 
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NooDle said:
One is ridiculously basic and standard (?) on all cars
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4-wheel disc brakes are getting less standard these days, on a non-performance-oriented BEV there's no good reason to have rear discs. For example, the ID3 & ID4 both have drums in the rear.
 
While I really like LED headlights as a concept, in reality I might spec something else just to get the "headlight defrost" function on the side :D
 
NooDle said:
Also I see the need for an "everyday" commuter car and a "fun" category since those are 2 completely different animals with completely different requirements.
Click to expand...

I want a car that does all this in one.
 
NooDle said:
Who this has gotten out of hand - these "Non Negotiables" range from "I want disc brakes all around" to "I need a heated steering wheel".
One is ridiculously basic and standard (?) on all cars, the other is a luxury no one REALLY needs matter how cold it gets where you live....
Click to expand...

It sounds like you've never lived in a place where it gets cold, at least not while daily driving a car with a heated steering wheel. It turns into a no-brainer on the first or maybe second cold morning.

As for disc brakes all around, those are going away now. Drum brakes look ridiculous and old fashioned, not that it matters with the weird wheel designs we're getting these days where you can't see the brakes anyway.

I do agree about adaptive cruise. How you can try that once and not immediately decide your next car needs to have it it is beyond me. But using your logic, people have been able to drive without ACC for a century so you should be able to, too.
 
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That is true I’ve never lived in a colder climate so I fail to see the point of a heated steering wheel. With an EV you can preheat, this is even less of an issue I’d think?

With regards to the disc brakes : to me this is not an option just something your car has. I’ve never thought of this as a reason for not wanting a car, but maybe I am too European to understand proper low spec US cars?
 
NooDle said:
That is true I’ve never lived in a colder climate so I fail to see the point of a heated steering wheel. With an EV you can preheat, this is even less of an issue I’d think?

With regards to the disc brakes : to me this is not an option just something your car has. I’ve never thought of this as a reason for not wanting a car, but maybe I am too European to understand proper low spec US cars?
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That depends. Certain low spec fiesta and focus’ had drums in the rear. You’ll never see drums up front as that hasn’t been a think since about the 1970s.
 
lip said:
I want a car that does all this in one.
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I do too, but many people want 2 cars for this
exact reason. But because of the different use cases, the demands for both cars can vary wildly….

I’d want manual, rwd and a lot of horsepower for my fun car, and the exact opposite for my commuter car
 
NooDle said:
With an EV you can preheat, this is even less of an issue I’d think?
Click to expand...

Pre-heating has been a thing for something like 60 years, and remote control has existed since the mid 90's or so. It's far, far from a new thing.
 
Toyota will gladly sell you a 40k USD Tacoma with drum brakes in the rear.

Discs are a must for me because they’re easy to DIY - drums are seemingly a royal pain in the ass - if I end up with drums for some reason I’ll be returning to just paying out the ass for a shop to do it.
 
I've struggled with them a time or two, but with some good tools (the correct pliers mostly) drums aren't really all that bad.

*Crazy drag racer talk ahead, be warned.*

Many drag racers prefer drums all the way around on an old school slower bracket car. Part of the strategy in bracket racing is racing the stripe. Getting on the brakes at 90-120 mph / 145-190 kph hard to "tighten up the stripe" can lock discs pretty easy, but drums won't.
 
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