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

rickhamilton620

has a fetish for terrible cars
Joined
Nov 28, 2009
Messages
16,962
Location
Mount Wolf, PA
Car(s)
2023 Mazda CX-5 Premium
I'm long term planning for myself and thinking about what I want to replace the Kia with in the summer. So far I have five things that the next car has to have:

Manual transmission
Sunroof
Independent Rear Suspension
Disk brakes all round
CarPlay (or a easy to retrofit aftermarket option)
Premium audio

Nice to have but not required:
Heated Seats
LED or Xenons
Proximity Key
Blind Spot Monitoring
Hatchback - I'm torn about this right now with everything going on - I like the physical separation that a trunk provides for drive up/curbside pickup

What are your must haves on your next ride?
 
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^What is Premium Audio?



Must Haves:

Auto Climate Control
Heated Seats
Cloth Seats
USB audio input or
Bluetooth for calls


Nice to Haves:

CarPlay/Android Auto
Radar Cruise Control
Manual Transmission
An Engine that doesn't sound like it doesn't like being an engine. (2.4L GEMA vibes)
 
^What is Premium Audio?



Must Haves:

Auto Climate Control
Heated Seats
Cloth Seats
USB audio input or
Bluetooth for calls


Nice to Haves:

CarPlay/Android Auto
Radar Cruise Control
Manual Transmission
An Engine that doesn't sound like it doesn't like being an engine. (2.4L GEMA vibes)
Premium Audio is just generic for whatever uplevel sound system is offered - Sony, Harmon Kardon, Fender, etc. - the basic Kia system in my car sounds surprisingly decent in terms of bass but newer Kia's have flattened that out so it sounds really shit now lol.

Also, totally feel ya on the last nice to have given that I essentially have the 2.0L version of that engine :LOL:

V8, stick shift, big tires. :mrgreen:
Fun car goals for sure!
 
Well that's easy: Basicly like my current car, just with more power. *innocent shoulder shrug*

1. I need this, I want this, no sale without this:
- V8, V10, V12, atleast 450hp, yes yes yes ...and eh yes.
- AWD - Ski resort in a winter storm is the wanted norm.
- Wagon, Avant, Kombi, shooting brake - No space for two bikes makes me go yikes.
- Heated seats - The Admiral's balaklava must feel like a toast on lava
- Automatic - call me lazy... and I agree
- Aircon - is a must have addon

2. Nice to have, like it very much, but I don't die if I can't touch
- Electric memory seats (btw, here ends the rime, it's cheesy and too much work)
- Sunroof
- Radar cruise control
- All the other modern electronic safety crap, HUD, lane and blindspot thingy, all that, you know what I mean
- Dark colour (blue/green)* but not black!

3. There or not there, I don't care
- Infotaiment system (I have a phone/ipad)
- GPS (again, I have an always up to date phone/ipad)
- Frugality (just drink less coffee and spend that cash on petrol, done)
- Fucking touchscreens everywhere

4. Don't want. Shoot me if you see me with that:
- Diesel engine (those are for trucks or for ships, the end)
- RWD (swiss roads have a lot of curves, and outside of those is either a ditch, a rock wall, a ravine, or a tree. Or 30 seconds of flight time.

*At this point I have to confess that I don't actually like the colour of my current car. Probably going to wrap it in the spring...

Disk brakes all round
One has to admire your standards. Seriously.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

But maybe all this is moot because my next car is probably a EV. :ROFLMAO:
 
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Well that's easy: Basicly like my current car, just with more power. *innocent shoulder shrug*

1. I need this, I want this, no sale without this:
- V8, V10, V12, atleast 450hp, yes yes yes ...and eh yes.
- AWD - Ski resort in a winter storm is the wanted norm.
- Wagon, Avant, Kombi, shooting brake - No space for two bikes makes me go yikes.
- Heated seats - The Admiral's balaklava must feel like a toast on lava
- Automatic - call me lazy... and I agree
- Aircon - is a must have addon

2. Nice to have, like it very much, but I don't die if I can't touch
- Electric memory seats (btw, here ends the rime, it's cheesy and too much work)
- Sunroof
- Radar cruise control
- All the other modern electronic safety crap, HUD, lane and blindspot thingy, all that, you know what I mean
- Dark colour (blue/green)* but not black!

3. There or not there, I don't care
- Infotaiment system (I have a phone/ipad)
- GPS (again, I have an always up to date phone/ipad)
- Frugality (just drink less coffee and spend that cash on petrol, done)
- Fucking touchscreens everywhere

4. Don't want. Shoot me if you see me with that:
- Diesel engine (those are for trucks or for ships, the end)
- RWD (swiss roads have a lot of curves, and outside of those is either a ditch, a rock wall, a ravine, or a tree. Or 30 seconds of flight time.

*At this point I have to confess that I don't actually like the colour of my current car. Probably going to wrap it in the spring...


One has to admire your standards. Seriously.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

But maybe all this is moot because my next car is probably a EV. :ROFLMAO:

All of those are reasonable - I've waffled on needing a modern infotainment system/screen but I'm sick of the whole "sticking my phone in a mount with wires strewn down the center stack" thing - being able to put the phone and it's detritus in a cubby or center console box is just more pleasing to my aesthetic sensibilities lol. That and my phone gets wonky when you're GPS'ing in the summer with the sun beating on it in the mount.

Air con is a definite must - I'm tired of dying in the summer.

And lol thanks. It's dumb i know but you'd be surprised how much stuff here still comes with drum brakes in the rear, and now that I've DIY'd discs and rotors, I'm like "yeah, never paying to have this done for me ever again" :LOL:

Hah at your next car being a EV - yeah a lot of those kinda go out of the window then! - I'd consider a EV daily but the public charging infrastructure isn't there yet here in central PA unless I buy a Tesla (lol no) and I won't be able to charge at home even after I move.
 
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Wheels. Definitely need those, tracked vehicles aren't practical for the road. Beyond that pretty much anything goes, depending on what I decide I want next.

Maybe 5 or more cylinders as I've been without the V8 for over a year now. 😧
 
To update my previous post. This is what I was thinking.


00j0j_cxda2Yje5Ekz_1320MM_600x450.jpg
 
Leather seats

Sunroof

Courtesy lights

LED Array adaptive headlights

A turbocharger

....

WATCH ME BUY A FUCKING BASE CAMRY NEXT! :p
 
To update my previous post. This is what I was thinking.


View attachment 3563460
My parents had a Ford LTD for a minute living that beater life ages ago.


BTW, jealous of the nashville CL, way more interesting than what's around here.
 
Leather seats

Sunroof

Courtesy lights

LED Array adaptive headlights

A turbocharger

....

WATCH ME BUY A FUCKING BASE CAMRY NEXT! :p

some days at the pick n pull and a sawzall and you can have all of that in a base camry, don't let your dreams be dreams my guy!
 
My parents had a Ford LTD for a minute living that beater life ages ago.


BTW, jealous of the nashville CL, way more interesting than what's around here.

I found this one yesterday. If I had the spare change laying around, you bet your ass I'd be headed there already.
 
V8, RWD, 4 doors, >500 HP.

I do have something specific in mind but, realistically, I'm probably a couple years away from being able to do it. Hopefully the used car price stupidity will improve by the time I'm ready to do it. The car I'm looking at costs at least $10-15k more now than they did 1.5 years ago.
 
To update my previous post. This is what I was thinking.

More and more is seems like Craigslist really is Craig's list... of cars to buy. :p

Those slash cut side pipes are wonderful, they'd be great for spitting oil and water at pedestrians over here.
 
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.

1640804688051.png
 
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