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Ask HN: What's the best car without undesirable features?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best car without undesirable features?

#151

Post by potta_coffee »

PaulHoule wrote: post #50
rpmisms wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During the part of my life when I lived in an intensely snowy climate, I never had a vehicle with four-wheel drive, and never had any issues. Four-wheel drive is a crutch to get you into situations your brakes can't get you out of.

I’ve had all kinds of problems in the snow but I’m a New Yorker so I cope. I dig other people out more often than get stuck myself. The AWD vehicle has a more complex drivetrain, will be more expensive to maintain and probably get worse gas mileage. Friends of mine swear by Subaru but I think they are crazy. If I wanted AWD I think I’d look for a small SUV like a Ford Escape.

Subarus have head gasket problems and in the community of Subaru owners it's just a given that you're going to replace gaskets pretty often.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best car without undesirable features?

#152

Post by potta_coffee »

solardev wrote: post #149
zdragnar wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snow tires help you decelerate, and provide a bit of extra traction to accelerate from a dead stop. 4wd will get you moving from a dead stop as long as you aren't bottomed out. I've gotten several cars un-stuck with both a pickup truck and a UTV in 4wd, neither of which were bothered by the snow that had left the cars marooned. AWD is better than FWD with snow tires if and only if it also has snow tires.

For moving from a dead stop, why is 4WD better than AWD (assuming equal tires)? Does it have to do with the locking differential, or something else...?

My understanding is that AWD systems generally allocate power to a wheel under certain conditions where it's detected that traction is lost. 4WD sends power to all wheels all the time, except perhaps when traction is lost to one wheel and there is no locking differential. I imagine 4WD feels more powerful at getting unstuck because all the power is there right away and you're not depending on a system / sensor to recognize the need for more traction before it's delivered.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best car without undesirable features?

#153

Post by grvdrm »

MrDrMcCoy wrote: post #88
kjellsbells wrote: post #54

Which country or geo are you located in? That is a huge factor. Are there kinds of vehicles that are completely off limits for you, eg because of difficulties parking, the environment you live it, etc? Does it have to be new? If not, how many years back are you prepared to go? If you are in North America, AWD/4wd puts you in a special zone: some light trucks and SUVs, a vanishingly small number of wagons, and Subaru.…

Located centrally in the USA. Not much is off limits assuming it's not too huge. My target is something that's reasonably compact but can still comfortably seat four. Doesn't need to be new, but I'd prefer not to go back more than ten years if it can be helped.

GTI. Amazing car.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best car without undesirable features?

#154

Post by grvdrm »

dzek69 wrote: post #86

> Touchscreens. They are a safety hazard. That's true. But keep in mind everyone have them now. They can be the threat to you. A car that does good on crash tests should also be very preferred now :)

How often are people touching screens? I have a 2023 BMW and it’s all screen. But, I can usually set it once and not touch it again! Am I crazy?

Re: Ask HN: What's the best car without undesirable features?

#155

Post by saltcured »

MrDrMcCoy wrote: post #88
kjellsbells wrote: post #54

Which country or geo are you located in? That is a huge factor. Are there kinds of vehicles that are completely off limits for you, eg because of difficulties parking, the environment you live it, etc? Does it have to be new? If not, how many years back are you prepared to go? If you are in North America, AWD/4wd puts you in a special zone: some light trucks and SUVs, a vanishingly small number of wagons, and Subaru.…

Located centrally in the USA. Not much is off limits assuming it's not too huge. My target is something that's reasonably compact but can still comfortably seat four. Doesn't need to be new, but I'd prefer not to go back more than ten years if it can be helped.

Our first-gen Audi Q3 is a "small" SUV that could meet your stated requirements as a used car. I think 2018 model year was the last year of this (first) generation in the US market.

It was given high predicted reliability ratings by Consumers Reports back when we were shopping for it. And ours has been reliable. However, regular maintenance can be costly. I think it shares a lot with similar vintage VW GTIs, so you might be able to find a VM-oriented independent mechanic who could take care of it.

It's a 2 liter turbo 4 cylinder. It has the haldex clutch style AWD and ours can get around 30 MPG on highway trips. I might see 24 MPG around town if smoothly cruising, but it easily dives to 18 MPG or worse with too many red lights or stop and go traffic. This is pretty typical of all the small Audi turbos unless you get to the much more recent mild-hybrid setups.

This first Q3 generation started ~2011 in Europe, so the cabin tech is quite dated and minimal. Our basic "premium" trim level has no connectivity other than bluetooth to phone for calls or music. It has a rather small screen for the reversing camera and music/phone/settings.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best car without undesirable features?

#156

Post by dangrossman »

PaulHoule wrote: post #7

Used car with front wheel drive, preferably traction control, put Blizzaks on all four wheels and you’ll do OK in snow unless you insist on driving on unplowed roads. There are a wide range of cars I would consider. Say a Toyota Camry or a Honda Accord or a Nissan Altima. Lately I have been partial to Buicks. An old Nissan Leaf with a shot battery can still go 70 miles which makes it a great second or third car in a…

> An old Nissan Leaf with a shot battery can still go 70 miles

My 2012 LEAF could only drive 35 city miles to a charge in winter when I sold it at 6 years old.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best car without undesirable features?

#157

Post by Kon-Peki »

bsenftner wrote: post #114
quickthrowman wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One note on Subaru, you might be putting a quart of oil in every 1,000 miles after 100,000 miles. Certain models burn ungodly amounts of oil. I don’t drive Subarus now due to the above, I switched to Toyota.

The 2014 models are the last year Subaru had oil leakage issues. Looks like the 2015-'16 models are the sweet spot, as '17 is when they went with the rest of the industry and added Internet, app capability and all that nonsense.

If you’re going to do that, you might as well limit yourself to the 3.6R - it includes the “heavy duty” version of the transmission.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best car without undesirable features?

#159

Post by 3minus1 »

el-dude-arino wrote: post #3

Well I an tell you right now you don't need 4wd, it snows like a MF where I live and if you have FWD with proper snow tires (which you should regardless), you will drive circles around 4WD/AWD cars with just all season tires on in winter. Just buy a mid-2010's honda civic or a toyota camry.

I can't speak to snow tires, but statistics clearly show 4WD/AWD significantly reduces fatality rates for a given car model.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best car without undesirable features?

#160

Post by JohnFen »

grvdrm wrote: post #154
dzek69 wrote: post #86

> Touchscreens. They are a safety hazard. That's true. But keep in mind everyone have them now. They can be the threat to you. A car that does good on crash tests should also be very preferred now :)

How often are people touching screens? I have a 2023 BMW and it’s all screen. But, I can usually set it once and not touch it again! Am I crazy?

I imagine it depends on what the screen is used to control. I tend to adjust things like climate control fairly often, for instance, or the radio/music player. I've seen crazy often used things that require the touch screen in some cars, too, such as wiper speed
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