What You Can Buy With $32,000

With $32,000 you could purchase either one of these two fine vehicles. Β One is almost completely useless, but comes with a high smug rating.

ScreenHunter_117 Jul. 08 10.30

ScreenHunter_116 Jul. 08 10.30

About Tony Heller

Just having fun
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

33 Responses to What You Can Buy With $32,000

  1. Pathway says:

    End smug pollution, buy a Jeep.

  2. John B., M.D. says:

    Either way, you are helping others buy the smug car with your taxes.

  3. Bob says:

    ’89 Camry, stock except for the $39 radio. I like tweaking the Prius drivers with comparative life-cycle-pollution analyses. πŸ™‚

  4. scizzorbill says:

    Car confession time: After 18 years of not owning a car (no room for it on the boat) I recently bought a Jeep Cherokee to haul my ass around Panama. Love it!

    Haven’t seen a car resembling the ugly red thing pictured down Panama way. WTF is it?

  5. slimething says:

    Ok, I have to chime in on this one. I’ve owned multiple muscle/race cars (all Mopars including 70 Hemi Charger R/T, 70 Cuda, and several others), 4×4’s etc. (although not a Jeep yet) over the past 30 years. We own a Durango, a Dakota, Buick LeSabre, 2008 Prius and a 1 ton Dodge 4 door truck for towing our trailer/horses.

    I’m not a Greenie, and everyone who has read my posts knows my position on all this AGW crap.

    First, only the Prius Plugin is $32k. The standard Prius is about $24k, the C $19k, the V I don’t know.

    As my wife has been a rural mail carrier for the last 20 years, we’ve had experience with just about every type of vehicle. Virtually every 4 cylinder American car either blew head gaskets or fried the transmission. Only the Honda CRV made it to 200k miles before the trans failed (wife put in reverse at 40 mph, breaking it so it was retired). Being an “AWD”, it wasn’t a true 4×4, but it got her through most stuff. Rural mail routes are brutal on drive trains, brakes, suspension etc.

    In 2006 I bought a salvaged title Dodge Dakota Crew Cab 4×4 with 10k miles; has been an excellent vehicle. However, at 8-10 mpg on her mail route depending weather conditions, fuel costs add up and the compensation from USPS does not cover the monthly cost at current high gas prices. No, they don’t rate it based on the price of gas.

    We decided to find a vehicle that got much better mileage, not to mention the cost of replacing the tires every other year, brakes at 10k. 500 stops a day will do that. It is getting difficult to find a vehicle for mail routes as the center console prevents reaching the pedals. No, most mail carriers don’t like right hand drives. I was surprised to find many carriers were using a Prius. It didn’t even cross my mind. A Prius? I bought a 2008 model in 2010. Everything I thought about them was wrong.

    On the route she gets 40+ mpg in the summer, about 36 in colder weather. It now has 135k miles and has been virtually trouble free. It still has the original brake pads when bought with 70k miles. Contrary to popular belief, the batteries do not go bad in the Prius. It isn’t uncommon for them to get over 200k miles. In fact, nobody I talked to ever had to replace the battery over their time of use.

    When the snow hits and the roads get bad, she uses the Dakota.

    Oh, and normal driving she gets over 50 on the highway, 60 around town cruising speed at 45. It doesn’t cost us $20 just for gas to drive to the city, say like the Durango.

    So, the Prius is not nearly totally useless. My son hates the “gay” car, but guess which one he asks to drive when he goes out these days? πŸ™‚

    Anyway, I love Jeeps, but honestly they are WAY over priced for what you get. I mean really, I can get a 1/2 ton 4×4 4 door Dodge pickup for the same price. To each his own.

    • DarrylB says:

      I drive a durango citadel. Gets it best mileage at 70 MPH. Somtimes 24 mpg.
      Usually around 18.

    • Justa Joe says:

      I wouldn’t lump conventional hybrids in with the over-hyped plug-ins like the Fisker, the Tesla et al. The plug-ins are the big offenders in terms of not delivering on performance or utility. However, new purchases of EV’s and hybrids shouldn’t be tax payer subsidized one more dime than a C6 Corvette, for example.

    • SMS says:

      A Prius Hybrid is appropriate in stop and go traffic. Not so good on long stretches of road without a stop sign.

      Here in Western Colorado, there is no reason to buy a Prius (unless you are a mail carrier). People only buy Hybrids as a form of self flagellation for their green religion.

  6. Scott says:

    I own a 1996 Nissan Sentra. I bought it used for $1800.00 it has 305,000 miles on it now. It gets 40 MPG in the summer time. 37 MPG in the winter time. I have no intention of selling it.

    • Ben says:

      I applaud your philosophy.

      1. Don’t buy new.
      2. Provide excellent maintenance.
      3. Run until dead.
      4. Donate to a worthwhile charity, or scrap for parts

  7. leftinbrooklyn says:

    Haven’t owned a car in almost 20 years. Refuse to deal with them in the urban jungles of Boston and NYC. Have owned several motorcycles in that time.

    Always thought it classic irony that several of my Warmist friends have owed cars, with gasoline engines, throughout that 20yr timeframe.

  8. My RCZ is fuel efficient and comes with a high smug factor too.

  9. The 2013 mid-level Nissan Leaf is ~$31,800.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf#2013_model

    Can we all agree that it is more useless than the Prius and has a much higher smug rating?

    RTF

  10. PaddikJ says:

    Umm . . . since I have no desire to climb cliffs with my vehicle (tried 4-wheeling many years ago; didn’t enjoy it, thanks, I’ll stick with backpacking), if I was given 32 grand and a choice between the ass-buster and the quiet, comfortable, dependable, 50mpg Toyota – well, no choice, really.

    However, it I was given 32 grand for the vehicle of my choice, ahhh: 6-cylinder super-charged candy white Volkswagon GTI. Not as reliable as the rice-grinders, but soooooo much fun to drive.

  11. R. de Haan says:

    Hybrid technology is something we can do without and we know this since BMW 5 series beats the Prius in fuel consumption: http://goodcleantech.pcmag.com/automotive/281082-bmw-beats-prius-in-mpgs

    Believe me, it’s a lot safer to drive a 5 series beamer than a Prius. It’s a world of difference.
    I don’t know what a 5 series BMW Diesel will cost you in the USA but a friend of mine in Europe easily makes 500.000 km with them only changing belts and break pads.

    They also put the diesel enginen in the X-series.

    • PaddikJ says:

      I basically agree with you – hybrid technology adds several layers of complexity, and there’s no way around Murphy’s Law (although the Prius seems very reliable according to my – admittedly light – reading). Will the fuel savings be enough to offset a replacement battery pack? Doubt it. Toyota says it’s guaranteed for “the life of the vehicle,” but what, exactly, is that?

      But the comparison you linked to is really apples and oranges. The Bimmer is diesel, and it is a myth that diesels are more fuel-efficient. Diesel fuel is a light oil, and gallon for gallon, has significantly more heat energy than gasoline (can’t remember the particulars and am too lazy to look up just now). If we compare joules/mile, diesel comes up short.

      • Richard T. Fowler says:

        The more important comparison is miles / dollar of fuel — and while I am a big fan of diesel because of its reliability and relative ease of maintenance, the last time I looked at just miles / dollar of fuel for similarly powered and sized cars, diesel lost on this count as well, at least in the U.S. It didn’t use to be the case, but it is now. It seemed to me that the Bush particulate regulations for diesel tipped the balance definitively in favor of gasoline.

        RTF

  12. squid2112 says:

    I’ll take the Jeep, thank you very much … not contest!

    That is a saweeet Jeep!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *