YOUR OPINIONS. SHOW THEM TO ME.

[rmd]

So, I may be in the market for a new car as the Mini is dead. So here's a thread specifically to solicit people's opinion on what car models are awesome. Preferably car models you have actually had experience with as a driver or passenger.

Comments

veee hick lllllz

[khatru.livejournal.com]

So last thanksgiving our Mazda MPV (minivan) died a financial death of 'what do you mean, it has three catalytic converters and they all need to be replaced *before* you can figure out what's wrong with it?" while attempting to be on the way home from Darkover.

Given that we were stuck in Maryland, we limited our immediate car shopping to what we could find locally that would take a only-dollarly-dead minivan in trade.

I'll note that about 2 years ago we did the shopping thing to replace my husband's car -- our thoughts at the time were to get something smaller than the minivan, but able to take over the 'family car' aspects when the minivan died, so we could replace *it* with something smaller. Fortunately for him, the husband fell in love with a 2001 beetle and quickly scurried off the lot with it before anyone else could get it. (not quite, but it sounds more amusing that way.)

So we were at a Mazda dealer looking at used cars under 10k, and mentioned that we were told a Mazda 5 was the generational successor to the MPV, but they didn't seem to have one. Au contraire, they had a used one... for 16k. Elide the dickering, the decision was made when I got behind the wheel -- I fit. I haven't fit comfortably behind a steering wheel since I was pregnant with the Younger Child. I was able to drive this car around their test-drive circuit -- which wasn't a wimpy one -- and not feel the wheel press on me *at all*.

We have a 'sport' model, I *think* -- it doesn't quite match it, which means that whoever bought it new customized it a bit. The steering wheel telescopes, the various seats move variously, the back seats flip around in ways not exactly but very reminiscent of a Dodge Colt Vista, going from seating 6 to carrying shitloads. (I don't think as well as teh Vista, but the Vista's been discontinued for over a decade.)

It can't carry as much as the minivan -- we actually have to *pack* it, rather than just toss things in. It looks like someone put a minivan in the hot cycle adn through the dryer -- it has all the proportions and looks like one... tll you see it *next* to one.

We're calling it the microvan. I haven't enjoyed a car as much since my Vistas were functioning. The worst thing I've found about it is that the front seats are curved such that I can't just lean it back and nap, I need *something* under my head to act as a pillow. I presume the seat is cupped somehow and that produces the problem.

And I still haven't figured out what to do with the stuff that used to live between the front seats in the MPV. But I did, deliberately and with knowledge aforethought, purposely acquire a vehicle that was *smaller* than the MPV. Thus, I pay the price.

I highly recommend checking it out.