Seems like the forums have been pretty slow lately, so I figured I'd start an OT thread to spark some conversation.

Since my GP got totalled years ago and I got caught completely stumped about what to get next (as nice GPs at that point were getting rare as they'd been discontinued so long so a direct swap wasn't even really an option), I've noticed I shifted my attitude to have some kind of basic plan for car replacement. For our daily drivers, its just a matter of time before they either wear out or get suddenly totalled. I try to avoid getting back in the situation where I'm starting off at square 1 with research on a replacement car and I figure there may be some other like-minded people on here being a car forum (ie people that don't just treat their car like another appliance).

My thoughts on our next cars:
-Wife has a 15 Edge that we've owned since new. Its a bit over halfway through its mileage life at this point. This was my first venture outside of GM products (as it was our first SUV and the GM offerings back then had a few concerns we couldn't live with). The experiment has been a miserable failure as its been the worst car we've ever owned in terms of maintenance by a long shot. This is an oddball case where even one more major failure and I'll probably pull the plug and offload it for something else early.

I'm 50/50 on going back to GM as their latest models fixed our original concerns. We're also looking into other similar sized SUVs from a couple other manufacturers. I'm at the point where I've got it narrowed down to about 3 models on the test drive list if I had to replace it tomorrow. I'm just crossing my fingers we can hold onto it for a bit longer as the inventory shortages now seem exceptionally bad. The plan is to either buy new or slightly used depending how thr market is at the time.

-My daily is an 05 GTO. Its still well under 100k, so its got a good bit of life left assuming it doesn't get wrecked. Its been an absolute dream in terms of reliability, so I plan to drive it until it dies. When its time for a change, I also plan to keep the same type of car with a replacement. The downside of course is RWD V8 manual cars are getting to be a smaller population day by day.

I liked the GTO as I like to avoid having something too common, but it seems likely I'll need to go to something more common next time. I plan to stick with used (under 75k miles), but certainly the pool of options is pretty well set. I think a Camaro would be the likely choice with 4 dr options being a consideration also (SS if the prices don't keep climbing, maybe a caprice, g8, or even another gto - although that runs into the same issue I had with the GP that it gets harder every day to find a clean / low mileage one).


How about you all-
Do you try to plan out future car purchases well in advance?
Have you had to buy something in the current tough market?
Thoughts on where new cars are trending (push to EVs / hybrids)
What kind of cars are on your radar for a next purchase?

 

I bought a new 2018 Silverado and it only has 18XXX miles on it, so I'm good for a while there. The goal is to have it paid off with less than 40K on the clock, and I'm ahead of that pace. I bought it with the hope that it will last 20 years, considering how much (or more accurately, how little) I drive it. My daily is the Monte. I'll probably replace it in a few years. It has 92XXX on it. There's not much in the new car market that appeals to me right now. I do not care for four door cars... The most likely choices for me is a Camaro or Corvette. I'd really like a green '14 Stingray.... I just don't know if I'd want one for a daily, so in that scenario I'd likely keep driving the Monte until it dies. It still looks pretty good for a soon-to-be 15 year old car...

 

Funny, I was probably going to post a new thread about my new daily driver next week. I should be picking it up at a dealership tomorrow.

I have a 68 Camaro stored up in the Poconos. It was a joint purchase between my father and I knowing that I would take 100% ownership later. We split the car 50/50, and I drive up to the Poconos to visit them and go to car shows with it a lot (less so with 2020 and all that crap..)

But down by me, I had my Monte Carlo that I would drive on nice days and go to car shows with, while I daily drove a 2012 Camaro SS/RS, and we have a 2018 Buick TourX as the family hauler / my wife's DD. Since I sold my Monte Carlo, I've only had the Camaro to drive around... and truthfully I have been wanting a new daily driver that gets more than ~16 mpg, especially since the majority of my driving is to and from daycare with my 2 boys. So my thought was... find something cheap and good on gas to run errands in, and when I get that I can take the time to build the Camaro like I did the Monte Carlo and then THAT can be my local car show and nice weather car.

So I was researching and looking around... Around here, I didn't want to buy someone's used car, I don't know how they would treat it, I don't need something someone has driven through 8 winters and deal with their rusting car. I definitely wanted new. I hate SUVs, I hate CUVs, I'm a car guy. I wanted a manual, I wanted easy to work on... and I actually settled on buying a brand new Chevy Spark LS. Manual door locks, manual windows, manual transmission... it all sounds like a win to me.

So I've done a deal over the phone with a dealership, and heading to get it tomorrow. A nice Mystic Blue LS. And now I can do a little Camaro build... I'm thinking Cam, Heads, LT Headers, and a Stall. Along with DOD and VVT delete with supporting mods.

Regarding your thoughts on the future, I'm truthfully excited for the electric car market. I think electric sports cars are going to be awesome, I just really hope we get some right-to-repair legislation fully passed so that we can actually OWN the car and it's electronics. I'm afraid of the lockout stuff with the electric cars that is going on. I want to still tinker with the car and computer... but the instant power delivery of electric and ability to change the design of the car around batteries and electric motors over the current design has me excited for the future.

 

For my personal car, I feel exactly the same way. I also strongly prefer a 2 door, even for my daily. I need to have 4 seats (for when my wife's Ford breaks down next, lol), but the rear seats rarely get used.

The hard part is the market has shifted so much lately. It seems like there was a big push from 2 to 4 doors in the earlier 2000s, and now its phasing out cars altogether in favor of SUVs. Certainly there's still options out there (especially for those a bit more adventurous with other brands, unlike myself), but it seems lik the options for that type shrink every day.

Honestly they make great daily drivers. I DD'd my 09 C6 for probably a year or so and I came away with nothing but praise for that car. Fuel economy was beyond excellent, it had absolutely zero (non wear item) maintenance issues, and the storage capacity (with the targa top version) blew me away as the back is just a giant open cavern.

The only downside at all for me was going back to something more traditional / less fun. Id probably have a different opinion in an area that saw snow (as the low ground clearance would be a big issue in areas with poor plowing), but we've got sunshine 95% of the time here and the rest is just rain.

Only reason I stopped DD'ing it was I modded it too much, so it got relegated to an every now and then kind of thing.

 

Wow, thats a big step from the Camaro! I completely understand what you mean though. Ive had some exceptionally poor experiences with dealer repair shops in the past (when forced to go there for one reason or another- generally due to warranty issues) and frankly hate ever having to pay the outrageous costs vs DIY.

I'll be interested to hear how you like it after you rack up some mileage. Id think the manual alone would keep it from getting too boring to drive.

Im unfortunately so old fashioned with that that I've got a very negative mindset around electric cars. I probably need to go drive one again to update my frame of reference.

The last (only) one I tried was an early Nissan Leaf. They had a bunch of them out at a local mall just for the purpose of giving lots of people back to back test drives with no high pressure sales, etc. You only had to leave your number IF you were interested, or go to a local dealer for more info. So it was really nice to try it out without the hassle of dealing with salespeople.

The problem is, I hated it. Power was instant, but so low it felt just like a golf cart. It just felt really soul less to me as it was just intended to be an econo-box, not a fun car. The final nail in the coffin was the range was right on the hairy edge of even being able to complete my round trip commute at the time. No real spare range to go to lunch, stop by a store after work, or even get stuck in a traffic jam with the AC running. So that initial image has really tainted me.

 

Yeah, it's going to be a big change, but I'm buying it as a purpose errand car not to be overly comfortable for long rides (the buick wagon would be for that). Plus I refused to get a CVT, which is what the Spark comes with, so I went manual. Again ease of repair compared to that haha.

Know anyone with a Tesla roadster? Go for a ride in it. And that's why I'm excited for the future, not the current. I think once the technology gets cheaper and they experiment more, we will see a lot of cool sports cars and even muscle cars. Maybe bring that electric motor + v8 into the world. Definitely going to be interesting to see how it all goes.

 

I just kind of wing it as far as what vehicles comes next... Currently I have quite a few... 01 Sierra Z71, 07 Tucson, 08 Entourage van, 99 Z34, and the 96 LS. I usually daily drive the Tucson because of its great AC. As the weather cools down, I'll start driving the 96 Monte more.

As for the next vehicle, who knows. The wife drives the van, it has about 70k miles, so it should be good for a while. I bought it just a year ago when the Tucson broke down and I couldn't figure out the problem, and couldn't really work on it either as I was recovering from a broken arm. Anyway, it was about $6,000 with only 60k miles. I fixed the Tucson a few months ago, had a broken timing belt that had been replaced about 15k miles prior. I got lucky though, it's an interference engine, but I put the old belt back on it and it fired right up and runs just fine. Replaced the belt with a brand new OEM Hyundai belt and have been driving it daily ever since.

The next car purchase will probably be me getting a stick shift Honda, I'd love another H22 powered car, but I'll need to get rid of something else first. Definitely not interested in electric cars at the moment though.

 

Until a few weeks ago, my Monte WAS my newest car. . . Then I discovered all the rust the plastic rocker covers have been hiding. It isn't going to pass inspection, and I'm not going to get it done on weekends before Halloween. So I researched a few used cars and bought a 2005 Buick the next day. I'm going to take my time and fix the Monte right, as I'm not ready to get rid of it - it would be like taking a pet to the vet to be put down. I don't really like 4 doors, although my 55 is one, but now I have two. When I get the Monte done, I'm going to keep driving it until winters come, and drive the Buick. I'd really like to get a class action suit against the state for that metal destroying brine they put on the roads. . . . .
As to what I'd really like - well - I'm going to have to build it. The Mrs. test drove an HHR (2006), I really like the looks of the HHR panels, but they just seem like a tinny, underpowered box. I think if they had a 3.4 like the Monte does, it would really change the underpowered part. She researched and then sought out a Trax (2015), which was all wheel drive. She really like it in the winters, but last year she traded it in on an Equinox. The original Traxes sold in the US are 6 years old now, so should be showing up in yards soon - so my new plan would be to put an HHR panel on a Trax platform with a 3.4 (or bigger) V6. Guess I need to start comparing widths and wheelbases to see if it is at all feasible to create my idea of the ultimate parts hauler.
Again, until 3 weeks ago, I've been driving the 2002 Monte I bought new, hoping this day would never come. I hadn't test driven anything until the Buick. I do have 4 other cars, but they don't see bad weather anymore.

And I have absolutely NO INTEREST in electric cars, I'm glad I'll be dead before they become viable!

 

Hello me. Bought my 00 SS brand new factory ordered and had to get rid of it this year because the PA winters were too much and destroyed the car. I couldn't fix it right, so it's with our other admin to take all of the fun stuff off and put on his Monte.

 

Same here. The CVT is the reason we bought an Edge over the Murano. My wife boiled her choice down to those two and a CVT wasn't an option for me.

The more I think about it, the more your choice to go with the simplest (lack of) options makes sense. Id bet at least half of the problems I've had with our Edge have been option parts that we liked but really didn't need (Nav, sunroof, power hatch, lane keep assist, etc have all broken). Its definitely something I'll keep in mind when shopping for another DD.

No, I don't know anyone close enough to ask for a ride.

I did try to rent one on Turo once (model S), but the owner flaked at the last minute. It really turned me off to the whole app as I'd intended to use it in lieu of a regular rental car so I was scrambling at the last minute to get one from a chain. I could probably try again near home where it didn't matter if they flaked or not.

I did see Speed Vegas picked up a 3 recently. We try to hit Vegas once a year, so maybe I'll give that a shot. At least there youre expected to push it hard so no one would be upset for beating on their car.