What is your priority in purchasing a car/truck/vehicle?

I own and drive a Mercedes. German engineering to the max. When I noticed that all of the electrical wiring is run through conduit, that's QC to the max.

I own a pickum truck, America makes the best trucks from 1/2 ton pick-ups to big rigs. Been driving F-150's and F-250's for the past forty years. No complaints.

But my BMW X-5 is the ultimate. My second BMW I ever owned and nothing handles and performs like a BMW. Some times when out on the highway it feels like I'm flying a jet fighter. All right, I never flew a jet fighter but at night it almost feels like I'm flying a Cenna.

But in my lifetime my favorites was my first car, a 56 Chevy (paid $300) , my 64 VW bus and my 66 Pontiac GTO. Feel sorry for young people who will never know what a muscle car was all about.

Always wanted a Studebaker Avanti. It never happened.

joko104 said:

increase gas mileage by 1 mpg

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Totally. The corners people are willing to have cut to save a buck every 2 or 3 months is amazing.

American said:

This thing did not do well at all. The lack of ruggedness and a V8 compared to standard pickup trucks had a negative affect on sales. This truck was never taken seriously be real truck owners or professionals.

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It's like it was trying to be everything at once: a pickup, a minivan, an SUV and an efficiency. It kind of failed at all of that. They should have just covered the back and made it a minivan.

One critical option is missing from the poll: Reliability. It's kinda hard to drive a car that won't drive.

I always buy year old new cars in Sept/Oct. I buy a vanilla looking (don't want to be stand out to cops), must be a standard, great engine (still like to take young yahoos off the line though I let them get ahead of me when I reach the speed limit), great maintenance record, and lastly I check with insurance to assure I didn't accidentally choose a high rate car.

Summerwind said:

I always buy year old new cars in Sept/Oct. I buy a vanilla looking (don't want to be stand out to cops), must be a standard, great engine (still like to take young yahoos off the line though I let them get ahead of me when I reach the speed limit), great maintenance record, and lastly I check with insurance to assure I didn't accidentally choose a high rate car.

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buy black ones, they are harder to see and lasers guns don't lock on as well

Rocketman said:

buy black ones, they are harder to see and lasers guns don't lock on as well

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No way, too hot and too hard to keep clean. When I say vanilla, I mean both in style and in color. Soft beige about the color of city dust that clings to everything within hours of washing the car.

... you can have comfort without luxury.... your list is a bit short-sighted

Summerwind said:

No way, too hot and too hard to keep clean. When I say vanilla, I mean both in style and in color. Soft beige about the color of city dust that clings to everything within hours of washing the car.

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All of my road cars are black, I have a F150 that is the white platinum color and our Taurus limited is silver

Fuel economy/green: This means a lot to me. The most in fact. Not only for saving money but for doing my part to help the environment and to not give any more money than I necessary to greedy oil tyrants.

Multi-Use Capability: We have a Subaru Outback Partial Zero Emissions vehicle. I don't think you can get much more "multi-use" than Subaru lol. I like knowing we can drive offroad, maintain better traction during rainstorms, and have enough room for a 5 person family. Plus it's got a bike rack so I can tie down my canoe to the roof.

Summerwind said:

I always buy year old new cars in Sept/Oct. I buy a vanilla looking (don't want to be stand out to cops), must be a standard, great engine (still like to take young yahoos off the line though I let them get ahead of me when I reach the speed limit), great maintenance record, and lastly I check with insurance to assure I didn't accidentally choose a high rate car.

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Your smart Summerwind, you know about blending in. Did you learn that from hard knocks ?

APACHERAT said:

Your smart Summerwind, you know about blending in. Did you learn that from hard knocks ?

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Absolutely. Well more cases of really close calls. Never actually had a hard knock regarding driving or accidents et al. I toe those lines pretty closely and think any real racing belongs on a course.

APACHERAT said:

Your smart Summerwind, you know about blending in. Did you learn that from hard knocks ?

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Blending in is a mixes bag. Locally, we want our vehicles known. Not locally we don't.

joko104 said:

Blending in is a mixes bag. Locally, we want our vehicles known. Not locally we don't.

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Please don't include me in that "we".

Summerwind said:

No way, too hot and too hard to keep clean. When I say vanilla, I mean both in style and in color. Soft beige about the color of city dust that clings to everything within hours of washing the car.

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I agree. Black is almost impossible to keep looking clean plus shows any swirl marks on waxing. It also is EXTREMELY hot when parked in this climate. However, the car my wife got me was a special order in a deep (very dark) midnight blue. It avoids some of the appearance problems of black, not quite as aggressive looking either, but looks very sharp. At night, visually it is more "invisible" than black for some reason.
In daylight, any P.I. will tell you that light grey is visually the invisible car - ie what to use if following someone.

Summerwind said:

Please don't include me in that "we".

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I didn't mean that in the slightest. I meant my wife and I.

joko104 said:

Mercedes Benz, one of the oldest and largest vehicle manufacturers in the world, and producer of the most expensive mass production cars, admitted their cars are "too heavy" for the current market place. Generally, for their class, a Mercedes weighs from 500 to 1000 pounds more than the competition American, Japanese and Korean cars and other Euro cars. In return, on average, a Mercedes will have a more powerful motor to offset the weight, even in their "economical" cars. All this adds to their prices.

IT also adds to their safety. The most notable was a Mecedes that did a head-on at about 50 mph with a out of control semi truck also going about 50 - like hitting a brick wall at 100 mph. The driver (only person in car) survived. I doubt any would in a typical car American or Japanese car. Rescue crews have complained that their "jaws of life" sometimes can't pry open a Mercede's door, though no lives reported lose as a result. There is a saying that Japanese and American cars are made from thin tin and Mercedes are built of battleship steel.

The reason is because most cars are built to meet minimal federal and EU safety standards, which for the most part are designed around low-speed accidents. Mercedes builds cars for potential Autobaum accidents and well beyond any government requirements. The extra weight is in the amount of high grade carbon steel they use for the driver/passenger compartment. However, the weight adds to the price, costs fuel economy and affects performance despite powerful motors.

Safety still does NOT sell. Mercedes appears to be facing an economic necessity to make less safe cars.

What is your top priorities in buying a car/truck? Pick no more than 3 so it represents a direction of priorities.

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I think that most cars sold in America are crashworthy. They are tested for it and receive a pass or fail. BTW, Mercedes failed the oblique crash test last year (most of its models, anyway).

If Mercedes is having financial difficulties, I doubt it's related to costs put into safety. After all, many auto manufacturers have had hard times in recent years. Luxury cars sell to a limited group of people, rather than the middle class mass. So I guess wealthy people are moving to something more popular (BMW? Audi?). Middle class people wouldn't consider the safety of Mercedes because we can't afford that make. But the cars we can afford pass the same safety tests.

I chose 4 priorities. One of them was luxury/comfort, but that's not quite accurate. Comfort is a priority, but not luxury. So I wouldn't lump those two things together, since they are not even close to the same thing. Luxury to me is leather seating (which I hate), lots of knobs & an airplane dash, wood in dash, super duper speakers and lots of 'em, multi-disk CD player, lots of tech, built-in dvd players for backseaters, etc. By comfort, I mean comfortable seats so can take a road trip, good driving position that is adjustable, lumbar support, headrest that doesn't jut forward too much like some do these days.

Well, I added a fifth. I forgot about reliability.

I wouldn't buy a vehicle without all 5 of the things I named: cost, comfort, multi-function utility, reliability, gas mileage.

JumpinJack said:

I think that most cars sold in America are crashworthy. They are tested for it and receive a pass or fail. BTW, Mercedes failed the oblique crash test last year (most of its models, anyway).

If Mercedes is having financial difficulties, I doubt it's related to costs put into safety. After all, many auto manufacturers have had hard times in recent years. Luxury cars sell to a limited group of people, rather than the middle class mass. So I guess wealthy people are moving to something more popular (BMW? Audi?). Middle class people wouldn't consider the safety of Mercedes because we can't afford that make. But the cars we can afford pass the same safety tests.

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MB is still making money, quite a bit of it. But it does not have the profit margins that BMW or VW have. It is spending money on moving into the smaller car market in order to increase general sales, to reduce per unit overhead costs (A Class, B Class, the CLA and GLA)

As for me

It depends on what is going on in my life

Right now I wanted performance and looks, so I chose a Nissan 370Z as my only vehicle

JumpinJack said:

I think that most cars sold in America are crashworthy. They are tested for it and receive a pass or fail. BTW, Mercedes failed the oblique crash test last year (most of its models, anyway).

If Mercedes is having financial difficulties, I doubt it's related to costs put into safety. After all, many auto manufacturers have had hard times in recent years. Luxury cars sell to a limited group of people, rather than the middle class mass. So I guess wealthy people are moving to something more popular (BMW? Audi?). Middle class people wouldn't consider the safety of Mercedes because we can't afford that make. But the cars we can afford pass the same safety tests.

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I looked up the tests and they confirm exactly what a said about videos.
Most luxury cars, including Mercedes, fail new Insurance Institute frontal crash test | Mail Online

What the tests videos - which are only of non-American non-luxury small cars - shows is that only the Mecedes driver/passenger compartment kept it's integrity. The door glass didn't even break. The doors on the others cars were obliterated. Mercedes disputed the result claiming that it is not a real-life accident senario - hitting a steel wall 18 inches into a car at 40 mph.

Who drives 40 mph on a country, state or Interstate highway? And hitting a pole, tree or parked car is a different dynamic than a steel and edged wall at 40 mph. What is very clear is that at real speeds of 60 to 70 mph, all drivers would have been crushed by their own car - the cabin crumbling and the front wheel assembly pressed into them - all but the person in the Mercedes.

The tests standards and set by and conducted by THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY. Their view of accident outcome hopes is different than for people in cars. For the insurance industry, it is about money, not people. In a major accident, the car is totalled no matter what, so they don't care about car-damage costs. They care about personal injury liabilities.

Here's what people don't understand about the goals of Insurance Industry crash standards. In an accident, the insurance industry wants 1 of 2 outcomes:
1. There are no or only minor injuries.
2. The people in the vehicle die.

What they do NOT want is for the driver/passengers to be seriously injured, but to survive. And for obvious reasons:
1. If the people in the car die, they aren't witnesses.
2. There is no pain and suffering, therapy, care and ongoing medical expenses for dead people.
3. A living but injured person invokes more sympathy than a non-present dead person.
4. If killed, the insurance company is working with heirs to the estate that want money fast, not the injuried person worrying of his future, wants pain and suffering money, wants future medical bills paid and will battle the insurance company in court for it. The only question of a dead person is how much money to give the heirs to just take some money fast and go away.

Plus heirs are less likely to hire and attorney and more like to just accept some fast money, particularly if they are poor. There may not even be any heirs or anyone that even makes a claim. And it is easier to get heirs to fast endorse a fast settlement check than it is someone in the hospital unsure of future medical and other expenses.

Thus, that is the quantry to Mercedes. Do they make their cars flimsier and more like to die in - by designing them to meet the low/mid-speed live or die standards of the American Insurance industry, which also reduces their costs to build a car? OR do they continue to make cars with heavy strong steel driver/passenger compartments that preserve the integrity of the driver/passenger compartment including in highway speed and severe impact crashes? It is not just an economic question, but also an question of integrity.

Porsche, which also makes extremely strong driver/passenger sections (which does add weight and costs) is also struggling with the same question. The top Covette now is down to 3100 pounds, will meet low/mid speed crash standards too, but you will die in it if you have a highway speed accident. Not in a Porsche, but they are topping 3500 pounds some of their models.

So... if you ARE in an accident, do you REALLY agree with the insurance industry standard that either you should not be serious injured OR you die?

Curious German car manufacturer facts:

Mercedes Benz claims to be the oldest still operating car manufacturer in the world and claims to have produced the 1st internal combustion gasoline engine car.
Mercedes Benz currently makes 950,000 passenger vehicles per year.
Mercedes Benz is produces more commercial trucks than any other company in the world.

BWM makes over 1,000,000 passenger cars per year.

Audi is the fastest growing and possibly most profitable car maker in the world. 4 decades ago, industry experts predicted it's demise.

Porsche is losing market share in every market as is Volkswagon. (Correction for a prior message, Mecedes does not have the profit margin of Audi - I miswrote VW above)

German car manufacturers current primary concern is they are losing market share in China, which is predicted to see the largest growth in new car purchases and car ownership.

German car manufacturers intensely dislike American crash standards as they believe they force making less safe cars, which runs contrary to their companies ethics policies.

Lord Tammerlain said:

As for me

It depends on what is going on in my life

Right now I wanted performance and looks, so I chose a Nissan 370Z as my only vehicle

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The public prestige factor of Nissan Zs has fallen significantly. Their twin turbos used to be seen is as killer performance cars. Now they are rarely mentioned. Not sure why.

joko104 said:

Curious German car manufacturer facts:

Mercedes Benz claims to be the oldest still operating car manufacturer in the world and claims to have produced the 1st internal combustion gasoline engine car.
Mercedes Benz currently makes 950,000 passenger vehicles per year.
Mercedes Benz is produces more commercial trucks than any other company in the world.

BWM makes over 1,000,000 passenger cars per year.

Audi is the fastest growing and possibly most profitable car maker in the world. 4 decades ago, industry experts predicted it's demise.

Porsche is losing market share in every market as is Volkswagon.

German car manufacturers current primary concern is they are losing market share in China, which is predicted to see the largest growth in new car purchases and car ownership.

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The two things I consider when purchasing a new vehicle is Brand Loyalty ( Ford Only ) and Reliability. We have always bought Fords and have had fantastic luck with them. Whether it be new or used, we haven't had many issues over the years. I am a big stickler on maintaining my vehicles, especially since it is a decent investment when you are purchasing new. We are both due for a new car as our 2007 F150 and 2007 Edge are both getting close to 100,000 miles. I don't like to keep them past that simply because that is when they start to nickle and dime you.

JumpinJack said:

I chose 4 priorities. One of them was luxury/comfort, but that's not quite accurate. Comfort is a priority, but not luxury. So I wouldn't lump those two things together, since they are not even close to the same thing. Luxury to me is leather seating (which I hate), lots of knobs & an airplane dash, wood in dash, super duper speakers and lots of 'em, multi-disk CD player, lots of tech, built-in dvd players for backseaters, etc. By comfort, I mean comfortable seats so can take a road trip, good driving position that is adjustable, lumbar support, headrest that doesn't jut forward too much like some do these days.

Well, I added a fifth. I forgot about reliability.

I wouldn't buy a vehicle without all 5 of the things I named: cost, comfort, multi-function utility, reliability, gas mileage.

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Radical tires are safer and better for gas mileage, but are MUCH stiffer and have always made it difficult to make cars ride smoothly and without picking up road noise and road imperfections, particularly in lightweight cars. Basically ALL cars that used to ride on "bias-ply" nylon tires have a smoother ride because they absorbed more road energy due to being soft and cushy.