Do you own a car?
- Thread starter Orang Utan
- Start date
pseudonarcissus said:
I loved my Mini Cooper.
Do you still have the same one, or have you upgraded? 
I have a car, since I'm 20 miles from the nearest town and there's zero public transport, but I didn't when I last lived in a city (Baltimore) - the bus and tube were fine (although my friends thought I was insane for using public transport - apparently it's just not done here.
).In England I had a car of some description since I was 17 and bought a Vauxhall Nova on my Pizza Hut wages.
pseudonarcissus
fluttering and dancing
lyra_kitten said:
I loved my Mini Cooper.
yes, it's still going strong, Union Jack roof and all.
I've actually just ordered an "S" which should be here by Christmas. I'm hoping we still have $3 gas then so the current one is easy to sell to a downsizing suburban driver.
you bought a minivan yet? At least you've got a few years till you need a Hummer for the school run
pseudonarcissus
fluttering and dancing
Griff said:Sorry to sound silly, but 2 Americans have mentioned 'suburbans' on this thread. What are 'suburbans'?
an American soccer mom's transport. They are HUGE and get about 12 miles to the gallon....
....and I for one am not American, merely resident here....just like Lyra_k
pseudonarcissus
fluttering and dancing
Griff said:Ooops! Sorry.
It was the 'suburban', 'soccer' & 'mom' that did it for me.
quite all right old chap, suffice to say it's a very large shooting brake driven my the mothers of association football playing offspring when said offspring are not at their public schools
pseudonarcissus said:I'm hoping we still have $3 gas then so the current one is easy to sell to a downsizing suburban driver.
you bought a minivan yet? At least you've got a few years till you need a Hummer for the school run
I'm sure I told you this, but when I sold my Coop (actually traded it in), even with the trade-in price that the VW dealer gave me, I made an almost $2,000 PROFIT on what I'd paid for it!
Have you checked KBB to see what it's worth? You might get a nice surprise.
I didn't pay for my VW - I swapped a year-old Mini for a brand new Jetta turbo - result! It took me about 5 hours of haggling, mind. It was the end of the month, and the dealer was clearly desperate to sell a car that day.
SwizzleStiX
Active Member
I don't own a car, i did some driving lessons years ago, but never got round to doing the test 
pseudonarcissus
fluttering and dancing
lyra_kitten said:I'm sure I told you this, but when I sold my Coop (actually traded it in), even with the trade-in price that the VW dealer gave me, I made an almost $2,000 PROFIT on what I'd paid for it!
Have you checked KBB to see what it's worth? You might get a nice surprise.
I didn't pay for my VW - I swapped a year-old Mini for a brand new Jetta turbo - result! It took me about 5 hours of haggling, mind. It was the end of the month, and the dealer was clearly desperate to sell a car that day.
next time I buy a car I'm taking you with me.
it's horrible ordering a car for delivery months in the future....you have all those doubts as to whether I really needed one and if the colour will be as cute as the picture....I'm not wondering if I should have gone for the satelite radio
Vixiha
Naughty Nurse
How long are your prison sentences then?pseudonarcissus said:an American soccer mom's transport. They are HUGE and get about 12 miles to the gallon....
....and I for one am not American, merely resident here....just like Lyra_k
My Suburban is champagne, gets 18 miles to the gallon, and hauls an average of 8 people around regularly; although, it can hold 9 quite comfortably.
Vixiha said:
I think the point is the HUGENESS of them - I hate being behind them (or Yukons or Navigators or Expeditions) because you can't see a thing that's going on on the road ahead, and I hate to think of the damage they'd do in an accident.
And although a few people do regularly transport enough people that they're full to capacity, you have to admit that it's much more normal to see one mom with 2 kids and 5 empty seats.
They don't NEED to be that big, and they CERTAINLY don't need 3-4-5 liter engines.
The super-SUV phenomenon is peculiarly American, and people in other countries also have large families, and somehow manage without them. I'm from a 4-child family, and my parents had an estate car. My brother's about to have his 4th child, and they're reluctantly looking for the smallest-engined minivan they can find (to keep petrol costs down).
Of all people I'm not anti-American, but I must admit I'm quite anti-3-liter gas-guzzlers being used as family cars.
Griff said:When were you last in London, lyra? There are so many huge gas-guzzling 4x4s on the streets of West London taking kids to school.
It's been quite awhile - they were there but not common when I worked in London.
It's not exactly surprising to me to hear that, though, the UK does seem to follow the US in many instances.
geminisnake
a complex mass of conflicting ideas
Can I ask if any of these people have ever lived outside a city where there is no public transport??
aurora green, Hollis, Major Tom, MankyMonkey, Pickman's model, Vixen
Just wondering how I'm meant to take my disabled granny for her shopping without a car.
aurora green, Hollis, Major Tom, MankyMonkey, Pickman's model, Vixen
Just wondering how I'm meant to take my disabled granny for her shopping without a car.
Vixiha
Naughty Nurse
I don't care about people disliking gas guzzlers; although, I'm certainly not ashamed to own one.
I like you; don't get me wrong but it gets on my nerves when people react as though they feel insulted if someone assumes they're American.
Especially when they admit they live here and behave much like the average American, then try to make excuses why they're a special case due to temporary living arrangements or when they feel the need to point out that they used to make some sort of effort that the average American would supposedly never bother to do, like walk, cycle, use public transport, car pool, or work at Pizza Hut to pay for their own gas.
I suppose the US put in tube stations and bus depots especially for those superior foreigners who are now poor unfortunate victims of circumstance 'cause god knows Americans don't bother to use them.
As for the rest of the thread:
If you don't want to own a car, don't; you may have been fortunate enough to get by without one but that doesn't make you a better person.
The idea that people should feel gulty for owning a car is bullshit.
I like you; don't get me wrong but it gets on my nerves when people react as though they feel insulted if someone assumes they're American.
Especially when they admit they live here and behave much like the average American, then try to make excuses why they're a special case due to temporary living arrangements or when they feel the need to point out that they used to make some sort of effort that the average American would supposedly never bother to do, like walk, cycle, use public transport, car pool, or work at Pizza Hut to pay for their own gas.
I suppose the US put in tube stations and bus depots especially for those superior foreigners who are now poor unfortunate victims of circumstance 'cause god knows Americans don't bother to use them.
As for the rest of the thread:
If you don't want to own a car, don't; you may have been fortunate enough to get by without one but that doesn't make you a better person.
The idea that people should feel gulty for owning a car is bullshit.
Vixiha said:Especially when they admit they live here and behave much like the average American, then try to make excuses why they're a special case due to temporary living arrangements or when they feel the need to point out that they used to make some sort of effort that the average American would supposedly never bother to do, like walk, cycle, use public transport, car pool, or work at Pizza Hut to pay for their own gas.
I suppose the US put in tube stations and bus depots especially for those superior foreigners who are now poor unfortunate victims of circumstance 'cause god knows Americans don't bother to use them.
In Baltimore, the people I knew thought I was insane for using public transport. Seriously. And the only other people I ever saw on the bus were people who looked too poor to own a car. I can entirely understand what you're saying, but at the same time I wasn't so much saying any of that to make myself look good, as to illustrate the difference in culture.
I haven't been to every American city, of course, but outside of New York and Washington DC, from what I've seen it seems to me that public transport is mostly used by poor people who have no other choice. Do you disagree?
And my mention of having owned a car in England from a young age was more of a mea culpa than self-congratulation. I've been a car owner and driver for years, and my stint without one in Baltimore was highly unusual for me.
nogoodboyo
New Member
Vixiha said:
I've got a big fat car, but I think there are downsides to car ownership and use too. Any guilt that arises on my part comes from the fact that it uses an unneccessary amount of fuel... do you not think it would better to have a car that performed as well but did 28mpg instead of 14?
zenie
>^^<
I have two cars and if moving to the big smoke will definitley cut down to one.
I feel no shame in having 2 one is 1275cc the other a 998 (both old mini's) so hardly gas guzzlers. (1 is an estate so much better for sticking dog in the boot and oging away for weekends)
They're both classics, and where I can take public transport I do.
If I moved into back into Town then I will definitley get rid of the estate but the saloon is my baby and my first ever car so I'd have to keep it somehow.
I feel no shame in having 2 one is 1275cc the other a 998 (both old mini's) so hardly gas guzzlers. (1 is an estate so much better for sticking dog in the boot and oging away for weekends)
They're both classics, and where I can take public transport I do.
If I moved into back into Town then I will definitley get rid of the estate but the saloon is my baby and my first ever car so I'd have to keep it somehow.
pseudonarcissus
fluttering and dancing
Vixiha said:I don't care about people disliking gas guzzlers; although, I'm certainly not ashamed to own one.
I like you; don't get me wrong but it gets on my nerves when people react as though they feel insulted if someone assumes they're American.
The idea that people should feel gulty for owning a car is bullshit.
I really don't act like a whinging expat, Vix.
There are environmental reasons why you really should maybe feel a little twinge of guilt for owning a gas guzzler.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest the burning of fossil fuels is changing the environment. There are certainly more extreme environmental events than there used to be, glaciers are receeding etc. One can opt to try and minimize one's contribution to this global warming whilst maintaining an acceptably comfortable lifestyle. In London it is, by and large, possible to survive without a car. I couldn't do that in Houston. I am single and a Mini suits me just fine. If I had children, pets etc. I would need something larger. SUVs are huge vehicles for the money. Import tarrifs mean that they are big money earners for Detoit and the US auto industry is very bad at bringing to market economical cars in a range of sizes. Safety is oft cited as a motivator for SUVs. Large truck based vehicles generally do not fare well in crash tests and the drivers often seem to aft like Volvo drivers in the UK, that they are invulnerable which tends to make them drive less safely. Lyra mentioned that her family of 5 had an estate car back in the UK. One area where larger vehicles are safer is that they have a seatbelts for everyone. When I was a kid it was not uncommon to ride around in the boot of an estate car (wagon), certainly rear seatbelts were not warn. That would be rightly frowned upon now.
i'm not really having a go at you personally. I don't know you from Adam and you buy the car you feel is appropriate for you.
I just happen to believe the Hummer is a crime against humanity. (it is unnecessarily gluttonous, you must agree)
At the moment I'm sick of people complaining about gas prices when they drive thirsty vehicles. It's the demand for huge cars driving demand for gas causing the current high prices, and I don't see them coming down til the next recession.
vive la differance
Vixiha
Naughty Nurse
I don't disagree that public transport is mostly used by poor people who have no other choice but then cars are also mostly used by people who have no other choice.lyra_kitten said:I haven't been to every American city, of course, but outside of New York and Washington DC, from what I've seen it seems to me that public transport is mostly used by poor people who have no other choice. Do you disagree?
And my mention of having owned a car in England from a young age was more of a mea culpa than self-congratulation. I've been a car owner and driver for years, and my stint without one in Baltimore was highly unusual for me.
Most people don't live within walking distance of their jobs and public transport isn't available in rural areas.
Apparently, in cities where public transport is more convenient, like in New York and London, more people use it.
Yes, of course but do you know of anything that carries a family of 9 and their groceries in comfort that gets more than 18 mpg?nogoodboyo said:
My ex was the youngest of 12; they all piled into a station wagon but only half of them got to use seat belts. Once upon a time that was legal.
