I just spent an hour in Traffic Jam Mode

when it rains or snows here, people speed up

 

You need to move to Australia, a house up nth for the winter and down south in a daylight savings state for the summer .... Wouldn't suit if you wanted to see or walk in snow, they make it during winter for the ski fields because it no longer snows enough to maintain a cover .....

T1 Terry

 

I tell people that I fix phones for a living but in reality, since I cover such a large area I actually DRIVE for a living.
THIS is why most of my cars are.......trucks!

 

And I hate to own and drive a large passenger vehicle simply "for safety."

I mean, I get it. I've known lots of people, and known of lots of people, who've been clobbered or killed by larger vehicles in their smaller cars. Buying a bigger vehicle is safer. But they cost more, use more fuel, and make me look like I'm trying to keep up with the Jones' as some sort of status symbol.

 

Pedantically, the water still gets the sunlight. Not all LAND gets sunlight,

 

My lowly 2017 Prius did not fare too well against a 4Runner.

 

I own two motorcycles so I must admit that volume and mass are not the top turds in my pile when it comes to purchasing a vehicle - but I drive and use a pickup - and the 'small pickup market' in the US is somewhat limited.
My full size GMC at $35000 OTD was cheaper than any other truck in my area.
In my area large trucks and SUVs tend to be over-represented by accident survivors, new mothers or the mothers of small children (plural - you NEED the additional volume!)
Since I live east of the Mississippi, the extra-large 4x4s tend to be driven by teenage males and the over-40s who are insecure in......other ways. We have a LOT of cattle farms and dairies so the supply of used, full-size 4x4s ready to be raised, lowered, squatted, or otherwise personalized is quite abundant.

Since I have to drive a little Jeeplet (Compass) every day for my job, I have come to REappreciate the MUCH BETTER visibility offered by my stock, full size truck - and quite frankly as long as gas stays under $20 a gallon I do not see myself EVER going back to a Prius-sized vehicle again.

 

By some God-given miracle I survived a crash that every one said was unsurvivable in my little Toyota sedan.

Now the kids dogs and I cruise in an Outback - rated one of the safest rigs in America and great in snow ice mud dirt.
kris

PS -- not much of a religious type, but SOMTHING WAS WORKING ON MY SIDE

 

No judgment. To each his own. Personally I don't have much use for a pickup. An SUV is also not that helpful. When I need to haul lots of something it's usually adult sized people, and three-row SUVs are usually cramped in the rear. A minivan or full sized van would make more sense for me every once in a while.

But then there's budget, which is why I ended up with a free three-row SUV Nissan Pathfinder. It's not exactly my cup of tea, and I drive the Avalon hybrid whenever possible, but when I need to haul 6 or 7 people or the wife needs a car, I just pull out the SUV.

Coincidentally, perhaps the main reason I got the Avalon instead of a Camry, Prus, Corolla or Yaris, is that the Avalon seemed like a bigger car and more likely winner in an accident than the others. I also was looking at Chevrolet Malibus and Impalas and Dodge Chargers, but I kept finding safety issues with those.

That's over twice what I paid for my Avalon. The first year I drove the Avalon I got 43 mpg average, all year round, too. Since then it's dwindled down to the upper 30's, but still, not too shabby. This is another reason I hesitate to drive the Pathfinder.

Yes, I know. Same here. Lots of accidents, the large truck or SUV wins 99% of the time. But to me that is the only reason to consider them. As a CDL holder with a passenger endorsement, it wouldn't be much different, in my opinion, if I went and bought a 50 passenger bus "for safety reasons" as our daily driver. It's big, expensive, uses more fuel, but is safer.

It feels like about 90% of vehicles on the roads here out west are large pickups and SUVs. The high school parking lot and college parking lots are all full of these. Everyone and their dog drives a full sized pickup or SUV, with a few here and there in a mid-sized crossover. And there are a lot of turists that all come in, you guessed it, their full sized pickup or SUV, often towing a large camping trailer, or driving a commercial sized RV.

What visibility? You mean around other truck sized vehicles. Yes, when I come to a stop sign with a turn lane, I can never see because someone in their bloated pickup or SUV has to pull up next to me. On the other hand, at least as a sedan driver I can actually see things in front of my vehicle. I'm seriously considering getting crossover mirrors, like the ones used on school buses, for my SUV.

I really have no idea what car I'd get next if and when the Avalon ever got to the point of not being worth repairing. But I very much miss my small cars. I loved my small cars, my 1972 VW Beetle, my 1985 VW Golf, my 1993 Mazda 323. These cars were fun to drive, practical, and didn't bother my budget focused conscience, as I got over 30 mpg in each of them including the air-cooled Beetle. But those kinds of vehicles no longer are sold in the USA and again, I do want a safe vehicle. I just hate the options that are out there.

 

$20 USD for 3.8 ltrs, converted to Aust measurements, that comes out at $7.90AUD ltr Regular petrol over here is $1.68ltr AUD at the moment, so 1.68 x 3.8 = $6.38AUD/us gal = $3.83USD/USGal .....

$20 USD is roughly $30AUD, for that I can drive my MG4 EV for 500kms, 312.5 miles, if I could get even 300 miles out of 4 ltrs of fuel, then I'd buy a monster ute so I was also driving a vehicle the same size as the others on the road ..... in the mean time, I will stick with my faster, better handling and cheaper to run smaller car, and keep an eye out for the oversize monsters (known over here are Toorak Tractors, a wealthy suburb in Melbourne, or Mum's Tank)

Fortunately, out on the highway and open road, only those towing monster RV's that require the towing capacity, drive these things ..... they still aren't a match for a 31ft 12 tonne rolling Motorhome and trailer carting the MG4 ..... but I'd probably have difficulty polishing the scratches out of the Bull Bar We have to be able to survive hitting a Big Red kangaroo, up to 6ft 11" tall and weighing over 200lb that are all muscle and attitude, they can take out the front axle on a Kenworth if they get under the Bull Bar ..... fortunately, most of the big rig trucks with a rolling weight of 200tonne or more (Road train - Wikipedia scroll down to Usage/ Australia to get an idea of the size) are driven by professional drivers in every sense of the word, you never even think about taking on one of them on, even in another truck the same size

We also have wild camels, they will take out one of these big trucks, just because they are feral, doesn't mean they are small, but rather the other way around, the head of one of these things will come through a truck windscreen ....

Australia, where everything is trying to kill you .....

T1 Terry

 

There's also the distance factor. I don't know how much @ETC(SS) drives, but if it's less than average then it's easier to afford more expensive fuel.

I drove the Avalon 30,000 miles in the first year. @43/mpg and around $3.50 per gallon that was about $200 or so per month. A 2020 Chevy Suburban gets half that at best, so about $400/mo. At $20 per gallon that would put the Avalon at over $1,000 per month and the Suburban over $2,000 per month just in fuel alone.

My total average cost of running the Avalon the first 5 years was $800 per month. Now it's around $600 since I no longer have any car payments.

 

The MG4 costs nothing a mth in fuel, all solar, no car payments, it was only $30,000 AUD drive away, so the super bought it for us .... from memory, insurance is about $140 mth full cover and the rego is free for the next couple of yrs, thanks to govt incentives.

The V10 6.8 ltr Ford 31ft motorhome is a whole different deal. We bought it with the insurance payout when the last one burnt, rego is free for me because I'm an old age pensioner, the full cover insurance is a bit breathtaking, but after the last two were destroyed in fires, the first one inside the workshop and the second outside the house .... we opted for a sky high excess and lower yrly policy cost, I think it's around $200 mth ..... the fuel roughly a $1 mile, but we are fully self contained, so we can pull up at a nice spot and camp for a few days or more at no additional cost .... so it sort of off sets the fuel and insurance costs .....

They reckon 2 yrs to rebuild our house, that will probably end the finances for travelling much, anywhere between $800,000 and a $1k to rebuild a house we paid $365,000 for house and land 8 yrs ago, insurance will pay about half of that, who would have guessed rebuilding would go up so much after covid .... that's life I guess ..... It went up $150,000 since the fire 15 mths ago

T1 Terry

 

The Maverick hybrid AWD is intriguing.

 

I remember that!

I have now survived two crashes in Toyotas. Years ago in Canada, my little 1969 Corolla (2 speed automatic LOL) was sandwiched between 2 larger cars at 60 mph. The officer passed the drive shaft through the broken rear window. I normally had a 40 lb toolkit behind the drivers seat, but not that day. The seat was inclined back 30 degrees. My eyeglasses flew out the window, but I had no injuries

A year ago, my 2017 Prius got t-boned by a 4Runner. I saw some flying glass, & they saw my side airbag. No real injuries from that either. If my wife had been with me, she would have got injured. I needed to push the door panel back to open the glove box.

Now I drive a 2025 Camry with panoramic view & all the sensors. It was likely my final new vehicle purchase.

 

+1
The Avalon is a really great car.
My daughter bought one and loved it dearly until kid # 3 forced a replacement.
My pastor loves his.
If I were forced to drive a sedan it would be on the short list - and I'm not wild about Toyota's corporate culture - not that there are many that are better....

Up to hundreds of miles a day on the job. A lot less than that personally.
My '23 truck has 25k but I have three other personal vehicles....an 06,12, and 20 all GMC.
My CFO and I each average about 20K per year.
Fuel is bouncing between $2.40 and $2.60 a gallon for RUL but I really do not pay attention to the price when it's below $3.
@visability: This must be a personal preference.
I loathe driving in a sedan or a CUV because they have more blind spots than (formerly) government funded media.
I don't have this problem with my truck because I leave a substantial gap between me and the vehicle ahead of me - and it is another pickup they have enough glass to see through.
I will give the Jeeplet (Compass) credit for one thing.
In addition to having 4WD and getting 30 real-world mpg, it has about the best adaptive cruise control that I've used and the 'wimp dots' (parking sensors for people who don't know how to use mirrors) are OK as well.
I would nearly consider one for personal use were it not for the JEEP warning label.

 

$20/gal could mean layoffs. I mean, what are they going to do? Absorb the cost? Give you a 120 mpg moped? Stop having you drive so far?

 

You realize the Avalon is no linger available? Perhaps a Toyota Crown? If the smaller size is not an issue, consider the Camry. They are all hybrid now.

 

meh...
It's like Taco Bell.
It's all the same stuff just slightly different shapes.

I'll stick with $35,000 pickups until somebody makes one in an EV flavor with adult range and tow/haul capability.....

 

Seeing how I was almost widowed in a Walmart parking lot by a Ford F-150 because my wife is shorter than the hood I don't see how modern full sized trucks and SUVs have fewer blind spots.

It's a well documented fact that pedestrians are twice as likely to be ran over than back in the 90's and that the culprits are pickups and SUVs.

Yes I realize that. Hence part of the reason why I have no idea what my next car is going to be. There are basically zero cars that are currently being sold in the USA that I'm interested in. Traffic jams don't help me want to drive either.

And this is depressing for me because I used to love all sorts of cars and used to enjoy driving. I also used to feel I could afford a decent car. Now I cringe at the thought of driving as well as going through the hassle of picking out and buying another car. Hopefully I die before my Avalon does.

 

I am sorry about your wife's near miss.

We have a V8 powered 2000 Toyota Tundra that is similar in size to the current Tacoma. It is not quiet but we have to be very careful in parking lots because people using their phones insist on walking out in front of this green truck.They are just not paying attention! So far, we have not hit any people.