{"id":2717,"date":"2002-10-01T21:46:10","date_gmt":"2002-10-02T02:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2717"},"modified":"2002-10-01T21:46:10","modified_gmt":"2002-10-02T02:46:10","slug":"vehicular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/01\/vehicular.html","title":{"rendered":"Vehicular"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the Tuesday This-or-That<\/a>, the Vehicle Edition.<\/p>\n

(What, everyone’s suddenly asking car questions, just because I’m going to be replacing my Saturn in the spring? Sheesh!)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1. Front or rear wheel drive?<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, I grew up with rear wheel drive, but I think both of ours are currently front, which is supposedly better in inclement weather.<\/p>\n

2. Car or truck or van?<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, we already have a van. We have a friend with a truck. So the other vehicle will be a car.<\/p>\n

3. Fancy or utilitarian?<\/b><\/p>\n

I do like a little bit of fashionability with my vehicle. I’m not into leather seats and chrome plated lunch dispensers, but a bit of sportiness to the exterior is nice, and a modicum of conveniences (like, for example, a frickin’ CD player) is on my list of desired options next spring.<\/p>\n

4. Power or manual windows\/locks?<\/b><\/p>\n

I’ve grown to like power systems like that, though it’s hard to limit it to just the things you wants (usually it’s an option package).<\/p>\n

5. Small econobox or giant luxo cruiser?<\/b><\/p>\n

Given a choice, an econobox (especially if I’m away on business and need to rent a car). I don’t like having to maneuver boats, particularly in parking.<\/p>\n

6. Factory or aftermarket radio?<\/b><\/p>\n

Factory, if at all possible. Slightly more costly for the same features, but a hell of a lot more convenient. And there aren’t any fancy sound system things that I need, anyway.<\/p>\n

7. Lease or buy?<\/b><\/p>\n

Given the mileage and the lifetime of the vehicle, buying makes more sense.<\/p>\n

8. Perform own maintenance or farm it out?<\/b><\/p>\n

Heh. It’s pretty tough to do your own maintenance these day, but even when I owned a VW Bug and did my own valve jobs, etc., it was still more of a pain than it was worth.<\/p>\n

9. Hi-test brand name or cheap-o fuel?<\/b><\/p>\n

Name brand, minimum recommended octane.<\/p>\n

10. Run-it-till-the-wheels-fall-off or a new one every two years?<\/b><\/p>\n

Current model for us seems to be that we have two vehicles, one of them new which we finance for three years, then, when it’s ours, we start shopping for a replacement for the other. That gives a lifetime of around 6-7 years, which is probably about right. Then, since no dealer will give you more than salvage cost for a 7-year-old car, we donate it and take a tax write-off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s the Tuesday This-or-That, the Vehicle Edition. (What, everyone’s suddenly asking car questions, just because I’m going to be replacing my Saturn in the spring? Sheesh!)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars","category-personal-qa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/06\/14\/vroom_vroom.html","url_meta":{"origin":2717,"position":0},"title":"Vroom-vroom","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 14-Jun-03 3:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of the Fathers Day weekend festivities, we went car shopping today. Volkswagon Passat: It's amazing, dismaying, and a bit annoying when a particular car model has versions that...","rel":"","context":"In "Cars"","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10841,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/06\/18\/considering_the_unthinkab.html","url_meta":{"origin":2717,"position":1},"title":"Considering the unthinkable","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 18-Jun-07 9:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I was driving home today, listening to an NPR article about car companies and fleet mileage, and how they seem to have all the technical bugs worked out for their...","rel":"","context":"In "Cars"","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":452,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/11\/driving_needs.html","url_meta":{"origin":2717,"position":2},"title":"Driving needs","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 11-Apr-03 10:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"Hmmm. This article is almost enough to make me search out a rear wheel drive for our next car. But -- given my wussiness driving in slick conditions, and where...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21140,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/04\/zoom-zoom-zoom-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":2717,"position":3},"title":"Zoom-zoom-zoom","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 4-Jun-11 2:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The vehicle I was one of the official drivers of was a Fiat Doblo -- nicknamed by us \"The Toaster\". \u00a0It's a fun essentially-mini-van vehicle, seating five, with huge cargo space. \u00a0It was comfy, pleasant to drive, 6-gear manual with good performance, a diesel engine, sliding rear doors, and a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars"","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/fiat-doblo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9988,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/02\/first_pass_on_the_car_hun.html","url_meta":{"origin":2717,"position":4},"title":"First pass on the car hunt","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 2-Oct-06 7:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"So on Saturday, after rehearsal, we headed out to do some car hunting. BD was down for dinner, so he tagged along as an Extra Adult To Cram In The...","rel":"","context":"In "Cars"","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17891,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/18\/its-not-quite-a-new-car-yet-but.html","url_meta":{"origin":2717,"position":5},"title":"It’s not quite a new car yet, but …","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 18-Jul-10 12:32am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it was supposed to be a quick errand. After all, we had a Busy Day today, getting ready to head out to California, to pick up Kitten and go to the San Diego Comic-Con, and all that.\u00a0 Packing and tidying and all that jazz. But ... Well, we used\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars"","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}