I wish I could drive a car that I could afford. The pricing of vehicles moved to the class above me. I used to be part of the driving class but have been priced out of the game.
2016 Camry. Love it, zero complaints. Car I wish I had? Slightly newer model as they look super nice but holding out to see how that generation fares with reliability. Otherwise I’ll drive this one til the wheels fall off.
I currently drive a 2013 corolla as a commuter, a 2005 converted econoline wheelchair van as my house, and an XT225 dual sport for fun/errands, and an old racing bicycle I’ve turned into a commuter.
I think it would be nice to upgrade to an actual commuter - possibly ebike - with a frame sized for my body. At 6’4", it is difficult to find frames that fit on the used market.
My dream moto is a WR250R. Still light and nimble enough to rip it on trails, but with better specs for riding on the highway so I can zip into town to refill groceries when I’m parked at remote campsites. An electric option would be super cool here, too - but atm, you still can’t beat the energy density of petrochemicals.
I think it must be a sign of my approaching middle age that I am becoming increasingly enamored with the idea of 4x4 muscle cars. Yes, they are completely impractical, but imagine: a 1970 El Camino with a slight lift and oversized, street-legal knobbies. Slight lift, but more dune buggy than monster truck, with fender wheel wells sized up to account for extra tire size and travel. Paint it Hayduke blue, and let the paint fade to reveal a stylish rust patina. Runs as a commuter, a friend-hauler (just jump in the bed!), a work truck, and an adventure vehicle. Build out a custom slide in camper (with the Camino’s low roof, you could sit up in bed!), and it becomes awesome for hanging in the mountains or desert for months at a time as well. And I could drive it from Prudoe Bay to Cancun and get compliments all the way from Alaskan natives, canuck mounties, Portland hipsters, river rats, desert ravers, dads in the grocery store parking lot, tejano mamacitas, mustascioed vaqueros, cartel foot soldiers, and spring breakers in tiny bikinis. Of course, electrification would also be a great enhancement here, but again, energy density.
I have a 2004 Porsche Cayenne and a 1996 Ford F-350.
Both were under $2000 CAD and very reliable. I love them both, but I would like to have a second gen Toyota Prius because I Iike hybrids and I really like the air cooled NiMH battery setup. I think they’re pretty cute in an ugly way.
Dream car to have again though would be my old blue 1999 Volkswagen Beetle.
I’ll never get rid of the truck though…will rebuild it over and over again forever.
I have a Mirage G4. It has a five speed transmission. It does not have internet connectivity, it doesn’t have a touchscreen, it doesn’t have keyless ignition, it doesn’t even have a fourth cylinder. It’s as reliable as a hammer, it still gets me over 40 mpg, and it’s paid for.
Dream vehicle? Any motorcycle. I have one, and I ride it sometimes, but I have a family that cares I’m alive and a lot of you seem to need a phone in your face to drive a car…
An aging one.
The one I wish I did is none at all. I would love to just be able to have a car pick me up and take me where I want to go that was shared with everyone else in town and driverless. I don’t really want to own a car at all.
None, none.
Congratulations!!
I have a gas car, but…
I really want to DIY my own electric car. Find a small lightweight stick shift car that has a blown engine, add a forklift motor and some lithium batteries.
I have solar power so it would be free to power the car. Just have no budget for the parts yet.
This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but like you… Money.
I drive a Ford Ranger and it is the vehicle I want to drive.
Ford transit camper, couldn’t be happier with it
I wish I didn’t need to drive
I just moved out of a city with amazing cycling infrastructure to the suburbs of a larger city… this city has okay transit but their cycling infrastructure is basically telling drivers to please not hit cyclists on the shared roads. At least until you get downtown you’ll be meandering through neighbourhoods because they don’t want to take away peoples parking spots on the main roads.
I drive a 22 year old large gas guzzling Toyota suv (Land Cruiser). I’m WFH so I just use it for weekend things and fill up once a month. It’s very reliable and comfortable to drive.
Since 90% of my driving is within an hour of home I’ve been eyeing EVs, maybe the new Subaru Trailhunter, but it’s hard to justify a car payment right now.
The snarky answer is I drive an 18-wheeler, but I wish I was just driving my car.
My “daily” in this case, is a 2016 Ford Focus 1.0T hatchback. As far as my car needs go, it’s perfect. All the cargo space I regularly need, manual transmission to not be boring, Ecoboost package for fuel economy. I’m keeping this thing until it dies, or I die. But I only get to drive it about 30 miles a week, tops.
I just wish we got the wagon version in the US; I’ve frequently slept in this car, but even with the seats folded down, there’s not enough room for me to lay flat in the back.
Aa for other cars I wish I drove? I’d want something else in addition to my Focus, to cover the kinds of driving it can’t do. Some kind of dedicated, high-end sports car, maybe with a convertible roof. Or some kind of 4x4 for off-roading.
I have an 20 year old Subaru WRX and an 30 year old Ford F-150 (2 door). Honestly, I can’t imagine a better combo if you have the space for 2 vehicles. The car is sporty, fun, and can carry 4 people, while the truck can haul or tow nearly everything I would need. Purchased both brand new, both are still running strong, although parts for the Subaru are starting to dry up.
Although I’m not currently shopping to replace either, they’re both gas burners. If they die before I do (feels unlikely), I’d like to upgrade to electric. But I haven’t seen anything I would consider affordable - which is to say designed to be repaired by the owner. Slate is the only possible thing on the radar, but their trucklet in this weird middle spot where it’s too small to be (fully) useful to me as a truck, while also too big to fill my hot hatch/4door car needs either. Hopefully they’ll be super successful and bring more models to the market in the future.
Don’t tell me parts for the WRX are drying up! I have a 2003 wrx that I lifted, installed a tow hitch on, and replaced the engine with the block out of a 2019 sti.
It’s actually become my “I need to haul things” vehicle. The high compression of the 2.5l block and the 2.0l heads from the original motor has given it a healthy amount of torque. Plus I have the tiniest trailer that is exactly the size of a pallet and weighs next to nothing.
I also have a 2001 MR2 spyder. That’s my fun, sporty one. Only mods I’ve done to that are the head unit and installing a LSD after a bearing grenaded in the transaxle and I had to rebuild it.
Pretty much the only thing thing that’ll get me to replace either is if they get wrecked and it twists the frame.
Though the car I WANT to be driving is a catterham.
Short answer on the Subaru - needed a transmission and could not find one at any price. Did eventually find a decent one, but it was more dumb luck & word of mouth than anything.
I gotta say that when I started looking, I saw an alarming amount of “Bugeye for sale, Excellent condition, just needs transmission”. To Subaru’s credit, every other gasket/washer/seal I needed was still available, right up until I got to actually cracking the transmission itself open. So, can’t find a transmission, and can’t find the parts to fix one either. So, yeah, if you want to try & future-proof yours, consider keeping an eye out for transmissions.
Speaking of, your WRX sounds bad-ass. I did at one point (briefly) consider putting a tow hitch on mine and ditching the truck, but the only hitch I could find was a class 1. Is that what you are using, or did you find bigger, or simply fabricate your own?
Wait, the block from a 2019 STI fits the heads from a 2003 WRX? Okay, that’s… you clearly know more about mixing/matching Subaru parts than I do. I knew the 2004 STI block matched, but that’s a 1 year gap, you’re talking about a 16 year gap. Wow. Perhaps I should be asking you if there’s any other transmissions that drop right in? I’m aware that the later (~2008?) Legacy Spec B transmission is supposed to be a drop in - has the right gear ratios & connections for the halfshafts. But the clutch is different somehow and the pickups for the speedometer have changed from analog to digital. Still, supposedly it can be done. I didn’t have any luck finding one of those transmissions either though…
Well shit. My trans needs a rebuild. The syncros are all very worn. I haven’t looked at what transmissions are easily swapped. But I suspect a good number would be. I’ve seen people swap out sti trans into them with the electronic limited slip. But that takes some additional wiring. It was fairly common to upgrade the 5 speed the WRX came with to the 6 speed STI transmission, if I remember correctly the 5 speed had a weak 3rd gear that would give out fairly frequently.
I believe you could swap in the Hawkeye (or was it the blob eye) trans without a problem. You might just need to make sure the rear diff is correct. When I first replaced my rear diff with an LSD I accidentally got the wrong one and when I backed it out of the garage to test it made it 5 feet before I felt it start to bind. I immediately stopped and pulled the drive shaft to move it back into the garage while I waited for the correct one. Still have that cusco LSD sitting in a box, unused.
The blocks for almost all the EJ engines are pretty mix and match with only a handful of parts that need to be updated along side them, like the oil pan and pickup. I went with the 2019 block since it was forged and could handle a lot more power that the STI made and I wouldn’t have to worry about the internals. I did swap out to STI injectors too, but I’m not sure that was necessary. I had originally wanted to get it tuned for e85 so it could run cooler.
I still have the original block, which I originally swapped out when it had a slight tap after my headgasket blew around 200k miles for the first ej25 block I built. That lasted about 25k miles before I thought I heard a noise in the bearings. I still have that block too that I was planning to rebuild at some point and just have some spares. Both could probably go back in if I wanted to and they’d run fine. Then I have a 3rd spare block a friend gave me that I split with the intention of rebuilding but didn’t have the time to finish.
The heads should have a little machining since the bore of the 2.5L block is ever so slightly larger and with the heads untouched, my tuner said they give a very, very small lip where predetonation can occur.
I didn’t machine then, but I run a stock turbo and don’t particularly care about having high boost or hitting high horsepower.
I do have a class 1 on mine. It hauls everything I need it to, but it definitely has limits. Even with the outback springs/struts I put on it, when I had to move a light tower around a work site I saw the suspension bottom out. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go on the streets so it wasn’t a problem.
I can’t say my bugeye is in pristine condition, she’s been beat to hell, but I love her anyway. Always so much fun and she’ll take me almost anywhere I ask her.
Besides the multiple exhausts I’ve put on (and smashed dropping the car onto some big rocks off-roading), she has a catless up pipe and I’ve swapped the steering rack for a 2007 STI for a tighter turning radius. One thing I really loved about that car is how much was interchangeable with the next several generations of WRC and STI.
I can’t say she is the most reliable car anymore, but that’s 100% my fault. That’s the reason I got the MR2, so I would have something I could rely on when I needed it.
Since I have the MR2. I use the WRX as a Halloween prop every year.
A large SUV I bought from a friend who was selling it years ago.
I wish I had something smaller thugh, like a Mini. Though, that probably won’t be long as my current car is very old and is already having issues.
