"Only an idiot would buy a new car" > Used car - three years old; 30k miles = $26k > New car - none miles, fkin mint = $27k

My family has always bought used but I’m reconsidering at this point as my current car is getting on its last legs. It’s like $12k for a car with 100k miles on it now, might as well save up twice as long and buy a car that’ll last me basically until I’m elderly with proper maintenance.

Where do you find a new car for $27k anymore that you would actually want to drive? Something like this?

Some mid size sedans still start out around there. I won't look at SUVs or trucks. Not worth the price imo

>Work truck is F150. >Check gas mileage average. >8.3mpg...

The new cars have such tight machining tolerance and so many emissions doodads that they don't last as long as the older engines I feel like new cars exist but they are only on the road for 5-10 years before they get totaled and you need another one. Computers that cost $4300 fail because of a speck of dust and you might as well just shit your pants.

You can blame emissions requirements. My 03 LB7 silverado gets 15.5 around here in hilly area with many stop signs, but 23-25 highway (not towing) easy. 24 L5P silverados would get like 12 and 18 comparatively. And then when the emissions shit goes, often so does the entire engine. The emissions to produce one engine is more than they will save in their lifetime with the additional emission standards.

This is exactly why I'm going to learn a motorbike, going to get a simple scooter I can mostly maintain by myself if something goes wrong, the only thing I wouldn't be able to handle would be the engine inevitably but that's fairly normal I feel. I also think in this day and age of electronic warfare owning a car is going to be a major disaster in your life if countries start EMPing each other among other things. My zombie apocalypse WW3 scenario would maybe involve getting an off road bike of some kind. I could probably get one of those and keep it in the back no problem because motorbikes are hilariously small especially compared to modern cars. Insurance is always a bitch, but the maintenance and cost? Shocked me, especially if you can do it yourself but even then I bet pro mechanics can tweak a motorbike in seconds.

You can mitigate EMP. The Kaiser Jeep M715s were shielded way back in the 60's. The ignition wires had ground sleeves. I've done a little reading about it and I think there's a better than 50% chance that a modern car with coil on plug ignition would still run after an EMP, simply because there is enough grounding to prevent interference to the electronics from regular background noise. Only one way to find out for sure, though. I'd be more concerned about the disruption to the fuel supply chain. But then I'd be MORE concerned about the disruption to the medical and pharmaceutical supply chain. And Diesels don't need electronics at all. The emissions crap might, but the Diesel engine does not. Buy an old Diesel Mercedes from the 80's and you can smile and wave as you blow past anyone who gets stranded by the EMP.

I'd rather simply get something mostly mechanical that won't break easily, it looks like one of the reasons scooters for example are so cheap despite being newly manufactured are they've got very little electronics. So that's what I'm going for, the Suzuki address for example doesn't even have a digital speedo which is good. I bring this up because it's not just EMP either, Russia not that long ago did an electronic attack and they took down the GPS of tons of flights because of course all the electronic signals were being blocked that relied on that nav software. Yes old is definitely better in a lot of cases with vehicles but it seems you can find new vehicles depending on where you look. Dacia cars for example are quite famously simple mechanically I 'think' don't know if that's changed though. Just got to do the research and pick something sensible.

No shame for a commuter, not everyone needs a pickup truck! I miss my vw diesel sedan