While I can buy and drive any new car, I prefer my 14 year old Prius v.

i like modern cars, for the reliability and refinement. fast/techy/enormous don't appeal to me at all.
some tech i like, the useful kind. i lived through 40 years of bad tech, starting with lucas electrics and the fiasco of pollution controls

 

I agree on the Fit controls.

 

The reliability is nice. I haven't had any major issues with my Avalon. It kind of makes me wonder why I pay for towing and roadside assistance.

But I still miss my stick-shifts, chrome bumpers, sliding heater controls, and cars that put down the road with their own exhaust sound.

 

I pay for it, and I live in one of the more habitable regions of the planet.
I might roll the dice if I were single - but I like to provide for this small security for my family.

Ah....who doesn't?

Maybe this is why people our age are so enamored with antiques cars and all motorcycles.

 

For those states with a property value tax component to registration fees.

 

One other thing that makes me wonder why I'm paying for it is that the last time someone in my family used AAA towing, they didn't show up until 3 days later. We had to go pick up my brother 55 miles away and bring him back home so he didn't freeze to death, then take him back the day AAA finally said they had a tow truck.

 

That happened to me when an early cold snap gelled the diesel in my TDI.

 

I guess I'm a lot like you then. Not only do I still pay for AAA tow and road-side assistance, but I also have satellite text capability, satellite internet in the car, ham and GMRS radios, HF, VHF and UHF with text and email over radio capability, and carry around a set of tools, a tire repair kit, a few extra car parts, tire chains, tow strap, beacon lights, and a spare tire. My wife also has extra winter clothes, blankets and food and water in the car for all of us.

 

Wait a minute! You're my brother!?

On a more serious note, I also would treat my diesel fuel with a winter additive if I wasn't sure it was winterized. Last week I went around and helped dump bottles of Schaefer's in the company trucks' fuel tanks.

 

We got picked up by the side of the road by a nephew.

 

I'd never go back to my Gen 3 since getting a Gen 5.

 

AAA (Like USAA) ain't what it used to be....but it's still cheap enough to be better than nothing.
I drive a lot in my job and in the last three years, I've used it twice for my company cars, and I still make enough sojourns to the home sod for this coverage to be worth the price.

I need to get better at VHF/UHF.....but yeah.
Being able to snap out an email or a text with an HF on the road set is pretty cool, if not quite as convenient as a cellular text.
I'm still driving a refurbished iPhone 13 for home and a 13 pro for work but I'm thinking that my beloved company will upgrade me to a direct-to-sat capable model and I will get to play with it.
I'm east of the Rockies so the SHTF stuff in the car is a little different.
I still have 'stuff and things' but breakdowns are more of an inconvenience here since the weather doesn't try to kill me here quite as often.
Three-digit heat and humidity only makes it SEEM like you're going to die.

I make my humble living fixing phones and TRUST ME, there are times in all places, and places all the time where you will get 'zero bars' even with a working and fully charged hand set, and don't even get me started on 911.....

 

When I first saw that on the new Camry I thought it was a loose piece of weatherstripping. I still see them in traffic and the eye is immediately drawn to that black stripe.

 

That's so you might see them before you run over them.

My 83 year old mom drives a Camry, and she loves it.
I let her drive me around town last time I was there both to assess her driving ability and because a Camry is easier to park than a full sized truck.
Me?
Every time I get in and out of the thing I'm reminded of.....

 

Increasingly rare gen3 spotted in the wild...

With Custom Fish Designator