I’ll be curious to see how this plays out. A friend had a motorcycle stolen earlier this year in Prince George’s County, MD - which borders Washington DC. As it turns out, he did have an AirTag on the bike, and the AirTag showed up (and stopped moving) about 20 miles from my friend’s house, still in PG County. The…

I gave stick-shift lessons to all three of my kids - but only one of my 20-somethings decided to enjoy it. He started out with my ‘00 Subaru Legacy stick wagon - but we decided he needed something else when heading out of town for school. It turns out that a neighbor was selling an ‘06 Honda Element AWD 5-speed, so…

In my experience - and my area - the price for older used cars (think 15-ish years old or more) has mostly returned to pre-COVID levels. I had anticipated that this effect would filter up to newer used cars - but it appears that this may not be the case, or at least not yet. With a busy family (that includes 3 young…

We decided against a pickup - because two row seating is a hassle with three kids after a few thousand miles. The Suburban 2500 has done well for us - but, IIRC, GM dropped the 2500 after the 2013 model year (well, I hear it still exists, but only for the security/armored aftermarket).

My one frustration with the current Suburban: The Suburban 2500 is no more. The 2500 offered far more payload capacity (my ‘05 Suburban 2500 has a payload capacity of just over 2500 pounds; the current Suburban 1500 is limited to somewhere around 1700 pounds). My problem: A family of 5 and a family-sized camping…

Another vote for the surprising snow capabilities of the Ford Contour - if it has one important feature. My otherwise lowly ‘95 Contour GL managed to get the very decent 2.5l Duratec - and traction control. The traction control on the Contour remains one of the best I’ve ever driven. It was very well adapted for snow,…

For alkaline batteries, my county now says “Since 1996, these everyday batteries no longer contain the heavy metals that were considered hazardous to the environment and can be disposed in your household trash. Some retail take-back programs may exist for those who wish to recycle these batteries.”

I’d love to see a manual in the AWD versions of the Vibe/Matrix twins. Yes, you can find a stick in the FWD forms of these cars, but AWD and three pedals would make these small, practical wagons an ideal kid-out-of-town-for-school-in-snow-country vehicle.

Here in the US, I believe the Fiesta got the PowerShift for model years 2011-2016 and the Focus got it for 2012-2016. The manual-equipped versions appear to do well, though I’ve heard of people finding good deals on used examples because the reputation of the PowerShift tended to also depress the value of the stick…

True - but they didn’t. It would have helped if they actually had a solution to fix what ended up being a poor design - but that didn’t happen.

The Fiesta’s return to the US might be gone better were it not for the infamous PowerShift transmission. A friend in need of cheap, practical transportation ended up with one - and I didn’t steer here away from it, because I wasn’t then aware of the weaknesses of the dual dry clutch system. She’s now a happy Subaru…

No, there is not!

Plus I’ve found that Camry examples from that era, at some point in their life, often seemed to have been owned by someone who decided “It’s a Toyota. I don’t have to maintain it at all.” Even a Camry will have problems at 15-20 years of age without regular service. Meanwhile, Avalon drivers seem to keep taking care…

For those on a tighter budget than the options in Tom’s charts: My family (which includes three young drivers with work and school obligations) fleet currently numbers five vehicles. I’ve discovered that early 2000's Toyota Avalons are a good option for young drivers. The original owners of these cars generally took…

“The Chevy Bolt has entered the room.”

Several items in the list are fixed mostly by selecting the correct options. I grew up with both a Tempo and an Escort (each was a mid to late 80's or so example) that were pretty decent for the era - but both were stick shifts. Later on, I drove an early production Tempo with the automatic - and it was simply awful,…

This Ranger managed to escape the recall for all these years? Sad: In the post-accident photo, it looks like the pickup is likely still drivable. The lawnmower in the bed appears to be ready for its next cutting job. Very sad...

I did a fair amount water damage repair on a popup camper roof some years ago. It looked far better than this roof does - and I was still surprised at how much rot I found once I tore it apart. I fear that a new owner will discover that the entire roof structure is nearly gone - and rebuilding this from scratch is a…

The price is just a bit high - but well within reasonable negotiating range. I vote NP! I am noticing - in my area - that the era of overpriced used cars is rapidly coming to an end. I closely watch the $5K-ish car market (with three young drivers in the household, that’s the price range I inhabit). There was a period…

Yup, the closing paragraph also shows up earlier in the piece.