Recommendations for ≤$25k commuter car with autopilot like features?

[Sparky]

ooooof. I spent more on repairs just this morning. My WRX has reached the age where I have to start battling rust in earnest - mostly on the hitch and winter wheels. The rock chips alone are going to set me back 1-2k since the windshield has to be removed (top lip of roof is in rough shape).



Tell no one, but I totally get it. I might just follow in your footsteps.

Zero rust on my car. Mostly plastic The $12 bucks was a battery terminal and a headlight bulb

[Tinybear]

I have a Tacoma as my personal cage. Its not fancy and has zero auto drive stuff. But it’s been epic my reliable despite being USED (pulled many transport trucks into the shop in snow when I ran the local IC dealer a few years back. Has dragged many a school bus out that was stuck. Has towed my bikes and atvs all over and across the country. Was the family hauler for some time and has seen a few trails in itself. and the only thing I have done was a break job tires and oil changes.

id rather have fewer options and have more reliability any day.

Same as my current daily driver (when I can’t take my motorcycle) I have a older matrix. (My mother’s old car but she can’t currently drive due to health reasons). It’s an 06 I think. And I maintained it since day one. Oil changes, breaks, exhaust, battery and terminals, and the intake manifold gasket failed (I changed that myself while in a wheelchair I might add). Needs a serpentine belt now and exhaust is getting ruff again. Some rust showing now but that car still drives like new.

[Macdave06]

Keep in mind that most economy cars made in the last 8-10 years use cvt transmissions. And before that they didn't have all the gadgets you're looking for. The one I know that doesn't use CVTs is Mazda. Maybe a mazda 3 or cx3/30?

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[JonM]

I know a lot of people hate CVT’s, but I’ve never had any trouble with them. I’ve owned several over the years with close to 200k on them.

[shadow191]

what was the car with "smart park"?

Several cars have it. My Volvo has it too and in almost 4 years of ownership, I've never used it once. When I first got it, I was excited to try it but it took so long to line up before car would take over that I just parked it myself. There are 2 modes, one for parking spaces and one for parallel. Both require you to wait until car acquires spot, then feather brake while car moves into spot. But it takes time so it's pretty pointless if you're in a crowded parking lot or crowded city street since you have to sit there and let it work. Cars behind you will be annoyed. If it's not crowded and not a tight spot, then it's still quicker to park yourself. Also, it won't go into really tight spots so what's the point?

I will say that having a 360 camera paired with parking sensors is a game changer for parallel parking. I can get a relatively large SUV into just about any spot first try with the camera since I can see exactly how far away I am from cars and curb.

[BrickHaus]

You must hav an XC? My buddies wife had one for a hit, and that birds eye back up camera was totally a game changer!

[shadow191]

Yeah, 2017 XC90. Having the birds eye and then the overlay of the lines from parking sensors is amazing. Largest car I've owned and was worried when I first got it but the cameras makes it easier to park than even my 2dr. BMW I had prior.

[rawbutter]

Both my wife's commuter car and my SUV got totaled in the fall, so I've been doing a LOT of test drives over the last few months. The worst part is that we were totally Saturn people. She had a 2008 Astra, and I had a 2003 Vue. If Saturn was still around, we would have bought that just to keep it simple (and they were good cars), but since Saturn has been gone for 12 years now, we didn't know where to start. So, we ended up test-driving Hondas, Toyotas, Subarus, Mazdas, Volkswagens...you name it.

And honestly, that's what you should do. You can listen to our advice and watch a bunch of videos on YouTube, but none of that compares to actually getting in the car and feeling how it drives. Maybe narrow down the choice a little bit based on the factors you think are more important, but in the end you really should drive more than one car. I totally thought that my wife was going to buy a Civic, but at the end of the day she liked the Jetta a lot better. (And we found a great deal, so that helped.)

As for the lane assist thing, each car felt a little different. I think I liked the Civic best, but all of them were fine except for the Hyundai, which was too temperamental for my taste. It couldn't seem to make up its mind and kept swaying back and forth in the lane. But like everyone else has said, I would never trust one of those systems to drive for me. They're just not there yet. And actually, I really found them somewhat annoying because I had to turn them on and off all the time. On the highway they were nice, but I would have to turn it off as soon as I got off the highway and onto the country roads around my house. The smaller roads are much more narrow and windy, and staying perfectly in the center is harder, so the lane assist would be constantly making little adjustments. Almost made me carsick once. If you do a LOT of commuting and trips, maybe you'd love it, but otherwise it might just get annoying.

Adaptive cruise control, on the other hand, was something that I really liked. I didn't test that feature on every car I drove, but a bunch of them are really cool. If you're driving along and set it for 50 or 75 or whatever the speed limit is around you, it will slow down automatically if traffic is bad, and then it will speed up again to whatever you set it for once the road is open again. You still can't take your hands off the wheel, but if you only have to worry about steering, that's half of the stress of driving gone.

If you like Subarus, check out the Impreza. I really liked the one I test drove. I just couldn't find one in red, for some reason. That was a deal-breaker for me. 😆 And if you like working on your own car, stay away from new Hyundais. (Used are fine.) Their million mile warranty sounds awesome, but if you don't do all your service and maintenance at the dealership, they can void that warranty.

[sniper97]

Pay for 1 month of online consumer reports. Pick which car ranks the best, then test drive. Camry will be a top choice. They seem to run forever. Top pick by taxicab companies. I picked up a 2014 Acura TL last Summer, love it! My 1st V6. I test drove Camry's, not to be snobbish, they seem too plain. My mechanic says the piston rings, 2014 and later are too small, you really have to keep up on oil changes.

[Tarsun2]

haha (butter)

my brother had a saturn, my father had 2 saturns, and i had a saturn.
my brother used to keep hoods in the garage for when he hit a deer. (he would pick one up every time he went to the junk yard)
it was totaled twice, bought back and repaired... supper easy to fix.

mine went through 4 clutches, 2 transmissions, and 2 engines. i blew up the SOHC and replaced it with the DOCH SC2 engine.

the matrix isnt a bad car either. the 2azfe (2.4L) is a good engine. its great for the matrix. but when it was dropped in the scion TC, kids rev'd the piss out of it and toasted the engines.
its a low reving, high torque engine. drive it accordingly and it will last a long time. Had some cool features too like an off center crank and a few other little goodies.

[rawbutter]

Saturns were really great cars. Well, the engines were great. The Astra had 175k on it when it was totaled, and we had literally done no major repairs to it. I think the most expensive thing we ever had to do was replace the AC compressor. Everything else was just oil changes and new tires. Same thing with the Vue. It had 160k when it was totaled, and the engine was still going strong.

Not to say the cars weren't worry free. They always seemed to have something little going wrong. The Vue had a bad habit of warping rotors. The wiring harness for the back driver's side door on the Astra went bad. The hood release handle for the Vue broke off, and a bunch of the lights on the dash and console burned out pretty quick. The Astra had a panoramic sunroof (really ahead of its time), and we had to clean out the drains every year or else it would leak on your leg.

But like I said, all that was little stuff, and we have a really good local mechanic who knew how to work on them. So I'm gonna miss them. We ended up replacing them with a VW Jetta and Tiguan, and while they're definitely more fun to drive, I'll be amazed if the engine lasts as long.

[Jonnydread]

Saturns!!! Man I miss my old shitty SC1. Absolutely awful to drive, but it always got me there.

Tarsun2 you are totally right about the 2azfe. My aunty drives one of the later model Matrices and it's been a great car for her, but she doesn't drive like a 16 year old. My Camry is the first car I've owned that was automatic and I really do miss driving standard, but good friggin' luck finding a MT Camry in the USA.

[cellophane]

I'm a VW fan, but I can say that the Hyundai are surprisingly nice cars. I had to travel every month for work a few years ago and it was easier & cheaper to get a rental than to fly, and out of all the cars I drove the Hyundai was hands down the best one. It was very comfortable on a 6+ hour trip, the controls on the steering wheel made sense- even for controlling the radio (so many of these wheel control radios have more menus than a DOS Shell), and I'm pretty sure they are FWD.

I am a curmudgeon though and don't like all the computer touch-screen stuff in cars. I can operate every system in my '02 Jetta without ever looking down at anything because it is all physical knobs with some sort of haptic feedback (i.e. knob click.)

[Jonnydread]

In spirit I agree with you, I prefer knobs and dials. I've found that use of ease with computer interfaces vary greatly across brands. I don't mind the screen controls on my Camry, but I hate them on my wife's Subaru. It'd be nice if they were an option, but most new(er) cars have the computer screen from the bottom-up.

[Siress]

The last thing I want is a computer that ages with the car... We really need to standardize a tablet interface for the center dash that handles all computation/touch-screen controls.

[cellophane]

never-mind all of the right to repair issues that exist with these computer systems...

[Aperture3D]

My girlfriend is currently leasing a Toyota Corrolla Hatchback XSE. Color me impressed, the ride and cabin noise levels are Lexus quality. The physical 1st gear in the CVT makes it enjoyable and zippy in city driving. The price and size is right in your ballpark, it will definitely feel more refined/less sporty than the WRX.

Test drive one for sure!

[Jonnydread]

I test drove a 2020 Corolla and it was very nice, way more upscale feeling than Corollas used to be.

[Siress]

Oh, now this is interesting. I drove my grandmother's hand-me-down corolla throughout college. Loved that thing... '95 MY I think. Champaign with gold package... never got pulled over in that thing, haha.

[Tarsun2]

had an 05(?) rav 4 with 330,000 miles on it. inspection was past due for years.... never got pulled over in it. it just kind of blended into the crowd. something to be said for that. "street cred" and standing out from the pack is a losing battle. from highschool to now, my interests have tilted to being inconspicuous in my daily commute. lol (started driving around the release of the 1st fast n' furious. so yeah, my car had Street Glo neons inside and out. lol)

[Dragunov151]

Just picked up a 21 civic and traded in my ridgeline.The price of gas is starting to get crazy so shifted to a civic.I was looking into the Toyota hybrids but I’m hearing parts are super expensive when something goes out.I was watching videos on YouTube that you have to wear high voltage gloves to work on them and there’s a sequencers you gotta do to turn the electric off.One of my mechanic friends told me you save in the beginning and pay dearly when you have to fix them.Does anyone have one and is this true on hybrids?

[Jordan]

Just picked up a 21 civic and traded in my ridgeline.The price of gas is starting to get crazy so shifted to a civic.I was looking into the Toyota hybrids but I’m hearing parts are super expensive when something goes out.I was watching videos on YouTube that you have to wear high voltage gloves to work on them and there’s a sequencers you gotta do to turn the electric off.One of my mechanic friends told me you save in the beginning and pay dearly when you have to fix them.Does anyone have one and is this true on hybrids?

Hybrid Toyotas are quite reliable but the electric portion of the drive train can be expensive to repair. High voltage batteries, in particular, are costly... last one i changed in an older Camry was about $5k CDN.

Should you wear protective gear to work on the high voltage side? Yes, but if you know what you're doing, you'll be ok without them. Yes, there's a couple things you need to do to isolate the HV side from the rest of the car.

No, shade tree mechanics should not work on those cars.

[Dragunov151]

Hey thanks Jordan for answering my question.Wow that’s crazy for a battery.

[Siress]

No, shade tree mechanics should not work on those cars.

Eh... Same has been said of any and all kinds of systems since day one. People can adapt to new dangers and techniques with a little study. Don't forget that some have been building their own solar arrays and battery grids. And some of those people are mechanics.

exhibit A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3RCdrh666w