I've been a fan of small cars my whole entire life. It started with the posters and pictures of supercars as a kid. It got much worse when I got my drivers permit and had to learn to drive with my dads full size conversion hippy van. Bought my own cars for years, then my grandfather passed and left me his 80's Cadillac. Not quite as bad as a fullsize van, but close. Kept it long enough not to offend family, then got rid of that boat. Drove cars from the on. One day my car broke, and my parents were wintering in Florida so I borrowed my dads extended mega sided crew cab whatever F-150 (without really asking him if I could.) just for a day while mine was in the shop. Of course I rolled it over (twice) that night. Walked away fine, but promised myself I was only driving cars from then on.
So when all 3 of my kids continued to grow despite me telling them to stop so we could stay in a small car, something had to change. Plus somebody let the kids have a dog.
I started looking at the 3 row SUV's. But those Body on frame types instantly were off my list. So was anything else that felt more trucklike rather than car like. And then I got rid of anything too slow to get out of its own way. Left me with about 8 different vehicles to look at. I hate the deprecation of new vehicles, so I wanted 2-3 years old, which left me with the old adage; "never get stuck with a German car out of warranty. " So that cut down my options even more. After some test drives i pretty much had it down to the 14-15 QX70. But while looking for the right used one of such a low volume vehicle I actually ran across a 2009 FX50 S that was just too good to pass up.
So 1000 miles into my first SUV and I can't stop smiling. I've insisted on taking all my friends for rides. I'm not too over possessive of it yet, so I make all of them drive it. And then I make all of them floor it. I'm getting like 12 miles a gallon right now, but my smiles per gallon is at least triple that.
To do list:
1. Get rid of that God awful rear antenna. I see a bunch of those sharkfin ones online, but not sure which one works best with this car. All look slightly different, but I only see a picture of them lying on a table, not the bigger picture onacwhole car.
2. Fix previous owners stupidity. He put those stupid window rim drip protector things on all windows and the sunroof, and used 3M or something high quality. Those are coming off the first warm weekend.
3. Fix previous owners bad driving. When i saw the amount of road rash on all 4 wheel i almost cried. After driving this beast for 4-5 days now I kind of understand. Not the greatest visibility. But I don't know if i buy new 21 inch rims and i run snow tires on the old 21's, fix these and get them blacked or powder coated or just plasti dipped?
4. Find a better music solution. My android phone Bluetooth connects to the nav/music/hvac thingy, but only for phone not streaming music. I understand that is how it is, I thought it was a me only problem. I'm running aux out of my phone to an RCA splitter thingy that cost me $15. That gives great sound quality, but I can't control skipping songs and stuff through the dash or steering wheel. So I can't hide the phone, so I can't hide the aux, RCA, and just charging cord. Ideally I would find a wireless charging solution that bluetoothed to the car. Un-ideally I would at least like to hide the cords and hopefully use steering wheel controls.
5. Get new wheels in the smallest/cheapest size I can fit over these monster breaks, and Get some good snow tires. I live in Michigan, so all seasons just don't cut it. But I don't want to drop all the coin at the last couple weeks of winter. Hopefully I can catch a deal this summer. Pretty sure I don't want 21 inch lowish profile snow tires though. Unless I can't fix the old wheels.
So when all 3 of my kids continued to grow despite me telling them to stop so we could stay in a small car, something had to change. Plus somebody let the kids have a dog.
I started looking at the 3 row SUV's. But those Body on frame types instantly were off my list. So was anything else that felt more trucklike rather than car like. And then I got rid of anything too slow to get out of its own way. Left me with about 8 different vehicles to look at. I hate the deprecation of new vehicles, so I wanted 2-3 years old, which left me with the old adage; "never get stuck with a German car out of warranty. " So that cut down my options even more. After some test drives i pretty much had it down to the 14-15 QX70. But while looking for the right used one of such a low volume vehicle I actually ran across a 2009 FX50 S that was just too good to pass up.
So 1000 miles into my first SUV and I can't stop smiling. I've insisted on taking all my friends for rides. I'm not too over possessive of it yet, so I make all of them drive it. And then I make all of them floor it. I'm getting like 12 miles a gallon right now, but my smiles per gallon is at least triple that.
To do list:
1. Get rid of that God awful rear antenna. I see a bunch of those sharkfin ones online, but not sure which one works best with this car. All look slightly different, but I only see a picture of them lying on a table, not the bigger picture onacwhole car.
2. Fix previous owners stupidity. He put those stupid window rim drip protector things on all windows and the sunroof, and used 3M or something high quality. Those are coming off the first warm weekend.
3. Fix previous owners bad driving. When i saw the amount of road rash on all 4 wheel i almost cried. After driving this beast for 4-5 days now I kind of understand. Not the greatest visibility. But I don't know if i buy new 21 inch rims and i run snow tires on the old 21's, fix these and get them blacked or powder coated or just plasti dipped?
4. Find a better music solution. My android phone Bluetooth connects to the nav/music/hvac thingy, but only for phone not streaming music. I understand that is how it is, I thought it was a me only problem. I'm running aux out of my phone to an RCA splitter thingy that cost me $15. That gives great sound quality, but I can't control skipping songs and stuff through the dash or steering wheel. So I can't hide the phone, so I can't hide the aux, RCA, and just charging cord. Ideally I would find a wireless charging solution that bluetoothed to the car. Un-ideally I would at least like to hide the cords and hopefully use steering wheel controls.
5. Get new wheels in the smallest/cheapest size I can fit over these monster breaks, and Get some good snow tires. I live in Michigan, so all seasons just don't cut it. But I don't want to drop all the coin at the last couple weeks of winter. Hopefully I can catch a deal this summer. Pretty sure I don't want 21 inch lowish profile snow tires though. Unless I can't fix the old wheels.
