My current car is old. I had a lot of repairs done on it recently. If I get a new car, I don’t want features. Lane assist, backup camera, DUI Camera, telemetry, auto breaking or other frankly silly features. Call me grumpy, but I find modern cars very distracting.
Can I ask a dealership to disable these at purchase? Is there a car that works best for being private besides just older cars?
I drive very little in a year. No, I can’t ride a bike.
I have disabled all kinds of telemetry and radio on many different kinds of cars.
You cannot buy a new car without it.
Your best bet if you’re concerned is to buy an 0s model. Contrary to popular belief, this all became inescapable a little over ten years ago. 0s models with systems like onstar are still acceptable because the 2g cell networks they use to operate simply don’t exist and the system itself was relatively easy to disable and we’ll documented in cases where it’s not easy.
Reply with your needs and habits and I’ll point you at the right model.
You are awesome. I drive about 5000 miles a year. I’m tall. Not sure if a Miata would work. I want something reliable and fixable. I had an older car (late 80s) that always broke and it was hard to find parts. I live in an area that gets snow. I also dislike leather interiors.
Xv 20,30, and the first half of 40 Camrys were made in a plant in Alabama instead of Japan and have factory body coating that helps them resist the salt.
The corollas are good too, but you lose headroom and a lot of other comfort features.
The domestic production is a huge plus because jdm vehicles are basically all built for the big ten year inspection that country requires by law; which is designed to fail cars and get them off the road to juice consumption. Export vehicles built in the same places as jdm tend to have “it wasn’t meant to be around that long” problems. Nissans are famous for this. Perfect beautiful car for exactly 12 years.
You probably don’t need a 4wd/awd. If you live down a dirt road (below the highway, as in you travel downhill on a dirt road to get home) or literally don’t know how to drive then you may need that feature.
Another fantastic option, classic car guy recommendation, first or second gen Honda fit. Roomy, reliable, performant. More spartan than a Camry, but they’re all hatchbacks. They’re getting expensiver now that people have caught on.
Small trucks: mid 90s to about 2012 tacomas and manual transmission 4cyl rangers unless you’re willing to put the work in to really know exactly which v6 you have because ford sold one that was basically perfect alongside one from the 70s that had three timing chains.
Full size pickups or suvs: gmt-800 up through the cateyes. The dodges are all falling apart from abuse and that time period was fords wandering in the wilderness years when it comes to the f150. You can’t afford the Toyotas.
Since you don’t drive much, make sure to tell your mechanic and actually get your oil changed at that 6 month mark instead of waiting the whole year.
E: Camrys come out of Kentucky, not Alabama.
I was eyeing up the fit. Those things have a deceptive amount of storage space. Thank you for the recommendations!
I just had a similar conversation recently… Looks like 3G is also dead, at least in US, so some cars from 2010s also can’t connect to the network anymore. However, depending on make and model, this “problem” may have been mitigated during a routine dealership service by upgrading hardware or software… Maybe it’s worth researching which models never got the “fix”