This Is Why You Still Love Your Car

I love my 2WD regular-cab, 5-speed, crank-window GMC pickup. It’s so nice to be able to haul stuff while rowing my own gears. It’s what owning a truck should feel like. It has a low bed height so it’s easy to lift the lawnmower up into, and the bed is slightly over 6 feet long, so I can fit a set of ramps in it during the winter for loading and unloading the snowblower.

Nowadays, it’s irreplaceable. You can no longer buy a 2-door truck with hand-crank windows and a manual transmission. I also love my El Camino. You cannot buy anything like them anymore, either.

But I also love our ‘new’ vehicle, our 2024 Trax LS. It’s a great little retirement road-trip wagon. Even though it’s a 4-door and has a 6-speed automatic, it’s pretty fun to drive.

Suggested by Anonymous Person

That sounds like a pretty perfect trio of cars. What can’t they do?

reliable, durable, cheap to run and insure and most important is I’m poor

Suggested by Derry

Great features to have in a car even if you aren’t poor. 

What I universally like about any of my cars? Any combination of the following:

It’s paid off

It’s cheap to run

It’s cheap to insure

It’s reliable

Suggested by Frank C. 

No monthly payment is a great reason to love your car. Even an otherwise lackluster car can be worthy of love if it’s reliable and cheap. 

(Audi S3) Trouble free for the past 11 years! I also like its color and interior design. And no rattles.

Suggested by Luc Desaulniers (minardi)

I have been pleasantly surprised how solid my Audi has been over the last 40,000 miles or so. They kind of found the sweet spot with that era of cars.

2008 Honda Fit Sport. I love it because it’s basic. Manual transmission, my controls are actual, true, 100% real physical buttons. I use a lever to adjust my seat. No annoying bings and bongs to tell me that I’ve left something in the cup holder. Best of all, NO FREAKING TOUCHSCREEN!

Suggested by Turk

Honda tried to tell us, but so few of us ever actually listened. The Fit, as they say, is go. 

In 2019, my life imploded while I was also switching to a new career. Hadn’t landed a steady job yet, went through a nasty breakup, moved in with friends, racked up 5 figures in credit card debt just trying to make it all happen.

After paying off my debt, moving into my own place, and landing my dream job, I bought a 2021 Mazda3. It’s not fancy or anything truly special, but it’s a reminder that hard things aren’t impossible.

Suggested by Scoobie2

It’s rare for such a practical car to have such incredible design language. Mazda really knocked it out of the park with that one. 

The Civic Si is all about fun and cost of ownership. It’s approaching 100,000 miles, and has had little maintenance other than brake components and fluids. Everything 100% still works and it drives just like when I bought it with 40,000 miles, and gets 35 mpg highway (with 91 octane required, unfortunately). It has technology, but nothing intrusive. There is a mileage penalty compared to more modern versions of the Si with turbos, but the K24 is perfection for a car this size. Replacement is inevitable because every car has an expiration date when used on salty roads. For whatever reason, I can’t attach a photo. It’s a 2014 red 4-door.

Suggested by Pinkerton9

A K24 and a stick are pretty great reasons to fall in love with anything. Having them hang around for six-figure odometer readings and cheap maintenance procedures are even better reasons. Keep hold of that one, you’ll be loving it for a whole lot longer.