life BS way too much driving; how much do I hate cars? So much.
Anyway, I returned the rental car which seemed to have reset the trip computer I had set when I rented it, so I am just guessing now at how many miles I drove. Last night it was already over 700 miles with 300+ to go before I made it back to the Bay Area; and with the additional errands today I think I probably drove another 250+ miles? So conservatively I probably drove around 1000 miles to maybe 1250ish miles [roughly 1600-2000km] since Tuesday. ;-/
I only ended up test driving two cars: the cheapest Porsche Cayenne diesel I could find for sale in the state. It has over 200,000 miles on it (asking price was a bit over $12,000 USD) but seemed to be in pretty good working order all things considered? The guy at the dealership speculated those cars could run 300,000 miles. I dunno! Maybe. I tend to drive so much that I would find out pretty quickly one way or another. No "warranty" per se, beyond a 5 day, 250 mile; which I would doubtlessly exhaust were I to buy it and drive back North.
I also drove basically the same car as I already owned (that was totaled) but a 2019 model in the "Premiere" trim, which had some additional bells and whistles which I guess were neat, but also leather: which I am not into as a vegan. But y'know, all the Porsche Cayenne diesels are leather. ;-/ I guess being a secondary buyer means I am not directly supporting such things? But I really prefer clothe seats anyway. Having written as much, I used the ODBII port and that model was also showing a PM Filter emission readiness sensor in an "INCOMPLETE" state, which means it would be a headache for SMOG most likely. I am wondering if any of those vehicles are OK? It's the only one for sale in California at the moment, but using auto site scraper/aggregator search things seems to have "Open Recall" listed on many of them, which makes me think back to the recall that was performed on mine in 2020, and only after that software update, did a slew of BS start to occur? I have my suspicions it's designed obsolescence and I seem to recall even reading something about a class action lawsuit against GM over it? But what can be done about anything like that? Big Auto is going to fuck everyone over on planet Earth and it sucks to be living somewhere with a shitty excuse for public transit.
I also saw but did not drive (they weren't really in driving condition) a bunch of JDM cars, I personally was particularly interested in a Toyota Century (1999, but also leather; which isn't my preference, even though wool would be nicer, still isn't really vegan). But having only seen such things from afar in online videos, it was neat to see one in person! Also saw a Toyota HiAce (basically a van, but has 4WD and diesel, not things offered in the USA market by Toyota) and some other nifty rarer JDM things. Though that person seems to import such things, but often sells them out of state. While they can be registered in California, apparently it's a lot more expensive and takes months; so most of his customers are in Arizona and Washington and such?
Another JDM place I had trekked down to SoCal in hopes of seeing (another diesel Toyota van) wasn't answering when I tried to call them.
So, it wasn't a total waste, but certainly nothing really promising as far as a replacement vehicle is concerned.
I only ended up test driving two cars: the cheapest Porsche Cayenne diesel I could find for sale in the state. It has over 200,000 miles on it (asking price was a bit over $12,000 USD) but seemed to be in pretty good working order all things considered? The guy at the dealership speculated those cars could run 300,000 miles. I dunno! Maybe. I tend to drive so much that I would find out pretty quickly one way or another. No "warranty" per se, beyond a 5 day, 250 mile; which I would doubtlessly exhaust were I to buy it and drive back North.
I also drove basically the same car as I already owned (that was totaled) but a 2019 model in the "Premiere" trim, which had some additional bells and whistles which I guess were neat, but also leather: which I am not into as a vegan. But y'know, all the Porsche Cayenne diesels are leather. ;-/ I guess being a secondary buyer means I am not directly supporting such things? But I really prefer clothe seats anyway. Having written as much, I used the ODBII port and that model was also showing a PM Filter emission readiness sensor in an "INCOMPLETE" state, which means it would be a headache for SMOG most likely. I am wondering if any of those vehicles are OK? It's the only one for sale in California at the moment, but using auto site scraper/aggregator search things seems to have "Open Recall" listed on many of them, which makes me think back to the recall that was performed on mine in 2020, and only after that software update, did a slew of BS start to occur? I have my suspicions it's designed obsolescence and I seem to recall even reading something about a class action lawsuit against GM over it? But what can be done about anything like that? Big Auto is going to fuck everyone over on planet Earth and it sucks to be living somewhere with a shitty excuse for public transit.
I also saw but did not drive (they weren't really in driving condition) a bunch of JDM cars, I personally was particularly interested in a Toyota Century (1999, but also leather; which isn't my preference, even though wool would be nicer, still isn't really vegan). But having only seen such things from afar in online videos, it was neat to see one in person! Also saw a Toyota HiAce (basically a van, but has 4WD and diesel, not things offered in the USA market by Toyota) and some other nifty rarer JDM things. Though that person seems to import such things, but often sells them out of state. While they can be registered in California, apparently it's a lot more expensive and takes months; so most of his customers are in Arizona and Washington and such?
Another JDM place I had trekked down to SoCal in hopes of seeing (another diesel Toyota van) wasn't answering when I tried to call them.
So, it wasn't a total waste, but certainly nothing really promising as far as a replacement vehicle is concerned.