Ask HN: What's Your Car?
I'm interested to know if there's a pattern in the cars purchased by the HN community (programmers, lawyers, C-suite people, etc.)
I'm interested to know if there's a pattern in the cars purchased by the HN community (programmers, lawyers, C-suite people, etc.)
I drive a 2016 Honda Fit Sport. My young adult son has a 1996 Buick Park Avenue for which the title is in my name so we can insure it at a reasonable rate. (I bought it for peanuts, he's put more money into that for repairs but the total expense is a fraction of what a new or recent used car would cost)
Notably my wife drops me off at the bus stop most mornings (lucky to have a bus in a rural area.) Also we've got 8 horses but no pickup truck because... If you need to haul something big you can pay somebody to do it for a fraction of the monthly payment on a big-ass truck. If we didn't have lots of trails on our property we might trailer riders somewhere else but as it is, we don't have to.
2022 Renault Megane e-Tech.
Had the required range (>400km listed), physical controls for important functions, snappy infotainment center with CarPlay and Android Auto, and it was small enough for our garage.
Has quite tight turning radius which is great in the city, and was a fair bit cheaper than the Kia Niro EV.
Quite pleased with it so far overall.
That’s cool, but instead you’ll learn what car owners are prone to respond to this type of question, not exactly what your question is aiming at.
Yup, I drive a Perodua Alza and I'd rather just avoid the question.
I'm not sure why exactly. I don't hate cars or anything. But it's like talking about crypto or English football. People don't talk about it for intellectual gratification. If I try to, I'll just end up disappointed.
Car owners and cyclists.
Tesla model y. I hate the idea of not owning my car* but it’s just so much fun to drive. I can’t never go back.
Kind of opened up my life too. I used to stay home a lot because I found driving boring and stressful but now I look for excuses to drive places. I’ve done a bunch of hikes 1-2 hours away. Go out to the gym, etc.
* I don’t like that they can change the software anytime they want without my permission, possibly shutdown my car, limit changes I can make to it, etc. I’d rather fully own it.
Between cars at the moment. My ID.4 was totaled in an accident on June 14th, and I'm waiting for an ID.Buzz to become available to purchase. I'm told it should be ready in the next couple of weeks.
2003 Crown Victoria Police Interceptor.
It’s got a sweet V8, it’s a ton of fun, and it’s pretty straightforward to work on. The last of the great American V8 sedans unless for some reason you’d want a Charger.
I've had 2 Audi TT mk1 over the years.
Love the design, easy to work on (not afraid of stripping the engine) and they're fun to drive. Plus it has a great commumity!
Still have loads of spare parts including the almost-unicor-status official roof bars :)
Platform/SRE/DevOps/etc by trade.
I work remotely. I drive a 8y old BMW 2 series (manual). Ran 230k KM (142k miles). Has been very good to us. Bought it outright for €11k 4 years ago.
I'll probably drive it into the ground because I drive like a maniac. A new car is wasted on me.
Con: I pay my ass of in taxes because its a diesel. Pro: I imported it for free.
I don't belong in HN crowd. I come here just out of habit. Back in the US I used to drive a 2014 Chevy Silverado. A hand-me-down from my late bf.
Software Engineer with a 2007 VW GTI, but I haven't driven it since 2020. I get by just fine walking, Uber, or transit for errands, etc.
A replacement would more likely be basic hybrid than luxury EV because I don't want the rapid obsolesce that comes with modern electronics.
2014 Renault Clio. It gets minimal use to be honest. Locally I mostly bike, going into the city is by train so it gets an outing every few weeks when I visit rural family
2022 Hyundai Kona N. It's fun while still being practical enough.
2002 Honda Accord. An immensely reliable car that is built to last, and is inexpensive to maintain.
2015 Subaru Forester w/ a manual transmission
SWE w/ just under four years of experience
Software Engineer, daily driving a 1988 Volvo 760.
The exhaust tastes funny on those models.
I don’t own a car; I rely on public transportation.
Audi A4 Sedan, 1.9 TDI, 1997. Mid SWE here.
2021 Model Y.
2020 Tesla Model S
Used to drive 3 series BMW manual transmissions before I had a kid ~6 years ago. Since then I've had a Tesla model 3.
It's pretty decent, though I wish it had better sound insulation. But cost of ownership has been extremely low, and it's shockingly reliable more so than any other car I've owned. I don't really buy into the whole FSD hype, but overall I think Tesla makes very decent cars for the money.
For instance, it doesn't handle as well as my previous BMWs, the materials aren't as nice, but it is nicer than the average economy car and it's extremely quick. It's also quite a bit more affordable than entry level BMWs.
I'm tempted to drive it into the ground or at least keep it another five years. If stock pops a bit more, I'd like to buy a 'fun' sunday car (used 911 perhaps?), we'll see.
Principal SWE. I drive a 2010 Toyota Camry. Another year and it will be old enough to drive itself ;-)
If you dropped the 'SWE' it works even better. "My car is going to graduate before you, Bueller!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qovk8_wIdn0
A 2024 Hyundai Kona. It was the cheapest car at around $25K that we could settle for.
After I started working remotely in 2020, I gave my car - a 2011 Chevy Sonic - to my adult son. Two years later when we decided to travel full time, we sold our other car - a 2011 Ford Fusion for peanuts to a friend of our sons because he needed a reliable car. Once we decided to make our nomadding seasonal, we got another car.
I absolutely hate spending money on cars. We have one car now.