Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

au1994 · December 1

The X1 threw the "Engine temperature high. Drive moderately to cool engine" error message Saturday night. Apparently he has not had heat for some period of time either. Nursed it to the shop yesterday so I sit in wait and see mode. Hoping for a thermostat and not a water pump.

tjc78 · December 1

Uh oh...

tjc78 · December 1

And yes... my truck is dirty. I'm ashamed of how it looks right now.

au1994 · December 1

Did some reading and it may be that its best just to replace both water pump and thermostat regardless of what the culprit is. One of those 'while you are in there' jobs. It has 84k on it and if it wasn't a BMW I'd say that's premature for a water pump to fail.

jmonroe1 · December 1

@Michaell said:

@nyccarguy said:

@Michaell said:
OK, cool. I've been looking at used (non-CPO) BMWs as well, just for kicks.

Found a nice 2015 M235i with RWD and a stick shift - 51,000 miles for about $24K. Would work for all but about a month or so of the year, and I'd have the Outback to use on those days. Still can't convince myself that a 3rd car is necessary in our household.

I like that body style M235i/M240i. You know it’s got performance chops because @roadburner had one. How’s the CarFax look? Like it enough to have a PPI done on it? A RWD BMW with a stick coming up on 11 years old might be something to get a good deal done before 12/31!

Three owners, one bit of minor damage to the rear of the car.

320 HP. White over black.

——————————————————
With minor damage to the rear of the car, one of the previous owners must not have been going too fast in reverse.

jmonroe

nyccarguy · December 1

anonymousposts2025 said:
We may do a bit of shuffling in our driveway.

Present day, we have the 25 Equinox EV. It’s a lease, it’s going back, buying it won’t happen. We have about a year left. Then there’s the 25 Si. We don’t drive it a ton. It has 8,000 miles and we’ve had it a year. There’s the 2014 Odyssey. 150k. No issues. It’s safe.

Option 1: Sell the Civic, pay about $10k to change to a 25 RAV4 Hybrid before the change to the new 2026 design.

Option 2: Keep everything we have and lease a cheap Prius, Camry Hybrid, etc.

Option 3: Keep everything we have and find a used 2015-ish Prius or RAV4.

We have kid # 2 that will have his permit early next year. Goal is to get a car he can learn in that we can use too. I’m driving more for work and the Civic isn’t ideal, which means we are using the van more than we’d like.

Keep everything we have and lease a cheap ~~Prius~~, Camry Hybrid, etc

We are in very similar situations. My son is scheduled to take his road test tomorrow morning at 7:15. Over the summer, I was looking at a Camry AWD and a Prius AWD. I sat in the Prius and noticed the terrible blind spots. Made a right turn out of the exit to the dealership, then made the next right turn to turn back in. We ended up leasing a 2025 Camry SE AWD. We are very happy with the car. My wife, my 19 year old son, & my 16 year old son all seem to like it. It is a very comfortable car to drive. Acceleration isn't mind blowing, but it has zero trouble merging or passing. We have been averaging 38-42 mpg. Most fill ups take less than 10 gallons of gas and net us over 400 miles to a tank. An LE FWD (you are in SoCal, if I remember correctly) will net you better fuel economy due to the smaller wheel & tire combo as well as FWD. The cloth seats in the LE seem on the cheap side. I'd buy or lease another one in a heartbeat.

suydam · December 1

The Prius seems like a penalty box to me.
RAV4. Is nice but pricey compared to the Hyundai or Kia equivalents, and cheaper interior to boot. But they sell a ton of them!

stickguy · December 1

If I wanted the economy but not something as large as a Camry, I would go for a Corolla before a Prius.

corvette · December 1

The current Prius has really improved in terms of performance, the second gen up until the current used to be ten second 0-60 cars (but they'd get 40+ MPG even with regular full throttle starts). I've only sat in the current one and didn't notice the visibility issues, but the instrument cluster and tilt steering wheel positioning did not agree with my preferred seating position. I had the same issue in the bZ4X/Solterra, which appeared to use similar hardware.

Michaell · December 1

stickguy said:
If I wanted the economy but not something as large as a Camry, I would go for a Corolla before a Prius.

Corolla Cross would be a nice compromise, size wise.

jmonroe1 · December 1

Grandson #1 (23 years old), just bought a new 2026 Corolla FX Edition in bluish/purple over black suede with white rims. He’s going to have a good time keeping those rims clean. That would not have been my choice but he thinks they’re “cool”.

jmonroe

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