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One thing I feel like we discuss rarely here is cars.
I drive a late 90s/early 00s German sedan. When I made less money, I spent a good amount of time wrenching on it. I wanted to have some minimal competence and understanding of the car, and it was a great way to save money.
It still would be a great way to save money - I won't kid myself there - but the stress of preparing for a maintenance job, buying the specialized tools/parts, and working in my extremely cramped garage has lost some magic. I still feel accomplished doing little things but when I'm constantly under pressure to be doing work or parenting, there's less magic in DIY. Bike maintenance provides a similar dopamine hit with far less commitment.
That said, I just picked it up from the mechanic this week after a month-long absence and some significant work being done. I truly do not understand how people put up with newer cars.
This thing is absolutely sublime. It strikes a perfect balance between the precision and feedback from all of its systems while driving and what you'd define as "luxury" and comfort. I splurged on an aftermarket exhaust that fades into the background on the highway and absolutely rips when I'm driving like I stole it late at night on more empty roads.
Not to mention how it looks. Of course, any car you see as a teenager is what you base everything else on, but the slightly angular design language of this period right before everything turned into aero blobs for fuel efficiency and crash standards just really gets me going. I absolutely still look back at it when walking into the office and find myself getting excited when I step back into it after a long day.
Whenever I'm on the road watching hundreds of drones driving dirty shitboxes without using their turn signals or trying to drive efficiently, I fall into such a superiority complex. How could you care so little about something you do so much? For a country supposedly in love with its cars, it would be tough for Americans to give less of a shit about how driving feels and how they perform at it. For all I'm made fun of about the time and money I've invested in an older car, when I spread that out over the time I've used it and the joy I derive from it it seems like an obvious trade.
I don't drive much (about 5K miles per year) and don't care much when I do drive. I bought thoroughly mediocre Scion tC (basically this model) ten years ago, it serves me well, and I have pretty much zero interest in replacing it anytime soon. In the post-Covid era, I think I've probably put more miles on it from the occasional roadtrip than anything local. Thanks to the inflation in the used car market, the private party value of it is ~65% of what I paid for it new, so even considering replacing it makes no sense to me.
Notably, I actually really enjoy cars and car history. I grew up really loving them, but by the time I had enough money to buy anything particularly interesting, I had grown out of the phase of my life where I cared much about what I personally owned. I'm a lot more interested in having a sweet bike and fresh racing shoes than I am in what I drive. No matter what I drive, the vast majority of my driving is going to be smashing the cruise control button at 77 MPH on the highway and bullshitting with my wife until we get where we're going.
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