My head has been turned.... I was looking at Mavericks, for my personal get around and towing toys in summer. For the 30mpg tow pig. The price in CDN has been climbing, somewhat inexplicably, because they are hecho in Mexico and CUSMA still in effect twixt hither and thither. Plus what is really annoying me, is that I want the gizmos if I am getting new (or newish). Fact is, I have infirmities and I'm getting older, I want the car to look after me if I get hit with a "bad day" after I've thought I was okay to go off somewhere. The annoyance is that while many other makes have ACC on base trims, or at least you can order it, the Maverick in Ford's infinite wisdom (Which sees fit to include it on low trims of Escape and Bronco) is not able to have ACC unless you go for the top, fake leatherised, cosplay cowboy Lariat. So wanting the good tow package, the AWD and the ACC on that in a hybrid, it's coming out just shy of 50,000 Canadian 🇨🇦 😮‍💨 oof and THEN the jerkwad dealers keep ordering them with moonroof donotwant, Black Appearance Package, donotwant, extra bed stuff and trimmings kinda not a dealbreaker if they throw it in but I can get pretty much anything for less than half what the Ford official price is.. LATER, don't want it jacking price now. Result, what I want is in $55k 🇨🇦 "cheap little trucks" aaaaargh.

I then just found out, the Hyundai Santa Fe BASE model in Canada, comes stuffed with all this forrrrrr $45k 🇨🇦 a 7 seater SUV with mpg only a hair worse than the AWD Maverick in the hybrid form. Reasonable towing, the back is relatively cavernous, it's not quite a Suburban or Expedition but it's big enough. It's like wow, anything I put in the 4.5ft bed has to get wet if it's longer than that, (assuming some kind of cover) whereas I can prolly get 6ft long stuff in here ... and it comes with a rack. So, I'd be up to 60k for some of that in a Maverick if I got the Ford official topper/shell/cap. Though about 3k more for aftermarket. As a bonus, it seems a little more soft road capable than the Lariat AWD, not as good as Tremor or FX4 trims probably on the Maverick, maybe halfway to those, which you can't get as hybrid, but a middling amount more offroad capable than Lariat AWD. I kinda like the look too, kinda halfway between a Bronco and a Classic Range Rover, with maybe a bit of Discovery round the wheel wells. Wins points in that former point for being the "storm beater" vehicle. Which is why I'm looking for AWD and some winter friendly features like heated seats and wheel. I guess for fairness you say I've gotta buy a trailer for the dirty stuff, but that was likely to happen anyway with 4.5ft bed limit.

So the reason Hyundais weren't under consideration previously, the questions over drivetrain reliability are less concerning for 2nd car, as it will do way less miles. I believe I would be inside warranty over 5 years, and I think since it's a hybrid it gets 8years 160,000 on pretty much the entire drivetrain. I also will cope if it's in the shop for a month having a new engine at Hyundais expense, whereas main car cannot be out of service that long. Anyway, 5 or 8 years, stay inside warranty mileage, then trade it is the thinking with this one, whereas primary vehicle was all about ongoing reliability, best possible gas mileage, least time in shop etc.

Lastly, Hyundai is looking itchy to clear 2025 stock already whereas Ford probably doesn't care until November or so. So unless Ford get their finger out their butt for Canadian Friends and Family pricing, Costco auto program Canada gets Fords like the US one, or Maverick 2026s get announced with ACC in the XLT and some killer features, I might be swerving to Santa Fe.

Oh yeah and that other problem, liberating enough readies from my notional mattress, when I was planning spending "near" 40k in the first place, not over.

Edit: BTW while a RAV4 hybrid woodland edition should theoretically make for comparison for it's okay tow rating and okay mpg, though interior space less, at around $45k 🇨🇦 list, it doesn't get considered because it's unobtanium for anyone who a) likes seeing a car they're going to buy and b) doesn't want to wait an indeterminate possibly multiyear period for one. Any that make it onto a lot due to order cancellation get snapped up at 60k plus.

EditII: the mostly german diesels might have sounded like a better idea, but I realised they need frequent episodes of bahnstorming (long highway drives) to regenerate the DPF filters, so if I just putter around the city in them and only stretch their legs once a month they'll choke up.

BitWrangler wrote on 2025-06-09, 17:07:

Cool I like VWs from before they started thinking they were a luxury brand,

Interestingly, this seemed to happen immediately after the fall of the Berlin wall.
A lot of the older VW designs continued production in the developing world, but sadly it all ended just over 10 years ago.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2025-06-09, 12:58:

After 17 years of not owning a car, I decided to buy a Volkswagen. I've always liked the styling of the VWs from the 70s and 80s, and thankfully in China they kept making these B2 Passats until 2012. I grew up in the rust belt, and these things all turned to dust and mostly disappeared from the roads decades ago.

In China these are not considered classic at all. They were mostly used as taxis, and driven privately by poor farmers. It's a great FU car. People get out of my way because they think I'm driving a piece of crap and I have nothing to lose in an accident.

Thought you might get a kick out of this "Santana driving through Windows XP..."

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI4gal2hHoS/

I see the video was posted by "hanchungclassics". I recently tried to use their website to obtain a part, but they ghosted me. I'm not entirely sure why, but I suspect they might be selling sub-par aftermarket replacement parts in OEM packaging. This problem is rampant in China. If you are an overseas buyer you are less likely to return an item. I guess they figured as I live in China I'm more likely to give them trouble if I receive fakes. So far I haven't managed to find their online Chinese store, which leads me to believe they only deal with foreign customers. If they are indeed selling fakes, the markup is at least 10 times what it sells for domestically.

Kia Rio update, with a lot of touch wood...

Seems to have smoothed out, and the engine light which I assumed I would be stuck with, has gone out. (Rear O2 for cat efficiency) Only had a couple of thousand km go on it since we got the Escape PHEV. Oil consumption might have slowed, unsure.

So what I was doing when I had to drive it, trying to keep it alive, was the "complete opposite" of "running in" procedure, where it is recommended not to run at light load at steady low engine speeds or it will glaze the bores... So I was doing that and may have glazed over the bore scoring with combustion deposits/carbon... for now.

Also did a highway jaunt the other weekend, now what I was thinking was "high speed blow through" of the cat, but I got medium heavy traffic on the way there, that wasn't that fast, then on the way back it was super hot, and traffic was two and a half hours of stop start crawling... got like 27mpg in that crap... and I was really bummed that I didn't get "air" through the cat... I must have called it wrong though, all that sitting over sizzling asphalt with next to no airflow cooling, seems to have done the other thing, baked it out... the hydrocarbon flood from that initial ring failure oil gush must have burned out finally... and if oil consumption has slowed... and if I don't short trip it too much... things might stay working... hmmm.

Though, even though that drive seemed to have positive benefits, it soured me again on keeping the beast.... because my leg is not upright driving it, (tallish guy problems) and it really messed up my knee and ankle in 2.5 hours of stop start. I typically work the cruise hard so I can give my knee a break.

So now I got a car that's giving appearances of continuing to work for a bit, which if I was driving it might be able to be nursed along a couple of years... but I don't wanna have it for my own driver because of the knee pain thing on trips that are more than half hour a stint if there's much stop and go involved. IDK what to do with it, get it "inspected" while I can keep the CEL off and give it to one of the fam who'd be glad of anything that moves... though even if it does them a favor for a while I wouldn't relish problems landing back in my lap eventually... or trade it in to an out of town dealer or something... take it to one of those "we buy any Kias" shops that flip them and take what they'll give me after I tell them it had probs.... drive it with a knee brace...