Cars

As I approach my 70th birthday I’ve decided it’s probably time to buy a new car even though my nearly 19 years old car runs well . Given my proclivity for keeping cars a long time, this is almost certainly going to be my last car.
My question is what are your thoughts on approaching this? I am not interested in leasing or buying used.  My sources of funds are a tax deferred account, a brokerage account and a money market account .

Last week I was driving home after finishing the grandkids’ school run when an amber engine warning light flicked on. Being the type of guy I am, I didn’t wait around wondering about it. I drove straight to my local mechanic to get it checked out.
They plugged it into the diagnostic system and gave me the likely verdict: the timing chain was starting to stretch. Nothing was confirmed yet, since they wanted to do a proper mechanical inspection first.

During my days running union meetings, there was a thing called “for the good and welfare of the members”. Today’s post is about the good and welfare of HumbleDrivers.
In the past few weeks, two of my retired friends have complained that the ‘blind spot’ warning device on their new cars was useless. Both said that the yellow warning light on their side view mirror did not illuminate until a vehicle was approximately at their rear bumper.

RECENTLY I TOOK a free ride on a driverless bus trialling its proposed route, part of my local administration’s ten-year rollout plan for self-driving public transport and taxis. I see real potential in this technology, and I’m hoping the infrastructure and implementation stay on schedule. That hope is mostly selfish, I’ll admit.
In fifteen years I’ll be in my mid-seventies, and I’d love to ditch my car and rely on cheap, dependable robo-taxis instead.

Having a choice is a wonderful thing. Something that I suspect many of us take for granted. Which vocation to pursue. Which meal to order at a restaurant. Which car to buy. To even have the luxury of a choice means we are in a very fortunate position, relative to so many in the world.
And with every choice, we actually make two decisions – what we accept, and what we reject. I was pondering this whilst reading an old article by Mr.

Before I bought my new car, I brought my 2014 model in for service. As usual I asked for a loaner car. I was told I was not eligible. What do you mean not eligible? We only provide loaners for model year 2019 and newer I was told. Since when? I was incensed.
When I brought my car in and waited for three hours, my frustration grew. I have been a customer for many years and spent many thousands of dollars at the dealership. 

Walking past the shiny cars in the dealership towards the exit with the mortified 23 year old daughter of a friend trailing behind me, her face bright red with embarrassment, the thought crossed my mind: When did it become normal not to ask “how much does this car cost?” and start asking “what’s the monthly payment?”
I was walking out the door because, unbelievably, the sales person refused to engage with that simple question.
A recent trip to help this young,

My absolute favorite things are the living and breathing things in my life; Chrissy, my kids, grandkids, friends, and even Sophie the wondercat. But this article is about the inanimate objects that make me happy, without breaking the bank.
Our house, at 1900 square feet, is neither tiny nor large. It is nice, easy to clean and big enough to host my favorite living things. We live on plat three. Plat four is under construction. Last week we took a drive to the new section.

I was sitting in the car outside my grandkids’ school this morning while my wife Suzie dropped our granddaughter into preschool. I noticed my grandson’s friend being dropped off in a shiny new VW Transporter Multivan. I know his parents, they don’t do camping. It seems like an awful lot of cash and car for a family of four. They’re everyday folks with normal-paying jobs.
This trend for large, expensive vehicles seems prevalent with the thirty-something drop-off crowd at my grandkids’

THE OBBBA CREATED A NEW tax deduction for “qualified passenger vehicle loan interest” effective 2025 through 2028. 
It comes with a lot of rules and nuances, so I wanted to cover this topic a bit more in depth in case you are planning to acquire a vehicle soon.
So, what is “qualified passenger vehicle loan interest”?
It means any interest that was paid during the taxable year (e.g 2025) on a loan started after Dec.

I am fascinated by technology these days although I am certainly not a techy. Hey, I remember when a copy machine used a tank of foul smelling chemicals and one copy took forever and then was on damp grey paper. 
New technology at work was once an IBM word processing center using 12” disks. My first printer was dot matrix using a roll of perforated paper and now I’m writing this on the beach using an iPad linked to my iPhone for a world-wide connection. 

LAST YEAR, I fouled up my Pennsylvania EZ Pass account. I bought a used car in Maine and forgot to add it to my EZ Pass account. Much later, when I got back up to Maine this Memorial Day, my post office box was bulging with dunning notices from Pennsylvania, New York, Maine and Delaware.
For most of a year, I had driven from Washington D.C. to Maine blissfully unaware that my EZ Pass transponder wasn’t paying a cent.

Here’s another car-themed Forum post. Last June I wrote a Humble Dollar article about vehicle ownership and longevity. I ended that article with a description of the most recent major repair required for my 2011 Subaru Forester when the clutch assembly failed and required replacement. Those of you wishing to revisit that article can view it here.
I mentioned at the end of that article it might be time to search for another Subaru. At the end of 2024 I read about the introduction of a Subaru Forester option in the new model year –

My 2014 Honda Accord recently hit 99,000 miles. It’s nothing fancy to look at, but it drives well. Recently I’ve been having an issue with the starter. The push start works intermittently. Sometimes it starts on the first push, sometimes it takes multiple tries. I think the most it has taken is 6 tries.  I’ve kept up with the maintenance, but I drive it infrequently, so the time between service has spread out. It was due for an oil change,

What do you look for when buying a car? Quality, reliability, safety features, good mileage? Yup all that plus I like technology and friendliness.
My new car has more cameras than Kodak. When I use the navigation it shows a live image of the turn so it’s hard to miss. It uses the cameras to find a space and park itself. If I get lost I just say, “Take me home.”
When I start the car it says,