On older cars you could see the gauge even with the motor off. Newer cars you can’t though.
The two people I know whose cars were stolen for joy rides and ditched when they ran out of gas were both old, low-value cars that had near-full tanks (that you could tell from the gauge) when they were stolen.
Both later recovered with empty tanks. One didn’t even have any broken windows… thieves had accessed the locks via the car window and hot-wired it.
Sample size = 2
Ok, don’t remember that. Even pre-digital displays, I remember the needle going flat when the car was off.
Maybe I’m remembering wrong. I have never had a car stolen, knock on wood, so I’m recalling other people’s stories.
No I looked it up, some do show the level
Thanks… I was starting to doubt myself, but I thought that was the case.
Both of these are related to model year. I would guess the latter might be more important.
I went to an “urban survival” course where they taught us how to break into cars using the
method, and they told us to look for old, nondescript cars for the “ease of breaking in undetected” factor. They didn’t mention anything about checking the fuel gauge.
In this scenario, it is likely that uninsured motorist coverage will apply and there’d be no deductible.
Uninsured motorist applies when someone breaks into your car and steals it and then abandons it?
I believe so . . . but I’ll try to remember to check our company’s forms to see what it says about this coverage.
I doubt it. Sounds like a typical comprehensive coverage
That would’ve been my guess too, which is why I was surprised. But… not my line of work.
comprehensive
Have you never watched a movie? Thieves can always drive stick shifts.
I bought a car 3 weeks ago. Had a 2014 Ford F-150 and went to a 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid. We sold our boat last summer so no need for the truck anymore. The gas prices just kind of kicked me into gear on a new ride. I looked at a ton of vehicles but for a 5-10 year timeline this one made the most sense.
As for the search, once I zeroed in on what I wanted I browsed cars.com.for a few weeks to look for “deals” (relative in this market but I don’t see prices retreating as much as I see them plateauing). I sent interest checks to several but I did not really get a bite back until a dealership had someone looking for a truck like mine. Anyway, I got about $1000 more than KBB trade in for the truck so I thought the deal was fine.
The car is excellent. 24,000 miles, all the bells and whistles, and looks brand new inside and out except for a small dent on driver door.
Feature I have never owned is adaptive cruise control. We drove to Florida and back for Spring Break last week. Adaptive cruise control made this trip so much easier. Basically all I had to do was pick a lane. The car stayed in the lane and controlled speed. Going through the Chattanooga-Atlanta corridor on I-75 is generally a nightmare, but with the adaptive cruise the car handled all the starting and stopping. It was kind of comical having the cruise control set on 75 MPH while going 5 MPH, but whatever.
Anyway, thought I would share and can answer any questions.
Can relate! Adaptive cruise control is awesome for traffic, or when you’re following someone. I do find I get slightly better MPGs with it off though. Even with it on the most fuel-efficient of four settings, it still absolutely guns it if it can safely and… I’m not sure what else I’m doing differently, but I seem to get better MPGs.
Not a Honda Accord though, so YMMV.
Do you have a hybrid? I had a Camry hybrid before my truck. It was a little jumpy on all the transitions, but that was 2008 so early in the game on that technology. This Accord seems to really handle the transitions between all the different drive modes really well. Also it does not have any gear switching somehow. Not sure how that works with a gas engine still being the main power, but it’s really smooth operating.
Also this car has made me realize how complicated the computing in any given vehicle is getting these days and the need for really complex processors. I can’t imagine how much computing is taking place constantly to manage all the sensor reading and engine dynamics in the timelines needed to control a car on the highway like this.
Also our brains are highly underrated. Even the stupidest among us has a highly complex processor inside their noggin.
Very much this. Things that are super easy for even very stupid humans are proving very difficult to program into cars. Which is why Level 5 automation is still a long way off.
But I do enjoy the Level 2 features, for the most part.
completed the task today. 3 row santa fe. AWD, has a couple nice things i will appreciate (heated seats, blind spot detection). this one is 6 yrs old (2017 model year) with some miles (60K) and considered a new hyundai palisade, but then me being a cheap-ass actuary kicked in. i drive so little. i need only so much. this thing will last me years as is.
You’ll never go back from here. Congrats on the new ride!
Mr aj bought a new VW Tiguan (sp?) over the weekend.
His truck was behaving as if it were going to turn into a money pit very soon. We had already replaced the transmission, hoping it would last a while, but probably needed a starter and maybe an engine overhaul. I talked him into a new car vs used truck bc I could only imagine that people who are trading in vehicles right now were probably doing it bc of issues like we were having.
Anyway, he is pretty happy with his purchase.