Context:
I don’t want the car reporting to insurance hard breaks and such. But frankly I just find these things creepy and I just want a base model car.
financially aim for minimal depreciation. typically thats buying a 3 year old car and selling it when its 6 or 7. try to find total cost of ownership data to minimize repair costs.
practically find one that suits your needs.
Interesting. I’ve been buying mine at 3 years and keeping them until they become uneconomic to repair. My current car is 11 and it’s still in great shape.
What is the logic behind selling at 7? Are you considering increasing efficiency of new models and average maintenance burden?
the logic is depreciation. if you sold your car at 7 it is worth a lot more than at 11. imagine buying a 1 year old cellphone and selling it at 2 years old. compare that to buying a brand new cellphone and keeping it 6 years. the depreciation is related to the markets expectations of the items functionality vs it needing expensive repairs. a 3-7 year old car generally is reliable and considered functional. obviously different brands and models differ on these curves. a 7 year old honda is very different from a maserati.
Makes sense from a financial point of view. I tend to do extensive research before a big purchase and wouldn’t want to be changing cars too often.
From an energy and pollution point of view it makes sense to buy quality and maintain the vehicle over a long time period.
It’s tricky at the moment because we are transitioning to electric powertrains and these vehicles are not comparable to internal combustion.
Buy one made before, I dunno, 2005?
I’d recommend a 2009 Honda Civic. Mine has held up really well and is nice and dumb
Here’s my advice: Don’t buy a car. Ride a bike or take public transit. Walk whenever possible.
Modern cars are amazing and you are missing out a lot by not having one. Public transport makes me want to kill myself. I would go as far as saying that you don’t even grow into a full person unless you have a car.
Is this sarcasm? Or is the last sentence really something someone could think?
I feel like a bigger indicator of being a “full person” is getting over fear/disgust of public transit. I know plenty of people who are more well-adjusted than I am who don’t own a car.
Those options aren’t really ideal.
What if they live in the middle of no where? And their job commute is 1 hour out? Biking would take double the time and they’d have to leave very early to make it on time.
Not every town has public transit either. Mostly it’s the cities that do, metropolitan areas especially. But, not a lot of towns offer travel luxuries.
Travel luxuries? Cars are the luxury. Living a hour from where you work is a “luxury”.
Saying someone needs a car to make up for their poor lifestyle choices doesn’t mean they need a car, it means they need better choices.
Ah right, not wanting to live in a metropolis and wanting to live in the mountains with fewer people, cleaner air, and cleaner water, and also working a trade that requires hauling tools and equipment to job sites are poor lifestyle choices, got it.
“You being born in a rural area and not able to move to a higher cost of living city with public transit is a poor life choice on your part”
Literal clown take🤡
There is 0% chance of anything good coming of this comment thread. Let’s all go do something else.
But watching this argument is what I was doing…
So living in a rural area is a poor lifestyle choice?
Where do you think your food comes from?
You anticar zealots are out of touch with reality.
Farmers don’t have hourlong commutes. I’m complaining about people that work in town but live outside of it.
Sure thing bud.
“If people aren’t exactly like me, they’re bad people”
You’re a bigot and a xenophobe
Not what I said, but okay.
Ok you’re a liar too then. Neat
we all know american car-centric infrastructure is fuckin evil.
look, you probably know this already, but cars are still the only practical option for most americans; they don’t really have a choice. suburbia is subsidized, and so it simply makes financial sense to live in the suburbs, especially if they can’t afford to live closer to where they work and shop.
it’s great that you care about transportation infrastructure. engage in discussions to inform, of course, but do recognize that it’s policy, not people, at fault.
Maintaining privacy in a (new) car might be difficult. Maybe by emitting white noise with an external bluetooth speaker so that possible microphones can’t pick up voices easily?
The problem with privacy in a new car is that there is nothing much one can do about it. Even if it were possible by altering the cars’ software (think of something like the equivalent of a browser extension for your car), this might pose a problem in case of an accident (the insurance will try to refuse compensation, because the cars’ software has been altered and thus, the car is deemed to be not road safe).
One thing to aviod this problem would be to buy an older, used car. With that, there wouldn’t be any issues regarding privacy, but mainaining the car might be more expensive, as older cars often have worse emission standards, which can result in higher taxes, depending on where you are located. Also, older cars might have a worse fuel effiency than new cars, depending on the size, weight and engine power of the car. An old economic compact car might have the same fuel efficiency as the latest doomsday street tank.
My personal advice: a used compact car, not older than five years (the older the car, the more repairs might come up, also there is a chance that a car this age already has a USB port for connecting a thumb drive or phone equipped with music), but with rear doors. Having two additional doors is an underrated feature that not only comes in handy when you pick up some friends, but they also serve as additional loading hatches that are accessible from both sides of the car.
I’m sorry to say this, but I don’t think you can really maintain privacy.
Sure, maybe you can disable some antennas to stop your location from being broadcast, but there are cameras in ever major road, so you cant get far without being spotted by a camera. Cars can also store data locally, then if you take your to the dealership, they will access the data. So you’d have to find an individual car mechanic that doesn’t read this data, and at anytime, they can betray your trust. Not to mention, your phone is kinda already tracking you, so you’d have to turn that off as well, even dumbphones still have cellular triangulation and has even worse security. And whenever you need to use your phone, the carrier will know where you are.
So I think in the modern world with all these cameras, you kinda have to accept that you ain’t gonna get much privacy.
Or the alterative is to not have a phone on you when you travel, take public transport, cover your face, etc.
If you want privacy, you’ll have to sacrifice convienience.
your phone is kinda already tracking you
Just a touch.
I always love when people ask for “how can i do X without getting tracked” while lugging a portable tracking device that listens to you everywhere you go
Everybody nowadays knows you leave the phone at home to be off grid, right… right?
xD
Hail the NSA Overlords lolol
Read the manual
Are cars outside the United States more privacy conscious, or is this a gap in GDPR as well?
I only saw a few people saying this, but buy a used car from anywtime-2012 max.
Make sure that car is in good shape, has been up to date on oil changes and was well taken care of. And if you wants some newer car features, adding in a newer stereo could do the trick.
But get used to learning how to fix your car because less cars will be made that meet your requirements. Meaning that if you don’t to sacrifice privacy for a new car when yours breaks down, be ready to fix it.
The effort needed to neuter surveillance equipment in modern cars without compromising functionality is comparable to the effort of sprucing up an older car. Possibly biased from driving and maintaining a decades-old car. Is there a particular reason you prefer a modern car?
I’m used to driving old shitboxes but a few years ago we rented a completely new car. It was almost driving itself, making sure I stayed in my lane, it had automatic beam selection, a big screen for playing music and navigation, tiny little plastic thingies that pops out when you open the door making it harder to dent adjacent cars. It was a fucking spaceship. I’m not going to lie, I would love to have all of those fancy features.
Buy a renault 12
Dare I ask what you are doing in your car that requires privacy?
Are you not wanting people to know where you go or are you beating off in the passing lane and don’t want to make accidental eye contact with anyone?
Don’t answer those questions actually. I will assume what the answers might be and respond to whatever my imagination gives me.
First things first, if you are beating off and don’t want anyone to see, get tinted windows. One way mirrors would be sweet but are probably illegal in most places. They would be nice for those a-holes that drive at night and have stupidly bright headlights. I could really see myself in a car with mirrored windows that aren’t one way mirrors.
Others already covered that phones track everything and your car is harvesting all the data it can. Driving without a phone is exponentially safer than with one. That’s my opinion, I have no way to claim it as fact with any proof. Makes me wish phone booths were still a thing but I doubt one would fit in any modern car.
Even if you secured the car or found an old one that worked well, you’d need to avoid every camera out there and even things like billboards. Billboards frequently have wifi or bluetooth by the way. They track the cars that drive by and the people that walk by. Not just the noticeably electronic ones, take a close look at a billboard sometime, especially if you can see behind it. You’ll likely find a device doing more than just powering spotlights on the crappy advertisement.
Unless someone invents a wearable Faraday cage that isn’t obvious or constraining, you are not invisible to the all seeing eyes of technology.
If you want vehicular privacy so no one knows you are buying illegal drugs, you’ll want to choose a place that’s secluded with a good view in all directions to avoid ambush from cops or gangs. Alternatively you could do a place that’s very busy, hide in plain sight. It depends on how much you trust your connection. I mean your drug dealer, not your internet plan.
If you want car privacy to pick up a prostitute in a place where prostitution is illegal, simply say you only wish to film a pornography. This makes you a director, not a criminal. Maybe. I’m not a cop or a lawyer.
If you want to be private in a car while you pick up a prostitute where it is legal, you can park beforehand and approach the individual or group on foot. You could also borrow a friends car or get a rental. It’s legal, you really could do it with any vehicle. Don’t hide your desires. Be free.
If you seek privacy in your vehicle to work as a prostitute, regardless of legality, you probably will have a difficult time obtaining customers. A custom license plate that is crafted cleverly enough might do the trick. You could also make an account on OnlyVans.
If you auto privacy is needed because your psycho ex is stalking you, go make some friends at the nearest gym and start carrying mace or a tazer. Wasp spray is a cheaper alternative to those. It has great range and is almost as effective at a fraction of the cost. Don’t hide, it’s time to fight back!
If your privacy needs when driving are because you are stalking your ex, don’t do that, you psycho. It’s time to move on. Let them go. There are plenty of fish in the sea. Don’t worry if feel like you are going to die alone, because remember, in your car you are never truly alone. Technology is always watching. Even when you masturbate in your car.
Hope this helps, drive safe!
I love how nobody even bothers responding to this steaming like of shit. Just downvotes. Hilarious.
Don’t get a tesla for one, apart from that try not to get any that has internet or other services if you can.
Always remember that once you sign the dotted line, there’s no changing your mind later. That’s the advice I received in the Navy from my Chief. This is where doing your homework really pays off.
When buying a car, try to plan ahead ten to twenty years. Most people don’t buy a new car every couple of years, so you’ll need a car that suits your needs for a long time.
Are you planning on getting married and having kids one day? Maybe a minivan. Do you do a lot of trade work? Maybe a pickup truck. Are you just trying to get from point A to point B? Maybe just a regular four-seat car. Planning ahead will save you headaches in the future.
Get something that’s easy to repair yourself, the spare parts are cheap, and are easily obtainable. Some brands are extremely difficult to fix yourself and that’s by design.
As for car internet privacy, I don’t know what to tell you.
your username 🥰
Glad you like it :)
All new cars that I know of come with either online trackers or offline trackers. Some are part of a safety system (like the one automatically dialing the emergency number if you crash), others are part of the infotainment system (live traffic updates, map updates), and then there’s the app stuff. A new car carries with it one or more cell phones and anything cellular can easily be tracked (which is even worse if you live in a country where carriers sell live location data to bounty hunters, like the USA).
If you know what you’re doing, you can probably take out all the transmitters so you can’t be followed live. Data will be stored on computers inside the car, but as long as it doesn’t get stolen or sold that data is safe inside. Might void your warranty and pop up a check engine light, though. You should also be wary of disrupting any internal antennae, like the ones for reading pressure sensors and other digital communication inside the vehicle. You may disrupt something and crash your car, and if you survive your insurance will fight tooth and nail not to cover your medical expenses.
If you don’t know much about cars or don’t want to go hunting for the exact right transmitters, buy an older car.
However, with how many dashcams and traffic cams are installed alongside the road these days, I don’t think it even matters much what you do to the car anymore.
