Speedie wrote:Mr King, Are you factoring registration and insurance on a V8 vs 4 Cyl, or is this not a concern in the US.Also, bear in mind that the CRV will have a 5 year unlimited mile warranty.Registration is the same cost for either. Insurance is way cheaper on an old vehicle. But the difference there isn't really that much, in the big picture. 79 bronco at roughly 8 mpg vs 2013 CRV at roughly 20 mpg, you're talking about the gas costing about 2.5x as much. So over the course of several years using either as a daily driver and doing your nominal 10k miles per year, within not too many years the difference in cost of the two vehicles has been erased. For me, it doesn't work out like that. I have both, I drive the CR-V way way more often. I also haven't had a commute for work in 10+ years, so the miles I do put on are nothing like 10k a year. So the increased fuel consumption of the bronco isn't really an issue for me. I think I've filled the tank like three or four times now in the 2 years I've owned it? About $100 a tank. As far as reliability, especially for your cold winter stuff, I dunno, so hard to call it. The new vehicle would probably have less issues. I know that either of them start up fine. The Bronco I always keep plugged into a battery tender since I often go weeks at a time without driving it. But like for example when I went and fired it up Saturday in the 20-something degree weather, it started right up. If I was in your position, just wanting one vehicle, I know what I would get. A few years old 4runner. I really loved the one I had before, part time 4wd just like the bronco but didn't have to deal with locking hubs. That thing was the perfect middle ground between a car and a truck. The CR-V is really more like a slightly taller car. The Bronco is most definitely a truck. The 4runner was baby bear's porridge, as it were. And btw I don't think you would really want the old Bronco as an only vehicle. For example do you ever have passengers in your vehicle who can't climb so good? Like if I wanted to take my parents out for dinner or something, the Bronco wouldn't even be an option, as neither of my parents could hang with the climb to get in or the sorta-jump to get out.

Mr King, Are you factoring registration and insurance on a V8 vs 4 Cyl, or is this not a concern in the US.Also, bear in mind that the CRV will have a 5 year unlimited mile warranty.

By the way, now that I'm really thinking about this.What is the gas mileage on the Bronco?I'm intrigued by this idea - is a 30-year-old or so Bronco actually a less-expensive and more reliable proposition than a (for example) new Honda CR-V?I'd really love to run the numbers on something like this.Caveats:1) Any breakdown / won't start (other than battery needs a jump) / fails at the side of the road / will need a mechanic to diagnose and promptly fix the problem. I get that part of the charm of owning this kind of vehicle is the ability to fix a lot of stuff yourself, thereby saving maintenance money. But just forget about that, re: this discussion.2) A newish Honda can sit out on the street in sub-zero temps for days on end and have no problem starting right up. Will a 30-year-old Bronco be able to do this, assuming it's "in shape"?I'd love to figure out the actual numbers on something like this.Also: assume each vehicle will need to be in service for 8 years.2014 Honda CR-V vs. 1984 Bronco.Assume the CR-V will cost $25K, if you bought it new, today.Assume the Bronco (with the addition of kick-ass tires) will cost you $6K, today.This is the only car you drive until 2022.Which car ends up costing the least amount money, come 2022?Also, general reliability would have to be figured in. I wouldn't begin to know how to do that, actually. So let's leave that out for the purposes of this thought-experiment...Holy shit, suddenly I want to buy an old Bronco!

tmidgett wrote:I like cars, and many of the exciting things about cars are absent from our 2002 Forester.It occurs to me that I don't really like cars. I mean, as objects of excitement. This may be because I've always driven used, supposedly-reliable, boring vehicles. I got the Fit new, but that is not really an exciting car, aside from being inexpensive, useful, and pretty cheap to put gas in (which is kind of satisfying to me, rather than exciting).I'd probably have to be making $250K a year before I could feel good about getting into cars. I mean, the exciting things about cars. I'd much rather blow money on fine dining and long-from winter travel to tropical locations.Although the 1972 Ford LTD I had as a teenager was a pretty exciting car, at least in the summer. But that was in South Dakota. That car would be a nightmare in Chicago.OK!

scott wrote:Better in deep snow than probably any vehicle anyone here is talking about or driving around, my '79 bronco cost me $3k and I immediately put on a brand new set of A/T tires to the tune of like $800-900. So for under $4k I got the most awesome most fun to drive truck I could ever hope for. My point is that you can get into super fun (and effective) cars without making $250k a year which is a crazy amount of money to make. For a fraction of what you would pay for a new car, you can get an awesome fun old truck. And then put the other $10k-30k you save toward gas. I took my truck out last night to go get a shepherd's pie and watch the hawks game at a local bar. Heading down the unplowed alley after pulling out of the garage, there was a car coming the other way that apparently had no intention to back up so I could get past him. Looking at my surroundings, I saw that I could pull over onto the apron of a neighbor's garage, which would require driving over a mound of snow that he had made when shoveling a clear path out of his garage. It was probably a good 2' tall. Enough that a car would never make it. With the truck, it was effortless and more importantly, fun. The guy who sold me that truck didn't really want to sell it after having rebuilt and hopped up the engine, but since we had almost no good winters recently (good meaning one like this one, lotsa snow) his wife had talked him into selling it since it wasn't seeing any action. I can't help but think that this winter he's got a little seller's remorse going on. For me, I'm just loving it, though honestly I wish we would get a little more snow all at once. Roads with over 1' of snow on them, that's what I really wish we had. $4k all-in, with brand new huge expensive all-terrain tires.Ha! That's awesome.The thing is, I don't want to have more than one car at a time at this point in my life.But I take your point. I'd love to have a kick-ass Bronco this week.What I meant was, to me, an "exciting" car is a high-performance car that either you have the money to have maintained, or have an interest in working on, in your garage.I don't have a garage. Nor an embarrassing excess of money, at this point.Meanwhile, I'm after the most boring and inexpensive car possible.But this Bronco idea is very interesting to me.

Whoa. Fuel costs alone (if my math is right) between a 2014 CR-V and a 1984 Bronco (over 8 years) are:Bronco - $30,000CR-V - $19,200Which adds $10K to the Bronco over the course of 8 years of use.(Based on 15K miles /year, with gas at $4/gallon).The Bronco is still cheaper, all things being equal, but that brings them much closer together, in price.-----(Jeez, I realize this is a dumb thing to do, but it's kind of fun).

OK.Based on only fuel numbers and initial cost of purchase ($6K vs. $25K), the 2014 CR-V will cost an extra $83 per month, over 8 years.Not taking into account maintenance or general reliability.

Speedie wrote:Mr King, Are you factoring registration and insurance on a V8 vs 4 Cyl, or is this not a concern in the US.Also, bear in mind that the CRV will have a 5 year unlimited mile warranty.No, I haven't factored that in at all.Hey! I'm just playing around with the numbers, because I had a sudden urge to buy a Bronco!

Hiwatt wrote:Put it this way: Snow tires will be far cheaper than an old Bronco or a new CRV. Don't waste money on either of those vehicles. This winter has been a bit worse than most, but it'll be over soon. Drive the Fit until you can't drive it any longer. Then think about another mode of transport. Isn't the Fit paid for, or nearly paid for? That's gotta be a bonus if so.Hey! Yes, sorry if I was unclear - snow tires it is, for me, at least as a solution this winter. Getting that taken care of tomorrow.The Fit is all but paid for, yes.The "New CR-V vs. 30-year-old Bronco" thing was just an interesting thought experiment.Because for a moment I felt like buying a 30-year-old Bronco (at some point in my future) was maybe more cost-effective than buying a new or late-model Honda.My initial number-crunching to that end suggests that this is maybe not the case.I'm hoping this snow-tire situation will allow me to get another 6 years or so out of the Fit. That's not to say that these particular snow-tires will last 6 years, but if the "snow tire solution" does the trick, I'll drive the Fit until it hits some kind of critical mass viz. repairs.

Done and done - just ordered dedicated snow tires from Ashland Tire.Thanks for the recommendation!This was not inexpensive. But certainly much less expensive than my original plan to throw in the towel on winter and go buy a new car.