today in #Enshittification trying to build lightweight tools for my wife and I to collaborate has become navigating past AI powered systems that were not, previously, AI based.
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today in #Enshittification trying to build lightweight tools for my wife and I to collaborate has become navigating past AI powered systems that were not, previously, AI based. Today it is Airtable which still seems like it struggles to have templates or examples of personally focused use cases that reflect anything like how real people research, track and collaborate. Their "car buying" example is laughable and frankly useless as an example
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my wife and I need to get a 2nd car, obviously that's a huge purchase and we have a lot of requirements, so before we spend anytime on dealership lots (and/or online car websites) we have a lot to research. And side note - part of that research is determining whether to buy or lease and if buy whether to finance (we almost always have bought used vehicles in the past) but Airtable's example app assumes only buying and most online car resources don't combine new and used vehicles when researching
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further, if you try to research leases at least here in California you run into all kinds of complications - no car company''s published lease deals (including many dealerships even ones here in CA) show leases inclusive of tax (and in many cases - like most recently Honda their ads show a lease offer that "is not valid in CA" so figuring out what it would be here is non-trivial.
we are considering leases for this vehicle as we are looking at EVs and due to tax incentives leases are very good
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so back to car buying - what I want to do is to collect in one shared with my wife space - research about the universe of EVs (and plug-in hybrids) that we might consider, their specific makes and models, whether they have specific features we want (and if so in which exact configuration to get that feature), their suggested price and then start looking at what they are actually available for in the marketplace and then capture our notes when/if we test drive them.
it gets messy fast
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some of the features that make it to our "must have" list aren't always described in the same manner from car company to car company and rarely are ones you can filter upon in any car research site I have found (which also often have trouble letting you research both used and new models at the same time)
For example we must have power driver side seat adjustments with memory as we share our vehicles and my wife and I are not at all the same height.
Related we both hate blind spots
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[Ignore if mere mention of Tesla triggers thoughts of its present-but-not-permanent part-time CEO/full-time nutjob; otherwise read on]
4 things that make Teslas pretty much no-brainers:
1) The built-in navigation system is simply the best bar none
2) Supercharger charging is the best bar none, and ubiquitous
3) Legacy automakers and their franchise dealerships are neverending disappointments re EVs; you cannot trust them; they’ve never been serious
4) Hybrids have exhaust pipes
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@brianstorms not going to get a Tesla for many reasons. One being the nut job.
Another is we want Apple CarPlay - we both have iPhones and don’t want to use non-Apple navigation or audio systems (biggest use case of this vehicle is driving my son to/from his school and we play audiobooks or playlists on Apple Music for him)
I’ve also really not liked anything about Teslas when I’ve been in them - steering wheel, one pedal driving (I don’t like this in other EVs either)
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@brianstorms an EV is more likely for us than a hybrid and a plug-in hybrid that will mostly be used in EV mode is more likely than a standard hybrid. However we also can’t easily install a dedicated charger in my garage for a while (running out of literal space on the outside of my garage which we can’t park in at present and need to refurbish my garage and electrical system - I want to get solar but can’t do that first as the second vehicle is a more urgent need)
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Well if you’re into CarPlay, that changes things a bit..
For what it’s worth I use my iPhone via Bluetooth to the car every single time I drive; for the Podcasts app constantly as well as listening to my mp3 album collection in the Library part of Apple Music app. (Apple Music streaming built in to the car but I never use it or Spotify.)
Good luck!
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@brianstorms I generally prefer to be able to physically connect my iPhone to my car so that it is clear which phone is connected to the car when both my wife and I are in the vehicle at the same time (so actually haven’t connected to our current vehicle via Bluetooth) also charges. CarPlay is useful for us because we both use Apple Music and Maps for directions but it is also having messages and my phone which is critical as a parent in case school or my wife needs me (has happened many times)
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Elyse M Grassoreplied to Shannon Clark last edited by
@Rycaut Bear in mind that at the end of a car loan you have a car (and before that you have an asset you can liquidate to pay off the loan), but at the end of a car lease you have nothing. My impression from acquaintances who have gotten into car lease cycles (including one business partner) is that they are a sucker bet and a long term trap.
Car leases are up there with variable rate mortgages on the list of deals to read VERY carefully and consider non-golden-path contingencies. -
Shannon Clarkreplied to Elyse M Grasso last edited by
@elysegrasso that’s good advice though not entirely true. At the end of a lease you have the option to buy the vehicle (at a preset price that is part of the lease - assuming you haven’t driven the vehicle more than lease was for) it can even be the case (as it was the last time we leased a vehicle) that the car was then worth more than the lease buyout price. Specific to EVs leases currently benefit from the federal tax incentives that in many cases effectively lower the base price for the car
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@elysegrasso it’s less about taxes for us except that if we bought an EV vs leased the tax credits aren’t as useful to my wife and I as they are to the leasing company. I’m not planning on any games with llcs etc (though my wife and I both work for ourselves) If you plan on likely buying the leased vehicle at the end of the lease it is effectively a form of financing but you have the option of just walking away if the vehicle at that time is not worth the preset price.