Joey from Vegas has a great channel with useful information.


 

He makes some good points but I wouldn’t limit my search only to cars 2000-2012.  I bought a 2013 Prius V with 69,600 miles that just had the whole brake system replaced. The brake actuator was a weak spot on those years.  Owner paid over $4000 for that repair.  Bought it for $11,700 two years ago and it currently has 93,700 miles. I have not had a single problem with it.  It had the original hybrid battery, I checked it a few months ago with the Dr Prius app and it showed 69% life left.

In March of this year I bought a 2017 Ram 1500 Longhorn 4x4 with the 5.7 Hemi to replace my 2001 Ram 2500 4x4 Cummins with a 6 spd stick. Since I am retired I no longer need a heavy duty truck. I bought this truck from WA state with 76,500 miles and my friend who lives there went to look at it for me.  Truck was in immaculate condition and even the undercarriage was spotless.  Not a drop of fluid or oil mist anywhere and even stuff that you normally see surface rust on, like the hose spring clamps were clean and shiny.  When I got the truck, I changed the engine and trans oil.  Yesterday I installed a Diablo Trinity 2 with the unlocked PCM.  In addition to improving the power, throttle response and sharpening the transmission shifts, it also disabled the MDS cylinder deactivation.  I did due diligence and checked for best years and 2017 is at the top of the list in many surveys.

The last new car I bought was a 2011 Scion XB.  I definitely would not buy anything newer than 2022 and I would not limit my choices to 2000-2012 like was suggested in the video.

My car doesn’t have a computer. Sometimes I whisper conspiracy theories into the fuel tank when I’m filling up and get a couple extra miles running on pure spite.

all these milestones in car complexity:

air bags (gotta watch out for those yellow wires under the dash, good luck troubleshooting your horn button)
electric or power-steering boosted brakes (sudden failure mode)
ABS (master cylinder/ABS module replacement on Toyota $3K)
demise of carburetors (tune with vacuum gauge & tach), advent of EFI (laptop to tune)
catalytic converters and those pesky post-cat O2 sensors
OBD-I (not too bad)
OBD-II  (now you need a scanner)
DEF (diesel)
cylinder deactivation
camshaft phasers
OnStar

not sure when the govt started getting the ability to control your car, late 20-teens?  Yeah, I know, these all have benefits, "it's a small sacrifice to make for the greater good".  Where have we heard that before?  Give 'em an inch, and they'll take a mile.  Try fixing your own car nowadays.

once upon a time, we didn't even have PCV valves, just "road draft tubes".

brand new 2003....

I shopped for months for a new car and settled on the 2026 Honda Accord EX-L (Hybrid).

First thing I've run into is installing a new VIOFO A329S dash cam.  That camera has a parking mode (also called hybrid mode) which monitors the 12V battery. You can select at what level you'd want the camera to shut itself off in order to keep from killing the battery and making it unable to start the car.

It took me over a month to finally understand (1) how the camera is able to monitor the battery, and (2) how the camera needs to be installed to enable hybrid mode.  One reason for so long is the delay in getting the items I needed to test different configurations.  The OBD cable took over 4 weeks to arrive.

The camera's hybrid mode requires a hardwire kit - HK6.  This costs about $32.  It has 3 input wires: Accessory, Constant Power and Ground.  It takes 12V input and outputs 5V/3A, the same output as the cigarette lighter plug/wire that comes with the camera.

Two things are needed for the camera to enter hybrid parking:  the power has to switch over from the ACC input (driving mode) to constant ON input (parking mode), and the camera must "see" the HK6 power controller via Blutooth!  BT is how the camera does the monitoring.  The HK6 senses the battery's voltage level and transmits that to the camera wirelessly.  Seemed strange to me that the HK6 is hardwired between the car and the camera, but it can't communicate through those wires to pass along the current voltage? 

Some Accord owners (and other cars' owners) have opted to use the OBD-II port cable VIOFO sells for over $60.  That diagnostic port offers a constant 12V power pin and 2 ground pins.  The problem is, while it lets you use the older versions of parking mode activated by lack of vehicle movement for a few minutes, it can't tell the camera if the vehicle was turned off.  Hybrid parking mode is not possible without both an ACC on/off detection and the BT connection.

Then there's the car's fusebox.  The proper way to install the HK6 hardwire kit is to test fuses for both a constant and an ACC source.  Surprise!! ALL fuses in the fusebox under the driver's side dash are constantly on.  However, if you plug something into the cigarette lighter with the car on, there's power, and when you turn the car off, there's no power.  What's happening is the fuse protects that ACC line for overloads and shorts, but a computer controller module determines if/when the device actually gets power.

I wound up creating a cigarette lighter plug that's wired to the ACC side of the HK6, while the HK6's constant side is wired to the fusebox.  Both wires are on the same circuit (lighter), giving me the connections I need and staying away from critical engine and safety circuits.

So, if you've ever wired a device like a CB radio, dash cam, automated step rails, or anything else into a fuse box that needed the power to go on and off with the ignition switch, things are very different now.  The OBD port is apparently the "cleaner" way to avoid using the lighter plugs to power devices, but only for constant power.  I've seen warnings that, because that port is for diagnostics only, and because the port has access to all the systems in the vehicle, it's advised to not use that port for just power, especially if the cable has more than 2-3pin connections.

I bought a Foxwell scanner that seems to work well for my needs.  When I had my windows tinted, the large amounts of water they use caused an error with the blind spot warning system.  The car kept telling me to see a dealer to fix it.  After a couple of hours of drying, the error fixed itself.  But, when I checked error codes, that error was still there in memory.  I used the scanner to clear the code.  Getting rid of codes that no longer apply is a good thing.  It avoids time wasted by sevice techs. When they see a code, they have to check the named system for any problems.  Then they have to look up the code to see if there's a service bulletin about the code.  Finally, they have to clear the code and rerun the scan to see if it stays gone.  All that time can run up your diagnostic labor cost.