u/Empty-Fix0531

I just want to say that even though Google released a new phone and the S27 comes out next year, I'm still very happy and satisfied with my phone. I won't lie. I was tempted to trade in this phone on a Pixel 11 Pro because I wanted a change and pre-order deals are pretty good. But it's so easy to just throw on a custom launcher and icon pack and theme to make my S25U look like one. And to change cases. I currently have like 7 cases for my phone that I like to switch out when I want a new look and feel.

Is anyone else out there tempted by the new phones coming out to trade in your S25U or are you still happy with your phone? I keep my phone flawless so there's no scratches or anything on it. Sometimes I do wish for a simpler phone or even something a little smaller and lighter. But I don't have to use all the features and apps on my phone to appreciate it. At least they are there if I want to mess around with them. But it's not a reason to take on more debt.

My family and I are on Verizon and have 4 lines and home Internet. So a total of 5 lines. I pay for the unlimited Plus for $45/month on Verizon and it looks like the lowest plan on Fi is $50. But I can get a Pixel 11 for free over the span of 24 months. I'm paying $40/month for my S25U and still owe $1000 on it. But I pay off my phone and then sell it, I'd only have about $200-$250 to pay off. Which if I pay $40-$50/month, it'll be paid off in 5-6 months. So long term, it'll start saving me money after those 5-6 months. My question may not be able to be answered here but maybe. Will our Verizon bill go up if I leave Verizon but my family stays with their 3 lines and the home Internet? I hate having to pay $85/ month for my phone and plan. Plus whatever taxes and fees they charge. Plus I'm locked in for 2 more years with my S25U if I stay with them.

I am officially done with OnePlus Buds. My second pair of the OnePlus Buds 3 stopped working. The microphone failed in the right bud on both pairs. My first ones lasted a little less than a year and they replaced them under warranty. The second pair lasted 1 1/2 years before the right bud microphone died. I just through them away as I'm not buying them anymore or trying to get them replaced. My main pair is currently the Soundcore Liberty 4 pros. And my backups are the Earfun air 4 pro.

I am officially done with OnePlus Buds. My second pair of the OnePlus Buds 3 stopped working. The microphone failed in the right bud on both pairs. My first ones lasted a little less than a year and they replaced them under warranty. The second pair lasted 1 1/2 years before the right bud microphone died. I just through them away as I'm not buying them anymore or trying to get them replaced. My main pair is currently the Soundcore Liberty 4 pros. And my backups are the Earfun air 4 pro.

I have a 2014 SE with the 2.5L with 160k miles on it. I had the transmission replaced with a used one 3k miles ago. I have replaced the brakes several times, the shocks and struts all around, the front control arms, valve cover gasket, catalytic converter.

The car has been good but I'm just wondering what kinds of things would have to break or need replacement for you to consider getting rid of it and getting something new.

I went cheap on the cat and the shocks and I'm thinking I have to replace them again in the next 5-6 months. The ride quality is pretty bad compared to when I changed them. And the cat I put on myself leaks and is slightly longer than the stock one so the brackets on the cat don't line up with the exhaust hanger on the car. So the exhaust rattles when I'm taking off or at low rpm. But the biggest issue is the exhaust leak. It's pretty strong if I don't have the recirculating on inside the car so I'm probably going to take it to an exhaust shop to see if they can fix it for me and to weld on an additional exhaust hanger. I want to get that fixed before winter as it will not be fun to drive around smelling it. Tracking down the leak myself and trying to fix it seems like a horrible job.

I'm also getting to the point where I don't enjoy working on it anymore. Yes, it saves us money but the amount of time it takes me compared to a professional is substantial. As well as me being sore for several days following me working on it. I also hate doing the same job more than once because I went cheap the first time. Tracking down an exhaust leak is something a shop could do in a fraction of the time as they can just put it on a lift and get under it. Me jacking it up high enough for me to slide under it while looking for a leak and contorting my body to see it sounds like it would be a huge waste of time.

Has anyone else gotten to a point with your fusion or any other car where you are tired of working on it or repairing things and you just want to get a new car? Because that's where I'm getting. Obviously everything is getting more expensive but we're also making more money now than we were 5 years ago so we are slowly getting to a point where we can somewhat afford to take it to a shop to fix things that I don't want to or can't.

I know Fusions aren't worth a lot trading them in, but if I wait till the engine dies or doesn't drive anymore, it won't be worth anything. I guess it's just a matter of weighing the options of how much am I willing to spend on this thing compared to paying another car payment or lease payment.

If you were looking to replace or trade in your Fusion, what would you want to get? We just bought my wife a new Kia Sorento this past weekend and so naturally I start looking for a new or used car that we could afford to replace my 2014 Fusion with.

Ideally, I would trade it in and lease a new vehicle to get a lower payment and because I don't drive as many miles as my wife does. We generally have one main family vehicle that we put most of the miles on and it's usually newer and my wife drives it. It's been this way since we've been married. I don't mind driving the older, paid off vehicle as I generally try and do most of the repairs on it myself to save us money. But I'm not getting any younger as I'm almost 49;and frankly tired of working on my own car. Especially if it's my daily driver. My dream, if I had some disposable income, would be to buy a project car to work on in my spare time in our garage.

Realistically, I realize my dream may never come to true to own another Mustang or another car that I could enjoy working on and driving for enjoyment. So I'm probably stuck trying to balance the two. Having a daily driver car that is practical and yet fun to drive.

I'm guessing that within the next year, my son is going to want a car or we're going to get him a car so then he can drive himself and our daughter to school. Or at least I won't have to pick them both up every day anymore. I would guess that I would just pass on my Fusion to him and then look for a used car or cheaper lease for me. It currently has 163k miles on it and isn't worth very much to trade in so it's worth it imo to hang onto it so he can drive it as his first car.

I've always enjoyed having a car that handles better than having an SUV or truck. Plus they're better on gas. But there are drawbacks to having one as they sit lower to ground which can make it more difficult to get in and out of. And the underside is closer to the salt in the winter snd can rust out quicker than an SUV or truck that sits up higher.

I honestly have no idea what vehicle I would get. I do have a budget in my head of what I would want to spend but I go back and forth between several makes and models of cars. With us living in Michigan, the newer vehicle we can get will have less rust and exposure to salt. So I try and look at cars made within the past 5-6 years of they're cars. I do know I don't want a full size truck. So I'd be content with a Maverick or Bronco sport. I think the Civic Sport or Hybrid could be a nice reliable car and be fun to drive. But the sport only had 150hp. A downgrade from even my SE 2.5. The Hybrid jumps up in price more so I'd have to buy an older one.

Also in my list is the small SUV or CUV. But then you get into the smaller turbo charged engines which I'm not a big fan of. I was looking at the Kia K4 or K5 but the K4 is butt ugly and under whelming at like 140hp. And the K5 is priced higher than a Civic.

My top two picks are the Civic or Maverick/Bronco Sport. Would a Civic Sport with 150hp even be fun to drive?

I honestly love my Fusion. The design of it still looks good in 2026. I still turn around and look at it sometimes after parking it. Which is another option for me is to keep it and let my son get his own car. This option has been rising up on my list of options as it would be heartbreaking for me to hand the car over to him only to abuse it or end up getting into an accident in it. I know I didn't treat my first car with respect that I got from my parents. I drove that thing into the ground doing stupid stuff with it. I didn't care if it got dented or if I drove it fast down gravel roads.

We have a 2023 Kia Sorento with 60k miles on 3yr/36k lease. The lease ends this month. I know our two main options are to buy the vehicle or pay the mileage penalty which I have no idea how much it'll be. It's highly unlikely they would roll that into another lease. And it's not the smart thing to do.

Is there a scenario that will give us the best chance for not screwing ourselves with buying it or having to pay the full penalty for the mileage? I know we don't want another lease as it's my wife's vehicle and she drives way more miles than I do. I wish we had known before or had done some preparation before leasing it. But there's nothing I can do about that.

My big concern in buying it is the HVAC motor wiring harness. There's a recall on it and we already had it "fixed". It basically has a burning smell when you have the dial on number 3. It has been giving out the smell again even after having it supposedly fixed.

Is there a chance that if I buy the Sorento and trade in my used Fusion at the same time and get a lease, as I don't drive that many miles, would that work in our favor to get a better deal? My Fusion is not worth that much but I just had the transmission replaced in it. My only thought is that it would give us a better deal if we did this. I have calculated the miles I put on my car since I've had it and have only put on 13,000 average per year. I can't remember if it had 69k or 79k when I bought it 7 years ago. So at the most, it's 13k/year. But I already know I'm going to be putting way less miles on it from here on out because my kid's' school is much closer now.

I think I may be done printing in pla as I'm getting great results in petg on my AD5X. Unless I have to print in multiple colors which I don't see myself doing that often or I'm just printing out some useless toy or model that I don't ever interact with.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the nozzle clog from pla, which I've never had happen to me on any of the 3 printers I've owned. I ended up ordering a new nozzle or hot end. I think I probably left the lid off and my door closed on my enclosure which caused heat creep. I still remove the lid when I'm printing in petg but so far I've not had any issues other than using some old Petg that didn't print very well even after drying it. There was probably only about 100g left on the roll so I tossed it.

Especially with the things I'm printing now which are fidgets and toys for my wife's special ed preschool class. Petg will be much stronger. And even if they break them, it will be easy to reprint them.

I currently have the Galaxy watch ultra 2025 and battery life is subpar. I charge it pretty much every other day and if I had to guess, I would get probably 2.5 days of usage if I don't do any workouts tracking anything other than my steps.

With the Watch Ultra 2 just around the corner, how much longer do you think the GWU2 is going to last! Will it get 3-3.5 days? Is this good enough to make you want to upgrade?

I know Samsung usually has good trade in deals but I'm on the fence as to whether the bump in battery is enough to keep me in the Samsung watch ecosystem. I have been considering going to Garmin for the better battery life but less smart features.

I am going to be switching from the Galaxy watch ultra to either the Garmin Instinct 3 amoled or solar. I know people who love Garmin and the instinct model swear by the solar model. I've heard some of the reasons and arguments from the solar crowd.

I want to hear from the amoled crowd and whether or not you're happy with your decision to get it and what made you decide on the amoled over the solar? Are you happy with the battery life on it? Would you buy the solar if you had to do it all over?

I want a rugged watch so I'm not interested in the Venu or Forerunners.

My main concern is that the switch from a smartwatch to a mip display on the Instinct 3 is going to be too abrupt of a change.

I'm currently using the GWU 2025 and don't use even a fraction of the features. I basically use it to change watch faces based on my mood and check who's texting or calling me so I don't have to pull my phone out. And to track my bike rides or walks a couple times a week. I do like the aesthetics of watches and have had a Garmin 165 and 255. I prefer an amoled screen to a mip.

Should I make the switch and sell my Watch Ultra and buy the Instinct 3? I can sell it for almost what the Instinct 3 costs. Will I regret the decision? I'm currently using a Samsung S25U.

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I currently have a Galaxy watch ultra that I only paid $200 for. I'm fairly certain I could sell it for close to that. But I'm currently weighing the option to sell it and use a digital sport watch. Does anyone have any recommendations for one for under $50usd? I used to have a huge Invicta metal analog watch and it was too heavy to wear all the time. It seems I always end up scratching my watch face or the watch itself or the thing would stop working.

I'd like to get a watch that is durable and rugged enough but also nice to wear for more formal occasions. I don't really like analog watches as I like to be able to see the time quickly especially in the dark. So a digital watch that has a light would be nice.

So obviously Casio and Timex watches come to mind.

I also work as a custodian or janitor so I have gotten used to getting text and call notifications on my watch while I'm working where I can quickly respond to or dismiss texts or calls without pulling my phone out of my pocket. I honestly don't care about the health tracking or health features. It's honestly more of a distraction to make sure it's tracking correctly.

I think the one feature I would miss the most is being able to change my watch face whenever I want and to make it look like whatever I want or need. Android Smart watches have the most customizable watch faces and have endless options. But I feel very distracted by it. I see more and more people, especially successful people, recognizing how much they don't need a smart watch and going back go non smart watches.

I'd like to hear what your favorite RDJ movie is. It could be pre Marvel or a Marvel movie. What is your favorite character that he plays. It doesn't even have to be a great movie.

It's always fun going back to watching him before he hit it big with Ironman. He definitely peaks during his time starring as him. I think peak Ironman was Age of Ultron. After that, it feels like he is less significant, although he is very important to the story.

I think my favorite character is Ironman but it's hard to nail down my favorite Marvel movie that he's in. He's great in all of them. He commands the screen when he's on it.

But I always enjoy going back to watch movies like Chances Are, Only You, and Heart and Souls. Those are my favorite RDJ nostalgia movies that he's in. In that order. Sure, the stories suck and are unbelievable, but they're just fun movies to watch. I honestly didn't see any of his earlier films that he was in. I also have never seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which I've heard is a good one and comes right before he's cast as Ironman. I enjoyed the Sherlock movies when I watched them the first time, but recently I tried to rewatch one of them and got bored.

I have a bigger appreciation for him after watching the documentary he did about his dad. If you haven't seen Sr. I highly recommend it. One day I'm going to watch every movie that he's been in that I haven't seen.

What are your favorites? Do you think he's underrated or overrated? Any movies he's been in that you think are underrated or overrated? If you don't like him as an actor, please tell me why you're wrong. I have so much respect for him for what he's overcome. It's rare for stars to get into drugs and not eventually relapse to the point of their life ending. We can all think of different actors and stars whose lives were cut short because of addiction.