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The bigger weight of an SUV makes it safer in a crash, so everyone should buy SUVs, which makes it just about the same as car v. car crashes, so people shouldn't bother buying SUVs.
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Oct 26, 2016 17:10
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I went and drove the RDX... It's really nice. However, car selling tactics have not changed. The sales manager was a douche and said "Let me earn your business" about 4 times in the 5 minutes we spoke. Interestingly, he was not interested in negotiating price at all. "I know this is the lowest priced AWD, Tech package, Certified RDX in the entire Midwest" How else do you want to earn my business? A backrub? I know this car has been sitting on your lot for 5 months, the oil change sticker is still on the windshield. I'll legitimately buy it for a couple grand less.... Now I'm off to drive a CRV, a Rogue, and a CX5.
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Oct 26, 2016 17:52
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Mr. Powers posted:The bigger weight of an SUV makes it safer in a crash, so everyone should buy SUVs, which makes it just about the same as car v. car crashes, so people shouldn't bother buying SUVs. This isn't correct. Weight is but one component of SUVs increased safety. Not to mention that car vs car fatalities are less than half of car fatalities.
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Oct 26, 2016 19:07
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Proposed Budget: $25,000(ish) New or Used: New How will you be using the car?: Mostly commuting - 2 hour round trip, 120+ miles per day Do you prefer a luxury vehicle with all the gizmos?: I don't need every bell and whistle, but good Bluetooth is a must. What aspects are most important to you? : Reliability, MPG, Cost of Ownership, Ability to accelerate on the highway, handling in a couple of inches of snow I'm one of the lucky folks who has a Golf TDI involved in the buyback. As such, I need a new car - and quickly, it seems, as I'm getting a scraping sound when turning right, so I don't want to put any more money into repairs. As much as I like the handling and sporty feel of the Golf, the cost of ownership for VW is too high, and I have had too many repair issues with this car, so VW is on my poo poo list. I have a decent commute, so I spend 2+ hours per day in the car - comfort is a concern. I'm also 6 feet tall, so a seat that isn't deep enough to support my legs isn't going to cut it (our Forester has bad seats.) As stated, I don't need all sorts of tech in the car (more points of failure) but I do want a Bluetooth system that 1) works reliably; and 2) can support more than one phone. In other words, if my wife drives the car without me, I want for the system to connect to her phone without having to delete the original phone and re-pair her phone and contacts (the 2016 Forester's BT system is a complete joke and I totally hate it.) With my commute, I need something that can reliably hold up to 30,0000-ish miles per year and gets good mileage (I get 42mpg in the Golf, which is one thing I'll miss.) Since I do a lot of highway driving, I want a car that can accelerate to pass if needed - the TDI is great for the extra push (and is peppy on the drive.) Finally, I live in Connecticut, so we do get snow once in a while. The Golf handles pretty well with all-seasons, and I'd like something where I don't have to throw winter tires on at the first sign of a flake (I had an HHR that would fishtail in any accumulation of rain or snow, and that was terrifying.) I'm not planning on driving offroad in a blizzard, but I'd like to get home from work if there happens to be a couple of inches on the ground. I've been looking at: Mazda3 5-door- Concerned with lack of information regarding long-term reliability, winter handling Prius 2 or 3 - Concerned with winter handling, highway pickup Honda Civic Hatch - Consumer Reports dropped the Civic from their "most reliable" list due to electrical and infotainment issues I know it's a lot to take in, but any thoughts on the above? Anything else I should look at? berzerkmonkey fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Oct 26, 2016 |
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Oct 26, 2016 19:17
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Toyota Camry? It is appliance-like but the engine gives you pep and decent MPG, similar to the Civic. Do you really need highway pickup? I may give the Prius another look. 30k miles per year is quite a lot, you're looking at serious cash on the table unless your mileage is reimbursed. Michael Scott fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Oct 26, 2016 |
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Oct 26, 2016 19:31
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I Love Topanga posted:However, car selling tactics have not changed. The sales manager was a douche and said "Let me earn your business" about 4 times in the 5 minutes we spoke. Interestingly, he was not interested in negotiating price at all. "I know this is the lowest priced AWD, Tech package, Certified RDX in the entire Midwest" How else do you want to earn my business? A backrub? I know this car has been sitting on your lot for 5 months, the oil change sticker is still on the windshield. I'll legitimately buy it for a couple grand less.... Next day, got on a plane, flew, bought car, drove home. Local guy still e-mailing me a month later, wants to know when I'm gonna come in and look at it.
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Oct 26, 2016 20:00
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Michael Scott posted:Toyota Camry? It is appliance-like but the engine gives you pep and decent MPG, similar to the Civic. I do need the pickup - I cruise at about 70mph, but in CT, all we have are two-lane highways, so a lot of time, it's necessary to zip out and pass an idiot casino bus doing 50 in the left lane. I don't get mileage reimbursement, so it is what it is. We bought a house halfway between my and my wife's work locations, so there isn't much I can do about that at this point, unfortunately.
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Oct 26, 2016 20:01
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berzerkmonkey posted:Proposed Budget: $25,000(ish) You should buy a Prius, but if you want to continue your diesel douche lifestyle GM made a Cruze diesel for the last generation. http://www.autoblog.com/2015/03/30/cruze-diesel-road-trip-good-bad-no-ugly/ There's also going to be a diesel for the current generation too but its not out yet.
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Oct 26, 2016 20:18
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Throatwarbler posted:You should buy a Prius, but if you want to continue your diesel douche lifestyle GM made a Cruze diesel for the last generation. I'm not stuck on diesel - I pretty much bought the TDI for the economy and longevity of the engine. I didn't know about the Cruze though -I'll check it out as well. Thanks.
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Oct 26, 2016 20:32
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Just buy the prius. It won't do any worse in the winter than an fwd vw and unless you're terrified of pressing the go pedal all the way down, you'll be fine. Basically every car made today is fast enough for everything. I drive a 100hp car as well as a fairly modified turbo subaru, and the slow one is just fine, even for passing if you actually floor it (and downshift because manual supremacy). People have an irrational fear of actually going WOT and it causes them to buy 300hp gas guzzlers they don't need because they think they'll break the car or die if they move the gas pedal more than a half-inch. Al gore's kid got his prius to 108 on a crowded LA freeway, you'll do fine. Edit: the stock prius tires are going to kinda suck in the winter, even compared to other all seasons because they are LRR, but as you're looking at used cars anyhow, the car probably needs new shoes anyhow. You should get winter tires anyhow. They're not for every day, but they'll save your rear end when some jackass runs a light in front of you in a snowy intersection. nm fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Oct 26, 2016 |
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Oct 26, 2016 20:39
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nm posted:Just buy the prius. It won't do any worse in the winter than an fwd vw and unless you're terrified of pressing the go pedal all the way down, you'll be fine. I drive a tiny 120HP Ford Fiesta and it's squirelly on the highway at 80+ MPH but it is more than fast enough for the city. Passing is a piece of cake. No one goes WOT. berzer, test drive the Prius again and go WOT, I am imagining passing a bus won't really be an issue. You will save thousands of bucks and it lasts for as long as you want to drive an old car.
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Oct 26, 2016 21:02
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Put that Prius into PWR mode and hammer it. They're plenty fast for the highway.
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Oct 26, 2016 21:09
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Michael Scott posted:I drive a tiny 120HP Ford Fiesta and it's squirelly on the highway at 80+ MPH but it is more than fast enough for the city. Passing is a piece of cake. No one goes WOT. I haven't driven the Prius yet, but it certainly isn't out of the running. And passing buses isn't really the issue, but more being able to get that punch of speed to get out and pass whatever I need to, in whatever short window I need. nm posted:Edit: the stock prius tires are going to kinda suck in the winter, even compared to other all seasons because they are LRR, but as you're looking at used cars anyhow, the car probably needs new shoes anyhow. You should get winter tires anyhow. They're not for every day, but they'll save your rear end when some jackass runs a light in front of you in a snowy intersection. What kind of life cycle do you get with the Prius battery? I had a friend whose battery started failing after about 10 years. With the mileage I'm going to put on the car, I don't want to have to replace the battery after 4-5 years (I know nothing about hybrid batteries.)
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Oct 26, 2016 21:26
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berzerkmonkey posted:I haven't driven the Prius yet, but it certainly isn't out of the running. And passing buses isn't really the issue, but more being able to get that punch of speed to get out and pass whatever I need to, in whatever short window I need. It will probably take you ~250k miles before replacement is advisable. Degradation will be very subtle and barely perceptible over those 250k. Replacement will then cost maybe 1 or 2k.
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Oct 26, 2016 21:28
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The tires are excellent for maximizing fuel economy. People are stupid about tires.
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Oct 26, 2016 21:41
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I posted yesterday about getting a 2017 Ford Fusion SE, EcoBoost for a good price. The dealership suggested I might like the Focus more (and I do think it's much more fun to drive), and it's cheaper. Is there anything standing out about it that is bad with the 2016 Focus SE, 2.0L I4 GDI engine (6-speed automatic) model? Thanks.
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Oct 26, 2016 21:52
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Yes the transmission is junk. Buy the manual or a different car.
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Oct 26, 2016 22:33
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Crap, but thank you for that. Is the Fusion still ok - With the 1.5L GDTI ecoboost engine? ...how about the Fiesta? Edit: are you sure the problems weren't fixed in 2013+? Tenacious J fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Oct 27, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 00:57
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Thermopyle posted:Modern SUV's are safer according to the statistics. I'm not going to argue about it, only to say that electronic stability control won't do poo poo when you're t-boned in an intersection.
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Oct 27, 2016 01:22
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Tenacious J posted:I posted yesterday about getting a 2017 Ford Fusion SE, EcoBoost for a good price. The dealership suggested I might like the Focus more (and I do think it's much more fun to drive), and it's cheaper. Is there anything standing out about it that is bad with the 2016 Focus SE, 2.0L I4 GDI engine (6-speed automatic) model? Thanks. Don't believe the poster that played into the negative hype about the latest Ford DCT (PowerShift). I believe people who don't like it are accustomed to either manuals or automatic slushboxes. The DCT is smooth, accurate, and quick to shift. However, it has a different feeling (not worse, just different) than a regular manual or a regular automatic. Read professional reviews, not anecdotes, about the transmission. If you liked driving the Focus or Fiesta, buy it. I bought a Fiesta with the PowerShift and it's fun and good. I am referring to newer models (I bought a 2015). I believe older generations of PowerShift (2008-2012 or so) had production issues which have been largely ironed out with TCM firmware updates and manufacturing differences. I like this guy, Micah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O_appYMgqE Michael Scott fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Oct 27, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 01:31
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JnnyThndrs posted:I'm not going to argue about it, only to say that electronic stability control won't do poo poo when you're t-boned in an intersection. That doesn't matter.
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Oct 27, 2016 02:51
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Michael Scott posted:It will probably take you ~250k miles before replacement is advisable. Degradation will be very subtle and barely perceptible over those 250k. Replacement will then cost maybe 1 or 2k. That's good to know. Thanks. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:The tires are excellent for maximizing fuel economy. People are stupid about tires.
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Oct 27, 2016 12:41
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Winter tires for the winter, stock tires for the summer. Don't use winter tires in the summer. I still wouldn't buy a Ford DCT. If you take VW DSG as an example, it is far more expensive to service and requires more frequent service intervals. There's very little point other than packaging and a very slight increase in fuel economy (plus Ford getting to brag about their High Tech Transmissions etc).
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Oct 27, 2016 13:42
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Winter tires for the winter, stock tires for the summer. Don't use winter tires in the summer. It's been hard for me to find info on this but it appears the 1.0L ecoboost 6-speed automatic is a conventional automatic, not DCT (PowerShift). Can anyone confirm that? And if it is, it looks like the car would be fine otherwise?
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Oct 27, 2016 13:57
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Ford is up to some crazy poo poo with transmissions right now; 10 speed autos are now a thing.
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Oct 27, 2016 13:58
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Winter tires for the winter, stock tires for the summer. Don't use winter tires in the summer. You won't have to worry about that because like all good automotive components the Powershift is sealed for life and has no maintenance intervals.  https://www.motor.com/newsletters/20100722/WebFiles/ID2_ShiftingGears.html quote:"A dual dry-clutch transmission provides some real dividends on small- and medium-sized car applications," explains Piero Aversa, Ford's of Automatic Transmission Engineering. "The transmission improves efficiency, increases smoothness, adds durability and is sealed with low-friction gear lubricant for the 150,000-mile projected life of the vehicle. This transmission requires no regular maintenance." The "point" is that Ford gets to save $2 per car using a poo poo transmission. I bet Toyota's projected life of a Corolla, a well know non-lovely maker of non-lovely cars who also happens to be the biggest maker of transmissions on the world and well known avoider of dead-end technologies like dual clutch transmissions, is more than 150k miles. Throatwarbler fucked around with this message at 14:10 on Oct 27, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 14:02
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Tenacious J posted:It's been hard for me to find info on this but it appears the 1.0L ecoboost 6-speed automatic is a conventional automatic, not DCT (PowerShift). Can anyone confirm that? And if it is, it looks like the car would be fine otherwise? That's correct. You can get a conventional automatic on the 1.0L Ecoboost SE Ecoboost Appearance Package, and that's it. I think the 1.0L EcoBoost Focus is a bit underengined, though. It's a good engine in the Fiesta, but it's down substantially in both power and torque over the 2.0L Ti-VCT.
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Oct 27, 2016 14:10
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Ok thank you. I made the blunder of already getting pre-approved at ford for the 0% interest over 84 months deal, before finding out about the transmission stuff. So now I'm trying to figure out if the Fiesta ecoboost is the Best Buy (or Fusion), or cut my losses and get an Asian car that has an interest rate. The Fiesta is a fine car for me, just I have minor concerns about winter and don't think it looks all that good.
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Oct 27, 2016 14:16
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Why is that a blunder? You haven't committed to buy a car.
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Oct 27, 2016 14:25
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It was a hard credit-check, I believe. Don't want too many of those.
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Oct 27, 2016 14:33
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I don't mean to spam this thread, but I'm getting decision fatigue on this matter. I need a new vehicle asap, but nothing so far really feels right. Under $28k, daily driving 100km, and Canadian winters. Honda Civic/Fit maybe, but there are no current incentives compared to makes like Ford, or to a lesser extent, Kia and Hyundai. Toyota has a small incentive this month too, I suppose. Any suggestions appreciated, even if only to put an end to my posting. Thanks.
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Oct 27, 2016 15:28
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Tenacious J posted:I don't mean to spam this thread, but I'm getting decision fatigue on this matter. I need a new vehicle asap, but nothing so far really feels right. Under $28k, daily driving 100km, and Canadian winters. Honda Civic/Fit maybe, but there are no current incentives compared to makes like Ford, or to a lesser extent, Kia and Hyundai. Toyota has a small incentive this month too, I suppose. Any suggestions appreciated, even if only to put an end to my posting. Thanks. Just buy the Fusion, it was fine. The dealership thinks you'd like a Focus because they'll somehow get more out of selling you a Focus. As a Focus owner who also spends a lot of time getting driven around in a Fusion, the Fusion is a much nicer car and you'll enjoy it.
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Oct 27, 2016 15:55
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Tenacious J posted:It was a hard credit-check, I believe. Don't want too many of those. I agree with the just buy a Fusion, but I wanted to comment on this: You're worrying too much about hard credit checks. As long as you don't go crazy and get like 20, it will temporarily decrease your score a few points. Then it will rapidly go back up.
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Oct 27, 2016 16:36
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Most non-manual transmission manufacturers 'seal' their trannies with 'lifetime' fluid that should be replaced after 150k miles or so. The modern Ford DCT is fine and should be as reliable as a traditional slushbox. I would bet $10k on it. The Fusion is a drat nice car at an appropriate price point and I like the styling, too. Were you considering the Fiesta hatch or sedan? I got the sedan.   Are you saying the DCT has no replaceable fluid at all? That would suck.. however I'm already committed! Michael Scott fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Oct 27, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 16:55
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I really like the Fusion. Except MyFord Touch is horrible trash. (I haven't messed with Ford's new infotainment interface...has that made it to the Fusion yet?)
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Oct 27, 2016 17:48
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Sync3 is pretty nice. The 2017 Fusion should have it. The only thing I hate about it, is if you have your iPhone plugged in (and using CarPlay), you can't for some reason use the built in Nav, the only option seems to be Apple Maps. Waze and Google Maps are a no go either. The built in Nav is actually really good, something I never thought I would say.
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Oct 27, 2016 18:02
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Michael Scott posted:Most non-manual transmission manufacturers 'seal' their trannies with 'lifetime' fluid that should be replaced after 150k miles or so. No, almost all automatic transmissions, certainly any that are expected to be reliable, do have specified fluid and filter intervals, usually around 40k miles. Some companies like VW don't, because actually pretty much everything VW says or claims about their cars is either wrong or a lie, so longtime VW owners know better than to listen to them. quote:Are you saying the DCT has no replaceable fluid at all? That would suck.. however I'm already committed! There are basically 3 types of DCT and they have very different characteristics: Wet clutch DSGs use fluid to both cool the inner workings of the box and to control the acutation of the clutches and gear changes, that is the fluid is actually used in the same way that a slush box auto's valve body. These were introduced originally in higher performance transverse VAG cars in the early 2000s and immediately got a poor reputation for reliability because much of the maintenance schedules published by VW - intervals, and even the type of fluid, turned out to be wrong and were later changed. Once VW figured out what type of fluid you are supposed to put in the gear box reliability improved to somewhat tolerable levels although the actual maintenance required was still often and expensive. In theory if these were made and implemented by a company that actually knew what they were doing they could be OK in terms of reliability, and the ZF built longitudinal DSGs used by BMW, Hi-po Audis and Porsches seem to be mostly OK. Dry clutch DSGs use clutches that are basically just like the clutches in a normal manual transmission, and everything is actuated and controlled by electronic sensors and solenoids. These are actually used a lot more in poorer markets outside the US, e.g. VW uses them in almost all their models, but never used them in any of their North American market cars, preferring instead to just buy regular auto boxes from Toyota. This has been great for them because all dry clutch DSGs including the VW ones are terrible and hated by everyone. The principle advantage of the DSG is that because it's literally just a manual transmission with some more poo poo tacked on the end (Porsche 911's manual transmission is actually just a DSG with the extra poo poo chopped off) so they can be built very cheaply without much additional investment by low cost suppliers or the intellectual property that goes into making a regular slushbox which is expensive and mostly controlled by companies like ZF and Aisin/Toyota. DSGs can change gears very quickly *if* you are just going through the gears in sequence, faster than the slushbox autos of 15 years ago. The slushboxes of today are essentially just as fast though so there is no real advantage in that respect, although there might still be a cost advantage in a similar comparison. They can be lighter and smaller especially the dry clutch type boxes. The dry clutch types in theory are more efficient than a slushbox, since again it's really just a manual, but this is rarely true in actual use because making the electronics actually work properly and smoothly and reliably is very difficult. The wet clutch types are more reliable but give up most of the efficiency advantage because the fluids still need to flow. Both types have the disadvantage that if you ever have to shift gears out of sequence they are slow and dumb, and that certain kinds of driving, like say inching through traffic, or hill starts, are just inherently bad for the clutches and there's no real away around that because at then end of the day you're still asking the dumb computer to figure out what to do based on your gas pedal when it really should also have a human controlled clutch, and having 2 clutches doesn't help in slow traffic or hillstarts so they basically have all the problems of the old single clutch automated manuals like BMW SMG. Well there is a way around that I guess, which is the third type of DSG - Honda's DSG that adds a torque converter to the end of the box, so in start/stop traffic and hill starts it basically just acts like a slushbox. In theory this should be reliable but really it's fairly obvious that Honda does this so that they can make these things in house without infringing on any auto transmission related patents controlled by other carmakers, and not because there's any real technical advantage, and this is something that Honda has traditionally done with all their transmissions. The most efficient cars on the road still use regular slushboxes or CVTs. I mean I haven't heard anything too terrible about the Hyundai or the Mercedes/Infiniti boxes yet, but why bother? There's absolutely no advantage to the consumer, it's all just either corporate cost cutting or behind the scenes fighting over patents. Even if you were shopping for hi performance cars I am almost certain the slushbox equipped C7 Corvette is faster than any equivalent dual clutch equipped performance car.
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Oct 27, 2016 18:26
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What are the thoughts on the 2017 Civics? I had mentioned them previously, but I'm concerned about the issues people were having with the 2016 models. have those problems been ironed out at this point?
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Oct 27, 2016 18:28
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berzerkmonkey posted:What are the thoughts on the 2017 Civics? I had mentioned them previously, but I'm concerned about the issues people were having with the 2016 models. have those problems been ironed out at this point? They have not. I was really keen on the hatchback model but am leaning more toward a Mazda 3. No loving volume knob is so preposterous
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Oct 27, 2016 19:32
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Ammanas posted:They have not. I was really keen on the hatchback model but am leaning more toward a Mazda 3. drat. Of course the year I am up for buying a new car, Honda shoots itself in the foot. I guess I can be thankful I didn't pick one up last year and have to deal with the problems first hand. Speaking of Mazda, I was looking at the the 3 as well - have you been able to find any stats on reliability? I've been coming up pretty short in that department, and it's one of the things steering me away from them. US News rates the 3 really highly, but gives them a 3 out of 5 on reliability, which is only slightly higher than the problem-filled TDI I currently own. I really don't want to be in the shop all the time with repairs that I shouldn't have to do. berzerkmonkey fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Oct 27, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 20:09
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