A Horse With No Name

...it is still a lot sexier than that abomination you were showing us in the Acura thread. But actually, given the choice between 1. Spending my money on a current Acura product 2. Spending my money on a current Hyundai product Or 3. Being bitten by a large, angry rabid dog... I would choose the dog. The pain would only last a few weeks, and rabies can be dealt with by a series of shots. Painfull, yes, but better than 60 months of payments on either. Chris

Thankfully, I can buy a Civic, which is a great car and built here in Ohio. Or if I go for the SI version, it's built in Canada. Chris

Seriously, most Prius owners I know are getting 45-55 m.p.g. out of them, and I have known quite a few that have gone well over 100k without battery issues. The Volt cannot get here soon enough. That being said, there is just something that says "class" about a German diesel. My son Joel and I are probably going to join the local Columbus TDI Volkswagen group (a couple of guys in the local Miata club invited us to Fridays club meeting.) Also, Steve, my body guy/mechanic that helps me on all of my cars has a receptionist/secretary who is married to a guy named Chavez. Chavez runs a garage that mostly deals with Benz, esp. older Benz. They have tried to talk me into benz ownership several times. The last car was a pristine always garaged late 80's diesel with only about 80k on the clock, for $3200. It was white and looked great! But I am thinking if I go diesel it will be VW. Latest MPG,running through the wilds of Ohio with the Miata club and not being gentle, was 26.7 in the Miata. Oh, and Sixty eight...we are running a caravan with the Miata club to Aubrun IN. for the Aubrun-Cord-Dusenberg weekend. If I can break away and go I'll think about you. Oh, and Dodgefan, I thought of you when the Mopar nationals were in town...Joel and I went out to Brice Road and watched the action. We pulled in the BP station next to a Coronet R/t convertible down on Brioce while we were waiting for the action to start. Do you suppose the 440 4V in the Coronet might possibly "outgun" the 1.8 in my Miata? Chris

Kieth Tanner, who is into Miatas and has written several Miata books actually has a blog somewhere about driving his Miata across Canada with his girlfriend. I want to do the same with mine...given the pic I know a stop I want to make! Chris

Economy here is not super strong but Columbus is a great place to live. Overgrown college town, actually. Chris

I was born in Appleton and haven't been back since 1965. I plan to visit someday. Chris

+1 Chris

+1 Chris

And actually, I find it interesting that even my friends that will only buy Japanese cars find this model Acura hideous. Chris

We have a client at work who has several family memebers who compete in Derby's all over the midwest. They have run a lot of cars which started out MUCH nicer than this. Sad to say, but true. Chris

Who said you were laughing alone? Trust me, there are plenty of other people out here laughing with you. Chris

+1 Chris

Actually I was the foreman for the electrical work in the downtown Y, I can tell you some stories.... Chris

QUOTE(moltar @ Aug 7 2008, 06:20 PM) [snapback]417875[/snapback]The '60s Mustangs have been in a few cases related to gas tanks because of the absurd drop-in gas tank design (the tank fits through a hole in the trunk floor, exposed inside the car). There was a big lawsuit involving the '78 Malibu also. Another bad thing about alot of old cars were the fuel fillers on the rear panel or behind the rear license plate..seems like a bad place for a fuel filler. Perahps the dumbest MUSTANG design of the era was the 69-70 Shelby. IIRC, the exhaust exited center under the rear, right under the fuel filler location. Darwin at work again, courtesy of FORD. Although in 40 years the number of Mustang accidents where fire is the result of rear end collisions is no greater than any other 60's car. Chris

The problem with this is that the middle class, the traditional buyers of these cars, is shrinking rapidly in this country. Given our economic situation, perhaps GM needs to build busses for city bus routes instead. Chris

Your imitating CARBIZ and enzl in that reality addict thing.... Chris

This means alas even cars like the VW GTI (which wiegh as much as a first gen Camaro) will weigh about what a fully loaded Thunderbird did before Ford did away with it... OUCH! Chris

Actually you bring up a good point...the big C and B pillars of todays cars are wide enough to support the Brooklyn Bridge. It is MUCH easier to see out of an older 50's or 60's era car. Chris

Ditto here, but around me most of the pick em ups are driven by contractors and farmers, and most of them don't do stupid stuff. But go into any junkyard and you will (thankfully!) find a ton of Kia, Toyota, Jeep Compass, etc. which have been rolled over. Chris

Where I live...just outside of Columbus Ohio between Grove City and Commercial Point, in an area called Southern Point. It's nice, kind of semi rural, the city is not growing much in my direction. Lots of houses in my area are on 5 or ten acres, and there are horse farms and log cabins around where I live. My only claim to fame in where I live is actually my 12 year old daughter Joanna's 7th Grade Computer technology teacher. She is Mrs. Fisher, mother of Indy car racer Sarah Fisher. Chris

GM has an EMD locomotive plant in Toronto, right? So it can't all be bad... Seriously, my wife and I were going to visit Toronto on our honeymoon and didn't, kind of glad we skipped it. If you want a liveable gay friendly city with lots of Domestic cars, bring your partner and move to Columbus Ohio. Low real estate prices, LOTS of domestic cars, very laid back place to live. Chris

Thankfully it still comes with a 6MT. The 6MT would push this car ahead of say the Malibu for me, which only comes with an automatic. Let us know what your impressions are when you drive this beast, please. Chris

It's perhaps not as horrible as we are making it out to be, but Acura won't be getting any of my $. IMHO it is still buck ugly. Chris

QUOTE(Sixty8panther @ Aug 7 2008, 05:00 PM) [snapback]417861[/snapback]A word about the famous Pinto accident: - Those girls had JUST FILLED UP that little POS with a full tank of gas - They never put their gas cap back on - It was a dumb move to stop the car half in the slow lane of a highway So let's recap: four young naive girls pull over on the highway and get promptly rear-ended by an 18-wheeled, 20-ton truck.... the open gas tank gushes raw, fresh gasoline out of the filler neck and all over the twised wreck which is now a huge jailcell, contorted into a solid ball of bent up metal. You know what would have helped their chances? A DOT-mandated fire extinguisher in the semi. BTW: You know that little spring loaded-flap that partially closes the fuel filler neck on your car when you take the nossle out of the neck? Thank those girls for that invention. Yeah... there's millions of those retards out there. These people, that think cars age like a fine wine even if kept under a pine tree parked on a soggy muff of moss. These retards are the ones who ensure the cars end up at a junkyard as.... junk, or at best, if they aree lucky they end up as parts cars. It's a sad epidemic, I call it "Barrett Jackson syndrome" You know: I saw some '71 Plymouth something-or-other with a 426 HEMI and white convertible top go through auction on TV the other day for $2,500,000 and still NOT MEET reserve... so OBVIOUSLY my '72 Fury III 4-door hardtop HAS to be worth something like $20,000. Who cares if it does not run, and the heads to the rusty-squirrel-nest 440 blockare in the trunk... and the car has not run in 12 years or been moved under it's own power since 1989.... Oh, and BTW: the carb ran a bit rich when I last drove it so you - might - want to have that rebuilt along with the transmission that has some metal shavings on the dipstick.... It might be a good idea... Okay, seriously $18,500 FIRM, and I keep all the 8-tracks in the glovebox. +1 on the D.O.T. Fire Extinguisher. As much as I get frustrated with government, I'm glad in a way for the DOT. After that horrible Amtrack accident that killed 16 people in the 80's, after that Conrail engeneer was high on Mary J...I am glad to have DOT drug testing for example. Although I have no problem if people want to do that on their own time. ...and +1 on B-J Syndrome.... Chris

+1 Chris