The only excuse for putting barely 2K miles in a year on a new Civic Si is if some of the mods for your racing series of choice rendered it non street legal. And you weren't able to go racing as often as you wanted. :D I could understand only driving it in the summertime up in Dayton to keep it away from road salt, but not even driving it in the summer and only keeping it one year is just plain weird.
mad_machine wrote:93celicaGT2 wrote: What REALLY cracked me up about the new Si... The Mugen Si. Local dealer sold one for $32k. After doing some shopping, i found i could get a BMW 135i for the same price! Urrrhhmmm.... what just happened?Honda fan bois eat that car up.. and in their minds it is better than the faster, better handling, and better looking 135i
Seriously...
And i'm widely considered a Honda fan boi on most of the Celica boards, because i've had them, i love them, and will continue to do so.
But the new Si? Not a fan. Driving an EP3 Si vs. a new Si, the Ep3 is a far better car imo. I believe Top Gear said the same thing, too.
I just find it hard to justify the sticker shock when a Scion tC or last gen Celica GTS will keep up (tC) or eat it alive (Celica GTS) in every performance aspect, and cost WAYYYYYY less.
Have i mentioned how badly i HATE the interior on them, too?
Bobzilla wrote: I can't understand leases or trading cars every 2 years. Both boggle my mind.
For some people it is probably a good thing. One of my ex-bosses used to lease cars on the 2 year plan. For him it was good because he would often hit right at the max miliage he was allowed without penalty and he was a complete idiot in regards to cars and would probably screw up putting gas into his car if self serve were availible in NJ
I'm pretty sure I'll never get the "NEW" car thing, period, and I sure as hell wouldn't pay $30k for a berkeleying Civic. I can't figure out what the hell is going through people's heads when they make these kinds of purchases. I guess they're looking more at "how big of a monthly payment can I afford," rather than "holy crap, that's 30 THOUSAND dollars that I could invest instead of sinking into a depreciating asset!"
New can be a good thing. 0% interest doesn't hurt. New warranty. New cars typically break down less and will require a lot less hands on maintenance for the first 3-4 years. New is nice occasionally if you get the right deal.
For us it was 0% APR for 60 months, GM pricing and a cash trade-in of $5k. nothing like leaving the dealership with equity in your new vehicle.
I do/did this. I bought a new car, a coupe, that now sits in the garage and doesn't move. It's a two fold problem for me. First is that it's my dedicated autocross/fun car, I knew this when I bought it. It's the one I have fun with. So it has a very agressive alignment, custom built shocks, has the suspension package, straight pipe off the cat., etc. So it's not a pleasant car to daily drive long distances. Second is that it was bought before I knew I was going to have a second child. That requires four seats. I was getting by with putting my son in the front seat (allowed by law in a two seat car with the airbag turned off) to and from daycare.
On the berkeleying downside, the car has 5,000 miles on it and is trashed. It will need new paint and some body work if/when I sell it.
noisycricket wrote: The "nice car" is the rare old car. The daily beater is the new one. They're still MAKING new ones, after all. They aren't making any more 510s or Spridgets or what-have-you.
I drive my Spridget every day!
rob, how old is this car and how did you manage to ruin the paint in 5,000 miles? did it sit outside?
maroon92 wrote: try a Mercury Grand Marquis, 73% depreciation in one year... yay!
some of the local dealers are advertising 2008 Crown Vics for around $14,000. Of course they are rental cars.
But I figure easily 50% depreciation on around 12,000 miles.
rob, how old is this car and how did you manage to ruin the paint in 5,000 miles? did it sit outside?
dedicated autocross/fun car
...can be hell on paint.
I can relate.
My 99 Si sits in my garage 8 months out of the year, If I didn't have beaters, the amount of commuting I do would have driven it into the ground by now.
Also, over the summer when premium was $4.35/gal it would have sucked to commute a 90-100 mile round trip daily in it.
It was a daily driver for 4 years. It's still pristine because further years of New England winter commuting didn't get the chance to rape it and another 100k+ miles didn't go on it. It has 88k on the odo at the moment. Gets maybe 2-3k a year put on it.
It's the only car I put (relative) ton of mods into and I like it the way it is. I plan on keeping it for a long time, so I don't mind that I only drive it a few months out of the year. I still like to auto-x it and it's set up nicely to do so.
I also like that it's up there w/ some of the nicest-preserved 99-00 Si's out there (Many have made that comment about my car)
Tell him that for $27,000 he can buy a well restored or even a survivor classic car that will be worth MORE when he chooses to sell it (provided he takes car of it).
Buying and selling classics is the redneck stock market and it pays better too.
Shawn
I buy cars, drive the piss out of them, and enjoy them. I maintain them, I maintain them! I put 80,000 miles on the Z3 in 4 years. She and I have been on many a trip together. It's time for her to find a new home though. I always keep the idea that I'll eventually have to sell a car in the back of my mind.
I generally go "long term" when I buy a car. I tend to put uber amount of miles on them (30K+ a year) and drive them hard.
I have only actually sold two of my many cars of the 20+ years I have been driving, most of them time I run them until they either rot away or somebody else kills them with another vehicle.
That said, for the first time in my life I have two DDs. The BMW is going to remain my warm weather DD and the Saab my colder weather DD. We do not get much snow here, and they no longer use salt, so I cannot really call it a beater.
The saab is also a nicer car to drive long distances. With it's stiff coilover suspension, swaybars, and wider and sticker wheels, the same cannot be said for the BImmer
poopshovel wrote:rob, how old is this car and how did you manage to ruin the paint in 5,000 miles? did it sit outside?dedicated autocross/fun car...can be hell on paint.
Sticky tires lift up and throw every stone they come upon. Since the front tires barely sit under the fenders, every turn throws rocks down along the doors and hits the body right in front of the read tires. I ran on one lot that sounded like I was rallycrossing. Hitting cones leaves plastic melted on the paint that comes off, but if there is debris on the cones (dirt and grime kicked up when it's wet) it can leaves scratches down the plastic. I also centerpunched a cone with 3 pointers and it broke my front lip.
I have 7 cars in rotation. I drive the new car and let the older onse sit.
My new car is a 5 month old Saturn Astra. I wanted a cheap no frills 4 door auto. I got a great deal on it. Its gets 25mpg around town and i use it for work. This means I drive it to the airport and it sits for a few days.
My other cars are all manual transmissions. They are more fun to drive when I dont have to deal with traffic.
So I took a different approach. My old cars. The Classic mini, The Baur BMW , Saab 99 and the 67 Mustang sit most of the time and only see about 2000 miles a year.
The new car and other BMWs and Dually tow vehicle are driven .
B
Your buddy just hasn't learned the hard lesson of new-car depreciation yet. He'll either get it, or he won't- some never do. I've bought one new car, and I think it'll be quite some time and require a lot of soul searching before I buy another. We were upside down on it (therefore stuck with it) for like 4 years after we bought it; when we finally got it paid off, my wife and I both did a little dance.
Rules of my house: -One car note at a time, at most. Prefer to have none, but it may be a few years before we get there. -Wife's daily has to be reliable. Once it starts having problems, it's time to reevaluate and/or swap stuff around. -I'll drive whatever. Hopefully it's at least a little interesting. I'd rather drive old and quirky than new and shiny, so long as the quirky thing doesn't strand me too much. -Which leads me to point 4- we keep at least one spare.
I don't understand not driving any car. If I have it, it gets used; old, new, it doesn't matter. I don't buy any car to sit around and polish it and imagine how great it is to drive. After all, a car is a car and it's meant to be driven, be it a Civic, BMW, or a Ferrari. Or in my case, a Miata and 240Z. They both get used even if they are 30 years apart in age.
Count me in on the "not fond" of the new Civic. I really dislike the dash and that's enough for me not to buy one. I mean you spend more time looking at the dash than anything else in the whole car, so to me, it should at least be inspiring. The Civic is just odd in that respect.
And like most people on here, I hate buying a new car and taking that depreciation hit. The first year is the worst, and now, with new cars so cheap, it makes a used one a tough sell.
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