I'm actually thinking about getting a 2015 Honda Civic SE--the vehicle is a bit longer than the Fit but the R18 engine in that car pulls pretty strongly "off the line." And the vehicle is only a few hundred more than the 2015 Honda Fit EX.
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Your Past, Present, and Future Car
- Thread starter AustinIllini
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I'm actually thinking about getting a 2015 Honda Civic SE--the vehicle is a bit longer than the Fit but the R18 engine in that car pulls pretty strongly "off the line." And the vehicle is only a few hundred more than the 2015 Honda Fit EX.
Last week I traded in my 2013 Ford Focus for a 2015 Toyota Tacoma.
I've been toying around with buying a truck for years, and a recent cancer diagnosis and a summer of chemotherapy to look forward to made me do it sooner rather than later. Sometimes you just have to go for it!
I've been in Texas for 10 years and it may be rubbing off on me!
I've been toying around with buying a truck for years, and a recent cancer diagnosis and a summer of chemotherapy to look forward to made me do it sooner rather than later. Sometimes you just have to go for it!
I've been in Texas for 10 years and it may be rubbing off on me!
I am 40 and have had 3 my cars in my life. I take care of them then drive them into the ground.
1st car -- 1968 El Camino
2nd car- 1986 Olds cutlass
Present car- 1999 Honda Civic Si
If I were to buy a new vehicle today, would most likely be a new Honda CRV AWD EX-L
1st car -- 1968 El Camino
2nd car- 1986 Olds cutlass
Present car- 1999 Honda Civic Si
If I were to buy a new vehicle today, would most likely be a new Honda CRV AWD EX-L
I've had my TJ for about10 years, it replaced a CJ5. I'll replace the TJ with a Scrambler when the time comes.
A bit of jealousy here. When my 2010 Expedition was totaled (hail), I downsized to a 2014 Kia Soul with all the bells and whistles, since rarely did I ever carry anyone with me in the truck, only music gear.
I love driving the Kia, but geez Louise, I miss having the extra room inside.
There are actually some DeLoreans that were made with even fibreglass frames. I have seen plently of fully painted DeLoreans.DeLoreans not exactly known for their reliability or practical ownership (especailly since the newest one is from 1983). They were manufactured for only 2 years, mostly because of quality issues and the fact no one bought them which created financial issues. So they're rare. Parts are actually not too tough to find or terribly expensive since they went out of business with a lot of parts on hand. There is a company that still manufactures parts for them and I believe the engines were sourced from another car company (Peugeot?). They're electrical nightmares from what I hear.
The entire car is not fiberglass... The interior shell/underbody of the car is fiberglass.
Image
The exterior is stainless steel panels*. It still has a steel frame. So yes, the body won't rust, but the frame still can rust, which is the biggest rust concern in anyways. If you're worried about asthetics, stainless steal doesn't allow for much repair, you'd really have to replace the entire body panel. You can't bondo it, easily paint it, remove deep scratches, etc.. and it scratches and fingerprints easily.
My neighbor growing up had quite a car collection, including a DeLorean for a while. It'd be a cool car to own, but not a practical daily driver.
What are the "useless" features of a radio in a new car?
EDIT: *Unless you get the gold plated edition
EDIT #2: I just read the wikipedia page on the DeLorean DMC-12. Apparently they made fiberglass paneled DMC-12's for "training" purposes but were never marketed. Regardless, the frame will still rust.
The Useless features of new radios are:
- Satelite Radio (AM/FM RADIO IS FREE)
- touch screen (Distraction and accident waiting to happen)
- SatNav (eventually maps wont be available and then itll be worthless)
- Bluetooth Streaming
- DROID/iPod/iPhone intergration (not everyone has one of these)
I would like to revise my list:
Past: NONE
Current: 2001 Daewoo Lanos S Sedan, 2001 Chevrolet Impala LS
Future: 2004 era Dodge Stratus (Daily Driver), DeLorean (Collector), and various other Daily Driver/Collectable options which I have no defined mindset on.
Past: NONE
Current: 2001 Daewoo Lanos S Sedan, 2001 Chevrolet Impala LS
Future: 2004 era Dodge Stratus (Daily Driver), DeLorean (Collector), and various other Daily Driver/Collectable options which I have no defined mindset on.
I've done a bunch of reading on the DMC-12 as I find it a fascinating car, as well as the story of the company. I have two books about it's history in my collection. So here are my thoughts...
1. Painted Deloreans are still all painted stainless steel and thus still prone to the difficulties of maintaining stainless steel. SS is also difficult to adhere paint (amongst other things) to, so the paint is less durable and would require more maintenance/paint jobs if kept it looking good.
I've read in the past dealers would often paint the cars to entice buyers to buy a more unique looking vehicle. The car had one factory option, and that was an automatic transmission (and a couple accessories like floor mats and ski rack).
2. As I mentioned before, the stainless steel body panels attach to a fiberglass shell (I think I showed you a picture previously). The fiberglass shell runs into issues with cracking/decomposition with age. Some fiberglass compositions are prone to corrosion- I'm not sure the case with the Delorian.
3. Fiberglass, although light and pretty durable, is not particuarly rugged like steel. A heavy car, with high rate of speed puts an awful lot of stress on a frame. I would think its light weight would create some problematic dynamic issues considering the heavy stainless steel body. In the mid 70's when the car was in production stages, fiberglass technology was still in it's relative infancy. Even today it's applications are not typically substantially load bearing.
4. The original prototype/concept of the DMC-12 actually devised a plastic frame though it didn't pan out. They also wanted a mid-mount Wenkel (rotary) engine which never happened. They had a lot of issues designing this car. One of the reasons it was such a flop that their re-engineering compromises detracted from the performance of the car making the final product quite uninspiring. This also caused delays in production which caused financial problems because of the extra work required to sort out the issues. Time is money.
5. I can say I have never heard of any production car having a fiberglass fame. Body- yes, of course. Frame, no. DMC-12 originally acquired it's frame from Lotus but then had to be completely reworked (by a former Lotus engineer)- hence why the DMC-12 appears similar to Lotus. Just like Lotus, you'll notice center console inside the car is very wide because the frame runs right through the center of the car. They made only ~9,000 cars in 3 years and there is minimal variation between the models. I'd be very surprised to see them produce a couple fiberglass frame models.
6. I know replacement stainless steel frames are/were available to replace the regular steel frames that can rot out and/or improve performance due to lighter weight.
As for your gripes about useless features, you do realize that removing the head unit (if even possible) would only require you to spend more money (and devalue your car/offer you less features)?
1. Satellite radio is nice because of the station variety, reduced commercials, and sound quality- but at this point I agree - it is value is reduced with HD Radio and MP3/iPod/iPhones. My dad who is not tech savvy uses XM/Sirius because he does a lot of driving and likes some of the programming not easily (to him) available anywhere else- 40's, 50's music, classic radio shows, Sinatra, etc. I'd rather use my iPod.
2. I'm not a fan of touch screens either due to the inability of tactile response. Unfortunately, many cars are moving towards touch screens controlling everything in the car (thanks iPad) but it's too difficult to use.
3. Nav- not really. BMW updates their maps 2x yearly back to 2002 models. A lot of newer cars are offering Google Map integration. When CarPlay comes to fruition, Apple Maps (ugh) will be there. Both of these will update automatically. Up until a couple years ago when I got the BMW w/Nav I used a 7(?) year old GPS with the original maps never ran into too much trouble.
4. BlueTooth- Hands free connectivity is a good thing. Streaming audio.. ehh not a selling point for me. If I'm steaming audio it's murdering my battery, so I would probably plug in the phone regardless.
5. iPhone/Android - Roughly 60% of American adults have smartphones and over 70% UK does. This number is only growing. It's in the best interest of the car companies to cater to the wants of their customers. I guess I forget 'smartphone people are lazy' (not sure how that applies here but I just had to say it
). This however does make phone calls/MP3 controlling safer because you control things using steering wheel or dashboard buttons.I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS
To revise my list...
I really like the Land Rover LR4. It's gas mileage is atrocious though, along with it's cost of ownership. Realistically I'm sticking to the Grand Cherokee and Touareg options.
As they should be. Absolutely beautiful, fun to drive, and definitely a good price point for its class.
Unfortunately I'm only 18, so it'll take a while before I get one.
GLA was my top choice but the lease on a 2015 C300 is cheaper, I went with that instead.
I want to revise my list also.
Late last month I passed the 10 year anniversary owning my NSX.
Assuming I live that long, I intend to keep it another 10 years.
So, I nominate my NSX as all at once my Past, Present, and Future Car.
Late last month I passed the 10 year anniversary owning my NSX.
Assuming I live that long, I intend to keep it another 10 years.
So, I nominate my NSX as all at once my Past, Present, and Future Car.
I want to revise my list also.
Late last month I passed the 10 year anniversary owning my NSX.
Assuming I live that long, I intend to keep it another 10 years.
So, I nominate my NSX as all at once my Past, Present, and Future Car.
I'd hold onto that. It's a rarity.