Cars

Still More Car Shopping

I’ve expanded the search for the new car. The list from last month is still in play:

I’ve hunted down every other two-door car I could find in our price range except for a Mustang and then tossed in the Sonata’s younger brother, the Elantra, just for giggles. Here is the spec chart for these cars:

Again, all numbers reflect the difference between the Emperor and the new car (except interior volume.)

Let’s take each one at a time and discuss their relative merits and demerits. They are priced typically using the base model with mats and an Ip-odd adapter.
New Miatas Known quantity. Not real enamored with the look and fairly expensive compared the rest of the list.
Mini Fun to drive, cute as a button and fits in the garage. Quirky interior.
Genesis Sporty, with love it or hate it styling.
Sonata Best looking car of the group. But four doors and will probably be a dime a dozen by the time we get around to getting one.
Accord Positively sinister looking in black, but it is huge and will be hard to find priced in the lower 20’s.
Civic I’ve always liked the looks of the Civic Coupes, but haven’t had any looking being comfortable driving one.
Mazda RX-8 Sporty look and the chops to back it up, so it would an engaging drive. Most expensive on the list, lousy gas mileage and no blue.
Altima Has a little Infinity G37 Coupe look, but not nearly enough, so it comes off sort of dowdy.
New Beetle They aren’t making anymore of this model and if the spyshots I’ve seen accurately reflect the new New Beetle, ick, it looks like a squashed bug
Elantra I like the looks of this car, but it has four doors. This is the stuffed model to get it equipped like the Sonata, but it ends up being just 3 grand less than the larger car.
tC It’s got 2 doors. It is unexciting looking. Hope it is hoot to drive…
Focus This is the last year for this model and the 2012 model looks awesome compared to this car, but it won’t come in a coupe. Who knows, by the time we actually buy a car, if the new one is out, it may warrant a look.
Forte As with all the Korean cars, you get a lot for your money. We saw one in person this past weekend and I liked it, Donna not so much. Points off for trying to be different with the spelling of the word coupe.
CR-Z I seriously considered the CRX back in ’89 before I knew of the Miata’s existence and we were Honda drivers for a dozen years before Mazda won us over. Trouble is, this is a hybrid with all its faults (battery replacement costs) and hardly any of the benefits (gas mileage.)

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 925

More Car Shopping

On the way back into town after our unsuccessful attempt to rent a Sonata yesterday, Donna posed the door question, i.e. “Why does the next car have to have four doors?” My answer was, “It doesn’t. The only reason I’m so hot for a Sonata is that of all the cars in our price range it is the best looking (IMHO) thing for a second car.” Her timing was just right, we were approaching the Honda dealer outside of town, so I pulled in and pointed out an Accord Coupe and said,” It has two doors.” Her reply was, “That’s big.” The sticker was too, $30k. How about the Civic Coupe she asked and I said, “I’ve never been comfortable in a Civic Sedan. We’d have to try that one out.”

I love shopping, even if it is just an exercise, so I rounded up 7 candidates on the short list for the next car in the Bogardus stable to compare size and cost. All in all, you watch, when we finally do pull the trigger on a new car, it’ll be another Miata. For now let’s play. I spec’d the cars the way I would like them, mostly base models with little content and some would probably be hard to come by that way, but hey, it’s my party. There are quite a few returnees from similar speculation of 10 months ago, a couple new ones and a few drops.

Mazda Miata #1 Sport M/T w/ Convenience Pkg & Cargo Net
Mazda Miata #2 Touring M/T w/Cargo Net
Mini Cooper M/T w/ Cloth Sport Seats, Center Arm Rest, Carpet Floor Mats & Grocery Bag Holder
Hyundai Genesis 2.0T M/T w/ IPOD Cable, Carpeted Floor Mats & Cargo Net
Hyundai Sonata SE A/T w/ IPOD Cable, Carpeted Floor Mats & Cargo Net
Honda Accord Coupe LX-S A/T
Honda Civic Coupe LX M/T w/ Sport Suspension & 16″ Alloy Wheels

Here is the chart:

All numbers reflect the difference between the Emperor and the new car (except interior volume.)

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 915

Mx, Sports Car #83

The Mazda Miata on Car and Drivers Periodic Table of Sports Cars.

We went Christmas shopping in the cold drizzle this morning and purchased several things off everyone’s list. Donna got a couple of pink shirts and I got a pair of khaki cargo pants. The futon got a new set of sheets and the dining room table got a new set of cloth Christmas napkins. The afternoon and evening was spent gathered around the dry warmth of a yule log that is the Panasonic Viera HDTV and plotting geocache stepping stones between here and St. Augustine, FL.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 915

Blue Movies

And I don’t mean the kind of movies those of you who are my age or older are thinking of, I’m talking about them blue ray movies. Last night as the MMC Christmas party was winding down our host brought out his copy of Bullit in blu-ray so we could watch the famous chase scene. As one person put it, “They had to round up an awful lot of vintage cars to film this.” The picture was so bright and crisp you could have sworn it was filmed earlier that day.

Donna and I were so impressed with the picture that we thought maybe we would get one of those new fangled blue movie players for ourselves. You can get them at Walmart for a less than a hundred bucks. Then I started thinking, if we are buying one, why not get one that includes Netflix so I can stop dragging out the laptop to to do the Instant Watch thing. Here is a Panasonic for about $130 at Amazon. It says wireless ready, so you have to spend an additional $80 on an adapter. Nah. A little further digging reveals a Panasonic with the wifi adapter included for $170. Alright, but now I have to do a little research because it mentions it is Wireless N, I’m still chugging along with G and I need to know if they are compatible. Turns out it is. In that research I also find that the player will also allow me access to several internet applications like Twitter, Skype, Picasa and Pandora that are worthless to me. Thanks anyway. What about getting all those torrented TV shows to my TV? Not possible the Panasonic Viera Cast. This morning’s paper had a Target flyer shows a wireless ready Samsung for $110. You of course need a $80 adapter for this one too, but Amazon has the player for the same price as Target and the adapter on sale for $60 making the combo the same price as the previous Panasonic unit. The Samsung player jumps into the lead with this little feature AllShare: Sync up your entire household. A wired or wireless DLNA connection lets you stream your PC audio and video files to your HDTV using your remote. But it is knocked right off the pedestal when internet searching turns up conflicting reports of it’s ability to stream any old file. Sigh.

Right now we are going to stick with what we have. I’m just not ready to spend the money on something that may or may not work, especially since dragging out the laptop and plugging in an HDMI cable a couple times a week is really no big deal, plus this had the potential to develop into a money pit. For one it is $3 a month more to rent Blu-Ray from Netflix. Then the wireless G might not of hacked it streaming HD data, so another $70-80 would be needed for a new Wireless N router. Next the 7 year-old PC would have trouble keeping up serving the media. $2,000 later we would realize that a 32″ LCD wasn’t big enough to really enjoy our new found high definition video and the cheap $200 surround sound system wouldn’t sound good enough…

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 913

Zoom Zoom Magazine

Somewhere along the line I left my name and address in the hands of Mazda operatives and as a consequence of that action I now get a glossy magazine (AKA advertisement) three or four times a year. The latest edition of Zoom Zoom magazine arrived in my mailbox the other day.

Included in this issue were stories about the new Mazda2, a history of 90 years of Mazda vehicles (with a nifty poster) and a story about all 3 generations of Miatas in Hawaii. The reason for Hawaii was that is where the press was first introduced to the latest version of the car in 2006. They rounded up 3 local Miata owners and their cars to drive the same route as they did back during the introductory press drive.

When they wrote the blurb on the 1999 2nd generation car, I guess they took the owner’s description as gospel, because they wrote that the color was British Racing Green, but that color was not available in 1999. British Racing Green was only available on the Miata as a special edition in 1991 & 2001. His car was really painted a similar color called Emerald Green Mica. Doesn’t anyone with Mazda fact check this magazine?

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 911

Family Car Stickers

The 2010’s equivalent of the 80’s Baby on Board signs, family car stickers. Google it and you will get hundreds of hits to places you can buy these things. They are infinitely configurable too, one couple at work have a man with a fishing pole, a woman with shopping bags and a small girl. Add your pets too! You can even add names to make it easier for the criminal element to abduct your wife, kids or dog.

The other day as we pushed out grocery cart out to the north forty of the Kroger parking lot to the Emperor we passed a couple of SUVs with these stickers on the windows. The one that caught my eye and stood out from any of these family car stickers I’ve seen so far is below.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 911

Mini Scare

Donna has been having some second thoughts about a Hyundai Sonata recently. It is big! It has 4 doors which means people might ask us for rides.

A fellow at work recently bought a Mini. It is a red Cooper S with a white roof and red bonnet stripes and it has rekindled our mild infatuation with these cars. We test drove one back in 2003 and came away feeling a little like Dudley Moore did after bedding Bo Derek in the movie 10, i.e. disappointed.

Well, just the other day she says to me, “Maybe we should look at a Mini again?” Coincidentally, that night, I happen to see a commercial on TV about leasing a new Mini for $199 a month. Hey, I could do that, what with keeping the Miata, the Mini would be sharing driving duties, so keeping it below 12,000 miles a year would be easy.

The lease deal has a few roadblocks. I’ll list them in order of magnitude: First it must be well equipped and list at above 23,100 smackers, this shouldn’t be a problem. Second it has to be an automatic, that will be a slight issue. I could get used to driving one, but finding one…the Greenville dealer has 12 on the lot and not a single one is a slushbox. Charleston’s dealer has 11 with the same problem. Of course I have no idea if this is accurate because the price of all 23 Minis range from $20,100 to $27,100 and each and everyone’s description is identical as far as standard equipment and installed options. The third is the final nail in the coffin though, the deal ends on November 30, 2010. Today!

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 909