I spotted a NEW (insert make/model) today!

ateixeira

The original Scion plan made sense to me - offer quirky oddball cars at no-haggle prices in a beginner-friendly sales environment.

The lineup went too mainstream, prices crept up, and they're too much like regular old Toyota now.

andys120

According to my reading there's supposed to be a convertible version of the FT86 in the works. Don't recall if it'll be a Scion, Subaru or both.

andys120

-New Ford Escape. I only saw the back side but it's the first one
I've seen.

Also for some reason I've been seeing a lot of two cars I've seen little of even tho they've been out for a while-

-Toyota Venzas, I must've spotted a dozen in the last week. :confuse:

-VW Eos, I've seen red ones, blue ones, black and silver, all in the last few weeks. Tops up and tops down, driven by young men as well as women.

Where are they all coming from?

fintail

If you're in FL, Sixt has Eos in their rental fleet.

Saw a new style CLS63 today.

ateixeira

I bet those have some decent incentives on 'em. That could spark sales short-term.

Another thing that happens is a dealer goes out of business, another dealer buys the inventory and sells the cars at what would have been a big loss.

I found a Miata like that when I was shopping but it was automatic, ugh. It was $2-3 grand cheaper than a manual, though it's priced higher.

fintail

I wouldn't doubt it. Eos is aging and I don't know if it has been a runaway success. Something I wouldn't put on my list, anyway.

Automatic Miata is like an automatic Freeze/Breeze...why bother?

anythngbutgm

Andy120 has been seeing a lot of VW EOS models, well I've been seeing tons of Tiguans lately. I've probably seen more in the past couple of days than I have in the entire 3 years they have been on sale!

Also saw a new Hyundai Azera a couple of nights ago. It looks good but that tail is very Dodge Charger-like and the way they made the back end look like a shelf (best way I can describe it) is very awkward.

Not new, but I am close to pulling the trigger on a used 06 Honda Ridgeline. Took her for a spin and drove pretty good for a truck with 212 thousand miles on it... :shades: I figure it will make a nice Home Depot hauler. No rust, some wear, but overall she's a peach. A weekend with the buffing wheel and she'll probably look close to brand new.

fintail

There's a new Tiguan a few spaces for me in my home parking garage. I'll have to ask the guy about it - I know he's lived here for years like me, used to have a ~06 or so S40.

Co-worker just bought an 07 Ridgeline, something like 50K miles on it, very good condition. He loves it.

boomchek

How much for the Ridgeline? They are great all around trucks for people that don't want a truck.

kyfdx

Most of the non-diesel VWs have 0%/66 month financing....

It's only been in the last year that the Tiguan has ever had incentives...

explorerx4

Last fall, a big storm blew in and in our town people were without power for up to 11 days.
Lots of trees went down.
A group of us got together this summer and ended up swapping stories our our experiences.
A lady said a tree fell across their street that was shaped like a wish bone.
They figured they would need to split it to clear the street for some of the neighbors who were cut off.
They hooked up this ladie's RX350 on one side and a Ridgeline on the other side of the fork.
She then said with a lot pf pride, My RX kicked that Ridgeline's Azz.

fushigi

The original Scion plan made sense to me - offer quirky oddball cars at no-haggle prices in a beginner-friendly sales environment.

The lineup went too mainstream, prices crept up, and they're too much like regular old Toyota now.

Sounds like Scion/Toyota copied Saturn/GM.

In decidedly non-new sightings, I saw a Pontiac T1000 the other day. Amazingly it wasn't broken down on the side of the road but was keeping up with traffic just fine.

lemko

...spotted a black Bentley Mulsanne on the opposite corner of the one I spotted the Equus last week. Maybe the pizza shop guy on the SW corner of Cottman and Rising Sun really one-upped the owner of the fried chicken place?

ateixeira

Agreed on Saturn. Great sales model. GM should have turned the division in to a training program.

Funny to see *mint* cars that were beaters even when they were new.

Where I used to live a guy used to cover his Chevette with plastic drop cloths. I thought it was a waste of perfectly good drop cloths.

anythngbutgm

He is asking 6500 bucks for it. He is the second owner, bought it back in 2009 with 60 thousand and has had it ever since. All maintainence records, repairs, no accidents.

Still haven't made a decision yet, but I may go in at 6 grand even and see where it goes. I seriously could not tell that it had that many miles on it, and was still pretty tight when I drove it.

fintail

Yeah, they lost the quirk. Now they just offer cars to those who think they are buying something interesting, but aren't.

ateixeira

No consistency, either. iQ and FR-S sit next to each other in a show room? I can't think of two vehicles that differ more.

fintail

I guess the Freeze cancels out most of the lameness of the rest of the lineup. Still should be a Celica though, IMO.

ateixeira

I've heard a conspiracy that Scion tC stood for "toyota Celica".

texases

"I can't think of two vehicles that differ more. "

I can:

ateixeira

You win.

The bottom one is more like an "accessory".

Hey, Buffy, let's get one for each of our 17 grand kids!

boomchek

That's not a bad deal assuming the truck is in good shape.

fintail

The tC is kind of what the Celica became later in its life. I see far too many drivers of the current model who seem to think it is a legitimate sports car.

ateixeira

I dunno, the Celica had that small, high revving engine. It was sort of a Prelude competitor, a FWD sport compact.

The tC actually had a decent sized engine for its class, at 2.4l. It, the VW Golf 2.5l, and the Subaru Impreza were often cited for offering good torque for a class not generally known for it.

Thing is, Scion stood still and the world around them progressed. Now it's just an average-powered shadow of the FR-S.

fintail

But Celica didn't go FWD until 86, and existed in an AWD variant at that time, too. Celica also spawned the Supra...tC won't spawn anything.

Engine size doesn't really make performance or driving fun, as you know. And the new tC is just kind of ugly, selling to those who want to think they look cool and sporty but don't have the guts to purchase such a car.

ateixeira

One of many Toyota products that is inferior to its own predecessor.

texases

Just about all Celicas, of every age, were more 'show' than 'go'. A very small number had the high-output engines. Most were 'secretary cars'. Nice, reliable, stylish, but not performance cars. Like most Mustangs and Camaros, really. Except the 'reliable' part...

ateixeira

Remember the All Trac turbo? I think it had 200hp, back then that was a lot. I'm sure that was less than 5% of the model mix.

texases

Those All Trac Turbos were hot. I bet a clean one would get a good price today.

ateixeira

Mazda also made a relatively rare 323 GTX. It was also AWD and turbocharged.

In college a pizza delivery guy drove one. I never understood that. Maybe he had to, to pay for insurance.

tifighter

Mazda also made a relatively rare 323 GTX. It was also AWD and turbocharged.

The car of choice for amateur rally and rallyx in the Pac NW during the nineties. Until the Impreza RS came out. Then the WRX a few years later.

kyfdx

I had a 323 GTX.... bought it used in '94...

Even with all the goodies, it still wasn't any faster than a present day Civic....

I really, really liked it.... but, still an economy car underneath...

fushigi

No 323 for me but I did have a '93 MX-3 GS hatchback with Mazda's 1.8L V6. Not the fastest thing out there but that was one hekuva smooth engine. Loved most things about the car but hated the AT (I wasn't going to drive stick in Chicago traffic). It failed at 38K miles, was replaced under warranty, and the replacement went at 76K. I ditched it before the next multiple of 38K miles came up. It also had an odd tire size that only one tire maker carried.

kyfdx

That was a car that didn't really catch on... I liked that little V-6, though..

Weird thing.... we took a trip to Puerto Rico in October, 1992, and they were all over San Juan... I bet I saw a hundred of them in a week.. :surprise:

ateixeira

I test drove one and liked it, and yes that was perhaps the smoothest sub 2 liter engine on the planet.

I wonder, did that get the Ford CD4E transmission?

My wife owned a 626 so I was in the Mazda threads during that period, and every other day a CD4E would fail. The 4 banger auto was the only model that got that trans, the V6 got a better one and those never had issues. Ours was a manual so also no issues with the trans.

While that car was fun (V6 manual) we had 5 issues in a 2 year period and service was expensive so she replaced it with a Subaru. The Subie was much better in that regard.

You switched to Mitsubishi, right? The Galant?

My Miatas have been much better than that 626.

anythngbutgm

Weren't those 626's the same car as the Contour/Mistake? My ex wife had a contour with the 4-cylinder/Auto and thankfully it was a lease because we ditched it right before the 36k mile mark and the tranny was acting really funky. Well that and 6 more recalls over the course of the time we owned it...

Bought one of my second Honda after that. :shades:

stickguy

different car, but they used the trans from the contour (might have been the same 4 cyl, but for some reason I think it was a different 2.0l)

ateixeira

It was a weird partnership, but no.

The 626 only shared that dreaded CD4E transmission, ironically.

Both had 2.5l V6 engines but they were different. Mazda used their own KL V6 series.

Ford used the Duratec. It's odd because of the similar size and output.

I test drove a V6/manual Contour, but the 626 had a better back seat for the kids, and the engine was smoother as well.

To be honest, today, on paper at least, I'd pick a Fusion over this elongated 6.

fintail

I remember lots of those in Canada back in the day, too. Very rare sight in the states then or now.

fushigi

You switched to Mitsubishi, right? The Galant?

Yeah. When the Mazda had 107K miles on the clock I gave it to my sister. I picked up a '99 Galant with Mitsu's then-195HP 3L V6. Had it for a near-perfect 152K miles/10.5 years. The reliability was better than any other car I'd ever owned (includes Mazda, Toyota, Nissan, Mercury to go back to about 1985) so I replaced the Galant with an AWD 2010 Outlander GT with the current 230HP 3L V6.

When I've been on the market I've looked at Subarus but for various reasons they've not made the short list.

I admit I haven't owned or driven every brand. Financially it makes sense to own a vehicle for as long as you can and for as long as it's reliable enough that the cost of maintenance & repairs doesn't exceed the cost of replacement.

I do still see an MX-3 around here once in a while. It isn't in great shape but considering it's probably at least 17 years old, I doubt the owner can complain.

Hmm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_MX-3 shows a 120MPH top speed in the MX-3 V6. Hit 113 on the Illinois Tri-state tollway once; didn't try to go faster than that. I've only had the Outlander to 97 so far.

ateixeira

Wifey's Subaru was good enough that she has another also. She won't even talk about trading this one.

Our salesman jokes he sees Subaru buyers only once every 7 years. To get a new one.

She had a Mitsubishi Mirage prior to the 626. It was not bad, a few issues but decent car. No power steering so I had to reach over and help turn that wheel!

The 626 was good for the first 5 years, then fell apart.

Her Legacy cost us $0 in repairs over more than 7 years. She saved up enough money for a down payment on a condo we now own. Life is good. :shades:

tifighter

I liked the NX2000 from that same time period. The egg-shaped SE-R.

ateixeira

I did too, but it was a bit pricey. You could even get a T-top on those.

My car from that era was a '91 Ford Escort GT. It was the first year of that platform and got the 1.8l DOHC engine shared with Mazda, later used in the NB Miata.

Great bang for the buck at less than $11k. A Civic Si or Sentra SE-R were closer to $14k at the time. NX2000 with a T-top was another price level above those.

The nose was dorky but that's what I wanted at the time. 140hp back then was a lot for a pocket rocket.

fushigi

Funny you mention the NX2000. That was the other car I was interested in at the time. The major advantage to the Nissan was it had ABS available while the MX-3 did not. Despite no ABS, the MX-3 stopped in very short distances due to being lightweight and having oversized discs (12.4" up front).

From a functional standpoint, and IIRC price as well, the MX-3 was the better vehicle for me. It was also the first car I ever bought new.

ateixeira

For me the MX3's back seat was small. I might have considered the 323 if it came with a better engine at the time. The GTX model was gone by '91.

fintail

I knew a girl in high school who had a yellow NX2000. T-tops (did they all have that, I'd hope so) and all, seemed kind of exotic in a way, very JDM. Extremely uncommon car today.

fushigi

The back seat was small. Not quite as bad as being a 2+2 but not much better either. At the time I was freshly divorced and had no kids so passenger capacity wasn't a concern. I did take 2 friends (1 front seat, 1 across both back seats) from western Indiana to eastern Pennsylvania once; the next time I rented a Bonneville. But I was more enamored with the cargo capacity. I once easily dropped in a 5' long dresser.

fushigi

T-tops (did they all have that, I'd hope so) and all, seemed kind of exotic in a way, very JDM. Extremely uncommon car today.

Edmunds shows the T-tops were an option. http://www.edmunds.com/nissan/nx/1993/features-specs.html

I haven't seen one in years around the Chicago area. I see a Delorean in Westmont once in a while but no NX2000s.

boomchek

There are still a ton of Mazda MX-3's here, see them on craigslist quite often.

ateixeira

More than one, probably seen about 3 of these this week.

One in my garage, wonder who owns it.

Also saw an X3 and a new 5 series sedan.

XLE hybrid Camry as well.