Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

xwesx

I had never really thought of that before.... but, I'm certain I have never driven a Honda (road vehicle, anyway). That may be the only readily available non-luxury brand I haven't driven.

corvette

@roadburner - my dad purchased a first-gen CRX. Similar shenanigans. Not sure what he paid, but I'm sure he was ripped off. He was on a waitlist at a dealer in Bowling Green. Dealer called, the car carrier had arrived, and he had the privilege of choosing between a red one and a white one. There was no factory A/C at that time, but they later offered a retrofit (more $$$ to the dealer). He did save some money by putting his own sound system in.

explorerx4

@corvette,
I'm surprised tou don't have the Ford App. You can check tire pressures on that, plus it send an alert if pressure is low.

andres3

corvette said:

@roadburner - my dad purchased a first-gen CRX. Similar shenanigans. Not sure what he paid, but I'm sure he was ripped off. He was on a waitlist at a dealer in Bowling Green. Dealer called, the car carrier had arrived, and he had the privilege of choosing between a red one and a white one. There was no factory A/C at that time, but they later offered a retrofit (more $$$ to the dealer). He did save some money by putting his own sound system in.

Better to be ripped off buying something that's very dependable and economical otherwise, than to buy something that doesn't serve its intended purpose well (i.e. a car that doesn't run reliably).

Michaell

I think the Voluntary Import Restrictions of the 80's had a couple of consequences:

1. it either made superfans of those customers who ponied up the extra $$$'s for the cars or diehard enemies of those brands
2. it forced the Japanese brands to build and open factories in the US for domestic production

corvette

@explorerx4 - I do. The Mav goes into battery saver mode and stops communicating with the cloud after about three days of inactivity, even on a battery maintainer, so this happens fairly often given that the Ariya is my daily, so I can't usually see current data. I wonder whether there's a ForScan mod for "leave the telematics running so long as battery voltage is over 13 volts?"

Anyway, I checked it tonight and added a few pounds. The spare was down to about 40 PSI and is supposed to have 60, so I'm glad I checked it.

Sandman6472

Back in the day, I always had an after market audio system installed in whatever I was driving. Had a Kenwood unit, a Pioneer unit & an Alpine unit just to name a few. By adding better speakers, the better head unit & an amp, they sounded so much better then what they came with. Had a couple of cassette players and then onto cd players but remember one thing, I liked it "loud" no matter what. When we first got married, my wife said she could hear me drive up to our rented condo! The one huge mistake I made in the 1970 Datsun B-210 hatchback was to add a sunroof, leaks from day 1! Was told not to do it, but didn't listen. Leaked terribly but on those few cooler days/nights, I'd open it up and was in heaven! Haven't tried the new one yet as this past weekend was the first "cooler" temps we've had. Need to take a good look up there to see how it's done. No more button like the '15 Golf had...more like a touch thingy in the 2025 model. Will look in the owners manual and if no luck, will go see my sales guy. He's been quite helpful with my Sirius/XM favorites and seems happy to help. Glad the dealer is just under 5 minutes from the house.

Michaell

Sandman6472 said:

Back in the day, I always had an after market audio system installed in whatever I was driving. Had a Kenwood unit, a Pioneer unit & an Alpine unit just to name a few. By adding better speakers, the better head unit & an amp, they sounded so much better then what they came with. Had a couple of cassette players and then onto cd players but remember one thing, I liked it "loud" no matter what. When we first got married, my wife said she could hear me drive up to our rented condo! The one huge mistake I made in the 1970 Datsun B-210 hatchback was to add a sunroof, leaks from day 1! Was told not to do it, but didn't listen. Leaked terribly but on those few cooler days/nights, I'd open it up and was in heaven! Haven't tried the new one yet as this past weekend was the first "cooler" temps we've had. Need to take a good look up there to see how it's done. No more button like the '15 Golf had...more like a touch thingy in the 2025 model. Will look in the owners manual and if no luck, will go see my sales guy. He's been quite helpful with my Sirius/XM favorites and seems happy to help. Glad the dealer is just under 5 minutes from the house.

I think you swipe your finger from front to back on the "touch thingy" to open the sunroof, and back to front to close it.

breld

My wife and I are up in Seattle this week for a work trip and had the pleasure of getting together with @28firefighter and @tifighter for a wonderful dinner. So great to catch up in person!

stickguy

nice picture of ~12% of the annual auto sales in the country.

jmonroe1

breld said:

My wife and I are up in Seattle this week for a work trip and had the pleasure of getting together with @28firefighter and @tifighter for a wonderful dinner. So great to catch up in person!

——————————————————
I notice that the locals don’t carry umbrellas. They’re used to the rain and just run back and forth to the parking lot. Easy to tell who the visitors are.

jmonroe

Michaell

Did you go car shopping after dinner?

stickguy

Maybe a key exchange.

graphicguy

roadburner said:

Back in 1984 when the voluntary import restrictions were in effect my girlfriend (now wife of almost 40 years) went looking for an Accord hatchback in Cincinnati. Every dealer tried to play ridiculous games and she ended up with a 1984 Skylark T-Type (which turned out to be a very nice car). In 2007 I seriously considered a new Civic Si but I was lured away by the siren song of the Mazdaspeed 3.
Having said all that, If I was buying a new car the Integra Type S would definitely be at the top of my list.

Yeah...that's back when I was shopping for my first new car. I wanted the same car, in the same area. All of the dealers had ADMs and all of them were "take it or leave it", as they were selling every one of them they could get their hands on.

Ended up with a Chevy Celebrity. Not a bad car. Not a good one, either.

I've had (or have had parked in the expansive GG estate garage) several Honda Products.

-93 Accord
-98 Accord
-05 Acura TL
-09 Acura TL
-15 Acura TLX
-21 Acura TLX
-23 Accord

I like them.

Michaell

jmonroe1 said:

breld said:

My wife and I are up in Seattle this week for a work trip and had the pleasure of getting together with @28firefighter and @tifighter for a wonderful dinner. So great to catch up in person!

——————————————————
I notice that the locals don’t carry umbrellas. They’re used to the rain and just run back and forth to the parking lot. Easy to tell who the visitors are.

jmonroe

@breld, did you deliberately wear a flannel shirt to fit in with the PNW vibe?

ab348

Big Stellantis recall on Jeep 4XE models due to battery fires:

https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com/newsrelease.do?id=26247&mid=

nyccarguy

@breld said:
My wife and I are up in Seattle this week for a work trip and had the pleasure of getting together with @28firefighter and @tifighter for a wonderful dinner. So great to catch up in person!

LOVE the Flannel!

28firefighter

@breld said:
My wife and I are up in Seattle this week for a work trip and had the pleasure of getting together with @28firefighter and @tifighter for a wonderful dinner. So great to catch up in person!

Was fantastic catching up in person! Always fun talking shop in safe a space.

jmonroe1

nyccarguy said:

@breld said:

My wife and I are up in Seattle this week for a work trip and had the pleasure of getting together with @28firefighter and @tifighter for a wonderful dinner. So great to catch up in person!

LOVE the Flannel!

——————————————————-
Pretty sure I used my last flannel shirt to wax my ‘95 Bonneville.

jmonroe

roadburner

Michaell said:

I think the Voluntary Import Restrictions of the 80's had a couple of consequences:

1. it either made superfans of those customers who ponied up the extra $$$'s for the cars or diehard enemies of those brands
2. it forced the Japanese brands to build and open factories in the US for domestic production

Two examples of the idiocy we experienced:
1. One dealer wouldn't discuss an OTD price- only payments.
2. One dealer wanted a $500 deposit to take an offer to the sales manager.

roadburner

ab348 said:

Big Stellantis recall on Jeep 4XE models due to battery fires:

https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com/newsrelease.do?id=26247&mid=

That's the 95B recall from September 2024. A lot of owners went crazy, but I still parked mine in the garage- I just didn't charge my 4xe until the software fix was available.

ab348

roadburner said:

ab348 said:

Big Stellantis recall on Jeep 4XE models due to battery fires:

https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com/newsrelease.do?id=26247&mid=

That's the 95B recall from September 2024. A lot of owners went crazy, but I still parked mine in the garage- I just didn't charge my 4xe until the software fix was available.

You're right; I posted the wrong link. But this is a new recall as of today, and here's the right link:

https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com/newsrelease.do?id=27207&mid=1

xwesx

I would love to more of that! So far, the only in-person meet up I've actually managed to pull off was my visit with @kyfdx back in August of 2016. That's getting to be a while ago now....

jmonroe1

xwesx said:

I would love to more of that! So far, the only in-person meet up I've actually managed to pull off was my visit with @kyfdx back in August of 2016. That's getting to be a while ago now....

——————————————————
Yep, I’d say so. And, if you remember, your dues discount was only good for 1 year. But, if you bought him lunch from the right side of the menu, who knows?

jmonroe

stickguy

Speaking of Hondas, this is a real time warp. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1977-honda-accord-7/?fbclid=IwZnRzaAN3MWFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHt1NuloW-6rXvZiljm7N6ORmrMCUR3H-8UtZAaRzOdWL3MUlT-H4QM5xrb4R_aem_ZeEPouKJ9fddBhhN8K3WvA

roadburner

The Tail of the Dragon...

roadburner

@ab348 said:
You're right; I posted the wrong link. But this is a new recall as of today, and here's the right link:

https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com/newsrelease.do?id=27207&mid=1

It’s pretty much the same issue; the solution will be a software download to determine battery faults- with a battery replacement if called for. Again, we’ll just leave the battery discharged but still park the Wrangler in the garage; the chance of a fire is extremely low in any case and almost zero with a discharged battery.

stickguy

Seems to defeat the purpose of having a PHEV

roadburner

stickguy said:

Seems to defeat the purpose of having a PHEV

It still averages over 20 mpg and the software will be available fairly soon.

roadburner

The tour organizer bought every Tail of the Dragon picture of our cars from 129 Photos and sent them to us- so I received 14 pictures of our car free of charge.

xwesx

That organizer was a helluva host! Better pencil that event in for next year and hope for better weather!

andres3

Sandman6472 said:

Back in the day, I always had an after market audio system installed in whatever I was driving. Had a Kenwood unit, a Pioneer unit & an Alpine unit just to name a few. By adding better speakers, the better head unit & an amp, they sounded so much better then what they came with. Had a couple of cassette players and then onto cd players but remember one thing, I liked it "loud" no matter what. When we first got married, my wife said she could hear me drive up to our rented condo! The one huge mistake I made in the 1970 Datsun B-210 hatchback was to add a sunroof, leaks from day 1! Was told not to do it, but didn't listen. Leaked terribly but on those few cooler days/nights, I'd open it up and was in heaven! Haven't tried the new one yet as this past weekend was the first "cooler" temps we've had. Need to take a good look up there to see how it's done. No more button like the '15 Golf had...more like a touch thingy in the 2025 model. Will look in the owners manual and if no luck, will go see my sales guy. He's been quite helpful with my Sirius/XM favorites and seems happy to help. Glad the dealer is just under 5 minutes from the house.

That's one thing that came out really good in the Neon, my aftermarket audio system. A fantastic Kenwood head unit, and very high quality 3-way JBL speakers worked fantastic. The Neon was an early adopter of the tweeters on the dash design (in the sport model) which lent itself to great sound with a speaker upgrade including front components. The biggest reason to go with Kenwood and Pioneer head units was mainly the built-in amp was very good with efficient speakers. You didn't have to go all out with an amp with a careful selection. If memory serves, they were around 18 to 20 watts of continuous power, which was way ahead of the competition at the time. Everyone would advertise 40 to 50 watts (an instantaneous high number), but many brands had only 10-12 watts of real continuous power. If you bought one of those, you needed the amp upgrade.

I had a bit less luck in my '03 Honda but had a bangin' system there too (had more $$$ then). I also did a high end system in the A3 sans subwoofer, used the OEM subwoofer which was lousy but better than no low end (barely - still think the 6-1/2" might have fit even though the online documents swore 5-1/4" was max for the doors!).

Since then, Fender, Bang & Olufsen factory systems have made aftermarket less necessary. Never been a fan of Bose but the Macan makes Bose sound pretty darn good. I have a very strong feeling the Macan is sound engineered in a sophisticated way for the ultimate Burmester (sp?) ultra high end system and putting pedestrian Bose speakers in that engineering still sounds well above its pay grade (I'm sure the amp isn't as upgraded but sound insulation, speaker mounting, brackets, compartments and locations are obviously given more attention than a regular car.

On the opposite end, the X3 didn't seem engineered for good sound. I was underwhelmed by the cost effective BavSound solution speakers. I have a feeling they are designed with the HK system replacement in mind, as the HK upgrade comes with an OEM amp upgrade. Now, BavSound said 3/4 volume was really just 1/4 volume in the X3, so just turn it up. That helped for sure, but ultimately, still underwhelmed a bit. I will say they were correct, my main complaint was no power and volume, no headroom, and turning it up did help, and it didn't come with distortion, which is impressive. Maybe needed more time with it to fine tune it, but I am sure an amp upgrade would probably be the ticket to impressing me.

andres3

xwesx said:

That organizer was a helluva host! Better pencil that event in for next year and hope for better weather!

Still doesn't beat the Audi Club organizer that arranged for a "Party Bus" to take us back to the hotel Saturday night after a day of track time (at a track where the hotel is an hour away) complete with a 5 gallon container of Margarita. That was apparently a once in a lifetime thing though.

andres3

graphicguy said:

roadburner said:

Back in 1984 when the voluntary import restrictions were in effect my girlfriend (now wife of almost 40 years) went looking for an Accord hatchback in Cincinnati. Every dealer tried to play ridiculous games and she ended up with a 1984 Skylark T-Type (which turned out to be a very nice car). In 2007 I seriously considered a new Civic Si but I was lured away by the siren song of the Mazdaspeed 3.
Having said all that, If I was buying a new car the Integra Type S would definitely be at the top of my list.

Yeah...that's back when I was shopping for my first new car. I wanted the same car, in the same area. All of the dealers had ADMs and all of them were "take it or leave it", as they were selling every one of them they could get their hands on.

Ended up with a Chevy Celebrity. Not a bad car. Not a good one, either.

I've had (or have had parked in the expansive GG estate garage) several Honda Products.

-93 Accord
-98 Accord
-05 Acura TL
-09 Acura TL
-15 Acura TLX
-21 Acura TLX
-23 Accord

I like them.

You must have liked some more than others:

1. 5 years between first two models, pretty good long run, but not CCBA worthy.
   
2. 7 years between 2nd and 3rd, now that's taking advantage of what Honda is good at; longevity.
   
3. 4 years between the TL's, now your almost CCBA.
   
4. 6 years between TL and TLX, and between the TLX's; that's taking advantage of that durability.
   
5. 2 years from last TLX to Accord - true CCBA
   
6. Is their a punch coming in 2025?
   
7. I just remembered you had a Cadillac CTS stint of epic drama that may make the above time frames pointless.
   

andres3

roadburner said:

The Tail of the Dragon...

Good photography action car rain shots are the best (even if it's just a drizzle)!!!! Did I share my track photographer shots from a couple years ago with the TTS?

andres3

roadburner said:

Michaell said:

I think the Voluntary Import Restrictions of the 80's had a couple of consequences:

1. it either made superfans of those customers who ponied up the extra $$$'s for the cars or diehard enemies of those brands
2. it forced the Japanese brands to build and open factories in the US for domestic production

Two examples of the idiocy we experienced:
1. One dealer wouldn't discuss an OTD price- only payments.
2. One dealer wanted a $500 deposit to take an offer to the sales manager.

Not quite as bad, but more recently a VW dealer telling me we had to agree on a price before a test drive of the Golf R. Just for craps and giggles I threw out the Audi Club 6% off sticker deal as an "offer" to test drive and they said no. No agreement meaning no test drive Can't move up as without a test drive I have no reason to move up, so that stalemate ended up with me getting the better TTS.

roadburner

The entire photo collection can be found here. Every car from 1:19 on (excluding the last seven) were on the tour- although not all tour cars drove the Dragon. Each picture would have cost $8.00!

graphicguy

andres3 said:

graphicguy said:

roadburner said:

Back in 1984 when the voluntary import restrictions were in effect my girlfriend (now wife of almost 40 years) went looking for an Accord hatchback in Cincinnati. Every dealer tried to play ridiculous games and she ended up with a 1984 Skylark T-Type (which turned out to be a very nice car). In 2007 I seriously considered a new Civic Si but I was lured away by the siren song of the Mazdaspeed 3.
Having said all that, If I was buying a new car the Integra Type S would definitely be at the top of my list.

Yeah...that's back when I was shopping for my first new car. I wanted the same car, in the same area. All of the dealers had ADMs and all of them were "take it or leave it", as they were selling every one of them they could get their hands on.

Ended up with a Chevy Celebrity. Not a bad car. Not a good one, either.

I've had (or have had parked in the expansive GG estate garage) several Honda Products.

-93 Accord
-98 Accord
-05 Acura TL
-09 Acura TL
-15 Acura TLX
-21 Acura TLX
-23 Accord

I like them.

You must have liked some more than others:

1. 5 years between first two models, pretty good long run, but not CCBA worthy.
   
2. 7 years between 2nd and 3rd, now that's taking advantage of what Honda is good at; longevity.
   
3. 4 years between the TL's, now your almost CCBA.
   
4. 6 years between TL and TLX, and between the TLX's; that's taking advantage of that durability.
   
5. 2 years from last TLX to Accord - true CCBA
   
6. Is their a punch coming in 2025?
   
7. I just remembered you had a Cadillac CTS stint of epic drama that may make the above time frames pointless.
   

We'll see. Lease is up on the EV6 in about 9 months. I really enjoy it. It's really been absolutely trouble free. Not even a squeak or rattle. Aside from the windshield needing replacement because of the errant gravel truck, it's been great. Don't even look at gas prices. Had Costco do the only thing I could think of in the way of maintenance....rotating the tires.


I think I mentioned, I charge it about every 250 miles. Computer says I can go 300+ (it looks to be fairly accurate) on a full charge, but I don't want to try that. Then again, I've never wanted to run out of gas on my petro cars either.

That said, I doubt very seriously I can lease another EV6 for what I leased this one for with the expiration of the incentives. And, the residual is WAY more than what it's worth. If Kia does some magic and allows me to but it outright for the trade in amount, I would seriously consider that. But, they'd be losing THOUSAND$ if they do that.

TLX is going away. I like @nyccarguy new Integra, though. I would imagine the Accord will be substantially redesigned for 2027 MY, so that's a possibility. Prelude? Have to give one a test drive, but initial thoughts are it's a 2 door Civic Hybrid with some suspension tweaks.

The outlier in all of this is a Subaru WRX. I'm probably getting a little long in the tooth to be driving one, but the times I've test driven one (mostly shopping with my son), I thought they were a hoot.

Another outlier would be a GLI. My son has had such good luck with his GTI, I thought I'd give the sedan version a look.

In short, I don't know what I'm going to do.

sda

I can see a GTI in our garage. A plus, my wife really likes them. We don't need the room we used to. Perhaps a replacement for the Q5? My wife would be smitten.

Michaell

graphicguy said:

andres3 said:

graphicguy said:

roadburner said:

Back in 1984 when the voluntary import restrictions were in effect my girlfriend (now wife of almost 40 years) went looking for an Accord hatchback in Cincinnati. Every dealer tried to play ridiculous games and she ended up with a 1984 Skylark T-Type (which turned out to be a very nice car). In 2007 I seriously considered a new Civic Si but I was lured away by the siren song of the Mazdaspeed 3.
Having said all that, If I was buying a new car the Integra Type S would definitely be at the top of my list.

Yeah...that's back when I was shopping for my first new car. I wanted the same car, in the same area. All of the dealers had ADMs and all of them were "take it or leave it", as they were selling every one of them they could get their hands on.

Ended up with a Chevy Celebrity. Not a bad car. Not a good one, either.

I've had (or have had parked in the expansive GG estate garage) several Honda Products.

-93 Accord
-98 Accord
-05 Acura TL
-09 Acura TL
-15 Acura TLX
-21 Acura TLX
-23 Accord

I like them.

You must have liked some more than others:

1. 5 years between first two models, pretty good long run, but not CCBA worthy.
   
2. 7 years between 2nd and 3rd, now that's taking advantage of what Honda is good at; longevity.
   
3. 4 years between the TL's, now your almost CCBA.
   
4. 6 years between TL and TLX, and between the TLX's; that's taking advantage of that durability.
   
5. 2 years from last TLX to Accord - true CCBA
   
6. Is their a punch coming in 2025?
   
7. I just remembered you had a Cadillac CTS stint of epic drama that may make the above time frames pointless.
   

We'll see. Lease is up on the EV6 in about 9 months. I really enjoy it. It's really been absolutely trouble free. Not even a squeak or rattle. Aside from the windshield needing replacement because of the errant gravel truck, it's been great. Don't even look at gas prices. Had Costco do the only thing I could think of in the way of maintenance....rotating the tires.


I think I mentioned, I charge it about every 250 miles. Computer says I can go 300+ (it looks to be fairly accurate) on a full charge, but I don't want to try that. Then again, I've never wanted to run out of gas on my petro cars either.

That said, I doubt very seriously I can lease another EV6 for what I leased this one for with the expiration of the incentives. And, the residual is WAY more than what it's worth. If Kia does some magic and allows me to but it outright for the trade in amount, I would seriously consider that. But, they'd be losing THOUSAND$ if they do that.

TLX is going away. I like @nyccarguy new Integra, though. I would imagine the Accord will be substantially redesigned for 2027 MY, so that's a possibility. Prelude? Have to give one a test drive, but initial thoughts are it's a 2 door Civic Hybrid with some suspension tweaks.

The outlier in all of this is a Subaru WRX. I'm probably getting a little long in the tooth to be driving one, but the times I've test driven one (mostly shopping with my son), I thought they were a hoot.

Another outlier would be a GLI. My son has had such good luck with his GTI, I thought I'd give the sedan version a look.

In short, I don't know what I'm going to do.

While you might think the GLI is simply a GTI with a trunk, my test drives have shown that not to be the case. While I like the interior of both cars, the GLI seemed a bit more, er, "down market" with the materials.

Not that I would kick one out of the garage, mind you. YMMV.

corvette

@Michaell - I think VW began that with the sixth generation. The Golf/GTI got some nicer interior components compared to the Jetta/GLI. The GLI I had did get a nicer soft-touch dashboard like the GTI (the standard Jetta did not). Some of the other interior components weren't as nice, and you got V-tex instead of the leather offered on higher trim GTIs.

andres3

graphicguy said:

andres3 said:

graphicguy said:

roadburner said:

Back in 1984 when the voluntary import restrictions were in effect my girlfriend (now wife of almost 40 years) went looking for an Accord hatchback in Cincinnati. Every dealer tried to play ridiculous games and she ended up with a 1984 Skylark T-Type (which turned out to be a very nice car). In 2007 I seriously considered a new Civic Si but I was lured away by the siren song of the Mazdaspeed 3.
Having said all that, If I was buying a new car the Integra Type S would definitely be at the top of my list.

Yeah...that's back when I was shopping for my first new car. I wanted the same car, in the same area. All of the dealers had ADMs and all of them were "take it or leave it", as they were selling every one of them they could get their hands on.

Ended up with a Chevy Celebrity. Not a bad car. Not a good one, either.

I've had (or have had parked in the expansive GG estate garage) several Honda Products.

-93 Accord
-98 Accord
-05 Acura TL
-09 Acura TL
-15 Acura TLX
-21 Acura TLX
-23 Accord

I like them.

You must have liked some more than others:

1. 5 years between first two models, pretty good long run, but not CCBA worthy.
   
2. 7 years between 2nd and 3rd, now that's taking advantage of what Honda is good at; longevity.
   
3. 4 years between the TL's, now your almost CCBA.
   
4. 6 years between TL and TLX, and between the TLX's; that's taking advantage of that durability.
   
5. 2 years from last TLX to Accord - true CCBA
   
6. Is their a punch coming in 2025?
   
7. I just remembered you had a Cadillac CTS stint of epic drama that may make the above time frames pointless.
   

We'll see. Lease is up on the EV6 in about 9 months. I really enjoy it. It's really been absolutely trouble free. Not even a squeak or rattle. Aside from the windshield needing replacement because of the errant gravel truck, it's been great. Don't even look at gas prices. Had Costco do the only thing I could think of in the way of maintenance....rotating the tires.


I think I mentioned, I charge it about every 250 miles. Computer says I can go 300+ (it looks to be fairly accurate) on a full charge, but I don't want to try that. Then again, I've never wanted to run out of gas on my petro cars either.

That said, I doubt very seriously I can lease another EV6 for what I leased this one for with the expiration of the incentives. And, the residual is WAY more than what it's worth. If Kia does some magic and allows me to but it outright for the trade in amount, I would seriously consider that. But, they'd be losing THOUSAND$ if they do that.

TLX is going away. I like @nyccarguy new Integra, though. I would imagine the Accord will be substantially redesigned for 2027 MY, so that's a possibility. Prelude? Have to give one a test drive, but initial thoughts are it's a 2 door Civic Hybrid with some suspension tweaks.

The outlier in all of this is a Subaru WRX. I'm probably getting a little long in the tooth to be driving one, but the times I've test driven one (mostly shopping with my son), I thought they were a hoot.

Another outlier would be a GLI. My son has had such good luck with his GTI, I thought I'd give the sedan version a look.

In short, I don't know what I'm going to do.

I've seen at least one man long in the tooth driving a Subaru WRX/STI, so you have permission to get one.

stickguy

I’m pretty much lined up with GG. I want to try a WRX but it might make me feel old. I like the GTI but my wife is anti VW. But I really want to try a prelude. Could likely get the wife to go along with that.

Still a chance we go to the Albany auto show this weekend!

ab348

The new Prelude is tiny, and pricey to boot. I don’t hate it since it seems like it might be a hoot, but I wonder about the value proposition, though the depreciation will likely be a number approaching nil.

andres3

ab348 said:

The new Prelude is tiny, and pricey to boot. I don’t hate it since it seems like it might be a hoot, but I wonder about the value proposition, though the depreciation will likely be a number approaching nil.

It's going to have a tough time I think. How much cheaper is the Prelude to the GTI going to be? Do people really want a slow coupe that looks fast vs. a hatch that is pretty fast?

explorerx4

Upcoming Honda Prelude story.
https://www.carscoops.com/2025/10/shocker-hondas-new-prelude-is-heavy-and-slow/

xwesx

I don't get it. People wanted nostalgia... and now that they have it, they complain?! Typical.

corvette

@xwesx - they also complained about Boomers accounting for a lot of the preorders. It may be a lot like the PT Cruiser in that regard.

ab348

C&D got a preview drive of the Prelude:

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a69230222/2026-honda-prelude-prototype-drive/

corvette

It looks great in red.