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thanks...
About the noise: Try Rotating the tires cross wise and see if the noise changes. If it doesn't it's most likely the bearing.
I don't particularily notice any unusual noises from the tires, but if the stereo is NOT on on the highway, going 70mph and above, there's road noise coming into the cabin.
Darker woods go better with black interiors since there is enough contrast. The lighter, warmer woods go best with beige or ivory trim. My favorite use to be Brazilian Rosewood, but there is a new Burl Walnut that looks good, too.
If you go with it, have the installer apply the main pieces first and see what you think. You may not want all of the kit installed on a small car. Too much in a small space. Use it sparingly for the best effect. Pieces of wood on the armrests where the window buttons are may not wear well.
Wood trim requires maintenance, too. Use a good furniture polish to provide moisture so it doesn't crack.
fowler3
Meade
I've been pretty enthusiastic about certain things before and I love driving my P5, but WOW.... slow down Larry, your going to burst something! :-) Actually, outside the Protege and Mini Cooper boards, I haven't found such enthusiasm as this.
Just helped my Mother-in-law purchase a 2000 LX with 29K miles on it (Previously a Hertz Rental) and No squeaks, rattles, loose panels... nothing. Drive train is tight and all appears to be in great working order. Doors still close with a nice thunk.:-) I'm thrilled to see how well these relatively inexpensive vehicles hold up! Even under lesser TLC conditions.
The only complaint! The Bridgstones are plagued with excessive tire noise. Rotating them cross wise will probably do some good, though I do remember them being fairly noisy from the start and getting worse with wear, when I had the Potenza's on my CRX.
-Larry
Hey everybody, who's CHATTIN TONIGHT?
"Be there or be square!"
-Larry
heights. A short driver will sit closer to the instrument panel and have a different field of view to the right as a taller driver.
I knew an Audi owner who set the mirror (pre-electric) to look balanced with the left mirror but couldn't see anything with it. She also set her heater control sliders to look balanced, not realizing the heat was ON in the summer. And asked me why her car was so hot inside even with the windows open. LOL!
fowler3
FYI, the Sport 20 is the AWD/turbo version of the Familia 5-dr sport wagon that's been available in Japan for a couple years. I'd like to get THAT over here. What a tough decision to make between the 6, Sport 20 and RX-8!
This was announced on www.veh-tech.net a couple days ago.
Overdrive: When, where, and how often?
Thanks!
The protege turbo was mentioned here -
http://www.veh-tech.net/pages/DailyNews/LatestStories.html
Look under "Thursday Nov. 29".
Overdrive is my friend, having an automatic Pro5. Really what it's meant to do is keep your revs low and gas mileage high. If you are careful, the overdrive OFF button is like a mini turbo booster. If you're cruising around town and need a lot of power suddenly, you mash the gas pedal, the car shifts down 2 or 3 gears, you run the revs up to redline, and go nowhere. Turning overdrive off is like a manual downshift, putting you closer to more power with less chance of doing the above. I drive around with overdrive on but I'm quick to that off button. I mostly use it when I need to speed up to get through a yellow light or if I'm driving 25 for a school or hospital zone and find that my revs have dropped to 800. That makes it tough to get back up to 40 without getting run over. I also turn overdrive off on the highway sometimes for more passing power. I've discovered that the Pro5 develops a fair bit of power and can actually seem impressive if you are cruising at around 40mph, pop the overdrive off, and hit the gas. For whatever reason around this speed, your revs with overdrive off put you right in the power band and you can take off like a rocket (if that's what makes you happy, of course)
My wife keeps taking it. Her 2k Outback Limited is nice but about as exciting as a Camry (unless its snowing).
Minor problems: Had a dash rattle at 3k miles but it has since gone away without me doing anything.
MPG: 24city/29highway. It will get 33mpg if you drive 60mph. At 70-75 it gets 27-30mpg. Overall I'm at 28mpg. Yup, I'm lucky because its a mostly highway mid-western commute.
Other: I run 35psi all around. I switched over to Mobil-1 full synthetic 5w30 engine oil at 2k miles. It was changed at 7500 miles with Castrol Syntec and I'm doing 7500mile changes until the warranty runs out and then 15k changes after that. Unless I go back to dino oil and then it will be 7500miles. The transmission will be flushed with the next oil change at 15k and every 30k after that.
Overall: Its a very nice car so far and pretty cheap to operate. In my opnion I dont think one can comment on reliability until it gets beyond 50k and 3-4 years. Still, no problems so far.
My take on the turbo:
1) My limit is $3000 installed.
2) Must not void warranty.
3) Must come with a warranty for the turbo and installation.
4) Must increase hp/ft-lb by around 30 but not more than 50. I dont like torque steer.
Was I ever glad to have quick steering Sunday! Some dumbass in a Chrysler Town and Country crossed the double-yellow lines and ran me off the road into a yard and back. Sheesh! Thought for a minute I was joining Larry's club.
I checked that heater/AC question this afternoon. It has been raining all day and the windshield started to fog up. Yep, the AC comes on when you move the selector to feet/defrost. But it's nice not having to turn it on separately, even though there are times you may need the extra power and come up short. Turning the A/C on manually in other cars it gets too cold quickly. The Pro way blends it with the heat nicely and I also noticed the fan speeds up.
fowler3
-Larry
I'll take a Protegé over a Civic any day! Of all the compact cars I have owned -- 12 -- the Protegé is the BEST of them.
fowler3