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Also, whoever said there was no mileage difference in the Grand Marquis and Impala is dead wrong... 16/23 for the Mercury, 19/29 for the Chevrolet with the 3.4L engine, 18/27 for the bigger 3.8L V6 in the uppel level Impalas. That's quite good for the torquey motor.
With a few notable exceptions aside, this segment is very good overall, with each doing various things better or worse in shades of gray.
That's why the decision is so hard.
Off my list:
Altima: Dislike the looks, don't find the "drive" any better then it's competitors.
Sonata: just not my cup of tea
Jetta: Too small for the price imo. TDI Wagon would make me cave on size, but the premium price and lack of incentives kills it.
Passat: premium price
Galant/G6/Aura/Chrysler-Dodge: old stuff, not interested
Waffling:
Malibu: Local dealer is toxic but the car seems ok, I'd like to check it out
Camry: I'm a Toyota Truck guy, but have never loved their cars, I find their interiors confining as they always use a very high center console which my fat self doesn't fit well. Need to drive one again, my buddy just bought a black one with tan leather and it's very nice looking.
Legacy: Love that I can get a wagon but they are everywhere up here and I just don't like the current version, as much as I've tried. Maybe the next-gen will be better for me.
Top of the heap:
Fusion: Love Sync, looks, price, lots of local dealers. Wish I could get leather, HIDS & the manual. An SE 4cyl/6spd with the Sun n' Sync package is pretty close though.
Accord: Love our LX, and EX-L 4cyl would be perfect. Exceptional local dealer. Just wonder if I want the "same car" again.
Mazda6: Nearest dealer is almost an hour away, the model I want is a unicorn ('09 6iGT-manual... no GT manual for '10)
Monochrome Appearance Package
Includes a unique finish on IP spears and center stack, Body Colored Grille, 18" Machined Aluminum w/Painted Pockets, Rear Spoiler, Unique Cloth Front Bucket Seats Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel & Shift Knob
Appearance Package
Includes a unique finish on IP spears and center stack, Chrome Grille, 18" Machined Aluminum w/Painted Pockets, Rear Spoiler, Unique Cloth Front Bucket Seats, Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel & Shift Knob
Pricing should be available sometime in the near future for the trim level pkgs, I'm glad to see true alloy wheels will be available for SE model Fusions as opposed to the fascia covers on SE models now.
Oh I forgot to mention, she is 5' 1" tall. My wife is 5' 2" tall, and she learned to drive in a 1985 Grand Marquis, and that is an even larger car with boxy fenders and such.
I think the reason more cars like the Vic/GM aren't sold is the misconception that the car is too big to handle, when in reality, it is actually easier to handle than most FWD cars. Well that and it does look like a granny car. But ask any cop that drove a Vic and the Impala, and the majority will want the Vic.
My rental for the day was a Chevy Cobalt. Tiny thing, front wheel drive.
2500lbs plus FWD on street tires was twice the effort to steer as a 4200lb 4Runner with mud tires. Easier to handle is a massive understatement.
Any small car using the Hyundai Small car Hybrid system will get close to 48MPG depending on size and weight.
This is an Article about the Engine Being placed in a KIA Soul.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/autoshows/paris/2008/kiasoulhybridnews.html
News today came in that Toyota and Mazda are in discussions for Toyota to license hybrid components to Mazda for Mazda Hybrid vehicles. Sources close to the situation report Mazda could have a mass produced hybrid here by 2012-2013. Possibly a Mazda6 Hybrid? That sure would be nice!
Man ain't that the truth. I just saw an Insight the other day, you know, the lowest priced Hybrid one can buy, and man is that thing tiny. Since it is smaller than the Prius, and appears to have a very close COD design, you would think it would get better MPG rating than the Prius, but it doesn't.
If The government were really concerned about cap and trade, CO2, etc. you would think they would have better incentives so that people can better afford to buy a Hybrid. The real cost behind any Hybrid is not the drive technology, once a certain number have been sold, the R&D costs to develop the drive train is paid for, but the battery technology is ongoing and that is the biggest cost of the car. It is also the biggest limiter of the number that can be made at any one time, something Mazda will face when it starts up its Hybrid line. They will have to wait for deliveries from the battery manufacturer, and if from the same plant as Toyota and Ford, they will have to take a number and hope for the best.
Toyota has much greater manufacturing capabilities over in Japan. Now that Mazda is under their own control, I guess that may have opened up the door for the JDM manufacturers to start talking about licensing hybrid technology.
I am considering a set of the newly introduced Grand Touring, 60,000-mile, all-season Goodrich Advantage T/A tires (205-60R-16-92H). At Costco the set will cost $372 installed. This is a new tire so there is little information about it on the internet so I was wondering if any of you have any information that you wish to share.
The Costco rep says its a much better tire an improvement over the Traction T/A but I'm skeptical as I've never used that brand before. As a matter of fact I've only used Michelins but at $135 each I wanted to switch to a cheaper tire in these hard economic times but I don't want to regret that decision so any feedback would help.
Interesting(at least to me it is) note. I had the Michelins put on an Infiniti QX4 last September with 30lbs of nitrogen each. They have not needed one lb of air as of this time. I'm amazed at how the nitrogen stays in the tire. I personally didn't think it was that big of deal and Costco includes the nitrogen "no-charge". Before I considered it somewhat gimmicky and wouldn't have paid $20 or $30 to have it put in. But now that I've had it for almost a year I'm pretty sold on it. I heard it keeps your tires cooler on long runs too which is easier on your tires but I don't know if that has been absolutely proven or not.
Here is a thing to consider about tires. Car manufacturers put tires on based not on traction or longevity, but based on what MPG's they can obtain. You may see Michelin's on a new car, but don't be surprised when they suck in the rain. We had a 92 Accord brand new, and had to replace the two front tires, which were Michelin's, with different tires because they were awful in wet weather. The tires on my Camry are wearing rather fast, 29.800 miles and they are nearly down to the wear bars.
Since this is a new line of tires, find out if they are a brand new design, or if they are a redesign of an existing tire, and if a redesign, base the decision off of the reports on the tires it replaced. Also check the ABC and wear ratings, those are actually pretty reliable.
I hope people don't really believe nitrogen is able to do all these magical things.
Since the atmosphere we're breathing is 80% nitrogen, the nitrogen allegedly put in is responsible for great improvements based only on a 20% differential. consider that the machines that separate the nitrogen are not perfect, the air pumped into your tire may only be 90% nitrogen--read the disclaimers on the company's sites selling the nitrogen separators as "money-making machines" to tire stores.
Also the use of nitrogen rich air was primarily a benefit to truck tires where the carcas is used for 100s of thousands of miles with recapping. I don't know anyone running their auto tires that long.
If your tires go a long time without needing air: it's because the seal at the rim is good, the inner liner of the tire is a high quality sealer, and because the enviromental temperature went up from the original fill till the time you're measuring pressure now. (Pressure increases approximately 1 pound/10 deg Fahrenheit increase in temp.)
As for keeping tires cooler, does anyone thing the heat transfer difference between 80% nitrogen/oxygen/CO2 and 95% nitrogen is noticeably different? Plus where does the heat get transferred to? Most heat will go out of the tire through the rubber to the atmosphere--not through the air within the tire to the rim. Most flexing occurs in the thick rubber layer with steel/polyester/nylon layers called the tread. The thinner sidewalls are designed to flex and produce less heat doing so.
If the tire store actually used a 100% nitrogen tank souce like a hospital uses, then the claims might be considered; but they use a separator in the store which deteriorates in efficiency as used.
The claims in some of the websites for sellers of nitrogen separators is faulty. Sometimes they trip on themselves claiming one thing in one paragraph as a benefit and the opposite somewhere else as a benefit. I found that when I spent some time last fall browsing sites. http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2009/06/23/466920.html
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
acdii, the Advantage T/A is a brand new design and everywhere I've checked they say "no reviews yet". By the way, the tire is for my Toyota Avalon and I am a moderate driver who prefer driving comfort and quiet over spirited driving.
I have a 07 Mazda6 as well with plain air and have added air to those tires a couple of times a year since new. Usually about 4-5 low when I add. Those are Michelins. I added air to the two vehicles "in question" when they were running the OEM tires quite often as well. So you can see the pleasant surprise I had with the nitrogen. If in fact as you say the nitrogen doesn't add anything to the equation, they should pay the Costco tire installers more for doing such a great job.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
The oxygen and nitrogen shown are actually atoms; they exist in diatomic form for both. The relative sizes of the diatomic forms may be different than the monoatomic forms imply.
I believe that the quality of the materials of the tire, the seal at the bead, and the valve stem have more to do with the unit not seeping air out (which is 80% nitrogen, remember?) than does the extra 15% or so nitrogen. It makes nice advertising and is sort of like the 30-minute informercials.
I used to have X-Ones on my car and it lost practically no air. I read later that the X-One was used by Consumer Reports as the best quality tire for a long term test on how much air pressure loss occurs. They pumped up tires and then waited months to check the remaining pressures.
Since this topic is off topic for mid-sized cars, I was not going to respond or post again. There's another forum referenced in an earlier post about nitrogen in tires.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
I pulled the trigger and bought the Goodrich Advantage T/A tires at Costco but I was duped. First, I bought a $50 membership card with the intention of getting the $70 promotional discount. The tires were not in stock so I had to wait for 5 days, however, when they presented the bill it did not include the discount claiming that the discount was on selected Goodrich tires which did not include the Advantage T/A.
Second, when I returned to have the lug nuts re-torqued I asked the service manager how did the Advantage T/A stack up against the Michelin MXV4. He said the Michelin was a superior tire. I told him how could he say that when to me there was no difference in handling and NHV. He said to wait until January and I will see the difference and that the Advantage T/A is no better than the Track T/A which it replaced.
So far I have driven 118 mostly highway miles on smooth and rough surfaces. The car felt competent on all surfaces but the noise level was a little more noticeable than the Michelin’s on the rough surface. By the way, the tires were inflated with nitrogen at no extra charge but in terms of handling I can’t tell the difference between nitrogen and regular air. Final price for the set of 4 tires including tax, installation, warranty and disposal, $442.36.
Nitrogen does NOTHING for handling. The supposed benefits are better air pressure retention and less moisture.
mickeyrom, I know you'll have something to say about this.
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