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Neither one of us can say the other is wrong.
This whole thing was a test. Suzuki and I and the OKC Thunder have won. Hands down. The Lakers, with help from the ref's only, won Game 2. The Lakers are not the better team than the Thunder. They ought ta be ashamed of their silly selves.
No contest. Larry King and his 8 wives aside. Jerry Sloan and his countless tries at the Big Enchilada-let's just put that to one side.
Suzuki has proven that they can and will build cars for the masses that look great, last for the Long Haul, and cost less. It's value-except now they have beaten former favorite Kia with great value.
The only carmaker I respect more than Suzuki is Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi builds the world's finest powertrains and the world's sexiest car in the 2008+ Mitsubishi Lancer GTS. I and Suzuki and Mitsubishi and the OKC Thunder are one a roll that Donald Trump would love to be smart enough to be on.
2008 Mitsubshi Lancer GTS
Yummy!
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
I don't want snow tires. I don't want to deal with the hassle and expense. In addition, putting snow tires on for 4 or 5 months means driving with tires that perform worse than all-seasons, in the conditions that actually exist, during most of the time that they are on the car. This is because I would estimate maybe 5% of my driving in winter is on roads that are actually snow covered.
All-seasons with FWD is good enough for my winter driving. I would not want the trade-off of snow tires for 4-5 months, in order to have RWD.
Nobody is trying to talk you out of buying a Suzuki. You, on the other hand, seem to be trying to convince everyone else. Sorry to say, I don't think you're doing a good job. As long as you're happy with your choice, we're all happy for you. We think you're wrong, but we're happy for you.
Horse walks in to a bar. Bartender says...hey, why the long face?
Horse says, "Everyone's telling me I have ta buy a Hyundai Sonata. They tell me it has everything I'd ever want in a midsize car."
Bartender replies "Hey, have you heard of shooting guard Kevin Durant of the Thunder? He led the NBA in points per game in the NBA regular season at 30.3."
Horse replies "They tell me Suzuki and their midsize Kizashi is full of poop. Sort of how I get from time ta time, dont'cha know."
Bartender tells the horse, "Don't you worry your silly long face. Before long, everyone will know that something great is coming."
Horse replies, "But they're so dumb. It's a lot like telling them that soon the people in high places will fall. The leaders of the armies, churches and world governments will shreik in terror. They never believe me. They will knock, but the door will be closed. It will be too late."
Bartender thinks about what the horse just said. "Humm...you're a heavy horse. Perhaps you'd better hop in to your 2011 Suzuki Kizashi and get out of here. We don't like you or your kind around here. Scram!"
Horse turns around, walks out and hops in to his 2011 Suzuki Sport. Pushbutton start, safety tried and tested through the year 2014, foglights, sunroof, 425-watt Rockford Fosgate stereo, 10-way adjustable driver's seat with memory presets, rear HVAC controls, leather wrapped steering wheels with Sport perforations, leather-wrapped gearknob and emergency brake, leather seats, 6-speed manual transmission, new chrome accents around the foglights up front, chrome colored side moulding, by far the finest looking midsize sedan available. All for only $22,799. Available in Aug. of 2010 as a 2011 Suzuki Sport GTS.
Vroom! Horse fires her up, pops in The Cars 'Candy-O' CD, turns up the volume and puts the car in reverse. Out he goes from his stall.
Hi-o, hi-o silver, hi-o, hi-o silver, hi-o, hi-o silver away, yeah! Life is good. Much better since Suzuki decided to add midsize cars to it's stable. Suzuki is growing rich from all the small cars they sell in Japan. They lead the Asian kei-class market and are growing ever-so-rich from their sales in India as well.
Hi-ho silver!
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS in Vivid Red
Wow-since you're all wondering what my latest fave color for the car is, I am heading right back ta red for this pup. Two new cars back would be our 2001 Kia Sportage 4X4, which was a color Kia called Pepper Red. One new car back is our latest car, our 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS, which is in a shade Mitsubishi lovingly calls Rally Red.
With these new chrome accents and the chrome side moulding, I have officially switched my top running color choice to a shade Suzuki Motors lovingly calls Vivid Red. Look at that thing. Beautiful, huh?
And that big chrome 'S' in the front looks simply mah-vel-ous as well. Seriously, folks. Look over to your right to that white VW Passat. Look at how the 2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS in Vivid Red blows it away cleanly and nicely. Sweet spot.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
As for the FWD/RWD in snow, I prefer RWD. It is no fun when your front tires pull you towards the shoulder when trying to get going in snow. At least with the RWD, throw a few sand bags in and I can go anywhere I want and have total control over where I steer. I totally hate the fact that when the front wheels, you know, the ones that control the direction your car goes, start to slip and slide when power is applied and you lose not only traction, but steering, not fun. Of course, been driving RWD for 25+ years in snow, so I do know how to handle it quite well, with regular all seasons, not snow tires. For me its AWD/4WD/RWD---->FWD. In fact I traded in my perfectly fine Hyundai Veracruz, a car we all liked to drive and ride in, because it was FWD, and has a nasty habit of swinging its [non-permissible content removed] out in snow, something that is very hard to control in a FWD car, and got a AWD Flex.
No contest. Larry King and his 8 wives aside. Jerry Sloan and his countless tries at the Big Enchilada-let's just put that to one side.
Dude, WTF are you talking about? And in what language does any of the above actually make logical sense?
I for one would love to see you buy a Kizashi so we can hear all about your ownership experience with it--for the short time you own it, before you take a beating on resale value and turn it in for the next new car that strikes your fancy. For which I am putting my money on the 2011 Optima.
Really, that's enough. This is a discussion, not a monologue. Enthusiasm for the Kazashi has been duly noted and entered into the record. Posting photos and unsolicited personal reviews yet another time isn't going to sway people to a particular opinion.
There's a discussion about this vehicle already, and unless it just comes up in the course of conversation here, or in comparison talk, please take the "I'm a fan and you should be too" talk to the vehicle-specific discussion. Thanks!
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And I checked out your profile and noticed that you claim to absolutely love the 1999 Kia Sephia... my ex girlfriend used to have one of those, and I have never seen a bigger pos car. No power, no torque, the manual tranny was terrible, no power anything (not even power steering), unremarkable fuel economy, crap stereo that I can't even remember if it had a CD player or not, and it looked like the bland economy car that it was. This is not a personal attack on you, but I question the judgment of anyone who loved that car enough to make it their screen name. I think if you owned anything nicer than a '99 Kia Sephia and a 2008 Lancer GTS you would be more critical of economy cars which try to market themselves as performance vehicles. Go drive a Mazda6 V6 or Fusion Sport V6 and then take out the Kizashi and tell us which one has better "performance".
I think somebody needs a time out. :sick:
"Fly away, little Starling, fly, fly..."
Now, if they were pimping it as a better alternative to a Civic or Corolla, well, they probably would have a point.
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Honestly, that Suzuki is not all that attractive in my view. And I would not buy a midsized car from a very scarce automaker (in this country) unless there were substantial and overwhelming reasons why that vehicle was so superior to the competition that it made up for the disadvantages such as few dealers, harder to get parts, no independent mechanics want to work on it vs. similar competition, and poor resale value.
The fact that Suzuki and Mitsubishi have been selling cars in this country for over a decade yet have not made any significant inroads in market share says to me that they are not compelling to most people, and that buying one is a risk (at least from a support and resale perspective).
And it looking like a Jetta - well the current Jetta IMHO looks too much like an older Corolla - VW really screwed up their redesigns on the Jetta and Passat.
Why do you care about the resale value of Elantras? Are you in the market for one?
But this Kizashi should take a cue from the 2008 Lancer GTS (the top trim) and start at $17.5K - not charge $27K+ for a top trim Suzuki. I just don't think it's worth that much. If it was $21K loaded and like $16K to start, it would be very competitive. You don't see any $27,000 Jetta's, do you?? Not even the Wolfsburg edition with the 200 HP turbo costs close to that.
It's been my experience that people who worry most about resale value are frequent traders: the gotta-have-a-new-ride-every-couple-of-years crowd. More often than not, these people end up struggling to make the minimum payments on their maxed-out credit cards because they're spending too much on cars. Too bad they're not bright enough to make the connection.
Viewed from 30,000 feet, a car is nothing more appliance, albeit more interesting & seductive than, say, a washing machine. Do you worry about your washing machine's resale value? I didn't think so. So why are you hung up on your car's resale value?
If you kept it for an extra 3 years and it sold at that time for $5K, that is only a difference of $650 a year over the 8-year life of the car, $900 a year if you kept it for 10 full years and got $3K back (that is being generous on the resale) - except you deal with no breakdowns, no unexpected repair bills, and you are driving a new or fairly new car with all the latest and greatest features, better mpg, better style, etc. Gas savings alone of a model which is a half-decade newer could make up a large chunk of that difference. A small price to pay if you can afford it IMO.
Long story short, I keep a car until I've saved the full cash price of the next one. I simply refuse to put up with car payments. That's why I don't care a flying fig newton about resale value.
Your're right about the Sephia, I nurse I work with used to own a 99 Sephia when she was still a student nurse. She hated the Sephia, it was very unreliable. When she became a nurse, she traded the Sephia in for a new 2005 Acura TL and loved it.
I put 40,000 miles a year on my car
I'm confused, if you put 40K mi per year on, then you will have 200K mi after 5 years. That'd be 100K mi beyond any warranty.
You are not really expecting to get $8500 for a 5 year old car with 200K mi on it are you?
Or maybe we can move on?
You are stereotyping. Some of us can afford a new car every 3-5 years easily. I do happen to get tired of driving the same car in 3 - 4 years. Resale value is important if you are to trade the car in or sell it yourself in 3 - 5 years.
Look at all the people who have bought luxury brands over the years and kept the car for 10, 15 or even 20 years.
I drove my Volvo 1800E for 12 years before it started to need too much work including rust. Wish I still had that car.
And you're absolutely right. Remember that human beings use stereotypes because they're accurate 80% of the time. (Folks, I am NOT talking about racial/ethnic stereotypes, which are almost always wrong.)
So good for you if you're one of the 20% who can trade frequently without cratering your balance sheet, but I'll stick to my original assertion that frequent trades are bad for most people's financial health.
Very well put. Couldn't agree more.
The funny thing is, the car that I have been looking for since 2006 happens to be the 2010 Fusion Sport, there was no car on the market like it until late last year, and I really like the Ford. We both really liked the Hyundai, but we could not find an AWD version of it for a price we were willing to pay, and on a whim, test drove the Flex and we both really liked it, and once we test drove the Ecoboost, I really fell in love with it, it is the perfect family car for us, so chances of us trading out either of these cars in the next few years is very slim. All in all I actually have made money trading in the Prius and Veracruz, I had an extended warranty on the Prius that I got $1400 back on, when I only paid $800 for it, (a whole other story there), and the Veracruz was overpaid on the payoff so I got an additional $550 back on it.
Unless Ford makes a Fusion Sport with a rally suspension and Ecoboost, I don't see me getting rid of the Sport for quite some time, it is too much fun to drive, and so is the Flex. When you put 500 miles a week on, and spend at least 2+ hours a day behind the wheel, you want a car that is comfortable, and fun, not boring and anemic like the Toyota's were. :lemon:
The Sport should run solidly in the mid 6s; the heavier '08-'09 Taurus with the same powertrain, assuming FWD, could make it in just under 7 seconds. Plenty potent.
As for the number of cars I have owned since the early 80's, too many to count! LOL I have owned Vega's, GM's, Chryslers, Mazda's, Isuzu's, Toyota's, Fords, Honda's, but never a Nissan. The best car I ever owned had to have been the 1992 Crown Vic with performance package. It was a sweet ride, too bad it started to rust. :sick: What I like about the Fusion Sport is it reminds me so much of that car, just in a smaller package, and it handles better only because it is smaller and lighter than the Vic, but that car had a very nice ride, lots of power, and handled real well for a car of it's size.
If the Fusion Sport doesn't make someone happy to drive it, then they are in the wrong car, or just need another 10K to spend on one that will.