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The Fusion has 240 HP on premium. The Accord V6 has 278, and weighs less. .
The Fusion Titanium is very stylish, the Accord is more upright and retains more sedan and less sporty-stylishness.
It is a hard choice to decide between the two, but I would take the Honda. Personal preference.
But otherwise if the accords interior was better it might be a home run or at least a triple. That center stack just kills me. Soooo busy.
My kids fight for the front seat, since whomsoever gets it also decides on the music. The tuning knob is in a perfect spot for them to scroll through my USB thumb drive collection.
At least neither car has the screen protruding from the dash like an i-pad. It's ironic that it looks cheap, since Mercedes, BMW, and Audi seem to think it looks great. I wouldn't have it unless it retracts.
As quiet as your Optima is, believe me, it's when there is a lot of road noise that even a great stereo still has to be turned up a lot. I too listen to my tunes pretty loud and even with a killer sound system, believe me..it is constantly trying to compete with potential road and wind noise. If you don't believe me, just trying listening to your fav IM at 75 mph on a windy day on float top paved roads (if you even have floattops down there?) and then park the car and shut the engine off. Make sure you have speed/volume compensation turned OFF. Notice how frig loud and clear tho that the stereo is? It seems louder than before and it is because it was trying to overcome all the other interior noice that traveling creates. Gimme a Buick like car interior db level in my economy car anyday..hell...charge me a grand for that package..I'd pay.
I think they both can exceed the highway rating.
As far as interior controls go, the Fusion has voice commands in addition to the screen, dash buttons(touch points), and steering wheel.
So, I take it is a road built over the permafrost, right? Please explain!
No float roads in VA/DC/MD! It only freezes hard here for maybe 10 days in a row in winter.
Concrete roads/highways are loud down here and go clomp clomp clomp where the slabs meet. I guess older roads in our Interstate system were made with concrete. When you transfer back to blacktop there is a huge difference in noise level, but again, noise just doesn't bother me.
Anyway, this stuff is so noisy you simply can't imagine it. Or ignore it..even you I think, cski. You can really tell how negligent a manufacturer is if you are in a medium priced car and the stones are rattling off the (unlined) fender well liners creating a cacophony of noise combined with wind and road roar.
And re those float tops..why do they do it that way?? $$$$....why else?
The worse part is if they cheap out way too much and try to do a too thin job. The first winter comes and the frost just breaks it up into one big pothole which then keeps the local district guys in work, patching. Even before winter comes, if it's too thin, a heavy dump truck turning into a driveway will lift and peel the stuff like peeling a banana. Usually that is where potholes start and then spread out full road length from there.
Ahhh...life in the sticks..
Wow man. How far up in Canada do you live? So, is the float top paved on top of permafrost, or is it just a cheap way of paving and has nothing to do with it?
I think you would enjoy the road system here. Quiet, smooth, modern, and well maintained. Road noise just isn't an issue. Traffic is.
'17 Chevy Volt Premiere
We also have many roads that are beautifully smooth and quiet and hot-rolled. The difference is, yours last so much longer in that great condition because you guys have so little frost, it barely even counts. In fact...as for road damage, your level of frost is basically a non-issue.
Traffic is really bad anywhere near TO. Up here though, the only time traffic gets congested, is when the city drives north to cottage country on holidays.
Although, most small towns have street lights now so it can get pretty congested due to poorly time-managed lights. Plus the fact that many small towns were never laid out with expansive enough real estate to anticipate the amount of traffic that a century later it has to contend with. The same can be said for cities too of course. We have our first traffic-circle now...about a year old..and it has been a raving success, even though there were so many nay-sayers it almost didn't get approved for construction. What a fuel, clutch, brake, stress and time saver they are.
Ya.. chip seal..I think that is another name for what this stuff is. Except that these aren't really chips cuz chips tend to lay down flatter. These really stick up and aren't thin..more pebble-like. I can sure imagine how poor a surface it would be to try to skateboard on. Poor kids.. Sometimes though they will invest in a hot rolled surface on top of the float top. They did that to my road few years ago...3 or so. It is toast already though...they only did about 1" thick. It sure was nice for the first summer though. I was talking with one of the guys about it a few years ago. Apparently a lot of thought goes in to attempting to improve road life. He was telling me that they were experimenting with a new type tar or asphalt that had a more elastic-like content, so that it was more resistant to breakage from frost conditions. I think these roads are a few million per 10 km (6 miles). And they literally are kaput in sometimes only 1 year if they did a really crappy job or 4 years on the very best of jobs. Road building up here, and I mean in GTA too, is very corrupt I think. They 'could' invest in a base that would last 20 years or more if they invested enough material for base, then hot rolled them all. A good example of this was my road. When I moved here, it had the old original hot-rolled pavement that was somewhat broken, but far from being worn out. It was about 25 years old. When they tore it up, it has NEVER been the same since. That was about 25 years ago and they have done at least 7 or 8 roads with this floattop crap since then. I call it 'make work' cuz that is exactly what it is. One hot rolled with a good base could have lasted another 25 years easy, compared to 8 resurfacing since then, and been WAY cheaper in the long run. Another thing they do...when the time comes to tear it up and redo, they ALWAYS wait til Nov! That means that the road gets the constant rain fall saturated, that FREEZES before it it has a chance to drain through that would otherwise help compaction. They are redoing my road as I type...torn all to rat ****, and last night it got down to 5ºF. So all the rain we had the last 4 weeks straight will freeze and break up the new surface. All the water from salt and slush is being pressed down into the tar along with the pebbles, so naturally it is not a clean bind to the tar so of course this road won't last either. It's a real scam they pull on the tax payers and there's not much the little guy can do about it but suck it up.
It's why I say road building is corrupt. There is money handed over under desks to make sure that the same old bidders get the job each time, and that the job will be done in such a way that they ensure it won't last.
edit: sorry..I better shut up about roads...I forgot which forum I was in..
What you call tar and pebble we used to call tar and gravel, and it was a popular option for side streets in the city here. I remember when I was a kid in the '60s they did it to a street we lived on one summer, and all the kids in the neighborhood came out to watch. Naturally one managed to somehow fall into the tar before the gravel got spread on it, could not have been fun. I remember him being carted away.
As I recall, they had a tanker truck filled with the hot tar compound that had a spray bar across the back that dropped a relatively even layer of the sticky stuff, then a dump body truck full of gravel with the body tilted just enough to let a little gravel fall out would back up into the tar layer, so the gravel would cover the tar before his wheels got to it. Then I think they would roll it, and then sweep the loose gravel off.
Anyway, it was pretty messy even after it was finished. The gutters were full of loose gravel, and if anyone was able to find a stretch where you could generate some speed it threw rocks like nobody's business. I don't think they do much of it any more.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
I have to admit I have not been to any northern rural areas since, well, forever. I bet that is where this type of road is popular. Right? Places where is snows a lot and the roads get damaged from all the plowing and corrosive stuff to fight slick roads?
It seemed like the Penna tnpk has been under construction since before time was invented, but it leads to a pretty drive through the mountains on I-79. I really want to take the Optima up there.
Maybe ours can be your guys sponsor. LMAO.
I saw on the Today Show that Chris Farley's brother said "he would have crushed as Toronto mayor-guy".
Please note I am not being mean......
You guys out east must be gettin' spoiled, haha
Ya..they're tearin' him up pretty badly, eh? But he really hasn't handled this very well at all. Shockingly poorly if you compare his mayor skills in terms of money saved and generated for TO. Apparently in those ways, he has performed very well for TO. Problem is..the weakest link gets exploited all to hell..and it is so painfully obvious that poor ol' Rob has absolutely zero social skills when under these kinds of cheap-shots heat. In fact..they are so poor if the cameras are running, he musta popped outta the womb with a social skill deficit.
But the dang media (talking locals here cuz they're the ones that have kept this ball rolling) are absolutely relentless. I swear.. I think if I had been in Ford's shoes a couple of times, I'd have been feeding a camera or two (one of the bigger ones) to them. I think at times he has shown amazing restraint. They completely JAM an exit, THEN get on his case saying he pushes his way through. What the hell?? We would too if people were blocking our way and right up into our personal space! Or at least I would.. no one has the right to hold you hostage/captive unless you are under arrest. I wrote and told them so too, but of course they were too cowardly to reply.
Anyway...it's pretty sad that certain sheltered parts of the world overseas now know about TO's mayor yet wasn't aware of the CN Tower..
Humanity can be like chickens...pecking away at the exploited ones until they are left shredded and bleeding. Anyway..I'll shut up about that too now, haha
Oh, and I like Canada a lot. The CN tower was the tallest building in North AMerica for a while. "Strip the City" on Science channel featured Toronto. Pretty cool (and also warm) you can walk around downtown Toronto underground. Also, I asked my wife to marry at Niagara on the lake. There is a dinner theater there that was perfect for the occasion.
Back to cars:
For me, I drive up to all my cousins weddings in Buffalo just for the excuse to do a road trip.
I heard the Hocking Hills area of southern Ohio is the best place to go just for the roads out there. A lot of car magazine's do their road tests there, as it is rural and has no major (or minor) cities within 200 miles. I wouldn't mind getting together with some other enthusiasts for the trip.
Anyway, it is 28 degrees here so I guess that's why I am talking about Canada! Brrr.
Although I have to say that with single digits this morning in the Twin Cities, the seat heater on my wife's Sonata felt pretty darn good. Funny how I took her car this morning when I had to go out early, instead of my Rio.
30 miles to Columbus.
80 miles to Cincinnati.
Not quite 200.
But I haven't seen the roads there so I don't know if they're windy, curvy, straight, scenic, etc..
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Well, it was 21 degrees this morning. That is serious cold for this time of the year.
How did the Sonata run this morning? I don't like the way my 2.4 sounds when I first start it. I was told it is the high pressure DI system, but it sure sounds like something is clanking when it shouldn't.
I think the roads there are all of the above.
I was wrong on the distances to major cities from Hocking Hills. I think I was thinking of a piece they did on the new Jaguar F-Sport in the Mud River Valley of West Virginia, where the printed this little map that had no cities on it.
I'm very sure my MIL will not be visiting us during the Super Bowl. She died in 1994, at much too young an age. She was a sweet lady, and was very good to me although I'm a "Yankee".
I vacation down in NC (Oak Island/Southport/Cape Fear). They consider us Northern. In Buffalo, they think I sound like a southerner. They made me say "roof" over and over again. I made them say sentences with lots of "R"s.
Maybe this is why someone invented the term "Mid Atlantic". lol.
I was interested enough to talk to my cousin in Niagara Falls, and he said lots of roads are paved that way where they go skiing, and it is not only cheap but works like a studded tire in reverse. Said it is good for traction.
He also said that he uses winter tires on his A6 and they get worn really quick out in the mountains but roads in town and the suburbs use regular pavement because it is smoother and easier for the plows to scrape repeatedly w/o damage.
I just put the snows on today...I leave it as late as I can till I have assured wet and cold roads. And I take 'em off early...last year I think I had them off near the end of Feb.
I just shake my head when I see (sometimes really high performance nice cars) with snows still on in the Walmart parking lot on the hottest day in July.
Last week I swear I heard a car that had studs on...I thought they were outlawed about 30 years ago due to excessive road damage. Had ON plates. I think some northern provinces might allow studs still..like NWT maybe? Maybe Quebec too come to think of it?
Again though, if people would just get the winter rubber off come Mar or APril at the latest, studs were such a live saver. Literally..Sure helps out on two-lanes with an opposing slipping into your lane to headon ya..
The roads, when cold still, would stand up to the studs much better.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
If you did, you better go to the KIA dealer over the weekend and get some factory approved oil put in there.
Don't say anything about any noise and remove any sticker the last place might have put on your windshield.
I am getting a deal for a new 2014 Chevy Malibu 1LT with convenience package.
I have been offered the Chevy Malibu 1LT for $23,000 out the door. Financing is 1.99% for 60 months.
They are giving me $18,000 for the Altima.
Is this a good deal or should I stick with the Altima I have.
Any feedback and opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Just curious, why do you want a new car? Most think the Altima is a better vehicle, and you've already made payments and aren't paying any interest. If you love the Malibu, make yourself happy. But I can't see starting over on car payments to move from a 2013 Altima to a 2014 Malibu, especially with that 2.5 everyone rags on...
I remember the 6000 as being quite a nice car for its time, the best of all the GM front-drivers back then. And I always loved the looks of the Audi. It hasn't changed all that much outside in 30 years, has it?
Ford to idle Fusion plant in Michigan extra week in Dec. to curb supplies
Nick Bunkley Twitter RSS feed
Automotive News
November 26, 2013 - 4:58 pm ET
DETROIT -- Just three months after Ford Motor Co. started production of the Fusion mid-sized sedan at a second North American plant to keep up with demand, it already has more supplies of the car than it needs.
A Ford spokeswoman confirmed today in an e-mail that the company has scheduled "approximately" one extra week off in December at its Flat Rock, Mich., plant "as we continue to match production with demand...."
http://www.autonews.com/article/20131126/OEM01/131129882/ford-to-idle-fusion-pla- nt-in-michigan-extra-week-in-dec-to-curb#axzz2lrBIklD7
Seriously. Go over to Honda. It is a great car. You will love it.
Also, for that money you could go Kia Optima EX or Mazda 6 Sport. The Mazda and the Honda are better cars, and will hold their value better than the Malibu.
I spoke to the dealership yesterday and they said they might be able to do
$22,000 out the door on the Malibu 1LT.
As for the Altima I own, I might be able to get another $500 to $1000.
So at best I can get the Malibu 1LT for $22,000 out the door and $19,000 for the Altima 2.5SV and 1.99%.
As much as I enjoyed test driving the Malibu 1LT I am on the fence if I should do this. I do have 0% financing on the Altima, but the Malibu would be 1.99%.
Any opinions appreciated. Thanks.
A) the tech replaced the dipstick
There is oil in the car
C) The oil is clean
When I get home I check to see if there is still oil in the car (had a tech cross-tread a filter once on my Saturn and all my oil leaked out).
I started a topic on the Optima board about the Optima 2.4 GDI cold start rattle, and it is normal. "Welcome to life with a direct injection 4 cylinder" is the answer i got from all 23 replies. Also, the noise I was concerned about at startup is just an engine with all it's oil in the pan, and it has solid lifters. It goes away completely in like 5 seconds. Also normal.
Also funny the 5000s, and the Saab900 turbo were considered mid size sedans, and not luxury cars.
Great, it is raining ice outside. Just what I-95 needs on the day before thanks giving!
I also remember being quite fond of the 1990 Chevy Beretta GT (3.1)
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2022 Wrangler Sahara 4Xe, 2023 Toyota Tacoma SR 4WD
Don't reply on the dealer's records if you need documentation.
Good advice. I know it sounds a bit paranoid, but in past I have known situations where they (a dealer and their apparent lack of being able to supply mysteriously missing records) lacked the good moral character to own up to an issue.
* New 2013 Sonata GLS with PP for $18k.
* New 2014 Camry L for $18k... and a 36 month lease on an LE for $145/month with about $2000 up front--interestingly, the same offer as on a 2014 Corolla LE!
* New 2014 Passat S for $189/mo. lease, sign-and-drive, 36 months (doesn't have the new 1.8T of course, but a nice car for $189/month).
No-shows on the Black Friday ads included Mazda6 (no ads at all), and Honda with a virtual no-show in that all the local dealers did is republish the usual national lease rates--local Honda dealers NEVER have ads with anything other than lease deals for some reason. I've seen purchase prices in ads in other cities so maybe it's just a Twin Cities Honda dealer collusion thing.
Happy Thanksgiving, and happy Black Friday car shopping for those venturing out tomorrow! I leased a Sonata last Black Friday, and got two other cars this year (one used, one new on a lease) so I'm set at least until the Sonata lease is up in a couple of years. I can sleep in tomorrow.
I also have access to all my service visits online and can make appointments online as well. All very nice. Where Kia fails to meet expectations is at the service counter, and in the shop. Hopefully these area's will improve greatly in a short period of time, just like their products have.