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[Cbrider]

So I have been driving the same car that I got when I first got my license, a 1991 Acura Integra. Its been an awesome car, zero problems and reliable. Well my mom called me Friday and asked what I was doing Saturday and I told her I had no plans, she told me that we were going car shopping. She said that her and my dad thought that since my sister and I had been "good" drivers and hadn't wrecked our cars or been stupid that they thought we deserved better ones. (The whole motorcycle thing is another story, they still want to see it spontaneously combust while I sleep.)

I always thought that truck was what I wanted and that was it. The salesman convinced me to sit in a civic, which I swore I would never own because it was girly and gutless. It took about 5 minutes behind the wheel of a Civic Si to change my mind.

Nothing can touch how fun and fast a bike is, but this Civic is a CLOSE second. I never knew what "driving euphoria" was until I drove this thing. I have driven lots of cars, Mustangs, boosted imports, an STI and an Evolution, even a Porsche Cayenne Turbo. This little high output 4 cylinder is more fun than all but the STI and just as fun as it. It zooms around, gets great mileage and honestly corners better than even the STI, but its half the price.

If anyone is looking for a car in the near future, you have got to go drive one of these things, they are a blast.


Looks just like this one, except its silver.

[Doc Durian]

I like it when other people drive those type of cars. They crumble on impact and would take most of the impact out of my reinforced bumpers.

[tooxshort]

Nothing wrong with a Civic ... It's a smart friggin' buy ... good gas and reliable.

[Lipp]

Do you know if these qualities hold true for the Type R of the Civic?

[MVPlaya]

Congrats.

I'm still driving my 01 Camry. I want to upgrade. I really want to buy a Tesla Model S, and I can afford it, but I just have a feeling that the Five Year Total Cost of Ownership on those things is a lot bigger than the sticker price suggests.

I'm really tempted to buy me a Prius. Toyota was gonna build my dream car, the Toyota FT-HS (400 horsepower hard-top hybrid convertible 2+2 seater, estimated 35mpg)



But they scrapped that and are intro-ing the FT-86 instead, a non-hybrid sports car, similar body, not hard-top convertible either.

I'm really not excited for any cars coming out soon. Someone needs to invent something cool or I will buy a Prius and regret it.

[Doc Durian]

There's plenty enough oil in the world. Going hybred just means that you're dependent on the grid.

Imagine challenging fossil fuel burning authorities in a modified golf buggy? lol

[Junket]

I really like small cars, but I don't know if I could own a Civic.

I'm keepin' an eye on Ford's 2011 Ford Focus, they're bringing back the hatchback.

[Lipp]

If I'd make a realistic buy today it'd be a Mitsubishi Lancer '09 CS, the cheapest version of it :p



I'm a sucker for exteriors, but it's said to be nicely well-rounded.

[misombra]

civics are nice.

[vashti]

I drive a Hybrid Camry. It's a good car, but I don't love it. I think I should have bought something sportier.

Anyway, a reliable car is the most important thing, I think, and civics ARE reliable.

[MVPlaya]

There's plenty enough oil in the world. Going hybred just means that you're dependent on the grid.

Imagine challenging fossil fuel burning authorities in a modified golf buggy? lol

I disagree.

1) Whether or not htere is adequate oil, the quality of oil is decreasing and is headed towards greater recarbonization. BP is expanding oil fields by mining tar and shale, oil sources that are even more dangerous to the environment both during the extraction and refinement process, and as damaging during consumption. So oil usage is bad, going worse.

2) Hybrids don't make you dependant on the grid, hybrids simply reduce oil output. Plug-in hybrids, in Electric only mode, are dependant on the grid.

3) The grid can change its energy source, whether its wind/solar/coal/nuclear, so plugging into the grid makes it easier to switch vehicles energy sources to cleaner forms.

4) Energy derived from the grid is cleaner than energy derived from burning oil in your gasonline tank.

Personally, I'd love to go all electric. But the Chevy Volt has a 40mi range and that will not work for me. Tesla's 300mi range on the high end Model S is just perfect, but until I see their track record in producing reliable vehicles, its just a nifty concept car for people who can afford it. Since those vehicles will sell out anyway, there's no point for me to buy them. For now, I'm sticking with hybrids.

I wish car companies would make the hybrid sports cars we've been dreaming of. A friend of mine actually just recommended this car to me:

[url=http://www.lexus.com/models/HSh/?s_ocid=AllModels_HSh_Display_Info]HS Hybrid | Overview[/url]

Lexus HS 250 (Hybrid, 187hp, 35mpg - 42city/34highway, 0-60 in 8.4, 112mph top speed, starts at $35k)

There's no real point for me to buy a car that expensive though. I'm moving to Britain for grad school soon, and I'd pay a heavy premium reselling that car. Maybe when I get back to the US there will be hybrid sports cars for me to splurge on.

The only other concept car I'd jizz my pants about is [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLGygbCr3sg]BMW's EfficientDynamics[/url], but those things will never look as cool when they release them.

[Gigabitch]

Jeeze, Cbrider. I thought you found a new girlfriend who is 10 times better than your ex.

[Cbrider]

Jeeze, Cbrider. I thought you found a new girlfriend who is 10 times better than your ex.

A brothel girl would fall into that category.

[Gigabitch]

A brothel girl would fall into that category.

Sad, but true. On the upside, though, I think she would fit in the trunk of a Civic.

[Doc Durian]

I disagree.

1) Whether or not htere is adequate oil, the quality of oil is decreasing and is headed towards greater recarbonization. BP is expanding oil fields by mining tar and shale, oil sources that are even more dangerous to the environment both during the extraction and refinement process, and as damaging during consumption. So oil usage is bad, going worse.

Shale oil is of a higher quality than most wells though I noticed you did drop the word, "extraction", which alerts to me to your environmental and social perceptions. I don't agree. At any rate, culls miraculously just naturally happen when resources are threatened, so I don't think you have to worry about your precious Rockies for many generations into the future, or whomever they target to live on.

2) Hybrids don't make you dependant on the grid, hybrids simply reduce oil output. Plug-in hybrids, in Electric only mode, are dependant on the grid.

Where do you think it's been designed to go? Why spook the populace with martial law when you can limit their travel, create new leech industries, and bump up the price of plentiful crude under the guise of "saving the planet"? The effect of fossil fuels are negligible on the environment contrary to the Spin Doctors output.

3) The grid can change its energy source, whether its wind/solar/coal/nuclear, so plugging into the grid makes it easier to switch vehicles energy sources to cleaner forms.

All energy sources are no cleaner than petrol based in either their effects on the environment, manufacture of implements, or disposal of waste.

4) Energy derived from the grid is cleaner than energy derived from burning oil in your gasonline tank.

Nope. That's a fallacy pushed by the desire to inspire and scare animals into smaller more manageable cages.