Car advice. New long commute

[svelte]

[quote=Coronita]Oh wait scardey… If you like Honda’s, you can always go retro and get the 2023 Acura Integra.

I miss my old integra from high school days.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a41788950/2024-acura-integra-type-s-confirmed/

And it comes with a manual gearbox![/quote]

A friend just got one! He is so excited, sent me about 10 photos of it. I haven’t had a chance to ride in it yet.

[Coronita]

I won’t be buying a car until my kid is off to college. 1 more year (I hope)…. Hopefully by then we’ll have a lot more electric sports cars.

[scaredyclassic]

I think the income restriction on ev tax credit is going up next year. Must earn less than 300k. Sadly we will exceed that. Is that a reason to buy an electric car now in 2022?

Also I’m only 5’10 and weigh about 140, although my weight is plummeting due to a very restrictive holistic dentistry diet I adopted as part of a dental issue. I easily fit in a Miata.

[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic]I think the income restriction on ev tax credit is going up next year. Must earn less than 300k. Sadly we will exceed that. Is that a reason to buy an electric car now in 2022?

Also I’m only 5’10 and weigh about 140, although my weight is plummeting due to a very restrictive holistic dentistry diet I adopted as part of a dental issue. I easily fit in a Miata.[/quote]

Well then you are my height and you will fit fine in a Miata or Fiat 124. But you already decided on a scooter. And I’m pretty confident you won’t buy a Miata. You just aren’t Miata material

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=Coronita][quote=scaredyclassic]I think the income restriction on ev tax credit is going up next year. Must earn less than 300k. Sadly we will exceed that. Is that a reason to buy an electric car now in 2022?

Also I’m only 5’10 and weigh about 140, although my weight is plummeting due to a very restrictive holistic dentistry diet I adopted as part of a dental issue. I easily fit in a Miata.[/quote]

Well then you are my height and you will fit fine in a Miata or Fiat 124. But you already decided on a scooter. And I’m pretty confident you won’t buy a Miata. You just aren’t Miata material[/quote]

My retiring coworker bought a Miata right before quit to tool around. He took me for a ride. He was pretty stoked

[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=Coronita][quote=scaredyclassic]I think the income restriction on ev tax credit is going up next year. Must earn less than 300k. Sadly we will exceed that. Is that a reason to buy an electric car now in 2022?

Also I’m only 5’10 and weigh about 140, although my weight is plummeting due to a very restrictive holistic dentistry diet I adopted as part of a dental issue. I easily fit in a Miata.[/quote]

Well then you are my height and you will fit fine in a Miata or Fiat 124. But you already decided on a scooter. And I’m pretty confident you won’t buy a Miata. You just aren’t Miata material[/quote]

My retiring coworker bought a Miata right before quit to tool around. He took me for a ride. He was pretty stoked[/quote]

Good man. Hardtop or softtop?

It’s a love it or hate it car. There’s some people who love it like a cult member and there’s some people who absolutely hate it.I’m in the former category. People who get a Miata who are older are old people who refuse to grow up and don’t want to spend twice as much on a P-car. Make bo mistake, Porsches are Porsches and way better cars it’s not even a close comparison. But there’s definitely a cult following Miatas. And a lot of people who autocross or track their cars take good Miata drivers very seriously, especially at autocrosses. At BMW CCA sponsored autocrosses here, Miatas usually take top time of the day. Usually done by Brian Goodwin or one of his guys at Goodwin Racing. At PCA autocrosses, Porsches do well, but good miata drivers put up a decent fight.

Speaking of the ND Miata.
I have the one with the retractable hardtop, the RF. I was originally considering getting the softop, but I already have a Miata with a soft top, and I liked the side profile of the RF and the internet sales guy gave me a pretty hefty discount in 2017 even though it was a first year production run car. I’m not a big fan of the ND miata rear end, I think the fiat 124 has a better looking ass, but that’s just me…The ND RF was only suppose to be a fun street car toy and wasn’t suppose to be used at the track or autocross, so the weight difference between the hardtop and softtop isnt a big deal… but I made the mistake of taking the hardtop to one event to see how it compare to my NA Miata. My NA is supercharged, a lot lighter with most of the interior stripped , and is theoretically a faster car. However, the ND Miata is just a better Miata on the track and autocross , even when it was underpowered before the supercharger went in. My time was significantly better in the ND RF, even though it’s a heavier car…it’s a lot more refined than the NA and a lot more forgiving with driver error. If I had a softop ND, I probably would have done even better.

The RF hardtop, you lose about 1 inch of headroom and about 2 inches of rear seat adjustment compared to the softtop and the B pillar has a blindspot when the hardtop is up, but not unmanageable.
There are two companies that make a custom seat bracket that lowers the seat height by 2 inches if you need it: Paco Motorsports and Blackbird Fabworks. You probably don’t need it, it’s mainly for people who wear a helmet and need to the broom stick test for track day or people who drive the hardtop up and don’t want the helmet to be constantly hitting the roof

The hardtop weighs about 100lb more than softtop, about 2450lbs, still less than an Toyota FRS/ Suburu BRz.

With the RF hardtop , you can’t fit a rollbar in it, which is often required for racing at some track events (some events allow you to drive without a rollbar and the factory aluminum headrest is enough if you put up the hardtop , but this is very dangerous because the hardtop really isn’t meant to protect you in the case your car rolls over on the track). If you plan on racing a lot, get the softtop with a rollbar from Blackbird Fabworx

The newer ND Miata have an adjustable telescoping steering wheel , which is useful if you have long legs, short arms like me.

The 2016-18 ND Miata does not. The 2016-18 ND is 150hp, but it’s tunable with CARB legal supercharger made my Edelbrock (which I have ), or a CARB legal turbo from BBR that you can get from Flyin Miata..Both will bring the power to be about 200-215hp at the wheel (dynoed).Plan about a $6000 budget if you want to do that. You can get higher with custom , non+carb approved tunes..And there are 4 additional turbo kits that have bigger power but aren’t CARB legal: JDL, Avo, TurboSource, HKS.

The 2019 and onward is called the ND2 , which is a slight improvement over the original. Some tweaks to the engine, flywheel ,etc, stock power slight increase to 181hp, and now a higher revving motor, similar to a Honda S2000, but much lighter. There currently are no CARB legal turbo or supercharger that works with this 2019+ ND2 , but if you are just going to leave the car in stock form,.just get a 2019+. If you plan on tweaking with it, get something 2016-2018.

If you want to shove golf bags into the car , don’t get a Miata. There’s literally no trunk space.

Truthfully, if you don’t mind spending the money, just get a Porsche. It’s a way better car. The fit, finish of the Porsche is unmatched, and it’s pretty reliable. Yes maintenance on the Porsche is not cheap but it’s not outrageous. And if you really don’t plan on getting a manual transmission, just get a Porsche with PDK and call it a day. You don’t want a Miata with an automatic , it’s just not as fun. Purists will say that getting a Porsche with PDK is heresy, but truthfully you can’t beat an electronically controlled gearbox and paddle shifters. That’s why F1 went this route , and even Porsche track focused cars like GT3 all come with PDK. Rowing your own gearbox can be fun, but you won’t be quicker at the track than someone with PDK, skill level being equal.
911s are great cars, as well as the Caymen S…Like I said before, I almost picked up a Guards Red 991 911s with PDK a long time ago. The week I was suppose to pick it up, my friends at Broadcom and sdrealtor talked me out of it. My Broadcom boss (custom built Porsche guy ) and my coworker(German BMW guy) thought I was nuts buying a brand new Porsche to learn how to autocross and do track day for the first time. They told me to go buy a cheap 94 Miata and drive it like a hooligan and thrash it on a track or autocross and not worry about babying a brand new P car. sdrealtor meanwhile piled on by tempting me with a short sales condo near Sdsu for roughly the same price at the 992 911s. So i listened to all of the above , cancelled my 991 911s purchase, bought the short sales condo, and spent $2000 on a piece of shit 94 Miata that had torn softtop, worn and warped brake rotors and pads, busted suspension, a worn out cat that failed to pass smog, a bent front bumper rail, cracked front bumper cover and dented rear fender….oh and trunk full of kitty litter…from a dental hygentist nice older lady. After it failed smog, she sold it to me for $1800. I spent $3 on a bottle of Heet in the fuel line and passed smog, bought the cheapest brake rotors and pads from Amazon for $60 total and replaced all 4, and spent $800 on a shocks and springs from Flyin Miata….and another $600 on a rollbar from Hard Dog….and had the best time autocrossing and tracking the car. Because while many others drove their really nice cars more carefully, I didn’t give a rats ass if I ran into cones or scraped the guard rails in the POS Miataz and literally drove with a binary pedal…the gas pedal was either all the way to the floor or all the way up, and nothing in between. The Miata is a momentum car where you’re either all on or all off most of the time.

(That condo I bought for $125k had a cash flow of 4-7% all the way until I sold it…for $315k via a 1031 exchange to something better. If I bought the 911s, it probably would have been worth $75k at the same time I sold the condo.)

… the lesson to learn is as the saying goes : “Miata is always the answer”
… And when it’s not, “Porsche. There is no substitute”

[Coronita]

scardey.

2023 Prius.

https://www.toyota.com/upcoming-vehicles/prius/section/gallery/slide/2

[sdrealtor]

Can we please get back to minivans?

[barnaby33]

The Prius looks really nice! We’ll they make a Minivan version of it?
Josh

[spdrun]

Looks pretty, but the rear windows seem like they’re claustrophobic as hell, and not good for visibility. What looks pretty from the outside isn’t always terribly functional.

[Coronita]

Iihs released it’s latest crash test results about rear occupant safety. Only the Ford escape and Volvo xc40 received good. Toyota RAV4 received acceptable . Everyone else got poor.

https://www.autoblog.com/2022/12/13/iihs-updated-overlap-test-results/

[svelte]

[quote=Coronita]scardey.

2023 Prius.

https://www.toyota.com/upcoming-vehicles/prius/section/gallery/slide/2
[/quote]

My kids were talking about the new Prius at Thanksgiving – really a sharp vehicle! Kudos to Toyota!

I’ve been a long-term Prius hater because they were just so darn ugly. I mean purposely ugly. With small wheels even.

But this new one is just the opposite. Every line is very attractive. Especially the sides where that line kicks up to meet the rear bumper seam. And even the way the perfectly square door cuts across that character line where it kicks up.

I always joke with my sons that designers can usually get either the front end or the back end right, but not both. It’s like they have a great concept for one end of the car but by the time they get to the other end they can’t figure out another good design to match the opposite end. Well the new Prius doesn’t have that problem. Front, back, sides, all good! That’s rare.

[svelte]

Another option? Buy a used Tesla…their value dropped 10% from Oct 2022 to Nov 2022. That’s enormous!

[Coronita]

[quote=svelte][quote=Coronita]scardey.

2023 Prius.

https://www.toyota.com/upcoming-vehicles/prius/section/gallery/slide/2
[/quote]

My kids were talking about the new Prius at Thanksgiving – really a sharp vehicle! Kudos to Toyota!

I’ve been a long-term Prius hater because they were just so darn ugly. I mean purposely ugly. With small wheels even.

But this new one is just the opposite. Every line is very attractive. Especially the sides where that line kicks up to meet the rear bumper seam. And even the way the perfectly square door cuts across that character line where it kicks up.

I always joke with my sons that designers can usually get either the front end or the back end right, but not both. It’s like they have a great concept for one end of the car but by the time they get to the other end they can’t figure out another good design to match the opposite end. Well the new Prius doesn’t have that problem. Front, back, sides, all good! That’s rare.[/quote]

I’m not a fan of the back it could use a little polish. But side profile looks good

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=svelte]Another option? Buy a used Tesla…their value dropped 10% from Oct 2022 to Nov 2022. That’s enormous![/quote]

No way.

[Author]

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