Major Purchases
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I have an apartment, pending paperwork, etc. It's a pretty nice place in Brentwood. Currently I'm working on finding furniture. My closet is ridiculously huge and takes up an entire wall of the bedroom (22 ft^2), which means that I only need a bed, desk, and shelves. I found great shelves at Ikea, and a bed on Target's website of all places. I originally was going to get a similar bed at Ikea, but I found a much nicer one at target.com for the same price by accident. However...
I am in Los Angeles, so what good is my own apartment without a car? Yesterday I test drove three Honda Civic models. The hybrid sucks. The engine turns off when the car is stopped to save power. The ac turns off when the engine turns off. Hell no. Don't get me started on the dashboard that looks like something out of a crappy video game. The LX sedan (they didn't have any coupes immediately available for a test drive) was pretty nice. The Civic SI won. It's a three door hatchback available with only a manual transmission. Excuse me, a five speed. Honda doesn't sell manuals, they only sell five speeds. Unfortunately, the whole experience was quite painful. The salesman had a thick Indian accent, so I couldn't understand half the things that he said. The problem was compounded by his inability to figure out what I was saying. The end result was having half my questions answered with the horsepower of all the different Civic models, as if that was the only thing that was important. The manager, however, was a completely different story. He not only had a firm grasp of the English language, but actually was able to answer questions. For instance, he was able to quote me a price that he didn't read off the window sticker. When he started asking questions about when I wanted to buy the car (within 1.5 weeks), I found out what the magic words are. "I can't sign anything until my daddy looks at it first, since he's a lawyer." The price he quoted me actually decreased after I said that. Something to keep in mind tomorrow while I poke around a Ford Focus.
I am in Los Angeles, so what good is my own apartment without a car? Yesterday I test drove three Honda Civic models. The hybrid sucks. The engine turns off when the car is stopped to save power. The ac turns off when the engine turns off. Hell no. Don't get me started on the dashboard that looks like something out of a crappy video game. The LX sedan (they didn't have any coupes immediately available for a test drive) was pretty nice. The Civic SI won. It's a three door hatchback available with only a manual transmission. Excuse me, a five speed. Honda doesn't sell manuals, they only sell five speeds. Unfortunately, the whole experience was quite painful. The salesman had a thick Indian accent, so I couldn't understand half the things that he said. The problem was compounded by his inability to figure out what I was saying. The end result was having half my questions answered with the horsepower of all the different Civic models, as if that was the only thing that was important. The manager, however, was a completely different story. He not only had a firm grasp of the English language, but actually was able to answer questions. For instance, he was able to quote me a price that he didn't read off the window sticker. When he started asking questions about when I wanted to buy the car (within 1.5 weeks), I found out what the magic words are. "I can't sign anything until my daddy looks at it first, since he's a lawyer." The price he quoted me actually decreased after I said that. Something to keep in mind tomorrow while I poke around a Ford Focus.
13 comments:
The Civic si is a NICE car. When you hear about Civic's being reasonable sports cars sometimes, they're talking about si's. I think they're about 160hp stock, and they can go WAY above that if you start tooling around. It's also one of those cars that lets you do really stupid stuff in it, cuz it's got good enough suspension and brakes to get you out of most mistakes. If you get one, I'm definetly gonna need to visit just to try it out. : )
Sports wise, a high end Focus is probably the equal of an si. However, you're gonna have more problems with it as a daily driver, just cuz it's a Ford instead of a Honda.
If you're looking in that price range, another car to check out is the Subaru Impreza RS. It's a LITTLE bigger than the Civic hatchback, but it's also got 165hp with a supercharger, which should make up for it (you'll get more power at low RPM's with the Impreza than the Civic).
You should also check out the VW Golf, GTI and Jetta. I don't know detailed specs for them like I do with the Japanese cars, but from driving and being a passenger in them, I can tell you they're pretty nice.
They are definitely 160hp. That was the only damn that the salesman knew about the car. You should have heard him butcher DOHC. Sigh.
Just remember that a 1996 Buick Regal with a hood that doesn't close all the way is still faster than a stock Jetta.
May I recommend the Antonov 225 instead?
The ultimate SUV.
I agree. Also, I think the An-225 is still slightly larger than the Airbus 380. I especially like the paired nose gear on the 225.
The Antonov is 15.6m longer than the 380. It's also a lot bigger in general. The 380-800f can carry 150 tons of cargo. The 225 can carry 275. The Antonov has 6 engines too, instead of 4. The 380 is 6m taller though, and about 100km/h faster. You might just wanna get a 747 though. It's not as big as the 380 or the 225, but it's probably more fuel efficient as a result, and it's slightly faster than the 380. Plus, you can get 747's outfitted to carry tanks and other fun things, which the 380 just can't do.
Probably depends on the Jetta. There's the VR6 and the TDI as well as the plain Jetta. They're both a lot more powerful than the standard one.
Well I think Dave's Jetta had about 115hp, so it was a lower model. The Regal is designed to have 205hp, but it's bigger, heavier and certainly was no youngster at the time.
115 is nothing. My Civic has 140. The new Jetta has 150. The TDI Jetta has 100, but that's a diesel, so it's gonna have a funky power curve.
As I am required to transport tanks in my day-to-day life, I think I'll just get the 747. I'm also a big fan of other "fun things."
The 225 can also be used to transport such objects. But many more runways can deal with 747's than 225's. And since 747's have been around so long and are used by so many people, you can probably pick one up for a lot less too.
While the An-124 has found some popularity as a heavy lift transport (this is no puny airplane either), so far only two 225's have been built. The 225 was originally built to piggyback orbiters for the Soviet space progam. But with that no longer a concern, maybe you could get a 225 relatively cheaply. That and it would definitely be cool to own one of the two (or both) largest aircraft in the world.
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