OT: What kind of car do you drive?

Just a little friendly discussion between Asus owners - what kind of cars do you all drive?

I drive a '95 Mazda Protege. It's older, but it's reliable, and it's a standard, so it's relavitly fun to drive for what it is. Plus I'm still officialy a poor college student, so I'm just happy it doesn't have any major rust (rare for a car of that age in VT/NY) and the interior is near-mint.

 

Earning your brownie points for MVP I see... I thought I was the only one that liked to lighten the mood by getting an off topic question going... nice work.

 

Whatever doesn't have LoJack installed on....err I mean Pontiac. Yeah.

 

thats about as bizzarre as it gets because i drive a 95 mazda protege lx with 130k miles.

I have 3 cars. lets see if anyone else has my other two...

http://www.cardomain.com/id/stamar

 

Stamar, ever had any problems with the 'belt squeak' that a lot of '95s have?

I managed to get into an accident with my current car frosh year and I had another '95 for a few months with 152k miles. Thankfully we managed to get my original one all fixed up, since it only hah 59k at the time. I'm up to 79k now - the previous owner garaged it and drove 10 miles to work and back every day.

 

Ohhhh nice, shiny, I like

 

2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid...

 

no. Although that is a common problem no doubt.

My 95 has given me 0 problems. Ive driven it only 6k miles though. Mine is a manual as well. My next car is going to be a miata as well. Or maybe an mx 3.

The protege would be perfect if it had a shorter wheelbase( which is basically an mx-3 unfortunately the mx-3 uses one generation older engine). My previous car -or I suppose I still have it but i hate it - is a geo metro and I liked the short wheelbase.

So a miata 2nd gen is my dream car with the 1.6 so it gets good gas mileage.

I was prospecting on one and then i decided i needed a new laptop

 

I have a 99 sentra. not that i want to, but because it was all I could afford at the time. no problems and nice on mileage. I'd really like to try a sporty VW bug or the Mazda 3 some day.

 

2003 BMW 325i Sport, with 33k miles.

I love PROPortable's S4....The Euro RS4 Steering wheel is awesome, dont know why they didnt bring that here (something about safety regulations, but then the Jetta GLI, GTI, Lambo Gallardo, the '08 TT, and the new R8 all have that steering wheel in the US....). The blue color is beautiful, and the mods are tastefully done to complement the sporting nature of the car.

 

I drive a 97 Mercury Sable, its nice, the first car I have ever liked, but next car I buy (or first car I buy) will be a manual, its not even a question.

 

2004 VW Touareg V8

-Ryan

 

Glad to see some sensible fellow Protege owners!

I drive a 2002 Protege5 - love it! I treat it like a baby, and I'm planning to keep it until it gives up on me about 15 years from now...! The only regret is getting A/T for the sake of the wife who never drives it anyway...

 

I saw a sweet red Protege5 at work this summer, looked like it was just off the lot even though they were discontinued after '03.

I don't care so much for the Mazda3, especially the interior, which seems claustrophobic to me. Plastic panels extreding out towards you in all directions...

I intend to test drive a bunch of cars once I get out to CA and have a job... I want to try an RX-8, but I guess I should be careful there because I might end up buying one.

 

2002 C240 Benz ... really .. really.. dangerous in snow... maybe it's the tires though...

 

2001 Pontiac Sunfire. I guess it's ok, the inside has a lot of rattles though, and makes much road noise.

I should have never gotten rid of my 90 Toyota Celica for that thing

 

Thanks... yeah, it was extremely hard to be a designer and a mininmalist at that and try to do anything that changed the form of that car.... It's also hard to improve on it to start with... so I'm glad you could see how difficult it was to do what was done..... it certainly wasn't just slapped on there.

About the RS4 euro wheel - the issue was the round airbag. They would have needed to get that bag crash tested because it was different than what was coming on the A4 and S4 for the year and since only 3,000 were being made worldwide for the year and only about 1,000 of those coming to the US, the millions of dollars it would cost to get the bag certified would have added something like $10-15k to each RS4 which would have put that in the $85-95k range which is far too high.

 

BMW 03 330i. soon to be bmw 2007 335i coupe. At least thats the one im thinking about.

 

Hey SRD, can I have the old one?

 

SRD - now that I think of it, you never came down to englishtown in July!! The new 335 is pretty hot, if it weren't for the lack of an lsd, it'd give the current M3 a run for it's money. With that said, the S5 should be out this time next year and an RS5 should be coming within two... If you don't know, they're the audi coupes meant to go head to head with the M3 - where as BMW is going with the M4 (4door) to go up against the S4. Rumor has it we could be looking at V10 in the RS5 from the S6 or a turbo on the 4.2 V8.... ummmm umm

Back to the future.... part of my agreement with Fourtitude may end up having me put a supercharger on my car pushing 500+hp and I think 450+ftlb of torque... all for a sony and dance basically. I don't know if I have the balls or lack of brains to do it though.

 

the current 335i with manuel gives the current M3 a good run. but just up the boost and i dont see why i couldnt get over 400 HP inline sixes are strong im sure it can handle it no prob. Im still keeping my options open though i do like audis and been waiting for a audi coupe for a while. Im in no hurry i just like to get new cars every 3 years or so. get tired you know. I might even think about the new m3 coming out. to many options. But bmw is going to have an all wheel drive 335i coupe coming out and a hardtop convertable model. again to many choices.

 

.. yeah next year audi and bmw will have plenty more head to head competition than they've had in the past.

How about an R8? I just about lost it when they unvieled in Paris... had to go to the forum opening in ny last week to see it for my own eyes.

 

The R8 is a nice car. I just cant justify spending 100 plus grand on a car at this point. i want to keep it to 50-60 grand. nice that you get so much travel time. i hardly can leave my bussiness to bussy.

 

A... who am I kidding? I only take the bus.

 

Yeah, reports are they may end up getting upwards of 130k for this first year - even though they're going to add the gallardo V10 to it the second half of next year... for probably less than that mark..... but for the first model year of 2007, I think there are something like 200 being made and half of those will come to the US.... one of 100 isn't bad.... but to wait six months and get a more powerful engine and get some kinks worked out and pay less... sounds like a steal!

... I'm not in that market either, I clearly set my limit to an '08 S5 or possible '09 RS5... but then agian I don't know where I'll be in a couple years and I'd like to continue to enjoy what I've already got. I did buy it to relax from the stresses of work.... I have to remember that.

 

1998 Honda Prelude (dd)
1990 Mazda RX-7 (Rotary powah!)

Im building the rx-7 for autocross and other forms of racing.

 

2004 Pontiac Sunfire - I like it, I too am a poor University student. Makes some noise inside on hitting bumps, but it's given me no other problems. I've only had it about 2 months tho, and I've only filled it up 3 times so far. It was 23,000 km when I bought it used and I've only driven it about 1.5 thousand more. It's first date on the road was in Aug '04 so I've got another year left on the warranty. I'm quite happy with it.

Cat

 

2001 Toyota 4Runner and 2002 Honda Odyssey. We are getting new car very soon to replace 4Runner (150,000 miles).

 

I have always been a fan of the RX7 Awsome car. i wish i could order a new one from japan. didnt they just stop making them there a couple years ago?

And justin if you want a nice stress reliever get a nice Motorcycle. jap or harley doesnt its all good.

 

1999 Passat B5 Sedan V6....lowered and such (lowered right) with nice rims and bigger tires handles great

and btw, if anyone makes fun of audi's or S4's...I drove my friends 2004 S4, and that thing is a ****ing beast. Nicest car ive driven by far (In my opinion anyways). I drove a 2000 s4 as well (actually very similar to my car) and it was awesome too, but the v6TT just didnt compare to the V8.

I dont care much for mercedes and stuff though...no manuals

edit: I believe they stopped making the RX7 in 1999 in japan?

 

.... I had a nice trip to Italy in the summer of 04 and they already had the new oldschool open grilles and I fell in love..... and I always thought the S4 was the best mix of performance and quality along with a good mix of sensibility (4dr / 4wd) in a nice stealth package.... after a year and a half of ownship it still sends shivers down my spine. I don't have an exact time on 60-120mph times, but it'll seriously go from 60-120 in a heartbeat... nothing like having pull throughout the powerband.... that's why I can't imagine putting the supercharger on it, but I'd be one of few to do it, so that may be cool.

Gotta love the Passat too.... us VW guys have to stick together.. .and if there's one thing I found out this summer on the VW show curcuit, the S4 is like the dream car of any jetta owner... and since everyone knows all hot girls drive jetta's.... that's fine by me.

 

I am a fan of VW but they are killing themselves. they are trying to bring a higher scale car to market and its getting to close to audi. VWs should be cheap cares not high scale. thats why their sales arent so hot. But yes justin if i see a VW the first thing i look for is the hot girl in it.

 

yeah, you're right... VW is the peoples car... come on.. I mean, hell, VW and Audi are trying to fill holes in their lineups just like Asus is doing with their notebooks.... they want something for EVERYONE. When you're talking about Asus, it means that some models are so close that it gives people a headache just trying to pick one and when it comes to VW, the GTI is ridiculously high priced (although worth it), when you could get into say even the upcoming S3 and for not much more..... and if we really want to talk ridiculous... about about the Phateon? Ok... A8 size and money... but with a VW logo and notorious VW service that apparently sucks when you're talking about a $20k jetta - I wouldn't want to take a $70-80k car to those people!

 

yes your protege 5 is awesome except that it is an auto. That is the last gen of the protege

I dont like the mazda 3 either as it is actually a german ford focus. Not that that is terrible but I would prefer a civic or fit or corrolla if I were in the market for a car of that year.

Im all about japan. Different people are into different things. Youll notice these german car afficianados are into NEW cars.
If youre going long term with a vehicle its japan only.
The Protege was built in japan not like civic which is assembled in canada. Its not the best car ever but its one of the best values on the used market. Nissan Sentra that Goren has is great too.

 

1998 Lincoln Continental, I love my car, big V8 with front wheel drive and traction control, so it handles snow well, and I think I'm the only guy under 85 who drives one, so the cops all assume I'm ancient and ignore me.

 

87 Porsche 944 Turbo

 

2002 Dodge Caravan

 

2002 Toyota Kijang SGX LOL I bet most of you don't know about this one.

 

My first car was an 1983 porsche 944 NA....needless to say, it was in crap condition. I want another though (or a 968)

 

1997 240sx that needs some body work... and I have that belt squeaking problem that one 95' protege had too. Changing belts this week so hopefully that gets it fixed.

 

Hahaha... I do

 

1997 Ford Escort Station Wagon, did travel Canada from East to West, station wagon is great so you can sleep in the trunk ... cheap traveling.

 

2002 civic 4dr in silver -_-...have a black magic 5dr GTI on order, its supposed to come in dec/jan..the wait is strangely reminding me of my wait for the W3J lol

 

lol I looked at a couple before I got my 951. They got way better after the 85.5 interior update.

 

honda civic si 06'

 

oh no, not the same.
in the case of the 2nd gen protege 95-98 what it is is shipping an asia market alternator which is is a few mm different than us market alternator belts.

After the orignal goes the replacement is never right. Many solutions to this problem can be found at protege sites.

A lot of cars have this same problem but not the same cause and solution.

 

I drive a Volvo s70, and no I am NOT A DEMOCRAT. I am working on geting an internship lined up with BMW's South Carolina plant, so that probably tells you what make I prefer, dream of working for Bentley(which is owned by VW) or Aston Martin one day.

 

My parents won't let me get a car yet . But my mom used to drive an Acura.

My dream car at the moment: Maserati Quattroporte

 

2001 VW Jetta 1.8T

 

I wonder who else spent more on their asus than their car?