Hello from Minnesota

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Squint
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Re: Hello from Minnesota

Post by Squint »

tankinbeans wrote:Once again, I must say thank you for all of your responses. I was worried that I'd get on here and people would just tell me to buy myself an automatic and have done with it... Have a wonderful day in the neighborhood.
Mr. "Tibs" Rogers, that might be the opposite of what anyone on here would tell you from what I've seen. I think they'd rather you fall over yourself driving a manual than drive a slushie. Granted, if you kept stalling in front of them/us on the road, I don't think any of us would appreciate it the 5th or 6th time in a trip (kidding :wink: ). How's the KIA btw? Cause honestly... I'm not a fan. But maybe you can slowly change my opinion... of at least one, individual car.

EDIT: I can't spell, and I'm a literacy nazi... had to fix it...
'15 Mazda 3 iSport Hatch 6MT
'11 Ford Fiesta Hatchback SE 5MT
'14 Giant Escape City 24MT
'97 Honda Civic EX 4AT - Retired @ 184,001 mi

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tankinbeans
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Cars: 17 Mazda6 To, 18 Mazda3 i
Location: Shakopee, MN

Re: Hello from Minnesota

Post by tankinbeans »

Squint wrote: How's the KIA btw? Cause honestly... I'm not a fan. But maybe you can slowly change my opinion... of at least one, individual car.

EDIT: I can't spell, and I'm a literacy nazi... had to fix it...
I didn't think that I would ever be caught dead in a Kia, quite honestly, but I've been reading and they've really been on the up and up with regards to quality within the last 3 years especially. I have the stripper model, rolling windows down myself (gasp), pushing the lock switches on all doors (horror of horrors) ( :mrgreen: ), and, of course, a manual transmission. That being said one feature that I got, which isn't available on the base models of the competition: Focus, Civic, Corolla, Mazda3, is standard Bluetooth. I never thought I'd use Bluetooth, but it has been nice to have.

The engine seems smooth enough, I've had a couple V6s and can't honestly tell a difference. One metric that I pay attention to, because I'm a dork that way, is the power to weight ratio (I usually write it up as weight to power as it makes more sense to me) is right around 17.5 hp/pound which is right around where my "old" Grand Prix was, but the fuel economy is twice that in the old car.

The car is just the right size for me; I'm single with no kids and no plans on having kids. I'm of average height and weight and have tons of room. My brother, his girlfriend, and their son fit in the car well. He's 6'1" and does the gangsta lean in the passenger seat and there is plenty of room behind him. The trunk is huge, for a compact (or midsize - I've seen it listed as both), and it is a lot of fun.

That being said the clutch is a little bit goofy and modulating it can be tricky. My friend, who has driven manuals for the better part of 10 years, told me that he thought that it was off and he stalled it 3 times. The throttle has the aforementioned deadspot, which I've read there is a modification that I'm hesitant to perform due to warranty concerns, that is said to largely remove the deadspot.

I've had it going on 2 months, bought on Feb 28th, took delivery on Mar 1st, and have not regretted it one bit. If you're not concerned about badges I'd say that it is a really nice car for the price, $14,995 and I was given a $1000 rebate.

I don't know if we're allowed to post links to other websites, but I read up on this car on one website to make sure that I wasn't getting into a mistake and this website pretty much stated that it has been a good model for its 3 year run so far. It takes into account repairs (sans basic maintenance - replacing headlights, changing tires, realignments, suspension work) as are reported by actual owners of the vehicles.

Long story short, it's a great little car and I hope to get many good years of service out of it. I'm going to be working on learning my own maintenance work (once out of warranty in 10 years).
17 Mazda6 Touring
18 Mazda3 iSport
InlinePaul wrote:The driving force of new fangled features to sell more cars [is to] cater to the masses' abject laziness!
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Rope-Pusher
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Re: Hello from Minnesota

Post by Rope-Pusher »

theholycow wrote:
AHTOXA wrote:Seems Mr. Multitit is ever-present around here. Not tha tits particularly a bad thing.
What can I say, I have no life... :mrgreen:

Oh, and I prefer watkins' "Moofasa" over "Mr. Multitit".
...or, from the Latinos, "Vealus Ventilatus"
'08 Jeep Liberty 6-Speed MT - "Last of the Mohicans"
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theholycow
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Re: Hello from Minnesota

Post by theholycow »

tankinbeans wrote:That being said the clutch is a little bit goofy and modulating it can be tricky.
As with the throttle, that is another complaint common to new cars, which you will get used to. They've basically refined the clutch too much, making it feel disconnected like you're driving a video game.

In the meantime they've got the computer controlling the throttle and your go-pedal is actually just a computer input device; that works fine when manufacturers make it behave as expected (or better) but some do not do that.
I don't know if we're allowed to post links to other websites
I'm not on staff here but I don't remember ever seeing any protest about an honestly posted link.

Is the modification you read about just getting the computer flashed? That's the usual solution to nasty drive-by-wire throttle behavior.
1980 Buick LeSabre 4.1L 5MT

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watkins wrote:Humans have rear-biased AWD. Cows have 4WD
tankinbeans
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Re: Hello from Minnesota

Post by tankinbeans »

theholycow wrote:
tankinbeans wrote:That being said the clutch is a little bit goofy and modulating it can be tricky.
As with the throttle, that is another complaint common to new cars, which you will get used to. They've basically refined the clutch too much, making it feel disconnected like you're driving a video game.

In the meantime they've got the computer controlling the throttle and your go-pedal is actually just a computer input device; that works fine when manufacturers make it behave as expected (or better) but some do not do that.
I don't know if we're allowed to post links to other websites
I'm not on staff here but I don't remember ever seeing any protest about an honestly posted link.

Is the modification you read about just getting the computer flashed? That's the usual solution to nasty drive-by-wire throttle behavior.
If this isn't over the line, I have gone to www.truedelta.com to do some car comparisons in the past and have had relative luck with making decisions.

With regards to the throttle modification. It involves removing the throttle assembly from the car and adjusting a cover to the right in order for the electronics inside to read close to 1.0v when reinstalled. Apparently, when it reads 1.0v the ECU reads that the throttle is being applied and responds accordingly. People who have done this have reported that, before doing the mod, they had a multimeter reading of .74v or something similar. I don't think it's rewiring or reflashing, rather making an adjustment. There are numerous people who have reported doing the mod and have reported good things about it, but I would be scared to try myself. Also, there is another thread about removing springs from the clutch to make it respond better, which I would think would automatically void the warranty as it would be completely obvious to the techs in back if they were ever to look.
17 Mazda6 Touring
18 Mazda3 iSport
InlinePaul wrote:The driving force of new fangled features to sell more cars [is to] cater to the masses' abject laziness!
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theholycow
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Re: Hello from Minnesota

Post by theholycow »

I can definitely understand your trepidation about those modifications and your warranty. I'm not sure I ever want a new car again because I'd hate to screw up the warranty but I hate being limited.

Keep the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act in mind (google it if you're not familiar), they can't void your whole warranty, all they can do is deny claims that they reasonably think are caused by your modification. In real life they'll use any excuse they can for anything because they know you're not going to sue over it.
1980 Buick LeSabre 4.1L 5MT

Put your car in your sig!

Learn to launch/FAQs/lugging/misused terms: meta-sig
watkins wrote:Humans have rear-biased AWD. Cows have 4WD
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