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City car shopping -- custom interiors

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  • #1

    City car shopping -- custom interiors

    I don't have a car here in the city, but am casually considering whether to get one. This would be to tool around the city, make trips to the suburbs, and to take a road trip once a month or so. Maybe 5,000 miles a year. No commuting.

    My main challenge is that I hate cheap-feeling interiors and stereo/nav packages even though I want to spend the least amount possible. Unfortunately, I'm sensing that car companies do their best to punish their cheap-car drivers enough to upgrade to their luxury brands if they have money.

    I test drove a Smart Car this afternoon. The engine is only 70 hp, but I thought its pep was fine for what I wanted. It uses a 5-speed manual transmission with paddle shifters, which are essential when driving on city streets and in stop-and-go traffic. Problem is... the interior feels cheap as hell.

    I would probably love a Yaris (starting at $12,355), if it had paddle shifters. But it doesn't have any good upgrade features.

    The question I have is whether there is any way to cure the cheap interior feeling with custom interiors, or in some other way? Are places that install passable AV/nav packages a good value?
    I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891
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  • #2
    Oh, for God's sake. Don't get one of those "Smart" cars. Dan, please.

    As I started reading, I was trying to make a list of sorts on what might be good, and I got to that part, and I can go no further. I can't believe you did it.
    Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
    "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
    He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

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    • #3
      Yeh, I've always thought they're dumb and they're undoubtedly ugly. However... They've started to grow on me. You can fit two in a garage parking spot, so that would save about $100 a month (garage parking in my part of town costs about $200 a month).

      For the vast majority of people, it doesn't make sense to drive a Smart, but for me, I was willing to be convinced.
      Last edited by DanS; September 20, 2009, 02:08.
      I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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      • #4
        Now see, the parking bit, for one, is something of which I have no frame of reference. I would never have thought of it.

        I'm not a real fan of power stuff, like windows. I know that at this point, you may quit reading and that's ok. It's something else to break, at the worst time, the worst scenario.
        See, for me, I like cruise control, and you may not care.

        GPS would be cool and useful. Leather? I don't know. As you say, packages suck.
        Good luck.
        Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
        "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
        He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

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        • #5
          I don't know if they still do it, but edmunds.com had the manufacturers' codes and pricing for every option available for any given new car, which was a great help when I ordered my truck twelve years ago.

          For the record, I HATE leather interiors. Sure, they smell nice, for a while, but they're too hot in the summer with no breathing, and too cold in the winter, and repairs are a *****. It's just really expensive vinyl in my book.
          No, I did not steal that from somebody on Something Awful.

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          • #6
            There's no such thing as a manual with paddle shifters - it's an automatic with a manual shift option. Lots of cars have that these days, but it can be pretty rare on entry-level stuff. You don't always get the paddle shifters either (you just use the regular shifter to move the gears up and down). If you really need the paddle shifters, look at a Mini.
            "The French caused the war [Persian Gulf war, 1991]" - Ned
            "you people who bash Bush have no appreciation for one of the great presidents in our history." - Ned
            "I wish I had gay sex in the boy scouts" - Dissident

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            • #7
              As I understand it, there are indeed manual transmissions with paddle shifters -- the Smart being one of them. If it's an automatic with paddle shifters as a manual shift option, I think I would need 5 gears on a small engine.

              A 4-speed automatic (no matter whether there is a manual shift option) with a small engine might not have enough pep for my tastes. And manual shifting without paddle shifters is a non-starter in the city and in stop-and-go freeway driving. Even regular automatic shifters with a manual shift option wouldn't do it for me.
              I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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              • #8
                The Smart ForTwo (Assuming that's what you're talking about) has an automatic/manual dual transmission, with automatic mode and manual paddle-shifting mode. It's not like (say) a Nissan Sentra with the automatic transmission plus 'extra' manual shifting mode, where it's still really in automatic mode and you just have finer control over the gear temporarily [ie, not really any different from any other automatic transmission, just plus/minus instead of 1st, 2nd, D, OD options]; from what I can tell at least, you are in one mode or the other, and manual mode you really have full control over the gears, although the automatic clutch is sort of mediocre.

                It is five speed, by the way; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_F...ng_performance for example.
                <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
                I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by DanS View Post
                  As I understand it, there are indeed manual transmissions with paddle shifters -- the Smart being one of them. If it's an automatic with paddle shifters as a manual shift option, I think I would need 5 gears on a small engine.

                  A 4-speed automatic (no matter whether there is a manual shift option) with a small engine might not have enough pep for my tastes. And manual shifting without paddle shifters is a non-starter in the city and in stop-and-go freeway driving. Even regular automatic shifters with a manual shift option wouldn't do it for me.
                  I've never seen a manual with paddle shifters. If you don't have a clutch, it's an automatic unless you're driving an F1 car. And unless the Smart offered in the US has a totally different transmission than the one offered in Canada (which I highly doubt), it's an automatic.

                  Straight from the Smart site:

                  The newly developed 5-speed automatic with manual shift mode now provides for even faster gear shifting, virtually free of any delays. The smart fortwo offers a user-friendly automatic gear program - which does away with the need to use a clutch pedal.
                  "The French caused the war [Persian Gulf war, 1991]" - Ned
                  "you people who bash Bush have no appreciation for one of the great presidents in our history." - Ned
                  "I wish I had gay sex in the boy scouts" - Dissident

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                  • #10
                    I think Dan's trying to differentiate between a car with an automatic transmission that allows you to tweak it from time to time, and a car that lets you completely control the gears; from what I'm reading, the Smart ForTwo does the latter, while having a separate automatic mode, but in manual mode it lets you fully control the gears [does not attempt to shift for you at any point].
                    <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
                    I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

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                    • #11
                      Yeh, it's technically an electrically-actuated manual transmission. There is an annoying lag between shifts -- AFAIK, the automatic transmissions with manual shift option don't have nearly as long of lag. Smart does have an automatic mode, but it's just an automatic shifting of a manual transmission.
                      I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by snoopy369 View Post
                        It's not like (say) a Nissan Sentra with the automatic transmission plus 'extra' manual shifting mode, where it's still really in automatic mode and you just have finer control over the gear temporarily [ie, not really any different from any other automatic transmission, just plus/minus instead of 1st, 2nd, D, OD options]; from what I can tell at least, you are in one mode or the other, and manual mode you really have full control over the gears, although the automatic clutch is sort of mediocre.

                        Actually, that's exactly what it would be. My car has the same thing. I can put it in Drive (or Sport mode) and have it shift for me, or go into Steptronic mode and shift manually by moving up or down a gear whenever I want.
                        "The French caused the war [Persian Gulf war, 1991]" - Ned
                        "you people who bash Bush have no appreciation for one of the great presidents in our history." - Ned
                        "I wish I had gay sex in the boy scouts" - Dissident

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                        • #13
                          How is 'Sport Mode' automatic??? Sports cars are always manual

                          I was under the impression that 'steptronic' type transmissions weren't truly manual, ie, the car still would do some automatic shifting for you... but if not, then I suppose it's not really different.
                          <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
                          I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by snoopy369 View Post
                            It is five speed, by the way; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_F...ng_performance for example.
                            No need to be rude about it!

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                            • #15
                              OK, reading about it further I see I'm half right. Mechanically, the Smart is "manual", but functionally, it's no different from the Steptronic on my car.
                              "The French caused the war [Persian Gulf war, 1991]" - Ned
                              "you people who bash Bush have no appreciation for one of the great presidents in our history." - Ned
                              "I wish I had gay sex in the boy scouts" - Dissident

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