Whats The Difference?

[Guest azn akira]

civic spin

just to demonstrate that fwd can and will oversteer. from what it looks like the civic driver lifted off the throttle when the red car in front started to turn infront of him, that shifted the weight off his rear tires causing him to oversteer. when he attempted to save it the rear came back around a little too much went off the track causing him to spin

[Guest sphynkter]

how did you arrive at the decison between a prius and an rx? they are in two totally different classes. the prius is like half as much as the lexus.

[Heyyy]

^ Im taking driving lessons and the car was a Prius, and I just loved the start engine button<- I HATE keys now haha and the touch shift thing <- VERY cool. and the rx I just always liked

Does anyone have other suggestions for first a car?? BUT no Hondas, BIG SUVs that will leave my wallet crying, and ridiculously expensive

[Guest hailing from ny]

isn't the Lexus hybrid one of those ridiculously expensive ones? It'll set you back around $40k, which is ridonkulous. There are many cars with keyless push button ignition. From the Nissan Altima to the Lexus IS250 AWD. You're probably better off looking into that, the IS. Or maybe the Infiniti G35x.

[Guest tendim]

Keep in mind that even with the FWD vs RWD vs AWD vs 4WD debate, if you start looking at used cars you also get into FR vs MR engine layouts in the RWD department. I personally drive a 240SX (RWD FR) and it is much different in handling than say my friends MR2 which is RWD MR, even though both are RWD cars.

I agree with a lot of the other posts.. Decide what you want to do with the car, and then buy a car based on what you need it for.. Not the other way around..

And I would stay away from SUVs and big honking sedans.. Waste of gas IMHO unless you have a big family or something!

[Guest azn akira]

Keep in mind that even with the FWD vs RWD vs AWD vs 4WD debate, if you start looking at used cars you also get into FR vs MR engine layouts in the RWD department. I personally drive a 240SX (RWD FR) and it is much different in handling than say my friends MR2 which is RWD MR, even though both are RWD cars

true, but for the sake of simplicity i think we were all assuming it was FR (front engine rear drive).

quick blanket statement of MR and RR cars. they tend to understeer on corner entry and oversteer at corner exit. this is because there is no weight over the front wheels, and when exiting a corner the weight in the rear has sorta of a pendulum affect. you can minimize the understeer by trail braking into the corner, by doing this it shifts the weight to the front of the car giving more traction to the front tires. or because trail braking is difficult to master you can get your braking done in a straight line, when you release the brakes you will feel the weight start to shift rearward. before the weight transfers all the way back to normal (time it so its about 50/50) turn into the corner. this will give you more front grip. RR is more exaggerated in this behavior than MR.

The great thing about MR/RR is the amount of traction they have. you can really lay down the power on corner exit.

[Guest Laxntiga]

Dont they have kits these days where you can get the engine start button installed?

The s2k (S2000) has a power start button But thats a Honda. Why do you not like Hondas?

For a beginner, just buy a small, but safe car. Start with FWD because its the most economical. All this braking, cornering, Midship engine, stuff is probably way too advanced for you.

[Heyyy]

^ My dad doesn't like Hondas for some reason

Awwww FWD??? I was going to go with AWD, man so confusing

[Guest Laxntiga]

Where do you live? If you get snow and rain all the time, or live in the desert get AWD. If you are living where its sunny and hardly rains, just stick with fwd. Stop by the Acura dealership =D (Owned by Honda btw. HAHAHA dont tell your dad. Nissan owns Infiniti, Toyota owns Lexus and Scion.)

[Guest sphynkter]

^ Im taking driving lessons and the car was a Prius, and I just loved the start engine button<- I HATE keys now haha and the touch shift thing <- VERY cool. and the rx I just always liked

Does anyone have other suggestions for first a car?? BUT no Hondas, BIG SUVs that will leave my wallet crying, and ridiculously expensive

so no big suvs that will leave your wallet crying. are you even looking at the right car because the lexus pretty much fits into the category of what you don't want (unless $40k is simply chump change to you). do you even know how much the lexus rx 400h is going to run you? like i said before it's double the cost of a prius.

hm a $44k luxury suv for a first time driver, that doesn't sound ridiculous.

[Guest v8subie]

Where do you live? If you get snow and rain all the time, or live in the desert get AWD. If you are living where its sunny and hardly rains, just stick with fwd. Stop by the Acura dealership =D (Owned by Honda btw. HAHAHA dont tell your dad. Nissan owns Infiniti, Toyota owns Lexus and Scion.)

um, awd doesnt really help you in the sand. you probably mean 4x4

[Guest some-azn-guy]

this topic has been discussed so many times in the past on this forum, that it's only beat by the "can you drive 5spd?" forum topic. there's not much more to say about it.

...in the end, it all boils down to what YOU want.