The 1994 Honda Accord, the most stolen car in America.
Just last week we told you that car theft in America is declining. The bad news, though, is that recovery of stolen cars is also declining, so unless you’ve got a tracking system installed chances are better than 50/50 that you won’t be getting your ride back. Don’t think you’re safe if you your car isn’t new, because the most stolen car in America last year was a 15 year old Honda Accord.
Thumbs Up: Impeccable build quality and all weather capability
Thumbs Down: Tires and transmission take away from car’s sporting potential
Buy This Car If: You want an utterly reliable and relatively amusing AWD sedan
The Acura TL has been one of those “cars I nearly purchased” since the third generation redesign for the 2004 model year. I drove it as soon as it hit dealer lots in 2003, but the 258 horsepower was simply too much for the front wheels to handle. It’s not that the car had problems with torque steer, it’s just that you couldn’t get on the gas with enthusiasm mid-corner, unless you liked lots of push. I bought a BMW 3 series instead. Fast forward a few years later, when reliability concerns forced me to sell the BMW just as the warranty ran out. I convinced myself that my next car would be an Acura TL; I drove it once again, but just couldn’t warm to the handling. I bought the smaller, more nimble TSX instead.
If ever there was a sports car that died before its time, it was the Acura NSX. A mid-engine, rear drive coupe built by Honda from 1990 until 2005, the NSX was perhaps the perfect balance of power and handling. Abandoning the conventional “no replacement for displacement” line of though, Honda opted to use a normally aspirated V6 in the NSX, and the motor never made more than 290 horsepower in stock form. Thanks to an aluminum monocoque and suspension it was a relatively light car, weighing in at less than 3000 pounds for most of its production run. Despite it’s modest power, the NSX was still capable of zero to sixty times in the sub five second range, and a 2003 NSX-R lapped the Nürburgring in 7:56, on par with a Ferrari F360 Challenge Stradale.
RSX Engine grenading from over rev – FAIL
Ever wonder what despair sounds like? If you listen carefully, you can hear it at 0:14 in this video, when the driver redlines the RSX in third gear, then does the money shift by grabbing second gear instead of fourth. Those little bits and pieces you hear falling to the ground are probably the driver’s hopes and dreams, since he’ll be spending his next few paychecks on a new K20A2 motor for his friend.
I owned a 2003 RSX Type S, so I can tell you from experience that blowing the shift from third to fourth is hard to do. The shifter has to be forced into the gate for second gear, which tells me the guy driving probably doesn’t have a lot of experience with a manual transmission. In addition to “rev limiters won’t prevent a mechanical over-rev”, I think we’ve also learned that “street racing is bad, especially when you’re not real good at rowing a manual transmission”.
For the first time in the history of the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey, Ford has topped the list of domestic, non-premium brand automakers. Ford finished fifth overall, but behind such brands as Lexus (4th), Mercedes Benz (3rd), Acura (2nd) and Porsche (1st). Even long time quality leaders such as Honda (6th), Lincoln (8th), Infiniti (9th), Cadillac (13th) and Toyota (21st) couldn’t match Ford’s performance.
According to Wikipedia acronyms are: Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name. We here at Ridelust.com began to think about these acronyms and how they’ve related to certain automobile manufacturers over the years. In the end we came to the conclusion that just about every one of them has had a few shots taken at them over the years, so we decided to compile as many as we could and post them up. Now I know we didn’t get all of them, so if you guys have any new ones feel free to throw them up in the comments section and add we’ll them to the list.
Acura has announced a recall of 167,000 2004 to 2008 TSX models to address a potential fire hazard. Under extreme and “prolonged under-hood temperatures”, the power steering hose may crack and leak fluid. Since power steering fluid is oil based, there is a (remote) risk of a vehicle fire if the oil contacts a sufficiently hot surface. At least one such incident has been reported since September 2009.
This mirrors two earlier recall campaigns from Honda for the same issue on 2005 to 2008 RL models, and 2004 to 2008 TL models. TSX owners with questions or concerns are advised to contact their dealer or Acura’s Client Service line at (800) 382-2238.
Acura has announced the recall of it’s ZDX crossover for potential airbag deployment problems. During manufacturing, certain vehicles did not receive sufficient laser etching on the underside of the dash, which could effect proper airbag deployment in the event of an accident. A total of 2,455 vehicles will be recalled (1,850 in the U.S. and 605 in Canada) when the campaign begins later this month.
Two Honda HSV-010 racecars, competing in Japan’s Super GT series, take each other out on lap 12 of the season opening race. Prior to the collapse of the global economy, the HSV-010 was to be the replacement for the Acura NSX; it’s a shame that cost cutting prevented Honda from moving forward with the street car’s development.
You’ve got to love the raw emotion of the Japanese announcers; my genitals would have to burst into flames to elicit the same volume and intensity of outburst. In case you miss the crash in the first three seconds, don’t worry: the announcers show it several times, in stop motion, while providing commentary on every detail. Makes me wish I spoke Japanese, just so I could learn what each driver ate for breakfast prior to the start of the race.
Source: Straightline
Thanks to our dutiful following of VolvoXC60 on Twitter, we learned today that Rolling Strength’s revolutionary new crossover has made the list of finalists for Motor Trend‘s 2010 SUV of the Year award. Of course to be fair, the XC60 was neither engineered or marketed as an SUV, but the majority of Motor Trend‘s other finalists weren’t either. Given the current market and auto maker’s eagerness to distance themselves from the often negative stigma attached to SUVs, however, MT would be hard pressed to assemble a similarly lengthy list if limiting the criteria to only those vehicles explicitly billed as SUVs. Thus, the one aspect all the candidates have in common is ride height, multi-function capability, and an all wheel drive train. Read More…
