Weekly Top 3: What I'd Trade My Clunker In On
I drive (read: hold hostage in the bowels of the company garage) a 2001 Honda Prelude, which has something in common with every Honda car ever: it's not on the Cash for Clunkers Eligible Used Vehicles list.
But I've always kind of wanted a 1993 Acura Legend GS (above) -- you know, the one with the six-speed manual and 230-horsepower "Type II" V6 and shiny wheels. And that's on the list.
So let's suppose I had that Legend instead, and I felt like getting in on this Cash for Clunkers action. Want to know which car I'd trade it in on from the Eligible New Vehicles list? Sure you do. In fact, you want three.
3. Volkswagen Touareg 2 V6 TDI.
Squeaking in under the $45,000 price limit is one of my favorite SUVs of all time
, the turbodiesel Touareg 2. 'Course it's not much better on fuel than that old Legend (17 mpg city/25 highway to the Legend's 15/23), but it also weighs about twice as much and has a 600-mile range. I'll go ahead and call that an upgrade.
2. BMW 335d.
Ah, the 335d. What a motor. And what a shame that from all accounts, no one's buying these things. Want to talk upgrades? How about 23 mpg city/36 highway, along with more torque than the Chevy Silverado's 6.2-liter V8? I want this car badly, and so should you.
1. Mini Cooper S.
Has 29 combined mpg ever been this fun? With apologies to the stripper Hyundai Accent we have in the office right now (30 mpg overall), I say no. Honda used to have the high-performance/high-efficiency market cornered -- the CRX was off the charts, and my old Integra GS-R reliably returned 33-35 mpg on the highway -- but its more recent sport coupes (e.g., my Prelude and the Civic Si) have lost that fuel-economy edge. Meanwhile, BMW has given us the Cooper S, a bulldog of a hot hatch that's as good on gas as a manual-shift Honda Fit. Short of perhaps the Tesla Roadster, I can't think of a serious driver's car that's more environmentally friendly.
Yea? Nay? What would you trade my busted hypothetical Legend in on?
Josh Sadlier, Associate Editor
- Posted by
- Josh Sadlier August 7, 2009, 3:00 AM
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- Fuel Economy, Vehicle Incentives and Rebates, Weekly Top 3
MINI Cooper S = win
I would trade it in on... nothing. I would keep the Legend. Many people wouldn't consider the Acura Legend a classic, but for me it always represented one of Acura's best cars and kind of a modern classic.
Oh, and the 335d isn't selling because the people who can afford an almost $50K car probably don't care about gas mileage much. And if they really wanted to be "green" they would probably go buy a Prius or something that gets even better mileage.
Our clunker provides a lot of utility. I'd want to trade it in one something that also provides some degree of utility. Maybe something like an Escape.
I've driven a couple of Legends, although admittedly not one similarly equipped as above (that 6MT must be a pretty rare beast). But based on my experience, I'd gladly trade it for:
The Mini from Sadlier's list
Hyundai Gennie coupe
Lotus Elise
Mazda Miata
VW GTI
maybe a Ford Fusion Hybrid
In the truck category:
Audi Q5
M-B GLK
Ford Flex
2009 Cad SRX, if there's any good ones left
Mazda CX9 if I absolutely needed 3 rows
Honda Ody if I absolutely needed 3 rows + cargo
Suby Forester
Toy RAV4
@ 08_miata,
"the 335d isn't selling because the people who can afford an almost $50K car probably don't care about gas mileage much"
Actually I wonder if the 335d isn't selling because of the misconception that it's only about fuel economy.
BMW didn't want to pay to have more than one diesel engine certified ($$$), so it brought over something powerful enough to do duty in the big-boy X5 -- and then dropped it into the diminutive 3 Series for fun. The result is a muscle car that also happens to have a highway range of 550 miles. The European 335d is considered a serious performance car.
Surely people who can afford a 335d would care about 425 pound-feet of torque if they experienced it.
-JS
@ 7driver,
Ah! The Elise. I forgot about that one. I'll stand by my list, but that Lotus definitely poses problems for my claim that the MCS is the most earth-friendly fun you can have short of a Tesla.
Expecting to take delivery on a 335d this Tuesday. Thanks to Edmunds' Deal of the Week from a while ago, I kept tabs on the 335d and expect to get it for a net price of $36k. It would have been lower by $1000, but our '96 Seville's 18mpg (which it could probably only get if being pushed downhill) only qualified us for $3500.
^Excellent! Keep us posted on how you like it. I haven't seen a single 335d on the road out here since I tested one last December.
I think the 335i is fast enough for most people so what exactly is the point of the 335d? Regardless of the prodigious torque output, it is SLOWER than the gas version. And as others have said, if you can afford the pricetag you don't give a damn about saving money at the pump. Pointless car to have in the market, period. The majority of American car buyers don't care about diesel engines (in cars at least), this is not Europe.
^Agreed that people with $45,000 to spend probably don't care about saving money at the pump. But the 335d's range is awesome compared to the 335i's (36 mpg highway vs what, 25 mpg?), and if you do a lot of driving, that's a significant consideration.
Plus, the 335d's torque makes it hilariously fun to drive, especially around town. The 335i feels high-strung by comparison, believe it or not.
Personally I'd be very tempted to take the 335d's combination of superior range and dramatic low-end thrust over the 335i's superior speed, especially with the current 335d incentives.
Well, we got the car because (a) it's an incredible deal, (b) it has nearly the same fuel economy as Edmunds' LT Smart Fortwo, and (c) just because we want good fuel economy doesn't mean that we need to consign ourselves to rolling appliances like the Prius.
I must say, Sadlier's articles from the last year greatly helped to keep the 335d in mind when we decided to buy something new.
Oh, and I dunno if you'll see our 335d too often. We stick around LA Metro, Glendale, and Pasadena far more than we ever venture through the traffic to the westside. Though, if you do see a silver one, that might be us as there are so few 335ds out there.