To honda philippines: Dapat brio and jazz 1.5 manual dinala nyo. Lalangawin odyssey

**170kphlang** · June 29th, 2012 12:17 AM

and it never hurts to ask for some advice..

**LNopal** · June 29th, 2012 08:46 PM

Originally Posted by OTEP

People who ask forums regarding new car purchases are not letting other people decide for them. Its merely a part of doing research.

If people here ask me whats my take on something, ill gladly answer. Manufacturers, shops, ad people dont pay me. I just answer things as how they are.

Heck, even I posted in the firearms forum when it came time for me to purchase a firearm. And the realworld experience of actual owners vs ad propagandas really helped me decide.

at this day and age where information can be researched from the car manufacturers' website, you can easily make comparisons between products, especially cars. when buying a car, the buyer should understand that he/she will be responsible for paying off the car loan, and not other people. the buyer should do the research for himself/herself so he/she can decide which cars will fit the needs.

for me, it will take months and months to identify the car that i will want to buy. i will compare several cars and matchup the specs of each car -- elimination process. i will then read articles about the cars that are in my final list, then read consumer reviews. determine what are the consumers are saying - pros and cons -- looking for CONS more since i will be responsible for the maintenance of the car that i will be buying. by doing these steps, i will never have a buyer's remorse.

**LNopal** · June 29th, 2012 10:55 PM

Originally Posted by 170kphlang

and it never hurts to ask for some advice..

agreed. but i do the leg work. if you did the work yourself, you will be sure of the answer to your own questions. i do ask questions, but to verify things i don't understand.

**170kphlang** · June 29th, 2012 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by LNopal

at this day and age where information can be researched from the car manufacturers' website, you can easily make comparisons between products, especially cars. when buying a car, the buyer should understand that he/she will be responsible for paying off the car loan, and not other people. the buyer should do the research for himself/herself so he/she can decide which cars will fit the needs.

for me, it will take months and months to identify the car that i will want to buy. i will compare several cars and matchup the specs of each car -- elimination process. i will then read articles about the cars that are in my final list, then read consumer reviews. determine what are the consumers are saying - pros and cons -- looking for CONS more since i will be responsible for the maintenance of the car that i will be buying. by doing these steps, i will never have a buyer's remorse.

information on manufacturer's websites are good sources of research but seeking advice from others here in the forums specially those who owns and have test driven the vehicles are much better, information from the manufacturer's websites only gives you the good side of their model line up, it's not like for example hyundai will advertise in their website that their 1.4 accents have soft suspension that is prone to bottoming out and lso have the chance of that infamous knocking engine, while on the otherhand the people around here gives you both first hand experience of the pros and cons of their purchase as to give you an idea to "suggest" to you not "make a decision" for you on your potential purchase. simple isn't it?

**LNopal** · June 29th, 2012 11:31 PM

Originally Posted by niky

I agree that people should do their own research... but it's very difficult, because searching online, owners' groups and the like have their own biases and idiosyncrasies... heck... even Consumer Reports, despite the excellent job they do of reviewing and gathering data otherwise, is not immune to inaccuracy due to the way they collect owner data (brake dust is actually rated as a "problem" on par with others, when it really isn't...). Find the right resources, like TrueDelta.com and WarrantyDirect's survey (which lists actual repairs and not anecdotal "problems"), and you can get a better idea of what to expect.

But most consumers are not smart. Which is why threads like "what to buy" are a good litmus test for market acceptance of a vehicle. More accurate would be focus groups and random interviews and surveys, but one must be careful when selecting respondents. Nissan dropped the ball on this locally when they only included Cefiro customers in their focus groups on what to do with the next Cefiro... while this helped them keep old customers, it did nothing for gaining them new ones.

How? Honda prides itself on fuel economy, yet they neglect to go for a six speed automatic like competitors, which could have gained them 4-5 mpg on the EPA test. (not to say economy is bad... having done an eco-run with the FD Civic, I was suitably impressed... but again... marketing and perception). They pride themselves on quality, yet they cheapen their interior materials to a point where they are behind the curve. You won't catch me saying the "Earth Dream" thing was a bad idea. Eco-marketing is a good thing in this day and age. It's just that they didn't do enough to back it up.

A writer on another site blames Honda's use of customer profiling... creating models of their target customers that fall way short of approximating their actual target markets.

Sales of Hondas and Toyotas represent market momentum built up from previous successes. But current mis-steps will make themselves felt down the line in terms of new customers lost.

-

As for Acura:

I don't like Lexus, but they've got their market pegged. Acura is nowhere near as strong as Lexus, and won't be challenging BMW or Mercedes for market dominance any time soon.

I don't know how well the hybrid will bolster sales for Acura. Reaction to the CR-Z has not been as good as Honda has hoped (partially because of the disappointing fuel economy), but luxury buyers are more willing to pay the hybrid premium. I'd hope, actually, that Honda introduce the Fit Hybrid outside of Japan, instead, as that's a product that has the potential to really take the fight to the Prius C and Prius.

i tend to look at edmunds.com and read consumer reviews about the cars i am inquiring about. there are other good sites, but this has been very helpful to me. they also have long term tests just like cars and drivers. i also go to owners' groups to find faults in the cars to better guage the information that i already gathered. it's a long long process for me. it takes at least 3 months to a year before i jump into buying the car. if i made a mistake, then i can only blame myself why i bought the car.

with regards to the cr-z, i actually liked it. i could have bought it instead of my Si just because i would like to know if i could go beyond the pegged mpg of this car. it's too bad that there were no cars available the month i bought my car. i could only speculate why this car never really hit the masses; too small for the price, it's a 2 seater car here in the US, not 4 compared to other countries. moreover, the predecessor (crx) has a better mpg due to lack of crash safety features compared to crz's tech load. crz also lacks hp and it doesn't rev to 8k.if it has 160hp or more, it might have been the best pocket rocket for the money. toyota's hybrid tech is so advanced that they don't have any competition in this regard.

acura brand is still young compared to lexus, bmw, mb, and other luxury cars. it's a very competitive market, i don't see acura's sale go beyond any of these established name brands. the hybrid tech acura will introduce is very new and people will still be receptive to the idea of being the first people to own the technology. quite typical especially with this kind of economy.

**LNopal** · June 29th, 2012 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by 170kphlang

information on manufacturer's websites are good sources of research but seeking advice from others here in the forums specially those who owns and have test driven the vehicles are much better, information from the manufacturer's websites only gives you the good side of their model line up, it's not like for example hyundai will advertise in their website that their 1.4 accents have soft suspension that is prone to bottoming out and lso have the chance of that infamous knocking engine, while on the otherhand the people around here gives you both first hand experience of the pros and cons of their purchase as to give you an idea to "suggest" to you not "make a decision" for you on your potential purchase. simple isn't it?

that's why i emphasized on the CONS and not the pros. it's easy to find the good qualities that you are looking for but not the bad ones. many cars sold in the philippines are world cars, hence many other information can be gathered from car sites such as cars.com, car and drivers mag, edmunds.com (if you haven't heard of it yet; these sites contains long term tests, something that lacks in the philippine market). enthusiasts sites outside the philippines is also helpful. i am suggesting these things because you can better guage what other people are saying outside your market place. if you read my post carefully, whatever you are trying to point out was there already. but as an individual, i will not advise which car to buy. i know it will be a bias advise. please note: not that i am discounting the posts here in this site, but the research should not end here in this site.

also, i would like to emphasize on doing the leg work yourself. educating yourself before buying the car will give you more answers to your questions. and with these information, you can decide for yourself which to buy.