From: equiraptor	Date: March 19th, 2008 11:49 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Well, it's hard to be fair to a sedan coming from an MX-5, especially a sedan with "sporty" aspirations and a modified MX-5. It's also an automatic, base level, so it's far from the best example of the breed.

It's really not all that bad. The car's responsive and communicates well while having a good ride. It's sloppy and understeery coming from the MX-5, but just about any sedan would be. Hell, another MX-5 would probably feel a little sloppy after mine, as stock MX-5s have more roll. I'm frustrated by the softer brakes and relatively long stopping distance, however, this is a sedan. The brakes are effective and give good feedback. As it has just the 2.0, more weight than my MX-5, and four gears through an automatic transmission, acceleration is somewhat... lethargic.

I think that's about all I have on it so far. I suppose I should talk about the interior at some point, but I'm not an interior person, so that'll probably take me longer to figure out than "I stomp on the gas pedal and it doesn't go!"

	From: equiraptor	Date: March 19th, 2008 11:59 pm (UTC)		(Link)

It's weird. I don't worry about the car at all when John and Dan have it. Hell, it used to be theirs. I didn't worry a lot when it was at Jeff's, as Nugget and many other friends have had cars there, and I've talked with them a bit. I may not know them like I know John and Dan, but I'd at least walked through the shop and talked with a few of them. In this case, I've never even SEEN the service department of the dealership, I've never actually met the person in charge of my car or the people working on it, and it's a dealership rather than my trusted shop, so I'm a bit distrustful from the start.

So far, things seem very... sane. The driver had no troubles driving my car off, while even experienced racers have stalled my car the first time they drove it. I've received one call after my car arrived - They do this "full circle" inspection thing and called...

Dealer: "We were doing our inspection and we noticed you participate in SCCA... well, you autocross."
Me: silently worrying they're going to try to deny warranty...
Dealer: "Your front pads are low - below the wear indicators - and the rear ones are almost to the wear indicators. I know a lot of autocrossers like to go with aftermarket brakes. Would you like OEM or would you like an aftermarket part?"
Me: thinking... My brakes are low? Dan said they were in great shape just a few weeks ago... Hmmm, we'll have to look at that once I have the car back. saying "I haven't even started to think about brakes yet. I'll have to do some research and work on that later."
Dealer: "Ok, well, give us a call if you want us to do the work."

Well ok then. I wonder what the next call will be like.