Used Car Questions & Honda Civic Si | Talking Cars with Consumer Reports #117

This week we answer questions from our audience about used cars and SUVs, and give first impressions of our newly purchased 2017 Honda Civic Si.

SHOW NOTES
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0:34 - Question #1: Used SUVs

5:16 - Question #2: Reliable & fun RWD car suggestions

10:34 - Question #3: Toyota Sienna w/ AWD vs. Chrysler Town & Country w/ winter tires

13:30 - Question #4: Decline of Infiniti

16:15 - Honda Civic Si first impressions

24:00 - Question #5: AEB and manual transmissions

VIDEO LINKS
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[Mabeylater]

Jake fisher is a great boss. U can't ever tell that he is at a higher level because he lets others shine too. That's a leader.

[holmiumh]

The hidden gem in the current Honda lineup is the 4-cyl Acoord 6MT, it's well priced, reliable, powerful enough and preserve some of the that old Honda flavor.

[blueshadesable]

Love the extra attention to used cars! Hope to see more in the future

[rightlanehog]

Great job on this episode. There was never a dull moment.

[J.W.W.]

Best show so far guys, and I've been watching since the beginning.

[garthhowe]

"Talking Cars" is really good ... I love the interaction between the hosts

[hilinais]

great episode. I like CR talking used cars as it relates to reliability data.  Do more of these.
  For the minivan question:  I had a FWD Sienna with winter tires in Iowa, and it was fantastic.  My son was a terrible winter driver (he had just started learning to drive when we lived in Texas), and when we got hit with our first Iowa snow, he was in our neighbor's front lawn, ended up on a sidewalk, and stuck in driveway (all in 6 days before I could change the tires).  I put winter tires on the Sienna and even when the snow got worse (and temps even lower, aka below zero) he had no problems and even got a speeding ticket.  By the way, me in a AWD RAV4 (first gen) with all season tires was able to drive in the same weather and was even able to get him unstuck (yes, the RAV4 weighed less but pulled him out of a downhill driveway)--who needs AWD? Dads.

[Stanleyguy]

What is more important during winter driving ice traction or snow traction? I've noticed the latest high performance all season tires flip flopped when compared to the last generation. Improving stopping in the snow by 15% but reducing ice stopping close to 25%!

I feel like better ice traction is more likely to prevent gotcha crashes.

That compound change to improve snow traction carries over for a couple % buff in wet weather traction during the rest of the year.

[kdsewell]

Great job guys! I listen to every episode and continue to learn something new and useful.

[josferguson]

When buying used, I have become a Buick fan. Quality of a lexus, performance of BMW (Regal), and used car price of a hyundai. No other brand gives such bang for the buck in the used car market.

[RobertLeBlancPhoto]

I've watched this series since episode 17.
You guys need to do this show weekly.
:)

[RRoman]

Have you thought of making a top 10 or top 5 recently used cars in certain price brackets by types of vehicles? I believe you did one video like this about 2 years ago. Keep up the good work

[sanilj]

Fantastic episode. You all had me gripped from the start to the end. On the next episode can compare the si with the 2018 wrx in terms of handling and livability?

[stevep]

Good show - very enjoyable and less scripted. Better camera angles, too. My 2¢ is get a darker table top :-) My EU-spec XC-60 (2014) has City Safe emergency braking and works fine with the 6-spd manual. It has only triggered once, when it decided I was approaching a French toll booth barrier a bit too fast (I have the equivalent of an EZPass). It works as designed. I've had two "high-revvers" in my time - an Integra and a Passat VR6. The Passat was more bearable as it had sort of a two-stage power delivery - Adequate and LetsGo (a lot like my Honda CB900F). The Acura was just tiring for day-to-day driving and I only kept it one year

[Jarl_]

Why does CR keep saying AWD is useless. In my experience AWD makes a HUGE difference in winter driving. Also, here in Canada, nothing shuts down just because of a little snow....

[JDMHaze]

as far as a RWD used cars ago, always go Infiniti G 37, you can get those used with under 100K for under $13K so about the same price as a used Miata but with over twice the power, and over FR S/BRZ

[madamolli]

about the AWD sienna, some of us live in areas where its -10 to -30C from October to April here in Canada, plus snow. Even when it dips to -50C life goes on and nothing changes. So to come and say you really dont need AWD is depending to where you live. What do you guys think?

[snazari]

The same people complained about Honda not turbo charging their cars to keep up with the competition, are now complaining about turbos.

[justindavis]

Many people hated the last generation Si for very low power right off the line. It was great to have the high revving, but it was only at high rpms! The new turbo delivers lots more power at low rpms, and it is a lot more pleasurable to have even power. The reason Honda didn't add Vtec plus turbo, was because they reserved that for the Type R.

[fscodave]

Re AWD: Subies hardly cost any more now than non-AWD cars, so why not get them when they're reliable and usually show up high if not even top in the ranking? Like, the Forester is top of list for oldsters (like me), and driving in snow its AWD even with regular all-seasons bested the CRV and especially the RAV4 (video from a year or two ago). My wife drove her Prius for a number of winters with winter tires, and it was OK, but she should sure tell the difference when she got the Legacy with winter tires. (We live in a snow belt and she has a 150-mile round-trip commute.)