Sometimes your the windshield, sometimes your the bug

About a year and a half ago, I made a deal with my daughter that I would
sell her my 2002 Civic LX for a good price in 2006 (which gets 39 mpg) and I
would buy a new Civic. Well, I did sell her my 2002 this year as planned
and in the meantime the 2006 civic has won all sorts of awards as "car of
the year" and gasoline is approaching $3 per gal. So of course, Civics are
going for a premium now. Here in Central Texas they are getting MSRP, which
sucks eggs big time. I don't mind paying for value, but I hate to get
ripped off.

Thus, as the subject of this post indicates, I feel more like the bug than
the windshield.

Are Civics selling for MSRP where you are? Do you think these prices will
continue for a while? Or do you think they will start selling closer to
invoice as we near the end of the model year?

In the meantime I am in a holding pattern, driving my 91 Isuzu pickup (27
mpg) and riding my bicycle to work 2 or 3 times a week.

Sid

 

.... and gasoline is approaching $3 per gal....

You lucky gits !

Start thinking about when your gas starts costing you about $6.35 per US gal
and you have it as bad as the UK !!!

It costs me around $70 (£40) to fill up my UK civic which is 39mpg same as
yours and i get about 280-300 miles out of that tank !!!

Dom

 

But don't you guys get pay by pounds not dollars?

 

of course we do - but you need to look at relative job salaries between the
two countries for that to have an affect...

 

do you belong to sams club, AAA, or costco? if so, check out their auto
buying program. you SHOULD be able to do better than MSRP.

theyre brand spankin new this year, so expect the hubbub to die down
this fall.

anything beats a car payment.

 

if we could get universal health care here, id be willing to pay $6/gal.

and thats speaking as someone that already has pretty damn good health
care through my employer. it would be a step down for me, but id take it.

 

Most of feel that way too.

 

It really is swings an roundabouts...

We pay for our health care through national insurance taxes. We pay about
£100 out of every £2500 into our National Health Care Service (NHS)

Now I am not sure what you have to pay for health insurance in the US but
here in England I would rather have the choice and funnel that £100/month
into private health cover...

 

That is always true of someone young and healthy. You can always buy
insurance cheap then. But most bankruptcies in the US are the result of
health problems and people's insurance running out.

 

Most people in the US get their health insurance paid for by their
employer (or they don't have it at all.) If you lose your job, you
lose your health insurance. You can buy into a temporary plan for up
to 18 months, assuming you can afford to pay the $1000 per month
family premiums while you are unemployed.

If you are middle aged and healthy, you might be able to get decent
private medical insurance for about $1200 per month for the family.
But if you or anyone in your family has a history of medical problems,
preexisting conditions may be excluded, you may be charged exorbitant
premiums, or denied coverage altogether. If you are healthy and
insured but then get sick, expect your premiums to eventually rise
until you can't pay them anymore. Even while you have insurance, you
will still be hit with deductibles, co-pay and prescription costs
which could total thousands of dollars per year.

Once you lose insurance, you will learn first hand what it means to
live in the country with the most expensive health care in the world.
Hospitals and clinics basically double their prices over what they
need to charge so they can offer the insurance companies big
discounts. No insurance? You pay full (i.e. double) price. If you
have massed a comfortable life savings for retirement, it could easily
be wiped out by one major illness.

Still want to throw that £100/month at private health care? In the
US, that much will not even pay for the administrative costs for your
private health insurance. And no, that isn't hyperbole.

 

How about Euros?

 

We are way off topic here from Honda, but ...

It is a ridiculous scam here. I pay about $120 every two weeks and my
employer pays almost twice that much every two weeks also. However, in
practical terms I doubt that I have any better health care or more freedom
of choice than you do. My insurance company has "preferred providers" and
if you use these company selected providers you get max coverage, but you
still pay copays and deductibles, etc. If you need to use someone other
than a preferred provider, then you pay "big time" out of your pocket. So I
doubt I have it any better than someone who lives where they have national
healthcare.

Sid

 

Yes, civics are going for MSRP (especially the EX and the Si). I paid a
thousand over sticker for my Si, (they were asking 2). To get an idea,
go to www.8thgencivic.com

and read about what people are paying. If you are lucky, you can get it
for a couple of hundred dollars under sticker, but its a supply and
demand game right now with 2006+ civics.