Reviews by mistsy

mistsy says "Plenty of features and a good price - a little "pimpish"?" about Nissan Altima - 2006

mistsy — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:12:08 GMT

I bought a 2006 Altima a new and it is the most luxurious car I have ever owned. (That's not saying much... I've always had bottom-end cars.) Compared to my previous cars, this is a real gem. It has all kinds of features I would not have expected at this price.

Let's first talk cheap. If you want a cheap car that's big (it's as big as the Volvo S80 that my neighbor has), you could have a stripped down version for well under $20K - new.

If you want the extras, the price, of course, rises, but not that much. For around $25K (sticker minus standard rebate), you'll get alloy wheels (who cares?), a 6 CD Bose sound system, leather interior, sunroof, butt warmers, auto lights, auto temp control, and some other stuff that I don't use. That's a pretty good package at a pretty good price. In this range, you have few competitors. The Toyota Camry, Mazda 6, and Honda Accord will be about $5K more and there are a host of American cars (to me, lesser quality) at the same price.

You'll have plenty of interior...

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mistsy says "A bit sluggish and cramped." about Honda Civic Hybrid - 2007

mistsy — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 07:47:48 GMT

If you are in the market for a compact car with high gas mileage, this may be your saving grace. It's affordable, there are plenty of them on the lots, and there is some discounting.

The car gets about 40mpg and that's the reason to buy it vs. the non-hybrid. It will cost around $20-22K new, or about a $7K premium over the gas model.

You have all kinds of options, of course, like leather or not, various upgrades, etc., but none of these things really matter because the only difference between what you get here vs. in the gas model is the hybrid technology. If you want all the upgrades, you can get them in either the hybrid or traditional models.

The car is cramped, of course, because it's a compact. I'm only 5-7 and my head was near the roof. Not uncomfortably so, but enough to make me feel cramped. The backseat is OK, but it doesn't fold down because of the batteries in the trunk. I don't care much about that as I don't haul things.

I was a little concerned about, of all things, the lack of...

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mistsy says "Volvo's last forever." about Volvo S40 - 2006

mistsy — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 07:43:23 GMT

The Volvo S40 likes to think of itself as a luxury car and thus commands a pretty high price. It's surely a nice car, but for a compact, it's too pricey and I think that's the reason you see so few of them on the road.

"Luxury" car is sort of brand-name issue rather than the actual luxury that is within a car. As such, you'll find the S40 not too dissimilar from much cheaper models like the Acura, Accord, Camry, etc. I'm talking about $10K cheaper here.

The luxury features are, number one, the safety feature. Volvo is well-known for these and you'll get plenty of airbags, smart seats that can sense the type of crash, steel bars in doors, etc. Beyond that you'll get water resistent glass (nice, but glass is water resistent anyway, though not to the extent of the Volvo), anti-lock brakes (common these days), and then some things that are nice, but not really all that important like real wood in various places, nicer than average leather, a superior lighting system activated by your keypad when...

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mistsy says "I guess this is what the "travel agent" has become." about Expedia.com

mistsy — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 07:34:42 GMT

Many of you have probably happily booked on Expedia and why not? It's easy to book and they answer the phone quick when they are trying to sell a flight.

The site allows you to see nearby airports and compare flights from them, but a lot of sites do that. I like this feature though.

Domestically, you'll find this site to be a quick and easy place to buy a ticket and find flights on multiple airlines. You might save a bit by buying from the airline's own site though. Check here first to find a flight (among other sites) but book elsewhere.

Expedia charges you $5 to book a flight. No big deal. That simple transaction, however, means you're in the hands of Expedia as your travel agent and puts them as the middle man between you and the airline you're flying. That's not so nice.

If you have some issue while traveling, Expedia will try to help you and they are pretty good at answering the phone but not much else. Faster and easier to call the airline you're flying but, darn, the airline tells you...

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mistsy says "Among equals, this is a little better than some of the competiti" about Best Western Killeen - Killeen, TX

mistsy — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 07:26:54 GMT

The Best Western is a pretty good choice in Killeen given that there are not very many choices.

The place says that it is a luxury hotel. It is not. It is a perfectly viable choice however. It is a solid 2* hotel and that's pretty good for a city/area that is not really a city anyway.

Killeen is basically an army base and there are plenty of military people around. Most of the residents seem to be retired military too, and the place is spread out. There's no real downtown and thus no real luxury, top-notch hotels. You have mainly chains here, none being necessarily better than the next, although small things may make you choose one over the next.

I liked the Best Western for those extras. The rooms are boring and roadside. Stucco walls can let noise in from the neighboring rooms, beds are OK but the spreads can be nasty. Floors are hard laminate which is better than industrial carpet but can carry noise. With all the beds in there and other furnishings though it's not much of a problem.

Doors...

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