RSX-S Aspec

350 is a better car overall(better be cost much more) while the RSX can be conservatice compared to the 350 and still be a great daily driver with 2 more seats in the back for if you ever need it. Your call, if I had to do it over again now I would still stick with the RSX for the daily driver. I wish I could afford the 350 as a weekend car though

HaHAAHhAHHAH

i'd go with the RSX-S (especially the 05 model) and start turning it into a JDM TYPE R...i've driven both cars, the 350 is cool, but no visability, it's cramped up (im 6'4" and used to driving accords lol) but i'm honda for life tho so i'm kinda biased

ProjectRSX

Im to lazy to read the rest of the posts, heres my 2 cents. I just got rid of my Z last saturday. Its a sick car to drive, alot of fun, great power, and it gets alot of attention. Not a winter car, period. So if you have to drive it year round and you get snow by you, i would think twice before gettin it. Thats why i got rid of mine, i couldnt deal with it one more winter. Im picking up the 05 RSX-S sometime this week, its all about front wheel drive (or all wheel) in NJ.

This was the day after i got it.

DamianC05

Just flip a coin.

C6Corvette

My precious 2002 Red Formula Firehawk 6 spd (which was VERY rare) was hit and totaled last month! I decided to let my wife have a nice car, and I would take her Denali XL (I might put some nicer wheels on it though, and a Magna Flow exhaust),

Anyway, the insurance on the new 2005 Acura TL w/AT is about the same--($505/3months) versus my Red02Firehawk at $529 for 3 months. I carry a lot of insurance at $100K/$300K/$50K and underinsured and uninsured too. PLUS a $1M umbrella policy. We use it for catastophic loss only, and do not turn in any claim under $5000.

Personally, for the money, I would get a nice clean low mileage Firebird Firehawk, or a used 2003 or 2004 Corvette IF, AND BIG IF, you are set on rear wheel drive. I did a lot to my Firehawk, but did not touch the engine, other then a special oversized air lid, w/C5 Corvette sized K&N filter, SLP's 85mm MAF, & a special bellow> I then added the SLP LongTube headers with 3' y-pipe, with dual 3" high flow CATs by Random Technology, with a true 3" catback from MagnaFlow with 4" duals out the muffler. IT SOUNDED GREAT! Better yet, I dynoed at 357RWHP on that car. THAT IS NICE, my 2000 Forumula with basically the same mods but Donaldson air lid did 310RWHP. I think I just had a nicely tuned LS1. Most dynoed at 325 to 340RWHP. NOW, this is seriously more then these "imports".

BUT it really boils down to what you want. The Firehawk was a heavy car. You certainly can put a turbo on them, in fact I know someone who did and he has just short of 600hp!

But you can spend dollar for dollar on the 350Z and have more HP to weight ratio. THAT IS KEY, plus if you want to do any body kits, go with the Z!

Now my father owned Zs for a good portion of his life. I went for Camaros and Firebirds, but until the LS1 came out, they were not that hot. You can pickup a very nice 2002 Z28 for around $18,99 to $22,500 depending on mileage and condition. They are great buys and will apprecite, IF you keep them for 20 years and hold the mileage down. If you want a daily driver, I would probably opt for the Z. The F-bodies have their bugs that persist. I always replaced the front rotors, calipers and brake pads. They just warped if you did any canyon carving at all.

The main thing, is DO WHAT YOU want to do, not what other say to do.
Picture in your mind two cars, done the way you want all tricked out without regards for money. Go with the one that trips your trigger and you will always be happy.

Thats my 50 cents, but know this: Every one will have their own opinion. And to each his own, I say.

Having said all that, I went and bought a 2005 TL today, for my wife though.
JC

Dave-ROR

Not really. Insurance doesn't directly correlate to purchase price/age of a vehicle. Things such as average comprehensive risk/costs due to theft, fire, etc, average repair bills (a more expensive car does not automatically mean the average repair cost is higher), average medical payouts in the case of an accident, color (primarily because some colors are more visible to the human eye which attracts good and bad attention more, ie theft, police, etc), etc.

The year and MSRP aren't really that big of a deal. A 2004 S2000 6 months ago is far cheaper (by hundreds of dollars every 6 months) to insure than my 2000 GS-R. G35 6MT Coupes, 350Zs, RX-8's, etc were ALL cheaper than my Integra to insure through my carrier (state farm).

High theft rate is very bad for the insurance rates paid by integra/civic owners and I'm sure the RSX will start to get worse and worse as well.

To put the theft rate in a little perspective, the 99-01 Integra theft rate is *4* times that of the 00-04 S2000. That is in a given # of cars, not overall so those numbers aren't affected by total sales as much as the lists that just show the total # of car XXXXXX that were stolen. Theft rate and # of thefts are different.

Hope that provides some info on the insruance issue, but it's actually really hard to get higher insurance than some integra/civic models...

Dave-ROR

Wow I just noticed how old this thread was lol

Anyways, I agree with what speedstyle said. The best way to buy a car is to figure out 1) what maximum price you can comfortably do (stretching yourself for a car is stupid in my opinion, a house, maybe, a car.. no), 2) decide what type of car you want, what features/capacities/etc that you want, 3) most importantly GO DRIVE THEM, this will quickly tell you which one your should buy.