I'd guess that 2/3rds of my daughter's friends drive the Mitsubishi Eclipse... Now they are all trying to get a Toyota Celica (since Toyota quit importing them after the 2005 model).

And have they all "riced out" their cars? I think it's a "kid thing". <g>

~~Bonnie



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>>I'm no expert on buzz words, but "rice car" probably originated with respect to Japanese cars ... but it really means the weird things that kids do to their cars today. Take a perfectly good Honda Accord or whatever, then lower it until it's got about one inch clearance off the road, put a huge wing on it, along with spoilers, air scoops on the hood, "coffee can" tailpipes, tinted windows too dark to see anything ... oh yeah, and those ridiculous "spinner" hub caps. Give it a crazy paint job while you're at it. <g>
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>>My Eclipse isn't quite that bad ... it only has a few of those (paint job, tinted windows, coffee can & lowered). I bought it in '99 from a kid who had lowered it by actually cutting the springs in the suspension!! (not the recommended method!) It was way too low, IMHO ... the front end spoiler constantly would scrape curbs and the suspension bottomed out on bumps. I finally bought my own suspension kit and had it installed correctly. It's still lowered a little, but not quite an 1" lower than what a normal suspension should be. The kid worked at a body shop and did the color-changing paint himself ... so when I bought the car I think I got a pretty good deal because that paint is very expensive. I used to say that I bought the paint job and got the car for free. <g> Incidentally, here's the funny coincidence ... at the time I bought the car, I was doing consulting work at a place called Flex Products in Santa Rosa, CA ... the kid's body shop was about a mile away and I saw the car
>>parked there for many months with a "For Sale" sign before I finally decided to test drive it and then buy it. The coincidence? Flex Products makes the color-changing particles that go into the pigment for making this paint (marketed by many different paint manufacturers).
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>>I like my Eclipse ... I think Mitsubishi's sportier cars are pretty cool. It was my first turbo engine car and I really like that extra power! For awhile, my oldest son had a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 ... now, *there's* a cool car! Twin turbos and all-wheel drive and all-wheel *steering*!! I have no clue how big the engine was or anything like that, just that it had a lot of power. He was going broke on the car payments though and he probably would've killed himself with it sooner or later, so I was glad when he sold it.
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>>~~Bonnie
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>>>>>Ms. Berent.
>>>>>You are a woman of impeccable taste.
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>>>>LOL!!! You wouldn't say that if you saw the "rice car" I drive! Gary's the one who buys the Audi's and BMW's. I have an old 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse ... turbo, lowered, big "coffee can" tail-pipe and a fancy color-changing paint job. <g>
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>>>>~~Bonnie
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>>>"Rice car". Is that a term for Asian made cars? :)
>>>Never heard of that term.
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>>>We're replacing a '95 Mitsubishi. What do you think about Mitsubishi car? I've never had any opinion on them.
>>>
>>>Actually, I did like the first Diamonte. I always thought it was a very handsom looking car. But Mitsubishi always seems to have little nagging problems.... in the past anyway.