IronG
Well-Known Member
Congrats on the new car. Yes Kona is a bit difficult to keep clean. Not as bad as black, but close. When it is clean it looks awesome. Magneride is worth every penny. If you are not going to track it often or drag race, you really won't get a lot of benefit from adding to it. Just depends on how you like the car to feel I think.Bought it.
I'm certain Kona Blue isn't the color for me, as it clearly needs to be kept clean to look good.
But, other than that........what a car. The small, detail improvements over my 2016 car add up to quite an impressive difference in driving dynamics.
The Magneride is fantastic, but Normal isn't soft enough for the rough streets of DC. Track is amazing, and I'd say the body control is damn near as good as my previous car with all the Steeda stuff, but with a much better ride. There's no float, great control, and much, much less impact harshness. The MP4Ss might have a lot to do with that though.
The 301A is a great package. It skips the weight of the heated/cooled seats, but gives a much nicer environment with the Sync 3 and better sound system, which is a major improvement over the base stereo in my last car. I'm just getting into what Sync 3 does, because I need a new charging cable for my Android phone. I had missed the MyColor feature, it's nice to have that back.
The clutch, transmission, adjustable exhaust....all tremendous improvements. It shifts great, the pedal is lighter, the clutch engagement is much better, the exhaust can be quiet or loud. But......when set in Quiet mode, once you romp on the throttle the exhaust just opens up and bellows, doesn't stay quiet when you're hammering it. I do like that the car is silent inside when cruising on the freeway. The taller gears seem fine, definitely nice to see lower RPMs on the freeway.
As far as the engine, there's definitely more torque, lower in the RPM range. But, as many others have complained, these cars just don't feel that fast. Objectively, that's because the suspension/chasis/body control/tires are so good, the car just isn't scary. My 2012 GT Brembo car scared the ever-living shit out of me, with 80+HP less, whenever I wanted it to, because the suspension and tires were shit. The car was just all over the road. These cars don't do that, much more of a cruiser/GTer. I can definitely see this car would make a NY to LA run a pure joy.
I'm exhausted. Drove many hours last night, then was up this morning at 4AM to drive again.
The best way I can sum-up this car, is that it needs nothing. Doesn't need a tune, doesn't need suspension mods, doesn't need the trans fluid changed, doesn't need anything. Near as I can tell, it's perfect just the way it is. And since every time in the past I've modded something to address one issue, a new issue was created, I'm very glad for that.
ETA; found a charging cable for my phone. I wish the phone was 100% controllable from Sync 3 when plugged in. Using Waze is great though. Who the hell would pay for Nav?
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