The TSX has obviously made an impression on some over at Apple! Yeah, baby!

(see last paragraph on this page)
Apple's second quarter 2003 market share rises

 

Ooo... TSX and Ford Taurus in the same sentence, scary. AND TSXs have now been likened to a Macintosh... not sure I like that either

 

Fried reports, "As for the PC business, some analysts say it's time to stop measuring Apple [by its] slice of the overall PC market... Apple [addresses] only part of the market, said NPD Group analyst Stephen Baker... Apple has concentrated at the high-end of the consumer market. 'Nobody expects that you can sell Acura TSX sports cars as Taurus wagons,' Baker said."

That is pretty funny ... and from a design standpoint I take it to be a compliment that Apple folks buy TSX's ...

 

Exactly the way I took it as well. The Apple folk, who obviously adore their product, were likening their product to the TSX. So there you have it

 

Great get, RadMon!!!

I just wonder -- Do you think we have to worry that they might have been thinking of NSX? (Yeah, leave it to me to worry about something like that.)

I know there was a time when I used to confuse NSX and RSX!!

Oh, whatever -- I love it anyway.

 

Down, boy.
Macs are great machines, plain and simple. In fact, almost anything you like about PCs was showed up first on a Mac.

I take the Mac comparison as a HUGE compliment--they have a cult owner following. Mostly because of what superior, smartly thought out machines they are.

Not unlike our favorite car.

 

I'm down . Now that you guys point out his analogy more clearly (little slow on a Monday morning), I suppose it's not such a bad thing.

Down boy back at ya! Superior, smartly thought out machines...yeah, in some ways. PCs are great machines too, superior and smartly thought out in other ways... and I'm gonna step down from that one right now. I'm sure we've both debated this one before, too many times.

That said, I'm always impressed with a product that meets my requirements perfectly (my definition of superior)... just like our favorite car ... and Tauruses still scare me.

 

I must say this is a pretty strange comment. Perhaps he did mean NSX..i mean TSX sports car? Even NSX would still be a strange comment, but not quite as strange.

 

That's what I thought too. Not even mainly because TSX isn't exactly a sports car, but because TSX doesn't have enough recognition to be used as an example in such a context.

But then again, neither does NSX!

 

OK, I'm back down too, Phingerz.

Re-reading the quote, I'm pretty sure he meant NSX also. Mostly, I think he was saying that Taureses (Tauri?) are boring and for the masses.

The NSX (hell, even out little TSX) and Macs are anything but.

 

When I think of the automotive equivalent of a Mac, I picture something more like a new Beetle. Quirky styling is emphasized more than pure functionality.

 

that wasn't Apple saying that, it was a business analyst. I don't think Apple is in the high end of the consumer market, the iBook and iMac are definitely on the lower end, and the G4 and G5 are usually targeting creative professionals.

 

Efficient, elegant, intuitive... words to describe Honda and Apple products.

In response to the Beetle picture above... there's a new iPod / Beetle promotion going on...

http://www.apple.com/ipod/vw/video/

 

Yep. Looks like a decent promotion, if a bit gimmicky. Seems like there should be a better connection to the stereo than through a cassette adapter, though.

 

I took it as an insult, see link for reason:

http://www.flogged.net/media/video/whymacssuck.wmv

 

Sorry, but that clip is an incredible display of ignorance about Macs....it's the equivalent of ranting about how horrible a TSX is because of it's terrible 5MT and 4AT transmissions. To imply that OS X is unstable and shuts down when running applications is just stupid - it's built on the BSD Unix subsystem. If you think Windows is more stable than Unix, then you're definitely smoking something interesting. I worked at Microsoft on the XP kernel team for a summer, and let me tell you, that code is not a pretty sight - it's actually a miracle in and of itself that XP kind of runs ok (when it's not bothering you about sending error reports to microsoft because yet another thing went wrong...)

Sorry, just hate to see ignorant shit posted about Macs and felt like venting.

 

Comparing Acura to Macintosh is very relevant. The companies are similar in many respects. They both make niche products that apeal to fairly specific and loyal audiences. I love my Mac for the same reason I love my Acura. They just work. Both companies believe in a constant state of improvement. They both make outstanding and stylish products and put the customer first in my experience.

I work in the Film industry and Macintosh is the standard for just about every aspect (Edit, Graphics, Audio Post)
Living in Detroit I have always driven American cars (A-Plan saves mucho dinero) I finally got sick of all the little things that the American car companies can never get right. After working with every big-wig from the BIG 3 for the last 13 years (ok the BIG 2 1/2) and hearing them say how they are benchmarking the new Toyota, Honda, Etc I finally decided to give up on the bad imitations and get the real thing. When I bought the TSX it was the first time in my life I ever paid even remotly close to MSRP, and believe me I haggled for a long time to get them to throw in about $1200 in accessories. This from a guy who has made films to train the sales people...I know the game inside and out. In the past with domestic cars I usually would pay $300 above dealer invoice at the most for my vehicles. Like my Macs, I feel that even though it may cost a little more than the imitators, what I got in return was well worth the money and then some. Oh by the way my 2000 SVT Contour is for sale. Funny how 2 cars so similar on paper could be so completly different.

 

Great post, really interesting. Big welcome. Hope you'll keep visiting.

Actually, considering what you got them to throw in, it's like you got it for a lot below MSRP.

I'm sure a lot of us would be interested to know which cars besides TSX you considered. I personally considered "all the usual suspects," and TSX won by a mile.

BTW I don't know about the SVT, just the regular Contour -- I assume the SVT is a souped-up semi-lux Contour? Knowing what I do about the regular one, I'm surprised that any version of it could be similar to the TSX, on paper or otherwise.....

P.S. One of our venerable members goes by "MotownTSX." Don't be surprised if you get some occasional confusion.

(Not to mention howling from MotownTSX!)

 

Curb Weight
SVT 3125 lbs
TSX 3241 lbs

Displacement
SVT 2.5 Liter V6
TSX 2.4 Liter I4

Horsepower
SVT 200 hp @ 6,600rpm
TSX 200 hp @ 6,800rpm

Torque
SVT 169 lb/ft @ 5,500rpm
TSX 166 lb/ft @4,500rpm

Redline
SVT 6,750 rpm (Fuel Shutoff at 7,000rpm)
TSX 7,000 rpm (Fuel Shutoff at 7,250rpm???)

 

Yeah, see what you mean.

I know you said they're completely different, despite the paper similarities.
But are there any actual real-life similarities, too? Like, in terms of how the cars feel and behave?

I think of the Contour sort of like a (sorry!) "poor man's version" (as it were, as it were) of the TL, or some such -- not really sporty at all.