General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Which of these cars would you buy for your teenage driver? [View all]rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)The "styling differences" include major safety components. Tires, wheels, suspension, brakes are all visibly upgraded in the latter. I'm guessing under the hood too. Most likely an utterly different and turbocharged motor in the second. These two cars are drastically different machines. It's not just the paint.
If the second car is what it looks like it certainly has a performance tuned paddle shifted manual transmission. The upper one likely a timid auto slush box.
A camber like the front wheels on the second, along with what look like racing slick tires, plus a likely more powerful motor tuning at least, makes the second car much harder to drive for an inexperienced driver.
Tell u what. Try insuring each of them and get back to me. A base VW golf and a GTi Turbo are "the same car" too. Behind the wheel they're utterly different driving experiences. Slap performance mods on that GTi like the tires and wheels on this Integra and your average teenage driver will be way overmatched.
They started life as the same Acura Integra. The mods on the second make it far more dangerous for an unskilled driver or street conditions.
/car nut