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Going back into my records and the brochures, I can share with you actual cruise costs for Regent and Crystal for similar cruises. Our upcoming 10 day Voyager cruise in August without air is $14,000. For the comparable cabin category on Crystal, last year we took a Crystal Symphony cruise and the rate without air for a 12 day cruise in July was $10,000. Looking at the Crystal brochure for this summer, there is a 12 day Symphony cruise in July for $11,500 and a 10 day August cruise for $4900 (I don't know the reason for why this is such an unusually low fare). All of these fares are for cruise only for 2 people with European itineraries. Both Regent and Crystal are all inclusive but Crystal does not include shore excursions in their prices. Based on my knowledge of Crystal Symphony and what I have gleaned from Regent brochures and comments on this board, I expect that the onboard experiences on both ships will be very comparable and the only immediate differences I see that justify the additional cost for Regent are that the Voyager stateroom will be larger and for the inclusion of the shore excursions. As I indicated in an earlier post, when I return from my upcoming cruise, I will try to post a comparison of the two ships as to the shipboard experience but on the surface, it appears that for similar cruises of equal length and similar itineraries at the same time of year, Regent runs about $3,000 to $4,000 more.

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Until I read Caroldoll's post, I didn't realize that Crystal has lowered prices. Also, we require a suite the size of the Crystal PH suite which is considerably more money than the other suites. I did read that Crystal was having difficulty filling their ships on some itineraries (as is Regent). With Crystal's considerably larger ships, it takes a lot more passengers to fill their ships. OTOH, Regent is trying to fill four ships.

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  • 3 months later...

Hello,

 

UU I do a comparison with other cruise lines. I take the total cost of the cruise I am paying and start subtracting. By this I mean I take the number of days cruising and multiply this number by average daily cost of liquor package, same with gratuities. I do this for I each free included item. subtract these amounts from cost of cruise. In the end I get the final cost of cruise per night by dividing final figure and number of days sailing and compare that cost with a Princess or other ships at that level and up.If this sounds c on fusing once you start doingit, it becomes easier.

 

I'm not trying to stir the pot (really, I'm not!) but I have another question about the 'included' excursions...I think we're all in agreement that some are better than others, and the Regent Choice excursions are 'usually' better than the included ones - but reading this thread got me thinking - what is the "real, actual, no-kiddin', bottom line" price difference between having included excursions and not having excursions?

 

I read a lot about people comparing Regent's pricing against other cruise lines and they're usually pretty close. Sometimes Regent is the better deal, sometimes not - but when people are doing these price comparisons, are they factoring in X number of excursions on a given cruise? The usual fare comparisons I see mention the cruise fare plus air - but that's not really a fair comparison unless you also factor in the cost of excursions.

 

Has anyone really looked into that to see how much additional the 'included' excursions run? What would be a fair credit if Regent offered an 'opt-out' of the excursions?

 

Just curious.

 

PS - Total disclosure: I'm a fan of the included excursions - although we've had some bad ones, most we've taken have been pretty good and some were excellent. To me, it just takes away some of the extra effort and worry about setting up something in every port. Seems more vacation-like to me.

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I do the same sort of math, and yes I do include the fact that Regent includes many (I won't say all, because that would be untrue) excursions. I know that some of Regents included excursion leave something to be desired, but so do many of the non-included excursions on other lines. And I make sure room sizes are comparable.

 

I don't want to stir any pot, but after doing this math, my decision is usually to stay home! ALL cruises of any quality have simply become too expensive for me to stomach. With the per diem on Regent at about $1000 pp (especially as I have to spend extra to book my own longer domestic legs to get business or first or whatever they are calling it now), and with my math showing that lesser lines aren't that much less after upgrade to a decent "suite" and accounting for all they things they don't include, it is just too much for me to stomach. It's not because we're broke. Nowhere close! But we didn't get that way by buying things we consider far overpriced, like cruise prices today.

 

I read in a post above that Crystal and Regent are not filling their ships, and I bet there are other lines in the same situation.

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I read in a post above that Crystal and Regent are not filling their ships, and I bet there are other lines in the same situation.

 

It certainly sounds that way. Whether it is due to pricing or fear of some parts of the world is still unknown. From what I've read, the Mediterranean is "iffy" in terms of passengers possibly fearing problems. The Middle East also presents challenges which is unfortunate as these ports are amongst our favorites. While Asia is still fairly safe, the per diem for Asia is very high (and the same can be said for Australian/New Zealand itineraries.

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Yes, I just got another of my "daily Regent ads" for a number on North European cruises on the Explorer (where the least expensive suites are only good for a single traveler. I've been told) with the minimum prices at OVER $1000 per diem pp! And that is even before I have to book my domestic air in some class that doesn't hurt! I frankly wish Regent would quit sending me a "daily ad" and adjust their fares to something that makes a bit of sense to me. There are great places to visit in driving distance of where I live. A few months ago, I just bought a new Mercedes-Benz (not the cheapest one) for the cost of two of those Regent cruises. Suffice it to say that it will get us to interesting places here in the Mountain West quickly and comfortably. Yes, I feel that the car was over-priced too, but not by as much as Regent cruises. Regent has to learn that many of us who could spend it on their cruises, just won't.

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Yes, I just got another of my "daily Regent ads" for a number on North European cruises on the Explorer (where the least expensive suites are only good for a single traveler. I've been told) with the minimum prices at OVER $1000 per diem pp! And that is even before I have to book my domestic air in some class that doesn't hurt! I frankly wish Regent would quit sending me a "daily ad" and adjust their fares to something that makes a bit of sense to me. There are great places to visit in driving distance of where I live. A few months ago, I just bought a new Mercedes-Benz (not the cheapest one) for the cost of two of those Regent cruises. Suffice it to say that it will get us to interesting places here in the Mountain West quickly and comfortably. Yes, I feel that the car was over-priced too, but not by as much as Regent cruises. Regent has to learn that many of us who could spend it on their cruises, just won't.

 

I agree with a lot of your post but some of us have different priorities. We drive Toyotas and have 6 Regent cruises booked. While this may not work for others, our travels will remain in our memories for as long as we live while our cars are a means of transportation. We trade them in every two years so that we never have car repair bills. Also, our intention is not to leave money for our " millennial's" but rather we want to enjoy whatever time we have left. Our millennial's can have our home which is more than some children receive from their "parental units" (just using a funny term that our daughter uses).

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Travelcat,

 

I honestly can't tell if my response to your last post went through or not. It was full of spelling errors, and my computer would not let me correct or delete anything. My computer just isn't working well with this forum tonight. In whatever event, here goes again.

 

The comparison between the cost of a premium Mercedes Benz and two Regent cruises (as per the ad I got today) was meant to be humorous (but true). And it is a matter of priorities. We will not stop traveling, but our cruises (especially on Regent) will be very limited, due to their cost increases over the last 14 years or so, which are greatly in excess of other travel costs and the general cost of living as reported by the US government. True, Regent (then Radisson) did not offer "free air" but because of the weird routing it often takes and the fact that all domestic legs are in deplorable coach/economy (which wasn't as bad then) the "free air" isn't worth much to us. And this line wasn't "open bar" back then, but it did include all beverages in the suite refrigerator. I doubt that open bar is costing Regent much more over that. Certain excursions weren't "free" but that does not account for the fact that the per diem is now 3X what it was then. We don't care about saving money to leave it to our kids, because they are now making much more than we ever did! We do like Regent cruises now, but not 3X more than we did then. Let's just all face it. Regent cruises (and all cruise vacations) are just not a good deal, like they were only a few years ago. We used to cruise Regent (then Radisson) an average of about three times per year then. Now, we have only taken two in the past eight years or so, due to our perceived cost/value relationship, which has become very negative. You may not agree that cruise prices have gotten way out of hand, and that is your right. But we feel that way. There is only one more ocean cruise that we would like to take in our lives, and that is around the horn of South America. And we are in no hurry and are looking at the deals and quality of a number of lines. As far as the cost of a new Mercedes Benz is concerned, 14 years ago one comparable to our new one in features and power would have cost more then, and wouldn't even have had all the features because they weren't invented then.

 

As we live in a "free enterprise" system, the only recourse we consumers have against unreasonable prices is to "vote with our wallets" and that is what we are doing as to ocean cruise vacation and their unreasonable increase in price (whether it be in inclusive fare or in extra, add-on costs). Hopefully, it will have some effect in reversing this problem, as I have read it has had with Crystal.

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Travel at,

 

The comparison between tha cost of a premium Mercedes Benz and two Regent cruises (as per the ad I got today) was meant to be humorous (but true).

DB - this made me laugh, as I told my wife earlier that we'd dropped S-Class money for our last three cruises over the last year (we brought family on three cruises for a total of 12 fares over 13 months :o )

 

But like TC, we've told our kids for years not to expect getting rich when we die...unless you consider thousands of photos and a fully loaded knickknack shelf 'rich'. We drive BMWs, not Toyotas, but we don't cruise nearly as much as TC, so I guess it evens out! :D

 

It's all about the balance. When we get to the point that we look at a cruise fare and just say "Oh, hell no" - that's when we'll start looking for alternatives. Every year gets closer, but we're not there yet.

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Hello,

 

UU I do a comparison with other cruise lines. I take the total cost of the cruise I am paying and start subtracting. By this I mean I take the number of days cruising and multiply this number by average daily cost of liquor package, same with gratuities. I do this for I each free included item. subtract these amounts from cost of cruise. In the end I get the final cost of cruise per night by dividing final figure and number of days sailing and compare that cost with a Princess or other ships at that level and up.If this sounds c on fusing once you start doingit, it becomes easier.

HB - we've done the same comparisons. When we started cruising, I think I drove my wife nuts with all the literature and spreadsheets I buried myself in. And although I haven't done any full bore comparisons lately, I still always run a quick 'what-if' analysis before we book a cruise. Regent still works for us (yes, I realize they're often a bit more expensive, but it's a fair price to pay for the convenience and familiarity we get), but we're always looking at options.

 

Of course, when we do that, we usually only look at 'the Big Four' as we're not a fan of the larger ships. Yes, I know you can get luxurious suites and VIP treatment on the big boats, but I just don't like the crowds. It will be interesting to see the pricing models on some of the upcoming luxury yachts that are in the works. I'm pretty sure they're going to be out of my comfort zone, but I hope I'm wrong...

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There actually is an easy way to determine what you would pay for the exact same excursion booked through another cruise line as opposed to being included on Regent. Oceania excursions are identical to those on Regent--I know because I have been on both. So you can look up what Oceania is charging on their website.

 

Obviously what they charge is most all the time more than what you would pay if you booked yourself, but you have some reassurance if the excursion is booked through the cruise line that if you are late returning, the ship will still be there. I use a lot of caution booking excursions independently because I don't want to run late and miss the ship.

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I sure hope you can take a few minutes to post your thoughts on how the two lines compare - we've never sailed Crystal but have been tempted a few times...

 

FWIW, I did a bit of a comparison between Crystal and Regent earlier this year, on the Luxury Cruises forum, at entry #10: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2510438

 

I had been a Regent veteran, but went on the Crystal Serenity world cruise last year, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've not been on Regent for a while--I just wasn't seeing an itinerary and/or a price/value ratio that made it worthwhile. Now, I'm booked on a B2B next month, for a full month on board Explorer, as well as the 89-night Arctic Splendors on Navigator next summer. Yes, I love the Navigator--haven't been initiated into what is now Regent on the Song of Flower, I have a warm place in my heart for quirky little ships.

 

I have to say that I didn't see a whole lot of difference between Crystal excursions and Regent excursions. I do prefer to make my own arrangements on lengthier port stops, but will do the ship's excursions when timing is tight. I'm planning on either ship's excursions )or to just wander off on my own) on my upcoming Regent cruises, just because they are included (though I have some Regent Choice excursions in mind for next year's). We will see how that goes.

 

In the end, I think that most of the issues with cruise ship excursions are that they are, by necessity, done via contract with independent operators. The cruise line offers them, but doesn't really take ownership of what's offered. I saw the contrast earlier this month when I took a Scenic river cruise. I felt that Scenic was at its best in the excursions because it truly "owned" them: if there was a contracting supplier, it wasn't visible. The guides and buses were all under their control, and the ship and guides were highly responsive and sensitive to passenger needs. What happened ashore was not a thing apart from what happened on the ship: it was all part of the the whole. The only other "cruise" where that has been my experience was on the Silver Galapagos. On every other cruise, be it on Regent, Crystal, or Silversea, the excursion program has been treated as an annoying necessity.

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We are embarking on our first Regent cruise, October 27 on the Voyager. We are B2B, Rome to Beijing. We received an interesting pdf from our TA that lists all the excursions for the second half of the B2B. Each excursion shows a tour price and a retail price. The included excursions show $0.00 as the tour price, and the minimum retail price of included excursions that I see is $89 . The tour price of Regent Choice excursions appears to be about half the retail price. For example, Bangkok in a Day shows a tour price of $149, the retail price shows as $289.

 

The document is handy since it shows all the excursions in one place, with details of what you see, and dress codes. I inquired of my TA about getting a similar document for the first part, but they claim they do not have it.

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UUNet Bill,

 

Unfortunately you responded to my first attempt at a post, wherein my computer locked up and wouldn't allow me to correct, add, or delete. I say this because the post made me look really dumb, whereas it was the computer that was dumb. As you can see, I followed it with what I believe to be a more intelligent post, which I did on another computer.

 

Everybody certainly has the right to their own priorities on how to spend their money, based on what is important to them. And also based on what they are using their money for. If they are using it to produce their retirement income, they may be a bit more "value conscious" in deciding what to buy with it.

 

I should point out that between the 90s and around 2009, we cruised more than many TAs! Prices were much lower then. And right now, we are a bit "cruised out", and also need an AWD car here in Colorado. So that also has something to do with our greatly reduced cruising.

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Travel at,

 

The comparison between tha cost of a premium Mercedes Benz and two Regent cruises (as per the ad I got today) was meant to be humorous (but true).

 

I did take your post lightheartedly. I joke about driving Toyotas (it is also true).:p

 

travlr21 -- I haven't looked at the retail price of excursions in a while -- your observation is interesting. We took one excursion on Oceana and the identical one on Regent. Oceania's price was 3x that of Regent (it was one of the Regent Choice food oriented excursions that tend to be pricey).

 

There are two excursions that I want to compare on our cruise next month:

 

"Champagne and Lobster Catamaran cruise (St. John Antigua) - 6 hours including lunch -- champagne lunch and an open bar on the way back to port - cost - included! This is sold out. I cancelled it this week and booked:

 

 

The "Luxury Catamaran and Champagne Sail" (Bridgetown, Barbados) - 5 hours - includes a barbecue lunch onboard with wine and Champagne -- cost $141/person.

 

It is fairly obvious why the first one is sold out. Our friends will be on the included one and we will be on the Regent Choice excursion (2nd one). It will be fun and interesting to compare notes.

 

For anyone considering a Regent Choice excursion, you may want to look at private or small group excursions. When we are in Manaus on next month's sailing, five of us are doing the meeting of the waters, pink dolphins, having lunch and a few other things that will take up a full day (we spend the night in port so no worries about returning to the ship late). The cost per person is $60!

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Travelcat2,

 

It may come as a shock, but I have a Toyota also (RAV 4 SUV) and a Honda (S 2000 roadster) . I wanted an SUV and a roadster, and found these had the most bang for the buck. But when I needed a sedan with AWD and enough power to get up the mountains around here Mercedes had the most bang for the buck. In cruises, Regent (fka Radisson) used to have the best bang for the buck for what I wanted. Now, I'm not sure about that.

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Travelcat2,

 

It may come as a shock, but I have a Toyota also (RAV 4 SUV) and a Honda (S 2000 roadster) . I wanted an SUV and a roadster, and found these had the most bang for the buck. But when I needed a sedan with AWD and enough power to get up the mountains around here Mercedes had the most bang for the buck. In cruises, Regent (fka Radisson) used to have the best bang for the buck for what I wanted. Now, I'm not sure about that.

 

Guess you learn something new every day:D. I had no clue that Mercedes made such a powerful SUV. Any car that isn't built in the U.S. is fine with us (sort of like airlines - we try to avoid U.S. airlines but, unfortunately, are flying United First Class to Miami next month because we were able to "pay" for it with points.)

 

In terms of Regent and "bang for your buck", it is no longer the deal that it was. And, if we hadn't hit such a high level in the Seven Seas Society, we likely would be trying Viking Ocean and some of the "almost luxury" cruise lines.

 

Since we have done international travel since 1987 and have stayed at Club Med as well as high end resorts, I truly do not want to see Regent (or any other luxury cruise line) dumb down their benefits to appease new cruisers. If someone can afford a $20K+ cruise, they certainly can afford a couple hundred more for laundry, and a upgrade from Coach to First Class in the continental United States. If this became unaffordable then you either cruise less or cruise on another cruise line.

 

You may disagree with my point of view but I've given this a lot of thought and feel strongly about this issue. We look at each cruise very carefully before booking. Sometimes we can afford a Master Suite and other times only a Concierge level suite - that is the way that it is. I've never begrudged people that were in a higher level in the Seven Seas Society than we were nor have I wanted Regent to change their Seven Seas Society program in able to give me more benefits. Regent's Seven Seas Society benefits has definitely been a factor in us booking more cruises to reach the next benefit levels.

 

While other people think/feel differently than we do, at the moment, we can't book a cruise on another luxury cruise line because we would miss the benefits that we have spent 13 1/2 years to attain on Regent. I suppose that this is what loyalty programs are all about....... seducing their passengers into wanting higher level benefits ...... benefits that others do not receive - whether they stay in the Regent Suite at $10K/night or a regular suite.

 

As I've said previously on the thread, I "get" the fact that everyone that does not have included laundry would want it -- something that I am 100% against. However, having a reasonable (not cheap) laundry package is fair (as long as it does not impact the turnaround time for laundry that Platinum and above Seven Seas Society members put in.

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Travelcat2,

 

I don't want to bore everybody on this cruise board with car talk, but my new Mercedes isn't an SUV. It is a sedan. It's a C 43 AMG. Won't go into the specs here, but suffice it to say it has more than sufficient horsepower and torque. But Mercedes does have SUVs with up to over 500 hp. All are designed in Germany, but some are assembled in other countries, including the USA.

 

Back to cruising. I fully understand your point. At your perk level, there would be no choice for me. But we are only Gold SSS members. And I have no desire to go on a cruise and be "nickeled and dimed" for everything, and charged high prices at that because the ship has a "mini monopoly" on things, and to have a room that is "steerage". One cruise I took fairly recently was on MSC in the Yacht Club. It is a separate area on a large ship, but that area is very uncrowded -- more so than on Regent. There was an "anytime" restaurant and a separate open bar. The only thing lacking was hot food room service. We went only because it was a music cruise with bands we like, but I kind of liked this "class" on MSC. It is maybe 1/3 the price of Regent. The only other problem is that the available itineraries seem to be only in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. (And they have a laundry package too!) But we don't plan a cruise in the near future, so I guess the point is moot. Oh yes, we are going on another music cruise in early January on Celebrity in a suite class. Never been on that line before, but the description of the inclusions and amenities sounds much like the MSC Yacht Club, so we will see.

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We are embarking on our first Regent cruise, October 27 on the Voyager. We are B2B, Rome to Beijing. We received an interesting pdf from our TA that lists all the excursions for the second half of the B2B. Each excursion shows a tour price and a retail price. The included excursions show $0.00 as the tour price, and the minimum retail price of included excursions that I see is $89 . The tour price of Regent Choice excursions appears to be about half the retail price. For example, Bangkok in a Day shows a tour price of $149, the retail price shows as $289.

 

The document is handy since it shows all the excursions in one place, with details of what you see, and dress codes. I inquired of my TA about getting a similar document for the first part, but they claim they do not have it.

Helpful document to have. I'd like to know how your TA got a .pdf as a number of us on this board have been inquiring about why Regent no longer offers a printable listing of excursions.

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Travelcat2,

 

I don't want to bore everybody on this cruise board with car talk, but my new Mercedes isn't an SUV. It is a sedan. It's a C 43 AMG. Won't go into the specs here, but suffice it to say it has more than sufficient horsepower and torque. But Mercedes does have SUVs with up to over 500 hp. All are designed in Germany, but some are assembled in other countries, including the USA.

 

Back to cruising. I fully understand your point. At your perk level, there would be no choice for me. But we are only Gold SSS members. And I have no desire to go on a cruise and be "nickeled and dimed" for everything, and charged high prices at that because the ship has a "mini monopoly" on things, and to have a room that is "steerage". One cruise I took fairly recently was on MSC in the Yacht Club. It is a separate area on a large ship, but that area is very uncrowded -- more so than on Regent. There was an "anytime" restaurant and a separate open bar. The only thing lacking was hot food room service. We went only because it was a music cruise with bands we like, but I kind of liked this "class" on MSC. It is maybe 1/3 the price of Regent. The only other problem is that the available itineraries seem to be only in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. (And they have a laundry package too!) But we don't plan a cruise in the near future, so I guess the point is moot. Oh yes, we are going on another music cruise in early January on Celebrity in a suite class. Never been on that line before, but the description of the inclusions and amenities sounds much like the MSC Yacht Club, so we will see.

 

We have done a couple of cruises in Celebrity suite class. We really enjoyed the suite class restaurant and separate lounge. The suite class got us to the suite size similar to Regent. Because we do cruises based on itinerary and want to use port time doing tours I spend 100's of hours more researching private tours and arranging them with other people on the roll calls. We have had very good luck but it is a lot of work to avoid ship tours.

I hope you really enjoy your Celebrity cruise.

 

Our preference is to sail Regent whenever possible but if the itinerary or price don't allow it we look at suite class on Celebrity. Our next 2 cruises are with Regent.

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Loon,

 

This upcoming Celebrity cruise is a music cruise, where some of our favorite bands give rather constant concerts. So I doubt we even get off the ship. We had no choice of cruise lines on this one! But I repeat, I think the quality of excursions offered by "the ship" has deteriorated on all lines -- not just Regent.

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Travelcat2,

 

I don't want to bore everybody on this cruise board with car talk, but my new Mercedes isn't an SUV. It is a sedan. It's a C 43 AMG. Won't go into the specs here, but suffice it to say it has more than sufficient horsepower and torque. But Mercedes does have SUVs with up to over 500 hp. All are designed in Germany, but some are assembled in other countries, including the USA.

I'll do one more OT car post, sorry - I had to reply based on both of your cars - if it was one or the other I could have kept my mouth shut, but not after I read this post. :D

 

You don't need to go into specs on the C 43 - I looked real close at them. I'm currently in a 435i Gran Coupé M Sport and love it but I'm looking at possible replacements and the C 43 was right up there, as was an S5 Sportback or maybe an SQ5. So many good choices. But back to your S2000 - we had one a few years ago, it was one of the most amazing sports cars I'd ever owned. Perfect handling, and a VTEC power hit that felt like an old school turbo...I used to be able to snap 180* turns and drift that car like Michael Schumacher...I miss that car probably more than any other car I've ever owned. They're really special.

 

Sorry...no more car posts, I promise...

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