Personally I think this is a really interesting discussion. I am an engineer at Honda R&D near Columbus, OH. At my location, there are over a thousand white collar workers, mostly technical. Within a hundred mile radius of me, there are a 4 Honda assembly plants, employing around 10,000 people. At other sites in the US and Canada, there are probably another 15,000 workers. Each of these plants is turning out thousands of new Hondas per day. Nearly every Honda/Acura sold in the US (by volume) is made in the US. The engines, transmissions, every major component. Furthermore, Honda actually *exports* cars from the US, something that the Big 3 can barely talk about. Sure, there are niche cars like the S2000 roadster that are 100% Japanese, but that is a tiny part of our market. I think these are pretty impressive numbers, especially if you consider that Honda is only something like the 7th largest market share in the US. Its been here since 1979, I'd wager that in those 27 years Honda has contributed significantly to Americans and their way of life. There are a lot of secure $25/hr plus full benefits jobs available in Ohio because of Honda. The US auto industry lost their way in the oil crises. They haven't been able to turn it around since then. They concentrate too much on short-sighted markets like giant fuel-guzzling SUVs. Its not that the Big 3 makes bad cars, its that they make cars that aren't in demand. Compare a Focus to a Civic. A Taurus to an Accord. Sure, those Fords might last 200k miles, but I'd much rather spend that time in a nice Accord than a hard plastic Taurus. I would rather support the thousands of American workers who build Hondas than support a few suits in Detroit and drive a Mexican Dodge. That said, my garage: 1980 Lawn Boy 7229 1996 Stihl trimmer 1997 Honda Accord (shocking, right?) 2002 Triumph Speed Triple (mc) 1976 Honda CB400F (mc) 1976 Suzuki GT550 2-stroke (mc) 1948 Johnson Sea Horse (outboard) 1949 Evinrude Zephyr (outboard)

Steve, Tech specs and color choices aside, which would you advise is the better stove? Which gets more service calls? Which has service calls or parts replacements rectified more quickly? What sort of feed back have you received from your customers? Have you run them through their courses to gather empirical information to help the consumer on a level other than burner count, slight BTU delta's and the aesthetics of the knobs? For the record I do understand what you trying to accomplish with your bake off. However, to show real value add in a head to head you do need to stand down from the fence and demonstrate "in the field" benefits and one of them will stand above the other. Again, I hark back to a car analogy, I'm a car guy too :-). If you read a review on a BMW 335i stacked up against a Buick Roadmaster (I get that is not period correct, but hear me out) you will see where I come from in my skepticism of your head to head. The Buick has a 5.7L engine vs. 3.0L in the 335i, point Buick. The Buick had a faux wood-paneling option vs just the monotone color of the 335i, point Buick. The Buick has more cargo capacity that a 335i, point Buick. The Buick has four doors, as does the BMW, draw. Looking at 0-60 times, the BMW takes a point. Interior quality, beige 3M cotton and plastic in the Buick, Premium leathers and real wood, point BMW. No discussion of customer satisfaction, number of times the cars are taken to the shop for repair, cost of repairs, road acoustics, fuel efficiency, crash test safety....etc. This test shows that it is a draw. A BMW 335i is equivalent to a Buick Roadmaster*..................anyone buy this? *Buick is no longer in business.

Thanks for all the feedback. Somehow I'm not surprised that it's a NYC and surrounding-areas thing. From what our attorney explained yesterday and what I got from my other real-estate forum, the NYC-area 'tip' is a result of two things. One, the title company rep is paid some nominal fee per closing and doesn't receive directly any percentage of the money we paid for our title insurance and title search. Two, the tip is a throwback to an earlier era when notaries were not allowed to charge for their services, and you tipped the title rep as appreciation for his/her attendance at the closing and the notary services provided. To his credit, our title company rep was 100% on the ball. The seller's attorney was an elderly gentleman who's semi-retired and handled the closing as a courtesy to his long-time clients; he was not on the ball at all. The title guy was on his cell phone from the moment he walked in, having things emailed and faxed and covering up for the seller's attorney's incompetence. Both my husband (who's an attorney himself) and our attorney privately agreed that the closing would have been postponed for a day or two without the title rep's willingness to work and find creative solutions to deal with seller's attorney's mistakes and oversights. So yeah, we tipped in the end. Our attorney said "optional but, for the job this guy did, reward him" and we did.

Dawnidea, I'd love to hear what your husband knows about changes to Audi - is it the 2016's? or the 2017's? I don't know if I can tolerate this car for another year. 1929Spanish, my old BMW was a 2003 with 178k miles on it- I loved that car more than any I'd ever owned (well, except maybe my 1967 GTO that I owned in my 20's). It was still going strong, but I haul my grandson a lot and didn't want to risk being stranded someplace with him, if it did break down - it was just getting up there in miles and too risky. I am not a regretful person, but I regretted getting the new one almost immediately. I sold my old one to my handyman; I almost offered to trade him the new one to get my old one back! Cyn, I'm glad to hear you love your Audi. I had a 1973 Audi 100LS that I loved, back in the 1970's, then two different model VW's that I loved when they were made in Germany, but I quit VW when they started being made in Mexico, because my last one was not reliable. All my cars have had 150K + miles, so leasing is a new thought for me. You all have helped me. Thanks!