General Comments:
Shocked! I bought this car as a commuter to avoid racking up miles and a gas bill on the big Dodge. The thing is surprisingly quiet on the freeway -If a little darty. It whirls around parking areas like a squirrel. Still amazed at how much room inside there is. This car will honestly fit four normal sized adults (but not their luggage). It's all interior room with a tiny portion hacked out for an engine, which is not the picture of refinement, but is spunky enough to get the job done. The manual trans is average. The ride is again, surprisingly refined and the overall styling, upmarket for the hatchback. The brakes are strong and really yank this little commuter down from speeds quick. Kinda shocking the first time I had to get on them hard. Was worried about getting rear-ended! Gas mileage is as advertised and that's good. Sure feels good to drive away from the gas station without the big Dodge frown. For the money I paid for this car (not much), I'm genuinely impressed.
Surprising feature 1: Dash is fun to look at.
Surprising feature 2: tilt steering
Surprising feature 3: power steering (a car this light and inexpensive could have easily cheaped out on that one)
Surprising feature 4: Fold down and flip forward rear seats, though the retaining strap is just plain funny (in a bad way)
Surprising feature 5: Cup holders and storage bins abound. Good stuff.
All smiles.
24th Mar 2005, 09:59
I do not think that Honda is the leader in small cars anylonger. There are so many great small cars that have nearly the same build quality, more power, more standard options and better warranty for thousands less. Example, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra and mazda3. A base civic starts at about 13K and comes loaded with... seats and a steering wheel. A new elantra comes with a/c, cruise power everything, tach front and side airbags and, oh yeah, 140 hp versus the civic 115hp and you can get this for about 11k with a manual. I know a couple people who bought these Hyundais and after driving them and my girlfriends tinny civic, hands down, honda is way to outdated and overpriced. Most people never look at reliability reports or read car magazines to determine which cars to look at, they just buy Toyota and Honda because everyone else drives them so they must be good.