I’m about 6 feet even and have plenty of headroom. My cousin’s friend is about 6’5", rode in the backseat, and was amazed to find he had decent head and legroom.
The only horror stories I’ve heard have been about the Toyota dealerships, but the ones I went/go to were great, especially compared with some of the others.
My vote would be for Mazda or Saturn. I have owned both, as have friends and relatives. I have yet to hear a horror story about either one of these makes.
I had a '95 Saturn SC2, and I’m not at all surprised by the quote from the new Ion review. That Saturn wasn’t a bad car–it was fast, efficient, very quiet, and handled great–but it felt as cheap and flimsy as a toy from the dollar store. The interior was shoddy and poorly fit, and the trunk latch bent out of shape at least twice, making it difficult to close the trunk. My Corolla feels like a tank in comparison.
A friend of mine used to have a Saturn and hated it. He loved the sales staff because they were always so nice and would do whatever her asked them for the car, but he said it was in the shop constantly. HE finally got rid of it.
Consumer reports does not rate Saturns very highly. A few of them are on there "Used cars to avoid." None of them compare favorably to the Civic/Corolla/Mazda group, which are consistently the highest rated small cars.
I looked into the Sentra, but I seem to remember avoiding it because it costs almost the same as a Civic or Corolla and they tend to run into problems with the brakes after a few years.My uncle had a couple Saturns. He loved them when they were running and hated them when they were in the shop. The body panels were apparently a bitchandahalf (costwise) to replace/fix when something went wrong with them.
My vote is for a Honda Civic. Just because I have one.
It cost me under 13 000 at a dealer getting rid of the 99 model to make room for the coming 2000. Never had a problem with it and it runs great on gaz.
The only thing is that I wish it had a bit more power, but I have the lowest engine. I heard great things on the now new Civics too.
I have a 2000 Saturn SL1 and I get 33 mpg around town. The computer is obviously set up for gas mileage. It is very aggressive off the line and gets wimpy as you rev it up. Stainless steel exhaust, steel timing chain, and doors that won’t dent. Very smooth transmission that seems to shift when I want it. The seats are more comfortable than a Civic but the suspension is stiffer.
Haven’t had to fix anything yet so I can’t comment on repairs. I like to work on my own cars and I’ve found no single car maker is ideal. Each car line has it’s weak points.
The other thing I like about my Civic is the back seats can be brought forward to give you more trunk room if you need to haul big objects. Well, at least big flat objects. This has come in handy on more than one occasion.
My Saturn does that too. Very handy for hauling long stuff. I suspect most compacts do that no. Don’t know.
I’m quite fussy about cars. My last one was a Lincoln Mk VIII. I’ve generally tried to buy Detroit, preached the gospel of the V8, etc. Guess what? I test-drove a 2004 Hyundai Sonata and absolutely love it. It’s a smoother drive than my wife’s Continental. It has the bells and whistles that I want. I’m 6’ 2" and have ample headroom. I can even sit in the back without the front passenger having to pull their seat forward until their nose touches the windscreen. It takes Regular gas and the mileage seems fine. I’m a convert. Regularly priced within your budget, you’ll also enjoy a 10-year warranty (very nice to have). At about the same time I bought it, my brother-in-law bought an Infiniti G35 for about $30K more. His wife says she thinks the Sonata is the more comfortable. Heh. I’ve got nothing against Hondas or Toyotas, but at least test-drive the Sonata.
That doesn’t make any sense. C/D gave the car a BAD review. BAD, not good. They took one of their advertisers and pasted them good.
If you think that Car and Driver doesn’t have an independent mindset, you haven’t actually read the reviews. Someone always comes in last in their comparisons, and they’re very frank about why. This Ion review proves the point even more.
Oh, and let’s not act like Consumer Reports is written by automotive journalists with decades of experience in reviewing cars month in and month out, or like it has a former Indy car driver on the editorial staff. C/D does, both.
Well, my wife and I went out with a buddy of mine to test drive some cars.
We test drove a Nissan Sentra which was nice. We can get a base model with ABS for a little under $14,000. It was what we expected. It was a bit bigger than the 94 my wife had and it had a bit more power. The handling was predictable and it felt generally OK.
We drove a Corolla which was generally nice. It feels more solid than the Sentra which isn’t surprising since it will cost us about $3000 more. I liked the way it handled but I’m not sure that I like it $3000 more than the Sentra. Nice car overall. I noticed that the dealer took us for a test drive in the most loaded version of the car he could find.
We went to the Hyundai dealer kind of on a lark. We weren’t really giving them much consideration, but I wound up being impressed in spite of myself. For about the same price as the Corolla, you can get an Elantra that is pretty loaded with leather seats, a pretty nice stereo and a couple of other features. It drove very nicely, but I wasn’t able to take it on the highway and see how it felt on the highway.
The one car that we tried that was a bit out of what we planned to spend and what we were planning on was the Honda Element. We took one for a drive and it was pretty nice. It gets achieves good fuel economy, has a lot of room, and we both found it generally attractive. We would really only consider a base model, but it may skew our calculations slightly.
I’d like to thank all of you, and keep mentioning cars in that price range since the more opinions and information we have, the better it will be.
Thanks.
I’ve got a '97 Sentra GXE, which I bought new for 12K after some pretty hardcore comparison shopping. I love my Sentra! I picked it after test-driving one by renting it for a vacation in California in which I put 1100 miles on one, everywhere from sea level SF to Yosemite. I find the interior much more comfortable than the Corolla or the Civic (my mom’s got a Civic, and she used to have a Corolla). Comparable models of the Corolla or Civic tend to cost a bit more, at least after you factor in what you cen get by negotiating. The sticker price of the Sentra has remained about the same since 1997, so you should be able to get a similar deal.
I haven’t put a lot of mileage on mine (less than 40k so far), so I can’t tell you how well the brakes will hold up over time (although most of my driving is in the city). But I haven’t spent a cent in mechanical maintenance so far beyond routine things like oil.
It is true that Consumer Reports tends to focus more on the car’s performance over time, how reliable they tend to be, what you get for the price, mileage, minor defects, crash tests, etc. rather than the actual performance of the car out on the road. If you’re more interested in how a car handles, how it performs on the open road, how it accelerates, how it feels to drive, etc., you are better off reading Car and Driver or one of the other Car Mags that probably have more experienced drivers and know cars better. If you are more interested in a car that is reliable and want to know if it will last for many, many miles without too many problems and causing you too much heartache, Consumer Reports is probably the better and less biased source.
I just mentioned my Civic with the fold down seats because I know my wife's Corolla, which is the older model, does not do that. Not sure if they do on the redesign.
No way I could get by the Honda Element's or the Echo's hideous looks. The Honda Element looks like a box on wheels. Doesn't mean they aren't good cars, thoughToyota Corolla, 2003 LE, $300/mo for 4 years if you stand your ground and go in armed. I really like mine.
Vlad/Igor
I adore my Toyota Echo. In fact, I like it more than anyone I have ever dated, which might say more about my dating experience than my car-buying experience.
I don’t think it’s ugly. Sure, it’s a little funny-looking, but I think it’s kind of cute. But it’s insanely gas-efficient, reasonably priced, comfortable to drive and (imho) well-designed, and roomier than it looks.
It has all the Big Things I wanted when I was shopping, and some Little Things that I appreciate. Lots of nooks and crannies for CDs. Two gloveboxes. Fold-down backseats so I can transport biggish things. That funny, center-mounted dashboard which means my view isn’t blocked by the steering wheel. Enough headroom for my tall friends. And distinctive-looking enough that I never ever lose it in a parking lot.
Suppose you may want to read this again. I love my VW Jetta TDI because:
It gets 50 MPG while still having lots of power
It has a stylish exterior and interior
The handling is firm and reminds you of a more expensive car
It just feels SOLID. I don’t know why but it feels like something more substantial than it costs
and it just feels good to drive. Its a very fun car. I never had any problems either. I’ve just had it regularly maintained and there was never a problem.
Plus with a Diesel engine, it doesn’t even break in until you get it to 30k miles, so it will last forever.
My two cents - start adding up the options on the Echo (four doors, AC, etc) and you may find that you’re paying as much for what are standard features on the Corolla. A plus for all the Toyotas in this range is ultra-low emissions.
Mrs. C and I had to replace our two beaters, and a wagon seemed about right - also appears to be rather trendy with the young people. For a bit more than the slick Protege, the Mazda Protege5 gave a good mix of utility, performance and efficiency for your (these days) ~$14k at the dealer. I believe they’re now marketed as the Mazda3 hatchback. Big plus with the P5 - incredible handling, quite sporty (zoom-zoom, etc).
Same year we also got a Corolla wagon, the Matrix, also for a grand or so more than the straight Corolla. Not as impressive as the less expensive Mazda, just really seems like a cheaper car. Ultra-low emissions though, vs the P5s mere very-low emissions. Also, lots of “utility” doo-dads in the back that we’ve never actually had to use. One big plus is the dual 12V plugs and the two-prong 115V plug, which we do use. If you’re seriously considering the Corolla Matrix, take a look at the base model Pontiac Vibe - identical car, but with standard roof rack and the GM dealer may give you a better deal.
Good luck!
You might be onto something. the MSRP of a new 4 door AT Corolla is $14,885 and the MSRP on an AT 4 door Echo is $12,090. You’d also need the upgrade package to get AC with an Echo. But its still a 2k savings or so.
However, i was checking Echos on autotrader yesterday and even slightly used ones go for around $11k, so dealers are charging more for a used one than they should charge for a new one.
Yeah, slightly used Hondas and Toyotas don’t go for much less than new ones. I looked into buying a used one with 20-30K miles and you just don’t save enough from a new one to make it worthwhile. They depreciate very slowly over the first few years because people know that a few miles on them doesn’t mean much, they still have many left…