The next car I buy will likely not be sensible, but my wife is in dire need of new wheels.
She currently has the misfortune to drive a PT Cruiser. She wants something similar, but less sucky. So, the requirements are
[ul]
[li]four doors[/li][li]a little bit of get up and go, but not too much[/li][li]better gas mileage than she’s getting now (17MPG!!)[/li][li]high ride hide[/li][li]decent amount of luggage space[/li][li]quirky styling[/li][li]price range $25,000 would be nice[/li][/ul]
Our top pick so far has been the Nissan Juke. Is there any better out there?
If she wants to have a lot of fun, the GTI model (the 2.0 liter Turbo engine in the GTI also gets marginally better mileage than the five cylinder 2.5 in the regular Golf)
I love my Chevy Sonic. I got the “base” (el cheapo) sedan model with stick and am currently getting about 39 combined MPG (rated at 29). You can get the turbo on the highest model (LX or whatever) and that’s rated at 40 combined MPG.
Does “ride height” mean ground clearance or high seating position?
If the latter, the Honda Fit fits the bill, xcept maybe the “quirky styling” part. (And depending on how much “get up and go” you really want - it accelerates better than a Yaris, but not by a lot.) I love mine - it’s simple, practical, compact, has a lot of interior room, fuel-efficient (somewhere around 36 mpg average - though the onboard display says 43 mpg right now), and has been perfectly reliable.
If you need ground clearance though, this is probably not the best choice. I sometimes still scrape the front end while driving out of the driveway.
Nissan Cube and Scion xD may be worth looking into. And perhaps the Prius-C as well.
Honda Civic. A nicely optioned one can be had for well under $25,000, and it gets 40 MPG. I don’t think it meets the ride height criteria, but generally the higher the ride height the bigger the vehicle and the mileage is worse.
Small hatchbacks tend to have high seat height (compared to sedans) and still get good mileage. The Honda Fit has noticeably higher seating position than the Civic, for example.
Scion xB. It’s small on the outside, and big on the inside. My wife is 5’4", and I’m 6’4", and it is comfortable for both of us, Heck, I can drive in a fedora! It has terrific luggage space.
Quirky? This is the car that looked like a toaster the first year. Later, it got a bit more rounded.
