My Civic hybrid is lit up like a Christmas tree, and based on what I’ve been finding online, it may cost me mucho bucks to have it repaired. Given that it’s a 2003 model, this might be more than it’s worth.
So I’ve been poking around on Edmunds and CR to see what the current crop of cars look like. But at the same time, I’m a bit lost as to where to start narrowing it down further.
Fuel economy is a pretty big deal.
I’m no race car driver but I also want enough juice not to have to sweat when pulling onto the highway or when climbing one of the many many steep hills here.
Safety is nice.
Prefer not to have RWD since that seems to have more issues in the few inches of snow we get.
Trunk space. Must have.
I’m eyeing the Civic LX, but at the same time I wonder what else is out there. Any make/model recommendations?
I drive an '06 Ford Five Hundred and it has an enormous trunk. V6, so good acceleration. CV tranny, which is a matter of personal preference but I really really like. I wouldn’t exactly say it’s fuel economical, it’s not going to be as good as a 4 cylinder obviously. But not as bad as any SUV or truck (or V8). As far as safety features, I think it varies a bit by model. Mine has dual front airbags and the passenger airbag will turn off if it senses a child in the seat (it turns off if I put 15-20 lbs of groceries on the seats). Seems pretty good.
Having owned (well, leased) both a Civic (2006, non hybrid, 2 Door, 5 Speed) and an Insight, I can tell you that the trunk of the Civic is WAAAY bigger then the hatch area of the Insight. The hatch area may be taller and I can probably technically fit more stuff in it since it can overflow into the backseats but a lot of the stuff that I cram in there doesn’t have the ability to do that and I find myself able to cram quite a bit less stuff in the Insight then the Civic. Having said that I do like my Insight and when I need the extra oomph (trying to dart between cars to get from, say, a parking lot onto busy road) I just turn off Eco and/or put in in Sport mode and never have a problem.
I don’t know what the mileage is on the Civic Hybrid you had was, but on the Insight I get 45.9 in summer and 40.6 in winter.
If trunk space is what you’re after, take a look at the VW Jetta, you could fit 6, maybe 7 bodies in there.
Hyundai. Best warranty, economically priced, comparable quality. The Ford Focus is also good.
I prefer small cars but if you want to go larger then the Ford Fusion is very good.
based on your experience, I certainly wouldn’t buy an other Honda. I own two Mazdas, 1991 and 1993. each with >100,000 and < 150,000 miles. I can’t recall doing ANYTHING to them except change the oil every 40,000 miles (Mobil-1) and replace brakes. Oh, and spark plugs and coolant change every 50,000 miles. Tires of course.
The Honda Fit got CU’s number one rating (IMS) with the Hyundai Elantra coming in second. I have the Hyundai and love it, the stripped-down model was quite reasonable.
Ooh, ooh! Let me put a plug in for my much-loved Mazda Protege5. I’ve the 2002 model, it’s since been replaced by the Mazda 3 sport wagon (same car, new name and slightly different styling).
I love my car. It’s true that mine doesn’t have a huge amount of horsepower (120 hp or something like that), but it feels reasonably zippy. I like driving it. Fuel economy is good; I usually get better than 30 MPG. My sister has the 3 wagon (a 2005? I think), and she’s happy with it. Front-wheel drive. Trunk space is nice, and the seats fold down nearly flat to give you more room when needed.
Mazda’s just released a really zippy model, the MadzaSpeed3 Sport (or some such goofy name) with 263 hp and a turbo, and it looks like it’d be super fun. It’s also $24K, so there is that.