My husband and I went to test drive cars for me today. We drove a new Honda Civic and a new Nissan Sentra. The Civic was a nice car, but the styling is just a little too "space age" for me. Both Gimlet and I agreed that we liked the Civic from the steering wheel back, but disliked the front end of the car (picture here). The dash could be in its own zip code, and you can't even see the hood of the car from the drivers seat. Makes parking a bit of a challenge when you can't see where the front of the car stops.
The 2006 Nissan Sentra was almost identical to the Sentra that I currently drive. There were a couple of improvements, but for the most part, it was just a newer, more expensive version of my car.
After exploring new cars, we ventured to Huey's Honda and took a peak at a 2004 Honda Civic (completely different styling from the new ones). I love it. It is black, has just over 24 thousand miles, and could be mine in just a couple days. Here's a picture:
4 comments:
We (well, I) also looked at a Subaru Impreza. Although Froggie really disliked the styling, saying it was far too masculine, I was quite impressed by it. Plenty of power, good road manners, and a nice interior.
The one I took out had a slushbox that I didn't much care for, as it had a tendency to hesitate when accelerating from a stop. I'm guessing that the transmission fluid was spooling up to pressure or some other such nonsense. Nothing that a proper manual transmission couldn't fix.
Now, if only our financial advisor would give the blessing on a WRX...
What I didn't like about the 06 Civic EX was the aggressively raked windshield. The angle resulted in an A-pillar that cuts across a large portion of your view, and also a monumentally deep dash.
I understand that the windshield angle aids in keeping the holy gas mileage high, but it seems a bit silly when you can't even see any piece of the hood of the car. Neither of us felt comfortable parking the car into a parking space, much less one out in front of Bad Bath & Beyond.
But the rest of the interior was very well thought out and the materials seemed very nice. Froggie was particularly impressed that the car had obviously been designed with women in mind. There was a place for her purse, the armrest could be moved up, the seatbelts and steering wheel were adjustable, etc. The car was also noticeably larger than the previous generation, but it did a very good job of hiding that fact.
It drove nicely, like you expect from a Honda. The extra 25 horses or so were welcome, and I didn't notice any torque steer under full throttle. The new five speed automatic seemed to work well, since it didn't do anything untoward to make me notice it.
In all, it was quite a letdown that the front end botched the deal for us. It was obviously a very nicely engineered car that had been slightly overdesigned in response to more "out there" cars, especially the Toyota Prius.
I like the idea of a car a couple of years old. You don't take the big hit on depreciation, it's less expensive, and even insurance is cheaper. Since you're kind of buying a car under pressure, spending less now means that later on you can probably afford to take your time looking for that perfect vehicle.
Be careful, WRX has the same number of letters as BMW!
BAD VIBES, Man, BAD VIBES!
Post a Comment