2005 Hyundai Elantra vs a 2005 Honda Civic

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

It seems like you're looking for a reason not to get a Civic. Check out a Subaru Impreza.

[West]

Just to clarify, I basically was down to a Civic or a Mazda3i, which I am planning to go drive this weekend. Although with what I want to spend, if I want to get the Mazda, it will be a pretty bare bones version.

Today someone mentioned the Elantra to me, starting by pointing out that I could get power everything for significantly less money. The reviews on it seems to say that it basically is giving you a comparable car for significantly less money. Of course the question then is reliability. It's nice though that they offer such great standard warranties.

Reading some consumer reviews, it seemed like most people thought the car was a complete steal at the price, but there were the odd review here and there of somebody who had problems.

The hatchback option has me kind of curious. Outside of the reliability question, the one thing I read in a review that I particularly didn't like was that to get the power out of the engine, it needed to rev high, which they said meant that drivers with an automatic might be wondering where the power was, and drivers with a stick would need to get used to shifting at high rpms to take advantage of the engine. I was looking at switching to an automatic, so I don't want to hear that the best bet is to stay with a stick, and that I'll have to get used to driving differenty if I do.

Obviously I really just need to go test drive everything, but was trying to figure out if it was worth my time to seriously consider an Elantra. Still not sure.

[West]

[ QUOTE ]
the one thing I read in a review that I particularly didn't like was that to get the power out of the engine, it needed to rev high, which they said meant that drivers with an automatic might be wondering where the power was, and drivers with a stick would need to get used to shifting at high rpms to take advantage of the engine. I was looking at switching to an automatic, so I don't want to hear that the best bet is to stay with a stick, and that I'll have to get used to driving differenty if I do.


[/ QUOTE ]

Acutally just read essentially the same thing about the lower end Civics, except that it less power to begin with.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
Just to clarify, I basically was down to a Civic or a Mazda3i, which I am planning to go drive this weekend. Although with what I want to spend, if I want to get the Mazda, it will be a pretty bare bones version.

[/ QUOTE ]
The Mazda3 is a good car too. I've got the last production year (2003.5) of Protege5, which is what the hatchback 3 replaced. It's a great little car and at the time I bought it (January 2003), it was easily the best car in the market for the price (mid teens). It excells in handling, but it's a bit underpowered. A lot of people say they prefer the Protege5 to the 3, but the 3 does have a few more interior bells & whistles and a bit bigger engine (I think that's an option, though). They're good cars. If you can go a little higher in price, then I'd check out the Impreza, but I guess maybe you can't if you can only get the barebones 3. Whichever it is, if it were me, I'be choosing between a 3, an Impreza, or a Civic.

[West]

Yeah, the Impreza's a bit out of my range. Looks like it's gonna be a Civic or the 3. Thanks for the advice.