93EXCivic wrote:
God thinking about it. I have no idea what I would buy in that size class. The Civic sucks, the Corolla is about the same, the Mazda 3 is incredibly stupid looking with the that grinning face. I guess the Focus would be my choice. Or the Forte but I don't know how those drive.
I would take the Forte, closely followed by jamming a railroad spike in my spine so that i'd be homebound for the rest of my life instead of having to drive any of these.
The Forte only wins by the hair on a baby's ass.
IS there anything you like? 
Bobzilla wrote:
IS there anything you like?
Who me? I like boobs, beer and old British cars.
93EXCivic wrote:
Bobzilla wrote:
IS there anything you like?
Who me? I like boobs, beer and old British cars.
There's no helping you.... I was asking Ben there. He constantly complains about how EVERYTHING is boring. I guess if I was used to driving a 250whp deathbox everyday I would find everything "boring" too.
Bobzilla wrote:
IS there anything you like?
New cars? Not many that i can afford, no. 
Good thing i'm poor and can only afford the 80s and 90s E36 M3boxes that i like anyways! 
And you should be happy for me! I picked the Kia over a lifetime of paralysis!
Comparing the Fit to the Cruze is like apples to oranges.
Comparing the Cruze to the Civic would be more like it.
My carpool partner has an '08 Civic LX sedan. It's not the new one, but the new one didn't change all that much. I've spent about 60k miles in it.
I get that it isn't the more appealing car, but it doesn't suck by any means. The seats suck, I'll give you that. I've also never warmed up to the dashboard layout, although the owner likes it. But this car is relatively quite, rides nice, get's a real 40mpg in the warm months on our commute (probably averages around 38mpg), is dead reliable, although it only has 90+k miles on it. It still looks brand new, and all he does is wash it. He has 3 young boys and the interior isn't showing any wear.
I've owned a lot of Hondas, but I'm no fan boy. I wouldn't buy a new Civic, I just think saying it sucks is a bit of an exaggeration.
As far as the Cruze goes, I think I mentioned earlier that my bosses wife has one. I haven't driven it, but I've sat in it and it was pretty nice. And loaded he got it for under $20k.
I think some of us are being a little hard on Honda here, and we should all be glad that regardless of where the Cruze falls in the class, GM cars are getting better quickly (and Fords also). When I've shopped for vehicles, I've always considered domestics, but have for many years ended up buying imports, specifically Hondas. That's because I felt they met my needs and were better cars. I'm now starting to shop for a car again, and am glad that I can finally consider American cars with the knowledge that I may actually buy one. That's a good thing, IMO.
In reply to bravenrace:
There is a massive difference between an 08 Civic and a 12 Civic. One of my friends has a 2010 and a coworker just bought a 12 and I can tell you from first hand experience from both cars that the 12 has taken a huge slide down the scale.
Wow. This thread is something else!
For what it's worth, I did drive the Focus and an Elantra.
The Focus is much harder to heel toe in, probably not quite as flat as the Cruze in corner, steering seemed not quite as linear as the Cruze, but pretty close.
Power goes to the Focus, hands down. I also think the seats in the Focus are much better. Since I'll be doing long drives, this is important.
Elantra was probably a bit behind both the Cruze and Focus in steering feel/handling/power, and had noticeably more noise in the cabin. Nice interior though. I think it probably looks better (in person - pictures not so much) than either of the other two. My two cents anyway.
It's between the Focus and the Cruze at this point (I never did drive the MINI...). I like the cabin layout, gear/wheel/pedal placement of the Cruze, but the power of the Focus and it's better seats have me in a quandary.
I'm going to go drive both again this afternoon and probably bringing one of them home.
Wish me luck!
