What car?: Wife's daily driver edition

In reply to Nick_Comstock:

Her current car being a first gen Mazda 6

What kind of back seat room do you need? An accord coupe could be worth a look.

neon4891 wrote: What kind of back seat room do you need? An accord coupe could be worth a look.

Back seat will only be occasional use, so a coupe is doable, but less practical than a sedan. I like the way the Accord Coupe looks(I considered a "Jack Baruth special" when car shopping for myself last year), and I think she does, too, but the Accord has gotten a little big lately. Being that its a Honda, though, it may be worth hopping into if she makes it to the dealership before making a decision.

With regard to the Elantra, I suspect the current one is just as fast as a 1st gen 6. I think seats are one of those things that people have to try out on their own and see what they like (or are willing to accept). She's been in a Sonata recently, and I've been in an Accent and Rio, and they all have pretty hard seats compared to what I am used to. I think I could deal, but its going to be her car, so she needs to be comfortable. Seats are one of the things that actually sold us on the Mazda6 over a Fusion, even though the Ford would have cost less. She's one of those people that actually sits up straight, so the newer whiplash standards have made it harder for her to find a comfortable car. Many times, her head will hit the headrest while there's still several inches of space between her back and the backrest of the seat.

Don't worry too much about the size, the coupe is smaller than the sedan. My wife has a '03 coupe(1st year 7th gen) and I have an '09 Civic sedan(8th gen) and my civic has a longer wheel base and more room in the back aside from width.

I would suggest to skip the Honda(s). Everybody and their sister owns one, and the handling will be average. The Mazda 3 should be at the top of her list, and the Golf GTI should be an underdog to check out also. I also suggest to look at both of these cars that are two years old to save a few thousand $$$.

Volt?

I second the Mazda 3 or 6. If you want too have something you can enjoy too, buy the Mazdaspeed 3.....but it would have to be used unless you want to wait until the 2017 models come out.

Nick_Comstock wrote: In reply to z31maniac: Having reading comprehension problems today? I said it will NOT be more powerful than her current car but would get better mpgs. I stand by that.

Look, I get on the Internet it's hard to admit when you're wrong.

The best Elantra is rated at 38mpg on the highway, the best Mazda 6 is rated at 40mpg on the highway.

So you stand by whatever you want, that's fine, the Mazda 6, is larger, nicer, more powerful, and returns the same (in lower trims) or higher MPGs.

Enjoy your weekend.

He doesn't say in the OP what year the current 6 they are thinking of replacing is, or what engine it has. But according to this http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymake/Mazda2004.shtml The Elantra will trounce it no matter what. I was making the comparison to the car they are looking to replace, NOT the current 6.

My comment may have came out a little snarky but it wasn't meant that way I forgot the I guess.

Okay, I'm back from my trip, and my wife has done some test driving in my absence, and we went to the VW dealer and Honda dealer yesterday for some more test drives.

At this point, it looks down to the VW GTI vs the Acura ILX, both the base models. A Jetta SE is a distant third. At this point, she trying to decide between the greater fun of the GTI, and the likely higher reliability of the ILX. The Acura dealer is also near her office, so would be easier to deal with getting it serviced.

Sounds like an easy choice to me. VAG reliability would probably keep me from letting my wife drive any of their products.

Yeah, but Acura/Honda does not exactly have a great repuation with automatic transmissions(at least on higher powered cars), and the 8 speed DCT is fairly new.

Plus, no way, I'm telling her she can't have a car, especially when she's the one paying for it

And even though she originally wasn't a hatchback person, the GTI won out. She put a deposit on a Tornado Red GTI 4 door DSG model, should be there within the next few days.

She liked the Jetta GLI, too, but decided it was too close to being mid sized, and didn't like the bigger turning radius, which was one of her few complaints about the 6.