Another test drive...
Mar. 4th, 2006 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseRemember how I gave the Focus a four out of five after test-driving it last week?
I test drove a new Civic today. It gets a six.
Not only is it much, much nicer in terms of materials quality, but it quite honestly feels like a luxury car. The seats are soft, the interior has quite a bit of storage space (I was particularly impressed by the center-armrest-console - it had a cavernous interior that's a great size for an ice pack and some water bottles), there's minimal road noise even on the highway, and the acceleration system is awesome. Once you're up to cruising speed you barely have to press the gas pedal at all - more than once I found myself going 65 to 70 mph by accident. About the only thing in the Focus that was nicer was the suspension - the model of Civic that I test-drove had a somewhat sportier suspension, so the ride wasn't quite as smooth.
I can see why Ford's offered (and extended!) a $2500 rebate on Focii - theoretically, the Civic was the same price as an equally equipped Focus, but it offered so much more for the money. A decked-out Focus is a perfectly decent buy for $17,000 or so, but for $19,500 either way I'd pick the Civic without missing a beat.
I'm still not going to be buying a new car anytime soon (on my current budget I just can't justify tying up that big of a percentage of my income), but it might well be worth saving for a year or two for a Civic.
On the other hand, there's a 2004 Mazda3 hatchback sitting on the Evergreen Motors trade-in lot that's apparently been there a while...and Mazda3s are supposed to be even nicer than Civics (though this one's probably from the last generation). Not to mention that, being a couple years old, it's already past the steepest section of the price depreciation curve. I might have to test-drive that one tomorrow or next week...
I test drove a new Civic today. It gets a six.
Not only is it much, much nicer in terms of materials quality, but it quite honestly feels like a luxury car. The seats are soft, the interior has quite a bit of storage space (I was particularly impressed by the center-armrest-console - it had a cavernous interior that's a great size for an ice pack and some water bottles), there's minimal road noise even on the highway, and the acceleration system is awesome. Once you're up to cruising speed you barely have to press the gas pedal at all - more than once I found myself going 65 to 70 mph by accident. About the only thing in the Focus that was nicer was the suspension - the model of Civic that I test-drove had a somewhat sportier suspension, so the ride wasn't quite as smooth.
I can see why Ford's offered (and extended!) a $2500 rebate on Focii - theoretically, the Civic was the same price as an equally equipped Focus, but it offered so much more for the money. A decked-out Focus is a perfectly decent buy for $17,000 or so, but for $19,500 either way I'd pick the Civic without missing a beat.
I'm still not going to be buying a new car anytime soon (on my current budget I just can't justify tying up that big of a percentage of my income), but it might well be worth saving for a year or two for a Civic.
On the other hand, there's a 2004 Mazda3 hatchback sitting on the Evergreen Motors trade-in lot that's apparently been there a while...and Mazda3s are supposed to be even nicer than Civics (though this one's probably from the last generation). Not to mention that, being a couple years old, it's already past the steepest section of the price depreciation curve. I might have to test-drive that one tomorrow or next week...
