Help us decide! Mazda3, Sentra SE-R, Civic Si, for my wife!

[Mikelly]

Bastaad, You're going about this the correct way. My wife didn't get the "car" thing until I bought her the 95 Mustang SVT. Then she got it. She understood the feeling that she got from hearing the flowmasters, shifting the gears and chirping tires. She loved that car. Made her feel like a teenager again!

 

Now, with her 328 BMW, she still feels the peppy feeling of a sporty car, and it's adult enough to fit her 42 years... Even if she still looks 25. But more importantly, she "gets" it. She understands how the right car can make you feel complete, and how it is a reflection of you and your personality. When she had the Mustang, it was a direct reflection of who she wanted to be in her mind at the time... Now the BMW is that as well, for where she is professionally, personally and mentally.

 

It's all in the way you present it... You're going down the right path!

 

Mike

[dr_hunt]

I drove a '05 cobalt the other day for three days, I was impressed! That would be my option.

[BrandonsZ]

Now before I get flamed...

 

If she's anything like my wife:

 

1. she's a chick at heart

2. her friends aren't impressed by American cars (sadly)

3. safety, reliability, and comfort are more of a concern

4. 0-60 7 seconds: enough to get going when they need it, not enough to lose control and hit a pole when they are "driving angry".

5. Front wheel drive: perfect for those who don't know how to drive

6. Pricey, but she'll never forget that you spent 2X on her car then your car.

7. Suddenly, nightly headaches don't bother her anymore.

8. She starts saying, "You're right", more than you thought was possible or necessary.

9. Somehow your socks and underware feel like silk instead of starchy paper bags.

10. Every time she doesn't want to let you do something... you remind her that her car was 2X your car.

 

And many many more...

[savageskaterkid]

I have a toyota, and in the past couple years they have had a few flaws, nothing engine based really, but if you spend money on a nice car, it should run and everything should work the way it was made-i can understand if it was a few years old, but new...... When the van was about a year old we had to replace the power steering becuz of a recall(**** happens with every car) but then the heated seats stopped working, and the tires tend to blowout and wear EXTREMELY fast. And now there is a new problem on the van, it seems as though toyota didn't do a great job on the headlights because if you go into a carwash it is common that the headlights get flooded because the molding wasn't set to well. And our van isnt the only one with these problems, alot of them are quite common.

 

 

I absolutly love the van, and it does look pretty good for a minivan with 17's and a pretty agressive looking front end. And a comfortable interior. And a great sterio setup. They just need to work on some things.

[WickedWild]

I have a toyota' date=' and in the past couple years they have had a few flaws, nothing engine based really, but if you spend money on a nice car, it should run and everything should work the way it was made-i can understand if it was a few years old, but new...... When the van was about a year old we had to replace the power steering becuz of a recall(**** happens with every car) but then the heated seats stopped working, and the tires tend to blowout and wear EXTREMELY fast. And now there is a new problem on the van, it seems as though toyota didn't do a great job on the headlights because if you go into a carwash it is common that the headlights get flooded because the molding wasn't set to well. And our van isnt the only one with these problems, alot of them are quite common.

 

 

I absolutly love the van, and it does look pretty good for a minivan with 17's and a pretty agressive looking front end. And a comfortable interior. And a great sterio setup. They just need to work on some things.[/quote']

Sounds like every minivan on the market.

[Cal Poly Zmanaustin]

 

In order of how common the problems were in the 'sampling' I saw:

Squeaky/noisey brakes

Lots of interior rattles in low about of miles

Ineffective windshield wipers

Bad brake dusting of the rear wheels

Failing fuel pumps

Oil leaks

 

Apparently these cars have quite a few TSB's' date=' and I read three different people comment that when they bought the car the TSB's already known had NOT been done to the car, which IMO (and in the case of my SRT-4 which had one TSB for a ECU reflash) should be taken care of before the car leaves the lot.

 

[/quote']

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I talked to one of my hardcore Mazda buddies about the brake dusting and supposedly that went with the braking performance.

 

The TSB's not taken care of sound like a bad dealer. The dealers get paid warranty for it, you'd think that would be the first they would do when a car is sitting on the lot. Truly disappointing.

 

Happy Hunting! The cars on the market are so good now it's crazy. So many choices.

[Guest bastaad525]

well we've changed and narrowed the search... now it's down between the Civic coupe (not the Si, just regular Civic, I couldn't find ONE dealer who wasn't asking rediculous markups on the Si), and a Scion tC.

 

My wife saw a tC driving by today and asked what it was and I about backhaned her LOL no really though I was like "Damn woman I have recommended that car to you so many times and you always said it was too ugly!!" Of course she didn't believe that was the same car... so we argued and argued LOL but now she likes how they look and wants to test drive one.

 

I told her it performs better and is similarly equipped to the Civic (a little better actually) but is actually a little cheaper. So now it's back to like 50/50 between these two cars.

 

We may still go drive a Sentra but I don't think it's gonna happen... we decide to lower our price cap to $18,000 to keep our payments in the low $300 range.

 

 

 

So what do you guys think now?!

 

Scion tC or Civic coupe?!?!?!?

[JMortensen]

Am I remembering wrong? Aren't you the guy who HATES Hondas with a passion? Aren't you the guy who was talking trade for your Z at one point: "will consider anything but Hondas" rings a bell. I guess times change...

[BrandonsZ]

Scion tC or Civic coupe?!?!?!?

 

HONDA!

 

Sorry, I've just been convinced to go Honda by the gas mileage, and better standard warrenty. And if you go for DX it's 2g cheaper.

 

Here's a piece of advice, make sure your warrenty (not just powertrane) is at least as long as your loan payments.

 

If you get a Scion, gat a "xB" for crying out loud. That's the cool one.

 

Here you go.

 

Civic Coupe LX

Starts at 16,840

weight 2593 / 2655

MPG 30-40

140HP@6300

128TQ@4300

WEIGHT:POWER = 18.5 (SLUG)

0-60 = When it's damn good and ready.

Warrenty = 5yr/60000

http://autos.yahoo.com/newcars/honda_civiccoupe_dx5spdat_2006/18513/style_review_article.html;_ylt=AtX1qavXvh6VXKE5tTRtMQTpFMsF?source=buyersguide

 

 

Scion tC

Starts at 16,840

weight 2905 / 2970

MPG 22-30 Really though 20 more HP for a drop of 10MPG? Get outta here.

160HP@5700

163TQ@4000

WEIGHT:POWER = 18.2 (SLUG)

0-60 = It'll get there, it just doesn't wanna today.

Warrenty = 3/36,000

http://autos.yahoo.com/newcars/scion_tc_sportcoupe_2006/17310/style_review_article.html;_ylt=AtX1qavXvh6VXKE5tTRtMQSbyMgF?source=buyersguide

[Guest bastaad525]

Am I remembering wrong? Aren't you the guy who HATES Hondas with a passion? Aren't you the guy who was talking trade for your Z at one point: "will consider anything but Hondas" rings a bell. I guess times change...

 

eh... look at where I live. In the heart of SoCal, you learn to hate Hondas pretty easily I would never have considered one FOR MYSELF until the Si came out which is the first REAL 'performance bargain' they've sold in a long time. But in the end I still went SRT-4. Now for my wife, I would never have said that. I have always recommended her Toyota first and foremost with Honda a fast second place.

 

But yeah, for me, for a daily driver, I still wouldn't want a honda, and certainly wasn't going to trade my Z for one.

 

BrandonsZ - thanks for that VERY useful comparison. It's so hard to find a tC on a dealer lot anyways (well, with a manual trans, they all have at least one auto but we don't want that), and we dont' feel like waiting the 6-8 weeks time between ordering one and actually getting it.

 

So we are again leaning slightly towards the Civic coupe, and that info you posted added a little more to that lean.

 

EDIT: actually... checked cars.com... did a direct compare between Civic LX and Scion tC... looks like they both have the exact same warranty. They actually compare almost exactly in every thing they listed, funny enough, and base for less than $100 difference in price. And! They are both proving equally hard to come by!!! NO ONE has manual transmissions!!!!!

[Guest bastaad525]

well we did it. After checking a gazillion Scion dealers, NONE of them had the tC we wanted (manual trans in blue or silver with few options), and all were quoting us 6-8 weeks if we ordered one direct from Toyota... which is apparently the way they prefer you do things. Most dealerships had none or only a couple on the lot, which were ones people ordered and backed out of.

 

After reading a ton of back to back reviews as well, we finally decided on the Civic coupe (LX) and went ahead and picked one up.

 

It was stickered at $16,860 and had a dealer installed protection package on it (mudflaps, rubber trunk floor protector) which their price for was $695 ( ). I gave them $16,000 flat, like $500 over invoice before that protection package... so I feel like I got a good deal All the haggling was done over the phone in minutes which is how I like it!

 

Also, apparrently this combo is rare as well! We HAD to have it with a 5spd manual, and NOT ONE OTHER HONDA DEALERSHIP IN THE VALLEY HAD THIS!!!

 

So she's very happy, I'm happy... though I will lament we couldn't get a second 'fun car' for me to drive as well every so often. And gawd... this car has NO torque... I remember why I personally never really liked hondas!!! But 140 hp and 128ftlbs, very close to the numbers my SR20 '94 Sentra SE-R was rated at, and at 2600 lbs (maybe 200 more than the Sentra) it should feel at least a little peppy. Won't really get to find out until we get the 600 break in miles

 

One thing I'm confused on... it's a SOHC i-VTEC... which... I dont really understand fully how VTEC works, but I thought VTEC ONLY worked with dual cams??

 

Other thing is... I wonder when the VTEC kicks in? I took it up to 4000rpm and that was it but never felt that 'legendary' switch over. I didn't figure I would... but this one redlines at just below 7000 so Vtec can't kick in THAT high... maybe 5000rpm??

 

Anyways... so yeah... there ya go. Thanks for all the advice guys :thumbsup this way she gets the 'good' looks she wants (she does REALLY like it), with some decent performance and GREAT MPG's and Honda reliability.

 

I'll get around to some upgrades on it at some point as well :twisted:

[Thumper]

Congrats on the new car. What color is it? Vtec can work on either a sohc or dohc head. Imagine your l28 cam. It has 12 cam lobes 6 for intake 6 for exhaust. Now since the honda is a 4 cyl it should have 8 lobes, but it doesn't. What it does have is 16 lobes. 2 lobes for each lifter so 2 lobes for no.1 cyl intake valve, 2 lobes for no.1 cyl exhaust valve, etc... At a certain rpm a hydraulic solenoid pushes the cam sideways switching it to the different cam lobes. So between 0-4500rpms it has a mild good gas mileage cam, but at 4500rpms it switches to a different set of lobes so in essence it switches to a new top-end power cam. So its like having two sets of cams in the same car. On other vtec cars the vtec doesn't switch intill closer to 5krpms.

 

My fav site. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question229.htm

[Guest bastaad525]

Congrats on the new car. What color is it? Vtec can work on either a sohc or dohc head. Imagine your l28 cam. It has 12 cam lobes 6 for intake 6 for exhaust. Now since the honda is a 4 cyl it should have 8 lobes' date=' but it doesn't. What it does have is 16 lobes. 2 lobes for each lifter so 2 lobes for no.1 cyl intake valve, 2 lobes for no.1 cyl exhaust valve, etc... At a certain rpm a hydraulic solenoid pushes the cam sideways switching it to the different cam lobes. So between 0-4500rpms it has a mild good gas mileage cam, but at 4500rpms it switches to a different set of lobes so in essence it switches to a new top-end power cam. So its like having two sets of cams in the same car. On other vtec cars the vtec doesn't switch intill closer to 5krpms.

 

My fav site. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question229.htm

 

Thanks for that explanation... can't wait til it's broken in to get on it. I wonder if I'll actually feel the switchover? The car feels pretty capable otherwise... a bit too softly sprung and damped for me, but other than the body roll it seems to take the turns nicely and was actually starting to feel peppy on the way home this morning. It's doing that same 'radial tire pull' thing my SRT was doing at first... drifts slightly one way when just cruising or coasting, but get on the gas and it will start to veer the other way. They took care of that on the SRT with a simple tire rotation on one side. Luckily, when I re-rotated the tires again at the 6000mi mark, the problem did not return... so I expect the next stop for the Honda after the body shop will be the dealership.

 

Anyways, the color of the car is Atomic Blue, which is a really nice medium shade of metallic blue. And, in the same vein of people breaking wine bottles against ships to christen them, I gave my wifes car a nice christening of it's own... rubbed it right up against the wall on my first attempt to park it in our apartment buildings far-too-small of a spot :evil: :evil: . It wasn't that bad, barely deformed the metal, mostly just scraped the paint... oddly, my wife was less pissed than I was about it... well she wasn't at all but I was furious. Anyways she has a family friend who owns a body shop and he's gonna fix it for $350. That f'in paintjob better be FLAW LESS!! So we pick it back up (he says) by like Tuesday.

 

In the meantime... my wife couldn't even have driven the thing yet anyways, though I've given her quite a bit of practice in my SRT (yikes!) and she was pretty good at getting it moving and not stalling, and shifting and all that... she could NOT get this Honda moving. I attribute it to the extreme lack of torque, a very light clutch pedal and take up, and her letting the clutch out too fast. After like 30 tries she FINALLY started getting it but our time was up so we had to quit. So she wouldn't be driving the car to work tonight anyways.

[Guest bastaad525]

Just thought I'd give a small update... having had the Civic for a couple weeks now and gotten in it's break-in miles... we both agree it is a really nice car, especially for the money paid ($16,000). It rides nice, if a bit too soft for my taste, but passed the 'curvy mountain road' test nicely . It's a great looking car from almost all angles in our oppinion.... and I must say, magazine pics don't do it justice as I only really liked it once I saw it in person. Only problem is we need to ditch the steelies and hubcaps for some real wheels (I couldn't justify spending an extra $1500 for the next trim level up which only added alloys and a sunroof which she'd never use).

 

It's actually peppier than I first gave it credit for.... keep it in a low gear and high rpm and it moves out decently... passing annoying SUV's was not a struggle at all on street or freeway. Still feels relatively torqueless but I guess it's so light that torque just isn't that necessary. I say it definately feels as quick as the '91 Sentra SE-R I recently sold, though that car felt much punchy because of it's ultra short gearing (4000 rpm in 5th at 75mph!!). The SE-R definately SOUNDED faster though... you can tell Honda is going for civility with their normal exhaust.

 

Overall... we're both very satisfied with the car and the great deal we got on it. Having just passed 600 miles, the engine barely even loosened up, and with the car putting up with my wife learning to drive stick, she still managed 32 mpg's can't argue with that.... my SE-R with roughly the same HP and performance only ever averaged 24.

 

Anyways, we both give it a 9 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone in the market for a sporty looking, decent performance and handling, very cheap yet well equipped car (LX model is what we got, pretty much loaded minus the alloys and sunroof).