Getting hit, auto version...

[stiles]

Since we're on the subject of getting hit...

So, a thoughtful van driver totaled my car for me on Valentine's day by making a no-signal, no-warning illegal right turn from the center lane of a main street in Philly. I'm fine, BTW.

Ended up t-boning him into the cargo door and getting pushed up onto the sidewalk. Wrecked my loaded, mint-condition, low mileage (80k miles), garaged since new, one owner 1994 Maxima, which I had just spent the last two months going over with a fine tooth comb and getting everything working perfectly. Battery, hood lifts, climate control head rebuild, fuel filter, window regulator, new stereo, had some door dings taken out, the works. It was a jet-black all original survivor that drove like new and I'm soooo pissed. I've been doing the maintenance work on this car since 1997...

On the upside, I took a lot of pictures and made sure the cop understood exactly what happened, the other driver admitted he didn't see me and made the illegal turn, and lo and behold, the officer actually noted that in the police report like I asked him to. Miracles do happen. Rarely.

On the downside, the driver fled the country the next day, returning to asia, and never spoke to his insurance company ever again AFAIK. Since I only had liability on my car, his insurance company wouldn't accept liability for the accident until they spoke to him, which never happened. I had to track down a copy of the police report myself, weeks later and at my cost, in order to get them to admit liability and pay me. Which they have now done, fully a month and a half after my car got totaled.

Did I mention this happened a mere 3 days after I got the car back from the bodyshop, after finally finishing the last repairs from the driver who hit it while it was parked after she fell asleep at the wheel one morning at 10am? No?

Yep.

So now it's time to buy a new car.

I want a fuel efficient hatchback that's totally reliable and at least some fun to drive, good handling, lots of cargo space, stupid cheap to run and easy to park. Rented a new Focus hatchback, nice styling, great driving dynamics and handling for the price, good power and reasonably quiet inside but interior plastic trim does not bode well for long term quality, first year of a redesigned model is always questionable, depreciation will likely be steep and consumer reports says first year reliability has been remarkably bad. Pass.

Next was a Focus ST, the turbo engined hot rod. Much faster, better brakes, obnoxious exterior colors and scoops n wings. Expensive to insure (surprise), worse mileage, major axle tramp and torque steer in first gear. Awful "My ford touch" telemetrics. I think the fun would wear off quickly. Pass.

Next was a Chevy Sonic RS with the 1.4 turbo motor and the 6 speed stick. Remarkably refined, quiet and civilized for a subcompact box. Very nice real leather sport seats, a first for it's class. Surprisingly good handling and good brakes. good telemetrics through a big touchscreen radio. Felt slow in spite of the turbo motor and the shorter gearing that knocked mileage down by 6mpg hwy compared to the same Sonic with the same powertrain in lower trim levels. No noticeable turbo power rush whatsoever, if I was blindfolded I would have sworn it didn't even have a turbo. Small hatch opening and snug rear seat limits practicality. For the $20,500 sticker price I'll pass but the car may be the only really decent subcompact Detroit has ever made to date, which is remarkable. Give it 40 more horsepower and a limited slip front diff and I probably would have bought it, even for 20 grand.

That leaves the Honda Fit Sport. As reliable as a stone axe, handles like a go kart, looks good inside and out for what it is, has an amazing amount of cargo room inside, barely depreciates, and is dirt cheap to run. Great visibility and passenger room, too - I can set the front seat to my 6 foot height and sit behind myself without having my knees touch the back of the driver seat.

On the downside, it needs 20 more HP and a 6th gear like I need air to breathe since the engine is buzzy and it is geared so short that it is turning something like 3300 rpms in 5th at 65mph. Thus, the car is noticeably louder inside from engine and road noise than the other cars. That great handling means a firm ride, too. Real world mileage will be better than the Focus ST and the Sonic RS and probably the same as the base Focus, or better.

I should be picking it up next week. Stay tuned.

[Bigshankhank]

Glad you are OK, although it is a shame about the car. My family has gone through three cars in the past two years, all of them reliable older daily drivers. All of them not-at-fault accidents, shit happens I guess.

In terms of cars, what about Subaru? Loved mine, easy to work on, they certainly have the speed and handling element down to a "T", and you don't have to get a WRX with associated insurance premiums to have a fun car.

[stiles]

I considered Imprezas. They're good cars, and the standard AWD is essential if you're living in areas that get a lot of snow. Some things that concerned me, relative to the Fit: a comparably equipped 5 door hatch is about $3000 more, it makes more power and torque but also weighs 400 lbs more so it isn't appreciably faster than the Fit. The Fit is a full foot shorter, so it's easier to park in the city yet the Fit has more useful room than the Impreza wagon, particularly with the back seat folded down. Mileage is slightly lower for the Impreza and the reviews I've read indicate the Impreza isn't particularly engaging to drive, either.

If I lived in Colorado or anywhere else it snowed a lot in the winter, I'd probably be buying the Impreza instead - but I strongly prefer places that don't get snow and I want something mechanically simple and light that's more connected to the road and fun to drive. After 5 civics and CRXs that all lasted to more than 250k with no major issues (VS several Subarus owned by friends that expensively blew their head gaskets around 160-175k) I feel more assured going with the Fit, long term.

[DerGolgo]

Getting your car totaled sucks bad, but it is good to hear the whole crumple-zone bag of tricks worked as intended.
Getting screwed by some low-life jackass coward like that sucks doubly. It's good to hear you managed to make that insurance actually do what they're selling.

I have no recommendations on automobiles, though. I can't really much connect to your list of desired characteristics, apart from the running costs, reliability and space requirements. When I was still driving, I barely ever washed my car, rarely vacuumed the inside, didn't see any point in fixing dents or scratches that were entirely cosmetic.

[Jaeger]

The gods either hate you or that Maxima.

Glad you were in a cage rather than the bike, tho. Ow.

--Jaeger

[smashinator]

I didn't see the Dodge Dart or Avenger in the list. I've been very impressed with the quality of recent Dodge offerings. I'm too tall for either of those cars, otherwise I probably would have considered one when I was shopping about 2 months ago.

I personally ended up getting a Jeep Wrangler, but fuel efficiency was not a concern, and 4wd/awd/fwd-as-last-resort was. As was "wheeeeeeeee!"

Anyway, I'd suggest looking at Dodge/Jeep/Chrysler, as their interior and exterior quality is pretty high.


Btw - glad you're OK!

[DerGolgo]

Anyway, I'd suggest looking at Dodge/Jeep/Chrysler, as their interior and exterior quality is pretty high.

If you're gonna look into a Fiat, I suggest looking into an actual Fiat.
Out of curiosity whether they're sold in the US i went and looked and, lo and behold, they are. Not only can you get a 500, not so good for transporting stuff, they're putting the 500L on the US market this summer. I haven't had opportunity to inspect one, but standing beside one, they have the shape of a car with a large interior. It's a ... I don't know how you 'mericans count the doors. It's got two doors on either side and a big hatch at the back. Oh heck, here's a picture:

Seats are, apparently, of the folding kind, with a split folding backseat, which is useful.
But, most importantly:

With its innovative 1.4L MultiAir® Turbo engine, the All-New 2014 FIAT® 500L delivers 160 horsepower and 184 lb-ft torque.

That's the clever type of engine with no intake cam, but dynamically computer controlled hydro-electrical intake valve actuation. And those 184 lb-ft, where do they happen? Only at 1750 rpm! You mentioned you liked an engine that doesn't need to rev high all the time...
If that isn't enough still, there are several chip tuning solutions available to take the torque up past 200 lb-ft. But you need to put that on the ground. Despite the massive torque, standard is a six speed manual. But optionally available is, no, not an automatic, but a six speed manual ... with a double dry clutch.

Fuel economy on these MultiAir and TwinAir engines isn't quite as revolutionary as they originally claimed, at least according to Top Gear and other media outlets I noticed, but a lot of that probably has to do with spirited driving. Even when not performing as outstandingly as originally claimed, it's still in the range of other, similar sized cars, I think I recall from some TV or magazine bit about it.
Big question is reliability.
I had heard Fiats were reliable these days, but I decided to look it up. The German auto club ADAC makes a ranking of the most reliable vehicles each year, the ones that require them the least. In the smallest class, the Fiat Panda is 4th, the 500 6th out of the top ranked 12 they bother recommending, only other brand with two placements among the top 12 is Ford. Disregarding actual breakdowns, there's the TÜV Report. The TÜV is one of the organizations that does the regular road-safety inspections, first after a car turns three, then every two years. The 500L is too new even over here to be covered, but admittedly, the Panda and some other Fiat models placed among the cars with the most "grave" issues needing to be addressed. Couldn't find info on the regular 500, unfortunately, not for free at least.
But, let me put it this way. I have never brought a vehicle to the regular inspection and, even when the state-approved master of auto mechanics (master as opposed to apprentice) had checked it over and declared it "entirely fine", the inspector would always find something that was "grave". Grave issues also include bald tires, brake pads that are worn out, many wear-and-tear parts in general, even miss-aligned headlights and other things that simply get neglected often enough. So that statistic should be taken with a grain of salt, since steadfast maintenance should take care of most "grave" issues. Overall, Fiat used to have a seriously bad reliability rep over here. Bad reliability isn't the first thing usually mentioned regarding Fiat, these days.
James May, aficionado of Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and Porsches, also a motorcyclist, drives a Panda as a daily driver. If a Fiat is made well enough for that guy...

They aren't listing a price on the US website yet, but the standard 500 goes from $16k and up, the fancier versions' base prices are all scattered between $19k and $22k, so I suspect the 500L will have a base price somewhere in there.
If I was in your situation, had your list of requirements and could wait until summer, I'd look into that one. Just recommending this from an entirely theoretical point of view. Could be utter crap, for all I know.

[Jonny]

I quite like the Honda Fit, and nearly bought one when we were living in Japan. I know what you mean about go-kart handling; it was quite fun to drive.

My brother just bought a '08 Renault Megane Sport 225, which while lacking a certain amount of practicality (fairly tight rear seat and small-ish luggage space in the back), is probably the most fun car I've ever driven. I'd get one in a heartbeat if we already had a larger family car.

[stiles]

The Dart and Avenger are 4 door sedans, and I need a hatchback or 5 door wagon. The Dart is plenty nice enough though, and based on a very good Alfa Romeo platform. I have a pretty firm policy against buying first year vehicles, what with my fairly extensive experience in the auto and motorcycle industries by now. The Fiat 500 is pretty neat but it is just too small to put things in; I do have more than one friend and my cargo test was whether a full size pedal bike would fit into the cargo area and still have the hatchback close. The Fit passes this test with room to spare, the Sonic does not, nor does the Mini Cooper.

[DerGolgo]

Yes, the Fiat 500 makes a lunchbox look big. But trust me, I've seen the 500L in the streets here, it's about the size of a Fiat Panda, much bigger.

On Edit:
Seriously, just for higgs and shiggles, I compared it with my personal, first generation four-door Focus hatchback.
It's all of 35mm shorter, that's 1.4 inches. With the very-forward cab design compared to the Focus, that shorter length won't be taken from the interior much.
It's 220mm taller, that's 8.6 inches, and while the Focus hatchback' hatch back is generously sloped, taking away useful interior space, the 500L's tail is reasonably close to vertical, as you can see above.
Cage rags over here quote the 500L's luggage space as 400 l, that's 14 cubic feet, compared to my old Focus' 277 l, only 9.7 cubic feet.
And yet, my little old Focus is big enough to transport fully assembled living room furniture like a pretty big easy-chair, and I could still close that rear hatch. That 500L is almost 44% bigger than that.

I know I'm starting to sound like a Fiat salesman, but apart from how cool it'd be to convince an American to seriously consider a Fiat 500 for it's performance and spaciousness, it's actually the car I'd probably buy pretty much right away myself (though I'd got for the twin engine with LPG fuel), were I still able to operate any vehicle on the road and with the caveat that I'd have to see whether my long legs fit, first..

[Jonny]

Oh, and as Jaeger said, if you had to get hit, I'm glad you did it in the cage.

[Bigshankhank]

What about the Hyundai Veloster? Seems like a pretty sporty hatchback, decent cabin size.

[stiles]

(edit) The regular 500 was new for 2012 in the US, which runs afoul of my preference to avoid first year cars, ditto for the 500L when they decide to sell it in the US. Reliability for the 500 is so far pretty much unknown here, and I'm not willing to be a guinea pig to see how well they hold up over the long run at my own expense.

Also - the new Focus has had remarkably poor first year reliability, down there with jaguar at 170% below average according to Consumer Reports' auto reliability survey (which I've found to be very accurate over the years).

BSH - the Veloster is actually fairly cramped inside, it's not particularly fun to drive and overall, my impression is that unless you get the Turbo model (which is out of my price range) there really isn't the steering feel, performance, speed or handling to go along with the sporty styling. My other concern with the base model is that I'd be driving it with my foot to the floor all the time, and thus get closer to Car and Driver's as-tested MPG of 25 rather than the published EPA estimate of 34 or so.

[stiles]

So, I took delivery of the new car, and it's great. Drives a lot like my old Civic SI, and about the same weight but taller.

[goose]

So, I took delivery of the new car, and it's great. Drives a lot like my old Civic SI, and about the same weight but taller.

and, just what to did you take delivery of? Pix or it didn't happen!

[stiles]

looks like this one:



2013 Fit Sport