Communter car advice, Focus vs Elantra vs Impreza vs ?

[dbk]

Yeah the 300 is nice.. My officemate has one i cant help but to stare at it when im walking by it.. Black with auburn/red leather, tints, rims.. Looks mean.. not sure about gas mileage but if mostly on highway - negligible

 

[tortillasoup]

I understand what you are saying. I have a pet peeve when people claim car A is comparable to B in price without matching up the trim level.

Honestly for the OP if you are really going to be driving four adults around on the highway and they are typical American sized people you should be looking at something more like a Malibu or V6 Charger/300.

unreliable american pos? no thanks. camry is big enough to haul 4 adults around... so is a prius.

 

[MegaFlop]

unreliable american pos? no thanks. camry is big enough to haul 4 adults around... so is a prius.

Hahaha...

Ok, I will just ignore the POS comment...

A Prius can barely motivate itself. Lets guesstimate four adults and luggage as weighing 800lbs. A 2014 Prius has a load capacity of 825lbs...

So now you are talking about 4000lbs+ of car being moved by 134hp combined, and a maxed out suspension from the weight.

Compare that to a base V6 Charger with a load capacity of 1200lbs.
So a 800lb load is no problem for the car. You also have 292hp to move the ~4800lbs.

 

[lakedude]

Quality on all the top auto makers are pretty much neck and neck. Any unbiased report will tell you so, although there is still a portion of the population who are stuck in the Toyota / Honda are way better rut.

I hope you are correct but I fully admit a bias toward Asian manufactures. Between myself, friends and family we have sampled a wide variety of vehicles and almost without exception the Asian brands have been reliable, the American made vehicles not so much. Consumer Reports reports similar results. I've been hearing that same story for years and I want to believe but history tells me different. Sure maybe JD Powers ranks some models "high in initial quality" but what about 100k or 200k down the road? Even if the American made vehicles were reliable now I still would not trust them based on past experience.

We have had very good luck with Honda, Mazda, Hyundai and our German made VW.

Fords have been okay.

GM and Chrysler products have been problematic.

Our American made VW just fell apart. Worst vehicle ever.

We do have high hopes for the in-law's Chrysler 300 which is very nice IMHO. Hope it lasts...

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Yeah, I did an image search for cruze hatchback and it had lots of results. Just found out they don't have it in a hatch which is almost a death blow. I've never owned a hatch and really wanted to with this purchase, though I will still take a closer look since a turbo would be nice as long as the mileage hit is not too bad.

Don't forget to check out the Kia Forte hatchy. I like it better than the Hyundai version and it gets decent reviews. I've driven the previous version and it was a solid meh.... but the newest one looks promising.

 

[tortillasoup]

Hahaha...

Ok, I will just ignore the POS comment...

A Prius can barely motivate itself. Lets guesstimate four adults and luggage as weighing 800lbs. A 2014 Prius has a load capacity of 825lbs...

So now you are talking about 4000lbs+ of car being moved by 134hp combined, and a maxed out suspension from the weight.

Compare that to a base V6 Charger with a load capacity of 1200lbs.
So a 800lb load is no problem for the car. You also have 292hp to move the ~4800lbs.

The Prius like most sedans has an 800lb "load capacity" not because of performance but due to suspension design. The vast majority of CARS on the road have a load capacity in that range, regardless of engine performance. If you study GVWR on cars even with different trims, they basically have the same load capacity. Take for example a 2000 Honda Civic EX AT coupe vs a 2000 Honda Civic DX M/T Coupe. They both have about an 800lb load capacity yet the DX weighs 2359lbs while the EX weighs 2560lbs. The springs are correctly chosen for each vehicle trim as heavier trims need stiffer springs so the ride quality is the same but that has the downside of reducing the vehicle carrying capacity (who cares, it's a car!). So the engine and frame may easily support more weight and they COULD put stiffer springs but when that vehicle is unloaded, it will have very poor driving characteristics much like a pickup truck with no weight in the back.

Btw chryslers ARE POS, I've read/heard countless stories about those vehicles breaking down well before 100K miles and if they haven't broken down, they have issues like that of a 15 year old vehicle in disrepair whether it be idling poor, lack of performance, rattles, poor shifting, etc yet the exterior makes it look brand new.

 

[MegaFlop]

Btw chryslers ARE POS, I've read/heard countless stories about those vehicles breaking down well before 100K miles and if they haven't broken down, they have issues like that of a 15 year old vehicle in disrepair whether it be idling poor, lack of performance, rattles, poor shifting, etc yet the exterior makes it look brand new.

I disagree from personal experience...
I owned a 300C SRT-8 (70K miles) and it was one of the most reliable vehicles I have ever had. I didn't have to do anything outside of regular maintenance. In stark contrast to the A6 I owned before which was a horrible POS.

We also had a Town & Country and put over 100K miles on it. It did have some electrical problems (power seat), but mechanically all it needed done outside of regular maintenance was the power steering pump reservoir replaced. Now I admit that maybe we had a particularly good T&C, but I don't think my experience with the 300 was exceptional.

Also I will never be convinced that four adults would ever choose to ride in a Prius over a 300

 

[tortillasoup]

A 300 is considered "Large Cars" vs the Prius being a Midsize vehicle. Also you comparing a Chrysler to an Audi is kinda amusing to me considering Audi is just a crappy Volkswagen and is part of the whole "unreliable miserable eurotrash family".

 

[PhoKingGuy]

A 300 is considered "Large Cars" vs the Prius being a Midsize vehicle. Also you comparing a Chrysler to an Audi is kinda amusing to me considering Audi is just a crappy Volkswagen and is part of the whole "unreliable miserable eurotrash family".

Great another everyone buy a 10 year old used prius because that is the best car ever made kinda people? Sigh

 

[vi edit]

Of all the rentals ive had the Cruze is the best one, by far.

I should have given the Cruze a better look. In the RS trim it's a sharp looking car and well optioned. I just can't bring myself to buy a GM anymore. I've owned half a dozen of them over the course of 20 years and just continuously had stupid shit breaking on them waaaaay too early into their life. My sister has a newer Terrain with the 4 cylinder and it's burning over a quart of oil every 2000 miles or so. That's with 40,000 miles on it.

Then they go and ship off 5000 Sonics and forget to put the damn brake pads on them.

I'm just over GM no matter how nice the cars appear to look.

Of course, I then go and buy a Ford and the freaking thing consumes coolant like it's going out of style.

 

[NutBucket]

Maybe it's just you

From my experience I would say the Cruze is better than the Focus (non-ST).

 

[Ovven]

I bought Cruize TD a few months back and it is a pretty nice car. Rear legroom is kinda small but that doesn't really matter to me. The fact that diesel only comes in higher trim versions (leather seats, heated seats, remote start, etc) is a point to consider too. I love my cellphone app to start my car during this freezing winter in illinois . I paid for it 21.7k + taxes with 1.9% financing so it was a pretty decent deal (no military or previous GM owner rebates). In pure city driving I've been getting 25-26mpg with heating the car a couple times a day, and 28+mpg with no heating. Mileage goes up a lot more if i go on highway but I didn't have the need this winter to do that too much. Also, urea tank is no prob, it will last for 10k miles before it needs refilling, which is about $20-30. The biggest downer is the missing spare tire, but they do give you an electric air pump and a can of spray LOL.
Also, note that the engine is made in Germany, and transmission is Japanese.

 

[tortillasoup]

I'd avoid anything American made except for something like Tesla which is like the only high quality (materials build) thing to come out of this continent in a few decades.

 

[anonymouse001]

Question for all you auto folks here regarding buying a new commuter car. Situation: Wife and I are getting rid of the 95 Civic we currently drive as a daily commuter. It still runs great but is very uncomfortable and we want to get rid of it while it's still running great. Someone offered us $1k for it and we are tempted to take that (it has minor body damage so blue book is low) We want something fairly economical, can fit 4 adults (front very comfortable and back semi comfortable), is feature rich, and has a price of around $22k or less (before taxes and fees). We originally looked at the Fusion and Sonata but determined those are larger than we need and a little pricier than we would like for a commuter.

We are going tonight to test drive a 2014 Focus Titanium hatchback that would cost around $25k all in (21ish before everything) and is basically loaded. It does not have the handling package which I'm good with as I don't like the turning radius hit you take with the 18's, but has just about every other feature including the active parking assist (cool) and nav (meh). If the test drive goes well we are leaning towards that but I wanted to see what people here had to say.

I have done research into the Elantra and Impreza as well but so far the Focus has seemed like the best choice. Are there reasons I should go back to looking at those more closely? Any other makes/models to look at in a small, hatchback design? Mazda 3 is a possibility but with 2 failed transmissions in a previously owned 626 we are hesitant, even though thats likely not fair to Mazda.

Please note that I am not interested in the ST, WRX, or whatever Hyundai calls their turbo models. I want better gas mileage and I hate driving a manual... I know I know, just my personal preference. Our other car is a 2013 Forester so the AWD of the Impreza is not a critical factor since we take that forester when we go into the mountains or have snow on the ground.

Thoughts? Any other info you would like me to provide?

Thanks!

When the Mazda 929 and 626 came out, I fell in love with both but didn't buy either due to Consumer Reports at that time not recommending either. We've had our share of Subarus - the first Impreza Outback (no longer made), the Impreza Legacy, the 2004 Impreza STi - not the WRX - way too expensive. The running issue for us in each car: the seats were horrible. When I bought my new 2004, within a week I went to try to find a new seat and found nothing. I kept it for ten years, though. I think ethanol became the problem causing gaskets to leak. But that can now happen in any car. It had the pep at @167 HP and I liked that.

We had the Toyota RAV4 for less than one year. Mileage was horrible. Seats were worse than Subaru.

Consumer Reports rates the Hyundai Elantra 1 point less than the Subaru Impreza. BUT the forums are filled with the stories told by them. They misrepresented the MPG to the EPA. (I uh bought one...) The seats are comfortable, though. I test drove the Civic EX, the Civic Fit, the Subaru Impreza, and the VW Passat (the longest car at 190 inches). I personally would never ever by a Hyundai again due to the stories we were told by salesmen and the company. The MPG sticker was supposed to be corrected about 1.5 years ago. They were not and still bogusly appear on the 2013 & 2014 models. They have too many excuses for everything and I found the knowledge level of salesmen to suit what you wanted (wrong information).

I love the comfort of the car (have the Limited) and the size but am dreadfully concerned about what else is wrong in the car and what will go wrong. It is the next size down from the Sonata. The nav sys locked up 3x on a 600 mi trip and on that trip we went over 1k miles. The average MPG in the display is always higher than a fillup manual calc. I don't trust the service dept. where I am because the service manager lied to me to bring in business. I corrected him rather curtly. It just seems to be the general attitude at Kia and Hyundai. So, while the car is wonderfully comfortable and stylish, I run from both (they are part of the same company). The company is annoyingly worthless as well. I expect better relations with Subaru or almost any brand name car. Hyundai/Kia are pushing their way into the US marketplace with misleading info.

Toyota concerns me (the Corolla) because we don't know where the parts are from (Fukishima? ... don't know). But the MPG is fabulous.

I don't know enough about the Focus or the other car you mentioned. The Civic EX used to be an excellent car. Loved it and almost bought it but we saw the Impreza Outback go buy en route to buy the EX. Honda is losing its base and reputation, though. Toyotas are falling from grace and have been for some years. The Civic EX is stiff and actually rated ten points lower than the Impreza (and ugh, Elantra). All cars in 2013 have lower HP but it's going back up in 2014.

I'd probably go back (I will in a few years - this was supposed to be my last car) and get a Subaru Impreza Sedan. My neighbor just bought the old hatchback and has heated seats and it's a lovely car with stiff seats. It has AWD as you know but at least you're getting the truth.

Sorry, this is a lot of info. Good luck.

 

[anonymouse001]

Don't forget to check out the Kia Forte hatchy. I like it better than the Hyundai version and it gets decent reviews. I've driven the previous version and it was a solid meh.... but the newest one looks promising.

You need to be careful of the Forte as Kia and Hyundai have holdings under the same umbrella company split like 60/40. The tires are the same and the overall company is the same AND while the warranty sounds good, service is still bad (we had an old Hyundai many moons ago). Looks and sound engineering are two different beasts.

 

[NutBucket]

The current Hyundais are pretty good. My folks have a 2011 Sonata. Nice car except for a poor 6mt implementation. Had a rental Elantra for a few days and it wasn't bad.

 

[A5]

Toyota concerns me (the Corolla) because we don't know where the parts are from (Fukishima? ... don't know). But the MPG is fabulous.

Hahahahahahahaha what?

Just...wow.

 

[dbk]

The parts are from Japan but are built in the US (Miss.)? or is that irrelevant?

 

[toronado97]

I got in on this pretty late, but throwing my .02 in here. Wife and I just purchased a 2014 Mazda 3 S Grand Touring 5-dr, and I'm blown away. 34mpg combined, a 184-hp 185-lb torque engine with an honest to god 6-speed automatic instead of a CVT, and every possible bell and whistle you could hope to have, including a heads up display, HIDs with the adaptive (turn when you turn the wheel) technology, dual-zone climate control, headed seats and side mirrors, blind spot monitoring, the works.

We got it for 24,200 which was about 3,300 under the sticker. If you want to drive it like an econobox, you can do that and its transmission feels about 1000x better than the Focus Titanium which I was ready to purchase last week. The car also has a sport mode on the AT though, and it's an entirely different animal in sport. Much deeper shift points, the car really comes alive. It's also got paddle shifters which work VERY well, the car doesn't hold your hand in manual mode at all. It's also very lively and fun to drive in general.

If OP is still in the market for something, I definitely recommend at least a test drive. If the sticker on the S Grand Touring is too much to stomach, you could drop down to the I Grand Touring model, which would leave you with almost all of the options (lose the HID lamps, and true leather upholstery though) and you downgrade to the 2.0L 155HP engine, but by all accounts it performs admirably and gets slightly better mileage as well. Just some food for though.

Edit: I also think it's the best looking vehicle in its segment as well. It reminds me of a BMW for some reason.

 

[dbk]

I wouldve preferred the Mazda6..its too bad that the diesel has been delayed