I bought a car about 2 months ago, Since I'm a college student with not a lot of money, I decided to go for a compact import. I considered civic, accord, altima, sentra, protege, and lancer. I know that Lancer has been around for so many years outside of US, and that it's a very popular and reliable car. The looks of the car mattered to me. It did not help that the civics are ugly now, and that accord looked like an old people's car. sentra was down right ugly and small, and protoge seemed too simple. altima just seemed too big. I decided to go with lancer, and I must say I'm very happy with the car. Extremely smooth, and with good care, the car will be good along the road.