i see what you are saying, and i looked at exactly what you said.
ruling out used, because i definitely wanted a BRAND NEW car…
comparing apples to apples, if you look at new sport compact cars, you have the following choices:
- cobalt SS
- mazdaspeed 3
- wrx
- gti
- tC (i guess?)
- tiburon v6 (i guess?)
- civic si
in my mind, i ruled out the cobalt because of relatively low gm historic resale value (which DOES factor into a new car buying decision, but most people dont think of it… more cash inflow at the end = less overall cashflow attributable to the car). not a big fan of the gti’s styling. i test drove it and loved the way it drove, but wasnt a huge fan of the way the car was configured. tC isnt quick enough for what i wanted. wrx was a few thousand bucks out of my price range, even for the “TR” version. the tiburon is a dime a dozen, no thanks. the mazdaspeed 3 was an option, but i am not enthralled mazda’s quality givin some of the consumer reports i have been reading.
thats what led me to the civic. i drove it, fell in love with the stying, heritage, motor, V-TECH y0, and cut myself a great deal. it worked out very nicely for me. and i did NOT pay 25k for my car 
and dont ask what i did pay, cause i wont tell 