The next car coming into our household will replace my future wife’s current daily driver. The intent will be a MID-size sedan, manual transmission, ~$35k price limit. All models will be a 2005 or later by the time the purchase happens.
Haven’t started test driving anything yet, but here’s my primary “short list” so far:
- Nissan Altima 3.5SE
- Acura TSX
- Mazda 6 GS/GT?
Secondary list (haven’t explored these too much):
- Subaru Legacy GT
- Volvo S40
- VW Passat 1.8T
- Audi A4 1.8T
The ones that don’t make the cut right off the bat:
- Honda Accord V6 (no manual w/ v6!!) :evil:
- Toyota Camry V6 - Waaaaayyyy to bland and boring
- Infiniti G35 sedan - too expensive
- Nissan Maxima - a bit too expensive, ~$5k more than equivalent Altima
- Lexus IS300 - a bit too expensive, and too small
There will be NO domestic crap on my list.
My current favorite (not having driven anything yet) is still the TSX. The car is packaged beautifully and it has everything! The only potential weakness is its power to weight ratio compared to the Altima and Accord V6 models. Still the 2.4L iVTEC w/ 6-speed is supposed to be silky smooth and 200hp ain’t too shabby regardless. Hopefully I have enough time to sit back and wait to see if Honda/Acura bumps the power up a bit for the 2005 or even 2006 model lines.
The Altima is a very strong contender. Its very spacious, and probably the best bang for the buck for straight line performance in a family sedan. Fit and finish, handling and reliability may not be qutie to the level of the TSX, but still pretty good. I especially like the interior and exterior tweaks Nissan made for 2005. But they are also becoming quite commonplace, possibly the belly button car of Japanese mid-size sedans, and its made in the US now (as opposed to Japan). But my Sentra was made in Mexico, so what the heck…
The Mazda 6, while winning lots of awards, gets a luke-warm reaction from me. The styling is nice, although a bit overdone (kinda boy-racer/ricer-ish). The package is nice. The value is decent. But the V6 engine is a Ford Duratec :evil: and overall build quality and fit n’ finish may be questionable. If you want to autocross a family sedan, this car would be the ONE off the entire list. But compared to most of the others, the interior is actually quite cramped. The back seat for example didn’t feel much bigger than my Sentra.
The VW & Audi on the list are “nice” but I’m very weary of VW products. The Passat line is not nearly as bad as the Golf/Jetta platform for reliability but once bitten, twice shy. My first VW experience was not great.
I don’t know much about the new S40 and Legacy GT. I think both are new enough that I wouldn’t have even seen them at the auto show back in February. The 2005 S40 is all new, and looks very nice and has good specs (on paper at least), but… there is the issue with platform sharing with the Ford companies… I’m not sure if this new S40 is more Ford than Volvo or not. Remains to be seen. As for the Legacy GT, I sat in everything Subaru had at the show back in February and they had nothing of decent size really if you’re looking to progress larger than your typical “compact” sedan. However if the new Legacy is a bigger car, then I will have to check it out. AWD certainly has its appeal.
Other than that, I think that’s about it. The purchase is probably at least 1-1.5 years away so there’s still time to compare, analyze, test drive, etc. but I just thought I’d start some good discussion here.
(Heck, if Dan can post about every time he changes his oil, certainly I can talk about car shopping! ) 
j/k
