are the fits still way overprice (new and used)? I know of someone who got new accord for less than a new fit due to demand.
could take a look at a 2008 g35x
or else, impreza all the way.
I got a dodge caliber, I put 50k + a year on. Front pass seat folds flat for laptop. Has built in 120v in center console. Gets 28/ gallon consistently. For price not a bad car to pile miles on
Chevy Cruze. GM stepped up on this one. We average 30 with driving the snot out of my wife’s 2011 (She has a very early build of the cruse). Seat adjusts enough for anyone to be comfortable. Doesn’t have the inverter though.
Winter with it is easy, went through buffalo and SLC winters without issue. Although I won’t take it up in the canyons during a storm; Hell even my JGC needs 4-low up there during some storms.
I’ve been very happy with my 2012 Focus SEL Hatch. Fun to drive, quiet, comfortable ride, nice interior, good gas mileage.
I still say SX4 for econo AWD.
I bought a 09 Sport, fully loaded, sat nav, ect for 12.6k a year ago with 40k miles on it. I am not suprised to hear they are still in demand, they sold quickly back then. The hard part was finding a 5spd. Brand new it would of been 20k which I agree is way overpriced.
Civic.
You’re dropping 10mpg going from a civic to an impreza. You can just get snows and it will probably be just as good as an impreza with the factory all seasons
why?
They are a step down from the previous gen and an increase in price.
Honda is doing it wrong.
I like the cruze idea.
They are surprisingly nice. Or focus.
you might think that…but there are plenty of areas around us where it is hard to find gas let alone diesel. i typically anticipate this and fill up before heading toward these areas, i think my wife usually doesn’t worry about fuel until the little light comes on…and sometimes not even then… there was a time when she was constantly calling AAA to get gas delivered to her on the roadside. thankfully we have broken that habit.
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i’ve thought about a small SUV too. currently our approach is to have a high gas mileage car for most situations then we have a smaller SUV (currently jeep liberty) to handle snowy conditions. the interest in AWD was for the situations where she goes out to the sticks and discovers she has to go down some rutty old logging road or something. when the snow is bad usually she will take the jeep or i will just drive her if it is really bad. but that is only maybe 1-2% of all the miles driven during the year so it doesn’t seem to make sense to sacrifice the possible 10mpg to have a small SUV dedicated year round.
that said, we are probably also going to be replacing the jeep sometime soon. the AC compressor just died yesterday so i have a sinking feeling that is the canary in the coal mine and other expensive things will start needing to be done. i would love to get a bigger SUV but i think anything larger would be too much vehicle for my wife to maneuver. i’m thinking maybe i can stretch it to a toyota FJ…but again she’ll have to sit in one and see how she feels about it.
cpo prius would fit that
great warranty, crazy reliable 50+mpg, good with winter tires
my fiance averages 25k a year and so far the prius has been great, no mechanical issues and i cant tell you how much money we have saved on gas
New dodge Dart. They really did a good job with this one. and with auto trans and air they come in at just over 18k. You’re getting brand new with warranty and 40mpg. We just got our first one in(as did all dealers in new york) and have more coming soon. could also order one for you if she doesn’t mind waiting a couple months. Just something to think about, and make sure you see me if you decide to look into it more.
I was gonna say you could buy my Mazdaspeed 6 haha. But its a stick shift so thats a no go lol.
i would like to get another manual car sometime but i once tried to show her how it all works in my beetle which is an extremely forgiving car to learn on and we never really got past the just stalling out stage.
I still think new civic LX with snow tires would be the best all around fit to your requirements.
Id reccomend my acura TL 6 speed as I too put alot of miles on, but the mileage is only 28-29hwy which is good but I def wouldnt say its great.
Well if you ever become interested in it lmk. I’m overseas right now so the car is just sitting in the garage waiting for me to come home. so i would rather sell it then let it sit.
The new Civics as said previously have gone a step backwards.
I think I am inclined to agree with Hyundi Elantra/ Focus 5-door. I have gotten 40 MPG in an SE hatchback with auto driving from buffalo to silver creek and back. We also fit a 5 foot workbench in the back with room to spare for a 6 foot. So cargo space is also a plus in that.
I would actually check a box against the Prius, that car is more geared towards city driving and looses a lot on highway. Which with 35k a year, I feel like that has to be mostly highway. If they were driving around the city that much I would say hands down a Prius C, that car can easily get over 55 MPG in real world city driving. but they loose an advantage on the highway.
well it isn’t really highway driving or city driving…probably most of it is just surface road driving…country roads and truck routes and the such. i would say an average day is something like 100+ miles and many days much more. i drove her around one day and we did 200 miles easy just in one big circle.
we are heading out tomorrow morning to sit in some cars and do some test driving. so far she has shown some interest in a 2012 focus sel sedan, 2011 regal turbo, 2011 cruze ltz, 2011 subaru legacy, 2012 civic ex-l, and 2011 MB e350 convertible…
i was pretty surprised by how much she liked the e350 and it is a completely ridiculous choice…i’m going to let the saleman tell her the price because i think she probably thinks it is like a $35k car or something… it will be a good lesson for her.
get the hatch! 
I see 30 mpg in mine, but it is all city driving.
well we did some sitting and test driving.
the focus got dropped because she wasn’t comfortable with her view over the instrument cluster. she is only 5’-0" so this is often a challenge particularly with the current trends of having an instrument cluster hump in the dash.
the regal was nice inside, leather interior with many bells and whistles- including a 120v outlet- but it didn’t seem to be that much better inside and out to make sense to get it instead of a similar cruze for less money.
she liked the cruze but hated the color.
she decided the legacy seemed a bit bigger than she was comfortable with.
she ended up deciding she didn’t like the look of the civic.
sat in the e350 but decided it was meant for another time.
so in the end she seemed most comfortable with the cruze although she really hated the color. so we went looking for a different color and ended up looking at 2012 cruzes instead. then it turns out that she really didn’t want a car without push to start- her current nissan has the keyless start…although you still turn a knob. apparently this was a much bigger deal to her than i could have ever guessed. so in the end we’ll probably be getting a 2012 cruze with whatever package they can find including the push to start option and in the metallic black color.
it appears to get push to start in the trim package you have to have the 1.4T instead of the 1.8. test driving them back to back on some curvy, hilly back roads i thought it was very apparent that the 1.4T with the little bit of extra torque was much more responsive. they didn’t have the exact mix of options on the lot that we were looking for so we’ll see on monday what they are able to come up with.