[TriLUG] [way OT] new auto recommendations

[Brian McCullough]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 03:44:30PM -0400, Roger W. Broseus wrote:
> Steve
> 
> Consumer Reports put the Honda Fit and the Prius in a near tie for lowest
> total cost of ownership. Both are rated highly in terms of reliability.
> Total cost of ownership includes insurance which can be high for a
> high-performance car.

I was very pleased with my first generation Prius, driving it for 13
years, as I said, but really did not like the later generation models,
which got much larger, as well as having, in my opinion, poor rear
visibility.

I have been finding that all of the "compact" cars that I have been
looking at are much larger than my impression of "compact."

I am currently driving a rental Corolla, which is a BIG car, even though it is classed as a "compact."  Similarly, the Honda Civic, Mazda 3, VW Golf that I have test-driven all feel much bigger than I would expect.  In fact, the Mazda 3 is just under 13 feet long.

I seem to have some conflicting requirements.  I want a decent highway car for the long distance travelling that I sometimes do.  I want good mileage overall.  I want small, for various reasons, not the least being that perhaps 80% of the time, I am the only occupant.  I like to be able to see over the roof, easily, when I am standing beside the car.  I am not small, at least from side to side, so need "American-sized" seats and seating position.  There may be other things, like the nice green colour of my old Prius, difficult to obtain in these days of silver and white, but they tend to be more optional.

In general, I have enjoyed all of the vehicles that I have driven during
this process, and could probably live with any of them.


> My daughter is on her second Fit and loves it. I bought a 2011 Prius in 2012
> and have not had any problems. It fits me well even tho I expand to fill the
> space. It paid me to shop hard and go to NoVa from Bethesda for that less
> expensive, previous-year model. Stay away from the "C."

I know that Consumer Reports doesn't like the C, but, at least in my test drive, it didn't seem much different from any of the other cars that I had driven.



> Crash worthiness of the Fit and Prius is surprisingly high but certain years
> of Fits were down-rated for front corner crash problems, corrected this
> year.
> 
> Minis: require premium gas!

Come on!  I know, they are BMWs now.


> Remember: stay away from dealers for maintenance except for in-warranty stuff.


Thank you for the thoughts, Roger.



Brian