From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!npois!alice!rabbit!wolit
Newsgroups: net.auto
Title: Re: New Car Recommendations?
Article-I.D.: rabbit.593
Posted: Wed Jul  7 09:15:50 1982
Received: Thu Jul  8 00:58:42 1982

Last October, I was considering some of the same small cars mentioned.
I test drove several of them, priced a few more, and ended up buying a
Toyota Tercel 4-door sedan.  I wanted a 4-door, having driven a 2-door
Corolla for the previous 10 years and found many times when the extra
doors would have been very nice.  I also wanted great milage,
rack-&-pinion steering, power disc brakes, independent suspension,
and, most of all, front-wheel drive (lots of icy hills here in the
winter).
I thought the Horizon/Omni was the pits.  It looks like a Rabbit, but
handles like a Plymouth.  The Champ/Colt was OK, but had a funny,
2-lever transmission that seemed overly complicated, and didn't come
in a 4-door model.  The Honda Civic 4-door was very nice, but priced
about $1200 more than the Tercel, without offering anything more than
a nicer interior.  Ditto the Mazda GLC 4-door.  The Rabbit was also
more expensive, and I've heard bad things about them from friends who
own them, like the rings going after 20K miles;  besides, the
transmission is typical VW, i.e., 1st is somewhere in that direction,
2nd is off that way someplace...  At that time, Nissan's low-end car,
the 210, didn't have front-wheel drive.  The Ford Escort felt like the
Horizon/Omni, and I wouldn't go near a Chevette.  The Toyota Starlet
is rear-wheel drive, 2-door only, smaller and MORE expensive than the
Tercel.  The only thing it offered was better milage, but now that has
been surpassed by the Nissan Sentra.  My girlfriend recently ordered a
Sentra;  it's built like the Tercel, and if you can accept 2 doors,
the MPG model gets 43mpg (EPA est., NOT highway!).  (The MPG model
isn't available in 4 doors.)
I'm very happy with my Tercel.  It handles better than anything I've
driven (admittedly, this does not include BMW's, 280-Z's, etc.), the
milage is just as claimed, and the car is a lot quieter than I
expected.  I've had several opportunities to use the fold-down rear
seats to carry long things (this gives you access to the trunk from
inside).  No problems at all so far.