woods@sri-unix (07/06/82)
Well, once again I am in the market for a new small car. The models I am most
considering are the Plymouth Horizon or Champ (same as Dodge Omni or Colt,
resp.), Toyota Tercel or Starlet, Honda Accord or Civic, and VW Rabbit (gas
model). I have posted a similar request as this several months ago, but at
that time I decided not to purchase a car. Well times (and my financial
situation!) have changed and this week I will probably make the big investment.
If anyone has any comments on these particular models, or +/- flames on any
other similar cars, please mail them to me. If you feel your response would
be of net-wide interest, please post it in net.auto. Please DON'T use the "f"
command! I don't want to clutter up net.general with this any more than I have
to. I am particularly interested in hearing from people who own these cars
about reliability, insurance expense relative to other models and the
willingness of the dealers to stand behind their products when something
DOES go wrong. Any helpful info will be sincerely appreciated. Comments
on how good the car is in the snow would also be helpful, as I want to do
some skiing this winter!
If I get a lot of responses on any particular model, I will post a summary
in net.auto.
Thanks in advance,
GREG (ucbvax!menlo70!hao!woods)
P.S. Due to the strange path by which we get our news, the "r" command will
probably not work. You must do an explicit mail to this address.
P.P.S. Is the Chrysler warranty (which covers Horizon) for real? Do they
really fix things for you when they break? Is it a hassle to get the guaranteed
maintenance performed by the dealers?wolit (07/07/82)
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.