ADAM N. COPELAND
July 17, 2009 at 1:10 pm
filed under cars
I’m in the market for a new vehicle. The old van is beginning to show signs of age, and I can’t be using a vehicle that gets 18 combined mpg as my daily driver anymore. Not with a the 40 mile commute that I have. So bearing that in mind, my only requirements for a vehicle are that it gets decent mileage (better than 25 on the highway) and can carry at least 50 cu ft of stuff. This breaks my search down into two segments: the economical small wagon (Honda Fit, Scion xB, etc) and the small SUV (Subaru Forester, Honda CR-V, etc). Also if I’m getting an SUV it might as well be all wheel drive because of the shit weather up here in the winter.
In the past week I’ve driven a few vehicles and thought it would be a good idea to collect my thoughts about them here.
2009 Honda Fit Sport (2nd generation)
The Fit is a fun car. Spacious for a small car (57.3 cu ft cargo), good visibility, lots of utility (”magic seat”), great economy (27/33), and decent pep for a such a small engine (1.8L).The gauges, dash, and interior have a fun, youthful look about them that make me feel like I’m 23 again.
Unfortunately, the seats are terrible and would be hell on my ancient prostate gland, especially when sitting in a car for at least two hours every day. They are molded to appear like racing seats but are made out of the hardest possible foam. Furthermore, the ride was noisy as all hell. I’m sure it was an economy choice, but the Fit has almost no dampening materials in it. Unfortunately the comfort issue is a big thing for me and I’m probably going to have to entirely rule out the Fit.
2009 Honda CR-V (3rd generation)
I drove a base model of the CR-V, which was surprisingly well appointed. The CR-V is like a very large fit. Fun, spacious, great visibility and efficiency (20/26 with all wheel drive). It is significantly more comfortable and refined, what with the bigger 2.4L engine. Tons of safety features. Standard vehicle stability assist, ABS, disc brakes.
Yet, it had some weird quirks that hold it back. For example, the back row of seats instead of folding down, fold forward and flip up towards the front row, leaving a weird lumpy storage area in the back. The center console in the front collapses like in a minivan but hardly has any utility at all because the second row, folded or not, blocks it. While an interesting new approach to cargo space, it seemed a little weird.
I spent a great deal of time a few years ago driving and being a passenger in the 1st generation CR-V. This model has come a long way from it’s boxy, boring, and unrefined ancestry.
2009 Scion xB (2nd generation)
The 2nd generation xB was the biggest surprise. It is vastly improved over the smallish, noisy, underpowered and bland first generation xB. The boxy corners have been rounded out to make it a little less conspicuous. The engine size went up from 1.8L to 2.4L which delivers plenty of power even on hills. The cargo space with the seats flat has gone up from 43 cu ft to 70 cu ft (a segment best) with seats that fold down nice and flat. The ride is very very comfortable when compared with the Fit with a nice high driving position and cushy seats.
The problems with this vehicle are that the styling inside is still really plain (odd for a car that Toyota is trying to sell to hip young folks) and that the economy is not great compared to the Fit (22/28) but is comparable to other vehicles in this segment such as the Kia Soul and the Elantra Touring.
2010 Kia Soul
I was also pleasantly surprised by the Kia Soul. The styling is an absolute riot. On the ! (”exclaim”) trim level, the seats and head rests have a great houndstooth pattern. The interior has a very refined two tone (black and beige) look. It has a 315 watt stereo system with a subwoofer on the dashboard. It has speakers that light up in time with the stereo. It handles rather nimbly on big 18″ tires and the 2.0L engine provides plenty of zip zap. The Kia also comes with that great Hyundai warranty (5 yrs, 60k miles bumper to bumper). Hyundai’s build quality has steadily improved over the years and with the Soul is now beginning to rival its Japanese competitors.
I only wish it had a little more cargo room (53.4 cu. ft to Fit’s 57.3 cu. ft) and got better mileage (only 30 hwy compare to Fit’s 33). Otherwise, it is an almost perfect little car. If I were 21 years old again I wouldn’t even test drive anything else. Scion execs have daydreams that they can make a car half this fun.
Conclusion
I have a few more models to try out before I make my final decision. I drove a Subaru Forester a few months ago and was very impressed, so I would like to revisit it and its cousin the Impreza wagon. Also, Hyundai offers the Elantra in a Touring edition, which is essentially a spacious wagon.
So far the xB and the Soul are leading the pack. The Soul blows away the xB on style points, but the xB is made by Toyota so it definitely takes the reliability points. The Kia gets me a great deal of standard features (315 watt stereo, moon roof, 18″ tires) that would be a small fortune on the xB, but the Scion comes out ahead on comfort and cargo volume.
More to come as I near my final decision.
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