my lesbian neighbor has one of them smart cars. It has a Benz symbol on the front.

 

Is she hot?

 

nope. She looks manly.

 

Honestly.. I have to agree with the new Civic sedan as a smart choice for your wife and kids. For under $20k you can get the top of the line sedan. In comparison to the Corrola, the exterior of the Corolla may be a little nicer, but the interior of the Civics win hands down. Your choice. Both perform equally, but personally I liked the get up and go of the Honda engine, but both will last you 10+ years without any major issues. I averaged right around 30 mpg mixed driving with a heavy foot at times (I think I like rice). My wife drives my old 2006 Honda Civic EX coupe and she loves it, I know I did. I occasionally took my Civic up to a 100mph easily cruising on the highway to have a little fun, so I know it can get there. Worse case scenario, you could test drive the Civic and fall in love, it will undoubtedly perform to your preferences.

As far as buying a hybrid... save your cash, your spending significantly more, sacrificing performance, and more than likely won't see a return on your investment until 5-10 years depending how much you drive. As you mentioned, it looks like your gonna be doing some 70mph driving.. loaded with kids and cargo, the hybrid will be pushing it.

Personally, I don't take brand loyalty into consideration when buying vehicles. Just buy what has the best bang for your buck at the time.

 

My wife has an 06 Honda accord 4 door with the 2.4L 4 banger in it. We usually see about 30 on average around town and it has gotten 37 a time or two on the hwy(but usually 34-35 hwy running at 75-80mph with the AC on). It also rates very well on crash testing, which I considered very important with kids, it has the usually front air bags, along with side and side curtain bags too. Also another note it is not nearly as cramped for space like the Civic. I would also check out the new Malibu, I heard they are pretty good too. I would stay away from really cheap new cars cause they tend to loose resale value very quick.

 

I had an 01 Neon and it did pretty dang good on MPG (I was getting high 30's, maybe a bit more). I plan on getting another one this summer.

 

Darn Honda CRV in europe gets 72mpg....It is a diesel...

 

J-150, a friend of mine had a 2003 Jetta TDI and got 48-52mpg @ 75mph. Over 700 miles per tank a few times. The 2009 model will be even more efficient.

OP, a Civic LX that gets 35-37mph @ 80mph is $5-7k less than the hybrid Civic or Prius that will get less than the EPA ratings @ sustained 70+mph. It will take 15 years to recover the upfront costs in fuel consuption. Test drive the Civic and current Jetta for size to know if it might be worth waiting for.

 

I talked to some of the guys that designed the batteries for the Ford Hybrid program and they said that some of the batteries will need to replaced around 7-10 years due to loosing efficiency and those bad boys won't be cheap to replace. Just another reason why I hate hybrids just another wanna be solution that falls short.

 

http://www.teslamotors.com/

 

Yea, I got a friend with a VW Golf TDI. He says he's getting around 50 MPG. He gets his diesel for 81 cents a gallon (I think it's the processed oil stuff.)

 

There is a weekend radio mechanic show on the AM radio in San Antonio and the guy, Steve, has been a GM guy to the max until somehow he ended up with a 2008 Focus automatic. He is claiming 47.5 mpgs at 75 mph hiway. He is no longer bashing Ford products. While that sounds like a fluke, my girl has the ZX4 with the 2.0 auto and she is getting 44 mpgs at 65 mph and 31-33 town. I'm considering one just for the cheap fun factor.

 

Yeah, those new Focuses are pretty futuristic looking. Especially the blue ones if you want to show your Ford passion.

 

i just bought a 08 Hyundai Elantra. Not even broken past the 800 mile mark and it got 30 mpg city the first tank. It was pretty cheap with the wife working at the dealership. So we got it $2k below dealer cost with the discounts and rebates.

I'm on the second tank now and it's getting better mpg with close to 400 miles now on the 2nd tank. Her friend that helped us buy the car has seen these Elantra's getting better of 40mpg. So we parked my truck and the wifes Escape since we work different hours. Sad to see the trucks sitting still now but I can't bitch about the savings cause buying this fuel effecient car is actually saving me lots of money.

The Hyundai's have a awesome warranty and fantastic crash test ratings and they are all really nice looking cars. Especially the new Hyundai Genesis!

 

I'm hoping to get to the bank tomorrow to get a pre-approval on a loan so I can get one. I figure if I don't spend too much and keep my payment around $70/month, that is what I am spending per week for gas for just my car, let alone the truck too.