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Car question
Okay so I know close to nothing about cars, but my family is getting a new one soon and we've narrowed it down to two: Civic Coupe LX and the Mazda3 Sport. Any opinions on which is better? I know the two cars are completely different... but maybe I could still get some insight from some car experts here? :teeth:
Comments
Manual or Automatic?
What colours of each?
For a family car, the Mazda3 Sport is a 4-door while the the civic coupe is a 2-door. The last time I remembered, a family usually consists of more than 3 people which means a door for each person at least. Flo-ra, you'd look good in a civic coupe but your whole family looks better in a Mazda3 Sport.
i too would prefer the mazda 3 sport over the civic couple LX.
lets break down the two choices shall we?
lets start with the engines between the two cars.
the mazda 3 sport is powered by a 2.3L DOHC (double over head cams) with a 16 valve motor. it has approximately 156HP (horse power) and 150lbsTQ (net pounds of torque).
the honda civic coupe lx is powered by a 1.8L SOHC (single over head cam) with a 16 valve motor. it has approximately 140HP and 128lbsTQ.
with the rise in gas prices it seems more logical to go with the less gas consuming civic at 1.8L over the 2.3L mazda 3. There does exist a difference between SOHC and DOHC, however in this case both motors have 4 valves per cylinder. the difference which you will notice is the amount of power generated between the motors due to the camshaft setup as well as the cc (cubic centimeters) displacement. at higher engine speeds the 16 valve DOHC motor will provide more torque as well as more horsepower (mazda 3 has 156/150 as apposed to the civic with 140/128, respectively). the trade off between the two is that the SOHC civic theoretically should have better low end torque due to lighter drivetrain (so off the line you'll take off a bit faster) however if ya like driving fast the mazda with its DOHC and more HP/TQ would be better.
now that we've taken a quick look at the engine lets move onto the drivetrains.
i'm assuming because this is going to be a family car (ie its gonna be shared) you'll want an automatic transmission because not everyone most likely drives manual. both honda and mazda come standard with a manual transmission and you'll have the option to have an automatic transmission model. the nice thing about the mazda automatic transmission as compared to the honda transmission is that the mazda transmission has something called "sport" mode which allows you to shift the gears without a clutch (you'll notice the ability to shift the gears either up or down by moving the shifter to either + or -). both are 5 speed automatics and since honda doesnt seem to list their gear ratios like mazda does i cant tell you the difference in terms of shift times.
the dimensions of the two cars are civic coupe lx at 4440mm and the mazda 3 sport at 4485mm. the there is not a huge difference between the two in terms of length so i dont think you'll notice a big difference in terms of parking. the width of the honda is 1751mm against the mazda's 1755mm. although these differences in length are minute you should still be able to feel the difference. the honda has less leg room in the back as apposed to the mazda which has alot more so if you have a large family where you'll regularly need to drive 4 or 5 adults its probably best to go with the mazda for its comfort.
now to the last and final technical note and probably the most important, gas consumption and fuel efficiency. the mazda 3 sport has a 55L gas tank as opposed to the civic which has a 50L tank. now the difference is only about 5L between the two gas tank capacities however that extra 5 litres will determine the distance between fill ups and possibly allow you to drive just a bit longer to get a better gas price (gas may be 121 one day and 117 the next, allowing you to fill up on lower gas). the mazda consumes approximately 9.4L per 100km within city and the honda consumes 8.2L per 100km in city. on highway the mazda consumes 6.9L per 100km and the honda takes up 5.7L per 100km. the trade off for the mazda taking up about 1 more litre per 100km both in city and highway is that you will have much more power. this power will allow you to get a heavier load under lower rpms up to speed as apposed to the honda engine with less tq which may actually struggle to get up to the same speed with the same load (due to the nature of a smaller engine).
both engines consume regular unleaded (87 octane) so that should save you some money on gas.
having driven both cars while i was out searching for my own car is that personally i would go for the mazda 3 sport. the hatch back styling allows for a smaller blind spot on the rear window area as apposed to the civic which is designed with a somewhat higher back making for a larger blind spot. the trunk space between the civic and the mazda is actually quite a difference in terms of the amount of storage you can get. the benefit of the mazda 3 is that you can fold the rear seats FLAT as apposed to the civic which can have the back seats fold down however it tends to sit a little higher then the trunk meaning you'll not be able to lay long items such as snowboards and skies flat (inefficient utilization of space).
make sure that when you go test drive both cars to have all driving members of your family with you at the time. during the test drive everyone who plan on driving the car, even if its not on a regular basis should test drive the car to make sure that its a good fit for everyone.
a list of cars in the same class:
Toyota Matrix
Toyota Corolla
Nissan Versa
Nissan Sentra
Honda Fit
good luck on your car shopping.
JC
But what is your budget? Maybe we can recommend some other cars.
Yeah, the interior of the Mazda3 is nicer than the Civic. The fabric on the seats of the Civic LX is UGLY and I don't think I'm going to get leather =(
@ 中国男人:
2008
Automatic
Definitely white for the Civic... probably the Mazda3 as well
The 4-door/2-door issue is not a problem since we already have a Honda Pilot which we will use when we go out as a family. The new car will mostly be driven by my mom, my sister, and myself, usually when we're alone or with a friend or two. But you're right, the Mazda3 is a bit more spacious, so that's something to think about.
@ i_like_hiking:
Looks like you know your stuff, but I couldn't get through all of that myself >< Maybe I'll read it more carefully later. Thanks!
@ Shi2:
The budget is about $25,000-30,000. After asking a few guys they all recommended the Impreza, which is cool with me, but my mom thinks it's ugly. So it's kind of out of the question lol.
im a car nut and i test drove everything in the class and even others out of class cars and ended up with a mazda3 (that was back in 05)
why?
best bang for buck!
and back in jan i had to make the choice again
options were 07 mazda3 07 civix lx and 08 tiburon (v6)
and edned up with the mazda3 again. this car wasnt for myself but i had to chose for the person.
the mazda has more "go" then the civic. its more practical and hands down looks a lot better. I'll skip the issues with the tib since it dosnt apply to u
btw if u have questions about mazda3s (desing flaws etc. u can send me a pm)
EDIT: btw with todays gas prices, i would not consider an AWD(all wheel drive) car ;) for example the impreza since u mentioned it ;)
I personally drive a Toyota Matrix but when I was car shopping my choice was between the Mazda 3 and the Matrix because they are both really similar. They're both cars that don't use too much gas, has a nice and comfortable interior, and is much more spacier than the civic coupe.
My sister drives a 2006 Civic Coupe and it's nice for what it's worth, but i find it's not that comfortable--it's too low for me :P
O ya, dont get a coupe if even theres a remote chance of the whole family needing to ride in it. Its gunna be a pain in the ass.
I have a feeling both my mom and sister are leaning toward the Civic, but mainly for its looks (my dad actually doesn't want us to get either... he wants to settle for a used car or a Korean car)(but that's not going to happen =P). I personally think the Civic looks better too, but the Mazda3 is cute and sporty... I don't mind getting it at all, and from what I've heard from ALL of you, it makes much more sense to get the Mazda.
Is there anything really wrong with the Civic though? My understanding is that it's still a very reliable car... it's just that the Mazda3 is better?
.. and I think u said a lot of ppl are recommending the impreza.. you can get something much better as an alternate to that. Its just one of those cheap "performance" cars that ppl can buy so they can mod it and make it seem worth much more than it really is.
overall the car does not feel as preppy as the mazda3 power wise
as to American cars, i would avoid them at all costs and again i say this from exp from what I’ve driven and what cars family own. their not great and the cheapness and shortcuts the domestic developers are taking are plain silly and ridiculous :P in the end u get what u pay for, in fact ud probably be paying too much for the garbage the Americans (and i say Americans since Toyota is considered the new domestics ;) )are putting out
obv tho there are exceptions to everything and the ford focus for example is one of them. great little car, and if we had the euro focus here in north America id buy it in a heartbeat but we dont cuz we get shit over here so ya...
oh other domestics to consider are Saturns, keep in mind their car line comes from Opel in Europe (or Vauxhall in UK) and Opels aren’t the best but its sure as hell better built then the stuff here
in the end tho both civic and mazda3 are good choices u cant go wrong with :)
Also, I heard that Mazda 3s have some issues with its locking mechanism. If some pressure is applied at the right spot, its doors can be unlocked. They might of fixed it on the newer Mazdas that rolled out, but just check the model number to be sure.
i believe that fixed the lock mechanism problem for the mazda 3's as it was for the 2005 models although i am not 100% sure on this.
as for the door lock issue its been resolved for a very long time now on models produced since january 07 as for prior models there is a lock plate the dealer installs at no charge... so again issue resolved ... worst thing that can happen is some morons "think" its that easy and end up doing nothing more then denting a door but again theft can happen on any car, and no car is theft proof
Thanks for all your input, everyone! I think my family has pretty much decided that we're getting the Mazda3. I still have test drive it though and I don't know when I'm gonna be able to do that... probably after finals. And by then, we might have changed our minds again XD But most likely we'll be getting the Mazda3 =D
i would also agree that the new corolla is "starting" to get on track to looking "ok" still not quite there yet but well on its way, mind u if Toyota make the rolla rwd they would sell like no tomorrow ;) haha
as for the Impreza it does use more gas since its awd. Funny story actually, i walked into a Subaru dealer looked at a few Imprezas (back in 2005 ..2.5rs) and asked how much gas they consume since it wasn’t listed on the specs sheet. the two guys in the show room looked @ me so confused then they went ape shit on my ass on "why is the first thing u ask about is gas consumption?" and how "every car uses gas" and in the end never told me. It’s like wow i asked a simple question and i got chewed up lol oh and they also got really offended when i called it 4WD instead of AWD... damn assholes :tongue:
as to the comment about AWD will get u up to sfu... BS ... yes ull have a greater chance then everyone else on fwd or rwd but its as much up to the driver as the tires on the car...
I hate how ppl never buy domestic, everyone buys a japanese car. How bout supporting the North American economy (which is a joke at the moment) instead of buying imports just because of cheap parts.
Ppl act as if North American cars are of the worst quality, especially concerning ford. Ford arguably makes the best pickups and has decent cars/suvs too.Most of Ford's cars are just cheaper versions of the more expensive lincoln. Im not a big ford fan or anything, just sayin u shud buy domestic.
Another thing i dont get is why ppl buy foreign suv's/cuv's. If its not obvious domestic suv's are superior, than u are an idiot. Like, why in the hell would you buy the FJ cruiser. I don't care if it was based on the classic design or if you do a lot of offroading. I'm repulsed everytime I see that thing on the road.
i dono what it is for honda but depends on the oil they use and how often it will be changed