I'm looking for a fairly economical used car, but want the versitility of a hatchback. I thought I'd found the answer and was going for a Mazda 3 sport, but the car pulled hard to the right when driving, and despite the dealer spending 10 days trying to rectify it, made no progress. I test drove another one today, and whilst it wasn't as bad, did still pull to the right.

I friendly dealer has lent me a Subaru Impreza WRX which suits me in terms of having the hatchback and the bonus of AWD, (and is F****** fast !)doesn't seems (from internet research) to be particularly efficient. I'm getting quite bored by it all now, but the options seem to be:

Toyota Matrix / Pontiac Vibe (can't get too excited by these)
Dodge Caliber
Jeep Patriot
Try another Mazda

Does anyone have any of these cars and therefore able to venture an opinion, or an alternative suggestion ?

Ta

I have a 5dr Mazda 3 and I love it.

My advice to you is to buy a 1yr old Japanese car. That way you avoid the initial depreciation hit, you still have 2yrs warrany remaining and being Japanese, it will hold it's value and be reliable.

I had a 2000 Impreza Turbo in the UK and it wasn't good on petrol, not too sure what the new ones are like, but I cannot imagine a 2.5 litre Turbo charged rally rocket to be that fuel efficient.

[QUOTE=Danny B;6770968]I have a 5dr Mazda 3 and I love it.

QUOTE]

Does it pull to the right at all when you drive it - I've test driven 2 now and they both do

[QUOTE=Southcote;6771004] I've had a few crs in the UK that pulled to the left and my current car in Canada will occasionally pull to the right. I can depend on all sorts of things but mainly the road itself can cause a car to pull in either direct. Unless its horrendously pronounced then I wouldn't worry.........now if it pulled violently under breaking then I would be worried

[QUOTE=Brownstar;6771029] The first one changed lanes in a fairly short distance even without braking. The second one wasn't so bad

No, mine doesn't pull in either direction.

I wouldn't worry too much, it could just be the wheel aligment which is easily fixed, or bald / flat tyres.

Try finding a straight road, get up to about 60kmph and brake hard (without skidding) ideally you should break in a straight line with no brake judder.

The first one had the whel alignment done (3 times) new bushells (?) and some sort of rods replaced, as well as new tyres and it still did it. It put me off a bit, made me think it might have been in a smash

If it had all that work done and still pulled to one side, then yes, stay away from it.

I've got a new model Forester XT (same engine as the Impreza WRX). Driven sensibly it gives 10.5 l/100kms commuting mileage and a fraction under 9l/100kms on a longer journey. Enjoy the power and it does like a drink.

I previously had an '07 Mazda 3GT (5 door, manual), and thought it was a good car, didn't experience any pulling issues with it. To be honest I thought the gas mileage wasn't great for the performance and size of the car, but it was quite fun to drive.

I have a mazda 5 (built on M3s paltform etc I think). Love it.

Test drove patriot which I quite liked but very noisy and unrefined compared with mazda.

Like the look of vibe but didn't drive one. Couldn't bear the back windo in the caliber.

Gryph

We bought a Mazda MPV and it drives really well. Would certainly consider buying another Mazda.

Buy the Subaru

Not particularly efficient though. My older legacy gets maybe 22mpg, but its fantastic to drive in the winter. Thats without the Turbo.

If efficiency and a hatchback is important they now sell a 2.0l version of the Mazda 3 hatch. When I bought my Civic earlier this year (which is a great car IMO), the 2.0 Mazda was not available as a hatch, otherwise that would have been given some serious consideration. Could just be more camber on the roads here than you expect? If you drive on the left, do they still pull to the right?

My short list was the Civic and the Mazda 3 sedan. I was aiming for fuel efficiency, room for 2 plus 2 kids/ occasional adults. Anything over a 2.0l was dismissed. On driving them I preferred the solidity of the Honda over the twitchyness of the Mazda, and to date (6months later) I have no regrets. Getting just under 39 mpg from it on average on my country commute (or 7.3l / 100km if you prefer), although that doesn't include much winter driving which will take a toll I expect.

For what you want a Honda Fit should also be checked out. The 2009 has a little more power from the 1.5 than last years. They are cheaper than the Civics.

I gave up looking for a low millage late model used "japanese" car...they were all silly money. It made more sense to buy new and know the history and start with zero miles on it. A grand from the government also helped with that, not sure the ecoauto rebate is still available? We decided to lease for three years at about $300 a month and then buy at the residual value which was way less than a three year old Civic with 60-80k km on seemed to be available for. In that case the relatively low depreciation of Civics helped keep the payment within the monthly budget. Longer service intervals (about 10k km per change) and slightly better economy were also factors in deciding we could afford the new Civic too. No Civic hatch here unfortunately, but the Fit fills that niche.

Hyundai Accent is also available with a hatch configuration and is very good value and very efficient if you dont need something bigger.

I've bought the Impreza ! Had a bit of fun with it this morning and in the end they gave it to me for a good price. I think Mrs S was really looking for me to get an AWD, which narrowed it down to the Patriot and the Impreza, and in the end the Impreza was a better deal

Thanks for all the advice - much appreciated

LOL, I have such influence...who knew!

Get snow tires for it too though... AWD is nice, but it wont help you stop any.


And send the cheque to the usual address

Good choice