My daily commute is about 30 minutes, and my work requires me to drive a lot. I occasionally need to carry our baby, dog and bulky items. For the really big stuff I have a truck. I think a fun little econo-hatchback is what I need. Easy enough, but there’s a catch: I often hit traffic, so even thou…

Mazda 3 or Ford Focus hatchbacks

I don’t know of any slushbox that’s gonna be tolerable. I guess a middle ground between a direct connection and PRND is a VW with DSG transmission. Of course, BMW, Mitsubishi, Smart, Toyota, not to mention Lamborghinis and Ferraris have automated manuals. All of them are either too small or too ex…

Any make and model that fits you needs. After a few years of use, the difference from one model or another is not as important as how well it has been serviced. The worse car you can buy is the one that the prior owner is selling because it needs service, which he likely put off until it already h…

Honda Civic Si. I’d prefer manual even in traffic, but if you must have auto this car is still fun to drive.

I would add the Mazda Protege Hatchback; you can get a good one for less than $6000. It’s also more economical than the Mazda 3.

Looking again, a Mazda3 or Civic Si is out of your $6000 reach. However, you could find the Mazda 3’s predecessor, a Mazda Protege5 for that price. But it will likely have 100K+ miles on it. That’s probably the most fun to drive. I think a Focus ZX5 hatchback or wagon is your best choice; great to…

Always heard good things about the Focus. After some quick CL searches, it’s hard to find a Civic Si hatchback that has an A/T or hasn’t been horribly abused by some spiky-haired punk. How did I miss out on this business of selling coffee-can exhaust tips and faux-carbon-fiber? Those guys must be m…

Test drive the scion tc and it was no where near as fun as the Celica gts. Another one you can look at is the sadly forgotten Acura RSX

A 2wd Saturn Vue. Some of the early Vue’s had a Honda V6 (2002-2003), that would be the best one to get. The get 20-25 mpg and have lots of room and are quite compact on the outside.

Economical commuter, with a tolerable slushbox?

General Discussion

emajor February 4, 2012, 8:50am 3

The Mazda 3 is not a fuel sipper if you get the 2.3 liter engine. Go for the 2.0, but good luck finding one for 6 grand. I second the Focus, though.

Topic		Replies	Views
Reliability vs "Fun" vs MPG General Discussion	31	3295	March 18, 2012
Not Much Reason To Buy A Manual, Except To Be A Stubborn Curmudgeon General Discussion	143	5784	March 7, 2016
Best manual tranmission, compact car General Discussion	57	4516	September 23, 2016
Late Model Manual Transmission Myth General Discussion	74	5326	October 2, 2015
Manual transmission used car recommendations General Discussion	25	2873	July 24, 2011

Economical commuter, with a tolerable slushbox?

Related topics