Is there such a thing as a compact or subcompact car that is quiet (on the inside)and has a decent ride.
I love my 2000 Hyundai Accent but it’s noisy and rattles like an old jalopy!
Just about every new compact or subcompact will be a huge improvement over your 10-year-old Accent. Time for some test drives.
Just stay away from Ford Fiesta, Honda Fit, and Mazda2 with a 10 foot pole.
I disagree strongly about the Fiesta, every report I’ve read has it with an excellent ride. Certainly worth a test drive.
I agree the ford fiesta is worth a look. Top gear gave it high marks, and I personally like it. Good gas millage, and 1.8l engine. I, of course, am talking about the new one, not the old ones.
They don’t do particularly well in the various reliability and cost of ownership indeces, but VW’s ride very nicely for small cars in their price range.
A regular (non sports) Toyota Corolla will give you the best ride for the money. The Civic and Mazda 3 are great cars but a lot noisier than the Corolla. I would stay away from any Volkswagen unless you are a mechanic or a mechanical engineer.
The new Ford Fiesta and Mazda 2 get high marks for quiet ride as well, but they have buzzy engines unless in top gear.
As stated almost anything will will be a lot quieter and dignified than you current car, even a new Hyundai ACCENT!!!
At least half of ride quality and road noise is due to tires. I’ve found Yokohama Avid tires offer much better ride and lower noise compared to others. Give Hyundai Sonata, Mazda 3/6 or Honda Civic/Accord a try.
Twotone
The Nissan Versa!
I have a Honda Fit Sport that I love. Normally I preach the gospel of the Fit, but it might not be the vehicle for you if noise and ride are a concern. Man it corners well, though. Good luck in your search.
I picked up a 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt LS in February 2010. The seats leave a bit to be desired, but the ride is excellent and the interior is very quiet. It was not even on my list at the time, but $5500 in rebates on a 17.6k car made it hard to resist. Six months later, I do not have buyer’s remorse. It’s going in for its first warranty repair, a leak in the headlight housing, otherwise no mechanical or driveability issues. Not the most exciting car on the road, but it gets the job done.
Ed B.
Quiet, Decent Ride Comfort, 40MPG (Eco Model $19K), 10 Air Bags . . .
. . . 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, replacement for Chevrolet’s Cobalt model. You might want to check it out.
CSA
Last fall my institution had calls for all the cars in its fleet, so the institution rented a Nissan Sentra from Enterprise for me to take a 600 mile round trip to a conference. I found the Sentra to ride acceptably and was reasonably quiet on the interstate. In the previous year I made the trip in a Honda Civic Hybrid from the fleet. It was quiet and the ride was about the same as the Sentra, but the seat in the Honda Civic didn’t fit me very well and I needed about one more inch of legroom.
You may want to rent a couple of different candidates for your replacement and take each one on a 100 mile or more trip to see how it does.
From what I’ve read, GM tends to have the quieter models. That is, as long as they aren’t too small and/or Asian imports. Compared to a 2000 Hyundai Accent which didn’t seem to age well, most models by major manufactures that are 10 years newer should be substantially quieter.
I wouldn’t discount trying any of them as how quiet a car is may be quite subjective. Consider too that a noisier when new Civic or Accord or others could be quieter after a few years when the rattles of less reliable brands set in.
Take a long test drive over various types of roads to find the best one for you.
I had a Civic that was a year older than your Accent and it was fairly noisy, especially on those chip’n’seal roads(where they just spray some tar down them put some gravel over it). Even with tires that were rated very good for noise levels, it was still quite a noisy drive over 35~40mph.
You might have to step up a notch or two and find a Lexus or Acura to get a little better noise reduction, but don’t expect whisper quiet all the time