Swerve wrote:I have an idea that may either lead to a realisation that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Or it may make you hate your lot in life - hard to know for sure at this stage...
Anywho, rate your current car/s against on a scale of 1 to 10 using the following criteria. Then rate the best/favourite car you have ever driven according to the same metrics. You may be surprised (or, as disclaimered above, saddened) by the outcome.
1. Exterior (what do you love about the car and how close does it come to a perfect 10?)
2. Interior (aesthetics, ergonomics, quality of materials)
3. Engine (torquey, revving etc.)
4. Gearbox (ease of use, tactility, speed, intuitive etc.)
5. Handling (on/off-road, confidence inspiring, steering feel etc.)
5. Practicalities (fuel efficient, seating/luggage capacity)
6. Value (vs. comparable cars, the wider market etc.)
As ratings would be both circumstantial and subjective, I think it will be interesting to see AFers ratings for particular cars. And also whether their experience with the "best" cars they've driven actually result in higher overall scores for those cars than the ones owned, given the criteria.
Love this post. This is tricky for me because while I've driven a lot of cars, I not really driven many cars specifically geared for driving excitement or engagement. Most of them were grocery-getters, with a few exceptions. Whittling the list down took me a while.
First I'll get to my current car, the 2013 Ford Focus hatchback:
1. Exterior : 7 - I like the styling quite a bit, better than the facelift that just came out. It's about the best-looking compact economy car on the American market, save the Mazda3. It's got a good stance (mine seems to be a bit lower than other Foci that I've seen, even STs), the styling is sharp and has good crisp lines where it needs them without too much gaudy frippery that some cars get to dress them up to look more upscale. While I'd rather a "hatchback" be more of a fastback or even a hidden-hatch style, I think it looks better than the full-on wagon in the Euro market. The wheels are pretty nice, the metallic paint job really shines in the sun, but there are some hints of cheapness. The plastic in the grille is dull, the roof drains look and feel quite cheap, and my particular example, there are some small paint defects on the front bumper that didn't manifest themselves until 1,000 miles after the paint warranty ran out.
2. Interior : 6 - The dash is well-styled and buttons and switches are easy to get to, and the switchgear mostly feels good, except for the circular selector buttons on the wheel; I can't easily control them with my thumbs due to how they angle in toward the instrument panel. The steering wheel is a perfect size and feels great in my hands, and there's lots of good materials on the dash, on the wheel, on the shifter, and on the console. However, as expected on a car in this price range, cost-cutting is evident. The door panels are a hard plastic and the door pulls have a bit of twist in them, as if the grade of plastic on them isn't quite up to the task. The front doors have a nice patch of fabric on them to help them out, but the rear doors have no fabric and are about as cheap as you can get. Supposedly-metallic-looking plastic trim is not at all convincing, but fortunately sparse. I'm currently awaiting a new 12v power adapter (under warranty) due to the fact that it twisted in its housing and broke. The seats are among the best of I've ever sat in with good support all throughout and good bolstering, though I'd like just a touch more lumbar. However, the center stack protrudes into the footwell too much and my knee rests awkwardly on its hard plastic surface at times; that could have been designed better.
3. Engine : 6 - For this class of car, the engine is strong and the powerband is useful throughout. The car accelerates well and I've never had problems getting up to speed or passing anyone, and it moves about as well as the V6 I had in the Stratus. However, with just 140 lb-ft of torque, it could use more grunt when I really peg it, though having the manual helps it hustle. It can idle rough, both sounding and feeling sick, which is a fact of life with a lot of 4-bangers, but I've seen 4-cylinder motors with better refinement. It can get thrashy at higher RPMs.
4. Gearbox : 7 -- Shifting is great. The throws are short, and gears just snick right into place when I'm feeling spirited. The clutch movement could be smoother, but I'm not sure how much of that is the clutch or the driver. I can move briskly through the gears and keep the revs under 2,000 without any problems. The car desperately needs a 6th gear, though. On rural freeways, it pushes 3,000 RPM at 70 MPH, which makes for loud and inefficient motoring on the open road.
5. Practicalities: 7 -- Being a small car, it's a bit tight, but still pretty good for front seat passengers. The rear seats are acceptable for this class of car, but I'm glad I don't have to ride back there. 2 adults can ride in adequate comfort back there, but if someone tall is in the passenger seat, the footwell is going to be cramped. The cargo area is a bit snug due to the rake of the rear seatbacks, but the seats fold down nearly flat and give a lot of extra space. However, the headrests have to be removed and it's a bit of a pain to get them out, and the tonneau cover is hard to remove if you don't fold the seats down first. But you can haul a lot of stuff with the seats folded down, the cover removed, and the front passenger seat folded up. Fuel economy is good (I generally get 26 MPG in town, about 35 on the highway, overall average around 28.2, which is good considering my lead foot), but due to the aforementioned lack of a 6th gear, fuel economy starts dropping precipitously over 65 MPH. The SYNC system options menus are not very intuitive, but general day-to-day usage of the stereo controls and phone controls are excellent. It can get irritating though when it decides to not immediately recognize my USB stick when I start up the car and I've had to pull the fuse for the SYNC system once to clear things out when it started getting really bad at not picking up the USB, but I can't imagine having another car without voice-activated stereo and phone controls. The LCD screens however offer good trip computing and mileage information, as well as a full array of system alerts for the car. Handling overall on the car is great; it's really fun to drive and dig into corners. It didn't sacrifice any ride quality to make it fun, which is a pretty noteworthy achievement. It ridess smooth and handles bumps quite well.
6. Value: 8 -- Considering the combination of price, power, comfort and convenience, styling, handling, and utility, the car is hard to beat in its segment. Nearly all of its competition got out of the wagon and hatch market, and much of the economy sedan market has other shortcomings that I think the Focus overcomes. IMHO, only the Mazda3 truly competes, and while the 3 seems to be a better overall car, it's also a bit pricier, though you do get what you pay for. The Focus is a fine choice, however. Going smaller (e.g. Fiesta, Fit, Yaris) you might find something comparable, but once you option those cars up, they may or may not offer the same utility and power that you'd get out of the Focus, but that's going to depend on what features are most important. The Focus, I think, really hits a sweet spot when everything is considered.
So now to the car I thought was "the best." I had a time whittling this down...
3rd - Dad's '73 Oldsmobile Cutlass
2nd - My last car, '02 the Dodge Stratus
Overall, I picked Mom's old '86 Chrysler Laser as the top choice, but all three of them are very different cars, but the Laser is the one I remember the most fondly, and one I wish I could have back. And I also consider my Focus to be very close to the Laser in terms of the type of vehicle, overall fun, and general purpose, so I think comparing the two is a neat exercise.
1. Exterior : 8 -- As we go through this, keep in mind this is a 30-year old design now, and plenty has changed in the car market during that time. However, the 80's fastback hatch coupe shape is one that I still love, and I thought the Laser was a fine example. It was well-proportioned, sleek, and looked fast standing still. It sat on attractive 8-spoke wheels and the deck spoiler looked better than the integrated spoiler than its Daytona twin sported. Like the Focus, it was black, though the Laser also featured a nice red pin-stripe going through the door trim, and it looked great with the T-tops. Its angular shape was definitely a product of the times, but it was crisply styled.
2. Interior : 6 -- It featured the latest in 80's electronic gadgetry, including a complex trip computer and digital gauges. The dash and center console featured a lot of cheap plastic, but the door panels were well-appointed and featured generous amounts of cloth detailing. The seats probably wouldn't have been as comfortable for larger adults, but for me, they were great; well-supported and well-bolstered, and with air bladders to adjust firmness. The interior was lively but still restrained; the cloth on the seats and doors was white with grey seatbacks and carpeting, and the dash was black and grey. The dashboard was impressive when all lit up, it was still largely a bunch of squares and rectangles on square and rectangular panels, emphasizing how function trumped form in a lot of areas for cash-strapped Chrysler. You could do worse, for sure, but it wasn't going to win any styling awards. Visibility was very good all around, and it was fun having the sunlight come in from above, though it got hot on summer days.
3. Engine : 6 -- It featured the 2.2 Turbo 1, and it didn't have as much weight to hustle around as a comparable car of today would, so it was good fit for this car. It took some time for the turbo to spool up, but once it did, it could haul pretty well. I think the manual Focus, however, can out-hustle it to 60.
4. Gearbox: 6 -- Mom's Laser had a slushbox, and at the time, I'd not yet been introduced to manual transmissions. I don't recall anything bad about the way it shifted but it was short on gears compared to a modern car. It sometimes hunted for the right gear in lower speeds, but it didn't seem to be any worse than anything else of the era.
5. Practicalities: 6 -- It was more truthful than the Focus for its rear-seat capabilities; there were only two seats back there, period, and adults riding in the back did not have a fun time. Front seat passengers had good amounts of shoulder room and decent head room (though taller occupants might have had a hard time). Taking out the T-tops made fun drives all the better, but it was a chore taking them out, stowing them in the back, then putting them back in. I don't recall them ever leaking, though, which is a plus. Despite the fastback profile, you could still haul quite a bit in the cargo area. I'm *pretty sure* the rear seats folded down, as I remember hauling lots of big things in that car. I don't remember fuel economy numbers, but I don't think it got as good as the Focus does, but it was still very economical for the day. Handling in this car was great. I drove fast through a lot of back roads in it and it was great to tear around in. The computers offered all kinds of quaint ways to compute trip information and fuel economy as well as the infamous voice alert system. It was a good party piece, but constantly hearing about how low your washer fluid is when your washer fluid bottle has a leak in it gets tiresome.
6. Value: 5 -- Do we compare this to other cars of the day? If so, this car was not much of a standout. The market for this type of car was far bigger, and included a vast array of econo-box minded hatchbacks, as well as sporty offerings. These things were pricey when they first came out. If I'm right, I think with options it stickered for around $14,000 USD when new, closer to $30,000 in today's dollars. The pony cars that it strove to compete with offered rear-wheel-drive and V-8s and the Laser/Daytona was never much of a threat to them, but the Laser also offered an alternative for buyers looking for a daily driver car that was stylish, reasonably-quick, and useful, so it had appeal to a broad range of buyers. In a sea of Omnis, Citations, and Escorts, it might have been worth it to someone who wasn't afraid to throw down some extra coin to stand out and drive something fun that could be used every day, but had limited appeal to those who were more performance-minded and were cross-shopping Firebirds, Mustangs, or even 200SX's. So I think in the era, it would have some value but there were lots of other alternatives. If this car was on sale today for 30 grand, even with modern safety equipment and engineering, it would have no takers.
So what have we (or rather, I) learned? With the exception of exterior styling, the car that I have right now is better in nearly all measurable ways to the car I wish I could have back the most. If Ford would get around to offering a Focus coupe with T-tops and slant that hatch back a little more, I'd want for nothing else.
