Yes, You Can Still Have a Small Car With a Family

By Scott Huntington

Can you name the truck with four-wheel drive, smells like a steak and seats thirty-five? If you’re not a “Simpsons” fan or you somehow missed this episode, check this out.

The long-running animated series may have lost a step in recent years, but “The Simpsons” was never more on-point than it was with the satirical SUV archetype. Even in the 1990s, this is what it took for people to ask the question: “Does a typical family really need a seven-seat SUV?”

Buying a New Car, Part 5: Epilogue

By Scott Araujo

In my last post, Buying a New Car, Part4: Starting Over, I purchased a 2014 Mazda 3 iSport. Here are my impressions after having owned it for a while.

I know this series only started a few weeks ago, but I've actually owned the car for about a year now and I've put about 12,000 miles on it. So far I'm thrilled with it. I'm really glad I spent a bit more money than I planned to because I got a car I really love.

Buying a New Car, Part 4: Starting Over

By Scott Araujo

In my last post, Buying a New Car, Part 3: The Negotiation, my plan to seek out and find a 2013 xD leftover ended in frustration and disappointment. So I take a step back and start again.

I was pretty steamed about how things went while trying to buy a 2013 Scion xD leftover. I believe it truly was a series of honest mistakes and blunders as they said it was, but it was still very frustrating. After a few days I still liked the Scion but I certainly wasn't going to buy from that dealer.

Things going south like that may have been a blessing in disguise. I had been very focused on creating the list, whittling it down, and buying the car. I had become very driven and goal oriented, seeking to just get it done and over with. When it all came apart I was left with some time to reflect on what I was doing.

I had set out with a fairly simple goal: find an inexpensive car that met my needs. I had also decided to be pretty picky since I tend to keep my cars for a very long time. Andy and I had already discussed how any time you set a limit on the price, you are going to have to make some compromises. I had been pretty staunch about keeping the price low, and I had been overly motivated to get it all done ASAP. On reflection, I had been pushing too hard on both fronts. I didn't need to get it done immediately. My Honda Civic was still running just fine. I didn't need to be so hard on the price point. I was trying to keep the price really low when in reality I can afford for it to be a bit higher.

I talked with Andy, I talked with Mercedes, I talked with my wife. I can certainly be prone to tunnel vision at times and they all helped me to calm down and open up my perspective. I moved back to square one and once again considered the creation of The List.

An important point Andy made is what he tells everyone who is looking to buy a car: if you're even remotely interested in a car, go drive it. And he's absolutely right. Taking a car for a test drive is very easy to do, and whether you're hot or cool towards a car, five minutes behind the wheel can change that faster than anything else.

Review: 2014 Mazda3 s Grand Touring

The four-door compact car market is absolutely jam packed with offerings. There are so many choices it’s staggering. The good news for buyers is that there really isn’t a bad car out there. But, like most things in life, at some point something comes along and raises the bar. And while there might not be a bad car out there, some are better than others. The 2014 Mazda3 is one such example.

Mazda’s compact 3 was already at the very-good end of the spectrum, but the all-new 2014 Mazda3 is one of these cars that simply takes it to the next level, and other automakers should take note.

Small Luxuries: Well-Appointed Compact Cars Blur the Lines of Luxury

I was sitting inside a fully loaded 2014 Mazda3 S Grand Touring (review to come in the following weeks) the other day and noticed how well appointed this compact five-door was. There were heated leather seats, navigation, touchscreen everything, heads-up display, lane departure warning system, an excellent stereo, outstanding driving dynamics, and a very premium overall feel. It also has a premium price at close to $30,000. For a non-luxury-branded, non-high-performance (think Jetta GLI) compact, that’s getting pretty expensive. But let’s compare it to a premium-brand; I’ll pick on the BMW 320i for a moment. Similarly equipped, the ’14 320i is over $14,000  more expensive than the Mazda3 S 5-Door Grand Touring. Oh, and the Mazda has more horsepower (although slightly less torque) and better fuel economy. Is this an apples to oranges comparison? Well, one is FWD, one is RWD; the BMW is technically a compact whereas the Mazda3 is uh, well, technically a midsize. So much for car classifications (thank you EPA). Of course, the Mazda3 is just one example. You can option up a host of compacts and subcompacts with scads of luxury-like options (and price tags) which begs the question: Are these really expensive small cars, or great bargains on compact luxury?

The “premium” small car isn’t anything new. It’s been tried in all sorts of forms from the often mocked Cadillac Cimarron, which was just a Chevrolet Cavalier in a tuxedo; to the latest Acura ILX, which rides on the Honda Civic chassis and is quite good. Small luxury cars have been a fairly hit-or-miss, but with today’s emphasis on fuel economy and downsizing, perhaps higher-end small cars have more of a fighting chance than before. (Remember the Infiniti G20?)

And while today’s luxuriously appointed small cars are extremely nice for what they are, they’re still lagging behind in the must cutting edge methods of vehicular-provided pampering. Sit in a new Audi, BMW, Lexus, or Cadillac, and many of the technologies and interiors are definitely pushing the envelope in terms of tech and creature comforts. From heated a steering wheel and automatically adjusting seat bolsters; to a touchscreen with handwriting recognition, and ventilation systems that mimics natural air currents of a forest—the latest crop of bona-fide luxury rides have features such as these, and yes, all of the aforementioned luxury accouterments are real.

However, step inside a ’14 Mazda3 S Grand Touring, complete with its attractive two-tone leather seating, center console-mounted audio controls, and adaptive front lighting system, and you’ll quickly realize that this compact, and many others, offer a level of luxury and technology that hasn’t been seen in a small car before. In fact, many of today’s small cars are can be so well equipped that they cross the lines into bona-fide luxury vehicles. That, of course, begs the question, what is a luxury car? If you clad a Chevrolet Spark with leather, a touchscreen, heated seats, and Bluetooth, is it a “luxury car”? Of course not (and the Spark 2LT has all those features).

But with enough features, sold build quality, plenty of the latest technology, and a smooth ride and remarkable handling, many of today’s small cars are blurring the lines of what constitutes a luxury vehicle, regardless of size.