brillo

2006 Civic

Like the Mazda3, the civic is not so much an economy car as a well appointed small car…at this point, the difference in quality and appearance between the Accord and Civic is really how much car do you need. The interior of both the sedan and coupe are pretty amazing, great seats with good bolstering and high quality cloth, high quality plastics, a cool design ( I like the digital speedo up top) good rear seat room (even in the coupe, and I’m 6ft with a lot of torso). Both didn’t have sunroofs so I could actually sit in them, even the coupe without much issue. The build quality was first rate Honda, the panel seems looked tight, the paint was perfect, the engine bay was very well organized. The cab forward design makes getting around in the rear of the engine bay a real pain in the ***, but there isn’t much back there to need access to. I freaking hate the MXV4 tires Honda and Mazda put on everything these days, but you could always get some summer tires. I didn’t have a chance to feel the manual tranny as both we automatic, but I’m sure its good as the RSX has one of the most fluid, smooth and defined gear boxes on any FWD car I’ve ever driven, and its based on that one as I understand. The cars are really suppose to get 30mpg city and 40hwy, so kinda makes getting a hybrid sorta silly to me, but hey, somebody has to help finance the hybrid powertrains we need for the larger cars.

2006 Ford Fusion

Ok, I was particularly interested in this car as its suppose to save Ford from GM’s fate. Well, walking up to it, it certainly makes the other domestics and some of the foreign cars look boring, only its cousin the Mazda6 IMO looks better from the outside. If we are talking about the 300C or the Impala, its blows them outta the water. I’m not a fan of the 300C’s looks personally, I know some are, but that’s subjective anyways. It really makes the Impala look like the ugly stepchild. Its about the same size as the Accord, but looks smaller to me on the outside. I could do without the Eurotail lights, they’re not as bad as some I’ve seen, but that’s my only complaint about the exterior design.

The build quality was damn impressive, the paint, body panel fitment and seem tightness were all on par with any Asian car I’ve seen. The doors had a nice thud to them, the trunk is huge, the back seat has plenty of legroom even with the seat pretty far back (more than the Mazda6, its also about 2in longer). The interior materials were also quite nice, the leather in this car was good, better than the current stuff in most Mazda’s (that will improve for us in 2006 also), the seats felt supportive, the instruments we easy to read and well designed. My only grip about the interior was the feeling of some of the buttons, which felt kinda cheap when pressed, not in a really bad way, but the Civics have a nice firm clicking feel to them. The drive is suppose to be close to the Mazda6 but a little softer, which is much better than the Camry in terms of handling and fun to drive factor

Its getting to be a rather crowded field for midsize cars, I think the Fusion will sell reasonably well as it will win over some Asian converts and steel a lot of the folks who my buy a G6 or Impala. Ford really has an offering that can almost go toe to toe with the Camry and Accord who’s only real advantages now are quality perception and slightly more powerful engines. The Fusion should get AWD next year which is something none of the others have.

Will the car save ford? Its possible, the question is how long it will take to get some unique features to market such as the AWD and Hybrid powertrains which could make it standout in the pack. Toyota has a new Camry coming soon, which should be interesting to see.

RX8_Buckeye

Great write-ups brillo. It's good to hear that the Fusion is being well-received. I haven't read a negative piece about it yet. One important point that you forgot to mention is that the Fusion undercuts the price of Accord/Camry by quite a bit. Hopefully people give this car a chance.

SHOWOFF

The Fusion will be available in AWD in the Spring. The hybrid is due in late '07 and an SVT variant is slated for '08 using the Mazdaspeed6 as it's basis.