in continuation of the other days test drives of the cheapest model each company offers (except some garbage companies that aren’t near my office), I went and drove the last three on my list
Nissan Versa Note: the dealer experience was bad, lots of waiting, etc. And the car. WoW. It’s not good.
The brakes felt like they needed a good bleeding, steering was vague, almost deceptive. Power windows aren’t an option without a special order. On the plus side lots of rear passenger room, and the spare is mounted under the car so the trunk is roomier.
Hyundai Accent: a genuine surprise. It had all the features a modern car should have. Was roomy. Drove well, if perhaps a little under-powered. Didn’t try to be too fancy inside, which is a mistake most of the cheap end seem to make. Hyundai are just owning who they are, and seem to be doing it well.
And with a bunch of insentives, the car that already started at the lowest price was ~$5k cheaper than all the others.
Kia Rio: eh. meh. blah. The engine is actually got good power, and a manually controllable 6 speed auto made for a zippy car. But aside from acceleration driving was otherwise numb. And priced similar to it’s competitors it too had no power windows, AND no remote locks. How is that still a thing. And no backup camera, which the Nissan was the only other to lack.
Mostly I hated the faux ipad in the dash look of the stereo. Stop doing that car companies. It looks Bad. And looks especially bad when it’s like a 3.5inch non-touch screen in the faux tablet dash pod
also there was this. It looked pretty.
conclusion: were I to buy a new car, it’d be the Toyota Yaris or the Hyundai Accent.