Funky Buddha

I'm in the market for a new car now..the old one's gonna goto my sis or selling it...I'll see. But I drove a 2k2 P5 and a 2k2 Acura 1.7EL. Wow..they are sooo nice. I'm kinda leaning towards the mazda right now but I still have a few more cars to drive. I like the roomier p5, and the handling is pretty good..i would have to say that the 1.7's handling is just as good, maybe even better(sorry guys). It has the same amount of standard equipment...pw, pl, ps, cd, am/fm etc...I kinda like the price of the mazda though and the way it feels when I sit in it. Sportier. I test drove an auto right now cause I don't wanna be grinding gears (still learning). They both have very good suspension, 4 wheel abs disc brakes, I kinda like the EL's bucket seats better(more lateral support).

Oh well....on monday I'll be taking a look at the new Sentra, Corolla, Camry, Matrix. But right now..just so u guys know..i'm leaning toward the p5. Gonna be hard to beat that thing. I hate making decisions.

onehawaiian

comes down to the scrilla. p5's are pretty cheap in their class. and the others you mentioned are not station wagons...

j/k ppl, don't get mad.

go with the 5. they're the bomb.

firefly

I have something to say about the Acura EL. I had a 01 EL before the P5 and that thing is the most problematic car I've ever owned. I'm not talking about small problems...all the problem I had are safety related like engine stalling, shocks leaking, and driver seat rocks like a grandma chair. The 01 EL and Civic (7th gen Civic in general) are poorly built because Honda cheaped out way too much. And it's not I'm the only one with all these problems. If you go over to www.7thgencivic.com/forum and look under the Problem/Issue section you'll see a lot of members having the same problem with their car.

Aside from the problems, the best thing about that car is the engine and transmission. The entire drivetrain is very smooth and the engine is eager to rev. But the suspension is nowhere near the Protege's. The EL has a very soft setup, body leans is evident in the corner and the rear end is very un-settle. If you have the chance of test driving it again pay attention to the way the rear suspension reacts to bumps. It feels like the shocks are blown and it keeps on bouncing after the bump and takes a long time to settle down.

After 14 months and 30000km, I traded in the EL for the P5. I'll rather take a slight loss than live with the problem I had and have to take it in to fix something every month. I've taken the car to three different Acura dealers and no one is able to fix the engine stalling for me. I was on my third set of shocks when I sold the car because the first replacement set leaked as well. My car is totally stock so there's nothing to blame on. (otherwise Acura won't fix it for me. Honda dealers used to be mod friendly but now if you have anything done they'll do everything to turn you down for warrenty claims.)

Sorry for the long post but I want to steer you away from the wrong car. Let me know if you want to know anything about the EL.

Funky Buddha

Tell me more 'bout it. the one I test drove was 2k2 1.7EL in premium trim..I didn't notice those things maybe because it was brand new, but it felt pretty good actually. I liked the steering a little more than the p5 as well and the seats have incredible lateral support. I noticed that the engine was very audible in the cockpit as well and it does like to rev like you said. I would say that the pick up wasn't as impressive as the p5 but as soon as you hit 3 - 4000 rpm, you feel the vtec kick in and you just shoot forward. I don't know if that's accurate. Also it felt like going through 1st and 2nd, the gear ratio was too low...like the engine is reving too much. Cornering was very good as well...i liked it as it didn't feel there was any body roll...maybe because the seats have so much support.

As of the 2 test drives, I'm leaning towards the p5. It was smooth, engine was quiet, revs smoother. It also corners pretty well. It's just got enough give to the suspension that it's not harsh on long bumpy turns. I like the way it looks as well, it doesn't have that pointy beak that the acura does. and the taillights look a lot better. Overall, more room on the p5 and I also liked that you can take out the rear seats and it's got adustable headrests in the back. White faced gauges, and the seating puts the shifter in the optimal shifting location. Not too low, too far or too high. I liked it. The seats could've been better, and offer deeper or larger side bolsters, but I liked them. It was comfortable and a lot softer than the 1.7's.

firefly

Hmm...I had the Touring model with the cloth seats. The seat fabric material is not that great...it shows very bad sign of wear after just a year. To be honest I find the seats in the P5 better than the EL in terms of both shape/support and workmanship.

I know it's hard to discover the flaws within a 15 or 20 mins test drive. But if you ever have the chance to drive the EL again note the following: (besides the un-settle rear suspension I mentioned in my last post)

*The steering wheel is awefully big and it makes you to do a lot of arm movement to turn in city driving.

*The steering has very weak on-center feel. If you have the chance of taking the car onto a highway and drive it at high speed you'll find the car wander all over the place. It seems that the car doesn't track the road at all and I always need to make steering corrections to keep it straight. I had my alignment and tire balance by my mechanic and it's all within spec.

*It seems that you're after a 5 speed but you've only test driven the auto. A lot of the EL/Civic are having the clutch click problem. What happens is whenever you do a clutch in/clutch out the pedal will make a click sound. This is not only annoying (the click got pretty loud on mine) but it's actually a problem with the clutch master cylinder. I had the click sound since the first day I got my car and 9 months later my master cylinder starts leaking. It took me a long time to get my dealer to fix this because the way it's design makes it very hard to access. So my dealer tried to play BS with me but it got so bad that I had to add brake fluid to the clutch every week. So eventually they ordered the part and had my car for 2 days to get it done. I've confirmed this with other people on 7thgencivic.com and it seems the only fix for the clicking problem is to replace the clutch cylinder.

*If you end up with a loose driver seat that rocks back and forth, think twice before you bring it in for service. In many cases the fix will make it worse.

*If you end up with an engine that stalls at random for no reason, good luck. Honda has yet to find out the reason for this. It usually happens on a hot or humid day. The engine can stall out completely while you're stopped at a light, or when you let off the gas to shift. During the summer the car stall at least once a day. I had couple close calls because of this problem and it's one of the reason I got rid of my car. On one ocassion it stalled while I was shifting from 1->2 and I was in the middle of an intersection...almost got rear ended. Another time it stalled while I was slowing down for a red light. Gear in neutral, foot on brake, at about 60km/h...then it cut out all of a sudden and I lost my power steering. I had to start the thing while it's rolling.

All these problem I mentioned are shared by many other Civic/EL owners so I'm not the only one. Just keep in mind you'll have a good chance of getting a lemon Civic/EL if you decide to buy one. I know how it feels like when everyone believe Honda=quality and reliable but that's in the past. Honda knows that their brand image is so good that no matter how poorly they make them there are still people willing to buy it. Anyways...good luck.

Funky Buddha

thanks man..i'll look out for that. the only highway driving i did on it was upto 80km/h it felt good even then. but as I said, this is my first initial test drive on both auto cars. i will test drive many more times before i decide since i have a few more cars to go through on my list. will prbbly update this post next monday when i go drive the new corolla, matrix and camry

Funky Buddha

Well...another update. This time I took my friend who is an ambulance driver out for a test drive since he is in the market for a new car as well. His 85 GTi died on him. So first stop was a used 2001 Nissan Sentra XE w/ 16" alloy wheels, tint, and 5 spd. For all you calgarians, we got it from the toyota dealer on bonaventure and macleod. It drove pretty good. I didn't like the clutch since I had to really press on it and it didn't find gears as quick. The engine likes to be rev'd though. We took it through sharp turns at around 60- 80km/h and the tires held up well. Nice suspension and barely any body roll. It accelerated pretty quick, and it was a comfortable ride. Quiet cockpit, nice seats. Lots of trunk space and adequate rear leg room. Decent but it there was a little body rust already...and for a 2001!!! so I said forget it

next...he wanted to check out the p5. We put that thing through its paces. I have never seen a mazda handle this well especially when he's driving. Took it to heritage park, did some doughnuts in the parking lot, lots of hairpin turns, tested that 4 wheel abs (worked sooo good). Then I got to drive it. What a diff. from the Sentra!! The shifting was so smooth, I had no problems finding gears, the clutch was feathery light and the seating was very comfortable. The thing I loved the most was the cornering capabilites, the handling OMG the handling!!, and the shifting ease.

I am so sold. I'll have to wait till 2003 though since I still have a part of my student loan to pay off. Can't Wait!!!

nightowl

wait till you put a short shifter and a CAI in that baby!

Funky Buddha

Hell ya, the stock shifter is alright. It's pretty smooth. I wonder what it'd look like w/ the boot off and you can see the shifter knotches. I'd put a chrome one on and leave it w/o the boot. That'd be sweet too.

Also looked at a couple of used cars. 1997 VW Jetta and a 99Golf.
the Jetta was diesel. It stunk when we first started it but it going pretty good. I didn't like the clutch again because it sat really high off the floor and it was really hard to press down. I also found myself searching for 1st and 3rd gear. The steering was okay...i don't think it was power. Also has problems starting in cold weather since it is diesel. Old technology i guess plus you had to pull on the high rev lever. what a pain.

The golf on the other hand was awesome. My friend had it up to 180km/h on Barlow trail on the way to the airport(for the calgarians). The shifting was smooth, the clutch was the same as the jetta..too high and too hard to press. It was a nice small car. Ran perfectly smooth.Clean engine bay, and almost new tires. The only peeve was that it was starting to rust on the side skirts. There was a big hole already. Is this a common problem among golfs?