Honda Car Forum

We are thinking on buy a new car. I had several civics and I was looking at
the new corolla. Toyota has $500 rebate, but Honda has a 1.9% interest rate.
Both look like good cars, and I know Toyota is as dependable as the civics.
I am looking for opinions on the corolla, what do you think about both cars?
I know invoice price on corollas, but all of them include extra "packages"
which is hard to know what's a good price for the packages.
I need a dependable car which I will keep for around 6 years, and of course
residual value is important.
Thanks for your opinions.

You can get Corollas with automatic & air for less than $11K here.... Civics
are $14K. Guess which I'm going for.



-=-
I smell....

..... therefore, you stink.
-=-

> I need a dependable car which I will keep for around 6 years, and of
course
> residual value is important.

Then get a 2004. Purchasing a 2003 at this time of year is a false saving.
I think that the Corolla is superior to the Civic. My wife got a 2004 1
month ago. It has much more zest than previous generation. It is actually
fun-to-drive. Comfy and reasonnably quiet. Good fit and finish. On the
minus side, engine is a bit rough at high rpm and steering position is too
high to my taste.

How do you deal with the option packages? how necessary are they?
"DrPimpDadi" <drpimpdadi@cs.com4SARS> wrote in message
news:20030723115542.13232.00000513@mb-m10.news.cs.com...
> You can get Corollas with automatic & air for less than $11K here....
Civics
> are $14K. Guess which I'm going for.
>
>
>
> -=-
> I smell....
>
> ..... therefore, you stink.
> -=-
>

In article <GZwTa.102701$TJ.6119668@twister.austin.rr.com>,
"Robert" <rsvn@yahoo.com> wrote:

>We are thinking on buy a new car. I had several civics and I was looking at
>the new corolla. Toyota has $500 rebate, but Honda has a 1.9% interest rate.
>Both look like good cars, and I know Toyota is as dependable as the civics.
>I am looking for opinions on the corolla, what do you think about both cars?
>I know invoice price on corollas, but all of them include extra "packages"
>which is hard to know what's a good price for the packages.
>I need a dependable car which I will keep for around 6 years, and of course
>residual value is important.
>Thanks for your opinions.
>
>

Test drive some more and get whatever feels better. Six years is no
sweat for either car.

Instead of looking what are prices of the packages, look the other way
around:
which options are important for you?
which ones are less important but you'd like to have them if the price is
interesting?

For example, for me, must to have:
manual transmission
A/C
CD player
power windows
power mirrors (preferably heated)
cruise control
keyless entry

Nice to have:
mags
spoiler
fog lights

etc.

"Robert" <rsvn@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:GZwTa.102701$TJ.6119668@twister.austin.rr.com ...
> We are thinking on buy a new car. I had several civics and I was looking
at
> the new corolla. Toyota has $500 rebate, but Honda has a 1.9% interest
rate.
> Both look like good cars, and I know Toyota is as dependable as the
civics.
> I am looking for opinions on the corolla, what do you think about both
cars?
> I know invoice price on corollas, but all of them include extra "packages"
> which is hard to know what's a good price for the packages.
> I need a dependable car which I will keep for around 6 years, and of
course
> residual value is important.
> Thanks for your opinions.
>
>

I would recommend the civic, Honda's hold their value better, as well the
honda civic just happens to be the cheapest to insure. If you go for the
civic LX model it comes with alot of the options included.

"Robert" <rsvn@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:GZwTa.102701$TJ.6119668@twister.austin.rr.com ...
> We are thinking on buy a new car. I had several civics and I was looking
at
> the new corolla. Toyota has $500 rebate, but Honda has a 1.9% interest
rate.
> Both look like good cars, and I know Toyota is as dependable as the
civics.
> I am looking for opinions on the corolla, what do you think about both
cars?
> I know invoice price on corollas, but all of them include extra "packages"
> which is hard to know what's a good price for the packages.
> I need a dependable car which I will keep for around 6 years, and of
course
> residual value is important.
> Thanks for your opinions.
>
>

Yes, you got a good point. It's just that I visited a dealer last weekend
and they have a package that you "get" with the car, is already listed on
the window sticker. So I will need to know how to deal with that

"Paul Bielec" <me@no.spam> wrote in message news:bfmh2o$599$1@dns3.cae.ca...
> Instead of looking what are prices of the packages, look the other way
> around:
> which options are important for you?
> which ones are less important but you'd like to have them if the price is
> interesting?
>
> For example, for me, must to have:
> manual transmission
> A/C
> CD player
> power windows
> power mirrors (preferably heated)
> cruise control
> keyless entry
>
> Nice to have:
> mags
> spoiler
> fog lights
>
> etc.
>
> "Robert" <rsvn@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:GZwTa.102701$TJ.6119668@twister.austin.rr.com ...
> > We are thinking on buy a new car. I had several civics and I was looking
> at
> > the new corolla. Toyota has $500 rebate, but Honda has a 1.9% interest
> rate.
> > Both look like good cars, and I know Toyota is as dependable as the
> civics.
> > I am looking for opinions on the corolla, what do you think about both
> cars?
> > I know invoice price on corollas, but all of them include extra
"packages"
> > which is hard to know what's a good price for the packages.
> > I need a dependable car which I will keep for around 6 years, and of
> course
> > residual value is important.
> > Thanks for your opinions.
> >
> >
>
>

I somewhat disagree with you, Saintor. Toyota did something funky to their
transmissions in brand new Corolla and Matrix models. I testdrove a Matrix
with a sports package, and it was accelerating like crap, and it was a 220
HP engine! Same goes for Corollas. It feels like you row a boat. What's up
with the rattling noise on the driver side and the rotten-egg smell in new
models?

The point is, in terms of reliability, resell value, etc (IMHO) Civics and
Corollas break even. I think Honda has a wider variety of Civics to choose
from, though...


Milan
"Saintor" <saintor1@REMOVETHIShotmail.com> wrote in message
news:NJyTa.674$Rl3.18956@wagner.videotron.net...
>
> > I need a dependable car which I will keep for around 6 years, and of
> course
> > residual value is important.
>
> Then get a 2004. Purchasing a 2003 at this time of year is a false
saving.
> I think that the Corolla is superior to the Civic. My wife got a 2004 1
> month ago. It has much more zest than previous generation. It is actually
> fun-to-drive. Comfy and reasonnably quiet. Good fit and finish. On the
> minus side, engine is a bit rough at high rpm and steering position is too
> high to my taste.

"Robert" <rsvn@yahoo.com> writes:
> Yes, you got a good point. It's just that I visited a dealer last weekend
> and they have a package that you "get" with the car, is already listed on
> the window sticker. So I will need to know how to deal with that

There are two different sorts of "packages".

If it's a dealer add-on like rust proofing, pin stripes, extended
warranties, on and on, they are definitely negotiable down to zero.

If it's a Toyota option (air conditioning, cold weather package, sun
roof, etc.) the dealer won't just give those to you. You have to get
the dealer to find or order a car without the package you don't want.

The problem with the latter is that it may be impossible to find. The
regional distributor tends to order "average" cars, with just a few
variations. E.g., my Echo lists power steering as an option, but all
the cars come with it.

If a dealer agrees to find an unusual car, and requires a deposit:

- Pay the deposit with a credit card

- Negotiate how long they have to look. The contract may say 60 days,
but you can cross it out and put 10 days if you don't want your
money committed for 2 months.


--
--
Ken Goldman kgold@watson.ibm.com 914-784-7646