Can I borrow you (sub)-compact?

Last Saturday, I had a few hours to burn and was getting that itch to go out and look at cars. My first stop was obviously the local Ford Dealership (where I found a 2009 Focus SE Coupe to my liking (well, everything except for the moon roof). Even though I already have a huge Ford bias, I'm actually still amazed at the quality of the products that they have on their lots at the moment. There are a few little niggles, like the new Focus' emergency brake handles that have a cheap plasticky look to them, but aside from that, the whole line-up is classy and high quality.

After browsing through the Focus's and Fusion's, I decided to swing by the Volkswagen/Toyota dealership. I'll admit that I have a soft spot for any GTI, even though my favorites are the first two generations. The dealership doesn't ever seem to have a lot of GTIs in stock, mostly because there are generally a lot more practical cars (read:larger, better people movers) for the money, but they did have a delightful White 5-door with DSG. I think it had the leather interior, instead of the plaid Recaros, but I could probably live with that...The other car that kind of snuck up on me was the Volkswagen CC Sedan. I always thought that CC stood for Coupe Cabriolet, but this was definitely neither a coupe, nor a cabbie. Its a mid-size (that actually seems larger than a Passat) sedan with a very sleek, upscale look.

I went over to the Toyota portion of the dealership after being at the Volkswagen portion. My primary interest was to look at a Yaris. It should be obvious to most readers at this point that I'm a huge sub-compact car fan. I think the thing that appeals to me most about sub-compacts is the aura of youth and exuberence (way to anthropomorphize a chunk of steel, Seth) that they exude. The fact is that there is a replacement for displacement.

Anyhow, I should probably stop extolling the virtues of sub-compacts and focus on the Yaris...Aside from the upcoming Fiesta, the Yaris is probably the most appealing segment car at the moment. Granted, I haven't driven any of these cars, so I'm basing this soley on faulty pretenses, but the Yaris appeals to my sensibilities as a sporting, juvenile fun machine. The first generation (USDM) Honda Fit reminds me too much of an Odyssey mini-van, and the revamped Fit seems to be a little bit porky. There's nothing inherently wrong with mini-vans, they're excellent people movers, but they don't exude youthful exuberance (I'm alliterating my ex-words intentionally, I promise). Likewise with the Versa, it kind of looks like Nissan put a Maxima in the copying machine and did a 66% reduction.

For some reason, the Yaris is just a unique car, that is pretty much unlike anything else that Toyota is selling. The only thing I didn't really like about it was the fact that an automatic transmission is standard; sub-compacts are not blessed with large, high output engines, and as a result, a more efficient drivetrain should be provided in order to allow the driver to maximize the potential of the vehicle.

While I was looking at Yaris', the tree-hugger in me got the better of me, so I just had to see what was going on with the Prius. I still don't get it...I'm all for saving the environment, but there were Prius' that cost over $30K and the least expensive was over $25K!

Even with just a quick glance over the car, it doesn't not seem ergonomic at all. The gear shift is mounted on the dash (like an EK Civic SI, and a Porsche Carrera GT), but it looked more like a weird mole or cyst than an gear shift lever (okay, its not really a gear shift, since its for a CVT, but some sort of drivetrain initiation manipulator). Its almost as though the engineers kind of just tacked it on, because they knew that drivers wouldn't know how to operate the vehicle without it (I'm pretty sure Toyota is going to be the first manufacturer to build personal spaceships...which may or may not exit the atmosphere). It looks like there is a package option that includes a rear-facing camera that integrates into the navigation system. That's probably a good thing, because it didn't look like you could see anything in the rear view mirror. That explains why they don't move over on the highway...

I think that the most prudent way to save the environment is to pick up a good little sub-compact to commute to work in, and consider other aspects of our lives where we can reduce our material consumption.