Civic, Altis or Mazda 3

**jut703** · February 5th, 2012 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by boychikot

Thanks for the comment sir.

This made me very curious about the Elantra.

You drive an Altis and yet you recommend an Elantra.

How about its parts? Is it easy to find? cheap? Although wont be needing it in the next three years or more, any idea on them?

It wasn't my choice in the first place to get the Altis. Back in 2009 when we purchased the vehicle, I was egging for the Civic 2.0S. But as it wasn't my money, I really didn't have the right to complain. Like I said previously, I only dislike the Altis for its soft driving dynamics. For others, however, that might even be a positive trait of the Altis.

I prefer the Elantra because it just looks very modern, and has a great drivetrain paired with a good chassis. For its price, it's very well-kitted too. Those are the things I value most in a car, I'm not very particular with fancy features as long as it drives well and appeals to my taste.

As for the prices of parts, we've never owned a Hyundai so I have no first-hand experience on that. If I had to guesstimate, I'd say that it's not going to be significantly more expensive than its Japanese counterparts, especially since more and more shops outside the casa are carrying Korean parts, since the brands (Hyundai and Kia mostly) are gaining a foothold in the country.

Regarding your concern of having 2 kids and needing an SUV of some sort, honestly I don't think so. I come from a family of 3 children, and throughout my childhood, all the cars we've owned are sedans, and we've never really had a hard time with space, even during out of town trips. For your case, even in a compact car, you shouldn't be feeling claustrophobic with you and your family on board, plus a yaya if ever.

**cripple_rooster** · February 6th, 2012 04:22 PM

It's often not so easy to accomodate some tall stuff like a baby stroller inside the trunk of a sedan, since it's quite low. But it's still a good option as a family car, altough the wagons were my favorite ones (but nowadays they're not so common as they were until the 90's).

**boychikot** · February 6th, 2012 09:38 PM

Originally Posted by cripple_rooster

It's often not so easy to accomodate some tall stuff like a baby stroller inside the trunk of a sedan, since it's quite low. But it's still a good option as a family car, altough the wagons were my favorite ones (but nowadays they're not so common as they were until the 90's).

Agree with that. My existing car's trunk is always fully loaded my kids' stuff.

**niky** · February 7th, 2012 10:21 AM

Depends on the trunk. I had no problems filling the trunk of my Lynx with the baby stroller, bags, water and overnight bags needed when we'd spend weekends out.

Carried over 200 kilos of water (in the 5 gallon jugs), too, when we needed to. That's when I cracked a rim...

**boychikot** · February 7th, 2012 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by loverlionus

We were in the same situation April of last year, except that the Elantra wasn't available yet. Aside from these cars we also included the Lancer EX (big discount then so almost the same level as your 3 choices) and the hatchbacks (a little lower in prices). I took the spec sheets and features for each car, rated each spec/feature in the level of importance to us, then highlighted the model with the highest feature. Those with the most number of highest features was the top choice. Then we took a look at the models at the dealers, we didn't do any test drives but it would be better if you can do them. We finally chose the Altis 1.6V AT.

How much discount does Mitsubishi offerred you for the Lancer EX? I might consider the Lancer EX MX if they can offer it below 1M.

Does the EX has good FC even though it has 2.0 engine?

**niky** · February 7th, 2012 01:59 PM

Good for its size and the engine, but not great comapred to a 1.6 or 1.8.

**loverlionus** · February 7th, 2012 05:36 PM

The Lancer EX GLS CVT had an SRP of P 1.05 million and a discount of P 155k, so it was only at P 895k. This is the only variant left in my data, but I remember all variants has similar discounts. This was in April 2011.

**boychikot** · February 9th, 2012 11:13 AM

Do you know how much discount does Toyota gives for an Altis? And Hyundai for an Elentra?

**mda** · February 9th, 2012 03:58 PM

Depends on stocks and demand at that point in time.

Before the thailand flooding, the "normal" discount Toyota gave on the Altis was about 20k.

Then right after when supplies dried up, no discount.

Same with the Elantra. I suggest you start canvassing hehe.

Slightly off topic. Civic to be launched on the 16th this month. The FD has been out of stock since October last year daw. Got this info when bringing our Civic to the casa yesterday.