Let me chime in with the 2010 Golf, 170hp, great room, great ride, more power, four wheel disk brakes, Fits and some others don't have it plus they have what,120hp? Great transmission, did I say fun to drive. Good gas mileage. We got the best you could get, big wheels and all the stuff, next thing up was a GTI and this was under 20k. A GTI would have been around 28k. I looked at and drove everything out there for 20k and nothing came close to the Golf. The Mazda 3 was a maybe, maybe more power but not as much room in the back plus I just didn't like driving it. I thought it felt cheaper. You just feel better driving the Golf around.

Meh...marks its territory by weeping fuel out the top of the filler...makes so much I'm heating my home with it!;)

My 2 cents worth:

I went through this just over two years ago.

Focus: The NA car is NOT what they have in Europe, so Top Gear's review was probably of the 2005 to present Euro version of the car, which I must say I liked a lot. Nothing in common with the NA version which is a re-skinned first gen Focus.

Honda Fit: I am 6'3" and the Honda seats were a PITA after about an hour. A friend has one and a trip to the city and back (4 hours) with him killed that option.

I also looked at the Civic, but found the styling (looks like someone dropped a wall on the hood) and the gearing/torque characteristics (row that gearbox or be slow) were not to my liking.

Versa: Loved the room and the 6 speed. Hated the seats.

Mazda 3s: A real contender. Both my wife and I liked the car. (previous model, they fuglied the current one). We almost bought one.

Ended up with another VW, a Jetta TDI. We have around 135,000 km on it now. Aside from oil and filter changes every 16k, the front discs and pads were done around 110,k and the rear discs and pads last month. The current Golf is the same platform although the current diesel has more power and torque than mine. The 2011 Jetta is slightly bigger but de-contented somewhat (ie: back to the twist-beam rear axle, 2 liter gas and harder plastics in the dash.)

Happy hunting
Les

New Hyundai Elantra

40 MPG!! out of 148 horsepower AND 131 pound-feet mated to a 6 speed auto

And it's great looking
And it's priced competitively
And you get a 100,000 mile warranty

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I also like the VW diesels .My wife had a 2000 for 10 yrs .Amazing fuel economy and only major repair during that time was a ABS controller at about $1000 with a new timing belt and oil change combined. If you drive high miles the VW pays off and if you don,t then it,s still worth good money when you trade or sell. I have heard the gas VWs are unreliable but our diesel was great. My second vote would be the Mazda 3 or Ford Focus(which I think are one and the same.)

OldE, the new Focus is the same as the euro ones.

Kaisen has a good suggestion with the Hyundai. My parents are on their 3rd Hyundai with zero issues, their Sonata was a very nice car.

I have a Focus as a driving school car. Needles to say it gets the living daylights beaten out of it. So far 100,000 kms with only an alternator replaced (apart from brakes). It is an automatic. I have driven some standards and they are an even better drive. The auto does not seem well matched to the ztech engine. However, it's not that bad!

I will be replacing it soon. Probably will go with another. I like the Matrix, but you can't see the speedometer from the passengers seat, so it's a no go for me!

Not saying this is necessarily true with your parents (just teasing with this post), but I always thought it was funny that people would say how much they loved their super-reliable car, as they had bought x number of them. Well, if the car was so darned reliable and chock-full of quality, why'd you have to go through so many of them? :D

I,m on about my 10th 911

I bought an '03 Corolla back in May of '02. It has 125K miles on it and has given us no issues. Even manages to pass a car every now and then . . . while carrying a 17 ft. kayak on top.

Can't go wrong- except for the fact that it's an utterly generic car. Building the 914 and the 911 to supplant the e36 as a getaway vehicle.

My other advised candidate:

2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco

42 MPG!! out of 138 horsepower AND 148 pound-feet 1.4L TURBO

And it's great looking
And it's priced competitively (under $20K)
And you get a 100,000 mile warranty

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Because the Echo, Yaris, and Corolla are oozing that quality feel? They're all very plasticky. And it's not Pontiac's fault. They are way more Toyota than GM. Like 90+%. The new 2008-up Matrix is a big fail. If you drive it back to back with the modern competitors, you'd only buy one if it were 1) way cheaper (doubtful) or 2) you've guzzled the Toyota Kool Aid and buy it for the laurels of the brand, not the car itself. Okay, maybe 3) want all wheel drive and have had four Subarus blow head gaskets so you'll never go there again, but can't afford an Audi A3... or something like that.

If you love Toyota, forget the Matrix and buy a Scion if you need a hatch.

For the rest of us, there are much better cars named here (Mazda 3, Hyundai Elantra, Chev Cruze, VW Golf, Ford Focus, etc)

Anybody try the Honda CR-Z? Looked kinda fun. Don't know how much snow the OP sees...maybe that makes a difference?

I really like my Volvo C30. Bought it new in '08; compare to Mini, Mazda (3?) and GTI - MUCH more car for the money. Great ride, 3.0l, 5cyl turbo, 227hp, 6spd.

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They're the type that like a new car every 2-3 years or so (even though they can't afford it). Think of it this way though - if the first Hyundai was crap, would they have bought two more?

I'm off this week so I think I'll do some test driving. We are not looking(well, the wife wants to go back to an SUV:rolleyes:)currently but I would still like to check out a few of the cars mentioned.

I would rate the Corolla as boring but decent, I haven't driven the Echo and Yaris. The Matrix/Vibe not only felt cheap, but it was especially boomy inside with the hard plastic cargo area. While I know there's a lot of Toyota made parts content, neither of us know who made the decisions regarding design, material choice, etc.

I've spent a lot of time in a 2-door Yaris. It's boomy. And I notice a difference in quality of materials and fit-n-finish between that and my Civic.

The Volvo C30 rides on the same platform as the Ford Focus and Mazda 3 (P1, C1, BK respectively). And that's a good thing. The Volvo is sexy, powerful, and quirky (styling, ergonomics).

True dat. I bought it on impulse (hooked on the styling), and much to my surprise, grew to really like the car.

Quirky? Dunno (I'm too quirky to judge), but the AC/heater/radio are super intuitive w/o TFB (tiny fkng buttons) to frustrate my ham hands.

Damn thing goes 0-60 in 6.2sec (my SC is kinda pissed - but can still lead it thru the twisties handily :)).

They're pretty good sellers in Canadia and Europe, I'm told. But I've only seen maybe six on the road in SOCAL in the three years I've owned mine. :confused:

I take automag blather with a grain of salt, but one comparo I read (between the C30, GTI, Mini and...I forget) described the C30's quiet ride as "the "TempurPedic" of the bunch.