Updated: Top Ten Cars for Moms
Happy mother's day! In keeping with tradition, I've updated our Top Ten Cars for Moms.
You'll see right away that the emphasis in this year's list is on cars that are fuel efficient. I just got back from a trip to Europe, where cars that we consider compacts are seen as roomy family cars, and that definitely influenced my picks. One of this year's more memorable tests was that of the 2008 Honda Civic. Up until now, I've always regarded a mid-size sedan as the best sized car for my family of four -- but after a week with the Civic I wasn't missing the extra space, and I was liking the extra money in my pocket thanks to the Civic's superior fuel economy.
And what about SUVs? Well, besides the fact that this is a site about cars -- SUVs and CUVs have their own About.com site -- I'm still not convinced that they are the best way to haul a family. Although the latest crop of CUVs are much, much better -- the Hyundai Santa Fe is a great example -- traditional SUVs still don't offer enough interior room for their bulk, they aren't much fun to drive, and they use too much fuel for today's nuts-o gas prices. Give me a sporty station wagon any day.
But I digress, as I so often do. Check out the updated list, then go call your mother! -- Aaron Gold
Photo © Aaron Gold
Comments
Since you bring up the Honda Civic, it is interesting that in your review your only major criticism was the lack of ESC. If you know the specs on the Civic, you’ll know that it has rear drum brakes (still)…where other manufacturers are moving to four-wheel disc brakes. Personally, I doubt you’ll see ESC on the Civic before Honda finally gets around to putting disc brakes in the rear. As far as I know, ESC and other ABS-related braking technologies play nicer with disc brakes. That was a factor in our decision to get the Accord instead of the (at the time) all-new Civic when we were car shopping a couple years back.
I actually don’t have a huge problem with rear drum brakes on a non-performance car. Most braking is done by the front wheels, and while drum brakes are less resistant to fade than discs, few people will perform repeated foot-to-the-floor stops from 70 MPH. At worst, you have to push the pedal a bit harder when it’s really wet out. But I don’t agree that ABS or ESC is significantly less effective with disc/drum brakes as opposed to disc/disc. If the hot-rod Civic Si had rear drum brakes, that would be another matter — but for the DX/LX/EX, I think rear drums do the job just fine. — Aaron
Tyler, you didn’t need to buy the Accord for that reason. All you had to do was spend a few bucks more and go to the EX which offers Rear Discs along with a bunch of other goodies(upgraded radio, sunroof,etc.). Actually this upgrade is one of the best bang for buck upgrades I’ve seen in the industry. Your savings at the pump would’ve paid for that upgrade rather quicly, I’m afraid.
Re: hawaiian don
Note that I said that was ONE factor in the decision. Other ones were that we needed the extra room, and we go the Accord for $500 below INVOICE where the Civic would have been about $500 ABOVE STICKER at the time because it was so hot when it first came out. But in any case, I do agree with you, that’s why we did consider the Civic.
Now back to what I originally brought up (Re: Aaron):
I definitely hear what you’re saying, and I agree that drum brakes aren’t a big deal on inexpensive compacts like the Civic. But when you brought up that you wanted to see some electronic stability control as a standard feature, I was surprised you did not recognize the fact that the car still had read drum brakes. I don’t think you’ll see ESC or any special braking technologies like EBD on the Civic with drum brakes. Not that they won’t work, but the single-piston floating caliper disc brake is much more effective at dealing with emergency braking situations, including temperature control, ABS pulsing, electronically variable brake pressure, etc.
For example, my personal daily driver is a 2007 VW Rabbit. I shopped that one around by myself, and drove every single car out there under $20,000 personally. In the end, the Civic was a competitor along with the Mazda 3. But the Rabbit won out, and I couldn’t have been happier with the decision. I custom ordered the car so it was exactly what I wanted: a 2-door, 5 speed, with Alloys and the option full-on ESC program. Out the door with tax and everything for $17,100…and the guy at Honda wouldn’t even sell me an LX for sticker (which was around the 18-19k mark).
After driving the rabbit for 15,000 miles so far, I can definitely say that I’m glad VW has disc brakes all around. With the EBD and other insane electronics the Germans manage to pack into that little Rabbit, my rear brakes were down to a paltry 50% and the fronts at 75% tread remaining at 10k miles. I drive my car lightly on the brakes…and the fact that the rear brakes are wearing that fast is definitely the result of the electronics. Really, you can’t even compare the steal that VW is offering on the Rabbit if you look at everything you get for the money. Only downside is the torquey engine gets about 5-10 less MPG as a Civic, but it’s well worth it for me.