Civic's. Mini's & Rabbits . . . Oh My!

So here I am in the process of going out and doing some car browsing in the hot summer weather. I've narrowed my choices down to basically the Civic and the Rabbit and probably more specifically the Civic just because it has all those goodies, awards and longevity, not to mention awesome resale value. I started off looking at Honda Civics, Hyundai Tiberons, Scion tC, Mini Cooper and the VW Rabbits. Then there are the unattainable cars such as the BMW 325, Volvo C70, Mazda RX8, Audi TT and of course the BMW M3, all coupes of course. No topless cars please.

Can you tell I like small cars? I keep wondering when I'm gonna 'grow up' and desire one of those sedans or SUV's and I just don't see it happening. I happen to like small cars cause it's just me ~ I rarely have a passenger much less tote stuff aside from my purse, my lunch, my laptop and hopefully one day a camera bag around. Since I live alone I don't buy lots of food when I go food shopping and even then I tend to buy it when I need it since I love fresh food.

I don't know anything about engines, power and fuel injectors. What I want in my car is something zippy. Since I'm an urban chick and spend a majority of my time in traffic I really don't care all that much about horse power either. I mean the car I have now has a V6 and is a Sedan and I RARELY ever get to feel that power being used unless I happen to drive during non traffic hours (which is rare). The only passengers I've had have been my parents, my brother and his wife, oh yea and Manny once. What I really want is a sunroof an iPod connector (who cares about CD players anymore, right?) HD Radio, power windows/locks, power seats and purrty tires.

Smaller cars also cool down faster in the heat :) I took a test drive at VW the other day. I tested out the VW Rabbit AND the GTI which was basically the Rabbit with power. The only thing that turned me off the GTI was the steering wheel. When I turn I like to let the wheel get back into position on its own and when I let it do that, the steering wheel kept blocking cause of the strange shape. That alone would drive me crazy so sadly the GTI was out before I even had the chance to fall in love with it. Ah well. As for the Rabbit, I'd love to take it home with me but because it just came out this year (even though it's a rerelease) I don't want to be one of the original american testers. I'm the same way when it comes to PC's and software too :)

I'm gonna test out the Civic this weekend. The only problem is its gonna have to be first thing in the morning or sometime before they close. Hopefully they'll let me take this one on the freeway... excuse me, highway.