Is that because they hold their value better and so are more expensive?
Both are strong on safety, reliability, quality.
We recently bought our 17 year old son a used car. It had to have electronic stability control. Honda Civics held value well. So did Subaru. We chose the Subaru because of 4-wheel drive.
Subarus do well in crash test ratings. Hondas even better. We went for avoiding crashes as well—4WD.
Is that because they hold their value better and so are more expensive?
Both are strong on safety, reliability, quality.
We recently bought our 17 year old son a used car. It had to have electronic stability control. Honda Civics held value well. So did Subaru. We chose the Subaru because of 4-wheel drive.
Subarus do well in crash test ratings. Hondas even better. We went for avoiding crashes as well—4WD.
Malcolm
:)
I first bought my son a 98 Civic to start out with when he was 16. Just a back and forth to school car. When he turned 18 I ended up getting him a 10 Impreza. Great kid car and since I live in Colorado and he likes to ski it made sense. We looked at the LX Civic sedan, but with drum rear brakes, no VSA and visibilty issues up front we went with the Subie plus I eneded getting a base hatch auto for around 17k.
Your statement about Hondas being safer than Subarus is IMHO incorrect. While both score high Subaru has always been the better overall choice
In addition to buying an Impreza for our son, two weeks later we bought a near new Subaru Forester (5,000 miles) for my wife and I as our main family errand runabout.
I prefer buying used cars or demo's. Let someone else enjoy the depreciation of driving it out of the showroom.
Here's why Forester: constant 4WD and it has increased interior space compared with the lower previous model.
Back in 2003 we narrowed our choice down to Forester vs CRV. The Forester impressed in cornering. The CRV in interior space, refinement, finish, acceleration, ride, economy, driving position height.
Three years later we added an LR3 (Discovery). This despite my previous experience with Range Rover unreliability after which I swore I'd never buy another LR product. To complete our comparison we tried a turbo-diesel V-6. We were very impressed. Bought one as we could see that thanks to BMW and then Ford, LR had been turned around. The attention to detail in the design was impressive—approaching Honda and Mercedes. We have been delighted with LR3. A fabulous road car and amazing in rough conditions. Tows our horse trailer, boat easily. Very comfortable, especially on long distance.
With the LR3 we no longer need the larger carrying capacity in our runabout. When it was time to sell our CRV we replaced it with the Forester because my wife remembered the cornering of constant all-wheel drive (4WD).
Verdict to date on Forester: cornering is more sure-footed than CRV. Fuel economy is noticeably lower than CRV despite the CRV being old and technology improving in the 9 years since that model's release. Lower driving outlook than CRV. Lower quality he CRV. Less refined than CRV. Despite kids and dogs and little care, the CRV interior stood up amazingly. After a detailed cleaning before handing it to my father, the old CRV interior looked like new.
The Forester has constant 4WD. Like the CRV it is well engineered. Apart from that the old CRV is a better car. New CRV would be at least on par with Forester for crash safety—likely better. But who really knows.
Our son's Impreza is a nice car to drive. A little gutless compared with Civic. Both are well engineered. From what I've seen and heard, the Civic wins in refinement and quality.
Both are sound cars. I trust either with my son's safety.
My wife and I like the constant 4WD and want it for our son's safety. Constant 4WD impressive with the LR3 too.
PGH wrote: I first bought my son a 98 Civic to start out with when he was 16. Just a back and forth to school car. When he turned 18 I ended up getting him a 10 Impreza. Great kid car and since I live in Colorado and he likes to ski it made sense. We looked at the LX Civic sedan, but with drum rear brakes, no VSA and visibilty issues up front we went with the Subie plus I eneded getting a base hatch auto for around 17k.
Your statement about Hondas being safer than Subarus is IMHO incorrect. While both score high Subaru has always been the better overall choice
I'll save my thoughts on VSA being a must have, visibility is certainly important, but what was the big deal with drum brakes?
PGH wrote: I first bought my son a 98 Civic to start out with when he was 16. Just a back and forth to school car. When he turned 18 I ended up getting him a 10 Impreza. Great kid car and since I live in Colorado and he likes to ski it made sense. We looked at the LX Civic sedan, but with drum rear brakes, no VSA and visibilty issues up front we went with the Subie plus I eneded getting a base hatch auto for around 17k.
Your statement about Hondas being safer than Subarus is IMHO incorrect. While both score high Subaru has always been the better overall choice
I'll save my thoughts on VSA being a must have, visibility is certainly important, but what was the big deal with drum brakes?
Nothing really when it comes down to it, if fact the are cheaper to replace and last longer. I guess my point was VSA,disc all four wheels and AWD with 170hp was the same price as the Civic without VSA rear disc or AWD. I do sacrfice the MPG numbers
My parents bought my sister a used Civic to drive to school as her first car (Two years ago). She is now looking into getting a used 8th Gen Civic, Scion TC, RSX, or First gen TSX.
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