Suzuki
SX4
For about $320 a month at 9.3% interest, I traded in the Aveo. This time I did not cosign with my dad, and thus the higher interest rate. Feels good to get it on my own merits, though.
This car makes the Aveo look like an Escort. With 143 horses, the SX4 can really jump out in traffic if you need it to. I do not even have to turn off the A/C (like in the Aveo) to accelerate hard.
the Aveo was on its way out. At only 93,000 miles it had started to make noise when the A/C was on. A nice rattling noise indicated that the compressor was about to go. That would have been $300 just for the parts. Plus I had did a brake job on it, putting new pads and premium rotors on the front. But the car shook hard when braking, indicating a warped rotor or sticking calliper. Also, the damn timing belt was due at 70,000 miles for replacing. That job would cost even more money.
So I traded it in. Got only $3300 (still owed $5100). They did a good job despite my bad credit at Bill Britt (Fredericksburg VA).
This car is sweet. The interior is spacious and has plenty of headroom. The high roofline is similar to a Volkswagen Jetta.The steering wheel is nicely placed and is adjustable (but not telescoping). The seats are very comfortable and despite being black in color, keep pretty cool in the dead of summer as they are porous, and breathe well. The plastics are all high-grade and the panels fit REALLY tight together. It was a pain in the rear to install my XM Satellite antennae as I could not pull the plastic moldings free enough to hide the wire. I ended up using a credit card to shove the wire under the edge of the moldings.
Installing the interface behind the head unit was hard too. On the Aveo, the plastic moldings pop off if you barely pull on them. I had to pry the moldings off, as they use metal clasps to hold them in place around the radio.
The stereo is well designed and easy to figure out. It is WMA/MP3 compatible and displays floder titles on its dod-matrix display. The sound is outstanding, thanks to 4 large speakers and 4 tweeters. The tweeters are surprising for an inexpensive car. They add crispness in the high range. The large speakers (one in each door) hit hard enough and low enough to make you think the car might have a subwoofer. Very fun to crank up. Plus, the automatic volume limiter turns the volume down for you when you are sitting at a light and turns it up as the road noise gets louder. This feature is adjustable (level 2 seems the most realistic).
The car has a nice set of tires - 17 inches of rubber on rims. No hubcaps for me. The SX4 also comes with 4-wheel disk brakes standard. This stops the car so well that it takes some getting used too if you have only ever had cars with drums in the back like me.
The trunk is SHOCKINGLY huge. You could stand up 7 full-size suit cases in there (three boddies, for you mobsters). The rear seats do not fold down, however, which I find strange in a modern sedan.
The dash lights up red, matching the stereo well. The computer display (center on the dash) is more orange, but that is a small annoyance. The computer tells you your relative miles per gallon, how many miles are left in the tank, and what the average mileage your car is getting. It also displays the outdoor temperature and the time. These are nice features and it is fun to try to hyper-mileage the car by watching that display.
The car seems to want to give you 28 miles per gallon, whith only minimally agressive driving. If I were to go on a long trip it might break 33, however. The car drives as if the torque converter is constantly engaged, saving on your brakes, but not allowing it to coast without loosing speed (even going down a slight hill).
The peppy four cylinder is organized and well put together. Not a lot of plastic under this hood. The car has a lifetime timing CHAIN instead of the rubber belts found on most economy cars (like the Aveo).
Also the warranty is excellent, giving me 84 months or 100,000 miles for its powertrain. This far exceeds its competition.
Compared to the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, and Nissan Sentra, the SX4 holds its own quite well, exceeding the specifications of most of these cars in multiple categories. The only one that beats it is the Nissan Sentra, but it also costs more, gets less mileage, and has smaller wheels.
I have also noticed that there are no artifacts when the headlights are on. Artifacts are the straight lines and curvy areas of brightness and darkness that many cars' headlights produce. Instead, you get a nice uniform cone of light. No funky and distracting lines at all. The Aveo, in contrast, had horrible artifacts, that were not even symetrical.
The car has interesting design elements on its exterior. An agressive face with nice flarings that fit perfectly under its bumper, it resembles vaguley the body kits on the new Corollas. But the lines are a bit more subtle, and thus, less juvenile. The high waistline gives the car a peppy look, with a confident stance. The high roof line is deceiving, as it makes the car look like a smaller vehicle from far away. It isn't until you get up next to it that you realize it is a medium-sized sedan, not a compact. This slightly strange style problem is easily forgiven when you sit inside it and see a good eight inches of air above your head. The rear is interesting, but again understated.
The windows are also interesting. A split A-pillar looks futuristic, and gives the feeling of a cockpit from inside. It looks a bit like a hybrid from the outside, however. The small triangular windows set inside the split A-pillars do give good visibility, while preserving a smoothly curved windshield. The other windows are typical, and comfortably so. The rear pillar window aft of the rear passenger window shares lines with older BMW's. This is classy and makes for a really THICK rear pillar. The rear glass is thus very flat and rectangular, with a center brake light mounted smartly, echoing the mirror positioning of the front windshield. The front windshield is slopped dramatically, giving you and enormous amount of dash-board to armor-all. But this aides in the deflection of road debris. The poor Aveo was notorious for catching rocks in its windshield, which was too perpendicular to deflect them efficiently, resulting in 4 windshields in the 3 years I had it.
The perfectly vertical sides of the car are elegant, and reflect like mirrors when waxed well. I think I will sport it up a bit with some silver pin stripes, though.
The car is overall pretty refined for its sub-$20K price tag. Far superior to the Chevrolet Cobalt that I also test-drove. Made in Japan with suspension and brakes engineered on tracks in Euorpe... the best engineering at a great price.
