Originally posted by Gen1GT
Honda makes good reliable cars, with good gas milage. It's too bad they've forgotten their roots, and have no more good, light, cheap, fun to drive cars. Mazda has taken over in that regard, as the Mazdaspeed walks all over the Si, and the new 3 is hands down the best small car on the continent.
i will agree with you about honda forgetting its roots. it's actually factory policy to make cars bigger and bigger for "safety" reasons. it's why the accord is so huge. the civic si is intruiging but in the end, i wouldn't buy one.
the mazdaspeed protege is an amazing car considering what it is. granted i'd probably choose a SRT-4 over it, the protege does handle amazingly well for a FF car. I'm not sure that it handles better than the DC-2R, which might be the greatest FF handling car, or greatest FF car EVER, but the protege is def no slouch.
the 3 looks fun, but i'm also not sure that it's the best small car out there. i still think i'd pay a couple thousand more, and get a WRX instead.