Just when I thought I’d finally found a car which suits my needs (smallish saloon, stick shift, decent horsepower — turbo maybe — with decent reliability), comes this news:
The new Civic sedan already looked good. It’s got a sharper design, a nicer interior, and loads more tech. The only problem was no manual transmission. But Honda manual die-hards can relax. Your hero has arrived. It’s the 2022 Honda Civic Hatchback.
I’m not a Honda die-hard; in fact, I’ve never owned a Honda of any description. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t, given that everyone who has owned one seems to like them. (Best line ever, from a friend who had just bought his wife her third Honda in a row: “Not even Irene can fuck up a Honda.”) Oh, and by the way: that “loads more tech” thing is actually a negative for me, of course.
Unfortunately, though, the reason I’ve never owned a Honda is that in my opinion they’re always just a tad too expensive for what you’re getting — whether new or second hand. Here’s a comparison (CarMax):
…and it should be noted that the Civic doesn’t have a stick shift, but the Jetta does. Up till now, Honda’s only offered a stick shift in their racier models (Si and Type-R), where the prices — even second hand — are prohibitive.
That price disparity, by the way, is the same in new cars (Edmunds):
…and both cars have manual transmission, in this case.
The only thing I have going for me — touch wood — is that I can afford to wait a while, because while second-hand car prices are increasing, that’s not the case with stick shifts. It seems that few young people can drive them nowadays (Daughter and #2 Son can, Son&Heir could, but prefers not to), so there’s that. And the Tiguan still rolls along, 115k miles and counting.
As I’ve written before: I’ve owned three Jettas in my lifetime, and loved each one. None of them gave me any trouble whatsoever. The only reason I sold two of them was because we’d just moved to downtown Chicago and didn’t need two cars. Then I sold the third, a wagon, because we needed a Suburban.
I wish I could say I enjoy this, but I don’t. Buying cars is only pleasurable if you’re rich, and I’m not.