Compacts

Nissan is bringing a concept car forward that looks oddly familiar. I think I've seen riceboys driving their '93 civics dolled up just like that!

It has been my opinion that the Honda Civic 3-door hatchback from the early '90s is the almost ideal form for that type of compact car. It's small and nimble with the wheels at the corners. The design is such that four adult males can actually sit in the thing comfortably, albeit not with much in the way of trunk space. If you turbocharge it, you can even get it to accelerate at a fair pace. It's sort of like a mini, except with a useable back seat and better reliability.

When I went looking to buy my first car in 1999, I wanted one of these, but couldn't find one for the life of me. By then the later generation Civics had expanded so that they were both larger in ways that didn't matter, and smaller in ways that did. Sadly, I ended up with a Ford Escort instead.

In 2003 when the Escort was showing its age I entered the market again. When I saw the Ford Focus, I thought they may have captured some of the old magic. But I rented a Focus once. I couldn't bear to own one. So I bought a Mazda Protege, which I like a lot and have no complaints about.

We'll see what is around when the Protege bites the dust.