I was thrilled with my father buying a new car. The old 92 Mitsubishi was beginning to come apart at the seams. I was a bit disturbed when he got the new car at only 25 dollars a month more than his old car he had bought used. Anyway on to the car.

As I first got into the car the first thing I noticed was how open and roomy (perhaps bare is a better word) the interior was. Despite the Tonka truck type interior walls I felt a bit strange, then it hit me, the "new car smell" smelled like recently smoldering plastic although it will most likely fade with time (at least I hope so).

The exterior looks quite nice and seems to almost give the feel of a compact car when viewed from the outside (which was confirmed as the head on my 6' 2" body hit the roof (the one time that I was glad the car was 90% plastic. For some reason he is more open to letting me borrow this car than his old one.

Anyway actually driving was a bit off. Cornering and steering were ok. The automatic shifted almost effortlessly. As we were driving down the freeway I was struck by the high pitched whine the engine emitted at 55 mph. At lower speeds this was not very apparent but became almost painful later on.

Keeping in mind that the car is economy I must still complain about the sound system. The radio program I heard sounded as if it was coming from the car next to me. Controls on this car are clear but not easy to use. The environmental controls are at the very bottom and are blocked by the automatic shift. The two clocks bugged me (I must, no will, get them to read exactly the same time) one was in the radio one in the dash. At least when my friends say that they have 5 great speakers I can gloat over my 2 clocks!

Driving the car is fairly fun although I am a bit paranoid about saftey (my father did get air bags). The only real way that I can put it into words is to compare driving it to a styrofoam Mazda Protege.

Still the seller about this car is price, at around 10k this is one of the cheapest medium size cars on the market. Although long term repair has yet to be determined I have heard that they are fairly reliable. Resale value will be closer to zero than I'd like to see it. Anyway this is a decent car for students, cheap people and other cost minded individuals. If you miss that power-wheels feel this car is for you!