DD Track Burn: Small car, big sunroof edition

"dogisbadob" (dogisbadob)
07/01/2015 at 17:01 • Filed to: None

Sadly not much choice for a reliable economical small cute 4-door hatch with a big sunroof.

2008 Saturn Astra. Only sold here for one year, not too many, and even fewer with the fun roof, prices still high. Almost definitely the most reliable and economical of the three, except for the purchase price.

first-gen Forester. Easiest to find at a fair price. Poor mpg due to huge engine and mandatory AWD that runs ALL the time; it’s not FWD by default like it should be (at least it can be disabled with a fuse). Is there room to work around the sides of the boxer engine? Like changing the spark plugs and head gaskets?

Audi A3 hatch. Classic poor VW reliability, and the automatic is a stupid DSG that’s 10000x more complicated even by automatic transmission standards. But it has to be considered because there aren’t too many choices for small car big sunroof. Probably decent mpg with the 2.0T (TDI prices are still too high as it wasn’t sold here until much later in the run), and AWD isn’t mandatory.

DISCUSSION (10)

HammerheadFistpunch > dogisbadob
07/01/2015 at 17:04

I generally dislike sunroofs. Would not intentionally have on on my car if I could help it.

bob and john > dogisbadob
07/01/2015 at 17:06

Message from my A3 TDI: “poor reliability? you can kiss my ass”

Not to mention that DSG is one of the best auto boxes on the market,

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > dogisbadob
07/01/2015 at 17:09

DD the Audi, track the Subaru, burn that Saturn to the ground.

Arben72 > dogisbadob
07/01/2015 at 17:11

First gen lesboru’s are super easy to work on. The spark plugs are angled so they’re just as easy as any other car to do (you have to remove the intake though). It has a respectable amount of power and torque too. Headgaskets, I’d just pull the motor. Only takes me, an inexperienced wrench, a few hours to pull it. It can be done with it in the car, but I think you’d waste more time. I averaged upper 20’s in mine. I'd just leave Awd on all the time, it really doesn't sap to much. Also I fit a full sized fridge in mine once, so there's that.