Ok, I've convinced myself that I need a commute car. My commute is about 70 miles a day.

I love my VW Passat but I'm afraid I'm killing it. It's modded now and I'm afraid I'm quickly making it worthless on my boring commute. Also, I'm thinking of saving some money with a 30+ mpg car that runs on regular unleaded.

Good news is there seems to be some great affordable cars out there. I've started test driving these puppies but would like some opinions from anyone.

Not in any special order are the candidates. I like hatchbacks so it's gonna be a hatchback:

Scion XB - The box. I actually like the way this looks (wife hates it). It's really nice inside and drives awesome. It's got the power of a lawnmower. Price is about $15k. It does 32 mpg on the highway but that quickly goes bad if you drive over 70mph.

Can you fit two bikes inside this thing??



Mini Cooper - Cooler than cool! About $17k and 35mpg on the highway. Will a bike fit in the back??? This is so cool that it's hard to get one. There's a one year waiting list in the bay area. I think I found a way to get one though. Does it come in orange?



Toyota Yaris - This car is sweeet! This only available in Canada but will be in the US soon. Any Canadans have one? Again, will a bike fit inside?? Price is $12k and highway mileage is 41mpg.

Look, you can mod it too.


Those are the 3 real options. A couple notables are:
Honda Element because they finally painted the dammmm panels. $21k though and the mileage is around 26 mpg, I think. So it's not a go.


Check out this freaky new Civic Hatchback. It's only available in UK right now. I'm sure it's super efficient and all that.



francois