A Real-Life Car to Meet Your Needs
The median price of a new car recently rose to $15,000.
In real life, that buys a half-share in a Lincoln Town Car, will put you into a 12-year-old Porsche or just about cover the sales tax on a Bentley Turbo.
On the other hand, today’s new car buyers should not consider $15K as an inescapable sentence to search weekend classifieds for a Cal Worrisome special among former Hertz fleet rentals.
For there is indeed life below $15,000.
They are called subcompacts.
There’s the Ford Escort and the Mazda Protege, small yet solid performers sharing a nicely tuned Asian chassis and base pricing below $9,000. Next, the Honda Civic, a peppy veteran of this pintpot platoon and the $7,000 starter of a Honda-Acura line that in recent years can do no wrong.
The Geo Prizm is Chevrolet’s $10,000 clone of Toyota’s subcompact Corolla at about the same price. Geo out of Toyota means doors and lids that fit tightly, a superior finish to paints and plastics, outstanding value all around--and consciences salved by the double standard of owning a Japanese car while still buying American.
This is a “carry-over year” for Escort, Protege, Civic, Prizm and Corolla. Trim packages have been changed and a few options added. Transmissions have been revised and wagons introduced. But there will be no major revisions of engines and other serious mechanicals for 1991.
For three other models in the subcompact set, however, 1991 marks the birth of new generations.
Toyota has enlarged the entry-level Tercel and increased the horsepower. Nissan has installed a new, twin-cam, 16-valve engine in the Sentra that opens its line.
And Mitsubishi has added 11 more horsepower to its little Mirage--another captive of the rebadging frenzy and sold as the Colt through Dodge-Plymouth dealerships.
In the weeks ahead, we will evaluate all the new subcompacts that--despite the buying public’s apparent predilection for performance, matched hides and European grandeur--remain the meat and potatoes of our motoring habit.
Fortunately, the purchase of any vehicle for $15,000 or less is no longer the cramped, noisy, vibrating, dawdling and sloppy handling compromise it used to be.
Gone are the motorized perambulators that used 30 miles of the Hollywood Freeway to reach the fast lane. No more the mechanical Cubism where routine maintenance included realignment of front wheels and the driver’s spine.
Today’s automotive technology has advanced to where subcompacts come inexpensive, but not cheap. They look small but feel large. They give more than 30-m.p.g. on highways and they can easily travel at 100 m.p.h.
And the Toyota Tercel is typical.
Wheelbase and length are the same as the 1987 design it replaces--but the interior is roomier by 9%.
The car has been lightened to less than one ton and its carburetor has been replaced by fuel injection. That combination is good for a 5% improvement in horsepower (to 82 h.p.) and slightly quicker acceleration times.
Trunk space is up to 10.7 cubic feet (a 7% increase), which is more room than you will find in a Ford Mustang. There’s greater headroom, front and rear, than the Acura Integra and more rear leg room than the BMW 325.
The Tercel is offered as a four-door this year, and Toyota claims the car can carry five passengers. It does not specify five adults, five children, five schnauzers, or one large driver and four orders of Thai takeout. Ergo, we would not recommend five of anything for journeys much longer than the average driveway.
Another hard truth of the Tercel--or any subcompact--should not be overlooked.
It does not have the power and performance of a Ford Mustang. It cannot offer the up-market richness of the Acura Integra. Unless you are into humiliation (or have a backup Porsche), do not go against a BMW on Mulholland.
If you are looking for motoring’s little luxuries, it is respectfully suggested you look elsewhere.
But by all means expect this subcompact to offer competent performance, safe and satisfactory handling and a simple but not unpleasing interior.
Better yet, you will be paying only $6,488 (for a two-door Tercel with a 4-speed manual transmission, the upper limit of Spartanism) for a car of established durability. And with a gas tank holding 12 gallons, you’re also good for about one weekly trip to the pumps.
In balance, cars like the Tercel fulfill all our motoring needs without indulging our wants .
In truth--especially when those needs are no greater than daily travels on constipated freeways--what else does a Mercedes offer beyond more elegant lolling room?
The styling of the Tercel seems to have taken a cue from Toyota’s Previa van. It is well-rounded, somewhat domed, and in brown or green might be mistaken for a desert tortoise.
The high notchback (the area that used to be known as the rear deck) is more of a cleft, creating a squat rear that is about the only legacy from ghosts of subcompacts past. Except for cursed plastic wheel covers (we did some curb-polishing on two in the first 60 miles of city driving) on the Deluxe Sedan. It remains a major mystery of our time why manufacturers continue to see these scuffed Frisbees as an improvement on even the steel wheels of bargain basement models.
But the fat, wraparound body moldings and body-color front grille add dashes of the ‘90s and upscale style to the Deluxe Tercel. It also was satisfying to see narrowed body seams that tame the car’s slipstream and reduce wind noise to the interior.
That interior is practical, functional, unobtrusive, definitely uninspiring and clearly assembled by designers who know that inexpensive elaborations on basic equipment is an open invitation to tackiness.
Our Blue Metallic test vehicle came with power steering that clearly is a $250 extravagance. With a curb weight of 1,975 pounds, the car is light enough. With power steering added to a suspension softened more for commuting than cavorting, the handling gives a sense of float.
Even in this relatively low-powered front-driver, knowing exactly what the front wheels are doing--particularly in the wet and winter slipperies--falls squarely beneath the heading of critical information. Power steering was developed to provide assistance, not anesthetize.
On the road, the Tercel is highly maneuverable. The acceleration won’t bring tears to your eyes, especially with the automatic. But the pace is adequate, albeit directly reflective of a driver’s skill with the five-speed manual.
Brakes: Discs up front and more than enough.
Speed: Sufficient to surprise those who thought they had their minds made up about feeble subcompacts.
Comfort: To compact car standards.
Engines in the smaller sedans of yore, were traditionally noisy little things rattling on basic mounts until the inside of the car felt rather like a working beehive.
In the new Tercel, the crankshaft has been rebalanced and weighted to reduce the thrashing. Fire wall and dash are made from a metal sandwich that contains acoustical insulation. So mechanical noises remain and even become intrusive when the engine is working hard. But they have been drastically reduced.
No air bags are offered on the Tercel. The best sound system on its option list comes with only four speakers. Seat belts are manual. There are no illuminated vanity mirrors nor power windows nor rear spoiler nor climate control . . . .
It’s also also missing a $15,000 window sticker.
1991 TOYOTA TERCEL DX COST: * Base $7,798 * As tested $9,583 (including air conditioning, power steering, sound system, 60-40 folding rear seats, California emissions compliance). ENGINE: * Four cylinders, 1.5 liters, 12-valves developing 82 horsepower. TYPE: * Front-wheel drive, two-door, subcompact sedan. PERFORMANCE: * 0-60 m.p.h. (as tested), 10.9 seconds. * Top speed (estimated) 110 m.p.h. * Fuel economy, EPA city-highway, 29-35 m.p.g. CURB WEIGHT: * 1,975 pounds. THE GOOD: * Low price, high fuel economy. * Looks small, feels large. * Light and maneuverable. THE BAD: * Power steering creates air cushion car. * Engine noise. * Middling acceleration. THE UGLY: * Plastic wheel covers.
