One car, two car, red car, blue car
Karina had an excellent suggestion in her comment to this post regarding planning ahead so that any new car will be suitable for "life" for the next decade or so. Possible children and the whatnot. This way of thinking makes sense for people like Karina and me who drive their cars until the car will no longer run.
Following this train of thought, really small cars should then be ruled out, like the smart car, probably the Yaris, the mini (which we already felt was too expensive), and maybe even the Scion (it also got poor reviews for driving noise). A part of me is now crying inside after writing that sentence, because I really like cars that get 35+ MPG, which largely only small cars can achieve.
Whether or not to use the "decade" mentality is a tough decision though, as we will likely need to replace our current car, the duct-tape-mobile, in about two years. So I'm not sure how much we need to worry about a decade out yet, since we could always solve that problem with our next car.
However, that being said, one of our favorite cars, the Toyota Matrix, would fit the decade test. It gets pretty good gas mileage, is a nice car, and is big enough to support life. However, it is definitely at the top end of our budget. Edmunds says the 2008 Matrix starts at $15,510, and the 2009 starts at $16,290. But that sounds unrealistic, since all the local car dealer websites show the lowest, no frills Matrix cars starting at $20k.
We've also added the Mazda3 to our list of car possibilities, based on feedback from a friend in Boston who just bought one. He needed a car and went through the same thought process that Miah, Karina and others have gone through. He considered the Civic, Fit, and other cars like that, but thought the Mazda3 was the most fun to drive. Plus he got a great price, with 0% interest for a few years. Nice!
yeah
I tend to be thinking along the same lines. I think our tentative plan right now is to wait until we know what my job will be, as there is a decent chance that I will still be working from home for a while. If that is the case, then we just need to decide how badly we need to get a nicer car in order for Nat to look more professional.
If I get a job where I have to go to an office, then we'll get a new "decade" car unless we can find a reasonably priced used car (early 2000's, under $5k, lower miles) that we like.
other musings on car shopping...
I couldn't tell from your post how much you'd considered it, but the Honda Fit actually has a number of redeeming features as a small car with potential for growth. It is in the same class as the Yaris, but with 4-doors standard and better (and safer - with more standard airbags) standard equipment, it is something I was looking at. Some of the features I particularly liked were the mileage and the size and versatility of the trunk space. The back seats fold completely flat, and if you wanted, you can fold the back seat bottom up so you could fit a bike or something. Anyway, just another idea to consider, although I think mileage will improve further on it since they expect to make a hybrid version for the 2010 model year.
I totally understand the dilemma about choosing the right time horizon for your vehicle. It sounds like you are looking at it the right way - by the time the duct-tape-mobile gives out, there may be other options on the market that will be a good counterpart to whatever you choose now. Good luck, and let me know if you ever want to chat cars!
more thoughts...
I had also considered the Mazda3 cause Mazda is trying to get its name out there so they are making really good deals on new purchases, unlike Honda and Toyota (as demonstrated by your friend) and they get good gas mileage. But they I mentioned it to some friends and some folks at work and they all had terrible things to say about Mazda. One guys wife had to take her's into the shop 4 times in the first six weeks! Someone else had the wheel bearing fail after only 3yrs (way, way to soon for a failure like that). After all the horror stories, I just crossed Mazda3 off the list so I have no idea if they'd made efforts to improve their quality in the 08 and 09 models. It might now be a good car now, but you should probably do some serious research and read lots of user blogs just to make sure.
Going back to the decade car vs the smart car, here was my thought on chosing 10yrs instead of 35mpg- hybrid technology is just going to continue getting better. Dave and I faced a similar dilema because we will likely be replacing his car in the next couple years so we had a lot of discussions about who should buy the 10yr car and who should buy the smart car. I really don't think we've plateaued with the hybrid and maybe even electric techology, so 35mpg might seem really low in a couple yrs. plus because high mpg is such a hot thing right now the dealers are robbing people on the smart cars, but they are willing to talk on the other models (and it takes a lot of tanks of gas to make up for an extra $5k in selling price). so we decided to go with the 10yr car now and then in a couple years when the hybrid technology and prices have settled out a bit more, we'll probably get one of those for our second car.