FS: 1995 W-Body Factory Service Manuals

Got a new car. Got rid of the Monte.

Steve

No.

Steve

I'm going to explain myself a little bit. We were in the market for a new car and decided on a small one. Not Aveo/Yaris/Fit small, but Cobalt/Ion/Corolla/Civic small. Did extensive research and test driving of the Cobalt, Ion, Corolla, Mazda3 and Civic. This was the short list, the original list also included the Sentra, Spectra and Sonata, but they got cut shortly after sitting in them.

We used the "Cato and Vaughan Test Drive Formula," available here:

We tried really hard to like the Ion, but it just wasn't up to snuff. The Cobalt was junk. The Corolla was excellent, but didn't have and "pizzazz." The Mazda3 was our second pick, the Civic beat the Mazda3 by only a slight margin.

The Honda, Saturn and Toyota dealer experience was way above anyone else. The Chevrolet dealer wouldn't give us a price on what we asked for and the Mazda dealer was WAY too pushy. The first Honda dealer we went to told us flat out "I'm not going to give you a price unless you are going to buy a car." We turned around, walked out the door and went to another Honda dealer.

Price wise, lowest to highest: Cobalt, Ion, Corolla, Mazda3, Civic. Bang-for-the-buck wise, lowest to highest: Cobalt, Corolla, Mazda3, Ion, Civic. Features, lowest to highest: Cobalt, Corolla, Mazda3, Ion, Civic. Our "score," lowest to highest: Cobalt, Ion, Corolla, Mazda3, Civic. (I actually scored the Corolla higher than the Mazda3, the wife was the other way.)

I haven't been turned off GM, they just didn't cut it for what we needed now. If I was in the market for a full size again, I'd be hard pressed to buy anything but an Impala or Monte Carlo.

Steve