Bought a blue hatchback to replace my blue hatchback

If it's any help, after 12 years, we just had our clutch changed in our Hyundai Accent, bought in 2007. The first clutch was good (with a fairly good transmission), but this new clutch is wonderful. After 12 years, shifting the Accent is better than new. My long time mechanic also agreed about the excellent clutch.

 

I'm leaning towards a ninth-gen Civic , like a 2012 5MT sedan. I may have a Toyota now
( they make damned good hybrids ) but I really like Civics. Not a fan of the hydraulic clutch ,
but I guess the cable-actuated clutch is extinct. Too bad ; it was a bullet-proof setup , at least in
my experience.

 

Well, not quite. Leave it to Chevy to make "bullet-proof" vulnerable. On my 1965 Corvair, the "bullet-proof cable" broke & a repair was needed. Actually, the Corvair, with extra engineering & driver training, would have been an exceptional car. A friend of mine drove me through corners swiftly & safely, even on reverse cambered short radius corners. With applied power, the tri-axial kept the center of mass low, & the tires really dug, holding traction in the corners. The tri-axle(which caused roll-overs), when driven knowledgeably by excellent drivers, cornered supremely & won competitive races. A huge fan cooled the "not large" engine, which was low & also kept the center of mass low. Loved to put up the hood with the engine running on a hot day, & feel the breeze. But the aluminum engine needed better engineering, that Chevrolet wouldn't provide.

 

I guess that my only experience with the cable-actuated clutch was in my 89 Civic Si. When the car was
killed by rust after 14 years 229K miles , the original clutch still worked perfectly. Now that I think of it ,
I remember a story a co-worker told me about his 80s car , maybe a Subaru , that had a cable fail.
But I had a problem with most of the hydraulic clutches. Which is odd , I think. Brake cylinders last almost forever.

I owned a 66 Corvair . It was fun ! Or maybe I was 17.

 

The cable snapped on a friend's 1980 Rabbit, though the car was nearly a decade old at the time.

 

My 23 year old Plymouth Champ(Mitsubishi), 32 year old Ford Festiva (Kia-Mazda) & other older cars never had problems with clutch cables.... except for the Corvair. VW's too, I see.

 

Are hydraulic clutches a lot more to repair than clutch cables? If I remember my Corvair clutch cable was not too costly. & that was in a time I had little money.

 

I think the main reason they all went to hydraulic clutches is packaging.
A cable takes up a lot of real estate because you can't bend it around a sharp corner.
Hydraulic fluid don't care. Too bad. If I could buy that 89 Civic Si again , I would do it.
I mean , of course , a brand new one. Not the one that died of rust in 2003.

 

So you kept the car only 3 years? I guess for most people that's not unusual but I typically keep a car for at least 10 years. That's great gas mileage for that area. Too bad Honda didn't deliver on the quality and reliability rep. Got any other cars in mind?

 

Nice ride , Mike !
That is a 2.0 248 HP engine , right ?
Does it have start/stop ?

 

I could almost be happy with a non-hybrid car if it had start/stop.
I think the Jetta 1.4tsi has it , but VW WILL NOT SAY so in their website.

 

The answer's on the EPA fuel economy site. It depends...

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=42432&id=42431

 

Thanks , Bill. I knew they couldn't offer start/stop with the manual trans , and that's okay.
But you'd think that VW would brag about it. Unless they heard that "Americans don't want their
car to shut off" or "Americans won't buy station wagons " . I'm an American , and I want start/stop , dammit !