VW Passat vs. Mazda 6 vs. Honda Accord coupe vs. Nissan Altima

[Menace]

Honda Accord!

In general, people don't care about the look of your car unless it is a $$$ car. As far as service goes, why do you have to go to the dealers? Sure, for warranty...etc, it's only the major services you need to go within the warranty period of 3 years, not for oil change. Bad salespeople? go to see Mohamed of Carhelpcanada ($50 membership), he knows some great dealers.

[akito925]

i've narrowed the list of cars down to

VW Passat (1.8 turbo) vs. Mazda 6, Honda Accord Coupe and Nissan Altima.

Which would you choose and why?

Keep in mind I am comparing the VW Passat 1.8 Turbo with the 6 cylinder from the japs.

Which one offers best value and why?

I'd say lease the vw passsat, and mazda 6, everyoney drives the honda and nissan.. lol

[akito925]

German engineering will smoke any japanese import of the same hp any day. Reliability reports are generalizations that may not hold true for you. All cars in the long run will have to be maintained and repaired. The difference is whether the maintenance is done at the right intervals. Since German engineering is more superior, they tend to push the car a little harder, which means the maintenance must be done at the time specified and would be less forgiving if you are late.

I'd pick a german car over any japanese import any day. VW is as good a place to start as any german manufacturer.

You should also be able to get a good deal from VW on the Passat. The current generation of VW is being discontinued (new model look coming out soon) so lots of dealers are starting to clear out their inventory to prepare for MK V.

i dunno where your getting your facts, but for the japanese cars, they put pretty much good technolgy into their cars like a nissan skyline?? now thats hp with fuel effecency!!

[Qube]

You HAD to bait people into a flame war, didn't you?

I'm a VW loyalist, but I'm not going to jump into the fray.

From a simplistic consumer point of view...

The Mazda6 gives you more bang for the buck than the Passat or Altima.
The Passat has better interior trimming than either of them.
The Altima is getting better, that's all I can say.
If you tweak and tune, you'll fall in love with the 1.8T on the Passat.

Regarding VWs... Unless you are going for the upper echleons (VR6, Wolfsburg, TDI, 1.8T), don't bother. For example, don't go for a low trim level VW (CL/GL for example). You'll get much better value elsewhere. Prime example is I'd rather shop for a Mazda3 Sport than a Golf GL 2.0. VW raised the bar in interior comfort when then moved to the Passat B4 platform (subsequently Golf/Jetta as well). Then they raised the prices Again, from a simplistic consumer view. Of course, I'm waiting for a late model Cabrio to purchase myself

That's all the opinions I have.

[actng]

but you're still comparing sports cars with "normal" cars! The price:practicality of a miata can't be compared with the Golf platform. It's like me taking a SL55 and saying that it's better than the new 180hp Corolla. Of course it is!

As for the WRX, it's a subaru. It's a barebones car. Loud. Uncomfortable. Noisy. If you want to compare the WRX to a VW, consider the R32 and the TT. I'd say it fits somewhere in between the R32 and TT... closer to the R32.

That is kind of funny because I've owned VW and Audi (still own a Audi A4 1.8T, and owned a 1994 Corrado VR6), and I now own a Miata, and Subaru WRX which I've both used in Solo II events. I've topped out my Corrado at 235 km/h, and my Miata's Z rated tires are down to their wear bars after 20000 km of sprited driving. It's just funny that you assume I don't like driving. In terms of driving satisfaction (ignoring vanity factors like styling, prestige), I would easily put my Miata and WRX against much fancier German imports. Secondly, I have never found any VW product to handle particularly well. VW suspension design is geared too much toward comfort, too little suspension travel coupled with not enough roll stiffness in the stock suspension means that any serious driving should upgrade their suspension as their first mod.

Technology and engineering is useless if it's overly complicated for no reason, and overly complicated things impede reliability. I think the Japanese have better sense at designing an advanced engineered product without it breaking down....as a gross generalization.

Basically I used to be like you, I thought VW and Audi were the best, but since I've owned two of their products, I changed my mind. As far as BMW's are concerned, I like them, but they are severly overpriced. Mercedes product's are way below average in terms of reliability (a well known trend since Chrysler got involved)

[actng]

You HAD to bait people into a flame war, didn't you?

I just realized who started the post. I wouldn't have responded if I knew it was cummer stirring ***** up again.

[warpdrive]

but you're still comparing sports cars with "normal" cars! The price:practicality of a miata can't be compared with the Golf platform. It's like me taking a SL55 and saying that it's better than the new 180hp Corolla. Of course it is!

As for the WRX, it's a subaru. It's a barebones car. Loud. Uncomfortable. Noisy. If you want to compare the WRX to a VW, consider the R32 and the TT. I'd say it fits somewhere in between the R32 and TT... closer to the R32.

Why do you want to compare a Subaru to a TT? The Subaru is directly comparable to my own A4 if anything. The interior room, overall size, four doors, true full time AWD (not Haldex), sedan configuration. My Subaru is plenty comfortable, barely noisier than my Audi A4 1.8T at 70 mph. The sport seats are far superior in long distance comfort over my A4's Recaro made sport seats. The suspension is stiffer, but it's far more fun to drive also.

*IF* I didn't own two VW/Audi products in the past, I might have believed you, but I've heard this tirade before (German engineering being better blah blah), but there is very little sustance behind it.

Any true car enthusiast would understand that good and advanced engineering is not unique to German cars. To say so is pretty ridiculous.

[junkheap]

Just go to www.alldata.com and check out the service bulletins for each car to help you decide. Ive owned a mazda, honda, jeep, ford. Mazdas being the most fun to drive, honda being the most reliable, with the ford the least. The jeee(TJ), was extremely realiable as well, but those things are pretty much bulletproof. If i were to choose, i would pick the mazda honestly. I think it looks the best, as realiable as the others so far and i think its the cheapest.

My friends dad bought a 6(2.3L, with the wheels) recently, this was just before the 3 came out by a couple of months, and said the 6 was cheaper by far(than a simialr equipped 4 cyl honda)

Again if it helps you decide go to alldata.com

[cummer]

I just realized who started the post. I wouldn't have responded if I knew it was cummer stirring ***** up again.

i ask a question and once again i'm being blamed for stirring sh1t up????? What's up with you people. I ask a simple question and now suddently it my fault?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? WTF

[actng]

What're you doing back here anyway? When the mods banned you, you were all bitter and complaining about being banned and then said you don't need RFD and don't want to come back...

i ask a question and once again i'm being blamed for stirring sh1t up????? What's up with you people. I ask a simple question and now suddently it my fault?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? WTF

[Evil Techie]

hey hey
lets not bicker about the past

ppl do get heated when talking about things they are really into

id say that all of these 4 cars are pretty different
in terms of packaging, styles and the the engineering

accord coupe is a coupe
how is it suppose to be compared to Passat as a full size sedan?

perhaps read car & driver and check out their shoot out

[Jovi]

CR rates all VW's below average or well below average for reliability.