I chose the Honda CRX because it was relatively cheap but retained a high resale value, the fit and finish was immaculate, tranny and engine was bullet proof (and could handle supercharging and nitrous, handling was superb on par with more expensive sports cars, fun as hell, great luxury for price, and finally the gas mileage was supernatural when you consider the speed it attained The CRX Si hit 0-60 in 8 ticks and 10 ticks for the 1.3 gas miser.
The Chevette, Metro, and Sprints were substandard in all areas, sorry to say.
Honda dealers earned my ongoing scorn due to truly egregious markups beyond sticker price for that car. I’ve never owned a Honda for that reason, and likely never will buy a new one. I don’t doubt it was a great car, but I’m not going to go for that sort of treatment. Hope they’re happy, I am. I’ve owned a variety of interesting makes over the intervening years.
Toyota made great cars up until about five years ago, then they got progressively more interested in volume. Quality and reliability have slipped with each new model introduced since, imho. Nissan seriously overbuilt their cars beginning in the late eighties, one of the best cars I’ve owned was a 90 Maxima SE. Bulletproof, solid as a bank vault, no mechanical issues in nearly 200k miles and nary a squeak or a rattle. The stupid automated mousetrack shoulder belts always irritated me, though. I know they were forced to do it, but still.
I currently own an ‘07 Subaru Legacy GT Limited wagon, great car, very very fast and practical. Tight body, no mechanical issues, love the acceleration and the symmetrical AWD. Got a Corolla SE for commutes, a Ford Ranger for hauling stuff and still have the last Maxima I bought new in 96, unfortunately inferior to the 90 in nearly every way, which is why I don’t buy Maximas anymore, lol. Well, they’ve gotten sort of flabby and ugly, too. I’ve kept it for sentimental reasons, but between my back, my left knee and having fractured the radius in my right arm near the elbow, stickshift is looking out of the question these days. I don’t “need” four cars anyway.