Best of the Fun and Frugal: two-door coupes and 3-door hatches under $18k

September 29, 8:55 PMAuto Review ExaminerJohn Matras

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Finding driving fun is easy if you have a lot of money to spend, but it doesn’t have to cost a lot, not if you have the right attitude, and just as important, so does the car you drive. We looked over today’s car market for fun and frugal vehicles that meet the following criteria:

#8: Toyota Yaris Liftback: The most frugal on our list with the lowest price and the best mileage but how many times a day can you say “It’s my girlfriend’s (or daughter’s) car”? The Yaris looks like a refugee from a Pokemon video game. On the other hand, if you shop for clothes in the Hello Kitty department, the Yaris Liftback would be just your style. Note: the four-door Yaris isn’t as Cute Overload as the two-door, but it’s still a testosterone sponge.

#7: Volkswagen New Beetle: If impractical is fun, the New Beetle is halfway there. Form trumps function but the New Beetle still shares this group’s max cargo capacity with the Rabbit. But the New Beetle, even with more horsepower than most in our list, doesn’t have enough to make this a studworthy set of wheels. On the other hand, if your idea of fun is choosing which flower goes in the dashboard vase this week, the New Beetle’s your pick.

#6: Hyundai Accent SE: In a fairer world, the Hyundai Accent SE would rank higher. Unfortunately it seems to be boxing out of its weight class. Still, in SE trim it impresses and has authentic sporting characteristics, including firmer suspension than the base model and with the manual transmission the SE gets a sport-calibrated shifter. We like its cheeky attitude and with a skosh more power would be a real tiger in a teapot, whatever that means.

#5: Ford Focus Coupe SES: We’d like to rank the Focus SES higher than we did but we’re still peeved that Ford dropped the funky three-door hatch for a conventional two-door coupe and for all its posturing as a driver’s car, it’s still pushing a decade on the platform and the competition, well, isn’t standing still. On the other hand, Ford teamed with Microsoft and created Sync which, among other things, lets you play music from your iPod through the car’s audio system and control it via voice commands. Cool. And check the gas mileage, too.

#4: Chevrolet Cobalt Coupe 2LT: The Cobalt coupe looks good but breaks no new ground stylingwise and like the sedan has good middle class values, a three bedroom house and a tidy lawn. But what makes a solid sedan can be a ho-hum in a sports coupe. Power is good, handling is average and it winds up right in the middle of our list. The Cobalt won’t disappoint but it won’t get the scholarship either. GM’s laying down some good discounts, however, tipping the frugal factor in its direction.

#3: Scion tC: Scion’s mission is to win the kids over to Toyota and that means coming up with some slick and novel shapes, so say hello to the tC. The Scion hatchback is quick—in a straight line—but is prone to understeer and a little too soft for premium handling. There are fixes in Toyota’s TRD performance parts bin and fixing up a car is fun…but paying extra for it is not. Speaking of which, the tC has the second worst fuel economy of our group.

#2: Volkswagen Rabbit 3-door: The Volkswagen Rabbit has a lot going for it: the most power, more than twice the cargo capacity of any but the New Beetle, and it’s priced down by the Hyundai Accent. The interior is what happens when Germans do it right and the Rabbit has good feet. It’s by no means the lightest, however, and that saps zip and doesn’t help fuel milage either, and finally, styling doesn’t twist the bad boy image dial very far to the right.

#1: Honda Civic Coupe LX: At 140 horsepower, the Honda Civic Coupe LX isn’t among the most powerful in our group but it easily keeps up with the quickest. The handling is good and the engine sings. Styling inside and out is not just tomorrow but out in somewhere next week. Even the Scion tC is old school compared to the Civic Coupe. Stay away from the low-ball price leader and stick with the LX trim level. It has everything you need including super gas mileage. Can the choir say "amen"?

Notes: "Base price" indicates base price for model tested without delivery; "hp" is horsepower for standard engine, "gears m/a" column indicates the number of manual and automatic transmission gear ratios; "mpg m/a" indicates the gas mileage for the manual and automatic transmission; "0-60 mph" is for the manual tranmission, from manufacturer and published sources; "wheel dia. in." indicates the diameter in inches of the standard-equipment wheel; "alloy" indicates whether alloy wheels are standard or optional; "audio" denotes standard external audio source; "cargo cu ft" is the maximum published cargo volume in cubic feet.

Illustrations: All photos courtesy of the manufacturer.