-buying traditions-and also one that gets far less attention that it should. Most
test drive
a new
car
a little way before going back inside the
dealers
hip and signing the contract. A thorough
test drive
doesn't necessarily guarantee that
auto
your ownership will be unmitigated bliss. But it can help you avoid disappointing little surprises. Once you've purchased your new
car
, you're probably going to be returning to the
dealers
hip at intervals for service and perhaps adjustments. So before you get down to the definitive
test drive
of the vehicle,
auto
it's a good idea to
test drive
the
dealers
hip first. You read about compact
car
s if your
auto
motive fantasies are constantly being interrupted by your financial reality,
Only a few rungs down the ladder from the bad boys, the kings of our
auto
motive hill, are the 20-grand compact
car
s.
auto
Cars that can still be lots of fun to drive without being such a pain to pay for. Both of
skoda
's compact
car
s make obvious claims to performance in their names alone.
On real-world roads, it's clear
fabia
is the quicker of the two. Drive it hard and it's
auto
reasonably quick, putting the power down exiting corners and managing reasonable grip everywhere else. You've got to be a bit of a brute to make compact
car
s go fast. Get out your wrestling shoes because you're in the ring when you drive compact
car
s. It was, despite those who criticize
auto
the Fast and Furious look and anything with less than 8 cylinders, good old-fashioned hot rodding. The theory was sound: Take small, compact
car
s and put as much raw horsepower under the hood as humanly possible.
Now the
auto
manufacturers are finally responding. Just as Detroit in the '70s
