Great basic transportation. I have the four door hatchback and it's comfortable for commuting, but after a few hours it starts to wear you down.
Compared to almost any other subcompact, the Aspire holds up better in terms of styling and reliability.
Gas mileage is outstanding, I get almost 40mpg and that's with the automatic! My Aspire laughs at OPEC.
This car is actually a KIA and the engine is based on a Mazda design, it's cheap, small but reliable. If you need something that you can pick up used to commute with on a small budget you won't go wrong with this little beast.
Don't kid yourself though, any car in this class needs to be driven with care. The airbags are comforting but anti-lock brakes are an option you usually are not going to find on the Aspire, in fact the brakes lock up pretty quickly. The car is *tiny* like the Festiva before it or the Rio after.
I can see being obliterated by some SUV that would barely feel an impact.
Of course there is nothing about the Aspire that inspires aggressive driving or racing anyway.
Finally it's got an incredible amount of space inside, you can haul furniture with the back seat folded down. I've stuffed twenty five bags of groceries in it on one occasion and my sisters new easy chair on another. If you need to haul your life around between home and work you'll love the Aspire.