5th Jul 2012, 13:19

Of course it's cheap. It's an Echo. I've driven them before. The ride is a bit bouncy and road noise is fairly high. It's a sub-compact car, all of that is normal and to be expected. What you don't expect is the good quality for the amount of money your paying.

The reason it's better than an American car like it? It's cheap and IT WORKS! A friend of mine owns an '01 Chevrolet Cavalier (yes I know it's in a different class than an Echo, but Chevrolet didn't make anything smaller at the time the Echo was made) and another friend of mine used to own an Echo (don't remember the year exactly, was an earlier model however). The Echo was better in every way compared to the Cavalier. It was quieter, smoother and got better gas mileage. She traded it in with 240,000 miles and had no issues whatsoever (she never even had to replace the clutch!) Meanwhile, the Cavalier has cost my other friend thousands. It only has 85,000 miles and so far has required 3 head gaskets, 2 cylinder head rebuilds, a transmission, and a complete steering column because Chevy stupidly made the ignition cylinder an integral part of the column. It's now rusted so badly it won't pass inspection.

5th Jul 2012, 13:21

The original poster claims the car is "cheap" in the subtitle...