My personal "Pocket Rocket" Review. Make the right buying decision.

"League of Extraordinary Pocket Rockets"-Road and Track

Within the last three days I have took it upon myself to test drive all five cars included in the Road and Track "League of Extraordinary Pocket Rockets" review and am write my own review of every car.

Here is how they placed in Road and Track
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=31&article_id=5244

1-377.5 points-MazdaSpeed3
2-370.2 points-VW Golf GTi
3-358.6 points-Honda Civic Si
4-355.5 points-Mini Cooper S
5-323.8 points-Nissan Sentra Spec V

Now for those of you who don't intend on reading this article here is how they stacked up in my own personal opinion in overall rating. Then, I will give a review over every car in the order that I put them. I test drove these cars in one specific order and then retest drove them in a different specific order to configure handling and pulls equally.

1-MazdaSpeed3
2-Mini Cooper S
3-VW Golf GTi
4-Honda Civic Si
5-Nissan Sentra Spec V

Mazda MazdaSpeed3 Sport
MSRP-$22,340 263hp/280tq 3153lbs 20/28MPG 2.3Turbo
Best Interior. Most Power. Most Gadget Oriented. Best Clutch. This car was a definite surprise to me. My expectations were high based on other car reports and this car definitely met and exceeded all those expectations.
Exterior-The exterior of the car didn't "turn me on" it isn't the best looking or even a good looking car on the market. The rear bumper protruded out of the back by about 2.5-3 inches giving you a small bench to sit on which was quite unattractive, and the black marking around the fog lights are completely unnecessary; it would make the car much better if it just had bigger fogs.
Interior-The interior was very gadget oriented. Some gadgets can only be found on cars upwards of $40,000 such as the radio increases its volume when you accelerate hard to make up for the noise from the engine and exhaust. When you adjusted the volume L.E.D. lights in the radio would motion outward which ever way you were adjusting the volume, towards you for a decreased volume, towards the passenger if the volume was being increased. The seats were very comfortable, as would be expected in a sports car. The lighted gauges were far back into the dash so no one but you could see them, and well lite they were. The dash, seats, and head lining were all made of what looked like well constructed materials.
Performance-The fastest car out of the competing cars without a doubt. The spool was the second quickest out of the bunch but still fast enough to get the job done. Straight line performance was definitely close to the SRT-4's from a roll.
Handling-Handling wasn't as great as I would like it to be but still excellent. Third/Fourth tied best in the list.

Mini Cooper S
MSRP-$21,200 172hp/177tq 2668lbs 29/36MPG 1.6Turbo
Best Handling. Most Unique interior. Most Unique Exterior. This was a superb upgrade from the 2006 Mini Cooper S. Switching out the supercharger for a turbo, and upgrading the interior was a GREAT move on Mini's and Bmw's part.
Exterior-I really like the exterior although many may not agree. I like the fact of a small fun-filled car. Euro styling is becoming more and more popular with German as well as Japanese imports and of course domestics. And sitting very low... I love it.
Interior-The interior as expected is as much different from other cars as the exterior is. Different size and shaped buttons and switches in replace of buttons makes the interior extremely elegant.
Performance-Performance, was the thing I was most impressed about. I was really disappointed with the performance of the supercharged Mini and if you haven't driven the 2007's that are turbocharged I would definitely suggest you find a dealer and jump on it A.S.A.P.
Handling-There is not surprise that I rated this car as the greatest handling car on this comparison. We all know of the legendary bulldog handling and the 2007 suspension seemed like it was improved, however I have to documents to prove that.

VolksWagen Golf GTi
MSRP-22,220 200hp/207tq 3100MTlbs,3150DSGlbs 22/32MPG 2.0Turbo
Most Sleek Exterior. Smoothest Shifter. I drove both the DSG and manual versions of the GTi and they both would have came in third place. VW is known for their smooth gear boxes and this is no exception; however the I felt that this car was a bit underpowered.
Exterior-I felt that overall this car had the sleekest exterior amongst its competitors. A lot of people don't like the rear end of the GTi and say that it is too big, but in person it is really not so bad. I felt like the lines flowed smoothly over the entire car.
Interior- The interior is nice, really nice in leather or cloth. Not much to say... So uh... Down to performance.
Performance-The performance was ok, however the GTi did have the quickest turbo spool out of all the listed vehicles. Again, not much to say so down to handling...
Handling- This is the Third/Fourth place tier with the MazdaSpeed3, again not as great as I would like it to be but still excellent.

Honda Civic Si
MSRP-21,090 197hp,139tq 2877lbs 23/32MPG 2.0 N/A
Best Model Improvement. Best Exterior. Most Aftermarket Support.There's no doubt the Si is kind of weak in this competition since three out of the five cars use force induction to get their speed up however the Civic Si dominates the Naturally Aspirated front wheel drive world. If it weren't for it's second place handling and it's high rev making it a wonderful fun factor than this car simply wouldn't be worth driving.
Exterior-I personally like the exterior of this car better than any other cars and since three of them are hatches and the other being a sedan that made this choice even easier. Honda still needs to pick up the pace on the cheap paint but other than that the exterior wins in this competition.
Interior-The interior is nice but not as nice as the GTi's giving it a fourth place interior finish. Again, Honda needs to upgrade the cheap materials used to make the interior; It simply scratches too easy. Also, the speedometer being place farther in the dash was a very innovative design, thumbs up Honda.
Performance- Again the Civic got cheated out of this race for its low tq but when you are pushing 197hp out of a N/A 2.0 Inline 4 cylinder engine tq is very hard to come by. High revs still make this car a blast to drive.
Handling-Again a second place finish in handling gave this car a high score in the fun factor and part of that you can thank the L.S.D. for.

Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V
MSRP-$19,900 200hp,180tq 3078lbs 24/31MPH 2.5 N/A
Best... Nothing.It is the worst looking car inside and out. This car had the worst clutch and shift feel, and handled the worst. Was also the slowest.
This is the cheapest car in the comparison and it definitely showed it in the two test drives.

This review took me two hours to type, three days of notes and driving, an annoyed girlfriend, four pepsi's, and over half a tank of gas. So show me some love.

If you have any questions I will answer them to the best of my ability.
 
Very good review. I've done similar things myself for my job so I can appreciate the work you put in.

I would Still rate the GTI over the Mini Cooper just based on my own subjective reasons.

You kinda did just gloss over the sentra review. While it certainly is the worst of the bunch I think a complete review should pay as much attention to the worst car as the best.
 
Donas64 said:
Very good review. I've done similar things myself for my job so I can appreciate the work you put in.

I would Still rate the GTI over the Mini Cooper just based on my own subjective reasons.

You kinda did just gloss over the sentra review. While it certainly is the worst of the bunch I think a complete review should pay as much attention to the worst car as the best.

I did, but it seriously wasn't worth typing.(shady). It lacked power, low and top end, it had the worst clutch feel over all, worst shift throw feel overall, I felt like I was sitting in a truck, it's hideous, handles like...A drunk. Seats looked cool though, but not as good as the Si or MS3 seats, lol.
 
tsunami said:
wow very nice... to much time on your hands??? lol

He's audioning for a job with motortrend. Seriously though, thats one of my dream jobs is automotive journalist. I like cars and I like to write and I'm good at it. Someday maybe.
 
That's cool - is that the current issue of Road and Track? I want to buy it and collect all the magazines that feature the MS3.
 
Nice review. I would have to somewhat disagree on a GTI being a "best" car for "tuning.." I came out of a MKV GTI for my MS3 so I'm speaking from personal experience. The cars are haunted with constant mechanical problems, moreso than past VW's. The aftermarket is comparable with what is available for the MS3, and in some ways behind. True BT kits are not yet available, although they will be soon. To step up to near 300whp you need to spend at least $5000.00 for a big turbo kit. This does not include upgraded intercooling, DP, or exhaust mods either. Further, factory VW parts - DV (diverter valves), PCV's, high pressure fuel pumps, etc seem to be wearing out quickly. These parts fail quite often even on stock vehicles and much worse on chipped ones. So, really before even deciding to upgrade to BT's and such you have to work out all of these gremlins first. This ultimately lead me to getting rid of my GTI. VW revises parts so fast that while your new parts are being shipped a revision for that same part surfaces making your new in transit parts already obsolete.

A bone stock MS3 is just as quick and much faster than a modded GTI. Its much cheaper and easier to get near 300whp out of a MS3 than a GTI any day hands down. With 14K on the odo, my GTI with full bolt ons with a 100 octane flash only mustered 217whp and 254ft/lbs. But I blew 3 stock DV's, 2 PCV's, and high presssure fuel pump was on the fritz because it could not keep sustaining what my flash was requesting. Because of this, my car continually kept getting slower and slower. You will see this happen over time and more and more GTI owners are now complaining about this same issue. I wasn't interested in constantly fixing failing parts just so I could maintain 217whp. So she went bye-bye.
I love my MS3!
 
Cool review, I read the road and track article and now I read your review and I like it. I am sorta deciding between an si or an ms3(well 15% for si and 85%twards an ms3) because I gotta go Japanese with my car so no gti for me and no mini, it's just to small and no sentra because it's just blah-ze. In all the dozens of reviews I have read of the ms3 I only found 1 negative review and the guy was complaining that it had to much power, I don't belive that torque steer is that bad that you would honestly want LESS power, WTF?! So I am pretty much set on the ms3 for sure.
 
the Si isnt even worth it. I estimate a win on an MS3 behalf on my MS6 from a roll, makes sense since its almost the same power, except im AWD and the MS3 is FWD. This is stock talking.

Where I live, I came across a new civic si with full bolt ons (known around town), that got his ass handed to him by MS6Mike back when mike was stock...me and mike are the only titanium MS6 around here, and I get his stupid friends try to race me thinking im him...I beat them too lol. Anyways, this guy had put MORE mods on this civic Si, and wanted to see how it held now against me (Mike?)...I was late for work and there isnt a better way to instigate a ricer than to go fast...he rode my ass (was so close I couldnt see this douchebag's headlights on my rear view mirror) all the way till i got out of the complex until I got him on the open road. I made a turn into the road and waited until he did as well and I was ready, i saw him attempt a ricer fly by and I punched it on 2nd. The thing was fast, I thought i was going to totally rape it, but it was just a decent 2 car lenght kill. BUT, being that it had a sh1tload of mods, its just plain shameful. A let down. You can have all the aftermarket support you want, that car is still v-techslow. A GTI only needs a chip, an CAI and a exhaust and its off to wonderland...hell, i think a GTI with only a chip wouldve raped that si. Mike ran a GLI with a chip and a CAI in his stock setting and he only got him by a lenght (from a roll). The GTI is lighter, so it should do better than that. Then again, the GTI is 26k, thats just overpriced and retarded, it isnt even a car, it's a "thingy." Not to mention that with the same aftermarket you can push way more, the MS6/MS3 respond too good with mods, not to mention the EMS. MS3 wins by a mile, its more of a car than the lil-fun-to-drive-ready-to-ge-splattered-by-an-18wheeler mini cooper S, same with the GTI, better than the torqueless slow Si. Oh and the SE-R...ehh..right.

Needless to say, this was a good review. Good job Marine.
 
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I...

I really think the Sentra gets unfair bad marks. It's not a great car, but it's not a bad one. I like the engine a lot. It's a tuned out Altima I-4, and it sounds pretty good and has a lot of power and torque for a naturally aspirated engine. The exterior is just plain weird, as it is the basis for a new SUV and you can clearly see it. You can talk down the dealers on this car, they sell it 1k under MSRP so it will leave the lot @ 21K or so. It's go a killer system in it (fosgate) and a nice cluster (a gauge for G-Force is just cool). I still bought the speed 3, but I ranked the cars I tested as follows:

1 Speed 3

2 GTI MKV 5

3 Sentra SE-R

4 Civic Si Sedan

I loved the interior of the Vdub and the punchy and smooth engine. It handled welll and took off pretty darn quick. The civic is a snore. I really disliked this car, and I have owned 3 integras, 1 civic, and Accord, and a 95 Prelude SE. I loved all of my Integra's and the Prelude was my all time favorite before bying the 3.. But the Civic is just more of the same. Every year Honda gives you more rev's and low torque. Torque is like sweet love making.. You just need more and more of it.
 
yes, hp sucks for some reason, even if you end up with the same results/speed. Torque just feels better.
 
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