For nearly the same money you can get the new Honda Civic with more power, more economy, and better resale. So why buy the Kia? The answer is the warranty and the fact the Kia pricing is very much a haggling price proposition and the Honda Civic is much in demand.

We tested the Hyundai LX and the “station wagon” or Rio5 model with a base prices about $14,000 with an automatic transmission. We always question buying an automatic vehicle when price and fuel economy are the two main reasons for buying a small car, but nevertheless it has a good power train and could handle the four speed automatic. We got just under 28 mpg in mixed driving, far less than the 29/38 government rating, The manual transmission might yield another mile or two per gallon in town and is the most fun to explore with, but if you drive mainly in town the automatic is the easiest way to go and you get better mileage on the highways.