Comparison Tests
It seems like mere minutes since we were shocking and awing the 1578 residents of Bagdad, Arizona, with a similar assortment of giant-slaying subcompacts. However, since that test in May 2007 identifying the Mazdaspeed 3 GT as our favorite little hooligan, the auto industry has birthed a few more turbocharged street runts.
These new torpedoes break down into two gangs, we discovered. The Sharks take reasonable compromise and trample it under stiff suspensions and fat rubber, flaring with eyeball candy and simmering with just-try-it styling. The Jets just play it cool, boy, with less pushy graphics and a lighter, quieter step to their sprints. Like the brawling punks of Bernstein and Sondheim's 1957 West Side Story, each gang has endearing qualities as well as social diseases.
A cash payment of $22,995 snares the Dodge Caliber SRT4, a superpower-suffused version of Dodge's economy shoe box wielding 285 horsepower from a 2.4-liter turbo engine and grille-fed intercooler. This Shark, sunburnt in $150 optional Sunburst Orange, had a price further fluffed by a $915 stereo, $1075 navigation system, and the 19-inch aluminum wheel and tire pack, which runs $450. Okay by me from America!
There's also the totally, radically, belatedly redesigned Subaru Impreza WRX. The original civilian rally car returns larger, heavier, more mature, with a few traditional Rex cues—224-horse turbo flat-four engine and all-wheel drive—and a few tradition breakers, including full-frame windows (finally!) and a deluxe interior. This WRX was earmarked to the gills with $4100 worth of satellite radio and navigation equipment, plus a $75 rubber cargo tray (worth every cent) and a $163 armrest extension. When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way.
Volvo—of all the unlikely brands to be here! It joins the subcompact fracas with its '08 227-hp C30 T5 hatch. The C30's launch timing precluded us from comparing it with a VW GTI and Mini Cooper in Bagdad, perhaps the C30's more natural gang affiliates. And car availability meant the only example with a six-speed manual was this base Version 1.0 model, fitted with soft-running all-season tires and lacking the optional sport suspension. At least its $23,920 price sits at the bottom (a $475 metallic-blue paint job is the only option). Somewhere, there's a place for this Jet.
Finally, we invited the leader of the Sharks from our Bagdad comparo, the 263-hp Mazdaspeed 3. Stripped for fighting with zero options, it trades at $24,650, a gray 150-mph missile plunged into the heart of our price range. A car like that wants one thing only, and when it's done, it'll leave you lonely.
In the meantime, let's mambo!
