06-09 Cobalt SS vs MX5 vs pre 2015 Civic Si

[The LAWN oob]

Recently got a 2013 Fiat 500 for my daily 1 km commute to the office but the manual transmission feels horrible. 1st gear feels bad to go into. Hard to go into reverse if car is too warm.

Currently the options are:

06-09 Cobalt SS for $9k or less

MX5 for $9k or less

2015 Civic Si for $15k

All options are below 100k miles.

 

Plenty of MX5 locally. The Civic Si requires a 200 mile road trip. The Cobalts require 800+ mile trips or $1k for delivery.

I also have a 2011 Camaro SS so I feel like the MX5 would have a little bit of overlap. Leaning towards Cobalt SS because I never drove a powerful FWD before.

 

Also considering a brand new Civic Si but it seemed like a waste of money.

[Fluxmaven]

Later years of the Cobalt SS were turbo which would be the most desirable if going that route. This will be the most different experience from what you already have. 

 

MX5/Miata for under $9k could get you into anything from first gen through early 3rd gen. NA or NB will be more like a go-cart than a car. The NC would have more overlap with your Camaro. Even with my bias of owning one and loving it, I wouldn't chose one as the daily driver. 

 

The Civic will be the best daily driver, but the least special feeling.

 

If you just want to make it to work every day and not have to worry about tinkering with things the Civic is going to make the most sense. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Cobalt SS will be the crappiest car on the list. They are just hopped up throw away economy cars and fairly old at this point. I thought they were pretty cool when they were new. I still wouldn't mine having one or an SRT4 to tool around in as a project but not a daily. 

 

Realistically, given that you already have a Camaro for the fun car, I'd be looking at something more practical as the daily. Honda Fit or Mazda3 hatch.

[Snakecharmed]

Since Fluxmaven mentioned the Mazda3 as an option, there's also the Mazdaspeed3 if you want to step it up a notch.

 

Personally, I'm biased against GM for anything not Corvette, Camaro, or Cadillac V series because they cheapened out on everything else over the last couple of decades, so I'd simply drop the Cobalt SS from the shopping list.

[Alex]

1km commute? Just walk lol. Any car driven regularly for that short amount of time is going to significantly wear down. Esp. oil/petrol mix.

Edited November 9 by Alex

[The LAWN oob]

I'm a little concerned about Mazda 3 because my mechanical engineer friend used to have one and had some problems with either the rear axle or the CV joints.

I used to walk but driving is more convenient because sometimes I want to head out for lunch instead of paying 4 dollars for avocado and chips or 10 dollars for a normal burger.

I don't care about reliability since I have the Camaro as backup. Although it's probably not good for the Camaro if I only drive it once every 2 weeks. It needs a differential flush soon. Differential clicks a little making tight turns and apparently flushing plus a few figure 8s can fix it.