youngTL

http://canadianautopress.auto123.com...tid=40571&pg=1

Doesn't look too bad, especially considering the top civic costs $23600 for the automatic transmission. The EL is only $24600 or $25800 with heated leather seats. Hmm, $2200 more than a civic, and you get heated mirrors, heated leather seats, automatic climate control, fake woodgrain trim on the dash (hey it's better than hard plastic), and the dash is 'soft-touch' (it's more of a slightly squishable rubberized plastic as opposed to the rough, hard civic plastic).

I'd say it's worth the extra cash. Opinions?

Oh, and she's wrong. The power moonroof is not an option anymore, it's standard.

joedokes28

meh...

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

We don't get those here in the States so you're gonna have a limited audience on this one.

samkws

EL's build quality is better than the Civic, and resale value is ridiculously high

They gave me a loaner EL with leather last month and i beat the crap out of it, Corolla is much stronger but the EL is way more refined and comfortable

the engine is really lack of torque compare with the Corolla, but it has better mileage

Speed_Racer

Do they have a separate plant for the EL's? What makes it's build quality better? Just curious becasue it just looks like a rebadged Civic to me.

gdubb

looks like a civic from any and all angles including the interior

dom

Nope. There built right alongside Civic's so I'm not sure how build quality is better.

I do prefer the 05 EL styling over a Civic though but I really wouldn't buy either so

youngTL

Both the Civic and the EL are built in Alliston, Ontario I believe.

youngTL

I agree about the resale. They're less common than civics (which already have a high resale in Canada). I drove my brother's 01 EL, and it feels way more connected to the road than a corolla LE(which we also test drove). If the Corolla XRS came with more accoutrements we might have considered it because of the significant power difference. But that EL goes ridiculously far in the city. It's like you're always getting the highway mileage of most average sedans. IMO the seat cloth is of a higher quality than the civic's.
Oh well, it would be worth the wait until 06 when the new EL comes out (since the civic is getting redone, that automatically makes the EL redone).

dom

The Corolla gets better mileage than the 127HP version of the 1.7L.

youngTL

Maybe he means higher grade materials instead of build quality. ie: better plastics, better switches and guages, better cloth (if you opt for the Touring), etc. It's also a little bit quieter than the civic inside.

youngTL

I wasn't aware of that. What's the specs on the Corolla LE for fuel eco?

Guy Legend

The Acura EL is an utter disgrace to the Acura brand. How can you take a company seriously that takes their company econo car and rebadges into their premium segment designed to take on the world's most prestigious vehicles?

You don't see Lexus rebadging Corollas, Infiniti rebadging Sentras, or Audi rebadging Jettas, and all for good reason.

All I can say is that I'm thankful that the EL is limited to Canada because in the US, such a car would be laughable. The TSX is the perfect entry level car. The RSX is a little too cheap IMO, but at least it isn't a Civic.

G

Very well put.

dom

EL MT - 7.8/6.1
EL AT - 7.9/6.0

Corolla MT - 7.1/5.3
Corolla AT - 7.8/5.6

Yumcha

Not that I'm disagreeing with you...But, one could argue that the Lexus IS is a rebadged/glorified Corolla?

dom

The Corolla is on a FWD platform while the IS is on a RWD platform. How are they the same? Might be closely related maybe?

We could also make the same argument about the RSX and Civic. Same platform. But both are IMO different enough NOT to be considered "rebadged"

youngTL

It's Acura Canada's best selling car, by FAR. Canadians favour small economy cars. There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to have a little luxury in them. We have less disposable income than our southern neighbours. Most people cannot afford a TSX. The average salary around here is probably 50k a year. When a TSX costs $36k or 39k with navi, then that's almost a prohibitive price. Lexus does not do well here. The most common Lexuses I see are stripped down or lightly optioned IS300's. I've seen several with cloth seats and hubcaps.

dom

Its actually ~ 28K a year.

I agree with what your saying but Acura is cheapening their brand image by offering the EL

youngTL

The Corolla's MT is far better. I seem to see more EL's on the road than I do Corolla LE's. I think the Corolla's biggest problem is styling right now. The interior is quite nice for a car in that price range. I would actually be happy with one if it wasn't so numb.

youngTL

They're cheapening their brand image, sure. But to what, 30 million people? That's 1/10th of what would happen if they offered it in the US. It would never fly there. People do not buy "luxury economy cars" down south. Gee I didn't know the average salary here was as low as that either. IMO I think it's a good thing that people here see Acura as affordable. I know that it was my parent's first stop after they saw how good my ancient 1st gen TL drives. And when the Intrepid finally dies, I know for a fact they will head straight down to West Side Acura first, even though either of them has never owned one before. My dad makes a fair bit (about 5x the average I guess), but then taxes are 49% of that, and taking care of a family leaves him with mere hundreds of disposable income per month. For people like him, Acura just makes sense. At least in this city, that's how it's seen. People in the west are more likely to drive ancient used cars than people in the east of Canada. When someone buys a car here, they buy it as if they're going to keep it for 10 years, at least to most of the general public. My neighbours on the right just bought a new PWP TSX a couple weeks ago. They used to have a Camry and were looking to move up, but the ES330 was just too expensive. I guess Acura = smart consumer. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing for their brand image, but they fill a nice that Infiniti, Lexus, MB, and BMW don't cover. And they are making money doing it.

WolfpackBill

IMO, Acura is smart about making the EL. It's an economy car for people who look for luxuries. Here in the states, we think that the bigger should be more luxurious. Look at the Lexus LS, Acura TL and RL, Infiniti Q and M. If you look at Honda's Japanese website, the Civics over there are way more luxurious than the ones over here. The Civics over there get Navigation systems, power folding exterior mirrors, leather seats, wood grain trims...stuff we will never ever get in a Honda's econocar here in the US, even though both Civics look almost identical.

Ken1997TL

Different strokes for different folks. Canada has a different market. The Civic was the #1 best selling passenger car for years and is still close to it. Its obviously in Acura's best interest to capitalize on that.

As for the build quality/materials, I can vouch for it as a guy I met here in Oregon is from Canada and owns an EL which he let me check all over. The interior has "spongy" plastic as opposed to hard plastic. It will absorb sound better and rattle less over time. Thats just one example. His car did not have leather so I cannot comment but the cloth seats were quite nice.

samkws

nope~

i have test driven all of the models and i figured out Civic/EL has the edge over the Corolla, all were under hard driving and i beat them to hell

in 3 weeks i had the 2005 Corolla CE Auto i got the same 8.5L/100km for 3 striaght weeks!!!

in 3 weeks i had my ex-gf's 2000 Acura 1.6EL auto i got 7.8-8.0/100km for 3 weeks

in a 2005 1.7EL it does better mileage than the 1.6EL by 14%, and it was accurate that i got well below 8L/100km when i drove the newer 2005 EL

a 2005 Civic is even better...under mild driving only get 7L/100km!!!

youngTL

Those are some good figures! Under hard driving (staying in VTEC a lot) my brother averages 8.8L/100km. If I drive the car, I know some fuel eco tricks and I can get as low as 7L/100km in the city. For you US guys this is about 33.6 MPG.

youngTL

on the interior. Everything is higher grade material. IMO it's worth the $1000 price difference over the Civic. That includes those things like heated mirrors and auto climate control too. The EL has 6 speakers. I think the civic does also but I'm not sure.

Ken1997TL

Civic EX coupes (si i think in Canada) has 6 speakers. Otherwise its 4.

NSX-Tuner

The Acura EL looks to me like it's a cross between an RSX and an '03 TL.