Day 1| Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
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To be honest, I’m not sure why anyone would buy a sedan over a hatchback, given the choice. I do know a few people with some weird “security” issues who think that a sedan’s trunk is somehow a safer place to store their belongings than a hatchback. But this brings me to my rant of the day: I headed to a local store to pick up a lawn sweeper, but at the time, I didn’t realize it was going to be a rather large box.
No problem, I thought; the seats fold (60/40) in the Rio, so this shouldn’t be a problem at all. In fact, the trunk itself is rather large, as well. When I got the box to the car, I folded the seats, stuffed the box in and… it didn’t fit. ARGH! The cutout for the trunk pass-through is just slightly too small, but wait: if the seats folded flat—as it is, there is a rather large hump—it would have fit! What a nightmare. In the end, the box fit in the back seat, luckily.
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A hatchback would have solved that one issue, or fold-flat seats, or a larger cut-out… but I digress. The rest of the interior is rather well put together, with soft-touch plastics basically anywhere you might touch or coming into contact with on a regular basis. The radio, HVAC, and other controls, such as the seat heaters, are large, clear and easy to understand and operate.
The steering wheel boasts Bluetooth, stereo controls, and the cruise control switches, and again, all are easy to operate. The tilt and telescopic steering wheel and height-adjustable seat are worthy of marvel in a subcompact car, and make it easy to find a comfortable driving position for most drivers.
From the outside, this Rio looks like a mini-Optima and from the inside, things are not that much different. This car seems like great value in the class, and so far, I’m liking it.
