I'm a student who commutes to school and back daily, and also to work and back. In the area where I live, a car is necessary to getting around due to minimal public transportation. I purchased a 2004 Hyundai Elantra earlier this summer from a dealership secondhand, with 30,000 hwy miles on the clock already, as it was a commuter car with its' previous owner.

As "small" sedans go, this Hyundai provides ample space, my only complaint being drivers legroom (I'm 6'), which is just a little bit small. It's huge inside and you can easly bring along four of your best friends (maybe just three adults) for the ride, although you will feel a significant difference in performance if you opt to do so.

The four speed automatic transmission is geared pretty well, and you shouldn't experience difficulty on hills at all. It also lets you select down through 3-1 so you can stay where you want or engine brake. For an automatic, it picks up pretty fast and merging is a breeze. However, you won't feel a siginifigant difference in power until you're above 3,000 rpm. When you're flat-out flooring it, expect a huge jerk when shifting occurs, and shifting gets a bit rough above 4,000 rpm, but it's not terrible.

The interior is a mix of grey and black plastics and vinyl, with cloth seats, which are comfortable and have lumbar support. The sound system puts out a fair amount of noise, and the bass is quite impressive considering there's no subwolfer.

Economy wise, you can expect 25-34mpg depending on the way you drive, from what I've experienced. one side note is, that, when changing simple things like lightbulbs, it can be sort of difficult as you might have to remove entire fixtures which may not come out easily.

It's a great little car with very little downside at all, and a couple of quirks. It's a pretty fun car to drive, and I'd recommend it to anyone.