A properly maintained/tuned 318ti will give you 35+ MPG. As for fitting passengers, I'll admit that the back seat on the 318ti is a little cramped, but carrying passengers isn't out of the question. The seats do fold down however which opens up an enormous amount of cargo room. I've transported a 318ti hood in my cargo area with the hatch completely closed and latched! I'm sure if you looked, you could find a used cat on the forums like I mentioned, or worst case scenario you could weld in an OEM BMW cat. Shouldn't cost much more than the $150 header, but of course there's no guarantee that you'll be as lucky as myself and some of the other people who've bought and sold used cats. Since it sounds like you want to get into a newer stock Civic than your current one, you're probably better off trying to sell your old one, saving up a couple bucks and buying the newer one. If you were interested in the 318ti and planned on keeping it, I'd say go for it, but you'd surely want to do a manual swap or trade it for one that's already a 5 speed. The fact that it's RWD gives the 318ti a completely different feel than the Civic, but if you're not after performance and handling, stick with the Civic. |