Growing Gains Benchmark compacts go big, get better

摘要

When I finally got the chance to drive the all-new Toyota Tacoma and Honda Civic-both title contenders in this issue's Of the Year extravaganza-I figured the experiences would take me back 20-plus years to my first two cars, to the days when I romped along Southern California fire roads in an indestructible 1990 Toyota SR5 V6 Xtra Cab 4x4 truck and fell in love with the song and surge of Honda's now-legendary VTEC engine technology in a 1992 Civic Si. The new generations would feel and drive similarly to their forebears, at least a little, right? I figured wrong. Damn you, nostalgia. Turns out the Tacoma did remind me of a Toyota, and the Civic did get me thinking of a Honda, but neither shares its name with the compact car and truck I once gazed at in my garage. No, the upsized Taco took me back to the first-gen Tundra, and the fully matured Civic rekindled feelings I had for the original Acura TSX. As Vince Vaughn would say, "Our little baby's all growns up."