Hey Brandon, and welcome to the forums!
You could do some searches as your questions may be more fully answered that way. These issues have been covered by me and others before.
However, my own experiences/opinions are: Well built car. Very reliable, not perfect, but hugely fun to drive. A few simple and relatively cheap mods can make it even more fun; Most ATX guys seem to suffer big time mileage wise; In normal mixed driving I usually get between 24 (summer, A/C full blast, thin pedal 3/4 depressed, shifts @ 4-5K,) and 28 (cooler weather, no A/C, thin pedal 3/4 depressed, shifts @ 3-4.5K,) though my best has been 30+; I, for one, am having more fun w/this car than I've had w/any car in nearly 20 yrs; Many extras usually found on much more expensive cars. Overall an excellent buy in today's market.
The downsides are: It is in the economy car class and is considered "sporty" so the ride is not plush, the sound deadening is not great, the factory sound system is only adequate, none of this bothers me in the least, but could be a problem for your GF. Though my wife usually joins me when I go to meets, she's not that crazy about my car... that's OK w/me because I am!! :lol:
Hope this helps, but as I say do some searches and you'll find lots of opinions that support mine as well as some that go the other way.
Good Luck to you and your GF in your search!
Richard
