Even though my name may be new on the SCC blogs, I have a history going back with the magazine almost 10 years. I know some of you have been with the magazine that long or longer. I know Larry Saavedra, one of the early editors of Sport Compact Car, personally. I did several freelance articles for him in my earlier days.

I also went to college with Josh Jacquot, the former editor. So I have a little bit of history with the magazine. Tenuous, yes, but history nonetheless. Which is why my current position as Senior Web Producer for the Truck Group is all the more ironic. I've never owned a truck in my life, nor do I particularly care to. Granted, if I had a house with a side yard and the space for one, I'd like to have one as a workhorse, or better yet, as a tow rig for a weekend track car. (See, there is a use for trucks after all!)

I've been a Sport Compact guy for about as long as I've had a driver's license. My first car was a '93 Nissan Sentra XE. Nope, not even the zoomy SE-R, just the plain-vanilla XE. At least it had air conditioning, a tape deck and cruise control...basically, all the essentials for long road trips, which the car did repeatedly taking me back & forth from my home in Northern California to college in Central Texas, and then again from Texas to Tennessee for grad school, and then all the way from Tennessee to So. Cal for my work. That car had seen some miles.

I've got some grainy pics of it somewhere. If I can dig them up, I'll post them. After that, I briefly left the Japanese fold and was seduced by a hot little German, a 2000 VW GTI VR6. I loved that car...when it was running. I spent about as much time in the service lounge as I did behind the wheel. I vowed "never again" to VW.

Today, I have an '03 Mazda Protege5. Aside from having my doors routinely blown off by minivans, Tahoes and Camrys, I love the car. In many ways, its simplicity and straightforwardness remind me of my old Sentra. As nice of a car as the Mazda3 is, (and as much as I'd like to own a Mazdaspeed3) the P5's successor lost some of that trusty, simple charm that the Protege had.

But I don't want to get all misty-eyed about the "good ol' days" of fixing anything on imports with a metric ratchet set. Like it or not, those days are over, for the most part. But innovation in the Sport Compact segment is alive and well, from both foreign and domestic brands. I'm actually pretty excited at the prospect of the Chevy Cobalt SS Turbo with the new LNF 260-horse direct-injected turbo from the Solstice GXP.

Say what you want about Chevy's, but that car is going to be one substantial contender in the sport compact segment. I'm still leaning toward the Mazdaspeed3, personally, but I'm willing to give the Chevy a look. I know you may not all share the same sentiment, but you should be happy that sport compact enthusiasts have more choices now than ever before.