I think quite the opposite.The '03 has 16" tires front and back and in my opinion works better, it's a self centering chassis design that feels more nimble than the newer chassiss design.In my area there alot of hills which I was glad to get rid of the 6 speed for the 5 speed.I never used 6th gear until I was 70+ mph and was constantly downshifting on hills or when pulling long grades.The con is that my carb model gets about 10 mpg less than the EFI models get, but you can get either the carb or EFI models, I chose the carb model.