Family appropriate 4 door, with POWAH!

Mazdaspeed3

Mazdaspeed6

Mercedes C55 and E55 AMG can be found in your range. How important is reliability? Ha.

Mercury Marauder

In reply to Blitzed306:

I'll second the G8. I bought one late last year and have been pretty happy with it. In GT trim you'll get 355 hp, six-speed automatic, limited slip rear end and decent suspension. Another 30 horsepower can be added with an ECU tune & a cold air intake. Brakes are suitable although I don't find them tearing my face off in hard stops. Interior space is pretty reasonable, I can carry my two boys (six and eight) in booster seats without having them kick the hell out of the front seats. Amenities are okay but fit / finish doesn't compare well to German / Japanese / Korean mfrs.

Difficulty is finding a GT at a decent price. Not sure where you're located but I found them pretty thin on the ground near home, or $2-3k more than they were worth. I ended up making a deal with a private party owner in Detroit, decent price, okay service records. No surprise, there are a lot of GT's to be had in Michigan. I did a fly & drive to get it home.

It's certainly not perfect, but a late 2000's car w/ 385 HP for under $15k, that's a deal in my book. Good luck!

/edited for spelling

A co-worker has a red G8 GT, she said it's a six speed manual. I'll beg for a test drive but they are VERY hard to find around here. As for wheel bearings on a BMW: not a deal breaker but I am lacking a garage ATM so... No one here has a Hemi powered charger? Those things are common as dirt here

dj06482 wrote: 1st Gen CTS-V

How has this only been suggested once?

Ive got a buddie who has a G8 GT, pretty stock, intake and exhaust, good car, decent power, decent mpg, has like 120K and has been very reliable, plus they are holding their value pretty well.

One thing, small but been a big deal for my buddy, with the AFM (active fuel management) when it cuts 4 cylinders at cruising speed, and you have an aftermarket exhaust, it drones like crazy.

If you are going to leave it stock, an str8 is probably good, a normal 5.7 hemi isnt a great performance car, and are a complete whore to modify, I thought putting headers in an fbody was bad, wait til you do it in a lx platform car.

If you are gonna leave it stock an srt8 or a G8 GT is probably good.

Modify it, GM all the way.

mazdeuce wrote:

dj06482 wrote: 1st Gen CTS-V

How has this only been suggested once?

Because I just got here. This is your answer.

how has the Hyundai Genesis Sedan only been mentioned once?

In reply to mad_machine:

Because CTS-v.

IS300? Getting older, so they're more likely to need assistance in the maintenance department, but sexy as he'll...

Cts-v seems like the answer! The hunt begins, these forums are the best

reflashed 335ix for me

1st gen CTS-V for sure. They are dirt cheap now, mostly because cheap interior and because the rear end will grenade on you given enough wheel hop.

Don't know if thus is fact or just and owner bad luck but I was told that the LS400s were built like hammers. The 430s had many more issues and were not nearly as reliable. Again this I just what I have herd I have no real experience with either.

Aren't you scraping the bottom of cts-v's in that price range?

Dodge Chargers are kind of crappy. They go through front end components like crazy. Both inner and outer tie rod ends, end links, ball joints, sway bar bushings, and tension struts(the "front" front lower control arm) all wear out at alarming rates.

Transmission leaks from the circle connector(easy $5-10 O-ring kit from dealer) plus leaking trans pan gasket are common.

Hemi MDS lifters failing sucks, not super common but requires big teardown to replace. MDS solenoids aren't so terrible. Water pumps are common but no big deal to replace.

ABS module failures aren't terribly uncommon.

If it has the square Mercedes style key when the wireless ignition node fails it will leave you stranded.

Electrical problems like window motors and door lock actuators and heated seats elements and switches are all common. I've had several with failed shifter assemblies too which will throw a code for no good reason but will function fine otherwise.

They're not awful... If you plan on a random let-down of something failed and budget $200-500 per year for suspension noises.

I work at a BIG used car dealer and when reconditioning cars, the Chrysler stuff always requires tons of crap to make them right. I'm sure part of it is the demographic who buys it... They're cheap so cheap fawkers buy them.

It's the 26" rims that ruin them. I do however, miss my Caprice on twentyfoes.

FWIW, Pop has an '05 Hemi Magnum (shared platform with 300 and Charger), with 115 on the clock, and he's redone the front end a couple times. The fuel gauge reads 1/4 tank when empty, but no other problems, as mentioned above.

SRT8 300C looks badass. In a lower price range though, Lincoln TownCar "L"