Might be a weird question...

Just get a Legacy wagon with the flat 6 and get on with life and focus on something more fun.

There aren't many wagons anymore that come with sticks. Hell there aren't that many wagons anymore. Most have been jacked up and called Crossovers or grass/gravel SUV's (Highlander, RAV-4, CR-V, Pilot, etc) and most of those don't have sticks either. Mazda is one of the few companies that actively tries to sell sticks these days.

A co-worker had a Saturn Vue with a 5-speed. I was surprised when I got in the car to see that it was stick and not auto.

sachilles wrote:

SlickDizzy wrote:

sachilles wrote: In reply to SlickDizzy: It was all wheel drive and manual and an audi 100.

Prove it. Find a single one for sale, anywhere in this country. Should be simple if what you say is true.

What do I have to prove? It was an Audi 100, with a manual transmission and all wheel drive. Let me see if I can dig up a picture from ages ago. No idea if it was a us market car. Don't even care.

Are you sure you're not thinking of the C3 platform 100? I will reiterate, I know as a FACT that C4 + V6 + quattro + manual does not exist in the USA because at one point I was shopping them very heavily and every single response on AudiWorld was "never offered, S4/S6 is the only way to get a manual quattro C4."

The C3 (pictured below) was offered with a manual and quattro, but it's a 5-cylinder.

Did the Taurus wagon ever come with a V6/manual option?

turboswede wrote: Just get a Legacy wagon with the flat 6 and get on with life and focus on something more fun.

For what its worth the 5 speed auto in the newer subaru's isn't half bad. We have one.

If you could only find a manual swapped subie SVX. The wifey would stand out in the crowd.

So, let's get to the root cause of why we are wanting a V6 specifically - everything else I can understand pretty well. It sound like an issue of drivability and power/weight - i.e. she wants something that will more than get out of its own way, and doesn't want to have to deal with turbo lag/VTAK YO.

Edmunds says that the MkIV GTI VR6 Golf weighs 2900 or so lbs, with 174 hp giving 16.7 lbs/hp. So if we can find something that runs around the same power to weight ratio, we might be able to sidestep the six-cylinder requirement. A good alternative might be the EP3 Civic Si - 160 hp and 2778 lbs giving 17.36 lbs/hp (although the torque figure on this engine is a bit lower). The Impreza non-WRX also seems to work on paper, although it being AWD might make it a little slower.

What about an SVT Focus hatch? 170 hp, 145 lb/ft torque, 2750 lbs. This one should work.

my Integra LS is more than capable of getting out of it's own way .. no turbo, no 6 cyl, no VTEC YO ...

EDIT*** I didn't read the original post correctly. scratch the Tiburon

Hyundai Tiburon

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Hyundai_Tiburon/

szeis4cookie wrote: What about an SVT Focus hatch? 170 hp, 145 lb/ft torque, 2750 lbs. This one should work.

The answer was on BringATrailer this morning!

http://bringatrailer.com/2013/01/18/wrc-inspired-rear-wheel-drive-ford-focus-v8/

and...

Hm. Now that I think about it, that was converted to RWD, wasn't it...

RWD is the answer

Mercury Cougar

An H-6 Subaru never came with a stick. I'm visiting mine in the AM.

4g63t wrote: An H-6 Subaru never came with a stick. I'm visiting mine in the AM.

Yep, but it fits the other requirements and will likely be as reliable and more interesting to actually drive than say a Camry Wagon.

Does she have a size preference that hasn't been noted yet? If she doesn't yet, she might once she drives a few differing options. From the cars you originally mention, it seems she may be predisposed to relatively small hatches. Regardless of meeting the other criteria, some of the other larger options being recommended might not provide the driving experience she is after, even with a V6/Manual...Then again it may. Therefore you should get her out driving a number of differing options, right away, so that she can nail down more specifically which characteristics of which cars she likes or doesn't like and which ones she may be more willing to compromise on to get the car she wants.

My wife and I had a similar problem with the H6 Outback wagon when we test drove one. Great car. On paper it checked all the right boxes. We went into the drive REALLY wanting to like it, and walked away surprisingly underwhelmed with how it felt.

HappyAndy wrote: Mazda 6 wagon or hatch?

This was a good idea. Checked one out today after reading this thread and she liked that. She wanted something more like a compact but it was close enough to where she is considering that.

lastsnare wrote: would an H6 be acceptable ? like an Outback 3.0R (I think I drove a 6 speed one several years ago) ? (granted it's AWD and not FWD)

Any 6 cylinder is fine. The reason why she wants that is the power of a 6 cylinder engine is somewhere around to what she wants. AWD is fine but most AWD cars are not manual transmissions that have a 6 cylinder, which this car is not.

mndsm wrote: The v6 is the one that throws me. If she thinks she wants the power, she needs to drive a Mazdaspeed 3. WAY more power than Mazda's v6.

The only thing is she wants power, but doesn't need a ton of it. The power on an outback or a GTI would be fine for example.

She doesn't want a car with a turbo though. She had DSMs in the past and always had issue with turbocharged cars. I didn't know her when she had one but she seems to be able to take well care of her cars so idk what is up with that. She likes to keep things simple and says that the turbo just is another thing that can go wrong.

turboswede wrote: Volvo Wagon? Later ones ditched the V6 for an inline 5, but its close enough, right? SAAB 9000 Wagon? I think they came with the V6 as an option and they are GM based with better build quality so they are slightly easy to hop up/repair.

Saab? Hmm ok we'll check that out.

turboswede wrote: Just get a Legacy wagon with the flat 6 and get on with life and focus on something more fun. There aren't many wagons anymore that come with sticks. Hell there aren't that many wagons anymore. Most have been jacked up and called Crossovers or grass/gravel SUV's (Highlander, RAV-4, CR-V, Pilot, etc) and most of those don't have sticks either. Mazda is one of the few companies that actively tries to sell sticks these days. A co-worker had a Saturn Vue with a 5-speed. I was surprised when I got in the car to see that it was stick and not auto.

Well she doesn't necessarily want a wagon but more like a "hot hatch" type car. However wagon is also acceptable.

fidelity101 wrote: RWD is the answer

Yes RWD is great and I agree but who makes a RWD hatch in this manner? BMW? The Z3 Coupe would be great but the 1 series hatchback isn't sold in the US? Also RWD wagons that are not massive boats really are not sold in the US at the price we're looking for.

She wants FWD for different reasons though. She is convinced that it's better in the snow and rain, which may be true. AWD would be ideal however nobody really makes an awd hatchback with between 200-300 HP naturally aspirated with a manual trans lol.

I'll have her check out this Mazda 6 wagon, volvos, and Saab. If we lived in Europe I have a feeling that we would have found a car for her easily, lol. I showed her a BMW 1 series hatchback and despite it not meeding her "fwd" criteria she liked it and would have bought a used one if they sold here.

IDK why I didn't think of Volvo but I was thinking of smaller cars and she doesn't seem to mind the full sized wagon idea.

Thanks for the ideas and help keeping the gf happy.

Volvo 850 wagon? Only 5 cylinders but similar power to some sixers.

So a bit of an update we found a V70R for sale with a 6 speed manual. A friend of mine is going to check it out since its out of state. It is quite a bit more than what we felt like paying because we were looking more for a ~$10k ride for her but I have never seen one of these with a manual before. If it checks out i'm going to lend her the money she needs to afford it because it would be too awesome.

Car in question: http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/l-Used-Volvo-V70-R-d519#listing=48894851

If someone wants to buy it before we check it out you might be doing us a favor :)

Oh and I finally convinced her to change her mind on turbos, became easy with so few options.

BTW she is 30 and I am 29 and we've been together for 3 years so I have no problem spotting her for money before anyone says anything.