This is not a "what car?" what car thread- we live in a pretty good era for cars.

So, I've been lazily considering getting a new daily driver. The problem I'm running into is that we live in a pretty good time for cars, and there are a BUNCH of really interesting cars that meet my requirements and I kind of like every one that I've driven. 

The requirements are pretty much "fun to drive," "I can afford it (under 40k)" and newer than 5 years old. The car may see an occasional autocross, so the cost of consumables isn't that big of a deal.

To that end, I've driven a Golf R, a GTI Rabbit edition, a Mustang GT, a Focus RS,  a Camaro SS, a Chevrolet SS, an NC Miata and a WRX.  I sat in a fairly recent Miata, but didn't take it for a drive. If an ATS-V pops up in the price range, I might give that a shot, too.

So yeah. I'm all over the map. I've never had a V8 performance oriented car before, so I've been kind of leaning in that direction. I really liked both the Camaro SS and the Chevrolet SS.

Throw some opinions at me.




 

The cars are great. The choices are not.

In, let's say, 1969, from Chevrolet alone, you could get "fun" cars like the Impala,  Camaro, Chevelle,  Nova, Corvette, and Corvair. There were at least 2 "fun" engine choices per car. Hundreds of way to configure options.

We've traded one for the other.

Brett_Murphy said:

So, I've been lazily considering getting a new daily driver. The problem I'm running into is that we live in a pretty good time for cars, and there are a BUNCH of really interesting cars that meet my requirements and I kind of like every one that I've driven. 

The requirements are pretty much "fun to drive," "I can afford it (under 40k)" and newer than 5 years old. The car may see an occasional autocross, so the cost of consumables isn't that big of a deal.

To that end, I've driven a Golf R, a GTI Rabbit edition, a Mustang GT, a Focus RS,  a Camaro SS, a Chevrolet SS, an NC Miata and a WRX.  I sat in a fairly recent Miata, but didn't take it for a drive. If an ATS-V pops up in the price range, I might give that a shot, too.

So yeah. I'm all over the map. I've never had a V8 performance oriented car before, so I've been kind of leaning in that direction. I really liked both the Camaro SS and the Chevrolet SS.

Throw some opinions at me.
 

There are awesome times to be a gearhead, aren't they?

I love my S60R, mostly because I can't think of anything else that can do everything it does as well as it does.  This is not a thread for that, though, and not the point of this post.  The point of this post is that I am looking forward to what I will replace it with, since the idea of owning the same car for a very long time, while appealing, it is also limiting... and the Audi RS3 should neatly depreciate into where my income will appreciate to in the next couple years.  Good used examples are still in the $50k range, but when they drop to $30k, it's gonna be BUY, MORTIMER, BUY.  Because it's like the Golf R, except with a real 5 cylinder howl (and VWAG fives howl in ways that Volvos do not), and it's a sedan, which appeals to me more greatly.

However, if/when it happens, I'll always introduce it as my 5 cylinder Jetta, in the same way that a certain automotive writer/Vortex denizen used to refer to his Phaeton as his "VW Fox Value Edition".

Sit in it, drive it, do you like it ?     

Strong vote for Chevrolet SS. Bonus points if you find a 6 speed manual.

It is rather amazing how easy it is to just head out the door and go buy 400 hp and more. 

As I have mentioned before, in a few short years Mopar will discontinue the current platform and we will all wonder why we did not scoop up one of these drag racers with simple 6 year financing. 

I am also still amazed that Mopar sells a ton of  this 2004 chassis (w/slight update in 2010) making these a 10 to 15 year old platform. 

It IS a great time to be a car guy / gal.

Example: 

We just installed a 600+hp supercharged LS engine into a 1968 GM product and didn't have to custom fabricate anything except some little brackets here and there.

600hp used to be a lot, now it's a used truck engine with some off-the-shelf goodies from GM and a couple other big suppliers.

I will readily admit that 25 years ago, 500 hp was considered a lot. Now it's barely above average. I dig that. 

when you have 4 cylinder cars breaking 7 seconds to 70 in stock trim.. you know it's a great time for owning a car. I feel this is the last hurrah for the ICE though.

Apparently for many enthusiasts, there has been very little progress for 20 years since the LS motor was released.

nimblemotorsports said:

Apparently for many enthusiasts, there has been very little progress for 20 years since the LS motor was released.

This is the first time I've heard that, but I'm old. I know how it was before fuel injection and overdrive transmissions. You could brag about getting 100k miles from a car.

While the LS engine set new standards for V8 power, reliability, etc., there's a lot of other advances, and things are hardly static. The first LS1 hit the streets about 20 years ago.

Look at all of the 300 HP NA V6 engines, turbo fours, the Ford EcoBoost family, Dodge's NA and supercharged V8s, Mazda's  advances in gas engine technology...

You can even get a turbo Civic now.

nimblemotorsports said:

Apparently for many enthusiasts, there has been very little progress for 20 years since the LS motor was released.

For many enthusiasts, the LS is new technology and therefore sucks.  There was actually a thread demi-recently on an engine builders' forum to the general idea of, okay, people are making 1000+hp on stock LSs, the Small Block Chevy is inherently better (because it was designed in the 1950s by Real Men and not the 1990s with nerds with computers), what would it take to make 1500hp with a 350 with a stock block and heads?

For GM, the LS is old technology and they don't make it anymore.

To the OP- as you mentioned, most cars are pretty good performers today.  I think your decision really comes more down to form factor and budget than anything.  If you need any cargo room or a backseat that can actually hold humans, that list becomes a lot shorter.  I think of a Camaro SS and a Miata as very similar cars in that regard.

mad_machine said:

 I feel this is the last hurrah for the ICE though.

Starting in the 70's people used to say that high performance is dead and because of emissions it will never be able to come back.

How'd that work out?

Suprf1y said:

mad_machine said:

 I feel this is the last hurrah for the ICE though.

Starting in the 70's people used to say that high performance is dead and because of emissions it will never be able to come back.

How'd that work out?

After hearing about the crazy things a Tesla Model 3 can do performance-wise...  I'm okay with this.

Paraphrasing the casino owner from Mars Attacks!, it doesn't matter what is powering the thing, people want to go fast.

If "fun to drive" is high on your list and you're not hung up on having way more power than you can use on the street, take an 86 for a drive.

Knurled. said:

Suprf1y said:

mad_machine said:

 I feel this is the last hurrah for the ICE though.

Starting in the 70's people used to say that high performance is dead and because of emissions it will never be able to come back.

How'd that work out?

After hearing about the crazy things a Tesla Model 3 can do performance-wise...  I'm okay with this.

 

Paraphrasing the casino owner from Mars Attacks!, it doesn't matter what is powering the thing, people want to go fast.

This got FTD at my last autocross. The co-driver was second.

In reply to Knurled. :

Not really what I meant

Suprf1y said:

In reply to Knurled. :

Not really what I meant

In a roundabout way, I think it kind of is.

In the late 80s, Chevy powertrain engineers saw what Mercury Marine was doing with the LT5 engine and said, hey, we could do 90% of that for much less cost.  And they were told, well, why don't you?

And then we got the LT1.

And later, the LS6, which was more power than the LT5 but for far less expense and complexity, with greater efficiency.

Competition breeds better things.  I interpret the corollary of this to be the reason for the death of England's automotive empire - everything was suddenly British Leyland and then it all stagnated.

I think we're going to be seeing diehard ICE fans setting out to prove they can out perform these newfangled electrics.

Knurled. said:

Suprf1y said:

In reply to Knurled. :

Not really what I meant

Competition breeds better things.  I interpret the corollary of this to be the reason for the death of England's automotive empire - everything was suddenly British Leyland and then it all stagnated.

I think we're going to be seeing diehard ICE fans setting out to prove they can out perform these newfangled electrics.

Absolutely agreed. The really is just basic free market economics- something better has come along and sets a new bar, and now everyone is racing to meet or beat that new bar. Don't hate! Imitate!

(British Leyland is also an excellent example of why tariffs dont work and just hurt industry, but thats a whole 'nother discussion.)

For a DD, I'm not a fan of buying gas just to get to work. EV/PHEV's are the only things I'm looking at for that job lately. 
That Tesla M3 looks tasty. I've been eyeing Cayenne hybrids for a family wagon - wish the Macan came in a plug-in. As it is my goofy i3 does the job, but zero maintenance for the last 50k is nice. 

My friend has an electric car.   It took him days to go from here to Montreal.

I can do it in a couple hours with my FiST.

My friend has an electric car.   It took him days to go from here to Montreal.

I can do it in four hours with my FiST.

In reply to iceracer :

'Daily Driver'. If that's their commute, I pity them. 200 miles without stopping works for most people. 

Of and BTW, The ATS-V is in the 40K range if you look. There are not a lot of them but I just saw an 18K miles example listed for $41K