what makes a car good?

In reply to jstein77:

Are you touting that for it's being a 3-door or for it's STness? Because near as I know Ford is bringing over a Fiesta ST, it'll just be the 5-door (which means I have no interest in it whatsoever).

When?

Edit: Answered my own question - looks like 2013. Cool!

I had a 1985 VW GTI, the 8 valve 100hp model. It is one of the best all round cars that I have driven. 30+ mpg, comfortable for 4 passengers all day, 5 passengers fit, would go through bumper deep snow with snow tires, good at driving on 2 track roads, crisp manual steering, easy to adjust manual windows and it is easy to work on.

A good car has to exceed its level of expectation. For example a $300,000 car with a little tire noise could be unbearably painful. A $50 car that works most of the time is a joyous thing. Most cars that people regard as good are fairly simple, reasonably priced and reliable cars. I adore my 91 SAAB 900 convert as it cost me very little, runs beautifully nearly every time. Is way tighter and nicer than a 180K mile car has a right to be. Is economical to operate and has that certain Saab indie way of doing things. Model Ts,Beetles,Mustangs and Civics all seem to sort of fit these parameters.

alfadriver wrote: For that matter, there's no such thing as perfect. Well, there is to you, but I don't think you'll find that this board has a distict measure of perfect.

For me perfect is a Del Sol. Stowable hard top, 2 seat, FWD, double wish bone Honda goodness.

I agree with the "too many variables" people. If people ask me whats a good car to buy I can't give them a straight answer, because what I want and what they want is so crazily different. They probobly would be happy with any boring does-everything-adaquately-well car out there, and miserable with what I drive and vice versa.

A good car for me is one that does something I want very well. I'm fairly one dimensional that way. I don't like comprimise, I want all or nothing. When I set out to get a car (a quest that ended with my RX8 R3) I wanted a car that was very fun to drive, and to hell with the rest. The only car that excited my little fizzy sensation was the RX8. It was also the smallest, had the worst fuel economy, the worst ride, the worst prospective reliability, potentially horrific depreciation, the least electronic everything (actually a HUGE plus to me, i'm glad it has manual everything) and the least amount of power. It had the second smallest trunk, the second smallest back seat (excluding the 370z which has no back seat) and the second most cramped interior. I don't care about all of those things, because a car that isn't as exciting to drive is just as bad of a turn off to me as all of the bad things I listed is to everybody else. I understand I'm weird, nobody wanted an RX8. I did, so to me that makes it a great car.

Edit- I would like to add that I tried a normal RX8 and found it extremely comfortable and well equipped, but I cared so much about the fun thing that I opted for the much lesser equiped, spine crushing R3 simply because it was a tiny bit more fun during the test drive. It taunted me to go faster, and I love that.