Nodoze posted:

I loved the idea of getting a Z3, but it ended there. Theres just no reason to ever buy one over a Miata or S2000 other than "it's a BMW and I want a BMW." You can spend a lot less and get a better car you can do a lot more to, is dead reliable and easy as dirt to maintain, or around the same to slightly more for a much better car that's dead reliable, easy as dirt to maintain, and that you can also do a lot more to. I don't think the Z3 is particularly great looking either, and the plastic rear window is gross.

Seat Safety Switch posted:

Their strategy is to make their cars so small that they eventually disappear entirely from view, reducing eye cancer rates.

D C posted:

I bet 90% of the buyers dont know its a v6. Ford jumps through hoops to avoid calling it a V6 in advertising. It may as well be a Voldemort engine.

Cream_Filling posted:

Why would you get manual on a diesel. Why even bother?

iwentdoodie posted:

So, silly question.

The current Sportwagons on lots right now are still based on the last gen Golf, correct? Does anyone know if there's any option package that has the multiple driver memory settings?

I'd just call or visit a dealer, but that's either a long distance call or a 20 hour flight.

Wheeee posted:

Look, all I want is a small, lightweight, ~$20k, purpose-built RWD sports car with a manual and no frills that drive up the price like all those stupid cars made and marketed toward fat stupid Americans.

Oh, and it has to make more than 200hp I mean I don't want to be driving something slower than an Accord, and really it needs some good NVH dampening for when I'm on the highway, and would it be too much to ask for a good stereo and some nice soft-touch materials in the cabin so it doesn't feel like I'm driving a stripped-down economy car?

DJ Commie posted:

I don't even understand how the thermodynamics would work with this. They don't, especially when your cooling source is ambient air. How do you expect to have condensation inside, let alone freezing?

Fucknag posted:

I went to school with a guy who tooled around in an old Escort wagon as his family vehicle with a worn-out BP, maybe 100 horsepower, who raved that any car (even full-size sedans) with more than about 120HP was dangerously over-powered; he'd be in nirvana!

Baram posted:

Oh drat, they have a carbon shell? that's pretty neat.

KillHour posted:

I know this isn't a popular opinion here, but I would give my left nut for an automatic (or DCT) Abarth. My wife absolutely will not let me have a manual car, so my choices of hot hatches are limited to... uh... the MINI Cooper S, I guess?

Xguard86 posted:

Counterpoint Kanye did a rhym about having two GSeses which made him ambidexterous.

Twerk from Home posted:

This is a pretty confusing move to me. Doesn't AWD have several major points of failure that will likely fail somewhere between 100k and 200k miles, like more half-shafts, active center diffs, and other jazz? It seems like manufacturers are trying to counteract how long-term reliable modern cars are by putting in more poo poo to break.

ilkhan posted:

G35c and G37c are still loving beautiful cars.
The rest, Meh, you are right.

VERTiG0 posted:

I love the way these look and would have one with either engine in a heartbeat as long as it has the 'S' package:

MrChips posted:

I was a naysayer about the GT350, colour me wrong.

That said, I still don't believe that the advantages of the flat-crank engine outweigh the drawbacks...with durability being chief among them. I hope GT350 owners enjoy rebuilding their engines every so often.

priznat posted:

Man, sucks for those guys then. That's too civic-y. They want the prelude back so bad. I'm old enough to remember when those and celicas were abundant and it was a good time. Back before Toyota went completely irredeemably beige.

InitialDave posted:

InitialDave posted:

It depends what kind of customisation you're after. If you want a manual with an engine that is auto-only off the shelf, yes, that's not going to be justifiable.

If you just want to be allowed the leather with the grey piping rather than orange piping in your orange car, even though it normally only goes in the silver cars, the additional cost from a manufacturing point of view isn't that high, it just means ensuring that you pick from supply A rather than supply B when doing interior fitment on that particular car, it doesn't go down a different line or anything.

You can't say that any deviation from the packaged specifications will cost a huge amount of money, it depends on what kind of change you're talking about.

InitialDave posted:

Car production lines have everything you need to do this right now. How do you think they get the right options in the right car currently?

And there's no cost of "different piping". It's something you already have in inventory, you already fit it, it's just fitting it to a car you wouldn't normally.

CornHolio posted:

It doesn't look bad. It just doesn't look stellar.

And do they even still make the Maxima?

Powershift posted:

counterpoint:

109hp, "competent" handling, $9,995



74hp, "dangerous" handling, $12,995(although they now have incentives in canadabringing it down to $9,998)


Also, nissan still has the 370z, and that idx concept. mitsubishi is killing the evo, and all their concepts are SUVs

fknlo posted:

Empty quoting this forever. That thing looks like fun!

I said I'd never buy another VAG product but ended up in a Golf TDI when i was looking a couple years ago. Hopefully I don't run into the HPFP problem even though they've been covering the repair out of warranty. Can't even imagine how bad they'd get publicly flogged if they didn't cover an all too common $8k repair.

fknlo posted:

When the HPFP goes you basically have to replace the entire fuel system.