| Author | Message | ||
     Rick_a |
That's a handsome vehicle. The Atom is cool. Probably a bit much. The Caterham is interesting as well.  | ||
| Rick_a |
My plan...if things works out that way...is to ride until I cannot swing a leg over my motorcycles of choice. | ||
| Crusty |
Why not just keep it simple?  | ||
| Rick_a |
I have a bicycle. That'll make the commute a long trip...and it's just as dangerous as a motorcycle, if not more. Cars will generally disregard ones right of way. | ||
| Chauly |
Ducxl: Escort RS? Any problems? | ||
| Chauly |
Rick_a:  | ||
| Chauly |
 | ||
| Fresnobuell |
So she can get to the next stop light first? | ||
| Greg_e |
There are a couple of books with plans to build a Super 7. If I had the time, money, and space, I'd build one. Time and space being the two biggest obstacles. | ||
| Rick_a |
Chauly, cool. Did you get to drive it?
Dunno. She claims she does not drive aggressively and complains about her fuel mileage. | ||
| Oopezoo |
Probably the same way my wife consistently gets 14-15mpg out of her V8 Grand Cherokee, but when I drive it I get a steady 17 around town and 21 on trips. I don't baby it, and she doesn't drive like a nut.....but those numbers have been consistent for over 100k miles we have put on it. | ||
| Chauly |
I did. It had a Toyota Celica engine with dual Weber DCOE's and about 160hp. Pretty peppy ride with only about 1100lb. (Message edited by Chauly on January 16, 2018) | ||
| Rick_a |
Nice. I built myself a Mini Copper S on their site and forwarded it to the wife. Once she was told that it was for me, she got bitter and said I couldn't afford it.  No car for me! | ||
| Greg_e |
Just go buy a manual shift Fiesta. Maybe an ST but there could be problems with them eating coolant and then blowing up. Think there might be a recall for the coolant issue. A Focus ST or manual shift SE might also be a good choice. The Focus RS is also having headgasket issues which lead to eating coolant and the motor failing, there is a recall for that car. And at $40,000+ there damn well better be a recall on it. Why don't you spec out a new RS and send it to your wife and see what she thinks. If she thinks it will be hers, maybe she'll like it. | ||
| Macbuell |
Get a Polaris Slingshot ... does that qualify as a car? | ||
| Rick_a |
If it's hers, it's hers. There's no way around that.
Those are a bit too goofy for me. This is more my style.  Needs racing stripes. | ||
| Greg_e |
You do know that parts and service are at BMW rates, right? Fun little cars, but too much money for me. Since it will be a back up vehicle (or a parts getter), I'd go with something cheap and practical, it will NEVER have the performance that a good motorcycle will have, at least not until you get into some really high prices. Get a humble little econobox and just go from A to B and back to A. | ||
| Greg_e |
I should mention that driving something with zero power and style does give you a more humble outlook. My Chevy Metro taught me a lot about that, finally too rusty to fix at around 200,000 miles and I replaced it. Was the little 3 cylinder 1 liter motor, think it had like 55 horsepower. A humble-mobile that got me to and from work for many years and cost next to nothing when I bought it with around 70,000 miles on it. One of the best cars I ever owned, I put absolutely nothing into it for all those miles (130,000-ish). | ||
| Ducxl |
My RS is post head gasket issue.they had been I stalling mustang 2.3 liter head gasket got mixed in.Different coolant passages on the RS.Mine wasn't affected. No official recal. | ||
| 86129squids |
Greg, that takes me back a bit... my best buddy drove a Geo Metro for quite a while. He's also a general muscle car nut, managed to find a "GTO" badge that he affixed at the right place on the rear of the car. Made folks scratch their heads for sure... They made convertible versions of those cars. Some woman in my neighborhood used to have one- I always meant to find her and ask her what she'd sell it for. They also once made convertible Yugo's- I'd LOVE to have one of those, pull the body, build a monster HP motor and tranny, plus a nice interior (Recaro?), then drop the body back on and button things up. I can dream, no?  | ||
| Buellish |
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| Ducxl |
^^Cool Fiesta but no traction.AWD clutch drops at 5k are...HANG=ON!! Awesome! My Wife's '12 Hemi R/T Challenger is cool but heavy and slippery of rear end.She stole my '10 Ranger for Winter duty and uses IT exclusively.She GAVE me $14K cash for my RS downpayment.Really | ||
| Ducxl |
To the "OP" I must say.Get the BEST Cooper you can afford! GO for it! Life is too short to drive SHI......y cars | ||
| Court |
I can't say enough about how fun the S5 Cabriolet is . . . . it's a rocket on rails. | ||
| Aesquire |
The following is pure opinion. I loved my VW Sportwagen TDI. It's going back. I'm not going to pay the thousand$ for the next maintenance cycle. Awesome handling, 40mpg. Great torque, no top end...... but I never missed it. Never buying another German car. Everything is stupid expensive. Proprietary wiper blades @ $50 a pair. VWs aren't too bad. BMWs cost more. Mercedes even more and they will break. Not if, soon. Quality control for looks is good in German cars including the Mini. Under the hood? There's overengineered untested crud. Or in my case multibillion fraud. They break. Chrysler's quality control went to heck when Daimler took over. It's corporate culture. ( Quality control was my job for decades. I dealt with these people as a subcontractor ) You might blame Mercedes problems on importing Vietnamese labor, & now it's cheap Turks. But American run gun makers in Turkey have no problem getting quality work out of Turkish workers. Yes they invested in CNC machines and training, & applied American QC standards and get good product. No manufacturer is perfect. But arrogant overpriced German car makers? My contempt overshadows my admiration for the good. Seriously, great cars until they break. Expensively. I spent less on my '13 Caravan than the warranty costs on a Mercedes. Without the warranty except to pay at least the purchase price in repairs. My next car will be either an older Jeep Cherokee or Van, or........ C-4 Corvettes are dirt cheap. There's a reason. Plastic crap interiors and less power than my minivan. But for 84-91 models you yank the cam & everything above that, put it in a box and sell it on EBay. Add about $3000 in Re machined Vortec heads ( or aluminum ) cam, lifters, intake and carb, and you can go from 250 ponies to 360-400 and get better mileage. The chassis is decent. Just needs stainless brake lines & good pads. Your best choice is probably a hot hatch. The Focus has a big following and lots of knowledge base to access. Used Japanese cars too. | ||
| Oopezoo |
No joke about that. I drove my beloved BMW 325 into the ground with my commute, and retired it after about 350kish miles on it. Then we bought my Wife a nice Grand Cherokee to shuttle the kids around in and I started driving her Corolla. I ended up getting it to about 285k miles before we decided to donate it, but that car literally sucked the life out of you driving it. It was super reliable and only let me sit once, but holy crap what an anemic soul sucking POS. I shopped for the better part of 2 years looking for a proper replacement. I looked at everything from a Prius, TDI, another Corolla, BMW 325, Mini, Subaru BRZ, you name it, if it got at least 30mpg on the highway I probably looked at it. The #1 goal being that I promised myself I wouldn't by another car I hated to drive. The Volt ended up being the only thing that met my mileage requirements that was fun to drive. If this drivetrain was RWD and in something like a BRZ I would be the happiest 600 mile a week commuter ever. | ||
| Aesquire |
Btw while shopping Craigslist I found a Lingenfelter C-4 Corvette for $10k. Pretty cherry. Orange county CA. I'm tempted. Essentially I'd trade in the VW. And have enough left over for flying to LA, with a buddy, driving cross country home, and staying at a Casino every night. Steak and Lobster all the way home. I'll have to check with AAA. A hot tub room every night? | ||
| Shoggin |
I get to drive a 2016 Land Rover Disco for work a lot and... Meh. I think it looks good (and we're getting the F-pace later this year) but the electronics suck and not user friendly, trans won't shift for power for about 20 full seconds and it's nearly killed me entering a highway twice! I also have free reign on a 2015 Mini Countryman and like it A LOT. It's a JCW edition, AWD, fits me well (at 210, 6'3"), hauls a bunch of stuff and is fast enough to have fun. When I get home ... The S-5. 350hp V-8, AWD, 6-speed tip-tronic (IMO better than the manual) sweet sounding AME exhaust, and I must resist getting the supercharger (that is my screen saver) to make it an almost 500HP sleeper.   Yes. Life is way too short to drive •••••• cars or worry about MPG. You spend a lot of time in a car, might as well enjoy it! You are worth it, tell the wife I said so  | ||
| Aesquire |
I do love the Dual Clutch automatics from VW/Audi. | ||
| Aesquire |
https://9gag.com/gag/ayX5npr |
