Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Personally, I like the AMG, but I really REALLY like this one:



Sporty.

I'd never own a British car - they spend their lives sitting in the shop

You're right.  That settles it.  That's the sole reason I will never buy an Aston Martin.

Brad has opined before that PHEVs are unduly complicated, as are plain hybrids.  He's obviously correct, I'm not entirely sure what to make of that.  A regular car today is already complicated and they seem to last pretty well, but adding more "stuff" means MTBF on each component adds up, or subtracts down.

It's not JUST that PHEVs are complicated. It's that they're kinda unnecessarily expensive for what they are, and complicated for what they are used for. 

IMHO PHEVs are the BEV gateway drug. The person who buys a PHEV with 35-40 mile range is the person who doesn't *generally* drive more than that, but has range anxiety and thinks they need the ICE "just in case" they want a longer trip.

Nobody who regularly (say 3+ times a week) drives 100+ mile days will bother with a PHEV, because the "EV" portion only covers a small portion of their mileage, so isn't really worth the expense--you're filling up your tank weekly or more anyway. The people who don't drive much get the PHEV, and realize that they're only putting gas in the tank every 3-6 months. 

My contention is that the people who buy PHEVs learn from owning them that they actually don't drive far/often enough to use their gas, so might as well get a real BEV with 200+ mile range for their next vehicle because they've had range anxiety trained out of themselves. 

well, I've not owned a German or Italian car either, but German would be my choice for anything from across the pond
I'd have a German car before anything from the Orient/Asia

Under $100 K, I would buy a CT4 BW with a manual transmission and every other option.  With my wife around, it would probably end up being a fancy Mustang convertible 5.0 with a manual.

Under $200 K I don't really know enough about the options.

What's the most expensive manual transmission car made today?  CT5 BW?  There aren't many left.  I'm OS.

Under $100K?  I can get a '65 Mustang in pretty good shape for around $50K so that's my pick.



Sporty.

I've mentioned before, for me, "sporty" entails:

Convertible
Manual transmission
Higher revving engine
Not "too much" power (plenty of traction)
Rear wheel drive

A Miata covers the bases but I don't fit in one.

I thought the GTI was pretty sporty despite not being a CV and having FWD.  I recall driving Audis in 1978ish with FWD that were pretty bad.

“Sporty” is definitely a personal thing.

For my taste there is nothing sporty, or appealing about a convertible. 

AWD is standard on some of the sportiest cars made, as it allows you to go into, and more importantly- come out of corners with a lot more speed. And today’s performance cars that are AWD, there are specific settings that allow the car to get all of the power to the rear wheels

Manual transmission is fun, and sporty.  But for a car driven every day, today’s automatic transmissions are substantially quicker shifting, and the sporty cars can now be put into manual mode for when it makes sense. 

As far as HP, the driver controls the level of traction with skill, so the more the better.  Don’t get me wrong- there are a number of moderately powered cars out there that are a blast to drive because of the sharp handling. 

As far as German cars- they have built the standard for smooth performance over the years.  Many exceptions of course, like the Vette ( which may be the best performance for the money)and the V series from Caddy.