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

One of the most fun things about the GTI was the stick shift.  It had a nice clutch and though the stick was slightly notchy it was pretty decent for a transaxle.  Nearly every rental car I've had in Europe is a stick, that may be changing now some, so it's a useful skill for me.

The Cadillac and the Hyundai had/have "flappy paddles" which I almost never use, sometimes in the mountains I do.  If I could fit into a Miata I'd have one.  I look at times at used Mustangs convertibles, but I would want a stick shift and they are rare in the GT convertibles.

Fiat Spider is probably pretty sporty.

Same platform, different cars.  Allegedly.

Yeah you're tall, any of those small ones would be tough for you.

Of course I had a friend back in the early 90s who had an original Miata, he was 6'4" and he just squeezed himself into that thing.  He was also 25 at the time.  We called it "the skateboard."

The hardtop Camaro sightlines are terrible too.  My son looked at one and decided as cool as it looks, he just couldn't live with it.  His solution is the Mustang as well.

Yep. You were in 8th grade. She was a senior.

Your lack of ability to start her car had little to do with your [lack of] chances

I hear you, though... When I was a senior I had a crush on this woman at the karate school. I was 17. She was an adult (either 22 or 26? can't remember). Unsurprisingly, nothing ever materialized. But I probably didn't truly understand how abysmal my chances were until I got older.

I see this stuff now with my son when it comes to girls... How can someone so freakin' smart... Be so dumb?!?!

I never said I thought I had a chance.  I had a crush, I wasn't living in la-la land.

All I meant was, even when you know you have no chance, you still don't want to look like a dweeb who can't start a car in front of a cute girl.

That was actually the stint we lived in Georgia for a couple years....she was a true Georgia peach.  As weird twists of fate would have it, she wound up marrying a guy from where my family is from in Louisiana and moving there....where we moved back to after GA.  Not where I grew up in Baton Rouge, mind you....but nearer the Texas border where I finished growing up.  She kind of followed us there just a couple years after we left.  She's still there in (one of) my little hometown(s)(I also consider BR my home town).  She quit being so cute a couple decades and a couple kids ago, but she's a nice lady.  I like to think she's happy I eventually learned to drive a stick.