iaink

Yep, that didnt last long, and it was actually a factor in our buying decision. The extra grand on top of saving $1500 on getting an auto is a strong motivator in going back to stick shift (I dont have much traffic here to sit in)

The wife isnt overjoyed, but for $2500 (or in practice a sun roof and more electric doodahds) she can live with it.

It was a strangely thought out program anyway...For example the Yaris qualifies based on the base spec (with minimal airbags), but the Fit didnt becasue it came with the extra weight of a full compliment of airbags as standard. Not really fair. If they are serious about encouraging people to buy more efficient vehicles, then they should just put a big surcharge on fuel costs.

If you have a Suburban, but only chose to drive it twice a year, why should you have to pay $4k gas tax on it compared to someone who drives something more efficient 120000 km a year? It never did make sense, but Im happy to fill the forms out for my Grand anyway

Oakvillian

with the normal caveats associated with quoting Wikipedia as a source: So, err, no.

Muscle car - sure, ticks all the boxes. Driver's car, as Thom described it - no, I would say not.

Piff Poff

One thing to remember is the roads here are straight! No need for a car that corners well

Flippant remark - not meant to cause a huge debate - just injecting a little humour - it's also one reason I'm not too keen on having a bike here.

dbd33

I found it to be harder sprung than a Lotus 7 (admittedly an old and tired 7) and much harder sprung than a TR6s, A-H 3000s, MGBs and Midgets so, while it's not an out and out sports car due to all the gadgets and fripperies and the sheer size of the thing, I thought it close to that ideal. I loved the fact that it's cheap enough for anyone to have one. Perhaps Thom could offer examples of similaly affordable sports cars s/he considers better for driving.

ThomOMalley

I completely agree with Oakvillian.

Besides being one of the ugliest cars ever made (modern mustang), you can not compare it to say driving a M series. That's just an insult to anyone who likes to drive. While it has all the right ingredients it still lacks the driving finesse of a BMW. Comparing apples and oranges.

American's idea of racing is drag racing. No corners and straight line acceleration and America's 'sports cars' reflect such. Muscle cars...Great, if that's your cup of tea.

For the same money: I would have a Golf R32 any day.

On a side note: anyone driven with a DSG gearbox. (I generally hate automatics, bloody stupid, but the DSG sounds like fun).

dbd33

Surely the Golf is a hardtop and so, by definition, not a sports car.

My car has a DSG box - something I learned from a previous thread here. It's as exciting and interesting as any other automatic.

Steve_P

We had a 1986 Honda Civic with something like a DSG, no clutch but you had to change the gears, a bit boring I thought but then it was a Civic. It was relatively reliable we kept the car for 16 years.

iaink

Rather a generalisation old chap....Corvette are competitive in the GT1 class at LeMans year after year... and you might remember this car from a while ago.




For the money the 'vette is a great deal of car for the money. Even the rather snobish european journalists are coming around to that idea.

Oakvillian

OK, devil's advocate hat off for a moment, I reckon that the size & weight are about the only things wrong with the Mustang - and although I haven't driven a SVT version, I wouldn't say no if somebody offered me one!

The difference between a Mustang and, say, a Caterham 7, is probably the best part of a ton on a good day. 300bhp from a 2008 Mustang GT vs 200-odd bhp from a cooking Rover K-series in the Caterham I'm most familiar with, and guess which one would be more fun on a track?

Your chosen comparisons (the Healeys, Triumphs, MGs, Lotuses) are all 40-year-old cars. How old was your Mustang? How d'you reckon today's Mustangs would stack up against equivalent competition - such as it is?

Not sure where you'd look in North America for affordable sportscar or sports-tourer motoring. Nissan 350Z roadster? Porsche Boxster? Saturn Sky <cough>?

I'm still looking forward to my dad's old 1985 Morgan 4/4 arriving sometime in the summer (he says smugly). Not by any means a sportscar, but I reckon it qualifies as a grand tourer.

Edit: oh, and Thom lost me on the Golf thing, too. Hardtop, 4-wheel drive... not a proper sports car.

Oakvillian

I drove an Audi TT DSG for a few hours when they first came out. I liked its Jekyll and Hyde-ness... burbling along quite happily in auto mode in traffic; much more fun around twisty country roads in manual mode. I especially liked the "double-declutch" blip it gave to the engine through neutral when downshifting under acceleration. But then, it lost some of the fun of doing that yourself when going through tunnels and underpasses...

dbd33

Oh, the Caterham would doubtless be more fun but it doesn't follow that anything less isn't a sports car.

I picked those because they're cars I think most people would recognize as being sports cars and because they're cars I'm familar with; I'm currently negotiating over another TR6.

I leased the Mustang new in 2003. I did so because I wanted something cheapish to drive to California and subsequently on camping holidays - it needed to accomodate two and a half people, a large dog and camping stuff so a two seater was out of the question. I thought it a compromise, a family car but convertible and reasonably interesting; I came to think it much better than that. The Mustang's competition now is the Sebring, the PT Cruiser and the two convertible Volkswagens - I think the Mustang is massively the more fun. I don't have one now because, living in the snow belt, one needs something better suited to severe weather.

The American sports car du jour is the Pontiac Solstice, I think one of those might be fun.

iaink

However a miata would be more fun...better balanced and better built...and ford own mazda so it is technically american...

dbd33

An imitation Elan and Japanese to boot. I couldn't do it.

clynnog

Any government programme that Buzz Hargrove is against I am in favour of. His constant harping and glad handing for gov't handouts in order to prop up GM/Ford/Chrysler in Canada really gets under my skin.

iaink

Its nothing like an Elan. You can drive 500 miles in a miata without something falling off!

I prefer the look of the Solstice, but the unblown 2.4 is a joke, and too much weight up front, and the blown one is too much power for the chassis to deal with. Give me a miata any day.