Mid Week Match-Up: Sensible Speed
It is Wednesday so that means another time for a Mid Week Match-Up (TM)! Last week we tried to find a cheap truck for a guy named Joe, but today we look for a fast family sedan that makes sense. It is easy to get into a decent EVO/STi for $15k, but you end up overweight with all the energy drinks you have to consume, and there is the ever present danger of cranial distress due to flat brimitis (several real internet doctors have confirmed this is a real thing). You could also buy a used Audi S8
, but you’ll probably end up spending more on maintenance then Lewis Hamilton does on earrings. What we are looking for today is a speed and sensible sedan for about $15k out the door.
The easiest thing for a German car fan is to find the nearest BMW 335i with a 6-speed manual gearbox, like this one offered for around $16,500 in Woodland Hills, CA. What would you buy with your money? Comments below.
I'd go with a legacy spec B. 6 speed, some STI suspension bits and a tweakable turbo charged flat four.
Black on black E90 335i 3pedal car is what I'd buy with my money. I did, actually, for damn near exactly the same price with the same miles.. Mine doesn't have idrive like the above car, but I'm not missing it.
2004-2007 Volvo S60R. Easily under $15k, even for a nice low mileage example.
300bhp, AWD, 6-speed manual, and some pretty cool color combinations.
[img] deepnetconsulting.com/swedespeed/gallery/r/rqc.jpg[/img]
I don't care what color the exterior is, as long as the interior is Atacama.
I love that color leather on the R Volvos. Reminds me a bit of a my old 164.
[img] i.imgur.com/yowugxp.jpg[/img]
Any dodge lx platform that comes in four doors and has the srt 8 badge
The customary responses to this question involve E39 M5s and first-gen CTS-Vs.
Haven't looked at prices, and depending on slushbox compatibility the V8 Pontiac G8s and/or Lexus GS400/430 might work as well, though Lexus seats verge toward the slippery.
2007 Cadillac CTS CTS-V
[img] i.imgur.com/l1fA8U4.jpg?1[/img]
1999 Jaguar XJR for $10.7K with 42K miles
[img] i.imgur.com/0HhhMNr.png?1[/img]
For $15K, I could buy both of these (eBay) cars and have $2.5K left over.
2006 Pontiac Grand Prix GXP
[img] i.imgur.com/zC6sazC.jpg?1[/img]
2008 Pontiac Grand Prix GXP
[img] i.imgur.com/57ocDc7.jpg?1[/img]
There's a reason for that…
While some of these look ok decked out I still can't stand the looks of any grand am or grand prix from this era. They really come off as chick cars to me.
Alternatively, if the GP and the Impala SS are just too flash for you, there's always the Buick LaCrosse Super. Yeah, that's the one you want…
[img] i.imgur.com/INj2Bp4.jpg?1[/img]
Oh, no, I broke DT…
Here is the original comment:
1987 Milano Platinum on Hemmings with 34K miles for $6.5K. The $15K budget leaves plenty of room for the mandatory T-belt change along with other odds & ends. [img] assets.hemmings.com/uimage/42515809-100-0@2X.jpg[/img]
I like pic #3 in the Hemmings listing….you can almost hear the banjo music in the background.
Oh my god, FTB, I didn't see that! Now I can't unsee it…
1976 Dodge Colt with a (Mitsu) 2.6 in it for $2.7K…which would leave $12.3K left over!
[img] i.imgur.com/u81JWye.jpg?1[/img]
This car is a slushbox but you'd have plenty of moola left over to swap it out with a twin-stick 12 speed CVT with flappy paddles and rev-matching.
Had a girlfriend with a '75 automatic Colt, was just about the slowest thing I've ever driven not excluding 1200cc VW Beetles.
Also had steering that managed to be both gorilla-heavy and completely numb at the same time.
I gotsta even out my AWD h8tin' ways with some good joo-joo. 1991 Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 for $5.8K…leaving $9.2K left over.
[img] i.imgur.com/tniJ6ru.jpg?1[/img]
Sadly, the Iso Fidia is well out of the price range. May I suggest the Saab 9-5 or if you're GTL, the STS-V? Anyone have bad experiences with them? Or just wait to 25-year a Sierra Sapphire Cosworth or move to Newburgh and use the savings on a Lotus Omega.
Generally, "sensible" suggests immediate parts availability, at least six months between mechanic visits, and servicing that averages under $700 (or a grand). And it's very hard all three together in something under $15K that's modern, interesting, and, ideally, within warranty. In Europe, you'd be all over Citroen C6s, Alfa 159s, Octavia vRSs, etc. But here in the US? It gets a bit boring for me.
"Modern" isn't the first thing that comes to mind, but the Marauder is all kinds of sensible. Only $8,000.
[img] images.craigslist.org/01111_jmo6X1i974i_600x450.jpg[/img]
The STS-V was the Cadillac Guys pushing back on the Bob Lutz Guys who did the CTS-V, so it got some forced-injection on the Northstar but none of the things – the rigorous chassis tuning and very, very importantly the grippy seats – that made the CTS-V special.
The first-gen CTS-V interior's junk. I say that as a fan of the car and someone who would buy one. But the whole interior cost GM about as much as one Saab 9-5 seat.
What they did get right, though, was that they put some Alcantara cloth in the CTS-V seat. It didn't have anything like the side support of the M5 seats, but the sticky cloth insert helped a LOT.
Unfortunately, the STS-V guys never quite got around to the idea that if you were goiing to turn right and left you had to be able to stay behind the steering wheel, so the STS-V seats were leather with the Cf of high-density polyethylene.
@PhiLOL – love that Marauder, especially when it's been breathed on by Kenny Brown.
A late '90s Saab 9000 Aero, plus $10K of Quaife diff and general refurbishment.
So $5k of diff and $5k of maint.
$1500 for the diff plus whatever it takes to R&R the transmission.
The big bugbear for Saabs of this vintage is that the Saabs were an oddball when it comes to diagnostic software, even those aftermarket products that do extended GM codes may not work and they certainly do NOT work on the pre-OBDII cars, you have to have a functional Saab ISAT or GM/Vetronix Tech 2 with the Saab interface and software, so you've got to budget another $400-2000 for that unless you have a friend with a shop who has the stuff.
More AWD love with a 2006 MazdaSpeed6 for $10K, leaving $5K left over.
[img] i.imgur.com/7oNeqg1.jpg?1[/img]
2007 Acura TL Type-S
[img] i.imgur.com/WkZ1kAh.jpg?1[/img]
Gotta be a 6-speed to get the helical limited-slip diff and Brembo brakes.
Id get a late 90s manual maxima and have money left over for a couple novas.
This kind of Nova?
Though personally I've always had a thing for the four-doors of this vintage.
And I'll note that the '75 Nova sedan was AFAIK the first domestic adoption of the REAL (that is, in the rear door window) Hofmeister Kink. It was as close to a knockoff of the E3 BMW as GM was prepared to produce at the time. And as the E3 BMW is and will forever remain my favorite sedan of all time, notwithstanding the E39s in the driveway, the '75 Nova has a soft spot in my heart.
Agreed. I especially love sedans with inline sixes and three on the trees. Fun to drive, thrifty, and the criminals of these are unable to drive them.
9C1 nova. Learn something new everyday. Bitchin.
You can't fight city hall. You just buy the newest and best condition M5 you can get for the money and be done with it. Not cheap to keep but at least it's well made and you can count on the engineering being thoughtful.
At the risk of monopolizing this thread, my E39 M5 has been in terms of maintenance-and-repair stuff the cheapest of the Germans I've ever owned. YMMV if you run into the plugged air-injection OBD code.
The beauty of it is that YMMV only if you live in an area with testing that frowns on check engine lights, because that's pretty much the only side effect of the carboned up air injector passages, as I recall. In other words, if you don't have emissions testing, throw a piece of electrical tape over that CEL and keep enjoying–it's not harming the car a bit.
I have a little spreadsheet that's not comprehensive but has about a dozen factors from winter/summer temps to property taxes to vehicle smog checks to a few other thiings, still filling the various locales…
I know none of you guys are interested in television but the new show from the Wachowskis, "Sense8" features a 1974 Nova Sedan. Driven by a cop, natch.
[img] i.imgur.com/98VZeyd.jpg?1[/img]
One last post.
Jag S-type R
2012 VW Jetta GLI
[img] i.imgur.com/uFgOuj0.jpg?1[/img]
2012 Honda Civic Si
[img] i.imgur.com/O8V2PBs.jpg?1[/img]
Is it worth going through the trouble of coding in the actual ad and a picture of the car for sale? Does anybody give a kakadoodoo? Why am I going to this much trouble if nobody does. Maybe I should just list car names randomly, like some of my fellow DTers, with no relation to actual cars for sale at the moment.
Answer; no. You're wastin' yer time, matey. Arrrgh.