okay, in contrast to my “bad sports cars” thread, what vehicles do you consider “the best kept secret” in the auto industry?
for me it’d be;
any Turbodiesel (TDI) VW, i just like the chugging noise they make at idle, love the fact that the engine is nigh-indestructible (probably will outlast the chassis it’s in), that it can be converted to biodeisel relatively easily, and the gobs of torque it has on tap
the Dodge Neon, yes, you heard me right, the lowly Neon, the car with a (somewhat deserved in the first-gen models, less so in the 2nd gen models) dubious reliability record, and a rep for no power (the sludgebox models are to blame for this), it’s a quirky, fun to drive little go-kart, handles like it’s on rails, and if you get it with a manual transmission (satisfied, Knorf ) it actually has a decent amount of power for it’s size, plus, if you drive it boringly (conservatively), you can get 35 MPG city, 38-40 highway, all from a standard, basic, bare bones 2.0 liter 4-banger with 132 HP and 130 ft/lb torque
if you want even more power, there’s the Dodge SRT-4, a Neon chassis with a bigger engine (2.4L) and a turbocharger that makes 230 HP/250 TQ and will do 0-60 in 5.9 seconds, and has even better handling than the stock Neon (which is no slouch on it’s own) not bad for an “economy car”
Pretty much any small Saturn. Cheap, reliable, undentable, decent power, good looks, good gas mileage, comfortable. Can’t stress the last point enough: In my experience the Saturn S and ION series are the only small cars that don’t suffer from the Civic syndrome. You can actually get in, get out, and not get back pain from a 10 minute drive as opposed to a lot of japanese counterparts. People actually fit in the back seats and such.
I suppose the Buick Regal is also a vastly underrated car. Safe, comfortable, powerful.
I like my Sebring Convertible, but it doesn’t come in stick shift and the engine is too small (2.7L V6 I think). If I could get a 5-speed Sebring Convertible with a 5.0L V8 that would be my car for life. It’s roomy, very comfortable, feels very safe, etc.
(I’ll wait until you stop laughing)
Seriously, these things are hard to kill. Decent mileage (25/35) and reasonably comfortable for around town driving. I have a '94 Escort wagon I bought when it had 116,000 miles on it. I’ve put on an additional 16,000 and all I’ve had to fix was the radiator (not counting a second one I smashed up in an accident along with the A/C condensor) and the steering rack bushings. Everything else is original. The 5-speed still shifts smoothly albeit a little rubbery (like all Escort manuals).
i’ll hold my tongue on ford this time (i’m sure everyone and their dog is familiar with my feelings on them ), and say that since the 3rd gen and above crapscorts (damn, said iwasn’t going to do that… ) were essentially Mazda 323/Protege’s at that time, it’s not too surprising
one of my college freinds had a cra…sorry, escort wagon, and after i made fun of him for being suckered into buying it , i have to admit, it did hold up to college-student abuses over the years, it may be unrefined, buzzy, and a rattletrap, but it generally stayed in one piece
unlike my first “car”, an '88 crapscort (hey, i can make fun of cars i owned, it’s my thread after all… ) that i dubbed “Murphy’s Lawmobile”, you name it, it broke, most unreliable piece of crap i ever served time in, 88 HP of 4 cylinder fury, 0-60 in about a month (downhill with a stiff tailwind), the 3rd gen cr…escort was like a totally different car…
still, thanks to the '88 crapscort, I’ll never trust ford again…
okay i’ll stop now before i end up starting a rant nobody wants to read
Yeah, it’s just a Mazda in cheap clothing, but like I said, for the little amount of driving I do (it’s taken me over 4 years to accumulate those 16,000 miles), the car has performed well. It’s certainly no speed demon, though (as one standup comic once remarked, “How do you stop an Escort? Turn on the air conditioner”). He wasn’t that far off the mark.
This example is only hidden to non-car fans, but the Mazda Miata is not just a cute convertible to cruise around in–it’s a serious sports car which is extremely popular for racing.
Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego and Ford Freestyle (the crossover, not the Freestar minivan). C’mon, these are essentially Volvo’s at Ford prices! Beautiful, conservative looking cars. Elegant in every way. The only downside is lack of power for the lead-footed amongst us (but decent power for the sane – I admit to liking more myself).
The Pontiac Bonneville, which appears to have not made it to 2006 yet? The ONLY perfect car for its price. The best two cars I’ve ever owned (and that’s versus a Lincoln now). Stupid Pontiac marketing never enticed anyone to take a good look at them. The ONLY complaint with them is their serious, serious, did-I-say-serious torque steer.
The prettiest sedan this side of a Maserati Quattroporte, with the reliability of a Lexus (or close). Italian flair with low maintenance costs, the best sounding V6 in the world, all the luxury you want, and depreciation so steep, it means I can afford one.
The VW Corrado G60 and SLC. Some of the best-handling FWD cars ever.
The Isuzu Stylus XSi. “Handling by Lotus” really did mean a lot.
The original, first-year-or-so Ford Taurus. Jackie Stewart beat Mustang 5.0’s with it on the track. Ford chickened out on the tight, tight suspension settings after the first year and a half and the terrific chassis was buried in mush. Even the SHO wasn’t set up as tight.
According to an article I read in Classic Motorsports the Mazda Miata is destined to be a ‘future classic’. While I’ve never driven one myself, I understand it is a fun, reliable roadster.
Last time I looked the first-generation Miatas were very inexpensive. It might be worth restoring one (while parts are plentiful) to ‘showroom’ condition. Maintain it, keep it pretty, and in 20 years it may be worth something – and you’ll have enjoyed it all that time. It boggles the mind to imagine a Miata may someday win ‘Best In Show’ in a concourse d’elegance; but then, there were half-a-million MGBs made over the years. They’re perhaps the most common car among classic car collectors. And yet they win prizes.
) it actually has a decent amount of power for it’s size, plus, if you drive it boringly (conservatively), you can get 35 MPG city, 38-40 highway, all from a standard, basic, bare bones 2.0 liter 4-banger with 132 HP and 130 ft/lb torque
