German car commercial, The worst.

[QuickSilver]

@Bullitt

…but I do have an early 1960s Porsche 356. It is a reliable, well engineered car. I could drive it to NYC, 3,000 miles away, tonight if I needed to.

I just want to say – Lucky fucking bastard!

[Corry_El]

@Sunny_Daze

I love driving. I am a careful driver. I do not drive like I’m on the racetrack when I am in the neighborhood with your kids. I have kids too. For years and years, I had a multi-hour commute, and at least half of it was mountain roads in a rural setting. Deer were a bigger problem than pedestrians. Horses every once and a while. A car that could handle twisty mountain roads like that, plus a several thousand foot altitude change, on a daily basis, was important to me. If that same car could transition to freeway and city driving, and be safe, that was also good. Fun to drive on top of all of that = bonus.

Yes, I like German performance car and twisty roads. Yes, I have fun tracking the curve. IMO, and I bet you agree with me, a car with enough engine to handle the hill is always more enjoyable to drive than one that you have to nurse up the slope like it’s a moving truck you rented in college, praying you’ll make it to the top, and dropping mph with every hundred yards.

No, the point is not to push my car and the road on a road I don’t know, in bad weather, heavy traffic and so on. Find a track if you want to push it. Don’t be an asshole and get yourself or others hurt or killed. I drive with the flow of traffic, in my freaking lane (because cutting the corners is cheating and dangerous), and I have fun. A car that’s been built for curves, hills, and acceleration really is more fun to drive and you don’t have to be a jerk doing it.

Same here.

I don’t know about the ‘motives’ of people who buy performance cars. ‘Personal preference’ might be a less loaded term. The commercial in question is for IIRC a Mercedes E63. I’m also more a BMW guy, but I don’t have nor plan to get a BMW comparable to that (which in model hierarchy I guess would be an M5 though there isn’t a current M5). At that power, and price, point there does arise in my mind the question why have that much performance you can’t use on public roads. ‘Very firm’ ride also for normal driving, everyone says of E63’s though I’ve never ridden in one, it’s true of full blown ‘M’s’ too, a definite factor if normal driving is sometimes on bad roads as it is for me.

But that’s me. I like the driving experience of my 328i (with add on tuner). There’s a bit more there than I can safely use on public roads (with all your caveats, I drove 450 miles yesterday in ‘eco pro mode’ at 38 mpg, people passing me constantly I -95 not a fun road). But not a huge amount. Some Mazda etc probably has ‘almost’ or somebody says just as much of a total package, but I really don’t care. I like the car, I can afford it, end of story. I’m looking at the M240i next. Drove one at the BMW Driving School, more fun, and again fun that’s mostly safely usable, in the right situations.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

I drive a VW Golf GTI. It’s relatively quick and fun to drive. But it’s also less expensive than an well-equipped Camry, roomy enough to seat five, economical, reliable and I can fit almost anything in the back with the seats folded down. In short, it’s the perfect car. But it’s German, so apparently it’s also terrible.

@Baal_Houtham

Is the point to perfectly track that curve? I have troubled believing someone could really care about that without reading dozens of magazines devoted to selling you on the idea that it’s a thing to be relentlessly pursued.

Have you ever heard of fun? Driving a well-set-up car on an empty twisty road is fun.

[Kimballkid]

@Sunny_Daze

Some people enjoy performance cars and some people enjoy hating the advertising for performance cars so much they will never drive them. To each their own. I’ll ponder this mystery on the way to the beach in my BMW this week. Across mountain roads. Twisty, wild, fun, mountain roads.

I’ll ponder it while I’m driving in the mountains in my Ford F150 this weekend.

Actually I probably won’t ponder it at all.

[Crazyhorse]

@Kimballkid

I’ll ponder it while I’m driving in the mountains in my Ford F150 this weekend.

Actually I probably won’t ponder it at all.

I’ll ponder it from my Nissan, of which I could buy 5 for the price of any of these performance machines and have friends box them in while I win the street race.

[Crazyhorse]

@John_Mace

Yep. The wurst.

Don’t be such a wiener, you brat.

[Jennshark]

@Sunny_Daze

Some people enjoy performance cars and some people enjoy hating the advertising for performance cars so much they will never drive them. To each their own. I’ll ponder this mystery on the way to the beach in my BMW this week. Across mountain roads. Twisty, wild, fun, mountain roads.

Ditto this. Our two BMWs and the Mini Cooper are wonderful machines. Are they big bucks to repair out of warranty - oh, yes! The Bimmers are drivers’ cars, not just cars to get from point A to B (and yes, some folks do get BMWs just to have an expensive car, as do folks who buy $55k Ram trucks and never use them to haul or pull stuff).

For the OP: The three worst pieces of crap I’ve owned
in the last 15 years have been two Jeeps and a Nissan X-Terra. They basically fell to rattily pieces (mechanical and interior features) around 90k. My '02 Bimmer has not a squeak nor rattle.

[snowthx]

I have never driven or owned one, but I hear you don’t appreciate a BMW until you have taken on a twisty road. Something about the suspension, etc. A friend of mine confirmed this a few years ago when he commented as such after taking his BMW on a drive away from rush-hour traffic on a weekend trip along the CA coast. He said it was “eye-opening”.

I drove a Mazda3 up Hwy 33 from Ojai, CA a couple years ago - smooth, empty road with cool, dry conditions, midweek and mid-day - THAT was fun - I can imagine what that would be like with a more powerful, even tighter set-up.

[Gatopescado]

@Bullitt

That first Scirocco, in 1974, was a Giugiaro design. Many car people admire it, and Giorgetto Giugiaro was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. Hate all you want, but you’re in the minority.

The BMW small sedans (3 series) are generally regarded as among the best ever, consistently, over the past 40 years.

I drive a Jeep, but I do have an early 1960s Porsche 356. It is a reliable, well engineered car. I could drive it to NYC, 3,000 miles away, tonight if I needed to.

Yes, the Scirocco was a very cool car!

My e30s (BMW 3-series) are some of the best cars I’ve ever driven. I prowl for ones for sale all the time. I could always use another.

And if your Porsche did have a problem, could probably get it back on the road with simple tools and available parts in a short time. Try that with a new Toyota. Ain’t gonna happen.

[digs]

I’ve driven up the coast in an assortment of cars*, and looking back over a span of five decades… I don’t remember the cars I was driving.

*Granted, I haven’t tried it with a piece of junk or a serious sports car (Only a medium range, from a Ford Fiesta through a bunch of Japanese/German cars to a Bimmer)

I can tell you every detail of the weather and the view, but I was looking OUT of the car, and apparently barely noticing it.
Do I have to turn in my Car Geek card now?

[dropzone]

@Derleth

All cars are the same anyway: Small black sedan, rounded but not too round, utterly impossible to pick out of a crowded parking lot.

No, these days they’re all silver.

Buicks look like Kias, unless you’re the kind of person who mentally catalogs tiny differences in tail light arrangement or body stampings.

Not mine! But it’s very low compared with most cars in the lot, so I look for a dent in the crowd. Or antique gold and fake wood sticking a meter out of its space.

@Kimballkid

I’ll ponder it while I’m driving in the mountains in my Ford F150 this weekend.

Actually I probably won’t ponder it at all.

Unless F150s have improved massively the past 40 years, you’d be too busy holding on for dear life to ponder anything but your imminent death. My work F150 back then needed 500 kilos of Swedish pallet trucks in the back to feel safe, and that was only until the load shifted in a turn. :eek:

[amarinth]

This is still my favorite German car commercial

[Pork_Rind]

@snowthx

I drove a Mazda3 up Hwy 33 from Ojai, CA a couple years ago - smooth, empty road with cool, dry conditions, midweek and mid-day - THAT was fun - I can imagine what that would be like with a more powerful, even tighter set-up.

33 north out of Ojai is one of the world’s greatest driving enthusiast roads. And as much fun as it is in a good car (I have a 135i convertible with the M-Sport package), it is some large multiple of that on a motorcycle. Fortunately, that’s practically in my backyard so I’m up there frequently on my bike. I only wish I had kept my Lotus long enough to have brought it down here with me.

[El_DeLuxo]

@John_Mace

Yep. The wurst.

I never sausage an awful pun in my life.

[Kimballkid]

@dropzone

Unless F150s have improved massively the past 40 years, you’d be too busy holding on for dear life to ponder anything but your imminent death. My work F150 back then needed 500 kilos of Swedish pallet trucks in the back to feel safe, and that was only until the load shifted in a turn. :eek:

I do hope you are kidding. If you aren’t, do you honestly think they haven’t improved the F150 in 40 years!

[x-ray_vision]

@DLuxN8R-13

I never sausage an awful pun in my life.

Don’t be such a brat.

[Kimballkid]

Bzzzzt! Try again. That one was already used in post #26.

[Just_Asking_Questions]

@amarinth

This is still my favorite German car commercial

I love it.

But my favorite isthis one.

There was also one back in the day for the Thing. It was such a funky commercial that the first time I saw it, I couldn’t convince anyone it was real. They thought I dreamed it. I have never found that commercial anywhere.

“You can get it with the top up, the top down, the doors off, the windshield down. It’s a car that feels at home wherever you feel at home.”

[x-ray_vision]

@Kimballkid

Bzzzzt! Try again. That one was already used in post #26.

Darn! It was stollen; I didn’t see it.

[Pork_Rind]

@Baal_Houtham

Is the point to perfectly track that curve? I have troubled believing someone could really care about that without reading dozens of magazines devoted to selling you on the idea that it’s a thing to be relentlessly pursued.

It’s like any avocation. It’s hard to explain or justify to someone who doesn’t share that passion. How a car handles a curve is something I am deeply aware of. I get stuck in a number of rental cars for travel each year and immediately begin to make these kinds of assessments. And the skill component is equally rewarding to me. Being able to execute a perfect heel-toe downshift, turn in, then hit the apex with precision is tremendously rewarding. And doesn’t require extra-legal velocities either, although that is fun as well. That’s what a day at the track is for in a best-case scenario.