I have $15,000 to spend on another car. Here are my requirements:
*I like hatchbacks; love convertibles, don’t want a two-seater.
*This will be a fourth :eek: car, not a daily driver.
*I love high performance cars. I used to drive a Porsche 944T. Something that handles half as beautifully as that car will suffice! Handling is more important than brute speed.
*Reliability is important to me. So is a car that does well on snow & slick roads.
*I will not consider anything made by Volkswagen or Audi.
Currently, my daily driver is a Nissan pickup. I have an '83 Ford pickup (Big Blue) that an employee drives mostly. And I have a 1968 Plymouth Fury with a 440; that’s my “haul dogs & passengers around” car. I am thinking the car that best suits my needs is a 1994 Saab 900 convertible. If you had $15,000 & similar preferences, what would you buy?
Well, I haven’t priced them lately but I’d probably go with a S-10 type pickup. I have lots of house/garden projects that usually involve either large amounts of long boards or dirt, so that’d work for me.
Hmmm if your wanting a convertable semi-sporty car with good handling I’d recomend to you a mid 90’s model LeBaron. I had a friend who had one. It was a nice car speedy but not really fast, looked good, ran nice, wasn’t bad on gas, and all around it was a good car.
Now if it was my preferences I’d buy a 91 Pontiac Grand Am Quad-4 H.O. for a 4 cylinder they are unbelievably fast tops 130+ mph. I had a regular quad-4 that handled beautifully at 100+ mph. It was nice to look and very easy on gas and was very reliable.
The Saab convertible meets most of your requirements with reliability the only weak spot; I know two Saab owners who had to get new transmissions with less than 100K. It’s the only convertible which I would consider to be a practical winter driver, it handles well, and it accelerates entertainingly with the turbo engine.
Good websites to check are http://www.edmunds.com for year & model information & the survey comments section of http://www.cartalk.com for feedback from individual drivers. Good luck!
If I were you, I would buy a gremlin shit green Aztec, so you can scare the neighborhood kiddies with the hideous car of the century.
But seriously… (yes, yes, Merc being serious, I know what you are thinking)
Hatchback? Whoa! That’s basically a lego piece on wheels.
Porsche? Nice, very nice, but with gas prices? Yeesh!
I suggest you go with something that uses gas wisely but does not like a something that is being torn apart by Truckasaurus Rex every night on the Demolition Channel.
Best advice, take a teen to tell you what look good. Don’t let the salesperson tell you, trust me, you’ll be screwed.
Similar to the fun of a 944? Try a Mitsubishi Eclipse. I just got one myself, and wasn’t sure of it at first, but it’s an awfully fun car to drive, has so far been very reliable, and still gets 30 mpg. What I would have liked, but couldn’t find in my price range at the time is a Toyota Celica convertible. Awesome little car:)
I love my Saturn SC2. I don’t know what they have in the newest line that might fit your criteria, but mine is fun to drive, “hugs” the road, is reliable and gets good gas mileage. I think it is pretty, too. The main reason I bought it is for the safety features, which are impressive. But it turned out to be an extremely sporty looking car.
I will buy one again when the need arises, if ever.