Old Listener
Senior Member
Exactly what were your needs in a car, suv or truck that GM, Ford, or Chrysler didnt' build? I find that one very difficult to believe.
Inferior as to quality is a mis-placed perception.
fun to drive: Small size, good handling, quick steering with good feel, enough power to be fun.
reasonable cost to own: reasonable purchase price and operating costs, reasonable gas mileage and good reliability.
And the car shouldn't look like a garish cartoon.
For many of those nearly 50 years, poor quality and reliability were a reality for American cars.
Details for our car choices:
BMW 2002: what small, great handling American made sports sedan could we have bought in 1969?
Lotus Europa Twin Cam: a really great handling, fast mid-engine car. A C3 Corvette was a very ugly dog in comparison.
Honda Civic sedan: economical, reliable transportation bought in 1982. What American car would have been an adequate substitute?
Ford Fiesta: bought in ~1980 as a commute car. Great steering, good handling and fun to drive.
Honda CR-X: lovely handling and cheap to buy and operate. I drove that car from 1989 through mid-2002 and loved every minute. Looked good too. What 1990 American car would I have bought that would have been as much fun and as economical?
Nissan Sentra SE-R: a very nice sports sedan with good handling and quite good power. My wife commuted in it from 1992 to ~2005 and enjoyed it. The 1992 Mustang didn't have competitive handling.
Subaru WRX hatchback: Lots of power and great handling. Four seats, four doors and a hatch for practicality. We put the seats down and loaded the back with stuff for our habitat restoration projects many, many times from 2002 to late 2009. We drove it all over the west and across the country.
2001 BMW M Roadster bought used in fall 2002: lots of power and fine handling. Lovely steering feel. Just driving that car with the top down on a back road feels so good. A Mazda Miata was the most attractive alternative but we were willing to pay more to get the BMW. A C5 Corvette was a possibility but we like cars with low door height. The Corvette had high window sills that made us feel like kids sitting in a deep bathtub. The BMW is narrower (and shorter) than a Corvette which makes suddenly meeting traffic on very narrow back roads less stressful.
VW GTi hatchback: a more refined replacement for the WRX at the end of 2009. Fine front wheel drive handling and good power. Gas mileage is quite good. It too swallows all our tools and material for a restoration event. Looks good. It's been all over the west and across the country.
The Honda Civic sedan was the least fun of the cars we've bought and it wasn't bad. The rest ranged from good handling to really, really good handling. None was all that expensive to buy or operate. I could not think of an American car that I would have preferred to the cars we owned.