Whenever I see cars like this I wonder why they go to the expense of completely replacing all the body work but don't bother to reskin the damned doors?

@Turboner:

Bah, so what if it can't go around corners? There are plenty of cars that are indisputably awesome that just go around corners well, but are dog slow in a straight line (Miata or any old British sports car, the original Mini, or the Honda that's in the fantasy garage). The GNX is a one trick pony, too. It just does…

Also, you small block people make the baby Jesus cry. The Jaguar XK6 is a gorgeous motor. It makes a nice inline 6 purr, and has a rich heritage. There's more to life than lighting up the rear tires, you know. Let the XK6's live!

Wow. That first one makes a Maybach Exelero look like an econobox.

@merkurwwu:

This is actually a pretty good-looking design...

Jesus. Rolf Von Os must have to haul his balls around in a wheelbarrow. I don't even pass cars that aggressively at the start in driving sims. And while that Bimmer is assuredly fast as hell, he's also braking way later than those other dudes.

@Al Navarro:

Oh, and one more, which is a car I owned once as a poor student—A 1987-1990 (mine was an '89) Nissan Pulsar NX XE.

For someone who isn't going to take care of the car, and just doesn't give a damn, I'm going to go with the recommendation of domestic over foreign, based on some wisdom imparted on my by a car knowledgeable elder. It went something like this:

@ZeGerman:

@macfarlane.a:

@djsyndrome:

@eltonito:

@MarionCobretti:

One more: They want safe? Go with the Swedes. The ebays are lousy with '03-'04 Volvo S60s for around 16K, like any one of these three beauties (sadly, though, the 300 hp R model is going to run about six grand more). They could also pick up a slightly newer S40 for that kind of money. I'd lean toward the S60 due…

My initial thought is that an '03-'04 Honda CR-V with decent miles should be about in that price range. I realize that they're about zero fun to drive, but if these people are coming off an old Explorer, it will at least be more fun than that.

Great car. I love those old Benzes, especially the ones with the single piece European headlights.

I suspect that if you want an R8 with a lot of torques, you can just check the box for the oil-burning model. I'll bet stomping on that thing will make a big-block V8 feel like an old S2000 running on 87 octane.