Felt the same when I sat in the ATS at a car show a few years back. I was seriously like "This has to be like the BASE trim, right?". Like, 2.5L I4, no options at all, but alas it was in the top spec 3.6L Premium which was almost 50 grand! Ugh!

I'll add an extra caveat to this. I just checked and you can get a used 2014 CTS Base with the 2.0T with about 5,000 miles for about 35 grand. Even if the gauges are crappy, that is a down right STEAL.

Oh, my fault. I thought it was the regular one and the F-Sport that had the roundel but the F-Sport was fully digital.

As some have said before, GM NEEDS to change the gauge cluster.....

2004 Cadillac DTS Gauges

I have PREACHED this. It hideous and does NOT look like the gauges in a sport sedan. I still don't know how this got by the engineers. YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THAT THE ENTIRE TIME YOU DRIVE THE CAR! The only redeeming thing is that if you upgrade to the CTS V-Sport or the highest trim, you can get access to the fully…

**Puts on tinfoil hat**

Penny Pinchers are consumers too, firstly. Second, imagine you are a new college grad with debt but you NEED a car. You don't want to drive a pile but you can't afford a $400 a month car note. You WOULD look at a hypothetical Fit-S if you knew you could get something fun for half the month price and 30% of the total…

Hahaha, I'm sure it COULD be done but it won't be norm. If you did, more power to you.

That's kind of my point. You can find USED 500 abarths for cheap, too. However, you are't going to be able to go to the lot and say "Hey, I'll take that Fiesta for 18k". That's not happening and that's the problem.

One more: City trucks.

Blank Slate NEW Fun Cars (preferably RWD) under $20,000

DKC 2 is the best because of one reason: the Stickerbursh Symphony

I miss mine so bad. :-(

Not surprised, the want is still skrong.

Suzuki Samurai

Look, I was the same, and then I saw it at the auto show this past weekend and.....man.....they are going to sell soooo many of these. This thing just has "Upscale Cheap Do-All" written all over it. I could conceivably run my Miata in the summer and then this in the winter for less than the price of almost any small…

My current Twitter Bio:
Gentlemen Scholar and ex-member of G.I. Joe. My services include: geekery, sports, and unmitigated sarcasm.

LET SEE THOSE REWRITES PEOPLE, I NEED TO GET THIS FOLLOWER COUNT UP!

Agreed!

They JUST came out though, i.e. are just now really hitting dealership lots.

I agree. They messed up. This should have been marketed (has it been marketed?) as a Charger competitor, with a different name tree, like Chevy Bel-Air (Stock V6)/ Bel-Air GT (base V8)/ Chevy SS