Mustang II.

The “Austinite” must either be a California transplant or not even trying.

3 per year. Flipping them as a side gig was "heavily discouraged". One of my fellow techs would buy one every four months like clockwork and sell the old one so that he "never had to change his own oil".

Carmax didn’t buy that at auction, it was either sold to them or traded in by a customer. Carmax employees get spectacular deals on cars out of their wholesale (auction-bound) inventory (the store I worked at charged $300 over cost for normal cars, and a still nicely discounted price for specialty cars). I worked for…

Was the Ford FR9 not suggested? If it was, how did it not make the list?

No way in hell. The transmission is a time bomb waiting to go off sometime between now and 100,000 miles, I somehow find this version of the Taurus to be the ugliest (yes, uglier than the “oval” Taurus), and it’s priced at about three times it’s actual value.

For a daily driver? About 100 miles.

BMW? Old? Screwed around with by an “enthusiast”? Next.

Something like the fox-body Mustang.

A 1994 Dodge Viper RT10 was traded in at the dealership I work at, so that’d have to be the one.

One of the best-looking production engines in a relatively rare package, with a stick, in overall good shape for it’s age and mileage? Yeah, I could do $4000 for that. It’s a neat car.

Saturn? Yes.

Thou shalt not disparage the Saturn 1.9!!!

“Finally some companionship for BMW and MINI.”

How is the Hyundai Accent not on the list? It shares its engine with the Rio, Soul, Tucson, Veloster, and Sportage.

Mustang MT-82, hands down. When the 2010 Mustang debuted, I was in love, but I waited until 2011 to drive the Coyote/MT-82 version first. I drove a 2010 with the 4.6 and TR3650 and the 2011 5.0/MT-82 back to back, and bought the 2010 based on how awful the MT-82 felt alone.

New 4Runners get taken off-road by their owners all the time. I’m part of a 4Runner group that hits trails and backroads and off-road parks regularly, and it’s almost all 5th-gens with their first owner.

NP all day.

And you should! It would lower the demand for fuel and keep gas mileage down for the rest of us.

Italian “reliability” for $23k, or Lexus RELIABILITY for $23k?