The point is to avoid associating the cars with a feminine bent since doing so degrades the owner and the car. So if you're going to play the game, maybe we need to start calling them 'sports cars' instead since the idea is that the drive is sporty.

Yes, we really are that weak a species. That's the whole point of why people kill themselves or years of depression for being bullied, among other things, by being called names (as you say, racial or gender slang words).

Blipshift gave me no love for this effort:

What's wrong with these "chick cars"??

There's nothing "PC" about not using a term that disparages half the fucking human population. The cars may still suck, why drag women into it?

You do have a good point, but if you ignore certain cars based on stereotypes, you'll miss out on some great cars.

I'm not offended, and it's not that it hurts me — it's just shitty. I know plenty of great female gear heads and they deserve better. I'm not crazy about the phrase "Jew you down" either, for similar reasons.

Real world, I haven't seen one under $30K. Plus tax, title, tags, etc. puts it around $33,000. I actually went to the dealership, test drove one, and was drawing up papers when I realized there was no way to do it under $30K and I said "that's just ridiculous for a Focus, no matter what engine's in it," and called off…

Are you talking total price? My FiST was almost 29k, granted it was loaded with a clearbra front wrap, but it still bugs me when people say "I got my car for ____" when in reality there is another 3 grand tacked on top.

I quite badly want to make a show/beach cruiser out of one of those.

Daigo Saito and his 2012 Formula D championship have been able to disprove quite a bit of that car's aura.

If you're in the US, you can get a Focus ST with the basic St1 trim for just 23k BEFORE incentives.

Chevrolet SSR.

100%. I think a lot of these "manuals 4 lyfe!!" comments come from younger people who've only driven economy cars with sticks. I've driven 500+hp cars on a track and I definitely was not wishing I had a clutch to mess with too.

MT doesn't make fun. Driver makes fun.

Most people don't know how hard a 600hp manual car is to control. When it starts to get away it's already gone.

Why?

Ready for my dark secret? I'd be one of those fools. Assuming I had 100K burning a hole in my pocket I would only buy this car with the automatic. This might seem silly to many of you but I like the manual in my slow cars. Makes them way more fun than they should be. But in a car that's trying to kill me with every…

One can have a lot of fun with AT, if it's a proper, sport one.
A track oriented version could offer a MT, but still for a daily driver AT is a must.
Put a SRT mode (aka special sport mode stuffwhatever) and the owner can have fun.
Leave it in regular D and the car is tamed.
Simple as that, no core buyers lost.
Also, the…

[flamesuiton]
Sales suck?
Uh, because you can buy the Corvette with an automatic? Manuals are fun, Automatics make money. Shove an automatic/dual clutch/wizardry controlled whatever in there and they'll sell.
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