While I wholeheartedly agree with your conclusion, you are dead wrong on "cheaper to maintain". An S1000RR will go through $600 in a chain and tires every 3-5K miles when ridden the way I would. The 228i will not. That makes a huge difference when you look at cost of ownership over 50K miles.

Yeah, but I can easily justify the Performance Pack / Track Pack meaning that it's not really a "base model".

4 doors is a necessary evil if you have kids, not before and not after. I was always amazed in my 20's when any of my friends (who were still single) would even consider a sedan over a coupe.

Why does he have to be such a dickhead?

When not living our dream lives, C.J. Wilson runs a racing team, plays professional sports, takes photos, runs a few businesses, and... oh wait, it's all our dream life.

How much for the manual conversion?

How the P71 panther isn't number one I don't know. Big, safe, comfortable, easily cleaned - and you get almost no harassment from "the fuzz" when driving one.

Because it's a paint job and a few weekends away from being a 50 MPG C3. Show me something better looking that gets that kind of gas mileage for that kind of cheese (and no, motorcycles don't count). C3's are the best LOOKING Corvettes of all the generations IMO (and I've owned C3's, C4's, C5's - and my father has…

That's it - freaking gorgeous. As I said in one of my other posts - if "meticulously maintained" and "enthusiast" condition with a "spaceball" manual transmission, they appear to be worth about $12-$20K depending on miles (at least here on the East Coast). Any more than $20K is a pipedream though - no matter how…

It's a lot nicer in person (albeit I've only been in one with a different color exterior). To a point, I find it far less offensive than the Coral Red interiors found on many BMW 3 series.

It does. My personal favorite is Sonic Blue over Atacama - it's so very Swedish.

THIS. There are a lot of checkboxes for this car, but a quick search on Swedespeed classifieds (sold cars) shows that this should be offered at about $18K. The Sonic Blue or Flash Green over Atacama with a manual is a more desirable color combination (that Atacama is gorgeous in person) - and I've seen low mileage…

Trading in a Mustang for a Subaru is pretty much like deciding to keep your flannel and mullet and just switching from redneck straight male to "softball playing" female.

"I don't think that any European car company could have produced the Aztec"

I even liked the dark bronze color on the prototype - give it a proper three pedal stick and RWD and I'll put down a deposit on the first one.

You're correct, of course - that's what I've put in my garage right now. It's just a shame, because Volvo used to be just quirky enough to make a great alternative.

I'd be a lot happier if Volvo would make a real successor to the P1800 with a Turbo straight 6, stick shift, and RWD instead of futzing around with "Easter Eggs" in land barges.

"Nobs" LOL

Volvo has completely "jumped the shark", IMO. The red blocks (and to a lesser extent the later white blocks) were indestructible and uber practical in station wagon form. It's a shame where the brand has gone.

Every E91 I've seen come up for sale has been an "x" (AWD is heavy, unnecessary complexity for coastal South Carolina), a slushbox, or both. I'd be willing to drive to Maine to pick one up.