Oh, I know - but brown manual wagon is the "Jalop special edition" In the real world, I'll take a gray / silver like the rest of my cars (BMW calls it "Sparkling Graphite", Volvo calls it "Titanium Gray", I think it's called "Stealth Gray" in GM speak).

I feel your pain. It's like when Buell was part of the Harley-Davidson dealership network - no matter how good the bikes were, the dealer network was unintentionally destroying any credibility they had.

Yeah, I read that. I'm an "early adopter" of Tavarish's advice - being in my 40's and only once buying anything newer than five model years old (back in 1996). This article is written very much at guys like me - who could spend $50K on a new car, but won't. That does mean that my dream manual CTS-V (brown?) wagon…

The two worst parts of Corrado ownership are rust and how many parts are Corrado specific, even down to years. I recall reading am Insurance comparison list for the repair cost of an average 10 MPH head-on collision (Progressive, perhaps) - and the Corrado was MORE expensive than an Aston Martin.

Every BMW M-series >> Every AMG (within the same class) - a large part of that is because of BMW's gorgeous manual transmissions. If the CTS-V wasn't offered with a manual, I wouldn't lust after it nearly as much as I do - and my e90 335i is neither fail wheel drive nor four cylinder.

You lost me. You copy/pasted #10 - the Z3 (off eBay as directed by the contest title) to prove what, exactly?

You do understand that this was an eBay contest, right?

Since you seem to know Toyota/Lexus - what are the weak points on an ES300 / ES330 to look for on a used one? Before you say anything, yes, I am fully aware that it's a Camry with nicer headlights and thicker leather - but I'm looking for a low-mileage Florida/Georgia (used little old lady car) for my Mother-in-Law…

My experience has been completely the opposite. BMW and particularly Jaguars have good forums with non-accusatory adults (many with technical backgrounds) who are happy to assist. That was the biggest gripe about the P.O.S. Honda (09 EX-L V6 coupe) I dumped - the forums were a bunch of teenagers who would alternate…

You win - that first, darker red one in Houston isn't beat to snot and riced out, although it does have 210,000 miles on it. I'd still rather buy, drive, and wrench on an XJ6 or the 525i, but I'll confess that you've made your point.

$9500 in woeful aesthetic condition (ripped center console, fart can, stickers, faded paint, terrible wheels, etc) compared to every other example car shown. You just made my point about why there wasn't a $6K example in this list, so, uh...thanks?

Link to one for sale?

In all of my car ownership, my MOST reliable purchases have been Volvos (e.g. 1998 S70 non-turbo manual) and Jaguars (1995 XJ6) and my LEAST reliable (and hardest to work on) was a Honda (2009 Accord EX-L V6 Coupe). This is diametrically against "generally assumed internet knowledge", so I feel the need to pipe in…

Find me a decent OEM stick shift SC300 with a clean title for $6K. I'll wait.

I assume you are allergic to wrenches.

Except that the 95-97 normally aspirated XJ6's suffer from NONE of the maladies of the Ford sourced V8. No assinine air-ride, no Nikasil flaking, none of it. Just a humidor on wheels for cheap.

As I said in my other thread, my mother's 95 XJ6 died in an accident with 220K trouble free miles. I'll admit that it lived an easy life (garage kept in upstate SC), but the paint and leather were of such high quality that it looked FAR better than the average Lexus LS400, Q45, or BMW 7 series of the same vintage and…

Low miles and in stock-ish configuration? I absolutely agree. You're suggesting modifying it for more power and hoonability that will make it vastly less reliable.

I love it, but why does it have to be TEAL?

Manual swap + Aftermarket Turbo = less reliability than anything else on this list.