Vehicle Section, your help is needed!

[Garfield 2]

Hello guys, long time, no see! I've been very busy with my personal and professional life, but I promise once things with the professional life pick up, I'll be visiting here more often.

I've met most down to earth and reasonable people at GTAForums, so I'm inclined to ask my question here instead of any other motoring related forum.

 

I'm looking for a list of 2014-2018 sports cars that wouldn't be too expensive, but very exciting to drive and that YOU the people would be interested in driving!

The requirements are:

- Cars must be 2014 and up, cannot be any older than that
- They need to be fun and engaging to drive
- Let's keep the pricing reasonable, so up to about €45,000 per car (that's about $50k, but remember, I'm in Europe)

What would your suggestions be? Mine so far are the 2014 A45 AMG 4Matic, 2015 Golf R and a 2018 Mustang GT.

[sivispacem]

The A45 isn't "fun" or "engaging" unfortunately. It's ridiculously fast, but frankly a bit dull. I tested one back to back against an M135i and the BMW absolutely trounced it in the enjoyment stakes. It also has the worst gearbox of any car I've had the misfortune of driving.

The Golf R is fairly similar in that aspect, if a bit more rounded. I didn't look at them when I was buying as they're common as muck and real theft magnets.

With a similar set of requirements to you, I bought a 9-month-old BMW M140i.

[Mark]

For something a bit different you may be able to get a recently used Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio (you bastards on the continent get a choice of manual too) or maybe a Maserati Ghibli.

As you can see reliability and sensibility aren’t priorities for me..

[Garfield 2]

The Giulia is way over budget (cheapest example starts at €79,000)

Ghibli would be within budget, but it'd be the 3.0 Diesel, which is kinda "meh".

 

@sivispacem not a bad suggestion, but then again, few extra quid would get you an M2, they're actually close to the budget.

[Mark]

23 minutes ago, Garfield 2 said:

The Giulia is way over budget (cheapest example starts at €79,000)

Christ it’s that much there? There’s plenty of low mileage used over here at about £45k..

[sivispacem]

8 hours ago, Garfield 2 said:

 

@sivispacem not a bad suggestion, but then again, few extra quid would get you an M2, they're actually close to the budget.

It's a pretty big step up- nearly £20k on top of a similarly aged 1/235i or 1/240i. And as much as I love the M2, if I was looking at splashing £40k on an exciting pure sports car and didn't need usable rear seats, I'd be straight over to the nearest Porsche dealership to buy the best specced, sports exhaust equipped PKD Cayman S I could afford.

[Joe Biden]

Maybe a Jaguar F type V6? Prices on those are dropping into the 40-50k range so I assume they would be in budget. No doubt they are fun and engaging cars, although they are rather uncomfortable and impractical compared to a Golf or Mustang. Gorgeous looks and exhaust note though. As for some other ones

 

- Mini JCW. Driven a 2016 one and it's crazy fun to drive, very much a fun agile car with a hilarious exhaust note. It's a bit overpriced for what it is new but you could probably find one slightly used.

- Fiata

- Audi TT RS

 

How much would you value practicality in your choice of car though? Your choices all seem to be a good combination of useability and fun, with 4 seats, big bonnet / hatch and possibly 4 doors. A 2 door roadster would obviously be a lot different from that and require some more sacrifices in that regard.  

 

[Garfield 2]

That F-Type is actually a fairly decent suggestion.

 

I've posted hot hatches since they're affordable ways to get into fun driving, but I don't mind anything as long as it's within the rules!

[sivispacem]

Out of interest, why can't you drop below 2014? A 2012-13 run-out edition E92 M3 would tick a lot of boxes.

[Lurch]

Are things like ND Miats and GT86's not powerful enough? I feel like they'd probably be a lot better to drive than everything you mentioned. Just slow in a straight line. Mustang's probably a nice choice with the right options. 

[Outcast]

I would second Lurchs suggestion of an ND Miata. If you're looking for a fun and reliable canyon carver and not too bothered about crazy straight line speed, I think the ND fits the bill completely. 

 

 

There's this mountain route that my friends and I like to drive on early Sunday mornings and I can definitely say I have a lot more fun in my ND than I've had in my 997 or 1M on that same route. The only thing that came close in terms of smiles per gallon was a 718 Cayman GTS I drove once. The E30 was also a heap of fun but that doesn't really adhere to any of your criteria.

 

Regarding the F-Type, I had the V8S for about a week when I was in California visiting my wife's family. Her uncle led me through some twisties near their place in Sonoma in his Cayman S. The Porsche is a helluva lot more precise than the F-Type as I had a lot of trouble following his lines while carrying the same sort of speeds as he was, but the F-Type is pure sex for your ears. 

 

[Lurch]

I also forgot about the Fiata. I feel like those would pretty sweet if one had the means to afford one. The main pros would be that you can use pretty much all of the ND's aftermarket support (Xidas/JRZ's/MCS/Fox/etc, Karcepts sways, 17x9 6ul's, and some sticky rubber basically gets you the easy button to fun times)). And with a factory turbo, I'm sure there's more power to unlock with minor tuning software. 

[Garfield 2]

On 6/16/2018 at 6:04 PM, sivispacem said:

Out of interest, why can't you drop below 2014? A 2012-13 run-out edition E92 M3 would tick a lot of boxes.

T&Cs of the lease agreement.

 

On 6/17/2018 at 6:24 PM, Outcast said:

I would second Lurchs suggestion of an ND Miata. If you're looking for a fun and reliable canyon carver and not too bothered about crazy straight line speed, I think the ND fits the bill completely. 

 

 

There's this mountain route that my friends and I like to drive on early Sunday mornings and I can definitely say I have a lot more fun in my ND than I've had in my 997 or 1M on that same route. The only thing that came close in terms of smiles per gallon was a 718 Cayman GTS I drove once. The E30 was also a heap of fun but that doesn't really adhere to any of your criteria.

 

Regarding the F-Type, I had the V8S for about a week when I was in California visiting my wife's family. Her uncle led me through some twisties near their place in Sonoma in his Cayman S. The Porsche is a helluva lot more precise than the F-Type as I had a lot of trouble following his lines while carrying the same sort of speeds as he was, but the F-Type is pure sex for your ears. 

 

It's more to do with finding something for everyone. If it was up to me, 2012 E92 M3 Competition with a DKG box in Alpine White.

[QuackinAColdOne]

When I detailed cars I got the chance to drive an Audi S6 a few blocks and that car sounded amazing. For those few seconds or less, I was free.