Needlessly misleading "What car?" thread
Discussion
Hello.
I hate these threads, but here we go: my deeply rubbish E36 323 Coupe is too broken to live with, and too worthless to fix, so it's time for it to be replaced. I've enjoyed having it (it's handsome and makes a nice noise when it isn't misfiring or being drowned out by that nasty grinding noise something in the gearbox makes), but it's supposed to be a sensible alternative to my Elise, and continually going wrong isn't something I can put up with.
I've never even heard of a faulty fuel filler flap before.
It might be haunted.
Anyway, I need something that compliments the Elise (S1, so anything with electric windows is going to seem decadent) and previous cars that have done the job really well have been: MX5 turbo, RX7 FC non-turbo, mk2 MR2 NA and the 323. Yes, I realise that for 5 years I had two two-seat convertibles, but they were different enough that I never got bored of either of them.
Pretty much all of the cars in my garage are cars I'd be happy to own again, and they all pretty much do the job, but I'm getting too old and lazy to spend my weekends fixing cars and some of them have been a lot of grief (200SX and 323 being the two most continually broken cars I've owned, with the AX and Silvia being borderline unacceptable), so something reliable would be nice.
Of the cars I've had the one I most loved (apart from the Elise, which I'm keeping forever), despite it being slow and burning a horrific amount of fuel, was the 1986 RX7, but they are rare and rusty. And just because I had one that rusted away before eating it's engine doesn't mean I'm willing to poke Fate in the boob by buying another expensive non-reciprocating time bomb.
For the last ten years or so my second car has been a shed, budget of £1k or less (never less than fifty quid though, I have my pride). I like sheds, I don't have to worry about them so I can take a risk (like buying a 25 year old wankel engine with no service history), but on the other hand they tend to be a bit rubbish (like having major structural rust). So while I'd be happy to bung a few hundred quid on something eccentric, I can actually afford* about £7k on something that'll be good. Fun seems easier to have in something cheap, but grief isn't much fun - I actually have a graph for this somewhere**.
My typical journey is down twisty b-roads, commuting or with either archery equipment or a rifle in the boot (both of which fit in the Elise, just).
I'm not a total RWD snob I do like the occasional dab of oppo and the intention was to take up drifting again in the 323, if it hadn't been so broken all the bloody time. It's been a while since I've been black-flagged from a track day so maybe something suitable for that would be nice.
While I didn't like doing only 17mpg in the RX7, it's totally worth buying that much petrol for the right car.
Finally I hate convertibles. I like having a roof over my head, and I refuse to buy another convertible just to be constantly sniped at by convertibalists about why I haven't got my roof one way or the other. I expect when they go camping they sleep under an open sky with a tent neatly folded on the ground behind them and tell all the normal campers that they are doing it wrong, and think that everyone in a hotel must be jealous. I expect they even go around telling everyone that if you sleep fast enough you don't get wet when it rains.
Sorry, got myself a bit off topic there. FFS Honda why didn't you make an S2000 coupe? I like coupes.
So there you go - what car do I buy?
My problem with these threads is that the authors seem to be either utterly clueless about which cars they like or massive attention w
es. In order to make it absolutely clear which of those is the case here I've already bought my new car after searching for the right example in the exact optimum spec of my chosen model for several months***. I pick it up in three days, by which time the 323 will be a small metal cube, unless it finds a way to get being crushed wrong too.
In memory of the good old days with 300 I'll start it off by suggesting an eighties Z28 (too unappealing), a Smart (too smug) and a Unimog (too manly).
* well I can afford about £1k a year on a second car, so if it's a £7k car it's going to have to last me 7 years, or not depreciate. Also that £7k is going to have to come out of my emergency redundancy fund****, so it'll need to be something I can sell in a hurry, or a cheap shed.
** the graph was for girls, but the data works pretty well for cars too.
*** although I nearly wobbled and bought something else at the last minute because I'm a bit fickle and a bit stupid.
**** if savings offend you feel free to assume I'll be borrowing the whole thing from Wonga, or some kind of long term rental, or whatever.
I hate these threads, but here we go: my deeply rubbish E36 323 Coupe is too broken to live with, and too worthless to fix, so it's time for it to be replaced. I've enjoyed having it (it's handsome and makes a nice noise when it isn't misfiring or being drowned out by that nasty grinding noise something in the gearbox makes), but it's supposed to be a sensible alternative to my Elise, and continually going wrong isn't something I can put up with.
I've never even heard of a faulty fuel filler flap before.
It might be haunted.
Anyway, I need something that compliments the Elise (S1, so anything with electric windows is going to seem decadent) and previous cars that have done the job really well have been: MX5 turbo, RX7 FC non-turbo, mk2 MR2 NA and the 323. Yes, I realise that for 5 years I had two two-seat convertibles, but they were different enough that I never got bored of either of them.
Pretty much all of the cars in my garage are cars I'd be happy to own again, and they all pretty much do the job, but I'm getting too old and lazy to spend my weekends fixing cars and some of them have been a lot of grief (200SX and 323 being the two most continually broken cars I've owned, with the AX and Silvia being borderline unacceptable), so something reliable would be nice.
Of the cars I've had the one I most loved (apart from the Elise, which I'm keeping forever), despite it being slow and burning a horrific amount of fuel, was the 1986 RX7, but they are rare and rusty. And just because I had one that rusted away before eating it's engine doesn't mean I'm willing to poke Fate in the boob by buying another expensive non-reciprocating time bomb.
For the last ten years or so my second car has been a shed, budget of £1k or less (never less than fifty quid though, I have my pride). I like sheds, I don't have to worry about them so I can take a risk (like buying a 25 year old wankel engine with no service history), but on the other hand they tend to be a bit rubbish (like having major structural rust). So while I'd be happy to bung a few hundred quid on something eccentric, I can actually afford* about £7k on something that'll be good. Fun seems easier to have in something cheap, but grief isn't much fun - I actually have a graph for this somewhere**.
My typical journey is down twisty b-roads, commuting or with either archery equipment or a rifle in the boot (both of which fit in the Elise, just).
I'm not a total RWD snob I do like the occasional dab of oppo and the intention was to take up drifting again in the 323, if it hadn't been so broken all the bloody time. It's been a while since I've been black-flagged from a track day so maybe something suitable for that would be nice.
While I didn't like doing only 17mpg in the RX7, it's totally worth buying that much petrol for the right car.
Finally I hate convertibles. I like having a roof over my head, and I refuse to buy another convertible just to be constantly sniped at by convertibalists about why I haven't got my roof one way or the other. I expect when they go camping they sleep under an open sky with a tent neatly folded on the ground behind them and tell all the normal campers that they are doing it wrong, and think that everyone in a hotel must be jealous. I expect they even go around telling everyone that if you sleep fast enough you don't get wet when it rains.
Sorry, got myself a bit off topic there. FFS Honda why didn't you make an S2000 coupe? I like coupes.
So there you go - what car do I buy?
My problem with these threads is that the authors seem to be either utterly clueless about which cars they like or massive attention w
es. In order to make it absolutely clear which of those is the case here I've already bought my new car after searching for the right example in the exact optimum spec of my chosen model for several months***. I pick it up in three days, by which time the 323 will be a small metal cube, unless it finds a way to get being crushed wrong too.In memory of the good old days with 300 I'll start it off by suggesting an eighties Z28 (too unappealing), a Smart (too smug) and a Unimog (too manly).
* well I can afford about £1k a year on a second car, so if it's a £7k car it's going to have to last me 7 years, or not depreciate. Also that £7k is going to have to come out of my emergency redundancy fund****, so it'll need to be something I can sell in a hurry, or a cheap shed.
** the graph was for girls, but the data works pretty well for cars too.
*** although I nearly wobbled and bought something else at the last minute because I'm a bit fickle and a bit stupid.
**** if savings offend you feel free to assume I'll be borrowing the whole thing from Wonga, or some kind of long term rental, or whatever.
Edited by Captain Muppet on Wednesday 3rd September 00:04
Fantuzzi said:
Haha nice thread, you have bought the car, now want us to give you ideas of what you could have got? Or do you want us to guess the car you got?
Both. Although I'll be upset if you suggest something I like more than the car I bought, because it'll mean I'm an idiot.Fantuzzi said:
Either way, S2000 with a hard top.
I just can't do it again. Silly to let irrational hatred affect my decision, but then I am silly. Although I have heard that the handling is a bit wonky. But the real reason is the roof, and all the imagined judgement from people I pretend I don't care about.Fantuzzi said:
I am also a anti convertablist, my mr2 has a hardtop, my next car (s1 elise) will have one as well.
My S1 Elise has a hardtop and is left outside all year, totally waterproof. Amazing car, it makes me so happy.R6VED said:
What a completely pointless but thoroughly enjoyable post to read, this is why I come to PH almost everyday.
I just love reading rambling self indulgent nonsense. I am not being sarcastic or ironic just to be clear.
That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about something I've written. Thank you.I just love reading rambling self indulgent nonsense. I am not being sarcastic or ironic just to be clear.
Captain Muppet said:
I expect when they go camping they sleep under an open sky with a tent neatly folded on the ground behind them and tell all the normal campers that they are doing it wrong, and think that everyone in a hotel must be jealous. I expect they even go around telling everyone that if you sleep fast enough you don't get wet when it rains.
Completely agree!Captain Muppet said:
Both. Although I'll be upset if you suggest something I like more than the car I bought, because it'll mean I'm an idiot.
I shall make it my challenge to better your purchase then! Just to upset you...Captain Muppet said:
I just can't do it again. Silly to let irrational hatred affect my decision, but then I am silly. Although I have heard that the handling is a bit wonky. But the real reason is the roof, and all the imagined judgement from people I pretend I don't care about.
I get you, to me hard tops are racing cars, convertibles are for being seen in. No roof - that's a little different, that's swb LeMan prototype.BUT, whenever I see a hardtop I think 'good on you, not only have you made your car better looking (I really don't think cutting a roof off makes things prettier, that's just aesthetic theory for people with no sense of balance, proportion or style) but you also might think you're someone like me who didn't really want a soft top car in the first place but they just didn't make a coupe version'.
Fantuzzi said:
I am also a anti convertablist, my mr2 has a hardtop, my next car (s1 elise) will have one as well.
My S1 Elise has a hardtop and is left outside all year, totally waterproof. Amazing car, it makes me so happy.Is it on standard dampers?
Fantuzzi said:
Captain Muppet said:
Fantuzzi said:
I am also a anti convertablist, my mr2 has a hardtop, my next car (s1 elise) will have one as well.
My S1 Elise has a hardtop and is left outside all year, totally waterproof. Amazing car, it makes me so happy.Is it on standard dampers?
Captain Muppet said:
Fantuzzi said:
Captain Muppet said:
Fantuzzi said:
I am also a anti convertablist, my mr2 has a hardtop, my next car (s1 elise) will have one as well.
My S1 Elise has a hardtop and is left outside all year, totally waterproof. Amazing car, it makes me so happy.Is it on standard dampers?
Did you want sensible answers? 
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