Driven any surprisingly good cars recently?
Discussion
Having recently emigrated to North America, one of my misgivings other than the lack of decent driving roads (with corners) was the choice of decent motors. Used vehicles are relatively expensive and you have to pay the equivalent of VAT on top of the price. European motors are fairly rare and if you can find them either very expensive or very well used. Japanese cars are more readily available but they didn't seem to bother bringing any of the more interesting models over here!
As someone who likes fast estates, hot hatches and fast Subarus, this is rather disappointing. I was hoping for another Impreza WRX Estate (like the one I had in England) but the only one I could find for sale was an older bug-eye non-turbo for more money than I sold mine for and FWD!
To afford anything decent, I was going to have to go American and for something with a slushbox at that! My initial experience looking at some Chevrolet/Pontiac cars from the early 2000s was every bit as bad as I thought it would be. Badly built, shiny plastics, wobbly handling, poor performance etc but whilst working in a GM dealership, I came across a car like this at the right price and bought it.
http://www.autotrader.ca/a/Chrysler/Sebring/CALGAR...
I'm not saying it's an M3 chaser but so far I'm quite pleased with it. Initially, I didn't know what it was but thought it quite sleek. It has a 2.7 V6 with 200bhp, which is fairly reasonable and is the 2nd quickest car that I have owned (quicker than my 2.9 Corrado VR6) despite being a 4-speed auto. It's quite low slung for a saloon, appears to ride and handle as well as anything mainstream European and isn't too bad on fuel for a V6. The interior plastics are of reasonable quality and acceptable design. I also like the interior of my 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I'm not sure if Mercedes-Benz had a positive influence here, as new Chryslers seem to have all the features but the interior plastics appear to be of inferior quality.
Despite Chrysler being a bit of a joke in the UK, I would consider a Chrysler 200 (the Sebring's replacement) or a Chrysler 300, as an eventual replacement (although the Cadillac CTS looks quite tempting as well). Surprisingly, I have become a bit of a Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep fanboy and am considering adding a Dodge Grand Caravan (Chrysler Voyager) to the fleet for the space and utility. All I need to complete the set is a Ram Pickup and a Fiat 500! As long as I live here, it would be unlikely that I buy European or Japanese, as American cars are much better value and more capable than I thought they would be (although I would love to own another Mercedes some day). After not having a V6 in my life for 6 years, I would also struggle to go back to a 4 cylinder now and a V8 is definitely something that I would aspire to!
Any other experiences of surprisingly good cars? (as a decent American car (and a Chrysler at that) came as a massive surprise to me).
As someone who likes fast estates, hot hatches and fast Subarus, this is rather disappointing. I was hoping for another Impreza WRX Estate (like the one I had in England) but the only one I could find for sale was an older bug-eye non-turbo for more money than I sold mine for and FWD!
To afford anything decent, I was going to have to go American and for something with a slushbox at that! My initial experience looking at some Chevrolet/Pontiac cars from the early 2000s was every bit as bad as I thought it would be. Badly built, shiny plastics, wobbly handling, poor performance etc but whilst working in a GM dealership, I came across a car like this at the right price and bought it.
http://www.autotrader.ca/a/Chrysler/Sebring/CALGAR...
I'm not saying it's an M3 chaser but so far I'm quite pleased with it. Initially, I didn't know what it was but thought it quite sleek. It has a 2.7 V6 with 200bhp, which is fairly reasonable and is the 2nd quickest car that I have owned (quicker than my 2.9 Corrado VR6) despite being a 4-speed auto. It's quite low slung for a saloon, appears to ride and handle as well as anything mainstream European and isn't too bad on fuel for a V6. The interior plastics are of reasonable quality and acceptable design. I also like the interior of my 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I'm not sure if Mercedes-Benz had a positive influence here, as new Chryslers seem to have all the features but the interior plastics appear to be of inferior quality.
Despite Chrysler being a bit of a joke in the UK, I would consider a Chrysler 200 (the Sebring's replacement) or a Chrysler 300, as an eventual replacement (although the Cadillac CTS looks quite tempting as well). Surprisingly, I have become a bit of a Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep fanboy and am considering adding a Dodge Grand Caravan (Chrysler Voyager) to the fleet for the space and utility. All I need to complete the set is a Ram Pickup and a Fiat 500! As long as I live here, it would be unlikely that I buy European or Japanese, as American cars are much better value and more capable than I thought they would be (although I would love to own another Mercedes some day). After not having a V6 in my life for 6 years, I would also struggle to go back to a 4 cylinder now and a V8 is definitely something that I would aspire to!
Any other experiences of surprisingly good cars? (as a decent American car (and a Chrysler at that) came as a massive surprise to me).
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