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PaperclipPerfector  21hr ago (text post)   585 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 13, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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It appears that this forum is filled with city slickers in fancy German cars. What cars have you driven on a regular basis? If they were expensive, have you found them to be worth the extra money?

I have driven the following cars on a regular basis.

I have been driven around by my parents in the following cars.

I have never found fault with these cheap (not including the S60, I guess) cars (other than the Civic's poor rear visibility; I prefer hatchbacks to sedans) or seen any reason to get anything more expensive.

(Note that I purchased the Mirage, not to replace the Fit with it, but so that (1) I could sell the Fit back to my mother, and then (2) she could expunge from our household the Civic that I disliked. Another motive for getting the Mirage was FOMO on a car that was soon to be discontinued in the US market despite obviously being the best car there.)

Used B9 Audi S4. There's something about the tuning of a sports car that makes it much more fun to drive and throw around corners. I also drove an Accord for a while and it's plenty fast (especially after upgrading it with racing pedals), but I don't have the urge to go loco with it.

Luxury cars also do add some bells and whistles, like RGB interior lighting, better materials, massaging seats, more screens etc. It's nothing that really affects getting from point a to b, but it feels nice to have. If you have the money and drive a lot then splurge, because you'll spend hours sitting in there.

What cars have you driven on a regular basis? If they were expensive, have you found them to be worth the extra money?

Well, here's the list of everything I've ever put more than a few thousand miles on. Most of them were family vehicles in one capacity or another that I either borrowed for long enough to get a feel for them, or they were , only one did I buy new-ish from a dealer,

1952 Dodge Pickup Truck: A friend of my father had this parked in his driveway for about two decades straight. When I was in high school, he called my father and said all his wife wanted for her 50th anniversary was the damn truck out of the damn driveway. So my father and I went over and towed it out of where it had sunk into the pavement, and spent the better part of a year fixing it up. It's candy apple red with a small block chevy v8 in it, running through mostly Ford Explorer running gear. It's not actually fast, but it's fun to drive in that you feel every single thing. Sometimes I think that if you get caught speeding way over the limit, you should be sentenced to your license being limited only to cars like this, in that at a sustained 60mph everything rattles so damn much that it feels unsafe, while in better more modern cars 80 or 90 or 100 feels like nothing.

1991 Ford Bronco: I never actually drove this much on the road. My dad picked it up for $100 cash on the side of the road, and gave it to me for my 14th birthday to learn to drive on the farm. I drove it all over the local farms and trails. Not a bad car in and of itself, but I once read a statistic in an article that something like 1/10 of this model wound up involved in a fatal rollover crash, so probably good that I sold it before I actually got my license.

1996 Ford Explorer XLT V8: My sister's first car before it was my first car, stayed in the family for about twenty years. Bought for $1800 with 100k miles, ran without any problems through two fender benders to 200k miles, while being driven mainly by teenagers, before finally being sold off for $1200 two years ago. This was really a near perfect teen car, strong AWD system, the V8 had enough power to pull out on the highway but not so much that I got pulled over as a teen. You could pile ten kids into it when we went hiking, or about 500lbs of fireworks when me and a buddy bought them illegally. Had a six cd changer, which was the height of luxury.

Various American Work Spec Pickup Trucks from between 1990 and 2005: All pretty much the same. Ford, Chevy, Dodge, it's all the same thing to me. Different mechanics swear by different trucks, but with some minor variations (Chevys are cheaper to replace an engine on, Fords have the little keypad) it's all the same story. It'll run forever but everything will break. Every little thing will need to be replaced, but it's easy to find and never fatal.

2000 Subaru Outback Wagon XT Manual: First car I bought, off my elderly cousin who bought the turbo for some reason. Oh man did I love this car. Fun to drive, AWD, manual, space in the back for stuff. I'd still have it, if i hadn't been t boned at a rural intersection and gone into a coma for a week. RIP to a real one, amazing I survived after the damage it took.

2000 BMW 323ci Manual: Got it off a family friend. Gorgeous, perfect car, one of the best driver's cars ever made for my money. Perfectly balanced, rides comfortably but can take corners as hard as you want, perfectly stable predictable handling, the small engine option so you can drive the hell out of it, but despite only having 170hp the inline six pulls in every gear. I still have it, and periodically I think I should get rid of it because I don't need it, but I see the pittance I'd get for it and think eh I really like driving it when I do. Then my wife got a 3 series and now likes the his and hers/collection bit.

2003 Mercedes-Benz C230 Wagon: Here's where the chronology vs model year gets thrown off, I bought this car for $5k after I graduated law school. I love station wagons, especially small ones like this, and if they were more available it's what I'd drive now. It was a great car, only flaw was the automatic transmission. My dog loved it, riding in the back. It was great on the highway, had pretty good sporty handling, and it could hold all my rock climbing stuff. Got totaled in a hailstorm, I put the offer ($2k more than I'd paid) in my back pocket and drove the car for another two years and 30,000 miles, then sold it to the insurance company. I regret getting rid of it sometimes.

2003 Chevrolet Corvette: My dad's car, he bought it new when Chevy was running crazy incentive deals, as he tells it "post 9/11" though I don't remember the time well enough. Red, convertible, manual, FE RWD. What a vette should be. The 2000s GM finishing is as mediocre as you'd think, and it's not the performer that later vettes would be, but it's fun to hoon around in on occasion.

2004 Audi A6 Quattro 2.7t: My mom's car when I was in high school, I inherited it when I went to law school and they felt I needed an AWD. It was a great car, tons of power from the twin turbo, I'm told that a chip tune would double the power on it pretty easily but I never messed with it. Ran great for 100k until suddenly it didn't: died on the highway when an alternator gave out, then flooded in a rainstorm because the drain holes under the batter pan clogged with dirt, then the cooling system leaked and leaked and leaked. Sold for peanuts to some kid who I hope had better luck with it.

2005 Audi A4 3.0t Quattro Cabrio: Bought it used from a local dealer. Extremely fun car to drive, but ultimately I don't get the point of a fun car without a manual. Bad time technologically: screen but a crappy screen and no native bluetooth. Sold it for a little more than I paid for it after fixing it up a little.

2005 Toyota Camry: Another family car, my grandfather bought this new, in classic Indian-Dad gold/beige, and smoked in it every day until he died. Smell of cigarettes on the cloth is just fading now, but the burn holes aren't going anywhere. Honestly, one of the best cars ever made for my dime: starts whenever I turn the key, v4 is plenty on the highway and sips fuel, never done a single thing to it. Some of the interior parts are cracked from sun damage, and the exterior is showing wear, but it runs and runs. And when I park it in the city, I never worry about it, which is a use case all its own. I drive it the most, but really it's more of the family beater: it's the utility infielder if anyone needs a car, or the car we lend to a friend if someone needs to borrow a car. For which it is great, because it will always work, but no one is too thrilled about borrowing it. I reach for the key any time I need to go anywhere and not be seen.

2008 Chevrolet Avalanche LTZ: My first "nice" pickup truck in my life, got it at a bankruptcy auction from some jackass who didn't pay his taxes but did spend a ton of money on a chromed out bitch of a pickup. Still only 80k miles, so it's got a decade to go at least. Leather, good sound system, big v8, got a chip tune on it so it wouldn't do the v4 thing. Terrible mpg, but I have other options to avoid using it when I don't have to on long trips.

2015 Mercedes Benz E550: My mom's car for a while until it had some kind of weird electronic heart attack and was impossible to revive for less than it was worth. My god was it an amazing car while it lasted, though. I can see why at one time its close cousin held the Cannonball record: on a highway it would pull through 130-140 like nothing was happening, and would hold 120 better than the Camry held 65. It was still beautiful and the interior perfect when it gave out, but too expensive to revive.

2015 Mercedes-Benx SL550: My mom bought this car for reasons I have never really figured out. What possesses a 65 year old woman to buy a v8 coupe/convertible that gets to 60 in 4 seconds? I think she couldn't resist the bargain: she got it off the estate of an old guy who had only put 8k miles on it, and she got it for a song at seven years old. She almost never drives it...but I borrow it frequently. Honestly, it's too much power. It would be more fun with less engine. Within seconds of touching the gas pedal, you're committing a felony. Good for a couple of passes, but not really a great driving car at the end of the day. Handling is clumsy, transmission is herky-jerky with the too big v8.

2015 Lexus Rx350: My wife's first car. Workhorse, did everything you wanted it to do, ran perfectly except for eating batteries, but ultimately I just hated it for being a mid size feminine SUV. Around the time it hit 100k, I looked up its trade-in one day out of curiosity and realized that Lexus' hold so much value that we should really consider getting my wife a new car. Then my wife decided she didn't want a new car because nothing was any better than the Lexus, but my in laws had already decided that if my wife got a new car they wanted the Lexus and we had decided to give it to them, so we wound up buying my wife a...

2022 BMW 330i: My wife's new car, the ultimate answer to the last time I posted asking what car I should buy. This is honestly, in my opinion, the peak of the ICE car, the swan song of the genre. Four door awd completely practical to commute or take to costco, gets 40 on the highway with the mild hybrid, but also tons of fun to take on a twisty and hoon. Tossable, responds well to the gas pedal in sport mode, my wife loves driving it so much that she frequently takes breaks while WFH to just take it for a spin on country roads near us. Can drive it five hours and feel great, can rip around a country road and love it, can drive it every day. Fingers crossed on reliability, but Consumer Reports gave it good marks so maybe we'll be ok. Genuinely love this car, and my wife loves this car so much that she suddenly understands why I've loved cars before. Truly a great machine. Bought it two years old with 12k miles for a little over $34k, which was reasonable for me for getting my wife something she liked.

First car was a 1994 Integra which I purchased in 2003 for $4300. Prior to that, I had ridden mopeds, motorcycles, and occasionally busses to get around, and borrowed my parent's car in the summer. I still remember this car fondly, as it had a wonderful ride and a crisp, genuinely enjoyable manual gearbox. Sadly, in 2006 it developed a head gasket leak and I deemed it not worth fixing. The Honda dealer I had working on it gave me a reasonable trade-in offer on it and I bought a black 2006 Civic with manual gearbox off the showroom floor. After trade in, the price was something like $22K.

I lived downtown at the time and this car was largely ideal for getting around the city, though I grew to sometimes resent the manual when stuck in creeping traffic. Eventually, I ruined the decent handling it had with some atrocious cheap all-season tires, and shortly afterwards, I was T-boned by a hit-and-run driver in a bad part of the city which totaled the car. I got the plate and gave it to the police, and subrogated my claim to the insurance company, but I never did get my deductible back.

After test driving a couple cars I replaced it with a 2012 Fusion automatic for about $27K, which is still my daily driver. There's nothing wonderful about it, but it runs fine and doesn't cost much to maintain. It doesn't have an LCD screen or any driver aids beyond cruise control and automatic headlights, but it does have Bluetooth and a decent sound system, and I try to keep it clean. I know I will probably want to replace it before it gets unreliable, but have a hard time getting excited about most cars out there. If I had to replace it today, I'd probably go with a hybrid Accord or hybrid Maverick. I'd like to test drive a Model Y.

I've been driving some kind of BMW I-series for half a year now. Great car. Shame it belongs to my driving instructor.

Owned

  • 2005 Nissan Sentra for $5k - really awful little car but didn't have any major problems with it. Shared with my sister who has the unfortunate proclivity of leaving trash in the car, which soured me forever on sharing vehicles with family members. Had my first and only crash of my life which ended in a smashed passenger window.
  • 1997 Ford Ranger for $3k - Had absolutely beat-to-shit paint but was a really cool green. Would vibrate over 70. Despite being totally antithetical to my personality, it ended up being a sufficient panty-dropper because I kept it spotless inside and could help people move. I bought it with literally 3,000 miles on it from a grandma who used it for groceries. I sold it for more than I paid for it. I still have a core memory of meeting at a gas station with a guy who could barely keep his tongue inside his mouth he wanted it so bad while trying to negotiate for a couple hundred bucks off. Nice dude, but it felt amazing to say "You can hand me the cash now, or I have 6 other people lined up to meet today". I see why truck guys loved em.
  • 2002 BMW 525i for $6k - I graduated college, paid off my student loan debt, and had a couple thousand left over. I have always loved these cars from afar, and this was my first car purchase as an individual. The example I bought was.... fine. I can't help but wonder how much more fun I would have had with the manual 530i that was 45 minutes away I should have bought. I learned how to do my own mechanic work on this car. Sold it for $2900 after 5 years.
  • 2001 Honda Accord for $3k - Holy shit I hated this car. Ugly, poorly maintained, slow, un-fun to drive. I spent almost as much keeping it on the road as I did the BMW. Atypical, I know! Worse in every way. A lot of good memories associated with it but when I got rid of it i was happy. Had a bidding war to sell it which shows the power of the brand and just vacuuming cloth seats before posting on FBM.
  • 2017 Mazda CX5 for $23k - The replacement for the Accord. I had to push a bit for "us" to spring for leather and nicer speakers, and I was totally right. Useful car, no reliability issues at all, and this was pre-kid so I could keep it kind of clean. Some people think this is "fun to drive". No, not really. No CUV is going to be able to do that as well as a sedan or coupe even if they're trying. I believe the latest generation tightened up pretty much every complaint I had with the car so I would absolutely buy it again.
  • 2002 BMW M5 for $23k - If I go too long on this it'll come off weird. It's my dream car, I saved up for years to buy it in cash, and it's amazing.
  • 2019 Honda Odyssey for $32k - Had to push for a minivan. Insanely un-fun to drive. Insanely fun to move kids, dogs, bikes, and gear in. My pity for women who can't get a goddamn grip and upgrade to a minivan from an SUV is boundless. Great purchase, but I can already tell the depreciation will sting, given how poorly we treat it.

In terms of "worth the money" the extra ~$15k/car really went a long way, especially not all of that disappears when it comes time to sell. It should be obvious, but people who don't care about cars don't care about cars. You can drive the same age and mileage model and they're going to be radically different based on who kept up with fluids and tires. Spending the extra money to buy from an enthusiast in the used market is just a no-brainer.

Side note: I don't drive 100+ like SOME of our board members, but I'm a solid "84 mph almost all the time" guy. I've done one 2am cannonball runs at 100+ to make it to the last eclipse. A nice German sedan handles this far better than you'd expect if you haven't been in one.

Mazda CX5 ... Some people think this is "fun to drive".

For a crossover, it's pretty great. Feels like driving a normal car, unlike the cr-v or rav4, which feel like ass to drive.

I'm jealous of your M5. I've always felt like at some point I'd like to own a full-fat M car, but the added expense just doesn't seem overly worth it and I probably never will.

Never driven a German one (I could pretend it's because I'm Jewish, but the truth it there are just better options in the price segment I'm usually looking at, and the segment where they start getting good I just don't see a point to pay that much for a car in general). So I've driven Hondas, I've driven Toyotas, I've driven Mazda, I've driven Hyundai, I'm driving a Subaru now. No complaints really about any of them, they got me from point A to point B, didn't break excessively, didn't cost too much, and in general competently did what I needed them to do. I got into a highway crash in a Honda once, which duly sacrificed itself for my benefit and except for some bruises, I came out fine. The Subaru I have now is not fancy, but is comfortable, driving nicely and except for the entertainment system having brainfreezes occasionally (turning it off and on again does fix it) I am happy with it. Before buying it, I actually had some free money so I briefly considered buying something more expensive, and test-driven a bunch of fancy cars, including some German ones, and ultimately decided it's just not worth it and a boring middle-class car is exactly what I need.

Cars I have owned: Hyundai Elantra (one step above base kit), Prius Prime (fully kitted out). The Elantra was a very solid car. Reliable, up until some of the parts that will always wear out started to wear out. Put 150k miles on it. The Prius Prime is new, and fantastic, and I love the stupid little features you get at the high trim level that I never thought I would have cared about.

Also it parks itself. Sometimes.

For what it's worth, back when I had a car it was a kitted-out, new-model Mercedes-Benz GLC. Some of the bells and whistles were nice, like the heated seats, and it had some serious zip in sport mode, but apart from that my main memory of it is what an incredible pain in the ass the computer was. You had to navigate with a cumbersome wheel instead of a touch screen or buttons, and it put up serious resistance to letting you use anything but the onboard GPS (even if you used google maps through the bluetooth, it would cut out for multiple seconds before or after each direction announcement, making podcasts unlistenable). Some of the greatest hits of this GPS involve instructing me to turn into an exit leading to an NSA building (getting me briefly detained), directing me to drive in circles around the Pentagon, and refusing to update streets being closed to cars for years after they were. Of course, given the examples, it could just be ze Germans playing the long game for the next war...

I have had two whole cars. A 1997 Dodge Intrepid, which I owned from 2003-2011, and a 2001 Ford Mustang, which I got in 2011 and have to this day. To be honest I would like to have a new car (or even a decent used car), but my wife's cars keep dying and so we keep having to put our car money into her vehicle.

Why do they keep dying? Does she beat them up or just bad luck?

Bit of both. The car she had when we got married died because she was never changing the oil, and that caused the engine to seize. Was quite a shock to me that she was never changing the oil, but I guess I should've asked at some point rather than assume. The car we got to replace that was totaled by the insurance company after a hailstorm, after only two years of us having the thing.

Technically, my first car I owned was a "fancy German car", and even a Mercedes Benz... that was older than I was when I bought it, less than a month's wages as a part-time dishwasher, and about as unreliable as that combination sounds. Probably more a fault on the previous owner than the German Engineering, but even after a full fuel line purge and a new fuel filter, had to clean out the carburetor on a biweekly basis.

Since then it's been the typical Camry-or-nearest-neighbor that I'll buy heavily used, and then drive until the engine grenades itself (thank you Saturn timing chains) or the next oil change isn't economical.

I'm not a car person. It's nice to have something where the muffler isn't falling off, and I don't mind doing the elbow work for maintenance, but if the car's in decent shape I'll take a salvage title Hyundai or a Lesbian-Brand Hatchback as happily as a Tesla or a Big Fuckoff Truck.

The cars I have driven the most:

  • Mazda 323 (6th gen BF, 5MT), my first car. Interior was 100% 80s plastic including the seats. Supper zippy compared to anything anyone else in high school had. Surprisingly good rear visibility, probably because it was so short. Promptly riced then totaled by the guy I sold it to.
  • Honda CRX (1st Gen 1.6i Si, 5 MT). Probably the worst example you've even seen driving. The previous owner didn't believe in oil. No AC. Had to parallel park it every night with no power steering. Poor rear visibility. I miss it dearly though.
  • Toyota Prius (Gen2 XW20 "touring"). Probably the lowest total cost of ownership car in existence. Much safer and quieter ride for highway commuting than the CRX. Surprisingly spacious for passengers and cargo for the footprint. Very poor rear visibility. Possibly the pinnacle of transportation appliance.
  • Subaru Forster (4th Gen SJ, post facelift, 6MT). The least soul-crushing family mid-sized crossover I could find. The last of the standard transmission "regular car" Subarus before they switched to exclusively CVTs so the electronic nanny could take over.

As an adult, cars I owned have all been F-150s from 2000-2010. Part of this is due to the fact that I don't fit into most sedans (height) and even the ones that I do physically fit into, the resulting vision angles are so extreme that I feel it's unsafe for me to drive them.

Pickup trucks are big and so I fit into them. I like how they age - if you have a 10+ year old truck with some dings and scratches in it, it looks like you've really worked and used it. I'm suspicious of Trucks that are treated like show cars - glossed to hell and back, not a scratch in sight. If you're keeping it that pretty ... why not just get a literal show car?

There's a lot of debate on Ford/Chevy(GM)/Ram/Toyota. Based on a decent amount of research and a lot of conversations with mechanics at bars, the answer is that for the 150/1500 series, they are more or less all the same. The Toyota's are probably more reliable, but the Tundra is kind of ugly. The real fuckery over the last 10+ years has been all of the digital systems integrated into the engines to manage fuel economy. Truck engines really weren't designed for this and so people are having all kinds of maintenance and reliability issues.

This is why my next truck will be a 250/2500 series. As these are full "heavy duty" work trucks, the manufacturers don't try to play games with the engine, transmission, suspension, or fuel systems. Everything is big, overbuilt, more simple, and more reliable. The downside is they are, out of the gate, more expensive and, if you do need major maintenance or repair, that will be more expensive too.

It has nothing to do with EVs in particular. Emissions mandates and general "green consciousness" have really fucked up the pickup truck market. 150/1500 Series trucks are over-engineered now and, therefore, don't have great margins. The solution? Luxury trucks. Some new trucks can easily hit 70k or more because of a large number of non-mechanical bells and whistles; leather seats, infotainment etc. I would LOVE for there to be a dead simple V8 150/1500 for $25k off of the assembly line. This would be the "work boots" of trucks.

But government regulation has made that impossible. So now, new Trucks have subscriptions to Apple TV.

Dacia Logan. It’s a spacious station wagon I can comfortably sleep in. I like the idea of potentially driving away without organizing anything. Even though I could have had an old diesel for free, I splurged on a new one for 8700 euros 5 years ago. No climate control, no little electronic motors everywhere to roll down windows for you and spare you the the anguish of having to move a whole arm. 63 HP. Wish it had less, always a pleasure to hear the strenuous effort this minuscule 3 cylinder-engine brings to push this huge car along. Apparently only 10% of logans sold had this hardcore ‘access’ option, everybody else went with decadence. So it’s a collectible, value can only go up. Although I did install a radio and speakers, to my shame (that lawnmower engine provides enough melody).

It appears that this forum is filled with city slickers in fancy German cars.

Really? I feel like last time someone asked for car buying advice, the answers were all Hondas and Toyotas. Although even with those, "expensive" is relative. I regard Hondas as "expensive" in that they cost more than a similarly-sized Ford or Subaru or the like. But in my experience it's difficult to go wrong with a Honda daily driver. Though my household currently hasn't got a single vehicle less than a decade old, so it's possible my impressions are out of date.

I would like to have an electric car for commuting, but I need the all-in price on a gently used electric car to be much closer to $15,000 than $50,000 before that can happen. Ten years ago, I really had hoped to have a full self-driving car by 2025. But as near as I can tell, for the foreseeable future I will be driving a standard transmission Honda.

I have driven the following cars.

This is a fascinating list because it is so short. I can't even tell you the models of all the cars I have driven, much less the years--too many rentals to count! I would be hard pressed to remember with accuracy the year of every car I have personally owned. I will say that the overall "feel" or "comfort" of consumer-model cars mostly scales linearly with price, but whether you're willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for "oh wow they really got those knob clicks dialed in, didn't they, and this steering wheel feels amazing" naturally depends a lot on how many dollars you have. And the linear comfort scaling does not apply to sports cars; cars built to go very fast are often quite uncomfortable to drive.

If I had infinity dollars right now, I would probably buy a Tesla S and keep a gas-fed Honda parked alongside it.

I would like to have an electric car for commuting, but I need the all-in price on a gently used electric car to be much closer to $15,000 than $50,000 before that can happen.

I haven't looked at the market, and I'm sure it isn't there yet, but depending on your commuting distance, a plug-in hybrid may be worth considering.

Depending on the market it might sort of be there. I don't remember where @naraburns lives, the length of his commute, or the size of car he wanted. But... You can get a used electric Hyundai Kona for a list of $14.5k right now. All up you would probably just push over $15k, but you can probably find one for $15k private party in the right part of the country. With a level two charger in the garage, you would probably come out okay for all but the longest commutes.

It is probably small and crappy relitive to an equal cost compact crossover, though I have never driven one. Could be great or horrible for all I know.

I would expect the Hyundai IONIQ 5/6 is probably roughly as comfortable as a comparably equipped new Honda HR-V/Accord. With a few years of depreciation it should hit that 15k point sooner rather than later. You probably don't need 100% of original battery life if you are just using it for a city commuter and have a gas car for road trips/backup.

This is a fascinating list because it is so short. I can't even tell you the models of all the cars I have driven, much less the years—too many rentals to count!

I have clarified my comment to say "driven on a regular basis". (I have never driven a rental car. And I've been driving only since 2017.)

As a single man I had two separate convertibles. Mainly because I love convertibles.

First, a 1966 Sunbeam Alpine which had been my father's. I accidentally burned it to the ground along with part of my parents' house in the summer of 1989. I had been driving it since 1986. I am pretty sure my dad bought it because he wanted to feel like Sean Connery in Dr No though that one was Robin's egg blue. I loved that car to distraction, drove it through my first years of university, had it repainted and the engine rebuilt and had just installed a new cloth top before the accident. Which is a long story.

Then a Toyota Corolla of my mom's, a Volkswagen Jetta which was the first car I paid for myself, then my first car in Japan was a 1993 Eunos Roadster aka Mazda Miata, used (8 years old when I bought it). I sold it when I got engaged. It was fun but Osaka isn't friendly to convertibles (lots of standing traffic.) I liked driving through the city at night though. Also it is possible to have sex in that car in the driver's seat with the hardtop attached. I am here to assure you of that, doubtful though it may be.

Since then nothing special. A Suzuki, a Toyota. Currently another Mazda but a CX8 Diesel which is primarily driven by wifey and which is much less my taste but carts the family around well.

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