So have I been absent closing a big deal, or birthing some machine translation hack? No, I have been following in the tracks of Glenn Reynolds. That is to say, shopping for a sports car. Like Glenn, I'm no fan of the automotive buying experience, and I tend to keep vehicles quite a while. If I have it for less than five years, it was a failure, and my most recent #1 ride, a Maxima SE, was traded away at ten. So a fair amount of effort is invested towards making sure I'll stay happy that long.
The Maxima was a great car in its own way, with a strong V6 and clean shifter, but on the heavy side and with a bit of under steer that made it not the best for California mountain roads. The rear seats were seldom used, so that four door weight was being dragged along for nought. The mission was to a find a lighter toy, well balanced for carving the hill curves, enough kick for fun, decent enough manners to be the #1 ride, and something I think I could love for quite a while. And do it for as much under forty grand as possible, since I have religious objections to tying up money in depreciating assets.
The first stop is always the Consumer Reports listings for brand and model reliability. I value my time, and resent laying out well into five figures for something that ends up in the shop too frequently. So if it rates under average in CR for any of the last three years - bang - it's off the list. There went every one of the Euro-rides common around the Valley. Leaving me with a list of what seem to be called 'ricers' around here. I always try vehicles across a wide range of prices, to get a feel for price/performance tradeoffs, so that was still a good sized list.
Next is trying the cars on for size. Literally. At 6'3", a lot of sport coupes and true two seaters are a tight squeeze, particularly given that I demand a stick and clutch. That rules out small Toyotas (and my hopes of a Prius for a #2 car), and the Solara is too large for my tastes. It also knocked out the Honda S2000 I'd been eyeing - it fit sort of like OJ's glove. And there went both Mazdas. (While Glenn and I share a - physical - stature, we must be built differently, since the RX-8 that works for him felt dangerously tight on me when working the clutch.) And I just don't like the exterior design of the Subarus.
Now I was down to three primary candidates: the Acura RSX-S, the Nissan 350Z and the Infiniti G35 coupe. Just for grins, I ignored my principles and added the new Ford Mustang in a six cylinder flavor, for the sake of nostalgia and to see what Detroit can do these days. Now I had four rides across a 2x spread in sticker price. MLK day provided the time to kill half a day at the Stevens Creek auto dealer strip and winnow the list. (A note on dealers. Contra Glenn's experience, in my case it was the Mazda salesman who was the pushiest, and the Nissan and Ford dealers that were the most generous with their time and test rides. A true case of YMMV - it all depends on who owns which franchise.)
I deliberately made the test drives in order from least to most expensive. The Mustang was the base 6 cylinder, stickered at just over $18,000. The interior trim and instrument design are a memory lane trip, with materials on the basic side as one might expect. The six has a decent kick, the suspension is tight for a Detroit product, with a slight rearward balance on this vehicle. Engine and road noise were fairly evident. The shift is billed as a short throw, but was the least precise of those I tested. The brand new clutch was slightly grabby, which I've found common on American iron. Don't take this review as a slam though - this is a lot of car for the price, and will make many buyers happy, particularly those who like to mod their ride. But for me it was a novelty, and not likely to wear well. I'll rent a Mustang on a few road trips, and get my nostalgia that way.
Next up was the Acura, stickered around $24,000, the only four in the batch. It's built on the Civic platform, which I do not regard as a negative: My wife's older Civic around-town car is very well balanced and does nicely on the curves. The Acura interior is unsurprisingly a step up from the Mustang. The six speed shifter was the crispest of all four vehicles. The four is happiest at high RPMs, and zips right into traffic when wound up in a lower gear. The suspension is tight and precise in sudden lane changes - no tail wagging here. The clutch was smooth and forgiving, even when I reverted to six cylinder habit and shifted well below the RPM happy point. The RSX is also a lot of ride for the money, but I ended up deciding that the buzziness of the four was not going to grow on me. The salesman tried to get me into a TL, but I wasn't looking for a four-door, so onward to the next options.
The Z and the G are built on the same platform, and both use engines that are well-reviewed derivatives of the strong Nissan 6 I drove for ten years. The Z is an unrepentant two seater sports car, while the G coupe has 8" more on the wheelbase, more storage, a rear seat that's usable by small, friendly adults and doubles for storage, and more cush in the interior. Both shifted easily, perhaps due to my experience with my previous six. Glenn's right that the G's shift was a little looser than some others, but I didn't find it problematic at all. The new versions of the six seemed happier 300-400 RPM above the old, but the takeoff experience was otherwise a more refined, better thrust/weight upgrade. Put through the same highway maneuvers as the RSX, the Z was loafing where the Acura was breaking a little sweat. The G and two variants of the Z (Performance and Touring hardtops) were all nicely balanced, precise, and made light of any maneuver I dared attempt on a Valley freeway. The notable difference is in the stiffness and busyness of the ride on surface streets. Curiously, there was more difference between the Z variants than between the G and the Z Performance configuration. I'm not sure if this was variation in the individual vehicles, or in the models' suspension setup, but the Z Touring had me feeling every crack in the road - a little too much for a day-to-day ride and perhaps the basis for some reviews in the same vein. The G and Z Performance grade were both firm, but not unduly so. The Z's as driven were stickered at about $32k (P) and $35k (T); the G was above $38k, but the tester included a pricey navigation system that I don't need.
Both the Z and G are great cars to drive, are good on the eyes, and I'm sure I'd be happy with either. The Z gets a vote on pure fun, but the G gets the win on day-to-day ride at the trim level I want, a little more storage for long weekend runs to B&Bs and wineries, an apparent edge on service record, and a tie break vote from the spouse. So now it's on to the next fun activity: Let's Make A Car Deal. I would just go and pick the one model on the list that's in shortest supply. I'll report back on that experience in a few weeks, hopefully with a new ride.