rockville

Very true. My Contour SVT was purchased for well under MSRP. The Ford dealer pissed me off so much at the time of purchase that I almost walked out (not the fault of my very good saleslady who let the car sell itself). My backup was an Accord coupe. The Contour and Accord coupe were pretty close in price when I bought them. When it came time to sell the SVT it sold basically the same price as my theoretical Accord coupe would have fetched. The Contour had a bigger discount on the front end but my actual resale value was basically the same. In the mean time I enjoyed one of the best low cost sports sedans of the late 90s rather than an Accord (which was hardly bad).

My story is part of the reason why I'm critical of MSRP based resale stats. Who actually pays MSRP?

rnye

[QUOTE=rockville,Jul 29 2010, 01:56 PM]Those wheels look almost as dumb as the wing.

rockville

The wing is hardly functional. In what way does it enhance the car? It's not a great track wing though it might function as a bit of a spoiler. It's just drag inducing on the road. It looks dumb as well but you are allow to have your own views on the subject.

I don't feel that the S2000 outperforms the Miata in all areas, hence the reason why I don't own one. The biggest issue I had was I didn't really enjoy driving it any more than the Miata. The car simply didn't talk to me as much as the Miata did. A big part of that was the steering feel. It felt similar to my Contour's (still very good on an absolute scale) but not as good as the Miata.

The Datsun does sound like a good car. I'm not a HP junkie so the extra power doesn't make the car special to me. However, I've always heard the 240Z's were great driver's cars. The same was true of the 510. When I get back to living someplace with a proper garage I'm looking to do a Beck or Vintage 550 Spyder kit. I know someone with years of FVee experience to help out with things like the gearbox conversion and the like. I figure 120hp in a 1200lb car with 1940's suspension should be fun.

You of course are free to do what you want with your car. However, if you advertise your mods don't be surprised that others may not agree with them. I know plenty of people who can't figure out why I would want my car to look basically stock.

Now I have a question for you. Why do you feel the need to attack others for their opinions? I mean I can understand getting defensive when I say your wing looks dumb. However, I didn't say anything of a kind to you until you started accusing me of swinging from GM's balls. Wouldn't it have been better to simply disagree with my views and explain why? It certainly would have been a more mature approach.

sparrow

functional FRONT aero on a rwd car that suffers from rear lift at higher speeds...

rnye

[QUOTE=sparrow,Jul 30 2010, 11:08 AM]functional FRONT aero on a rwd car that suffers from rear lift at higher speeds...

ltswb

QUIKAG brings up a good point that I have been thinking about lately. I think the domestics have hurt themselves with their pricing strategy. They offer bigger discounts and are more willing to come down on their price than the imports. Meaning that they build in a bigger cushion in their price up front. So if a domestic and an import are both MSRP at 30k, then you could walk out the door in the domestic for less than the import would cost. The problem lies in that when people are initially shopping cars they compare MSRP. So when they see that there is a better optioned, more reliable import with the same MSRP as the domestic they were considering, then they are more inclined to shop the import first. And they are kind of stuck with doing it this way because people who have been buying domestics know how much they have been padding their cushion and will expect to get the same discounts on any cars they buy in the future. If the domestics were to reduce that cushion, then their repeat customers are going to feel like they are getting ripped off and are likely to walk out the door. They also hurt themselves greatly by allowing their dealerships to charge over MSRP for popular cars. That practice is ridiculous and should not be allowed. It keeps potential customers away and makes people hate their dealerships even more.

ltswb

And it is hard to respect the opinion of someone who bought a Contour SVT. lol You are attacking someone because they have a spoiler on their sports car, and you bought a "sport" version of an econo box pos.

Anrosphynx

I think Rockville has a point here. You tend to attack anything that is domestic. I don't believe I have ever seen a positive post from you about anything domestic, ever. Honestly, that gets old.

rockville

That's the problem with behaving like the south end of a north bound horse. People remember.

rockville

Like the S2000, the Contour SVT was respected for what it was. C&D included it as the only sedan in their best handling under $35,000 review.

I would also point out that an Evo or XRW is a performance version of an econo-sedan. Do you bash them? The SVT was actually more refined though less sporty than either of those cars.

As for the body work, well the S2000 is readily had without those add ons. Why add the extra non-functional weight? Sure those parts might help at 120 but unless you track the car they are simply drag and weight.