What's your day one car?
 

In short, if you had to own one car forever, that you bought with your own money, what car would that be?

Most of us here as auto enthusiasts go back and forth between cars while our loved ones constantly telling us you sold it already?! I'm guilty of this automotive ADD, this car lust wandering eye. But my ultimate goal is to find that one car that I could be content with.

So here's some parameters for this mental exercise:

-Doesn't need to be your DD, this will be a secondary car to a presumably mundane practical car like a CUV or fwd midsize sedan. So for this mental exercise don't assume your DD is an M3.
-Keep it reasonable, I'd be happy to have a McClaren F1 in my garage for the rest of my life too.
-This car will be driven, this is how you put a smile on your face on the weekends.
-In my world, this car will be drive 95% of the time on the street with the occasional track time. Otherwise it will be used to drive around on the weekends, bomb some back roads, go to Cars and Coffee, etc.
-You are paying for it with your own money and labor.

My conflict, I love the SS 1LE and the ND2 miata. Problem with the SS, the operating costs, (ahem tires) get expensive real fast and frankly as great as it handles, I love being down low in a small two seat sports car to get my James Bond vibes going. I love the ND2 and S2000s (currently back into an s2000), but once you had a V8 or high power turbo car, these cars just don't offer that level of excitement. You will use power more often than using its handling prowess on a normal day. Plus firing up a V8 vs. a 4 cylinder just has a sense of occasion.

Closest I got was in my Shelby and the C5Z. The Shelby I got out of after getting tired of hearing the constant posts about engines failing, and the financial cliff that it will inevitably lead to once the word gets out. The Vette was pretty close, but the C5 is dated and thusly will start having a bunch of old car problems, heard from the guy who bought mine that the fuel was leaking and turns out C5s and C6s have issues with their gas tanks, not a cheap fix. The C7 is on my radar though.

In the end though, I am a cheap SOB, and the thought of a dropping 1500 bucks on tires just makes me cringe, or paying 20 bucks for a lug nut just dampens the ownership experience (true story for the C5Z). Hence why I went to an FRS and currently back into an S2000, which not gonna lie, kinda bored of already after a few months. But you gotta pay to play if you want big power and theatrics.

I envy the guy who restored their Chevy Nova with their dad and cherishes it like a family member, or the guy wearing the Porsche hat that has a 993 and knows everything there is to know about Porsches, or the import guy who has his ITR locked up in his garage, or the BMW guy who delusionally believes BMW makes the best cars. Guess that's what I'm looking for.

Anyway, how goes your search for the right car?

I bought mine, it's the Cayman.

Would not be great in snow, does not do much at Home Depot, but I can always rent the truck at the home improvement store.

I could also have picked something with much more power, but I can't use what I got in today's traffic anyway.

I would probably say new 911 GT3. Have always wanted one, and the current model is the right mix of analog rawness and usability for more casual drives. Main hesitation is it might be too fast to really enjoy and explore outside of the track. And of course the only way I could rationalize actually paying for one is if it's truly the last fun car I will ever buy. $160k isn't THAT bad if extrapolated over several decades.

On a more reasonable cost level, this is going to sound fanboyish since I just bought one, but an Elise/Exige. For the following reasons:
-Actually pretty reliable with the Toyota drivetrain
-Cheap consumables, and doesn't wear them out very quickly due to low weight
-Endless customization... can be a quick, communicative scalpel stock, a supercharged all-out track monster, or anything in between
-Would take a long time to get boring with the amount of communication, light weight, tiny size, etc. It really drives like nothing else

I love my S2000 but if I'm living with this forever... probably an R129 Mercedes SL600 for the sake of comfort as I get older. There are a couple decent local indy German car mechanics here to care for it, and the styling is generally timeless. It has actual trunk space so I can take it somewhere on the weekends. R129's more refined than the later chrysler era cars and the new ones are way too much money.

i've been driving an EM1 for nearly 19 years...so virtually forever in the modern car world life span.

My forever car isn't a car, but a transmission.
Forever until I have no left leg, manual transmissions will be in my driveway. **** the automatic
darcy

911, specifically the current gen with a PDK. I've driven a few recently as I'm toying with replacing the S2000 with one, and thus far the only contender is the 911. I don't need the 'S' model, the base is fine for my driving needs.

Probably an Aston Martin Vanquish S or DB9 GT (getting one of the other at some point). Timeless beauty that never gets old. Drives like a dream with a V12 wail that is as glorious as anything Maranello can come up. Oh ya, a back seat for the wife's purse or our dog.

I'm noticing alot of Porsches in this thread. Not terribly surprising, they have been on my radar for some time as well. Knowing a couple GT4 owners, I've had a taste of the Porsche community and ownership experience and frankly I totally get it. I also just did the Peterson Museum in LA and loved how Porsches had their wing, and virtually any car museum you go to these days will have Porsches well represented.

The 911R is on my list of dream forever cars.

Ferrari 458 Spider. Red. With optional "hot babe" co-pilot/navigator. Of course! :)

Besides my 2004 s2000 which i have had since new and love...my 2016 m3 sedan/manual...i just love to drive it and each time i get in i am excited.