Budget Supercar Comparo

Found this puppy at the local kia dealer, of all places. 6 speed!

http://www.kiaofcolumbia.com/vehicle/used-2002-maserati-spyder-gt-868786.cfml#ar_top

Nice car. They are about 10k too high on the price. I assume they will come down. That car is unusual in that it has the conventional manual box rather than the F1 gearbox. About 80% had the F1. Many prefer the stick and there is less expensive stuff to break.

nderwater wrote: I love the FD. I can just imagine Barrett-Jackson 20 years from now: "Here it is folks, a real, numbers-matching third-generation Mazda RX-7. Runs and drives. Of the 14,000 built originally built, this is one of three remaining with its original engine!"

I know you were making a funny, but...Fun fact:

With FDs, there is no connection between the chassis VIN and the engine serial # whatsoever. Originality of the engine is not easy to be sure of.

lol, Mazda must have been in on it from the beginning.

When I was a kid back in 1992, the first car poster I ever hung on my bedroom was of a red FD RX-7. I will own one some day.

MG Bryan wrote: In reply to Mitchell: There are those among us who like fat chicks. Taste is *very* subjective.

If your car only looks good after a couple of beers or when it's dark outside, it's a sign that it doesn't actually look good.

nderwater wrote: lol, Mazda must have been in on it from the beginning. When I was a kid back in 1992, the first car poster I ever hung on my bedroom was of a red FD RX-7. I will own one some day.

They might be about as cheap as they are going to get, right now. There's been an abrupt decline in clean original-ish cars on the rx7club forum classifieds over the last year or so. The nice ones are starting to go back up in value.

Very true. While some cars might not make the Barrett Jackson cut they are desirable collectables. I'm a Corvair fan and they hit the bottom about 8 years ago and now the desirable models have more than tripled and are a lot harder to find.

ZO6. The Exige and NSX make it an actual decision, though. Otherwise, it's a no-brainer.

Argo1 wrote: Very true. While some cars might not make the Barrett Jackson cut they are desirable collectables. I'm a Corvair fan and they hit the bottom about 8 years ago and now the desirable models have more than tripled and are a lot harder to find.

Not to get too far off topic here, but everything hit rock bottom in 2008. Corvairs haven't tripled in value. We have 8 including a very rare Canadian turbo corsa. Their values have always hovered around 5k for a driver to 15-20k for a pristine turbo car. 2 of ours are in my readers rides section.

Having been to Pebble beach more then a few times I can tell you the collector car market is directly related to the state of the economy. We had 964 RS America #001 we bought in the late 90s' for mid 40's. When we got rid of the car in 2005 (in a strong economy) the car fetched more then we paid for it. Fast forward to 2012 my GRM team mate bought one out of Seattle last week for 33k. A car that in a strong economy would have fetched 45k a few years ago.

These cheap supercars are nothing more then the result of a bloated economy and people purging collections for cash. I went to Mecham in California in 2009 and it was like a 50% off sale compared to 06 and 07. Even last year big block vettes that were fetching 70-80k in 06 were going for 35k

just my 2 cents based on experience

I saw this thread when it was new but didnt post.

Now i read the whole thing, it was interesting, and my opinions didnt change.

Esprit and NSX, in that order.

Keyword being 'supercar', with the caveat of me actually wanting to own it.. that's what makes sense to me.

As others have said, Vettes and M3s just arent super (even the current zr1), and other stuff like a Mercedes SL or a bmw 6-series just dont even come close regardless of performance numbers. Its an issue of cachet.

The Esprit LOOKS like an archetypal supercar. It mostly works like one, too. I seem to remember at the time they were discontinued they were competitive in lap times with the contemporary Ferrari..360, 430? More than can be said for plenty of others on the list.

As for the NSX, with proper wheels and ride height they all look AMAZING, especially in person. Their presence on the road is really striking because of how low they are. I have about the same reaction when i see one on the road as i do to a Ford GT, another 'supercar by a plebeian manufacturer', and you dont see those under 30k. Just saying. Honestly, i think the biggest hit to the NSX's overall cachet is simply the Honda moniker. Which bothers me very little.

Random comment on the FD.. certainly a great looking design! Hell, it was good enough that GM ripped off the whole front end a few years later for the vette. BUT the taillights are really not aging well imo. That can be fixed.. sort of like early NSX wheels. But it's still a tiny bit of a sticking point.

Argo1 wrote: So I guess there are no Merc fans here. Nobody wants 470 hp and 520 lb. ft. of torque? 203 mph if you chip the limiter? OK, so maybe it is the Sumo wrestler of supercars at 4300 lbs.... fuel consumption of a Lear jet....still it's 4 seconds to 60 mph!

I drove a couple AMGs at a past Mitty. My impression of the SL 55 was that it had that sort of "You can't make a race horse out of a pig, but you can make a very fast pig" feeling. And considerably more of it than the four door E-class that I also drove. I can forgive that feeling in a four door sedan, and the E-class didn't have much of that feeling to apologize for. But in a two door convertible? It needs to feel light and nimble, not like I'm driving a hot rodded Cadillac Eldorado. I left that driving session thinking that if I ever had enough disposable income for a circa 2010 AMG, it would be the E class.

Edited to add - I think I've gotten my Mercs mixed up and the other one I drove was a C class. Whichever of the two (C or E class) is smaller.

E-class wagon is my favorite AMG product, bar none.

"Supercar" is also subjective... But for me, at this moment? A "real" Audi Quattro Coupe. Modernized... Of course you probably can't find one of those for $30k, so... VW R32. But that is not a coupe or a convert... Ok, WRX. Shoot. That's a 4 door. But I do sense a trend here for me...

http://www.cosmomotorsonline.com/detail-2005-mercedes~benz-s~class-s55_amg-used-7644776.html
thats a lot of car for $21k

Yeah, that S55 AMG is a lot of car for the money... all 4300 pounds of it. ;-)

But seriously, yeah, 493 HP for $21K is a lot of car.

David

How much are the E55 AMGs going for nowadays?