Quote:
Originally Posted by Red370
So I went from wanting the Z, to lusting after the Camaro.
So I get back in june, and get to the Chevy stealership expecting to pay MSRP at the most, which was 30k give or take. I had managed to accumulate about 35k in my savings for the 15 mos I was there. Well lo and behold, they decided to tack on a $12,000 "Rarity" fee, taking the car to 44k, f-ing insanity I know.
So I then directed my business elsewhere, only to find this problem city wide. As I was leaving the dealership, a SR 370 zipped by, and I swear i damn near got a fully. So on over to Casa Nissan I went, got the price I wanted and drove off with my new SR 370, paid in full, gotta love deployments!
I also think that this new minimum mpg government restriction they plan to impose will severely limit the number of high hp car production, better get your speedster while they last!
|
My story is close to yours. I came from a 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX, it was my first new car. I had always loved the Z, my uncle had a yellow 1969 or 1970 240Z, and I loved that car.
When I was ready to buy my first new car, it was the end of 1998 and I had just graduated college, and "The SUV killed the Japanese Sports Car." One of my college friends had just bought a brand new Camaro, and it had started to develop serious quality problems. This included the car getting stuck in gear, all of the gear oil draining from the gearbox and then all of the teeth shearing off of the transmission gears, which happened twice in three months! I was driving a 1988 Ford Thunderturd, which was also having its fair share of problems, and plenty of items that I thought I could have designed better, including the stupid digital dashboard that was simply not readible in the daylight. Well, that car finally gave up the ghost and I needed something reliable, there wasn't anything exciting that was on the road, I had heard rumors of the Celica and maybe the Z returning. However, I needed something now, so I ended up buying a '92 Subaru Legacy with the hopes of being able to modify it into a quicker car. Shortly thereafter, there was much speculation that Subaru would bring the WRX over here, I waited and ended up getting a 2002 WRX.
After driving that car for 6 years, I was ready for something new, and I absolutely hated the new models - I feel like Subaru alienated their original enthusiast base with the hatchback design and took away just about everything that made the car cool in the first place, it was too Plain Jane looking now. So I decided to go look at the 350Z's. I was getting ready to purchase one, and I was asked if I could spend about a year in California for work to manage a construction project at UCSF. I said yes because it was great experience and a good career move, and put off buying a new car. I returned home around Halloween last year, decided to make buying a house my first priority, so I forgot about the car for awhile.
The 370z was released, I sat in it at the Baltimore Autoshow, got out, and announced to all that were there, "This is my next car." I decided I was ready in July, so I started test driving/cross shopping. Chevy wanted $3000 to $6000 over MSRP for the new Camaros, weren't even allowing test drives until the car was purchased, and there was a considerable wait. I drove the 370z and it was still the car to beat. I found one in the color and options that I liked and bought her around 3 weeks ago.
The timing was right in my life to justify a fun sports car. I also do agree that very soon we are going to see a change in all automobiles to meet the Green/Carbon Friendly movement. With the new fuel economy mandates and higher fuel prices that are just around the corner, it is going to get increasingly difficult to find an affordable sports car. I hope that I am not right, but I think we are going to see a killing off of the affordable performance car very similar to the death of the musclecar in the mid-70's.