Are we talking current or “at the time”?
Either way, I’d say the mustang SVO in the 80’s and the current ecoboost mustang. In both cases they were always looked over for the heavier V8 cars.
Volkswagen Up! This little car can do so many things. I did long-distance trips sitting in the back, hauled a dishwasher in its boot with the back seats down, even used it as a normal car for commute and it’s great to drive. Sure, you have to understand the limitations (it is a city car and mine had 60bhp) but for what it is and what it costs to maintain and operate, I loved it so much.
I think the Skoda Citygo is basically the same car but cheaper.
It is, same with the Seat Mii. If you buy the VW, you get the gloss black boot door (which blends with the rear window and look a bigger piece of glass) and possibly some options that are not offered on the Seat and Skoda.
I personally find the Up! GTI to be really cute (and sporty) with those GTI wheels. Not in a sarcastic way, really - it’s just a very good design overall.
There’s a short term rental place here that rents out mostly Up!s, it’s not a bad little car. Merging onto the highway can be kind of exciting though.
Being used to driving a Renault Kangoo definitely made it feel like I was driving a clown car though!
I’ll assume that this is for the US market. So here I go: the Mitsubishi Mirage.
The Mirage is, well to be frank, very unrefined; but if you want a cheap (cheapest, even) basic transportation that’s reliable, fuel efficient, new, and has a warranty, it’s hard to beat the Mirage.
In my opinion though, you do need quite a bit of tolerance for bad NVH if you’re spoiled by luxury brand cars, since the Mirage’s NVH is just plain bad. I rode shotgun with the G4 in Saigon recently, and even at just ~50 km/h you could tell that it’s very unrefined in terms of road noise isolation.
I live in mexico and we have some more options around that price point and the mirage sucks for what it is, there are some cars that for the same price have at least some security features.
The Buick Regal TourX at least was under advertised and undersold. Wagons don’t get enough love in America.
I have the Sportback and not the TourX, but it’s still a great car. Got it for a steal too.
Volvo s80 v8
Engine made or at least tuned by Yamaha so the exhaust note is one of the best of all time
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The bike (fulfills almost everything a car is used for, many things better at a fraction of the costs)
Why are you even here? Why even bother with this? Try harder.