1. DEPENDABILITY!!!
I depend on my cars...alot. I work out of Monterey, but I also occasionally work out of San Francisco, 114 miles away. When I was working in LA, I was living in San Diego for a time (130 miles). The wife works in San Francisco, and that's where we have our apartment (the others were essentially my "crash pads"). I frequently went up to SF from SD (498 miles). Sis and mom live in Tolleson Az (currently 500+ miles), and I frequently go to Vegas or Reno (500+ and 300+ respectively).

2. How the car holds up.
I put a ton of miles on my cars, therfore I spend alot of time in them. I don't like things rattling, falling off, or breaking with normal use.

3. Braking, handling, and balence.
California Highway 1 is a few blocks away, and it's a splendid drive. There is also no shortage of curves. I really enjoy a car that has great handling, and there is nothing about FWD that will ever compare to a good RWD car. But also, again, I drive alot of miles. That means I encounter alot of idiots and completely incompetent drivers on the road. This year alone, I've avoided wrecking no fewer than 3 times because of my car's balence & handling. This includes an SUV containing a female and 2 kids that spun out and flipped about 50 yards ahead of me while we both were doing about 70.

4. Lots of Acceleration.
Personal preference, but also makes short work of those people who absolutely, positively, refuses to let you pass.

5. Value.
It doesn't have to be cheap as dirt, but it has to be worth the money. GTO at $32K is worth the money. It has top level interior quality & assembly, it's structure is made to standards that would qualify it as a truck here. It's LS1 quick, it has IRS, and it's vaultlike. The Camaro SS at $30K+ wasn't. It was the same car as the $23K Z28, had the same engine & near nil performance advantage (the performance difference could be made up with $100 or less worth of breathing mods), was barely quicker around the track, and I can't see paying an extra $3600+ for a hood scoop & a different rear spoiler..... And don't get me started on the $33,000 loaded WS6 Trans Ams.

 

Are you serious? Has it occured to you that people can appreciate a muscle/sports car but realize it's not a very practical choice for a daily driver? Do you realize that the word "enthusiast" when it pertains to cars is NOT just applicable to speed freaks alone?

I personally would love to get something like a C5 or Cobra one of these days... but I would never own one as a daily driver. I already made that mistake.

 

The poster to which I was replying did not mention performance or fun anywhere in his list. Read it again; it was a shopping list for a dishwasher or computer.

But since you brought it up, has it occurred to you that a daily driver does not have to be boring? That you can have fun in practical cars? If I needed a practical family car, a CTS would earn just as high a score as a Z28 on my list of qualifications. Having a family does not mean you have to drive 4-cylinder Camrys.

I get the sense that you don't know how to appreciate fun cars. A couple of posts up you implied that the only reason people buy fast cars is as a ***** extension. I would say that's a rather immature attitude towards performance vehicles.

 

A CTS? Well, my GS4 is the another example of a car that combines practicality, comfort, reliability, and performance in one. 300hp, RWD, decent handling (although not to BMW specs until after I did some modding), etc.

No, it's certainly not up to Z28 specs in any sense, but consider its other qualities... it's definitely a hell of a lot more fun to drive than a Camry.

That's why I bought it.

I made the first post in jest because I see so many people on here who literally act like NOTHING else matters but their 1/4-mile times. For a drag car I can absolutely understand this. But for a daily driver!? And these same people seem to think that anyone who thinks that anything other than 1/4-mile performance is important is smoking rock. They seem to be completely blind to the fact that they are in a very small minority with their mindset.

 

1. Performance.
2. Styling.
3. Uniqueness.
4. Quality.
5. Reliability.

BTW, the C5 IS a daily driver. When I was using mine as a DD, both my wife and I called it "the Toyota," because it was so boring, plush, and uninvolving to drive (convertible with selective ride suspension).

The Viper and the 66 are now sharing duties as DDs. Won't fall asleep in either of those cars.

 

Importance to me,

1.) Haggle free Dealerships
2.) Exillerating Drive
3.) Thrilling Exterior; including styling, great colors, and lights
4.) Comfortable and tame interior, not to much flashy stuff... simple radio.. u know, nothing to extreme GTO is very nice
5.) Power Windows, Power Doors, Key Fob
6.) Reliability, well it can break a little i dont mind because u can fix that, u cant fix the Exterior and the Interior, You can do a little to the Engine, but there is only so much

but thats just me

 

I want to be able to use my ipod without the tape deck, fm transmitter, or having to rewire the rear of the stereo with expensive aftermarket items just so I can use the aux function.

I also am willing to pay for built in, nice looking navigation.

looks
price
mileage

resale value? Please, I own 2 vehicle with manual transmissions, one highly modified. What is resale value?

 

1. Looks. No matter what type of vechile it is, truck, SUV, sedan, econobox, sports car, convertible, whatever, I will not buy something that is ugly or boring. That also applies to color, I would never buy silver, sport gold metallic, or gray.

2. Acceleration. I'm not ever going to buy the slow model. Whatever I buy in the future, you can bet it will have the hottest motor avaible.

3. Handling/Steering feel. I would refuse to buy a car that didn't have sporty handling and a good feel to the steering. If it were a truck or SUV, if it tracks straight and doesn't have any slop, then I'm happy.

3. Seat comfort. If it isn't comfortable, I won't buy it. When I first had the Z, I thought I'd get used to the crappy seats. After 3 months, Trans Am seats went in. I've been happy ever since.

4. Quality/Reliability. I've always had good luck with GM vechiles being reliable(not a single problem for the Z after 30k of hard driving). Now quality on the Z, that's another matter. When GM got done designing the suspension, styling, engine, and tranny for my Z, it must have been 4:00 on Friday. Screw getting the rest of the car to acceptable standards. GM has recently got a lot better about nailing the details though.

5. Dealer Experience. I won't buy a car if I can't trust the sales staff.

Deprecation has to be near the bottom of my list. If I buy a new car, I'm going to keep it for 6 or 7 years. I won't buy some worthless in two years Kia or Hynduia. I will buy what I like. If that means it will cost me 2k in deprecation in 7 years, so be it.

 

You learn from experience. I can't afford to have my car spontaniously break. I would like reliable transportation, even when I buy my 5th gen. I have 2 airbags. My car has excellent crash tast ratings. Why do I give a sh*t? Because if some careless person hits me, I would prefer to keep my legs, as appose to be in a wheelchair the rest of my life. Sorry if you're James Dean Jr. and you don't think the situation can happen to you.
How would you like to be a student, and get a repair bill thrown in your face? Or how about just have the 'fun to drive' car and get repair bills thrown in your face randomly? I don't have money right now to fix my car every time it breaks.

By the way, resale value is important if you're taking out a loan. If your car is worth 15 grand and you (and this happens commonly) and you owe 19 on it, it's being a piece of **** and you can't sell it without still having the loan to pay off, then you have to keep your heap pile. If it's worth 12 and you owe 4, then sell it, take the different to help buy another car.

Make sense?

 

I'm unsure of how you know the car is an excellent crash test...

From what I learned in my drivers school class, 5 stars or no stars, still doesnt mean much... just because you're being treated by a doctor doesnt mean that he got 100% on every test, what if that doctor barely got his docterin w/ a 69.5? he still has it doesnt he? thats all it means to get a star... that it passed one crash test... and 4 more to go!, doesnt mean the person is gonna be safe in a crash.

 

What would you rather be inside during a crash, a Porsche 911 or a Cavalier? The way a car is engineered with crumple zones, structual integrity, how they work with airbags, seat belts, etc. etc.
Now before Ford re-designed the F-150 it failed horribly.

http://www.leasetips.com/images/F1502.jpg
http://www.leasetips.com/images/F1501.jpg

That's a Ford F150 in a head-on collision test. This was the old body style and improvements have been made.

Anyway, this is the Tundra:

http://www.leasetips.com/images/tundra2.jpg
http://www.leasetips.com/images/tundra1.jpg

You can be a driving enthusiast all you want, but tell me which one you'd rather be inside during a collision?

 

I wasnt saying you didnt know what you were talking about I was just questioning your reason for believing its safty... thats about what my 93 maybe 94 Toyota T100 looked like after i crashed at 20 mph, I didnt feel a thing, except for an expediated stop

but... I dont know about the cavalier or the Porche...

 

#1 Styling and price

#2 HP/performance and milage

#3 practiality (winter driving cargo and people capacity)

reliability isn't much of an issue, mot cars are so close in quality it doesn't matter, and I'd never buy a VW of Kia.

 

That's an offset frontal - which is NOT the Federal Standard. By stiffening the car to survive an offset frontal relatively more intact, you make the car worse in the Federal Standard test, which is a full-width frontal impact.

The critical thing that is missed is the statistic that matters - deaths per million miles driven. In that area, heavier vehicles have a distinct advantage - to a point. Which then means that the tiny vehicle you are driving is a liability.

Mass is (nearly) everything in a collision and crash test ratings are designed to be independant of mass - which is why the insurance institute's and the Fed's crash test systems are highly dubious.

 

True, but I'd rather have a vehicle biased towards the offset standard. Based solely on accidents I've encountered, they seem to be more common (simply because it's rare for one vehicle to hit another dead-squarely).

Totally agreed - for multi-car accidents. For single-car accidents, I'm not sure that mass is as helpful.

Frankly, most any new car is going to perform well in a crash, compared to a vehicle of similar size from a decade ago. That's why I'd be more interested in features that will keep me from crashing.

Back on topic, there's not a single set of features I look for in a vehicle. Just as an example, if I'm buying a pickup truck, I want as much payload capacity as possible while remaining somewhat practical (which is why I haven't yet made the leap from my K2500 to a dually). Ride quality? It's gonna suck. Fuel economy? Na. Interior fit and finish? That isn't going to matter much once I drag my muddy Red Wings through it a few times. Reliability? I don't care much if the bumper trim falls off, as long as it doesn't decide to break an axle shaft while I'm trying to extract a stuck tractor. Those are obviously different concerns than I've got when purchasing a daily-driver, or a performance vehicle.