Why do people buy a 2010 STi instead of a 2004 Corvette ZO6 or a 2006 Base Corvette?

troll... do not feed... let die.

OK, cross poster.

I think the answer to the original question is utility, longevity, and the lack of time that one actually gets to drive as fast as they want. That is why someone would buy a slower STi rather than a vette. Lets see the charger on an autocross course versus an STi. David and Goliath... Actually more of Olympic sprinter versus front tackle.

Crosspost killed ------ Just atwixt us girls.

Obviously Sal has not driven these cars or he'd know.

It has little to do with performance.

The Subaru will have more appeal as a daily driver for the guy who parks it in row seven of the corporate parking lot. It's also superior on wet, slushy, muddy roads.

-- pj

weelliott wrote:

-- pj

Back seat?

Would you want to be seen in a Cobalt?

(Actually, I almost bought one. The dealer had a Loss Leader, the HiPo engine, 5-speed, etc for ~$13000, but I just couldn't bring myself to drive a CHEVY and wound up with a Scion tC. However, if it came between a WRX and a Corvette...)

I haven't owned a GM product for about 15 years. However, as a mamber of SCCA, I was recruited to work the Chevy Rev-it-up event back in 05 when the cobalt SS non-supercharged first came out. Basically they let people autocross them for 35 bucks in a national competition. I have to admit that I was impressed with the handling of that car. I have never believed in front drivers possibly having good dynamics, but it did. I'm not a chevy fan, but I have to admit that if I could have gotten a brand new supercharged one, or even the newer turbocharged one for 13k, I'd have jumped at it.

I'm not a prestige kind of guy. I don't care what other people think about what I drive. As evidence, I drive a baseline stock 12 year old legacy with hubcaps. No glamour. But the performance that that car offers really is class leading. It beat the GTI, Civic si, and MazdaSpeed 3 in a comparison test. It was the attitude that it just wasn't cool or probably wouldn't be reliable that killed its sales. Kind of a shame.

The sense of shame in owning an American car ironically seems to be an uniquely American psychosis. Canadians have no such problems. Besides my Subaru, my other car is a Pontiac Grand Prix. American cars are easy to find parts for relatively cheaply. No car in existence is ever going to go without a part change somewhere along the way.

And I would think the recent Toyota problems have well and truly put to the grave all pretensions about Japanese car's perceived superior quality.

Yousuf Khan

You can bet that in three years or less, Toyota will be the car to own, and they will probably be lower in price than others.

The Toyoda family is not going to let this go by the boards. One thing the Japanese do that caucasians don't is "save face", and Toyota has a LOT of face saving to do!

Within three years, they will be the best cars on Earth.

And considering a couple hiccups from Honda, don't expect them to be too far behind...

Maybe, maybe not, the stories you heard about Toyota's problems seemed astonishingly similar to stories you normally hear about American car companies, namely compromising quality to save on costs. That's a drug that car companies have a lot of trouble detoxing from. Once you start buying the part that's 5% lower cost, which adds 10% to your profit margin, you'll keep taking that drug.

Face saving is for a Japan of the 19th century.

Yousuf Khan

One of the contributing factors to Toyota's woes has been their imitation of the GM business model.

In search of a larger market, Toyota moved from a fairly simple operation with a handful of car models to a multi-branded enterprise with many badge cars. Now with three brands (Lexus, Toyota and Scion), management and logistics are more complicated than before. Four years ago, Toyota was beginning to look much like GM.

Even though there's obvious commonality between Lexus and Toyota models, the company has been challenged in maintaining the Lexus image during the Q.A. issues with the Camry.

As GM, Ford and Chrysler have dumped badging, management focus seems to have improved. -- pj

Because I don't want a Sexualliy Transmitted Infection