Ekona

I agree with all of your points, but I just cannot ever fathom picking a car over a rival simply because it's not as common. That just seems a very odd thing to remotely consider. Tbh even the looks of a car don't really rate that highly on my scale, I get more excited by the drive (hence buying the 350 ragtop and the VXR!). I kept the question simple as I wanted a like-for-like comparison. I get that people wouldn't buy an Evo if they wanted a run-around, but I was more querying if you were specifically after a performance car and those were the two you'd narrowed it down to.

Alonso's last year with the team from Modena, then. He won't stick around if he's not a number one, so potentially a swap to RB with Seb going the other way could be on the cards for 2015.

I agree, looks are very subjective, but how about this for a scenario: Two performance cars, identical in every way apart from one has 200bhp and one has 250bhp. The 200bhp is much less common though, due to the way it looks. Which one do you buy?

But would you buy something that was inferior just because it wasn't as popular? I think that's what Mouthwash and myself are getting at. I bought the VXR as I wanted something light, 2 seater, convertible, mid-engined, but with a turbo engine. I drove a Elise 111R SR and it ticked all those boxes apart from one, which is why I ended up with the VXR. Had the Elise had a turbo engine I'd have bought that instead, no questions asked. I compromised on the looks and the weight because I had to have the turbo. The fact that the VXR was limited numbers meant nothing to me, I just wanted something that suited my needs.

The CR has the best suspension out of all the 9x7 stuff. It's perfect on the roads, even the crappy ones in Essex and in the c/f buckets. It flows sublimely and gives immense feedback without crashing and skipping. It's getting dangerously close to the Evora in that aspect. Hard and tough on the ol' back, it is not. I suspect the guy you were talking to is a bit of a wimp Irrelevant though really, as you'll not get a CR for £25K!

64-bit chip means nothing right now, especially as the 5C is still 32-bit so developers will keep ploughing out 32-bit stuff and pretty much ignoring 64-bit until it's everywhere (although it's a good setup for the forthcoming days of 4MB+ RAM in smartphones), fingerprint ID is a gimmick which has zero impact on the use of the phone (anyone struggle putting a 4 digit PIN in? Nope, me neither), and iOS 7 is on everything else. Slightly better camera is nice but hardly game-changing. A couple of crappy new colours for the ladeez doesn't appeal to me at all. Remember, I'm the guy (fool?) who queued up at 4am for the last two iPhones. This offers absolutely nothing over my current 5. Apple have always been about the OS and not the hardware, but that's no longer enough to compete where they need to. I'm sure these will sell bucketloads and more than ever, but I have no issues now waiting for the 6.

Stuarty reckons you can do it all for a tenner £250 a day is good value, if he's good. If he's crap then it's a rip-off. It's pretty simple to do it yourself really, it's only screwing stuff together then cutting the work top.

Also, can you stop c+p the entire Engadget page please mate? It makes the thread a pain to view, just stick a pic up of each if you're that bothered. If folks care they'll follow the link, if not then at least they don't need to wait for everything to load up.

Might as well buy an MX5 then, if we're going to start worrying about not being able to use all the abilities of the car. You can't get anywhere near either the 350 or 370 limits on the road, which kinda makes your point redundant

Utter rubbish. And I say that as a confirmed iWhore who queued up for the last two iPhones.

As Doc says though, some people may buy Porkers for the badge, but enthusiasts buy them because they are really bloody good cars. Who cares if everyone else has one, I'd rather have a common car that suited my needs exactly than something a bit different that was a compromise. Masers and Astons are bought by poseurs, Porkers are bought by drivers GT86 is a very good shout, I'd certainly look into one of those too.

Even the little 'panel pot' that I got from Tim @Envy for the DJSN has lasted me a couple of years, so whilst I don't rate the wax in the Waxybox I still reckon if you applied it thinly enough you'd get a fair amount of usage out of it.

Those little wax pots will do an entire car a good few times over.

Nearly. Repairs would be around £5K, and there's only a 5% chance of that happening anyway (ish). 111pt check is £180+VAT, but you're correct about the mods though. Still the best car mentioned though, IMHO. But yes, there is a repair side to consider with all of the cars mentioned aside from the 370Z, but then you'll have increased depreciation to worry about. Swings and roundabouts, I guess.

I'd be temped to get a £20K Cayman S, then spend £1K putting the OPC warranty on it. No worries about anything, then. You could do the same with the BMW, I'm sure their warranties are pretty much bumper to bumper too. Here's one at 911V, and they don't sell anything other than the best,

S5 really is a good looking car, but then so is an M3 which is why I bought one for 24 hours. If you need a one-car solution, then I would find it very hard to look past the M3 tbh. V8, four seats, boot, plenty of tuning options, V8... Complete package really. That said, £25K gets you into a 997 as well. Ignore the mileage, it'll still feel fresh if it's been looked after, and you'll have £6K as a slush fund to fix any bits that go wrong. Colours aside, I think that's a bargain.

Cayman S. /thread That'd be my choice, and it's a better drive than any of the other cars you mentioned. Not sure if maintenance costs are an issue to you, but the Audi and BMW (and Porsche) will likely be pricier to run in terms of parts and servicing costs, so make sure you go in with your eyes open. Can't speak on the others, but a Cayman will cost you about £500 on servicing over two years, depending on whether it wants a minor or major service in that time as they only need doing once every 24 mths. The M3 will tell you when it needs servicing and it dependant on driving style, I have no idea about the Audi. A good manual M3 is unlikely to drop that much more, certainly you can expect the 370 to drop more. If you're feeling brave then a TVR will be a great buy.

Oh sod it, I'll start again. It's like bloody crack, this stuff!

And yet, The Sun is still pretty much cutting edge when it comes to journalism. People always laugh when you tell them that (I did when someone said it to me for the first time!), but if you study English language or journalism as a whols you'll understand where I'm coming from. By the same token, TG has broken down many barriers in the quest for success. By doing so it's alienated the core audience, but then that's a bit irrelevant when you can sell the rights for millions of pounds across the world.

Agreed. I was watching some older episodes the other day, around the time the Enzo/CGT/SLR came out and when they did the reviews on those. To this day, the CGT piece is one of the most exciting and passionate bits of TV I've ever seen: It's superb. All of the cars were treated correctly, and with a certain respect for the viewer too. Sadly now it's about bums on seats rather than info, and whilst I can respect that it's not something I want to watch. I've said it before, but I can't understand why I like everything else Richard Porter does apart from TG. SP is genius, the F1 twatterisation is ace, his columns and serious stuff is superb.

You'd find the car far more progressive if it had Rotalla's all round, as at least all four corners would have the same (lack of) grip. Match the fronts, whatever Avons they are. Else you'll find yourself with a car that's unbalanced still.

And yet, the top two things that we as owners moan about? 1. The crappy interior 2. The crappy Bose

To be fair to her, she doesn't write demanding anything in particular, it's down to the company themselves to decide if they want to make any sort of contribution to make amends, and I bet she's got loads of replies just saying sorry and nothing else. If I'm buying a 10p loaf of bread, I don't mind if it's a bit crap. If I'm paying £1 for a loaf, I expect it to be significantly better and if it's not, I'll complain. Same thing with her, by the looks of things. I also note that she mentions using humour as a way to get what you want, which is something I've mentioned time and time again on here. Get the person on your side and they'll help you: Act like a brat and they won't.

The Dark Knight was also a PG13, and I don't recall anyone moaning that that wasn't dark enough This is going to be amazeballs. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong.