Keep the auto, buy a manual or buy a sports car?

I kept the toyota for weekend adventures. Went with an SI for the commute. 6 spd turbo cruises 80mph at 41 mpg. Its still a civic so wouldnt consider it a sports car but its a 2 door coupe with a sunroof so close enough for me.

 

For all the people on here saying that a WRX is not a sports car... Go test drive an STI. First off, I hate STI’s since I’m an previous two time Evo owner. They are arch rivals for those that don’t know.

With 4 doors and AWD they turbo’d grocery getters are capable of being over 400 hp with only investing 1,500 in mods if that. Oh... and this is from a 4 cyl.

You can put these (non-sports) cars up against Camaro’s (which definitely suck) Corvettes, BMW’s Mercedes etc. if you wanna put a little time and money in them. It’s been proven time and time again on the streets and on the race tracks.

Just because it doesn’t look as fancy doesn’t mean it isn’t a sports car. You don’t need to have 2 doors to be considered a sports car. Anyway, anybody that wants to debate, go to YouTube first and watch some videos of V-8’s getting destroyed by the AWD beasts.

Here are my two previous cars.




Here I did some research for ya
https://youtu.be/Ees2aZcDUn8
https://youtu.be/dq0JqAr7sck
https://youtu.be/2Q5dHKzRmMg

 

This is a great point, it really depends on your use what you should get.

I came to a Tacoma from a WRX, and trust me the Subaru can handle deep snow too just fine lol. Had mine in over 15" of snow on the road with no issues, granted it wasn't lowered and I had taller than stock snow tires on it so YMMV.

 

I had a wrx and I will tell you the trade off of fun for reliability is not worth it. I blew two motors and spent thousands upgrading the wrx in my twenties. Now I think back and say i should have bought the tacoma sooner lol

 

No, that’s a muscle car. Straight line performance only.

 

You have never driven a new Camaro they handle like a dream

 

This. There are a lot of great proper driver's cars out there, used S2000s are a sweet spot for dynamics, performance, price, and reliability. Find one with around 100k miles on it an drive the crap out of it.

 

At 4,000 pounds. Ummm, no.

 

I will always have a truck no matter what. I've never had to borrow/rent a car for anything my truck couldn't do. I also have a supercharged, 2 seat manual transmission sportscar that I've owned for 19 years, the car has been flawless and reliable as hell.

I love the truck more.

 

Optimally it would be awesome to have a Taco and a project car. That’s my plan. I will have another Wvo in a few years and build it up from the ground up. They are so insanely fun plus you get tons of respect from domestics, exotics and super cars because they know not to underestimate these cars.

I’m not saying I’ve ever raced on the street... But I’m also not saying I haven’t... I don’t condone it though.

Many sad faces when you crush an M3, Corvette or a Viper in a 4 banger for a fraction of what they paid.

 

I special ordered a 15 wrx limited. I was underwhelmed. Kept it about a year and traded it for my truck. Big mistake.

 

I have a question. How is your retirement plan? Maybe you have enough money to blow on changing cars regularly and taking a financial bath. If you do, congratulations. I put more weight in the financial effect than anything else. Buying vehicles is really one of the worst financial things we are forced to do. Take time and buy what you need the first time and keep it as long as you can.

 

I’m obviously a mustang guy (check the signature). And in general I loathe anything GM. But I have to say that the Camaro, especially in 1LE guise, is one of the best handling cars on the market under $100k. And the curb weight starts at 3,300 lbs, not 4,000. Loaded V8s only hit 3,700.


As for the OP’s dilemma, I’ll echo what several other people have said. Make sure it’s not just the shift-it-yourself aspect you miss. As much as I love my 435hp 6MT mustang, I live in a moderately populated city and can’t really use the power that often and have just as much fun in my manual Tacoma. But then I realize that sounds hypocritical because I’m considering selling the mustang and getting the new limited edition RC-F . Just take your time, think it over THOROUGHLY, make a pros/cons/needs/wants/affords list and do what makes you happy.

 

Sometimes it is more fun to drive a slow car/truck fast, than to drive a fast car slow.

 

Get the turbo.

Why get rid of the tacoma when instead you can have a truck and a "racecar" all in one?

 

1. If you don't need a truck, buy a car. Every time.
2. A WRX is not a sports car. A very fun car sure, but not a sports car.

 

I almost went with a new 18’ wrx too and was going to keep my 2nd gen taco. Just wanted a fun daily driver I can tinker with. The wrx (standard and sti) was way underwhelming to me. Still felt slow and had bad understeer. Ive driven stock Evo X’s and even a 10 year old stock one would run circles around the new WRX. Needless to say, I got my 18’ Taco with all the options I wanted with a manual transmission (just like my 2nd gen), and now I truly enjoy driving my daily driver each and every time.

Test drive a few WRX’s, you’ll see what I mean. I’ll be saving the 30-40k I would of wasted to put towards a new Z06. Now testing driving those made me instantly know I wanted one.

And above all, go and test drive a manual taco! You’ll be glad you did whether you get it or not.

 

When you said get a Sport's Car this is what came to mind........

 

He must not know much