JessePS

Honestly know clue.

RON430

I really want the comfort and quiet of a full size luxo tank such as the LS, 7, A8, etc., but I can live with the performance of 300hp for a daily driver. But if they don't offer it, there won't be any choice. 400hp+ will be for weekend cars (if you can't find anything better to do with your money) and study hall wet dreams.

Lil4X

For most of us who commute 20 miles or more to work each day we probably need to re-think our automotive priorities. If we add up the miles spent in the daily slog to work, maybe picking up the dry cleaning and a couple of bags of groceries on the way home, we don't need that 400 hp, 11 mpg beast of our dreams. We need an appliance. Except for the white enamel paint, this is your refrigerator. Buy it like one.

OTOH, enthusiasts are never going to be enamored of an automotive appliance whose only claim to performance is miles-per-dollar. We need something more visceral. OK, we propose you become a 2-car person.

Look at your freeway commute with new eyes. How much performance do you really NEED to follow that bumper in front of you in stop and go traffic that never exceeds 40 mph? Something that gets 40 mpg with a reasonable amount of comfort and safety - a good AC, state-of-the-art telematics, good visibility, brakes, and a VSC/ABS system will be high on my list. Heavy acceleration, braking, and ultimate cornering, like top speed are completely useless in commuter traffic. Why pay for them just to plod along day after day?

Instead, you might consider something like a Smart, a Civic Hybrid, or one of a dozen other more efficient transport appliances - including the coming generation of electrics and hybrids - for your weekday transportation. This is your beater - you don't have to get your ego involved in its selection. Tint the windows dark and nobody will ever know you own it.

NOW - with the money you save on the purchase, feeding, insurance, and maintenance of your beater, go crazy on something wildly inappropriate for your "fun" car. Treat yourself to that classic pavement shredder you always wanted. Lavish care and expensive hand waxes on it, polish it every Saturday morning. Consider something in a convertible that you can be SEEN in. Yes, this is your ego-mobile, flaunt it. You're only going to put a a hundred miles or less on it every weekend, so rip a couple of black stripes from the traffic light. The whole weekend's worth of flogging will still consume less cash than your beater will for a whole week's service.

You are only going to drive it on weekends or maybe one or two nights a week anyway, so it won't cost much to keep in gasoline, oil, and brake pads. This is the car you drive to the gym, to the club, or to the theater where someone might recognize you and be impressed. Flex your ego here, because it's going home to the garage for another week on Sunday night.

passnu2

iTrader: (33)

Push it over that 400 mark....

Shoyuu

If I had to take a guess, I'd go with 250 - 325. Personally I don't think I'll need more then 300HP for a daily driver.

DASHOCKER

iTrader: (2)

There are 400hp cars out now getting 18city/25hwy at present.. Technology has truly advanced.. So yes, 400hp+ stock for me please..

RXSF

definately horse

gas mileage isnt everything. think emissions

RON430

EPA numbers have gotten a bit more useful but I don't live in their fantasy world on 400hp+ cars. I don't want to drag this thread to EPA estimates so let's just let it go and stick to the hp number. If you think there are 400hp cars out there that will get, at worst 18mpg, I encourage you to find out.

Lil4X

Agreed! EPA numbers - even on the city cycle are not realistic in the real world. If you are the personality type that HAS to have a 400 hp vehicle just to feed your ego, it doesn't seem reasonable that you will be willing to "hypermile" your way to work. How many horsepower do you need to leap that twenty feet between you and that rather solid bumper stopped in traffic ahead of you?

RON430

Twenty feet, boy you have it easy. The only way you get that big of a gap in traffic here is if the soccer mom in the minivan is replacing the DVD to insure minimal interaction with the life forms in the back seats. You just have to have a 0-60 of sub 4.0 seconds to insure you can get that fender over there when you get anything more than 3 feet opened up. And other such children's fantasies.

The 400hp+ car that I have personal experience with from a relative owning one is the Corvette and on the highway he does claim to be well into the 20s. Typical real world around town? 13 to 15. Not for me now and definitely not for me in 2010. This is a performance site so the voting probably isn't too much of a surprise but there sure are a lot of puppies out there who don't appreciate that for day to day transportation, 300hp can push a lot of vehicle around very easily. All the extra hp does for you is drain the tank faster but insure you can catch the hot babe in the CTS commercial who really needs to prove hers is bigger than yours.

mmarshall

With the traffic congestion we have, it will be 0-60 feet, not MPH.

mmarshall

Famous last words.

gengar

Oops, I voted wrong in the poll - the thread title says "how much will you buy", but the poll says "how much will your daily driver have", and I didn't read the poll Q until after I voted.

I'm probably going to get the Evo X MR as my daily driver since I'm moving to the snowy midwest and much prefer AWD for that, so that should be in the 250-325 category. I'll probably wind up buying a RWD summer car in the next few years, though (maybe finally the Aston?), and that's why I voted 400+.

RON430

Best post in all these mileage related threads yet.

Perfection

what's that supposed to mean?