Fun and fuel-efficient car for under $3500

In reply to thunder1335 :

Twofold.

One, I hate the sound of V8s.  I love the sound of fives.  I have an 80s VWAG product with a low compression five and a huge turbo that is in long term build status.

Two, the S60R fits in my garage, can tow 3300lb per the manufacturer, and weighs slightly less than an Evo X while making as much power and has essentially the same brakes.  (And BERK trying to find cheap 18" snow tires, I am probably going to get an extra thousand (!!!) dollars on the note so I can get some proper winter hoops on it ASAP)

Three, I have a history with the S80.  A long time ago, I knew an shiny happy person on rx7club, who insisted that the only reason people bought low end models was because they couldn't afford the upper end models.  His exact words were that people only bought S40s because they couldn't afford S80s.  I argued relentlessly against this, because damnit small cars are just better.  So I refuse to ever own an S80 because of some genetic-memory Eastern European ultrastubbornness, even if I ever had a desire to own what is basically a long wheelbase S60, which I don't because long wheelbases suck (except for the Audi A8L, that is rad, Audi managed to make a huge car like that feel like an A4 to drive)  However, the sad reality is that when it comes to Volvo performance, there's a good deal of "you can't get there from here" unless you just buy a damn R in the first place, which is remarkably cheap.  Probably because they ride like bricks due to Volvo placing the suspension accelerometers on the struts instead of the body.

The biggest hurdle I have is my (nedcar) S40 is one of the finest driving cars I've ever had, and I'd hate to sell it, but, like the time I sold the second-finest driving car I've ever had for an AWD vehicle of the same make ('89 Golf for '86 Quantum), sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.  Also I want to tow my '81 RX-7 around and I could more comfortably do that with an S60, and I'd sooner stir-fry my testicles and eat them over a bed of rice than drive a truck, because I've seen my family tree and it does, in fact, fork.

When it was all over, they’d won Class C by a hilarious 32 laps over the Jackalope Jockeys and their 1977 Volkswagen Rabbit, finishing 11th overall [out of 74]. In so doing, they beat nine BMWs, two Porsches, seven Mazdas, five Nissans, and every single Detroit machine in the race.

That probably sounded fun until you figured out they were talking about a stock Prius, right? Because a Prius sucks so much it can even make low-budget wheel-to-wheel endurance racing boring, even when you win! Right?

True story:  Every experience I have with a Prius makes me want one even more.

The main problem is that they are Toyotas.  Toyota is the Apple of the automotive world. 

ProDarwin said:

I wonder what Priuses you guys drive or have driven.  We had a 1G Prius, an 07 Saturn Vue, and now an 07 Odyssey.  Unless at the drag strip, the Prius was by far the sportiest of the bunch.  I can't picture any car making our Odyssey feeling sporty.

I owned a 2010 Prius III, it had been meticulously maintained before I got it.  The owner had even paid a fortune to have the interior converted to leather for his wife.  With my commute being 60 miles each way, the Prius...on paper...is ideal for that.  And while the mpg was good, it was a good highway cruiser and there was some "fun" in trying to make it go on just battery power, the driving experience was beyond wretched.  Turn the 1980s-video-game-feedback steering wheel and the car...eventually...turned and leaned over like the Titanic.  As numb as numb can get, no grip and completely unsettled.  And heaven forbid the road turn right and then left, sure recipe for sea sickness.  Even my wife hated it to the point where she just wouldn't drive it and very much preferred her Sedona.