Have you ever driven a car that you thought was perfect?

ptmeyer84 wrote:

That looks great; I bought a set of those Forgeline RS for my C4. Second favorite wheel ever

Every car I've ever owned has been perfect, for a least a little while.

Miata, evo, IS-F, Exige are all very close, for completely different reasons

Everything is a compromise, I recognize, but I am smitten with my Evo X. Mine takes me to work, hauls the kids around town, goes to the store, and then it turns into a monster on a nice backroad. The S-AWC lights on the display let me know when the active rear diff and torque vectoring are adding awesome to my life.

It makes no compromise on performance. Everybody makes fun of the interior, but after stepping out of my last two cars (E30 and 3rd gen 4runner), it feels like a luxury car to me. It doesn't draw too much unwanted attention in my small town (nobody knows what it is). If I could replace the GSR wing with a trunk lip, noone would look twice at it. I love a sleeper.

I want to love the Focus RS for the same reasons, but the styling doesn't do anything for me. Long live the Evo.

Perfect for what? No such thing as a jack of all trades. Many cars I've had were perfect for what I bought them for, most of them sucked outside of those specifications.

All cars seem to have one or more aspects that could use improvement, thus I have modified just about every car I have ever owned, usually for more power or better handling.

The only one I have never been moved to change is the 69 Lamborghini Islero S. The brakes are excellent, the handling is capable of driving far harder than you normally would/should on the street and the song the engine sings is .....perfect. I'm sure there are other cars like that out there, but this is the only one I've ever owned. I don't recall ever turning on the radio - the song of the engine is music enough.

I think I've owned 19 cars and have driven hundreds more. I agree with the sentiment that all cars are a compromise. However, the best overall, good at everything car I've ever owned is my current MK7 VW Golf R. It is not the fastest car I've ever owned, nor is it the most fun, but it is legitimately good at everything.

It has all the criteria of a great sports car down:

It's very quick, it handles extremely well, the brakes are powerful and easy to modulate. The engine is torquey and makes great [fake] noises while being fun to rev out. It has no discernible turbo lag, with tons of torque down low that never drops off- very flat/wide powerband. The gearbox is extremely smooth and precise, while having short gearing that makes it fun to row through the gears. The clutch is easy to modulate and light enough to never wear your left leg out in traffic. The steering is quick, well weighted and precise. The AWD helps you put the power down in any condition. The wheelbase is short enough that the car feels playful, no matter if you're in traffic or on your favorite mountain road.

On top of that it checks all of the practical, daily driver needs:

It's comfortable and rides much smoother than it should. The seats and seating position are perfect- long trips never wear you out. It's incredibly practical and has a usable hatchback trunk (I recently picked up a lawnmower in it!). It gets good fuel economy if you keep your foot out of it (rated at 31mpg highway- I average ~27mpg in mostly city driving). It's easy to park, even in tight spots downtown. It has great visibility. As mentioned above, the clutch and shifter are so easy to work that it never wears you out while commuting. The AWD drivetrain makes it the perfect companion for winter snow driving. Overall, it does a fantastic job of hauling my family around and getting me back and forth to work.

To top it off, it genuinely feels like a luxury car inside:

The fit and finish of this car is far above what a VW hatchback should be. I've owned BMW's, Audi's and Infiniti's that weren't this nice and well thought out inside. The doors close with a solidity that isn't found in most of it's competitors. Everything feels solid inside. It's relatively quiet on the freeway (except for engine noise when the car is in "Race" mode!). It has plenty of technology standard to include things like Apple CarPlay and voice controlled everything. It is a genuinely nice car to drive.

Overall, it truly is the best all around, good at everything car I've ever driven. Probably the worst thing I can say about it is that it's a VW, so I'm sure a few reliability gremlins will pop up one of these days!

I've driven faster cars and I've driven more fun cars, but I'm yet to drive anything that is so legitimately good at everything. I don't know it that makes it the "perfect car", but it certainly is the perfect daily driver.

BrokenYugo wrote: Perfect for what? No such thing as a jack of all trades. Many cars I've had were perfect for what I bought them for, most of them sucked outside of those specifications.

This.

Personally I am not a fan of rear drive for the car I use to get around with. Gotta be front drive or AWD. But I prefer rear drive for competitive driving. And a vehicle that is good at hauling things is atrocious for commuting.