2020 Chevy Onix hatch, cheap maintenance, insurance and good on gas. I don’t drive a lot.
Before I moved to Brazil I used to have a '93 Corrado VR6, prepped for auto-x. Drove that for 11 years, and only sold it because I moved to another country.
2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid.
Because it’s one of the few cars I fit in comfortably. (I’m 6’6" with long legs.) For some reason, all of the regular Camry models I got into when I was car shopping had this part of the center console that dug into my right leg and quickly became painful. No idea why the hybrid is different, but it is.
I definitely appreciate the 40-50 mpg during most of the year (less when it’s bitterly cold.) So far it’s been very reliable.
Buick Boi here… Higher end than Chevy, more solid, more padding, etc., but not all the technocrap that infests Caddy.
Love that you can close the doors with your finger, and it shuts with a deep solid “thwoop”. Neighbors close their car doors by slamming them shut that it wakes the dead.
Weatherstripping on my older Regal is wearing out so there’s more noise filtering in, but my newer Lacrosse is morgue silent. Ballsy and venerated Buick 3.8L in the Regal (that puppy can pull right off the line!), 3.6L in the Lacrosse.
Niceties I appreciate but only discovered at random are things like automagically lowering the fan speed when an incoming call comes in, then stepping it back up when the call’s done. Little Easter Eggs…
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Agree, me too.
I guess you wont be upgrading to new model with CVT.
Did not know there was a hybrid Camry back in 2012. Great story.
No laughing matter. Buick was number one back in the day. Buick GS is highly collectable today, same like the GTO.
It’s amazing the difference a set of tires can make, too. The come-with tires I had on my original '99 made it wallow and almost insist on going straight, that you had to constantly tug on the wheel when the highway would curve. Almost like a bowling-ball going down the gutter, you had to almost fight with it to get out of that trench.
When I got my HRs, or maybe they were the VRs, forgot, steering became so neutral, that I could keep the steering wheel angled just with a single finger. And that was after initial tread-squirm burned off.
Even today, got full snow tires on both (Arctic Altimax on the Regal, UltraGrip Winter on the Lacrosse), and they handle really well, considering. Some good hi-po tires the other 3 seasons, and we’re talking really good handling.
I don’t really care about noise or “comfort”, as long as they stick to the road like they got claws.
On the occasions that the dealership gave me a loaner for extended service I was less than impressed with the Lineartronic CVT. Ascent vs WRX isn’t quite apples:apples, but a glance at WRX reviews suggests that the performance is meh.
Yup, you and every other Subaru owner have the same opinion.
Ford Fusion - It gets me from point A to point B. It’s comfortable. Gets decent mileage. And with the 2.0 Ecoboost, it has enough zoomies zooms to make it fun to drive
Eh, as “automatics” go I’m fine with it. Would be nice if it didn’t have the silly shift points.
Miss driving a manual, hope to add something else in the future that lets me row my own. Want to drive the BRZ next time I’m at the dealership.
Why don’t you drive?
I’ve got a diesel golf wagon and it’s pretty fun so far.
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2017 Ford Escape. It’s all wheel drive which is almost a necessity here in the snowbelt. Put around 16,000 miles on it in 7-8 years. Recently replaced the battery whose location in the car is ridiculous. One of the first things in changing it is the need to remove the wipers. I had never heard of such a thing. Otherwise the car has been great.
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I hate driving.
I had a driver’s permit twice in my life, and I have driven a few hours over my lifetime, and I just cannot stand driving. 
I also don’t drive these days. I miss the fun twisty back roads aspect, but where I live now traffic is heavy, people drive quite aggressively, and public transit is excellent. So I’ll save myself the car payment and spend it on flashlights instead!
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Have the Toyota badged version, the GT86.
Not a supercar by any means, nor particularly fast by modern standards, the turbo’d hot hatches are much quicker. A little noisy at highway speeds.
But my god is it nice to drive on twisty back roads.
Practicality wise, the back seats are virtually unusable for humans. Have done week-long car-camping 1000km road trip from UK to France. Previous VW golf was more practical but the GT86 managed just fine!
09’ Kia Rio II (JB) hatchback in silver color. 97 hp 1.4 litres (Alpha II engine) without turbo, 5-speed manual.
I received it as a gift a few years ago because of a death in the family. So at first I was happy to get a well-maintained car for free. But it is also cheap to run, reliable, has low fuel consumption, and is fun to drive without assistance systems. Since it only has 44000 km (around 27500 miles), I am pretty sure I will drive this as long as I can.
4 people will fit in there, we drove 3500 kilometres across Europe in this thing, it just worked 
In the summer it will get a nice car hifi overhaul with pretty much everything new in terms of sound
Modern new cars don’t appeal to me at all, too much computer, too much touchscreen (and buttons), no charm… and the design of these doesn’t always look that great either.
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That’s what annoys me about so many CVT implementations. All that complexity (maintenance, reduced reliability) with none of the benefit (stay in optimal RPM range for best acceleration or fuel efficiency).
Test-drove a functionally-identical Toyota 86 before buying the WRX and did not care for it. Had to consistently and mercilessly flog the drivetrain to get it moving - no improvement over my then daily driver. It did not help that the model I test drove had a ‘performance’ exhaust whose note was almost identical to my prior 1987 Celica when it had an exhaust leak.
The oft-hinted STI version of the BRZ with a turbo would have been hilarious fun. Subaru begs packaging constraints; I suspect they primarily don’t want to erode WRX sales as a turbo BRZ would surely be priced lower.
I have to remove the bumper to change the headlight bulbs on my Fusion. It’s ridiculous!