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What is your Daily Driver?


JustinOlson

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Pete84, The 8 is great fun. With Koni's on all 4 corners it handles GREAT. Yeah the mileage is not super and it is a rotary so it does burn a little oil but those are minor issues that don't take away the fun factor.

 

No torque to speak of but get above 6k to 9.1k it screams. Keeping it in the power band can be tough but for a DD I really like it. It cruises well and has enough power to be fun when you want it too.

 

I have added the Koni's and a Magnaflow exhaust. If I had to do it over again I would forget the exhaust. Just made the car louder w/o any significant gain in power. I autox'd a couple of years and had a blast on R compounds in stock class.

 

Overall it has been rock solid. If you drive it like you stole it you shouldn't have any issues with the wankel.:-) The ones with problems have generally been automatics and drivers who "babyed" them too much. I actually have two 8's. It is a long story and lets just say it ended with "yes dear" but my now 21 yo old son has one as well (against my better judgement).

 

Paul

 

Hey rontyler :icon14: on the old school 510

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For a number of years my DD was a 1991 Toyota Corolla. Good gas mileage, reasonable acceleration relative to what one would expect for such a car, and good A/C. But I hated to work on it, and eventually minor issues such as exhaust leaks and a bad starter caused me to park the thing. (228K miles). Mileage was in the low 30’s.

 

The next one was a 1990 Nissan Sentra. Low on power (much slower than the Corolla!) but comparable mileage. Ran fine through >200K miles, until I slammed into a deer at 60+ mph.

 

Then I ended up with a 1990 Honda Accord. Another decent car, but not as reliable as advertised (alternator, radiator, exhaust manifold, window crank mechanism, heater core, etc.). The power steering failed at ~180K miles. When the odometer rolled over 200,000 miles I parked it.

 

On and off my “nice†car was a 1992 BMW 325is. Now it’s my daily. Mileage is putrid (22 mpg in mixed city/highway, on premium gas) and off-the-line acceleration is no better than the 4-cyl Honda, but at least it is RWD! So far reliability has been OK (an ignition coil, ball joint, thermostat, dead trip computer, erratic window regulator) – knock on wood!

 

Planning ahead for when the BMW fails, my backup car is a 1995 Toyota Camry V6. That 3.0L is a sweet engine – the Camry is noticeably faster than the BMW, although the steering is not as precise and the automatic transmission ruins the feel of driver involvement.

 

The late 1990’s Japanese V6 family sedan is probably the best all-around reliability/performance/comfort deal on the market, if you don’t mind FWD and automatic. But if you do insist on RWD and stickshift, the options are poor. Personally I plan on avoiding German cars, not because they’re necessarily high maintenance (though some certainly are) but because I am not impressed with their torque delivery. As an alternative daily driver I’m on the lookout for a pre-SN95 V8 Mustang LX (hard to find, and command a high premium!) or a Gen-IV V8 Camaro/Firebird.

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