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March 10, 2005
The Re-Emergent Roadster Market (and, on the folly of buying "really fast" cars)
For a couple years now, I've had a jonesing for a convertible. I know - I've got a motorcycle (ok, two, but who's counting) so a convertible seems sorta redundant - but "logic" "motorcycle" and "convertible" don't seem to really associate well.
So I've been following the convertible market for a while, and it's gotten more interesting lately.
In the under $25k set, there are two newcomers - the Pontiac Solstice and the Saturn Sky. If they look similar to you, you're not imaginging it they're built on a common platform. They both look cool (the Pontiac gets my nod for aesthetics) but being a new platform the jury is out on reliability and TCO.
They join the reigning champ - the Mazda Miata udpated for '05 (but still sorta stuck in blandville compared to the two newcomers).
If you've got more money to spend, there's the $33k Honda S2000, the $34k Porsche Boxter (anyone else know the joke about the mouse with the Porsche?) and the $46k Mercedes SLK.
On a related topic - I overheard a couple of auto enthusiasts talking on the ferry the other day - drooling over a Porsche 911 and raving about it's 0-60 time (a little over 4 seconds). That car starts at $70k. My $9k Sprint RS has a claimed 3.4 second 0-60 time - and it's hardly the top kid on the block (it's probably the Suzuki Hayabusa - also a $10k bike - at under 3.0s).
If you're not driving a Formula 1 racer, and you're trying to show off against a modern street bike, you've probably already lost.
Posted by dberger at March 10, 2005 11:08 AM