American Muscle Cars

Let's just say you go to the mailbox today, and a long-lost uncle or whatever sent you a check for $100,000 and the express purpose of this was to buy a car.
Not a $15,000 car and pocket the rest.
Nope.
You've got $100,000 and you're spending it all on a car.

What are you buying?

Me:

 

Great list of $100, 000 cars here:

18 Best Cars Under $100,000 - Best Sports Cars Under $100K in 2018

Performance? Probably the GT-R.

Luxury? The S560.

If I actually had the 100 grand? I'd get the supercharged Range Rover Sport.

 

Datsun was always Nissan. That never changed.

The reason it was labeled a "Datsun" was to protect the brand name. When they sold the 240Z in this country 50 years ago, they honestly did not know how it would go. They wanted to be able to say it was "Datsun" that failed to protect Nissan.

The Z obviously did NOT fail. But it took Nissan another decade before they called Datsun vehicles Nissans in the West.

 

Some great cars on that list. Some Fords and Alfa-Romeos there, too.

 

The return of Alfa-Romeo to the American market gives me joy.

Even the base model Giulia is a beautiful car.

 

Alfa-Romeo, like the other Italian manufacturers, knows how to make an attractive car. Plenty of showroom and kid's room poster appeal. No argument there.

But there are still major mechanical issues. I hear they are working on those issues, but it has been 30 years. Surely, you can engineer something dependable in that time frame. The Japanese R&D and engineers have to be laughing at the water cooler.

If it spends more time on the hoists of the dealers and your favorite independent mechanic than your driveway or garage, something is wrong.

 

I'm certain the build quality and the reliability are as awful as they have always been.*

That said, the $75000 hot rod Giulia - a 505 horsepower twin-turbo V-6 - is a head turner.

Build and Price Your New Alfa Romeo | Alfa Romeo USA



*even their website is balky.

 

When I was a kid, I coveted the Alfa GT / Sprint / Giulia. Another world rally star with a twin-cam 4. These are circa 1970.

 

Lots of cars to choose from for a 100k car but I’m partial to a recent Maserati GranTurismo. I’d just shop until finding the right one. Maserati’s are luxury race cars and incredibly underrated. They have built some of the most famous sports cars in racing history, not to mention the famed 250F Formula 1 car driven by the likes of Fangio, Moss et al. They have all the racing history along with unmatched luxury and, believe me, nothing sounds like a Maserati. I spent an afternoon in Modena, Italy last year at the finest private collection in existence and there were quite a few in the parking lot, too. Memorable experience seeing F1 and sports cars that made history all in one place.

 

This is my choice:

 

Joe Walsh approves.

 

As long as it does 185.