roushracin

Ok. This may be a little long but I need some advice. I've owned many Mustangs, and a Lightning before and have always been a Ford guy. Since I've been with my wife (10 years), she is into the foreign luxury brands (we've owned Lexus, Infiniti and a few Acuras). I sold my 360R when we got married and told myself I would get another Mustang. Since then we have our family established, bought a new house last year and our finances are in order. I seem to be getting a car every 2 years since we've been married and she gets tired of talking about cars. Recently she got the car she absolutely wanted since she saw pictures of it ('14 Acura MDX).

The other day she throws me a curve ball and says I can get rid of my 4cyl 2012 Camry XLE for a car I want. I was shocked! Here's where my dilemma comes in to play. I always told myself and her that I would keep the Camry and when it's paid off, I would buy a Mustang again. Before buying the Camry, I was looking at another Infiniti G37 or a Lexus IS350. Now she tells me if I want to, I can start looking for either the Infiniti or Lexus I was wanting. I asked her what about the Mustang? She says that we can keep the Camry and have it paid off in 3 years, or get an everyday driver I enjoy, and wait 5 years and then get a Mustang.

I really don't know what to do. If I buy a different car, I'm losing 2 years of paying on the Camry and it will put me further back from getting the Mustang. However, I could have a really fun everyday driver and then get the Mustang and have 2 cars I enjoy! Our budget for buying a fun everyday driver now is $35k and if I decide to keep the Camry, the $35k budget will be for the Mustang (want a Shelby GT500).

Currently, I am all over the place on what I feel would be an enjoyable everyday driver. I'm really wanting something that is 4wd/AWD (living in Missouri, we can get some nasty snow storms). I'm thinking G37, IS350, would love a Jeep SRT (wife said no way because of the horrible gas mileage and reliability is in question), and I've even been looking at a F-150 (would love the Raptor but not in my budget).

Has anyone ever done research on what would be cheaper if you just bought a fun everyday driver, compared to keeping a paid off everyday driver, and have a sports car as a 3rd car? I'd be interested to see some opinions. I'm going to post this on the few car forums I'm apart of just to see different answers.

Thanks

spwolf

IMHO, personally... i would get fun daily driver... i had weekend car but ended up not driving it too much...

are we talking about new $35k car or old one? New generation just came out and not sure if I would recommend either of those two if they are old ones.

roushracin

No, they are a couple years old. Can't afford new.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

roush i merged your threads as they're on the same topic.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

The IS is manufactured in it's home market Japan where they are right hand drive. There is no bump because it is on the passenger side. They ain't "fixing it"

chris2k5

They shouldn't have been lazy and cheap then. They could have moved the bump to the other side for US market. They are trying to be taken seriously as a luxury brand but are using cheap Toyota tactics.

Sulu

Do you honestly believe that it is that easy to "move the hump" from one side of the car to the other? It is there to cover up likely the centre differential that routes power from the transmission to the front differential. To move the centre differential from the left-hand side to the right-hand side of the transmission would likely involve changing the design of the transmission. And that is assuming that there is room on the right-hand side of the transmission and engine for the front drive shaft and front differential.

And assuming that it is possible to place the mechanicals on either side of the engine and transmission, the cost to provide different drivetrains for different areas of the world could be prohibitive. Instead of having 2 different AWD systems, it is more likely that we would have nothing because it would have been too expensive.