What cars are just shy of perfection?

[Carbon Fiber Sasquatch]

We haven't had one of these threads in a while. What cars would be much better (or sell way more) with just one or two changes?

I remember one of the big ones last time was the ATS-V with the Corvette's engine. That's a no-brainer in my book.

I have two that I thought of recently:

Lexus ES300h Estate

The ES300h is a nearly perfect car. Comfortable, reliable, luxurious and great gas mileage. Make it a wagon and it's suddenly hard to justify almost any other daily.

Jeep Wrangler 3-row (Safari? Squadron?)

Blasphemy? Perhaps. But building a three row wrangler out of the Gladiator wheelbase would make Jeep a lot of money. Sell it with the 392 motor and you could easily have a $100k Wrangler (Blasphemy!) but Jeep would probably still have a hard time keeping them on the lot.

What else you got?

[Highlander]

@carbon-fiber-sasquatch This car with a honda V6 and a normal 6 speed automatic would be amazaballs.

[ranwhenparked]

@carbon-fiber-sasquatch I'm going to say the Miata is a fixed hardtop away from perfection for me. And, no, the RF and it's fake plastic windows isn't the same thing. Maybe a 2+2 arrangement with an occasional use back seat, a la classic Fiat Spider, would be nice, too.

[ibRAD]

@carbon-fiber-sasquatch

ES estate! You had me going for a minute there. Thanks for nothing!

[Carbon Fiber Sasquatch]

@highlander Yes! I just test drove the turbo. That transmission doesn't know it's head from it's ass. That poor engine didn't know if it should be boosting or just cruising but the rest of the car is perfect.

[facw]

@highlander I would still hate the roof rack (which I'm sure is perfectly functional, I just can't stand those big plastic chunks)

[Carbon Fiber Sasquatch]

@ranwhenparked Honest question, what makes the 86/BRZ not the fixed roof 2+2 Miata for you?

That reminds me of another big one was the four door BRZ.

That'd be hard not to justify in any enthusiasts driveway.

[TexturedSoyProtein]

I would've bought a Civic Type R if only it had goddamn heated seats and ideally a sunroof. It gained Honda Sensing safety nannies + active cruise for 2020, but even though the Si comes standard with heated seats & sunroof, those are unavailable on the R. I know a lot of purists would decry a sunroof on an R but come on, heated seats are hardly a super-heavy luxury feature, and the sunroof could at least be an option what with plenty of other Civic hatchbacks offering it. With how good the car is, I could've done without the sunroof, but even though I don't live somewhere especially cold, we have enough colder months that I really didn't want to be without heated seats, or mess with adding them in the aftermarket.

Also it should have 19" wheels with thicker tires instead of the stupid 20s with 30 series rubber bands. The adaptive dampers keep the ride smooth enough in spite of these wheels & tires but they do not stand up well to potholes.

[CobraJoe]

@carbon-fiber-sasquatch I think this one would be more appropriate here:

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@carbon-fiber-sasquatch I seem to recall one or two people thinking the gen1 BRZ/86 needed more power 🥴

Actually what it needed was adaptive dampers and a little more sound deadening, to make it longhaul capable.

[ranwhenparked]

@carbon-fiber-sasquatch Honestly, I cross shopped the Toyobaru twice over the years and tried to really make myself like it, I really wanted to, but it just feels too cheap inside and the styling just doesn't do it for me. I wound up with a Challenger instead on one of those, and if an FCA interior feels better than yours, you've got a problem. Mazda just seems to do a better job in the sports car segment, they should be in charge of that category for the entire Greater Toyota Co-Prosperity Sphere, the same way Daihatsu handles all the small cars for everyone.

[derp]

The Ford Probe GT.

A name short of the perfect car.

[CobraJoe]

I loved everything about my Mazda Protege5....

Except it was FWD and could use more power.

I thought the same about my Volvo V50.

I'm still dreaming of how I could do a RWD conversion on a small FWD hatchback.

[CivicWagonEngineer]

RT4WD Civic Wagons
Only AWD when front wheels slip so 30+ MPG is easily achieved. Plenty of space in the cabin for 5 adults and gear or 2 adults and A LOT of gear. Comes with a manual, and has the legendary 90s Honda reliability such that these still drive around today with little issue. Only problem is that their driveline/differential is too popular for AWD swaps into other Hondas, so the wagons get gutted too regularly

[MidEngine]

I'll get it over with puts on flame suit Give the Miata another 100hp

[beefchips]

@cobrajoe Yes! A BRZ hatch would be killer

[Carbon Fiber Sasquatch]

@ranwhenparked Hopefully that's what Toyota will let Mazda do. I'm currently looking for some sort of light weight sports car that the kid can be in the back seat in. She loves sports cars but she's 5. We've test driven Mustangs and Camaros. The only thing she fits comfortably in was a 2 series lol.

Making the Mazda 3 a four door Miata in the future would be an instant sell for me.

[Carbon Fiber Sasquatch]

@derpwagon you really got to wonder how some things make it out of the boardroom. How the guy that suggested Probe wasn't laughed out of the room is a mystery we may never solve

[derp]

@carbon-fiber-sasquatch Things were different in the 1980s.

[Carbon Fiber Sasquatch]

@midengine Offering the Miata with a turbo is a no brainer in my opinion. The chassis can easily take it and they'd definitely sell.

[Carbon Fiber Sasquatch]

@derpwagon

[trivet]

@carbon-fiber-sasquatch
BRZ with the WRX Turbo boxer 4.

[Carbon Fiber Sasquatch]

@cobrajoe Hopefully Mazda is working its way to full RWD platforms. A RWD Mazda 3 hatch would be amazing

[707]

Dodge Durango SRT. They offer the R/T with 7 seats, but not the SRT, and I can't figure out why. Some of us need those 7 seats as much as we need the HEMI. Why can't we have both?

[Carbon Fiber Sasquatch]

@707 I didn't know the SRT Durango only had 5 seats? That's really weird because the Hellcat Durango keeps its third row. Dodge makes weird decisions a lot...