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ST, WRX, MS3 or Genesis 2.0t?

15K views 78 replies 29 participants last post by  Boresi 
#1 ·
My 05 Focus is great but I am looking for a new car.

I am trying to stay under 22000 so that kind of knocks out any new cars, so that means the ST; but if I wait a few more months maybe I can swing it.

WRX
Pros:AWD
Cons:Weak trannny and interior styling.

MS3
Pro:Cheaper and loaded.
Cons:FWD, my sisters 07 Mazda 3 has had a few problems.

Genesis 2.0t
Pro:RWD and great interior
Con:A little pricy.

ST
Dont know much about it yet.

Any input would be great. Thanks.

This is my top choice as of now

http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/invent...smission=M&lostFilters=Trims#listing=38994991


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#2 ·
did you do any searching... There is like 50 of these threads already just saying! I sold my SVTF and went and bought me a 05 WRX STI I LOVE IT! the interior i like more and love the styling, power, handling, and I get so many looks in it!

If you get a WRX or STI make sure its unmolested and has low mileage if its modded and has high mileage more than likely driven like piss!

MS3 are nice kinda harder to find and if I got one i would go with a Gen 1 they are cheaper, better looking IMO, and lighter... You could also go with a MS6 if you dont mind sedan look.

Genesis coupe, I dont really no much about that one...

ST kinda pricey compared to other Turbo Mid Size 4cylinder cars... New so any bugs it has you will be the first to know and experience it... Power isnt too high, price is fairly high, wont hold its value as well as a Subie, or MS3,6...


Thats my 2 cents... Hope it helped.
 
#4 ·
Depends, what do you wanna do with it? Do you ever take your car off road? Do you have bad winters? Maybe the wrx. We have both of those in Washington, so AWD is a must for me after the focus. Do you really want to stand out? Very few people have the new ST, so that may be what you want. The Genesis would be an lot of fun too.

Personally, if I had the money, and if I hadn't already dropped an obscene amount of cash into the focus, I'd probably be in a wrx. Or the Taurus SHO or Fusion Titanium with AWD.
 
#6 ·
I'm not huge fan of high power FWD cars, had a SRT-4 and 1st and 2nd gear were a waste. The genesis is nice because it is RWD, seems fun! I live in Florida so no winter here. Just want a quick daily driver that is reliable, RWD is a huge plus though.
 
#12 ·
I wouldn't touch a Hyundai even if it was given to me. Quality and refinement is not up to par despite what their commercials want you to think. Plus Hyundai over-rates their engines' outputs consistently.

The Subie's tranny isn't as weak as most make it out to be, though. But start modding it then boom boom.

And if you love torque steer, then you'll love the MS3. My mom has a 2009 Mazda3 hatch with over 75k miles on it and the only work needed on it was the power steering recall. But if you like your cold A/C, then walk away because the Mazda3 has the worst in the business.
 
#42 ·
I wouldn't touch a Hyundai even if it was given to me. Quality and refinement is not up to par despite what their commercials want you to think. Plus Hyundai over-rates their engines' outputs consistently.
have you ever owned a gencoupe? or are you still stuck in the mid 90's mentality of hyundai sucks cause its korean? or did you hear from a buddy who has a buddy that had a buddy with a hyund that broke down a lot?

[popcorn]

if youre looking at the genesis, do yourself a favor and drive a v6 mustang with the performance package (or at least the 3.31 gears). its a damn good car
i used to drift around a v6 mustang at the 1/4th and still win : )

yes! fanboy in the house! cause i had one and that thing was made by tonka
 
#15 ·
Real sports cars are actually rwd, like the gensis.

Not too sure I would consider the genesis a true sports car, though.

The FRS is an awesome car. I recently had a chance to ride along at a track day in a couple of them. They are not very fast in a strait line, but great to drive. Awesome rear suspension, too. They are a bit small, though. The back seats are useless.

I want an FRS as DD so I can keep my roady off the streets every day. I like not having car payment right now though.
 
#16 ·
Had a WRX. takes turns like a boss! i couldn't believe how hard it was to lose control in that car. people say "you don't drive it, You aim it" its badass on the curves, and amazing off road. as far as driving on the beach and dirt and what not. wont climb rocks of course. but its a great car in the snow as well. but straights? not a sports car. got my ass handed to me many times by real sports cars. could beat my racing buddys around tracks and neighborhoods but if they wanted to pass me up on a highway. i didn't have a choice in the say so. and to mod it up to compete with true sports cars youll need to dump alot of cash compared to focus mods.

But its a hell of a lot faster than a stock focus. im turning mine into a kit car.. otherwise id still have my subie.i miss it. but i need a truck. so this is the only way my wife will let me keep a sports car. transforming my focus into a circuit car, which is also 100% street legal in the US. and getting a truck as a daily. she drives a prius.

just an idea. is your focus paid for? starting at 8,000$ you could transform it into this! and itd be faster then all the cars you listed due to weight. 1,200 pounds. im guessing mine will do 0-60 in 3.2 sec range with the JRSC. of course. a regular focus.. would need... much much more..

if you want an idea of how that kit car will drive. check out top gears take on the car. this is based off of the ariel atom they are driving in the video. they make many types now. if you go turbo you can match the power in the video easily. but its out of my budget. an additional 4,000$ ish with a tune.
im happy with a $15,000 car that will run with vetts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v4YNkurhLk
not sure what year this was recorded. it was the seconded fastest car they ever ran!
 
#17 ·
if youre looking at the genesis, do yourself a favor and drive a v6 mustang with the performance package (or at least the 3.31 gears). its a damn good car
 
#19 ·
The WRX/STI are not sports cars, they are hot hatches.

The ST is too new to say.

The MS3 torque steers like nothing else.

The Genesis gets rated well and if you get the 2.0T those Theta engines are fairly exploitable and it's RWD which puts its driving dynamics on a whole different field.

The V6 Mustang is easily the performance bargain of the entire group you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not test driving one. Previous V6 Mustangs sucked, yea. But this is as far removed from the Cologne powered boats of before.

And you can't seriously pick a Camaro V6 over the Mustang. The Mustang is lighter and handles better and the Camaro is quite a pig and has poor visibility.

Genesis or Mustang really. If you can somehow find a FRS/BRZ that isn't above 30k because of dealer markups by all means get that; it's getting glowing reviews and is more a drivers car than any of the ones I've mentioned.
 
#24 ·
BRZ. Base is around $25,000
You're not going to get it for 25k. It's low production numbers + Internet generated hype for the last 3 years will make sure it never goes below MSRP or even near it for a while.
 
#25 ·
I found the ST to be underpowered

I love the MS3, but the lack of rear or 4wd is a bit of a let-down

Genesis is fun to drive, but i was never impressed with quality of car

WRX/STI is fun as well and good quality, but from what ive seen, prices and parts are expensive.

v6 mustang is the best bang for buck, except its a mustang, so insurance is off the charts.

For the price, id say pick up a lightly used 1st gen speed3 for ~16k$ and have a few bucks left over for some mods.

It does torque steer, but its managable and fun as hell to drive, and it has all of the great utility of the focus
 
#34 ·
Saying you don't like the Mustang because its everywhere?...

I don't follow. Old ones with the exceptions of things like the Mach 1s, Shelby's and Terminators were cheap RWD sports cars. They weren't much good at the sports part, but they were cheap to maintain and cheap to fix with the downside being your insurance might raise your premiums because of it being a Mustang.

For the new ones? I'm glad more people have them. V6 or V8 it's a great car to have and the GT doesn't spend it's time spanking the Camaro SS, it now harasses M3s that are twice the price. That's the kind of performance it's putting out.

So I could care less if 20% of my city is comprised of Mustangs. Gotta look at the value the car brings to the table and how good of a expense it is.

Discounting the current gen Civic which is truly a failed generation, the 8th gen was probably one of the better if not best small cars to buy. Who cares if everyone and their mother had one, it was that well made compared to the rest.
 
#35 ·
My 05 Focus is great but I am looking for a new car.

You want a new car cause >>>not enough grunt? Or what? If you need a awd car thats one thing. If you like the car & it fits you, I'd throw a Fwerks turbo & a torsen diff at it. Add a desent suspesion to it. Shocker= No car payments. Unless your a payment kind of guy.

r
 
#36 ·
You want a new car cause >>>not enough grunt? Or what? If you need a awd car thats one thing. If you like the car & it fits you, I'd throw a Fwerks turbo & a torsen diff at it. Add a desent suspesion to it. Shocker= No car payments. Unless your a payment kind of guy.

r
Yes, a major reason is my Focus doesnt have any power. I would love to turbo it but it has 125,000 miles on it and a auto tranny that has already failed once and was rebuilt at 85,000 miles. If I could safely turbo my focus I would do that, but I dont want to dump 5000 bucks in a car and have it blow up [:(] If I save that 5000 and put the 4000 I could get for my car that would be a hell of a down payment.
 
#39 ·
If we are honest, buying a Mustang right now would be crazy flat out.

New generation is bringing a new platform and Independent rear suspension. I guess Ford finally figured out how to do it for cheap and have it work as well if not better than the LRA right now.
 
#38 ·
If power does matter, any of these cars can be tuned to what can be only described as a metric shit ton of power.

The bonus of forced induction.

Even the Genesis and its 2.0T have a hell of a lot more breathing room than the NA competition.

I've seen scary things come out of WRX/STI cars. Even in stock form a WRX is a proper bruiser with 265hp, it actually beats the STI to 60 because it doesn't need to shift, it's only a 5 speed opposed to the STI and its 6.
 
#43 ·
A lot depends on what you like in a car. I like smooth power delivery, not a fan of turbo lag and sluggishness in low rpms, so ms3 and wrx are not for me. Plus they are old platforms with terrible gas mileage.

FWD vs RWD vs AWD is a personal thing too. With a powerful RWD you have ot be careful with your right foot powering out of turns as the rear end slides out, many people enjoy that others find it disconcerting. FWD you have more tire slippage taking off...if on a hill or in the wet this is exaggerated and really annoying, plus you have torque steer to deal with and issues with traction when cornering hard. AWD is prob my fave but looking at worse gas mileage and some power loss at the wheels.

With a $22k budget I'd save up a few grand as the cars you listed are more like $25k new then go test drive them to see what you like. If your budget is strict I'd go with a new v6 mustang if you like RWD or a slightly used GTI if you like FWD or need the rear seat room. Thats just me though.
 
#45 ·
Might as well get the 350Z.

The G35 is far from a competitive sports coupe, the G37 fixed that by sacrificing some of its ride quality and being more stiff but I mean, meh.

G coupe or sedan is more for grand touring. And at those prices a 335i or xi is a far better car at both grand touring and sportiness.
 
#46 ·
Gen 3 RX7 used, of course, no depreciation, faster and better handling than anything listed here so far, RWD, only one passenger FTW!!!!! You just have to find one that hasn't been raped with a badly installed body kit.
 
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