Welcome to Sports Car Talk, where fun cars rule!

We're coming to the end of the era of really great cars powered by traditional fuels. Our gasoline and diesel powered toys may soon become as extinct as the dinosaurs that enabled fossil fuels to be created in the first place. Electric and hydrogen powered sports cars will certainly be built, but I doubt they will stir our passions as much as the internal combustion engine.

So let's celebrate sports cars with exhaust fumes, while we still can! This site is dedicated to just that.

You know you want it.

Sports cars are great "starter" cars.

First time drivers should be encouraged to start out with a classic sports cars, like an MG or a Fiat X1/9. Those great old cars don't come with air bags or ABS and they aren't the most reliable things on the road either. But that's what makes them great starter cars!

Why? First, they're generally rather slow. You can feel like Timo Glock without breaking the speed limit and getting in over your head. Second, the lack of advanced safety features, other than seat belts, forces you to learn real driving skills rather than relying on the car to save you. Third, older sports cars are simple, meaning they are easy to repair and the parts are cheap. And finally, they are totally cool. You can look great on a budget and have a blast as a bonus.

Forget about Toyota or Hyundai. Buy an MGB and find out what driving is really all about!

Fast cars to love.

  1. View tvr-tuscan-1
  2. View X19
  3. View lotuselise
  4. View mercedesconvertible
  5. View tr8
  6. View porsche911
  7. View austinmini
  8. View bmw_m1
  9. View datsun-240z
  10. View Avengers-Lotus-Elan
  11. View jensen-healey
  12. View triumph-spitfire
  13. View tr6
  14. View 1946MG-TC
  15. View bmwe30

What's wrong at Volkswagen?

Volkswagen is a brand you either love, or you hate. If you've never owned one, you probably think of VW as the company that makes fun, cool, reliable small cars. If you have owned one, you probably think of VW as the company that makes fun, cool, but horribly built crap. I can say that because I've owned 3 of them, and because the latest JD Power Vehicle Dependability Study ranks Volkswagen at position 34, which is third from the bottom.

My first VW was a 1985 Golf. I can't remember everything that went wrong with it, but suffice to say I got to know the service writer at the dealership on a first name basis. Many of the problems were due to the inept mechanics where I bought the car, but a switch to a different VW dealer made things much better. Thus, a few years later I traded in the Golf for a 1988 Jetta, freshly spewed forth from Hell itself. I'm not sure a more wretched car could be built. I used to joke that the car had more miles on it vertically (up and down on the shop's lift) than horizontally. Fortunately VW provided a decent warranty or else I'd have gone bankrupt trying to fix the thing. Everything in the world broke on the Jetta, even things that had broken on the Golf 3 years earlier. Obviously VW wasn't using warranty claims data to design upgraded components. This rolling metallic puss ball of a car was so awful I eventually let the bank take it back rather than make another payment on it. I wished the repo man "good luck" as he attempted to drive it away, and I was glad to see it go.

I took a break from the brand for several years, but a slick salesman convinced me that Volkswagen's problems were behind them, and I signed on the line for a brand new 2000 turbo Jetta. Apparently Hell was still in the car making business as my third VW was the worst of them all. This car had more squeaks than a rubber ducky factory. Rust proofing wax oozed out of the rocker panels on hot days. The drivetrain snapped and popped. Turning on the air conditioner resulted in the car being filled with the smell of stagnant swamp water. The rubber coating on much of the interior surfaces peeled off, leaving shiny plastic exposed. Windows went down, but wouldn't go back up. There was more, but months of therapy have helped me to block out some of the memories.

VW's reliability problems are legendary. All you have to to is "Google" it and you'll find enough articles to keep you busy for weeks. Every couple of years some VW executive will address the issue and state with great authority that they have made major strides in improving quality. Come on back...we're all better now! And then another report comes out from JD Power or Consumer Reports or the Feds and we learn that nothing has changed. Volkswagen can't, or won't, get their act together.

I want to like Volkswagen. I love old Scirocco's and I've always wanted a Corrado with that supercharged engine. But I will never, ever, buy another new VW. I simply don't trust them. In fact, I've instructed my family to commit me to a mental institution should they ever find me browsing at a VW dealership. It's that serious.

So what's wrong with Volkswagen? Are they incompetent, or are they simply arrogant, convinced that we'll buy whatever they make as long as it's marketed as quirky and cool? I'm not totally sure, but I'm leaning toward arrogance. I'm afraid the company that brought us the spiffy little Beetle after World War 2 has become nothing more than a German version of General Motors...so big and out of touch they don't realize they could fall.

But, even so, if I could find a clean, running, and rust free Corrado, I might be tempted! Get out the straight-jacket.

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