Cars that live up to the hype and cars that fail to deliver.

[A7xogg]

Well as fist owners we all know the fist definitely delivers as an awesome car. Let's name one car that you drove that delivered and one that hasn't.
Car that delivered for me is the Civic type r. Man it just does everything right for me at least (yes I do love the design and looks of the car).
Car that hasn't is the Subaru WRX. From the bland driving experience to the features I just don't know why people love it. Would love to hear everyone's list

 

[TheSixtyFive]

Not a car per se, but for me it's a 2011 Ram 2500 Heavy Duty that disappointed. Wasn't mine - it belongs to my employer and I used it during a move. While it was useful for my purposes, holy CRAP I hated that truck. I'm not a truck guy by any means, so I'm already biased, but...

I totally understand why people joke about Dodge/Ram trucks being "shipping crates." The 6.7l Cummins turbo diesel? Nice engine. Oh, she's a thirsty beast - you probably get 0mpg city and 1mpg highway. But it has torque for days and runs pretty smooth. Everything attached to the engine though, just horrid junk. The transmission seems to rethink whether or not it really wants to shift into the next gear in the middle of doing so. The steering is so incredibly vague that any input you give is really just a suggestion. Once the bureaucracy inside the steering rack approves the proper paperwork in triplicate the truck may deign to corner. The brakes do NOTHING until you depress the pedal 1/3 of the way and then they lock up. It's like the brake pedal is a binary switch - it's either on or off, no in-between. The interior is the most uninspired, cheap bull crap I've dealt with in recent memory. I mean, it's a work truck, so I'll give a pass on that, but I have to mention it. It made getting back into my FiST feel like luxury.

As for a car that delivered? Well, I recently drove a 2015 John Cooper Works Mini Cooper S. Very fun little car. The extremely flashy design wasn't really my thing, but the car had it where it counts. Very nice performance, three different performance profiles from the factory, a pretty nice infotainment screen, and my favorite feature on the car - go-kart steering! You only need one full turn (or maybe less?) of the wheel in either direction to lock the wheels in that direction. That single thing made the car a real blast to drive and made it feel so responsive and nimble, right on the edge of being twitchy in fact. My only real complaint about it was how incredibly stiff the clutch pedal and shifter were. Made switching gears a bit of a workout.

If You like the cart feeling, you should test my 1984 lbs FiST

 

[Turtle]

Disappointment was Challenger SRT8 - the car looks good, sounds great but when you think your gonna be put back in your seat... now, I'm not talking about the hellcat but the "standard version".

"live up to the hype" was the FiST. I guess it was more of a surprise than the hype part. I knew how the car was reviewed but I just figured it was reviewed on more of a "let's all rave about the Fiesta ST" thing than actual "performance", if you will...yeah, sounds like I'm brown-nosing to the community but I was really surprised how quick the car was on the test drive. When I walked back into the dealership showroom with a smile on my face, they knew they had me at that point!

 

[haste]

Waiting for the Veloster N and hopefully the i30 not too long after!

Fiesta definitely lived up to it. I read about it for 2 years before test driving one and buying it the same day. Drove my friends 5.0 mustang cobra and meh.

I drove the Ariel Atom at VIR Patriot Course and loved every moment. Definitely a quick car, even in base trim.

 

[dmb]

I didn't know what the AA was so I looked it up...damm thing is a go-kart for us ''HUSKY" grown ups

 

[Ford ST]

I didn't know what the AA was so I looked it up...damm thing is a go-kart for us ''HUSKY" grown ups

It's a amazing car. The base model is all you need with a supercharged Honda Civic SI engine. You can also look up the Ariel nomad instead of being a track car it's more like a performance dune buggy that's perfectly street legal. Now the Polaris Slingshot those things are piles of crap.

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

 

[Mikey456]

My 91 gti definitely delivered on the fun factor especially with the 16v, but not on the reliability. The fist reminds me of that car. I miss the rev happy N/A engine though. Before the Gti I had a 914. Great handling, no power and space to put stuff in.

 

[M-Sport fan]

My 91 gti definitely delivered on the fun factor especially with the 16v, but not on the reliability. The fist reminds me of that car. I miss the rev happy N/A engine though. Before the Gti I had a 914. Great handling, no power and space to put stuff in.

I had an '89 A2 GTI 16V, and if I recall correctly, it's red line was even lower than the current FiST (5800, I think?).
Did VDUB increase the rev limit on the latter 2.0 liter versions?

 

[kona16]

Cars that I have owned that lived up to expectation...
Mk1 GTI (one of the first hot hatches in the US, wish I had one now)
NA Miata (still own since new)
Fiesta ST

Didn't...
1st gen Eclipse (meh)
Scion iM - manual (don't ask)
BMW 1 Series (slower then expected, too expensive to maintain)

 

[TheSixtyFive]

Cars that I have owned that lived up to expectation...
Mk1 GTI (one of the first hot hatches in the US, wish I had one now)
NA Miata (still own since new)
Fiesta ST

Didn't...
1st gen Eclipse (meh)
Scion iM - manual (don't ask)
BMW 1 Series (slower then expected, too expensive to maintain)

I had only one Bmw Z4 (Owned 5 months only)….….she began to have electronical problems with engine warning light always on...I've sold her from despair ..
One day, going to the Stelvio Pass, she had the snappy idea to report a damage in the engine control unit...she didn't want to start ….so I found myself at 3000 mt (9842 ft) with sparkling snows and -15°.....I guess i have seen Santa coming towards me......I spent 3 hours there, waiting for the tow truck

 

[Mikey456]

I had an '89 A2 GTI 16V, and if I recall correctly, it's red line was even lower than the current FiST (5800, I think?).
Did VDUB increase the rev limit on the latter 2.0 liter versions?

It’s been a while since I owned the Gti. The “rev happy” I’m referring to is the power band characteristics of N/A vs a turbo charge engine not the rev limit of the engine. You should check it out on YouTube the European hillclimbs and the 16v Gti’s screaming up the hills.

 

[Olephart]

Well as fist owners we all know the fist definitely delivers as an awesome car. Let's name one car that you drove that delivered and one that hasn't.
Car that delivered for me is the Civic type r. Man it just does everything right for me at least (yes I do love the design and looks of the car).
Car that hasn't is the Subaru WRX. From the bland driving experience to the features I just don't know why people love it. Would love to hear everyone's list

If you're talking about the latest incarnation, I personally think you need your eyes testing before you drive a car.

 

[Fast Eddie]

When I was 18 back in 1979 Paid $350 for a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner. With a built 440 Magnum/torque-flite automatic. It was uncontrollably fast. Rear end always wanted to go sideways. I miss the shear insanity of it. Sold it to a friend. Who wrapped it around a telephone pole. Biggest letdown was a 1989 Accord. Last year with a carb. Had 1000 vacuum hoses on it. Never could get it to run right.

 

[M-Sport fan]

It’s been a while since I owned the Gti. The “rev happy” I’m referring to is the power band characteristics of N/A vs a turbo charge engine not the rev limit of the engine. You should check it out on YouTube the European hillclimbs and the 16v Gti’s screaming up the hills.

I have an old video (VHS LOL!) from the Group B WRC days with a Group A GTI 16V running in a few WRC events.

There are also a few still running in our 'local' SCCA/PHA hillclimbs here in Pennsyltuckey.

 

[A7xogg]

If you're talking about the latest incarnation, I personally think you need your eyes testing before you drive a car.

Thats your opinion and its find by me

 

[CGLENN27]

Thats your opinion and its find by me

In person, I think the car looks fine. I think time will be much kinder to the design of the car because just looking at how design of cars are going, this will probably be a timeless look and will also be the most valuable and collectible of all the cars in its class (not to mention on head 2 heads with its comp, everyone seems to think its the best all around car). I'd love to drive one.

 

[A7xogg]

In person, I think the car looks fine. I think time will be much kinder to the design of the car because just looking at how design of cars are going, this will probably be a timeless look and will also be the most valuable and collectible of all the cars in its class (not to mention on head 2 heads with its comp, everyone seems to think its the best all around car). I'd love to drive one.

Its rather exceptional, hopefully you can get to drive one

 

[CGLENN27]

Its rather exceptional, hopefully you can get to drive one

I'll add it to my wish list of Honda's I really wanna drive before i die, (original) NSX, Integra type-r,.....

 

[A7xogg]

I'll add it to my wish list of Honda's I really wanna drive before i die, (original) NSX, Integra type-r,.....

an nsx r would be epic to drive i bet

 

[Capri to ST]

I'll add it to my wish list of Honda's I really wanna drive before i die, (original) NSX, Integra type-r,.....

I was fortunate enough to get an original NSX about 10 years ago, and it lives up to the hype. It was a groundbreaking car in many ways, and was better than the Ferraris and Porsches of the time. Honda was at the top of their game in Formula 1 and decided to make it to let their fantastic engineers stretch their legs on a street car. There's a neat F1 connection to Ayrton Senna, who helped develop it. He was driving Honda-engined McLarens at the time.
It is a fantastic car, handles great and is surprisingly quick. It's quite analog, like the ST, with a beautiful intake noise right behind your head.
Somewhat surprisingly, the ST is as fun to drive if not more, it's so good that if I didn't have the NSX I'd be fine.