I HATE the way the car market is going. If Cadillac discontinues the CT5 BW i'll have ZERO dream cars left to buy new. Goodbye LC500! You will be missed!
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a70203684/2026-lexus-lc-dead/
It's really tough right now being a new car enthusiast as the options are dwindling to historic low numbers.
I am somewhat less concerned about the EVs because demand has gotten extremely low and makers are discontinuing current and possibly future EV products. Even Tesla is suffering badly.
With Caddy focusing on EVs mostly I would be completely shocked if they switch back to these BW type enthusiasts cars later.
Yeah, things are pretty grim.
There is a bit of hope though. Supposedly Infiniti is coming out with a G35/Q50 successor that will be RWD and manual. Alfa has delayed their Giulia/Stelvio replacements so they can be reengineered to not just be EVs. Seems the GTI and Golf R will get updated to meet Euro 7 emissions regulations so they can live past 2030.
I mean, if you don't mind wearing white New Balance shoes and a baseball cap, the Chevrolet keeps on making the Corvette better and better...
Quote from: GreatBigAbyss on Feb 01, 2026, 08:49 PMI mean, if you don't mind wearing white New Balance shoes and a baseball cap, the Chevrolet keeps on making the Corvette better and better...
Yeah. a ZR1X would be fun for sure. 8)
Quote from: GreatBigAbyss on Feb 01, 2026, 08:49 PMI mean, if you don't mind wearing white New Balance shoes and a baseball cap, the Chevrolet keeps on making the Corvette better and better...
But not in a manual...
The good news is that the collector/enthusiast market has been kinda soft, obviously there's exceptions, but 60's/70's stuff is flat/declining and while 80's/90's are doing well, 2000's haven't really hit their stride yet meaning there are some pretty awesome performance cars from that era that are very accessible. C5/C6 Corvettes, AMGs, BMW M-Cars, Porsche, Maserati, etc. You can get some really good driver's cars well under $20K if you're OK with a bit of risk in maintenance cost.
Quote from: Gurgie on Feb 02, 2026, 08:47 AMQuote from: GreatBigAbyss on Feb 01, 2026, 08:49 PMI mean, if you don't mind wearing white New Balance shoes and a baseball cap, the Chevrolet keeps on making the Corvette better and better...
But not in a manual...
That's what killed it for me, to me the Corvette ended with the C7. While the new C8 is obviously the faster, superior performance car, it is such a change from the past 7 generations that it lost some of the appeal to the group of previous buyers.
Quote from: Firm on Feb 02, 2026, 10:55 AMThe good news is that the collector/enthusiast market has been kinda soft, obviously there's exceptions, but 60's/70's stuff is flat/declining and while 80's/90's are doing well, 2000's haven't really hit their stride yet meaning there are some pretty awesome performance cars from that era that are very accessible. C5/C6 Corvettes, AMGs, BMW M-Cars, Porsche, Maserati, etc. You can get some really good driver's cars well under $20K if you're OK with a bit of risk in maintenance cost.
There is definitely some great options for enthusiast cars in the used market, and that should continue for while. There will be some time in the future when those older manual vehicles will be less than their automatic versions due to this next generations unwillingness/lack of interest/ and inability to learn and drive manual cars. We'll all likely be a decade or two older than today, so some of us will likely be out of the performance car market at that point altogether.
Quote from: Johnnymac on Feb 02, 2026, 11:15 AMQuote from: Gurgie on Feb 02, 2026, 08:47 AMQuote from: GreatBigAbyss on Feb 01, 2026, 08:49 PMI mean, if you don't mind wearing white New Balance shoes and a baseball cap, the Chevrolet keeps on making the Corvette better and better...
But not in a manual...
That's what killed it for me, to me the Corvette ended with the C7. While the new C8 is obviously the faster, superior performance car, it is such a change from the past 7 generations that it lost some of the appeal to the group of previous buyers.
Aside from the automatic only thing, it's also giant for a mid engined car and I just don't think it looks great inside or out.
Would love a C7 Grand Sport though.
Quote from: Johnnymac on Feb 02, 2026, 11:15 AMthat it lost some of the appeal to the group of previous buyers.
Nah, the average age of Vette owners is 60+.
They are probably happy with auto since it won't bother their knee replacements! LOL 😆
Quote from: Oliver on Feb 02, 2026, 11:46 AMQuote from: Johnnymac on Feb 02, 2026, 11:15 AMQuote from: Gurgie on Feb 02, 2026, 08:47 AMQuote from: GreatBigAbyss on Feb 01, 2026, 08:49 PMI mean, if you don't mind wearing white New Balance shoes and a baseball cap, the Chevrolet keeps on making the Corvette better and better...
But not in a manual...
That's what killed it for me, to me the Corvette ended with the C7. While the new C8 is obviously the faster, superior performance car, it is such a change from the past 7 generations that it lost some of the appeal to the group of previous buyers.
Aside from the automatic only thing, it's also giant for a mid engined car and I just don't think it looks great inside or out.
Would love a C7 Grand Sport though.
I do like the C7's, kinda cross shopped them a bit when I was looking for my 997, great bang for the buck vs a 911, still feels like a big wide car compared to my 997.