Michael-5 said:
Chevy build quality <<<<<<<< When I test drove the corvette, a new car, the seat and door handle were already broken. Driving a corvette at slow speed is like driving the crapiest of the crapiest 80's American sedans. They are fast, but they are cheap for a reason.
Yea, modern Porsches are almost Mid Engined. Over time they have shoved that engine close and close to the rear axel. I have never drove one, but from my experience driving racing sims and in real life, it takes too much power to oversteer in a V8 front engine RWD car. However if I drive the 911 and find out I don't like it, I'll look into a hardtop Lotus Evora, or a BMW M3. Can't afford any of them for a while anyway, just a dream, and with gas going up and up, this will likely be my only good gas powered car.
You're lucky in Europe to even get diesels. Only Merc and Volkswagen offer diesels in Canada, and since Volkswagons are made in Mexico here (which kills build quality), we don't get many options at the low end of the price spectrum. I wish BMW and Honda sold their diesels in Canada  If they did, or volkswagon were made like they are in Europe, I'd likely have gotten a diesel myself.
Out of curiousity, order these features out of what is most important for a fun car. Power, RWD, Engine Layout, Build Quality, Driving Position, Appearance, and Exclusivity. Just wondering because most people I know have a different order of what's important.
For me it's Build Quality, Power, Driving Position, RWD, Engine Layout, Appearance, then Exclusivity. However I know a lot of people who put RWD first. Like you said about underpowered mid engined cars though, they are not fun, and I can tell you the same logic applies to old weak BMWs/benz,
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I was envying Americans for getting Volkswagens so cheaper than here, but now I understand, the ones they sell here are rock solid and high quality, except that crappy Fox, built in Brazil, that has also jurassic engines that drink more fuel than far bigger and faster VW models. About Chevrolets, Corvette and Camaro are the only ones I'd ever buy, and I don't like GM's in general, Opel too heavily disappointed me when it lost its legendary reliability (my maternal grandpa's 1973, model year 1966, Kadett still works, despite having been used on bad country roads in the last 23 years, we don't use it anymore only because we can't find anymore shoes for its drum brakes).
About important factors, for me build quality is important regarding mechanics, less regarding body and interiors (as long as equipment isn't faulty and body doesn't get pierced by rust. I drove my dad's old Fiat Uno Diesel many years ago, they left the engine supports unchanged, the same as those for the far lighter gasoline engine, so after suffering country roads and all the holes and bumps in my town's roads for 70000km, the engine fell to the ground three times before we eventually changed the car, but the engine never suffered, apart some lube and cooling pipes torn.
So my list for a fun car, also considering that driving a 911long enough I could learn it enough to fully enjoy it, could be:
1) almost equally at the first place: Mechanics, Electrics and Electronics Build Quality, Lightness, Power/Weight Ratio, Driving Position
2) RWD (not amongst the first features as there ARE also fun FWD cars), Engine Layout (but in a forward engine, RWD, having the engine forward-central, like in BMW's, forward engine Ferrari's, Viper the Corvette is very important and beneficial both for traction and handling) and Body and Interiors Quality
3) Appearance (but there are some cars ugly, for my tastes, beyond my toleration, like VW Fox)
4) last, far behind, I'd say not even considered: Exclusivity, I really don't care about it, it's for insecure people that won't ever really be happy of what they have even if they become rich.
Final note: I'd like an extended authonomy electric car made this way, a generator run by a small, light twin cyl high efficiency diesel engine, batteries with enough capacity for short range trips at most a few tens km, but not too heavy, and four independent electric motors, one per wheel, making possible traction and stability control and torque vectoring without using the brakes, so avoiding their unnecessary wear, leaving them at maximum efficiency whenever needed and even recovering energy, instead of wasting it.
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And the last Alfa Romeo my dad owned had terrible build quality anyway, despite the excellent mechanics.
