I love car shopping and spending other folk’s money!!

I need a very firm, no BS budget to work with. Everyone has a “would like to spend” number and a number in the back of their head somewhere that they know they will cough up. Knowing that at the onset would help. If you are considering used, be very careful with regards to buying used performance cars. You have two types of buyers. 1) Those who can’t drive and buy them because they want bragging rights. You are usually OK with buying their rejects, but make sure you have a mechanic buddy look them over real good. 2) Those who buy them to drive them like they stole them. Some of these actually know how to maintain them and drive the hell out them without destroying the drive train. Some know how to drive, but couldn’t care less about maintenance. Be cautious with this type of previous owner.

Do you want four doors, or are you OK with a two door? Do you really want room for four adults, or two, or more? What do you consider fun? My idea of fun is probably different than yours. For instance, I will not consider driving a sports car with a slush box, even if it has a manual mode and steering wheel mounted paddles. Yuck, manual for me to have fun. When I shift and accelerate, if the passenger can raise his / her arms, then it’s under powered. You said you like convertibles, really?? If so, get one and don’t settle. I love rag tops and am more than willing to put up with cons to having a convertible. This want, unfortunately, reduces the playing field and most high performance cars do not offer a rag top option (Z06 vette for example). Also, don’t believe all the BS that you have to buy an import to get quality or performance. You usually hear this crap from folks who get their information from magazines and don’t actually know squat or have real hands on experience. Also, with regards to imports, if it’s used, it probably does not have a warranty. If it breaks, be prepared to cry when you get the bill. Audi is extremely expensive to repair. A friend of mine just paid 12K to get the transmission replaced on his A6. Audi used to be very reliable, not so much anymore. You might be better of with a VW. They are basically the same car.