[Crazy Canuck]

As title says,

what car would you guys get ?
I'm looking for a family car (sedan) with the following goodies:

• leather
• dual-climate-zone
• heated seats
• HIDs
• sun-roof
• leather interior
• decent handling/power
• automatic (wife doesn't want manual)

I test drove the Subaru Legacy GT Limited edition and wasn't impressed.
Although the AWD was good, lighting sucked, and the triptronic was bloody slow to shift. I prefer the Volvo S60 AWD a lot more compared to that one.
Anyways, what would you get as a car and why ?
I'm thinking on SAAB 93-Aero (2.8V6Turbo: 250hp/258tq, 3175lbs) vs SAAB 9-5(2.8I4Turbo: 260hp/258tq, 3670lbs)... pretty much same price, power.
The 9-3Aero is lighter (~500lbs) but less goodies... so might be more fun to drive, but maybe have less value then the 9-5.
It's a car I want to keep for long (10+ yrs), and have no kids YET, but they might be in the picture very soon, hence the decision for a family oriented car (practical)... but I still want something decent to drive... much better than the 94 civic I have.

Anyways... waiting on input.

[2000Z-71]

When I see beater I think cheap, but it's obvious that you aren't looking for cheap but a nice 4 door sedan that handles. I'd suggest looking at the Infiniti G35, it's available as the G35X which is all wheel drive since you're concerned about your wife driving a rear wheel drive car.

Sadly I traded in my 02 Camaro SS on an 06 G35 6MT. I'll be running it this spring in D stock. So far I've been very impressed with the car. The handling is very good and the stability control/traction control can be turned completely off. Even when engaged the stability control is not nearly as invasive as the Charger R/T that I drove. It will allow a little bit of tire squawk and tail out driving.

Other than that possibly the Audi A4. Be wary of the price since the option sheet is long and costly. Also Audi does not have the best reputation for reliability. My wife had a 99 A4 1.8T with the sport package and it was a fantastic car, but we did not want to keep it 1 day past the warranty.

When I was looking I wanted something rear wheel drive, manual transmission with handling good enough that I could autocross. I looked at the new 3 series BMW's, Mercedes C-class Sport, Audi A4, Dodge Charger and Infiniti G35. The BMW's were overpriced with mnile long option sheets. I also learned that the only bigger prick than a BMW driver is a BMW salesman. The Mercedes C-class had great handling but was just dog slow unless you stepped up to the C350 which is 6k more. The Audis were nice but no one in town had quite what I was looking for. The Charger was a little scary to drive. Great acceleration and high handling limits but no seat of the pants feel for what the car was doing. Kinda' like playing Gran Turismo on Playstation, the only sensation of speed is the scenery moving really fast.

The Infiniti offered what I thought was the most performance for the money. The car I got is a "stripper", a manual transmission with absolutely no options. But even then the manual transmission comes with the upgraded suspension and it has leather, heated seats, and power everything.

Hope all this helps.