ITT: non-gigantic pigfat cars

Why the fuck are cars so goddamned big in the US these days? Oh right, because everyone wants a fucking SUV/Crossover. Well, I don't. I currently have a 2014 Mazda3 that's pretty alright, but I'm craving something nicer with more power that's around the same size and not FWD. I want to love the Mustang, Camaro, Stinger, Regal GS, Jag XE, S4, etc, but goddamn, they're all huge and weigh a ton in comparison, which kills their MPGs. I don't need a ton of space, I just want something to daily drive and have fun with from time to time that has a highway MPG rating closer to 30 rather than 20. I know, it seems retarded to care about mileage on a high performance car, but fuck you, there are options that fit this bill.

Lately I've been doing a lot of research on the Golf R, since it seems to be the smallest/lightest car with the most HP that isn't wrong wheel drive and still gets decent MPGs. The M240i also piques my interest, though it's definitely down on interior creature comforts compared to the vdub. Then there's the S3, which is .. a more expensive version of the Golf. Is there anything else out there that I'm not thinking about?

Those are your options.

Note that if you aren’t going racing and don’t plan to tune, you’re better off with a GTI. Unless you’re like me, and has to have top of the line everything, even to your own financial detriment :(

There's really no reason to buy a Golf R in a universe where the Focus RS exists.

Sure there is, if you actually want to ride inside of it.

GT86

The R is less engaging than the GTI clubsport

its because the people are fatter thats really all there is to it

Riding in? Maybe. Driving? Not even close.

Yeeeah, same boat. I have the spare cash, I'm just really jewish when it comes to spending it. Knowing there's a faster AWD model available kills the GTI for me, even if it is 9/10ths of the R for thousands less.

Test drove it, twas quite fun but the ride quality was garbage. I couldn't live with the harshness day to day, I'm too old for that shit anymore

This car you want makes absolutely no sense.
>i don't want fwd but i want good mpgs
>i want a good interior but i don't want it to be big
>I want it to be sporty but i don't want a sporty ride
This car doesn't exist. It's a paradox.

The Focus RS interior is terrible

Safety requirements are the reason cars are so big. Side impact and rollover requirements gave led to cars becoming meatier and heavier with big C pillars

>The Focus RS interior is terrible
Oh sorry I thought this was a car hobbyist's forum where people cared about performance and enjoyed driving.

Mastretta MXT sounds right up your alley but I think they only sell it in Mexico and a few other Latin American countries. I have seen a few in Texas, but all with Mexican plates.

If you want a 4 door, the Focus, Veloster, Elantra, Civic, Forte, and Impreza sport derivatives are your best bet. If you are majorly invested in RWD, the Infiniti Q50 is pretty much the closest you'll get to your idea of perfection. The upcoming Genesis G70 will be pretty close to what you're looking for too. If you're down to wait a few months the next gen 3 series is going to be able to best the Civic type R in it's base North American gasoline form and is going to totally regain it's position among the sport sedan crowd. The hybrid derivative will undercut the Tesla model 3 and provide better performance as well.

t. Mexican parts supplier

There's more to a car than how it drives. For the price the Ford Focus RS is absolutely abysmal. My friend has one and me and my brother laugh about it all the time because it's 50,000 shit box.

The G70 is something I'm definitely interested in seeing, as it's supposedly slightly smaller/lighter than the Stinger despite being on the same platform. I'm also waiting around to see what Volvo does with the new S60 this summer.

No one ever seems to mention the Q50/Q60 for some reason, and media reviews all seem pretty meh .. are they really just that blandly received by people? My cousin has a Q50 with the 3.0tt and it was a hoot to ride in, but I haven't driven one myself. Interior seemed pretty good.

There's more to a car than the interior, and the RS doesn't cost $50000. If he paid that much for it then he's retarded but for what it actually costs, which is about $35000, there aren't many cars that perform notably better. For example it's better than the Golf R or STI in a straight line and in the bends.

>tfw a VW Up! weighs a ton
get a used Elise

Any infiniti that uses the Nissan 3.6 V6 is bulletproof

The 3 cars I mentioned in the OP exist, the problem is buyers like me don't. No market for a non-FWD small car/hatch with balls and a non-shit interior I guess.

You’re right but we don’t get that in America.

Q50s are fucking amazing. They're just so cheap that no one considers them proper luxury so they're looked over. I don't understand why. They're more comfortable than the German competitors while also more fun to drive. Just chalk it up to consumers being sheeple.

Why are you so hung up over it being a "performance car" if you don't care about performance? You're never going to take it to a track ever so what does it matter if it's FWD or not? You could save a lot of money and get a better ride. And if you do care about performance then why do you care about the interior? Are you going to go to the track and, after getting smoked by everyone else, sit alone in your car muttering to yourself about how nice your interior is while the STI and RS and Type R owners are in the background having fun and comparing exhausts

except the RS is garbage and the R isn't

Says a lot about the R if some garbage is faster than it.

The 3.6 model yes, but the 3.0 turbo not so much. They're having a lot of weird electronic and compressor problems.

Honestly I'd prefer AWD to anything due to having to deal with winter around here. It's not usually terrible, but it happens. Being able to take off from a stop and actually put the power down is something FWD just can't do correctly. Also, I care about the interior because I'm not a poorfag and I want something nice to live with day to day when I'm not out hooning, is that so hard to grasp?

Yes, it is hard to grasp. I can't understand why anyone would want a compromisemobile that's okay in some fields and great in none. You say you're not a poorfag but if that's the case then you could just get 2 cars. You could get the easy daily cruiser and the fun hooner, but instead you want this boring middle ground car. It's baffling.

...

Bench racers like yourself need to realize the interior is where you sit anytime you operate the car, it matters as much as the exterior of the car.

I'd love to have a second car for myself (which would probably be a Stingray), but sadly the garage attached to the condo the wife and I live in only gives me 2 spots, one for me and one for her. Sooooo I'm stuck looking for a compromisemobile.

Soy boys like yourself need to realize that not everyone cares about what gadgets a car has and what materials the dashboard is made of, we care about driving the car and having fun in it. It matters more than the interior or the exterior.
A lot of it probably has to do with the fact you're 17 years old and are spoiled by modern cars. To someone who grew up with cars in the 90s and 00s, even a Chevy Cruze may as well be a Lexus by my standards.

You can get 40 highway mpg in an old Corvette with a stock engine and underdrive pully doing the speed limit.