Well, it seems that my brother is going to be in the market for yet another car.  His saga has been a lengthy one, riddled with bad luck and hard times.  He's on his third new car this year and on the cusp of his fourth.

First, some background on how he came to need yet another new car:

After returning a Honda Fit for a paint flaw that the dealership wouldn't fix, he stepped into a bright green, toaster looking contraption (Scion xB).  It was a great little box up until the point where a reversing Navigator caused a huge paint flaw in the driver's side rear.  Whoops.  He decided to go back to his Ford roots and step into a Focus, much to my dismay.  "It's different than the 2000 I had," he said.  "It won't have the recall issues," he said.  Well, long story short, he's Lemon Lawing the car.  Four times for a major safety issue that nobody can fix (airbag related).

So he's pretty tired of the Ford saga and wants something different.  Here are his requirements verbatim:

The new vehicle must fall under most (if not all) of these categories:
1. No 'FORD' emblem anywhere on the car. I'm all for something technically owned by Ford (i.e. Volvo or Mazda), but it has to be proven reliable.
2. Fun to drive....RWD preferably
3. Relatively good gas mileage (15-20 city, 25-30 hwy)
4. Prefer cars that run on regular gas, but will sacrifice premium if the gas mileage is a bit higher.
5. Manual transmission
6. RELIABLE!!!!!!!!!!!
7. Still under factory warranty (so for most manufacturers, '03+ model years)
8. Price range between $15-20k.

So that being said, I instantly said GTO.  I mean, why not?  It's well screwed together, one can find a 04-05 with a 6 speed that's got some warranty left, it gets decent mileage but will use premium.  Right now, he's pretty sold on the Mazda RX-8 but I think it's going to be a mistake.  He came from powerful Mustangs and I think the GTO would be a nice return to his roots.

So what would you recommend?

Yeah, that's about it. :)

~Craig

Photo:  GM