Fifty thousand greenbacks buys you a seriously mean piece of steel on wheels, but only if you avoid the garbage like Porsche 912s (seriously...why do these cost more than a similar condition Beetle?) and brand new Jeep Wranglers (newsflash...the car will be worth $5k in 10 years...sorry new Jeep buyers...I didn't make the rules, I just arbitrarily shout at people from my soapbox). A few more comments on my $50k search -- I didn't just find $50k cars that looked nice or were new, I picked cars that got you in a group where you couldn't afford for $30k, but looked like they could be parked next to something that cost $100k. So, awesome cars like the new Focus RS, or Civic Type R just won't make the cut -- same for a $50k restored muscle car from the late 60s...because you can get something that looks 99% the part for half the price. /end rant...on to the cars. The more I cruised through a selection of manual transmission equipped $50k cars on fleabay, the more I realized that this was indeed a difficult assignment. But here goes...
