But as for cars, I love my (’99 5 speed) Accord, and I’d love to have a Cayman and a Peugeot 404.

However, due to the generosity of the US taxpayer, I was able to spend many years in Europe during my military career.

Even before I had first set foot in Germany, I had already owned one Peugeot, One SAAB, and one Renault. I went on to purchase five more Renaults.

Now that I am retired, I try to go back to Europe every year and, if the stay is long enough, lease a new Renault short-term.

Although I would not hesitate to buy a new diesel Kangoo if I lived in Europe, my fondest recollections are of the three Renault 4’s I had at different times. They are the cars that taught me how to have fun with less than 40 horsepower. My only regret concerning French cars is that I never bought a Citroen 2CV when I had the chance.

So, if you’re in Northern Virginia and you see a Honda displaying an EU flag, thet’ll be me.

VIVE LA FRANCE!

If you go by ownership, Lotus would be Malaysian.

I would really like to own the nicer, more aesthetically pleasing British versions, but I am just too cheap and easily aggravated by breakdowns.

I liked my BMW 328, but it never really became a favorite. The rest weren’t really all that great.

I appreciate the japanese manufacturers efficiency and reliability.

I appreciate Italian design, and German engineering (but not german reliability, bleh!)

I, however, really love some of the US cars. I guess the Australian, too, since that is where the G8 originated.

Challenger, G8, CTS, even the Mustangs (which are my least favorite of the breed…) are just awesome. Anything with an SRT that doesn’t end in a -6.

Too much red meat in my diet, maybe.

Simple, rugged, and fun. My sort of fun.

Of those you listed, only the Lotus really evokes any passion in me. In the case of the MINI, I’d take one, but not in preference to a Civic.

In fact, second to the Elise, I’d have a VX220/Speedster over any of those other brands.

And then there’s the Solstice and Sky — more of the same. And that brings me to the MX-5. How did Mazda, a lightbulb manufacturer manage to produce a car with soul, when all BMW could do with Bentley was remove it?

What do I drive today, 35 years later? A Volvo V50, for better or worse.

And yes, I’ve spent many delightful hours riding and driving with my hero Eric Carlsson.

-Three amazing generations of MX-5/Miatas.
-Three amazing generations of MR-2s.
-The Corolla ae86.
-The Mitsubishi Starion.
-The third generation RX-7 – one of the most beautiful cars ever made.
-The fourth generation Supra – how great is this car? Just find a stock turbo six-speed and price it.
-The NSX.
-The S14 240SX – a beautiful car with perfect handling, I sorely miss mine.
-The Lexus SC300 5-speed manual.
-The S2000.
-All the Z cars.
-The WRX/EVO rally cars.
-The GT-R.

There is no other country that can touch that record of perfectly executed incredible cars.

And those are just the cars that were exported to America. When the JDM Japanese cars are included Japan is completely untouchable.

You want classics, check out the Toyota 2000GT and the handmade, Fairlady based first generation Silvia, just to start with.

With the MX-5 going strong, the IS and G holding the midsize market, and Toyobaru, Nissan and Mazda all hinting at small RWD coupes (all of which will make the 1-series look like an overpriced also-ran – oh wait, it already does) Japan will likely continue to be my car country of choice well into the future.

I would buy a car that had the following pedigree:

Basic design – Italian
Engineering – Germany
Interior design – England
Production – Japan
Marketing – USA
Spare parts -China

BTW : I’m Australian and if Australian cars are Knuckle dragging then cars from the U.S are still in the primordial ooze ! The Mustang has still got a live axle and the Corvette is good but is like a Model T compared with other sportscars !
Don’t get me started on your SUV lineup ! Geez

Judging Japan by the Corolla is like judging BMW by the Isetta. The Civic, on the other hand, is a damn good FWD car. I sold my G35 and I’m driving my girlfriend’s Civic while I wait to get a dirt cheap MX-5 in the winter. Her previous generation 1.7 liter Civic coupe is amazingly fun (I did make her get it with a manual). Without an LSD it’s hard to avoid one-wheel-drive standing starts, but through the corners it’s incredibly neutral. In normal driving wringing the hell out of the 1.7 is honestly more fun than short shifting the G35 to try to remain at semi-legal speeds ever was.

If you love cruising at high speeds on the freeways a G, M, IS, GS or LS will do the job just as well as any Kraut rolling stock, and with a better warranty and less maintenance.

I have to give credit to Mercedes and BMW for staying true to pure RWD, but Infiniti has accomplished that also, and Lexus is headed that way.

I like Japanese coupes of the variety that became extinct a few years ago (the old MX-6, Prelude, 240SX, et al). They were blander than a European car, but if you took reasonable care of them (which I do), they weren’t prone to leaving you stranded on the side of the road or forcing you to choose between repairs and rent.

I used to have a 1991 Honda Prelude Si 4WS, the old mechanical four-wheel steering. It was old enough and had enough miles that it was into that awkward “things keep wearing out” phase, and I had a problem with the A/C that wasn’t resolved until right before I sold it, but I still love the way it looked and the way it drove. If I could buy a new one, I would. The only changes I would make would be:

- A taller fifth gear (3,150 rpm at 60 is silly)
- Bigger wheels (the stock 14-inchers looked nice, but weren’t long on grip)
- Proper ABS (Honda offered anti-lock brakes on the Prelude in ‘91, but not with 4WS, and in any case their early ALB system was crap)
- No door-mounted seatbelts
- A decent modern stereo (Honda’s factory AM/FM cassette systems were garbage), without the obnoxious power antenna (which inevitably moans like a condemned man).

(Yeah, a modern Civic EX coupe is nearly the same thing, but the Prelude was better-looking, and I liked the 4WS.)

Yes, I know, you don’t have to tell me.

Of course, I really drive Hondas because they are everything the Rambler and Biscayne ever pretended to be – good, reasonably priced transport, but the Hondas hold together.

I don’t like trucks, SUVs, or job-cutting-raise-my-own-pay-a-hundred-times-mobiles, so America isn’t it.

I do love cruising at high speeds on the freeways, so I’d say I was German.