Question:
I forgot the interesting point I was going to make about the breakin.
It's got a computer that performs a running avg of the gas mileage.
When I brought it home (highway) it was getting about 13.5 mpg. The
wife drove it to work a couple times and it was up to 14.1 mpg
(highway) where it was when I got in it last night. After about 40 or
50 miles of stomping on then letting it fall back to idle it was at
15.2 mpg by the time I got home.
Answer:
2-door only. Almost bought one last year, when I picked up the pickup
instead. Now, I'm again thinking HARD about buying one before they're
all gone. Local dealers have plenty of left-over 2006 models in
stock, including the Spice Red Metallic model that is the only one
with normal colored instruments. (The other exterior colors come with
bright yellow, red, or blue gauges that look hideous to me.) Add 18-
inch wheels and the 6-speed manual transmission (which also dodges the
$1,300 gas guzzler tax that is tacked on to the automatic transmission
model) as the only options, and the list price is $33,180. 400
horsepower, 400 ft-pounds of torque, alloy block, alloy heads,
independent rear suspension, 0-60 time of 4.9 seconds, comfy all-
leather interior, and they're being sold on eBay by dealers for "Buy
It Now" prices of $27k-$28k. That's a lot of performance for the
buck, and a nice, innocuous looking, low profile car, to boot. The
big downside is that it's a captive Australian import only brought in
for three years ('04 through '06) and as such is likely to plummet in
resale value as another "orphan" ala the Australian Capri and the
German Merkur models.
