Now for something a little more fun. Friday, I took a couple cars for a spin... both Ford Fusions. The first one was a V6/automatic, which is really a shame because you can't get the V6 with a manual. Why Ford didn't offer it I will never understand, because they already had a capable transmission in the Mazda6 (upon which the Fusion is based). It was nice, comfortable, and reasonably quick. But not very exciting.
Then I took out an SE Sport with the 2.3L 4-cylinder engine and a 5-speed manual from another dealer. This time, the salesman let me have a more thorough test drive and didn't mind me thrashing it a little. With the manual gearbox and the sport suspension, it felt like a completely different car. It was very nimble, the steering was direct and there was little to no body roll in hard cornering. I could do with just a little more lateral support in the seats (considering the car's capabilities), but other than that, it seemed just right.
Unfortunately, the acceleration does not match the V6, and unlike the Duratec V6's signature intake growl that I love so much in my Sable, the Mazda-derived four pot sounds more like a power sander. But what an impressive little sander it was. It revs very easily and doesn't mind being taken to 6500 RPM, where it's happy to build a little house, get married and have children, who will move out after the next gear change, go to 6500 themselves and repeat the process.
That car will definitely be short-listed. For now, I plan to check out the Mazda6 s, which is available with a V6 and manual gearbox, to see if that will give me what I'm looking for. I also want to try out the Altima with the VQ35 engine and see how that is. More updates will be posted as I try out more cars.