I almost bought one of these for $3500 3 years ago, but I chickened out. Then last year I went the completely opposite but more practical route and got a 2012 Focus, but man... you can get a pretty pristine '87 XJ6 for well under $10k. Part of me is still kicking myself for not pulling the trigger. Hopefully someday when I'm looking for a weekend car there are still plenty of these around.
how about one of those cars that doubles as a boat? Nothing could be cooler that tooling down deerfoot, and coming to a traffic slowdown/jam and bam, you make a hard left/right and you are cruising on the Bow with no delay and you can wear one of those cool captians hats
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If I do not come back avenge my death
A really fun to drive (albeit not super fast or have the brand recognition) is the Subaru BRZ.
For around 30K (I believe the Tech pack is about 35K), you get a brand new car (so no worries about reliability) and a great resale value in a couple of years (because its a Japanese car).
Go test drive the 6 speed manual, it is actually quite fun to drive. It is paired with a nice RWD and probably one of the best value/affordable true RWD sports cars out there.