The early Turbo Esprit I owned was a joy to drive and never gave me a minute's problem, and I put 65K on it. You had to be on top of scheduled maintenance and if something did go wrong, it had to be taken care of immediately. But it never left me anywhere, and I took it on more than a few long distance trips.

The three Europas I owned were a pile of trouble, though.

The first thing I noticed when I first got my Crossfire was that even though the Esprit is mid-engined, the handling characteristics of the Crossfire reminded me of it very much. Similar understeer, similar drop throttle oversteer. That was one of the reasons I bought it.

If you're looking for more speed, but LESS power, in this price range, look at the Lotus Elise. 190 bhp, but a second faster to 60 than the 350Z, 2 seconds faster than the Xfire. $45K loaded, $39K base model.

BUT it has NOTHING in the interior. It is very difficult to get in/out of. The passenger seat is fixed, the driver's seat very limited adjustments. Squeeze ball air bladder to adjust driver lumbar. Cheap stereo, no heated seats, mirrors. No fancy navigation or instrumentation...just a speedo and tach. Large portions of the bare aluminum chassis are visibile in the mostly uncarpeted interior.

Sorry guys, couldn't resist. I'll shut up now. I will say I"ve noticed 3 new Crossfires in my neighborhood. They're a much more common site around here these days.