I always like putting domestics up against imports, so it was fun to pit the American-built Subaru against the Mexican-build Ford in this week’s Showroom Showdown. The Legacy stomped the Fusion, winning by a 2-to-1 margin. Subaru’s well-earned reputation for AWD, combined with the fact that the Fusion Sport doesn’t come with a stick, helped the Scooby post an easy win. Stay tuned for another Showroom Showdown next week!

So you want a sporty AWD sedan for less than $30K? Two good options are the Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT and the Ford Fusion Sport AWD. The Subaru’s 2.5 liter turbo four banger puts out 243 hp while the Ford’s 3.5 liter V6 puts out 263 hp. The Subaru weighs 3,428 pounds while the Ford weighs 3,803 pounds. The Subaru is available with either a 5-speed manual or a 5-speed automatic. The Ford is only available with a 6-speed automatic. Which would you choose?

This one came as a bit of a surprise, mostly cause the Vette seemed to be killing the Shelby right out of the gate. But the Shelby slowly reeled the Vette back in, and managed to win last week’s Showroom Showdown by a decent margin. Nice work, Shelby. My favorite comment was by dgaf88: “I’ll take a Shelby because I’m more into muscle than sport cars. Raw power just isn’t as fun without the shitty handling.” Stay tuned for another Showroom Showdown tomorrow!

Normally I try to stick with the same number of seats for Showroom Showdown match-ups, but I couldn’t figure out what to put up against the Shelby GT500. I couldn’t figure out what to put up against the base Corvette, either. So here goes. The Shelby GT500 has a supercharged 5.4 liter V8 that puts out 540 hp, while the Vette has a naturally aspirated 6.2 liter V8 that puts out 430 hp. The Shelby weighs 3,924 pounds while the Vette weighs 3,217 pounds. Both are available with a 6 speed manual and come in just south of $50k. Which would you choose?

The Swede won this week’s Showroom Showdown by a 2-to-1 margin. I can’t figure out why I don’t see more C30s on the road.

This week it’s the battle of the city hipster cars. The Mini weighs 2,850 pounds and is powered by a turbo four banger which puts out 172 hp. The Volvo weighs 3,200 pounds and is powered by a turbo five cylinder which puts out 227 hp. The Mini gets 26/34 mpg while the Volvo gets 20/28 mpg. Both start around $24k and are available with 6 speed manuals. Which would you choose?

This one wasn’t even close. The FX50 AWD absolutely murdered the X6 xDrive35i on CarDomain in this week’s Showroom Showdown. I think it might have had something to do with the Infiniti’s 390 hp V8. Some people were wondering why I didn’t put the FX50 up against the V8 Bimmer. Simple: the V8 Bimmer costs a lot more. Anyway, we’ll try to get back to enthusiast cars next week. If you have any suggestions, leave a comment.

This week it’s the battle of the yuppie crossovers! The Bimmer’s 3.0 liter turbo inline-6 puts out 300 hp while the Infiniti’s 5.0 liter V8 puts out 390 hp. Both vehicles run in the high $50k range. Which would you choose?

Man, this week’s Showroom Showdownwas close! The Challenger hung in there to the bitter end. Really, it’s almost too close to call, but I’m gonna call it for the Camaro anyway. But the Mopar guys should feel pretty good (the Mustang and the Genesis Coupe got trounced). Oh, and the discussion was great, too. I really liked the comments by 02sierraWT, StickShiftRick and 95BlckFirebird. Stay tuned for another Showroom Showdown next week!

Let’s settle this right here, right now. Fans of affordable RWD muscle have more choices now than they’ve had in a LONG time. We’ve got a major pony car war from the big three, and I’ve decided to throw in the Genesis Coupe to make it interesting  (and yes, this is our first four-way Showroom Showdown). The Camaro 1SS starts at $31,040. The Challenger R/T starts at $30,945. The Mustang GT Premium starts at $30,995. And the Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track starts at $29,500. Which would you choose?

Some people were pretty annoyed with me for this week’s Showroom Showdown. But hey, it’s all in good fun, right? The idea was to put two closely priced vehicles with no real competition up against each other. And the Raptor won, despite the fact that the CherokeeSRT8 forum got in on the act. Nice going Ford. Now Chevy and Dodge have to step up and give the Raptor some competition.

Last week I was trying to figure out what to pit against the new Raptor. Seemed like there was nothing out there that really compared. Then I remembered that a month ago I was trying to figure out what to pit against the Grand Cherokee SRT8. Nothing seemed to compare to the burly Jeep, either. Well, now, let’s see… The Raptor starts at $38k and comes with a 5.4 liter V8 which puts out 320 hp and 390 lb.-ft. of torque (sadly, the 6.2 liter V8 won’t be available in the Raptor until the winter of 2010). The SRT8 starts at $43k and comes with a 6.1 liter Hemi that puts out 420 hp and 420 390 lb.-ft. of torque. Both are awesome vehicles that will scare your neighbors. Which would you choose?

This week’s Showroom Showdown was close, but in the end the Xterra emerged victorious. Nice work, Nissan! Ok, so who should I put up to compete with the SVT Raptor next week?

This week it’s the battle of the import rock crawlers! Both start at around $24k with 4WD. Both have 4.0 liter V6s (the Toyota puts out 239 hp @ 5200 rpm and 278 lb-ft of torque @ 3700 rpm, the Nissan puts out 261 hp @ 5,600 rpm and 281 lb-ft of torque @ 4,000 rpm). Which would you choose?

I was expecting Honda to win this one, but the feisty Fiesta upstaged the Fit for a convincing win in this week’s Showroom Showdown. Think the Fiesta will be hit with the tuner crowd?