Yeah, I'm not gonna come in here and dog your cars. Like you said "different strokes". Plus like I said, it's a give and take, MPG or Horse Power, and traction in the snow(FWD) or no traction(RWD). I will admitt, it drives me crazy when I see someone in a Civic, Neon, Focus or some other economy car that's pushing 100-120hp and they think that they can beat a Mustang, Z28 or T/A at a light. I just want to start laughing. Or if they have it all riced out. However, I have seen some that have decent looking wheels, not too big or sticking out too far and a nice spoiler that's not tooooooo tall and that matches the paint on the car. There are a few import/econo. guys out there that we (V8 guys) have to watch out for. From my experience though it's usually the car that just has subtle changes on the outside, the one you'd least expect, a sleeper I guess.
The way I look at it is take whatever you have and make it faster!! Hell, I even think about making my 3.0 DOHC Duratec (200hp/200tq) Taurus faster. That's when my wife just laughs at me, oh well. COULD YOU IMAGIN IF I ADDED A 50HP SHOT OF NITROUS TO THAT??!! NOBODY WOULD EXPECT A 250HP TAURUS!!!!