Forget being sensible: Why you should buy a life-changing performance car

Tell the truth. You have been having mixed feelings about the New Year.

You're experiencing anxiety, pressure, disappointment, loneliness, and dread due to societal expectations, reflection on past failures, and the stark contrast between festive ideals and reality.

Trust us to have the answer for you.

Buy a car that will change your life. Ignore the oxygen thieves who are always telling you to be sensible, responsible or plan for the future. Those ideas are so 2025. About as useful as a screen door on a submarine.

Do you think whoever just paid $1.2m for a bright yellow HSV GTSR W1 Maloo is unhappy? No, he/she/they have the best ute in the world – with 26km on it. It's now the most expensive road-going Holden ever sold, which is either proof we're cooked or proof we still have culture. Possibly both.

And $1.2m doesn't just buy you a Ferrari or a Holden ute anymore. At Pebble it buys you a 300 SL Roadster. At Amelia it buys you a McLaren Senna.

At Mecum it buys you the very understated Golden Sahara II, built by George Barris who was the legendary custom car maker behind the Munster Koach, the Batmobile, Liberace's 1954 Cadillac Eldorado with sterling-silver grand-piano hood ornaments and Elvis Presley's 1960 Cadillac Fleetwood with its gold-plated record player, drinks cabinet and shoe polisher.

The GS II is a futuristic show car built on a 1953 Lincoln Capri. It's famed for its 1950s sci-fi tech-like voice control, remote driving, glowing Goodyear tires and its mink carpets and gold accents.

You'll never get lonely in a GS II.

You don't need seven figures to change your life but it helps. You just need the right car at the right moment – and a tolerance for invoices.

Here are five more cars that can genuinely transform your year. Not because they're practical, but because they make you get up early, take the long way and feel like a human again.

Audi S3 (8L): The quattro commuter heist

The original S3 is peak early-2000s Europe – compact, understated and built before hot hatches became rolling iPads. Turbo four up front, all-wheel-drive grip underneath and enough punch to make wet roads feel like cheating.

Transformation: it turns chores into missions. The commute stops being dead time and becomes a small, legal heist. You start volunteering for airport runs.

Watch-outs: most have been "modified" by at least one amateur with a laptop and a dream. Buy history, not boost. If it's got a blow-off valve louder than the exhaust, keep walking.

Price: I'd pay $15,000 for a well-sorted one.

2006–2013 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (C6): American violence, manual only

The C6 Z06 is one of the last truly unfiltered factory performance cars – big 7.0-litre V8, manual only, light-ish body, no hybrid apology tour. It's fast in the way that makes your brain go pleasantly quiet.

Transformation: It recalibrates what "supercar" means. You realise a lot of the exotic tax is just branding and leather. This thing is a sledgehammer that can turn.

Watch-outs: Early cars can suffer valve-guide issues. If it hasn't been addressed, price the risk in or walk. And accept that it will also transform your tyre budget.

Price: $85,000 to $120,000, with well-documented examples commanding a premium.

BMW M5 (E60): The V10 that ruined everything else

BMW once decided the world needed a five-seat sedan with a naturally aspirated V10 that screams past 8000rpm like it's qualifying at Monza. It's the best bad idea Munich ever shipped.

Transformation: It makes everyday life feel cinematic. School drop-off becomes a German muscle opera. You'll find excuses to drive. Your neighbours will learn new words.

Watch-outs: Rod bearings, throttle actuators and gearbox drama are not internet myths. The SMG can be great when it's behaving and infuriating when it's not. Budget accordingly. If you find a proper manual, buy it and apologise later.

Price: $35,000 to $80,000 depending on year, kilometres and condition, with low-km cleaner ones nudging the upper end.

BMW M5 Touring (E61): The Bunnings wagon that sounds like Bathurst

Same V10 madness, but in station wagon form. Think BMW Motel – and never officially sold here. It's rarer, weirder and therefore irresistible to people who think "compliance paperwork" is a hobby.

Transformation: It gives you two lives in one car. You can do a Bunnings run and then leave the car park sounding like a touring-car grid. Practical and completely incorrect – perfect.

Watch-outs: everything from the sedan still applies, plus import costs and scarcity tax. This isn't a financial plan. It's a personality.

Price: $115,000 to $175,000 for decent examples, often with documented history.

Jaguar F-Type S: The car that makes you dress better

The F-Type is Jaguar's modern sports car – beautiful, dramatic and the sort of thing you look back at in a car park like a teenager. The S is the sweet spot; a supercharged V6, proper noise, enough performance to feel special without going full cartoon.

Transformation: It brings romance back to driving. You start doing "quick loops" that take an hour. You stop ordering takeaway and start going out because you need an excuse to arrive in something that looks like a million bucks.

Watch-outs: It's a Jaguar. Get it checked, buy the best example you can, and accept that it runs partly on petrol and partly on vibes. They don't appreciate but they do cure the dread due to societal expectations.

Price: $70,000 – $130,000.

Bonus rort: Hertz

We've been writing about Hertz for a while, and readers keep sending the same greatest hits: EV charge traps, automated "damage" claims, toll fees that feel like a second mortgage, bonds stuck in limbo and customer service that appears to be staffed by a tumbleweed.

I'm not making findings – that's what regulators are for – but the pattern is big enough to deserve daylight.

Hertz Australia told me in an email on November 20 that: "We treat every contact received with the utmost importance. Please allow five working days for us to complete a comprehensive investigation."

We haven't heard back since, so I've asked Hertz Global HQ for comment as well.

If you've had a recent Hertz experience – good or ugly – send it through.