50K is really not that much for a car, all things considered. Most college grads end up with a 30K car after college anyways, even when they start with 40K salary.
So 50K for someone who is running a startup, which is beyond noodle profitable(I doubt someone would be buying something as big as a new car, if they weren't) seems pretty normal.
and people wonder why the economy is shit?
I can't believe someone who was making $70k (~45k after taxes/social-security) would trade in more than a year of 8 hour days 5 days a week in some shithole development job just to be able to commute in style (though perhaps he just wants to engage in parking-lot dick waving for some girl at the office; fine, I can believe it).
A $50K car on a $40K salary is basically a recipe for fail, based on some of icey's previous comments, I'm going to guess he's a tad above the $40K salary range.
I said this elsewhere in the thread, but it's grown much larger than I'd expected - I don't expect to spend 50k on a car, but it at least provided some limitations - I mean, with an unlimited budget I'd go buy an Aston Martin Vanquish and use that for my daily driver.
Maybe there are people who aren't me who are interested in similar things. I didn't feel like over-limiting the question; I honestly didn't have the intention of making this a "Dear lazyweb, buy me a car plz ok?" sort of thread. I was genuinely interested in what sort of daily drivers hackers prefer.
For whatever it's worth, there have been some very interesting answers that have had me spending time at Edmunds looking up cars that I hadn't thought about checking out before.
I'm currently driving a Toyota Celica (and definately enjoy it) - although since toyota withdrew them a couple of years ago - your only choice is 2nd hand now.
And for my recommendations: 135i Mazdaspeed 3