Friday, October 29, 2010

Anticipation

The Audi salesman called, the S5 has been delivered. It's late in the day, it still needs to be prepped and cleaned. We plan for me to see it tomorrow.

I had been waiting several weeks for this car to arrive. The next one they get will be another month away.

This one is Black Phantom Pearl. The next one is Brilliant black.
I don't want to wait for the Brilliant, so I'm hoping the Phantom Pearl is okay.
Actually, I'm hoping that nobody else shows up tonight and buys the car.
The sales rep suggested weeks ago that I just buy the car sight unseen so that I can be sure to get it, but I resisted while I looked at a few other options. I was only interested in a coupe, no convertibles, and definitely not a 4-door sedan.

My requirements were for a driver's road machine, for daily use, something that was definitely sporty, good power, paddle shift, fun to drive and all while being upscale and yet toned down. Nothing flashy, but yet very substantial. Something that would be presentable enough for a meeting a Venture Capitalist, and yet not compete with his Bentley Continental GTC Speed. I think the Audi S5 hit the target.

Here are the cars on my short list.

The Audi S5. A good friend owns one. He bought it for European delivery, at the factory in Germany. Then he drove it all over Europe, and even down into Morocco. Then he had it shipped home to San Diego. He loves it. I have liked the car a lot, but never drove it. When he heard I was serious about buying a new car, he let me drive it for a bit, and I just loved the road feel with the all-wheel drive. It reminded me a lot of my old Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR4 twin turbo. Both have a great feeling through the turns and at the light. The steering wheel on the Audi is better than anything I have experienced. And the seats are just right. We stopped over to his local Audi dealer but they didn't have one on the lot, and didn't really know when they would get one, maybe a couple more months! So he introduced me to another dealer, closer to me, and while they didn't have one on the lot, they could tell me about two they had on order that should be available within a month. While I waited, I looked at some other cars I had in mind...

The Jaguar XK-R 175. There was a really stunning example just in at Hoehn in Carlsbad. They only come in black, with cranberry stitching on the black leather interior. I really like the suede headliner. They wouldn't let anyone test drive the car, but they did have another one that I could test drive, a red one. It was really a hot ride with 500+ horses! On the downside, it was the only Jag dealer in town, and they were brand new, operating out of temporary buildings while the showroom was being built. The Jaguar manufacturer had recently been bought by Tata, in India, the builder of sub 3,000 dollar cars for the massive Indian market. It seemed like a disconnect to me, and I wondered how the two different market philosophies could co-exist without the Jag service suffering. Lots of unknowns. I really liked the car, but at 105,000 bucks, it seemed a tad over-priced. I have owned 3 different Jags over the years, so the XKR didn't get my juices going that much. I needed something different.

The Aston-Martin DB9. A good friend owns one of these. I love the car unreservedly. And it's a V-12. He let me drive it for a week to see if I liked it, and if I wanted it, he would make me a good deal on it. He has owned it for 5 years and it has only 13,000 miles on it. And it's flawless. Unfortunately, it is also out of warranty, and the nearest dealer is 75 miles away in Newport Beach. The front end is very low, so it smacks on speed bumps in residential areas. An absolutely great car, but just not for daily driving around town. I hated to give it back.

The Cadillac CTS-V. Good friend Dave Newhardt, who gets to drive every new car in his profession as an automobile photographer, told me that if he won the lottery this is the car he would buy. I took a look at them, and just didn't like the lines of it. I hear that it is an outrageously powerful car, but it's just not me.

The Mustang. I'm a Ford guy. My father was a Ford dealer in Philly. I grew up with Fords. I've had at least 3 different Mustangs over the years, the first one in 1964, the first year they were built. I like the cars a lot. But I was looking for something I hadn't owned before.

So many neat cars, and I have only one parking spot! I guess I should get a bigger home, so I can have room for more cars. Well, I have been there, done that, and it has a tendency to get out of hand, so I need to choose well and stick with it for a while.

No comments:

Post a Comment