The quest is over
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From: Scottsdale
The quest is over
So, a lot of you know that I've been testing some cars lately. Among them covered so far in Car Talk are:
09 C6 Z51
09 Cayman S PDK
08 Cayman S Manual
09 370Z Manual/Sport
So after not being able to get the brilliance of the 09 PDK CS out of my head for several days, I decided to have a little heart-to-heart with the wife. I'm 30, the wife is 29, and we just moved to Arizona to settle down. We've moved 6 times since we graduated college. Once my wife gets her bar exam results back and is working, we'll begin shopping for a new home and thinking about kids. The wife is a lawyer and unlikely to have daycare at work. My company offers great day care. Let me also say that a 3rd car like a Cayman S is out of the question.
So, you old guys know where I'm going with this... if we have a kid in a few years, I'm gonna have to take him/her to daycare and that means I need a back seat. Every day.
I've got a bad back and leaning into the back seat of an M3 Coupe doesn't really appeal to me.
So what I'm getting at is that we decided I need a car with 4 doors (my wang is shrinking as I write this).
To me, that means there are only 5 options for me to consider.
The criteria:
Fast
Reliable
Willing to keep 5-7 years at least
4 doors
<60k, preferably preowned with like <5,000 miles and a few yrs of warranty left
White (I live in AZ, for crying out loud!) plus it looks HOTT
The players are
C63
ISF
CTSV
M3
RS4 (preowned by necessity)
Let me tell you that at first I was intimidated by the amount of test driving I'd have to do. This has to be the hardest decision in all of car buying, right? In what other general category/price range do you have this depth of quality vehicles from different countries and manufacturers? Transmission options, styles, etc? It's a brutally competitive category.
But here's the thing. I was in love with the PDK from my porsche experience. i doubt any other tranny is quite as good, but I'll take a similar tranny in my sedan...
That eliminated the CTSV and the RS4 from consideration.
The C63 doesn't really have the tranny either, and the side bolsters are SO HUGE that my wife vetoed the car on the spot when she sat in them. For those of you married fellows, you know what I mean when I say it is important when spending this kind of coin to at least have some buy-in from your manager. So the C63 left the party.
That leaves the eternal question: M3 vs. IS-F.
I've been keeping a close eye on both in the pre-owned market for a while.
I prefer the looks of the M3 to the ISF, but I'd bet the lexus is more likely to go the distance without a peep or a warranty claim.
I was all set to go drive a new M3 (I've already driven a friend's ISF), until I realized that the prices in the pre-owned market make both of these cars extremely attractive. Like, 10-15k off sticker with just a few thousand miles on them! I couldn't justify buying new, for either car.
So at the end of the day, I was looking for a great deal on a white, low-mile ISF or DCT M3 Sedan. As it turns out, the DCT Sedan is one rare-ass vehicle. I don't think I've ever seen one used, actually (I've had a casual eye out for them for a year).
So when a beautiful, CPO, Mark levinson-equipped, 1,800-miles on the odometer Pearl White 2008 ISF appeared at a lexus dealer a few hrs from my place, I had to take the plunge.
You don't find the perfectly equipped CPO car very often, and when you do... you just have to pull the trigger. The dealer also had some hot used financing and a price about $13k off MSRP.
Anyways...
I pick the car up on Saturday and will post a full review this weekend... for now just a few (bad) pics:
FAKE TAILPIPES FTMFW!!!! lol
09 C6 Z51
09 Cayman S PDK
08 Cayman S Manual
09 370Z Manual/Sport
So after not being able to get the brilliance of the 09 PDK CS out of my head for several days, I decided to have a little heart-to-heart with the wife. I'm 30, the wife is 29, and we just moved to Arizona to settle down. We've moved 6 times since we graduated college. Once my wife gets her bar exam results back and is working, we'll begin shopping for a new home and thinking about kids. The wife is a lawyer and unlikely to have daycare at work. My company offers great day care. Let me also say that a 3rd car like a Cayman S is out of the question.
So, you old guys know where I'm going with this... if we have a kid in a few years, I'm gonna have to take him/her to daycare and that means I need a back seat. Every day.
I've got a bad back and leaning into the back seat of an M3 Coupe doesn't really appeal to me.
So what I'm getting at is that we decided I need a car with 4 doors (my wang is shrinking as I write this).
To me, that means there are only 5 options for me to consider.
The criteria:
Fast
Reliable
Willing to keep 5-7 years at least
4 doors
<60k, preferably preowned with like <5,000 miles and a few yrs of warranty left
White (I live in AZ, for crying out loud!) plus it looks HOTT
The players are
C63
ISF
CTSV
M3
RS4 (preowned by necessity)
Let me tell you that at first I was intimidated by the amount of test driving I'd have to do. This has to be the hardest decision in all of car buying, right? In what other general category/price range do you have this depth of quality vehicles from different countries and manufacturers? Transmission options, styles, etc? It's a brutally competitive category.
But here's the thing. I was in love with the PDK from my porsche experience. i doubt any other tranny is quite as good, but I'll take a similar tranny in my sedan...
That eliminated the CTSV and the RS4 from consideration.
The C63 doesn't really have the tranny either, and the side bolsters are SO HUGE that my wife vetoed the car on the spot when she sat in them. For those of you married fellows, you know what I mean when I say it is important when spending this kind of coin to at least have some buy-in from your manager. So the C63 left the party.
That leaves the eternal question: M3 vs. IS-F.
I've been keeping a close eye on both in the pre-owned market for a while.
I prefer the looks of the M3 to the ISF, but I'd bet the lexus is more likely to go the distance without a peep or a warranty claim.
I was all set to go drive a new M3 (I've already driven a friend's ISF), until I realized that the prices in the pre-owned market make both of these cars extremely attractive. Like, 10-15k off sticker with just a few thousand miles on them! I couldn't justify buying new, for either car.
So at the end of the day, I was looking for a great deal on a white, low-mile ISF or DCT M3 Sedan. As it turns out, the DCT Sedan is one rare-ass vehicle. I don't think I've ever seen one used, actually (I've had a casual eye out for them for a year).
So when a beautiful, CPO, Mark levinson-equipped, 1,800-miles on the odometer Pearl White 2008 ISF appeared at a lexus dealer a few hrs from my place, I had to take the plunge.
You don't find the perfectly equipped CPO car very often, and when you do... you just have to pull the trigger. The dealer also had some hot used financing and a price about $13k off MSRP.
Anyways...
I pick the car up on Saturday and will post a full review this weekend... for now just a few (bad) pics:
FAKE TAILPIPES FTMFW!!!! lol
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Joined: Aug 2008
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From: Charlotte, NC
I like the CTS-V among the cars you listed, but like I told Chris, you're crazy to buy a nice car to haul a kid around in...wait until he barfs on your leather seats
once the kid arrives, your go fast dreams are probably over, depending on how much of a safety nazi your wife is
once the kid arrives, your go fast dreams are probably over, depending on how much of a safety nazi your wife is
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From: Scottsdale
Originally Posted by steviec,Mar 4 2009, 09:59 PM
Kids fit in 911's.
They fit in all kinds of 4 seater coupes...I wasn't about to deal with that though.
Newer 911s equipped how I'd like them are too expensive.
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From: Scottsdale
Originally Posted by Chris S,Mar 4 2009, 09:52 PM
Congrats, Dombey! I like the IS-F, just not as much as the M3, though admittedly I haven't yet test driven one. My main issue pre-test drive is that the back seats are too tight.
But I'm not really planning on carting adults around in it.