Yeah, I know, not me asking about that E36 M3 again...
Well, my wife's been hinting that she's getting more concerned with essentially my lack of winter prep (Mini's got a set of snow tires, that's it). With the amount of travel I'm doing by car, she seems to be worried that I'm planning to take part in a Donner Party or something (yeah, I know, tasteless joke). Given my well known dislike of SUVs, she's been trying to get me to consider ideally a sporty four door with AWD, and a warranty. And an automatic, so she can drive it - plus with the Achilles Tendon Injury from Heck, I'm better off using an automatic at the moment, too.
Yes, my wife's quite good at enabling car purchases...
Anyway, for various reasons I don't want a BMW, Audi or Mercedes. Subaru WRXen are only available with a CVT, so that's a big Nope, too. I'd really want something like the Evo X I used to own, only with ergonomics that work for me (which rules out picking up one of the few remaining brand-new Evo X MRs).
What I've found so far:
- Alfa Giulia Ti
- VW Golf R (not a VW fan, but it ticks the boxes)
- Dodge Challenger - I don't like the looks of the Charger, and both are only available with V6 + AWD. V6 in a Challenger somehow feels wrong. Me want Hemi.
- Kia Stinger - not sure how that would go down at home
- Mini Cooper Clubman - I like the looks of it, but I had no problem configuring it so it ended up more expensive than the Giulia without excessive options (Ok, maybe I shouldn't have picked the JCW as the base)
- Used GT-R, but that violates the "has manufacturer's warranty" rule, plus according to my mechanic who looks after several of them, they are needy beasts.
- 996 Turbo, they're a bit short on the door and the warranty front, but my wife loved driving the 996 we had
- My wife likes the looks of the Cadillac ATS even less than she likes the looks of the Giulia, so that one is out, too.
- Lexus IS and whatever the rival Infinti is called leave me cold.
- Volvos also got vetoed.
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If Mazda made an AWD Mazda 6, I'd very much consider that but given that they don't, well, I can't.
Other than a 996TT, we'd probably be looking at a 36 month lease as that would fit our current plans better than a purchase, and the FCA products have extremely attractive lease rates if the dealer is willing to play ball. The Golf would be nearly twice as expensive per month to lease, the Clubman is also pretty expensive, the Stinger less so but I have trouble getting my head around the "Kia M car rival" concept. Plus I think it's even less easy on the eye than most of the other choices.
Any other well kept secrets I have overlooked?
Is this guy ever getting to the point? Well, I'm trying...
The regular car press seems to rave about the Giulia TI, has anybody here had a chance to drive one? I seem to recall that GRM had mixed feelings about the Quadrofoglio Verde, but that would be out of the question for me anyway.
For me, with the right option pack, it seems to tick all the boxes for what I like about sporty cars, plus it's Italian and I haven't had an Alfa for 15 years, so I have either withdrawal symptoms or a bad case of the rose tinted glasses.