The last 3 winter car choices have been pretty much impulse buys for me. A quick recap here...
Part 1 - Sold because it wasn't fast enough.
Part 2 - One of my favorite cars for winter and summer, lasted 2 winters and 1 summer, sold because I was tired of losing to civics in the winter.
Part 3 - Was so much fun in winter, but just didn't have the room to carry anything. Not the greatest daily driver with a family in tow.
This year, instead of an impulse buy, I actually spent time going through every possible option, looked at prices, performance, and being asian, best bang for the buck. Really, the only requirements were AWD, and space to pack stuff, and seat 4 comfortably. The AWD in the 911 absolutely spoiled me last year.
Of course, before kenny has a chance to make fun of me, he's right. I'm a fanboy. But in my defense, I was very close to proving him wrong, but was offered a smoking deal that I couldn't turn down. With that being said, here are the cars I looked at, in the order of most likely to buy, to least likely to buy.
1. Audi S5 Cab - Was never a fan of Audi's AWD system. Was boring in the dry like my 996TT. Finally got to drive both the S4 and S5 with the LSD, and damn what a difference. Went from heavy understeer to mild understeer, and just the right amount of HP for winter/cruiser car. Plus, it's a cab, I've owned convertibles since forever, and haven't had one in 3 years now, so I wanted to get my summer tans back into full swing next year.
2. BMW 550i xDrive - Probably the most fun "big car" I test drove. Handles well, and throttle blip downshifts. Awesome. Gets kinda pricey when you check off the options though...
3. Mercedes E550 4matic - Not as fun to drive as the BMW around corners, but the new V8TT motor is awesome. 12.8 1/4 mile stock (400hp), and 11.7's chipped (530hp). Felt like an old man's car, and next year the facelift is coming, so I'll have old car syndrome in 12 months. And being a fanboy, it's so damn familiar.
4. Mitsubishi Evo MR - I drove this last year, and was probably the most fun AWD car in the summer. The gearbox is wicked too. Only problem? The interior. And the trunk space. It just feels cheap. And the price? 10k more than US? WTF?
5. Nissan Skyline R32 GTR - I had Shohab look for a mint unmolested bone stock GTR for me. This was my dream car growing up, and this was a good opportunity to finally own one and see if I liked it. Hell, I even own the R32 GTR Alberta license plate, ordered 6 years before the first R32 GTR made it here. Unfortunately, there were none to be found.
6. Mercedes CLS 550 4Matic - What a fun car. Close to the BMW in driving dynamics, a brand new model for 2012, same HVAC/Infotainment setup as my BS, nice and familiar, and yes, I'm a MB fanboy. I drove the 2012 CLS63 last November, and it was impressive, big, fast, and still handled well. It's basically an upgraded E550, same V8TT motor, nicer interior, 1 less seat. Unfortunately, for $10-15k more than a E550, it wasn't THAT much of a better car than the E550, and just terrible bang for the buck.
7. VW Golf R - Even though I refuse to drive manual, the MT only R was something that interested me. I drove my old GTI this year again and it reminded me of how damn fun the car was. And everyone getting GTI's was talking about how fun it was. So this could work... until I realized all the fun was because of the DSG box.
So, what did I end up with? I came so close to buying the Audi S5 Cab, but in the 11th hour, MB came back to me with a deal I could not refuse. Bang for the buck, it was the only car that made sense. So here we are, picking her up on Monday. My new winter ride! It's a 2012, and since I didn't option it out, it's my first non Black car in a while. I'll have better pics of her in the next week as I get the usual winterization work done on her. Can't wait!
» Click image for larger version