(With apologies to Alexe Sayle)
As BAR reminded me, I hadn't closed the loop on the new car thing.
Yes, we did end up replacing our 8 year old, 140k-miler Acura. After much deliberation on my part - some more unkind types might call it vacillation - I ended up with BMW 335i Coupe. I looked very hard at the Infiniti G37S and have to say I still think it's great value, especially as I hear tales of some people negotiating deals at close to invoice for what is essentially a brand new model that was only released this Fall. (I, it arrives in the UK next year according to evo, after they have rejigged the interior and suspension settings for picky Brits.) However, it's a bit boy-racer - especially as I'd have to go for the sports suspension - and once I figured out that if I kept this car as long as the last one I'll be 58 by the time I'm looking to trade it, then the BMW won out as the, err, sensible choice.
Sparkling Graphite - aka gray - with black interior and aluminium trim, an option that was hard to find (why they still build so many of these things with bits of wood nailed to the dash beats me.). Usual clutch of extras you have to take to get the couple of things you actually want and before you know it the price starts escalating dramatically. Bloody Germans.
Anyway, after several long hours in the dealer, combined with much getting up and packing to leave in order to move things along, we finally got an OK price on the car itself plus an acceptable trade-in value. Don't know if it really makes much difference but we elected to go in right before year-end and to only buy a vehicle they had in-situ. Could probably have squeezed a couple hundred more out of them but ultimately you just reach a point where the whole process is so damn tiresome it's just time to get it done, something the of course rely upon each and every time! Just as an aside, we did look at using Cars Direct again since that worked so well for the Tacoma pick-up but the price they were showing wasn't close to what we got by pressing the dealer first hand. Go figure.
Now all that remains is to wade through the 268 page users manual so I can figure out the intricacies of iDrive, Comfort Access, Hands-Free dialling and the Navigation System options. Hopefully, I can get all this stuff programmed-up without flattening the battery ....
4 comments:
wot no R8? ;-)
335i looks like a great car. Didn't fancy an audi then?
Actually, I did, but the RS4 was out of my price range, the A5 with the V6 was underpowered I thought and the S5 too pricey once you had the options boxes ticked. Looked at the A4 but the new model won't be here until later in '08 and I didn't want to buy the end-of-line car just on principle. Sort of left me no choice, really!
R8? I was just $110k short on the readies is all ....
i hear you on the audi.
They have stopped making the RS4, i am sure that there will still be a few in the dealer network, but the base model in the UK is £50 ($100k). Also the M3 is similar money. I think the germans have to look at their pricing models!
Haven't seen that many A5's over here. I don't think audi are flogging many in the UK.
Mmmhh. The R8 would have been impractical. No where to put the guns! :)
335i looks great. I did have a look at that and the 330d (which i know you can't get). Both a very similar, all comes down to if you wanted an oil burner or not. A wee whole ago the only discriminator was the price of diesel...it used to be alot cheaper but we are now 105 per litre for petrol and 109 for diesel!
Ah, hadn;t caught that the RS4 was EOL too, but makes sense. They've not yet priced out the US M3 V8 yet but it's likely to be in the high $60k range. Funnily enough, I actually say an A5 out today. Interesting lines but that V6 doesn't compare with the 335's engine. (Though I'm still stuck running in so can't use more than 4,500 revs right now. Fully exploring the power on offer will have ot wait a bit yet.)
Diesel? That's the Devil's brew out here in California!
Post a Comment