Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Cars, Cars,cars. My testosterone levels rise.


I drove this beauty yesterday. Yum. Can girls get woodies? Is there a proper pluralization for "woody?"
It was my first experience with an S-tronic, clutchless dual shifting mechanism. Gotta say, I really liked it. The model I drove was the 2.0L 16-valve L4 turbo coupe, but I am thinking of the 3.2L, 24-valve V6 quattro, little more juice, lot more potential.
Karen was game enough to come along for the test drive. I only saw her white knuckle it twice, so I think I did okay. We crammed the salesman in the backseat and looked at each other and said, yeah, a kid could ride back there- or Ronna. Figured a cooler of Newcastle would fit real good as well.
We, or I, talked shop with Keegan who lost Karen when he mentioned that the torque plateaus from 1800 to 5000 rpm, and you can rev the hell out of the sixteen-valve engine before it will cut off the fuel feed at 6800 rpm. Fuel economy... blah blah blah ... pretty car.. blah...an engine that .... sounds like a throaty sex worker... accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 6.3 seconds and takes it to a blah blah blah.. out run the cops...governed ( US mode) 130 mph. God, I'm hungry.

Then we drove this car: oooh, Mama. I really had to rethink my options. But these are two different animals. I almost felt like a grownup in this car, until I opened it up at bit. Though had to admit, the full manual left me a bit in the lurch, and hating I85 traffic. My shin was sore when we parked it. But the price on a 2005 is doable and the one we drove only had 15k miles on it. The interior was MUCH more roomy and the options, less techy-- no NAV- bad thing. Sorry, Tony. I'm not sold ... and after I talked to my insurance gal, the "M" got a little pricey.

Because I love cars. I had to go see some JAGS. When I am rich and famous I will buy myself one of these. The Brit as the Jaguar dealership didn't have any classic- though he was a bit of one himself, if I must say- had the bad English teeth, the cocky swagger, the smooth accent and a nice head of hair... if I was twenty years older...
Anyway, we sat in three, drove none. But damn, they are pretty. NO backseat to speak of-- maybe more in the coupes, though, and the J-gate thing is going away-- new ones are paddle shifters. The lot had only pre-owned XKR and XK8 convertibles and I want a coupe-- no need to have the truck drivers looking at my legs, no need for me to share my phone calls or music selections with the world, thank you. So, I gave Stefan my car want list and now, I guess, I wait-- and deliberate.

3 comments:

Family Adventure said...

Hey Linda, wish I had some insightful comment to give you about cars in general and these ones in specific, but I am clueless...perhaps a bit like your friend Karen. But clueless me can still appreciate someone doing something they love. Here's to winning the lottery so you can afford to do more than just sit in one of those Jaguars...

Heidi

Karen said...

But the price on a 95 is doable and the one we drove only had 15k miles on it.

Shouldn't this be '05 ?

And I white knuckled it more then the two times you saw...

Unknown said...

K-
right you are- correction posted-- hmmm. It was theOTHEr people on the road you were worried about-- not us, right?

H- From your mouth to the ears of my MIL and her lottery buying binge-- me, i never play-- I just sit back and wish a lot. So, what do they drive in Norway?