Cars We Drive! - Page 185

In my experience, the A8 is far too big to be a supersaloon. My father has the RS5 and A8L and the combined experience is great, super luxury when travelling across Europe, but for journey time of less than 4 hours, jump in the RS5. I've not driven the A8L (age issues), but I regularly steal the RS5 and I couldn't imagine trying to stop a car that weighs any more in a tight spot.

Its very nice being able to get to 155mph when overtaking (not that you can in the uk) but getting from 155mph to 40mph when an old lady pulls out of a side road? For some reason the extra 3" of leg room, and 20ltr boot space aren't so comforting!

I know pricing is a bit crazy in the US, but here you'd pay a 30-40% premium for an S/RS model, and really its not worth it. Save the cash and buy yourself something else as well as a new car.

I used to love Audi's, but a lot of the current styling choices they have made, are less than good looking in my opinion. (RS front styling, the A5 sportback and the seats in the new A6 etc.)

I don't know if this is the same in the US, but the retards who used to drive like idiots in BMW, now drives Audi and VW, which in my book makes them less desireble no matter how great a drive they are.

the S8, although full size, weighs less than the new M5, a mid size class

the S8 will have optional ceramic brakes and huge tires, stopping it will not be an issue

no consumable commodity is 'worth it' as an investment, but buy used, CPO'ed, keep it for a while. get business use/write-off, do your own maintenance and it becomes less of a waste

 

for reference

RS5 4000 lbs

S8 4400 lbs

10% difference, and the A8 has bigger brakes and wider tires...stopping distance will be the same

The new BMW's look like crap imo (I've had BMW's since 1980, 3 generations of M3's) , looks are subjective, most reviewers and designers prefer the Audi > BMW, but again, subjective.  Idiots drive all marques, there is no correlation between common sense/intellect and car brand.  That is a stereotype and not useful.  I generally don't make 100k$ purchases based on the opinion of others, especially based on percieved status or 'class' issues.  My 'desires' are not based on the perception or opinions of others, I rather own my mistakes, lol.

 

I see, so Lexus is not well regarded in the motherland? You know they have been the best selling luxury marque here in the USA for quite some time now. They did loose that title last year to BMW and Mercedes and most of that was attributed to the crisis in Japan. Anyway, it was just a mild fantasy, like I said I won't be ready for a replacement till 2014. Also, all the reviews have been saying that this new GS is a better drivers car than the F10. Next month they will start popping up on showrooms here. So what do you think about the Panamera S, that should more than suffice for me.

^^
everyone here hates the panamera, and I did too, until I was in one. The turbo. You have to get the fucking turbo. It's great and fast as shit.

Went to my first car meet ever in SF. It was for euro cars and I met some pretty cool people. I was snapping some pics of an e92 m3 in dakar yellow and started chatting with the owner. Turns out he's a consultant too and we bonded over that. Dude seemed pretty senior too.. unexpected networking at a car meet? Fuck yeah

He even let me take his car for a ride so I could experience the pleasure of hearing the car blip its throttle during downshifts.

Will post some pics when I have time.

Lots of company cars are LS460's - they're like the Town Car of Japan. There's a small Prius-like sedan that seems mildly popular, the SC was kinda popular (my sister in law has one, actually) and the RX is here and there - but nobody spends that kinda money on a personal car here and doesn't buy an E-class instead. There's that, and Lexus doesn't make a real station wagon - wagons are insanely popular here. Tons of BMW, MB/AMG, and Audi wagons - saw a V10 S6 wagon driving through the snow tonight, actually.

I'm trying to plot year on year depreciation over 5-8 years for a bunch of cars I'm interested in and then trying to find some sort of formula keeping in mind model changes and years out, haven't gotten that far yet though. I'm doing Carreras, C2S, C4S, M3's, and AMG C and E's. The Porsches are the best, the M3's are not bad, the AMG's are not bad. The Panamera doesn't seem like it'll be that great (have you seen Cayenne prices?) and the M5 is a rock too. Audis are worthless on the used market here unless they have the RS 4.2 or the V10.

Drew, I think you might be thinking about your car purchase a bit much. Predicting 5-8 year depreciation? Just buy the one you like the most and go from there. Chances are, if you buy used, depreciation isn't going to hit you hard at all. We all know the biggest hit is in the first year, ~35% then it is like 3%-10% after that so I say do not even worry about it unless you plan to flip it and change cars every year or two.

you realize that this still is SF, right?

pic of the dakar yellow m3 i drove. the owner bought it used with the rims as they are now and he's trying to replace them with the competition wheels cuz these are ugly as fuck.

If I ruled the world you'd need a permit to mod and I'd be the one in charge of giving them out.