I should add I only passed my car test 2 years ago at 44 and spent the previous 28 years riding motorbikes and from a power perspective nothing comes close in feel or performance which I could ever hope to afford.
At the moment my first car is a Peugeot 307 xsi 2.01 16 v and peeps get in it and said it’s quite nippy but really it feels like a slow tank to me.
My next car I hope will be about gadgets and comfort.
Yeah, two wheels are no comparison to cars. Bikes are like mainlining horsepower.
A Honda Civic Hatchback (built in England even) might be something to look at that if you’re interested in new. Fairly cheap car and it has all the bells and whistles of a more expensive car. The GTI with the same features was $13000 (US) more for the same options ( but no comparison on performance). Of course their software wasn’t great and it felt kind of cheap compared to my GTI, but the GTI a lot more money.
The new Hondas do seem better than the last generation. The Accord (admittedly, well out of Reemul’s target price) are on paper actually competitive with things like the A4. Their engines are nearly identical in output, the tech is solid, and on the highest trim the Accord looks very nice inside. It’s FWD not AWD, and it’s not quite the near-perfect package the A4 is, but it’s also a lot less money when comparably equipped (like under $40k compared to over $50k). The Civics are a bit over-designed for my taste, but sure beat the hell out of the Corolla or Sentra.
One thing with Honda is that the support was no where near as good as with VW. My TDI would have software updates every oil change when I first got it and was still getting updates 5 years later (working on hiding emissions I suppose). I owned my Civic a year, had some real issues with the software and there was never an update. And when the door sensors broke, which was a known issue online, yet Honda claimed not to know about it, it took them 2 months to get me a new sensor.
I have used VW dealer’s service centers all across the country and they go above beyond any other car manufacturer I have dealt with (sales, not so much). The Civic was a nice car, but I doubt I will buy another Honda after that one.
Nope. It’s simply a portable chair.
Sorry, but I haven’t been able to justify my car enthusiasm quite as much after hearing him say those words.
But I totally get you.
I sincerely hope than none of you have suffered from the following illness: When I was in my twenties, I had car “fever” just terribly, always buying a different car that “fit” me more perfectly. I loved every car I ever bought, but after driving it a few months, I’d get too comfortable with it, and want something even better. i.e. The three-year-old 1979 Trans Am with the 403 V8 and 45,000 miles I had just bought a few months before was just glorious to drive. Until I saw the exact same car (color and year and miles) on a different lot that had T-tops and the higher-horsepower Pontiac 400 engine. So I’d trade mine in on it.
People in their late teens and 20’s should only be allowed to buy econo-boxes. I went deep in debt back then because I loved cars so much, and with handy financing, I bought my first Corvette (two year old model) when I was 22 and making $5 per hour. Of course I couldn’t afford it, but I ate mac and cheese for the 6 months I kept it. And after I’d bought it, I wanted my Trans Am back. The Corvette was not for me.
But I digress. Apologies. Back to the VW.
Funny, that’s nearly the subject of the paper I’m giving next week at a conference, though I complicate the issue with Baudrillard, Nietzsche, Frederick Jackson Turner, American Graffiti,and the Blues Brothers.
Erm, guilty as charged. When I got out of grad school the first time, from Virginia in 1984, I moved to DC and was working for a defense contractor. I had a nice enough, if sort of boring, 1980 Buick Century (don’t ask); perfectly workable car. I immediately ditched it for a '84 Z28. After about six months, I figured, damn, what I really want is a Mustang GT, wit the five-speed (that’s the car that set me to driving manuals for the next three decades). And then I ditched that two years later for one of the early Acura Integras (though in my defense, I was moving to Germany and didn’t want to lug the thirsty V8 with me). But yeah, didn’t exactly manage the money well there.
Of course, today there is leasing, for anyone who wants a new car every couple three years. I have only leased two cars though, a WRX and a sweeeeet Acura GS-R. It always felt weird though putting in that money and having nothing at the end.
We need to speak about all the motorsports related things the GTI and Type R are so good at, like autocross and track days. Then you will get to really see what your car will do. My car also lives most days commuting on low speed not so fun roads. But then on a few weekends a year I drive my car for all its worth.
its great fun, and you will become a better driver too.
Back to VW, I too am jonesing for a GTI
No doubt. Sadly, up here, in the land of car haters and terrible winters/roads, there are no tracks or track days that I know of.
Wombat, whereabouts are you? From your description is it Washington state?
Nah, Vermont. Typical driver half the year is temperatures between -20 and 20, ice or snow, bad roads, and car-hating inhabitants.
Where in VT? I’m in Williamstown MA right now, but we are considering moving up to Bennington. Its a nice small town, but bigger by far than Williamstown. And yes, half the cars on the road are Subarus.
Yeah, i’m in Germany so i have pretty good access to Volkswagens (that i can afford).
In addition to our expensive gas and cars, we are now also getting a completely unnecessary system of road tolls complete with expensive infrastructure that nobody wanted except for the Bavarian conservatives. They somehow managed to sell this to their base with a xenophobic angle, because now we can make those darn EU foreigners pay for using our roads.
Btw, that Automobile-Nietzsche-Baudrillard paper of yours sounds really intriguing.
The Vermont branch of SCCA has a full autocross season but also does Time Trials on ICE. That sounds freaking amazing!
http://sccv.org/wp/
Here is a list of many autocross groups in the NE
http://autocross.com/autoc/neclub.shtml
I only see roundy-round tracks in Vermont, but I bet if you asked the SCCA folks they would know the closest road course tracks if you wanted to do a track day/HPDE. Maybe Lime Rock Park?
Lime Rock does track days, though it’s pretty far away, and I think it’s usually the sort of thing a group gets together, as it is fairly expensive I believe.
These are the sorts of things I would look into for sure if I had the wherewithal (time, money, etc.) which I don’t at the moment. I think it’d be fun.
North, Chittenden county, Burlington area. I live out side the city a ways. Vermont up here is somewhat different from Vermont down there, and both are different from the North East Kingdom for sure. But I hear Bennington is nice, though I’ve only driven through on the interstate.
Track Night in America is probably cheapest way. Its basically a 3/4 track day (starts in afternoon goes into evening) on a week night at a cheap rate, say $150 to $200 depending on track
https://www.tracknightinamerica.com/events?utf8=✓&all=true&origin=05402&within=250
HPDE are put on either by car clubs (BMW, Porsche, SCCA) or by local driving school companies. These are either a full day or often 2 days. They run say $200 to $400 depending on the program and the track.
The autocrosses are dirt cheap, maybe $50, but you get a lot less seat time. The competion can be insane, with margins of victory of thousands of a sec…
So maybe not as expensive as you thought? Come drink the koolaid. You already have a Type R!
I am more than a little curious about this. Any way you could post it so we could read it some day?
Heh, well, I’m in the process of trying to get the format into something for reading rather than presenting. It started life as a mixed media presentation for a symposium, has morphed into something resembling a conference presentation, and the next step is figuring out the best way to set it up as a readable essay.
If I don’t submit it anywhere for publication, I might be able to disseminate it otherwise. I’ll know more after the conference this week.
That’s a lot of cars!