Corinthian leather was the shizz, man. LOL!!! It may have been a bunch of Marketing bs, but we're still talking about it 35 years later! I don't mind the Lexus naming conventions. Semi-aniline corinthian leather?

 

Yeah it is, that's more than our total housing expense (mortgage, property taxes, insurance, gas/water/electric).

On the title question, I'm not sure what our next one will be, largely up to what my wife wants. So might be another slightly smaller SUV, or a fun convertible. Probably still 3-4 years out.

That said, this summer my son is planning on buying something he can work on, so that'll be next, but it won't be anything even remotely newish.

 

I don't know if you remember this vehicle or not (I did a review of one long ago, before I joined CL), but there was an attempt, by Suzuki, using the old Vitara/Sidekick platform, to combine a small body-on-frame SUV with a convertible (or at least a semi-convertible)....but the result, the X-90, was a complete flop here in the U.S. market. It was quickly discontinued.

 

Oh I remember that, but it is DEFINITELY not up her alley. Besides, we may or may not have a much-more-recent convertible SUV in the garage right now, inherited from her late father. She doesn't want to get rid of it for sentimental reasons, but certainly wouldn't want to buy anything in that genre.

She really wants a 718 Spyder or 911 Targa, but they're a touch spendy. We'll see what happens when we get there.

 

Who's wife doesn't want one. Lolol

 

The reality is though that people absolutely buy cars for what they project out to the world. If I said I didn't care about what people thought of my car I would be lying. I didn't get a 7 Series in large part because the car is so polarizing and I didn't want to be driving around in something so many people think is hideous.

Haha!

And when you consider it would be $3K a month to RENT cars, its even more absurd lol. I mean, I love cars and I get a lot of enjoyment out of them but you kinda gotta draw the line somewhere.

Honestly, I am kinda leaning towards buying the Pacifica out and waiting another year. Buyout is $30k and right now similar vans are selling CPO for $36-37k. I would have to buy a warranty...have to look into what that would cost but it may make a lot of sense to just keep it one more year and see what kind of PHEVs come out.

 

yes i just read audi had now simplified things because prior conventions indicating engine sizes and letters for turbo, supercharging, etc., no longer made any sense, lol.

anyone who declares they couldn’t care less at all what others think of what they drive might be asinine.

ha… well some celebs RENT homes for 20k+/mo. to be in the ‘right’ kind of place… oh and because they also absolutely care what others think.

this makes a lot of sense.

on this end, i may get another car in the october timeframe when the hyundai goes back. i will likely make the tesla model y my work car because the self driving is so nice. but what i might then get… maybe a cybertruck, hahaha. although it’s definitely hideous the one thing i like about it is i’d truly NEVER care about dings and dirt. plus it drives surprisingly well. maybe i mentioned that because i saw several on the road today.

 

Audi has never had more than one letter and one number, only the really old ones have numbers or longer names but that's all pre-1997

 

I've been in the crowd of dishing out over $3k per month in car payments and it got pretty old. But now that they are paid off, it feels pretty good!

 

so i think we’re talking about different things… i’ve seen tons of audis even in recent years with [letter][number] but also stuff like TFSI 2.0 etc. on the back. who the hell cares what “TFSI” is, lol.

just perused audi’s website and i also saw an “A6 Avant 55 TFSI e quattro” lol



also saw this… wow… very sharp! it didn’t say what it is though.

 

Oh that's just the engine type, every maker does **** like that for some reason. I honestly point and laugh at the Audis that have badging for the 2.0s because WHY would you want a badge saying you have the basic engine?

Calling out TSFI is also idiotic IMO, literally every single Audi engine post 2010 excluding the RS4/5, R8 and the W12s is a turbo DI engine. It meant something back in the early days to have a DI engine but it's totally pointless to call it out now.

The high ends have always had very simple badges. V8 V8T V10 or W12 on the fenders and a single matching badge on the back, the upper/midrange cars have simple 4.0T or 3.0T on the back and bare fenders. It's always the cope trims that have a bunch of **** slapped on.

I'm very much in the camp of you better not call out the engine it has unless it's something special for the class of car. In my generation of A8 the 3.0 cars had no engine badge because they didn't deserve it and only the true top dogs got fender badges.

 

I’m in this situation now plus insurance is a real killer.
Definitely thought about selling and just putting it everything in the market. The savings from insurance alone would be significant.

But then next minute I’m looking for another car to buy!

 

One possible saving grace is that, with many insurance companies, the more vehicles you insure with them under the same policy, the more discounts you get on each one. That, of course, is because they know that you cannot drive more than one at the same time....a vehicle sitting at home is usually not an accident hazard.

 

I'm the other way on this, I wish more automakers put engine ID in the badging so that I know what I'm dealing with, especially when car shopping.

 

Worse comes to worse, in most cases, can't you just open the hood and look? You can usually (but not always) tell if it has a turbo, and how many cylinders there are, just by a couple of quick glances and the number of spark-plug wires and/or individual ignition coils on each cylinder.