For the past two months, I've been looking to replace my Audi. Why? Because German cars are expensive to keep and maintain, and this particular one was just starting to show it's age, and an aging German sport sedan is not something you want to have to deal with.
There is nothing actually wrong with my A4, it is just getting up there in mileage (just turned 60,000 miles 2 weeks ago), but I've been thinking about getting rid of it for a while. It is an incredibly fun car to own and drive, but there are a couple things that always bothered me about it.
1. Premium gas only. A tank of premium costs around $50.
2. Maintenance. The 60k mile service was almost $400.
3. Image. Now I'll be the first to admit that I was fully aware of the image I'd be presenting by driving an Audi at age 27, but the sheer fact of owning one of my dream cars was too much to let this one pass. After a while, it just got embarrassing when people would see that I drove it. For me, it was a fun car, but to other people, it came across as a status symbol, which was not my intention, honestly.
So, I looked around at a few different cars. The
Mazda3 hatchback was at the top of my list for the majority of my time spent car shopping. I also test drove a new
Scion tC, and while I was more impressed than I thought I'd be, I just wasn't feeling it. The tC is actually very nicely equipped for a car that starts in the low $16,000's, but it felt like what it is, a Toyota. That is to say, reliable, but
no soul.
So I bought another German car! And here is a picture of it!
Yes friends, I am now the proud owner of a new
VW GTI, with a 200hp 2.0-liter turbo engine, and a fabulous and quick-shifting DSG automatic transmission.
Wait, what?
Yes, it's an automatic. But not just any automatic, this car has VW's new
direct-shift gearbox, which is actually a lot more like a manual transmission without a clutch pedal. I could go on and on, but I'm sure most regular readers have already lost interest.
This is an
awesome car to drive. It is hands-down the most fun car I've owned, even though the Audi, with its 212hp
chipped engine has 12 more horsepower, the GTI blows it away, mostly because the A4 is so much heavier.
Speaking of which, I still have the A4:
... but hopefully only for a little while longer, as a prospective buyer is "looking into his loan options," which hopefully doesn't involve kneecap removal as a payment incentive.
