Quote:
Originally Posted by jgabriel66
Glad to have you on board.
What's the specs on your. Z?
|
Um, specs? Options you mean?
OK. Touring, Pearl White paint, Grey interior, with Sport package, mats, splash guards, but no Nav.
The 6-speed stick was a no-brainer. We've owned 25 previous vehicles, and all but one were manuals. The Mercedes SLK we're giving up is a 6-speed V-6, as is my Audi wagon (with a twin turbo too
).
I wanted the Sport package for the limited slip differential, which is of real benefit driving in the winter in Connecticut with a rear-wheel drive vehicle. The bigger brakes are a bonus, but the bigger wheels are not. Our frost-heaved and pot-holed roads are notorious wheel-benders. This spring I discovered that all 4 wheels on my S4 Avant were bent, and I never hit anything, although I did take it to a Quattro Club winter driving school.
I wanted the Touring package for the heated seats (again, a winter bonus), and because I thought the upmarket seats felt better in the lumbar region than the non-touring seats. Living with a car over the long haul, you start to appreciate some of the small things more, like the bluetooth and XM, but they weren't really factors in choosing the Touring. I might feel differently after a while.
The other factor was aesthetic. My wife really wanted the Persimmon interior, which we thought would be perfect with the Pearl White. But it seems almost no one brought any of that combination into the country. We finally settled for getting a White with Grey interior. Hopefully that will please "she who must be obeyed"
My dealer only had Sport with Touring, unless I wanted to wait for him to find a base model with Sport, which he had decided not to stock. I was initially disappointed, since that's what I wanted to order, but I did get a nice discount off of MSRP to sweeten the deal.
Other cars we considered:
* A used Boxster for about the same price
* A used SLK55 (the AMG with the big V-8, but no stick)
* New BMW 128/135
* Used Audi A5 stick
* Subaru STI
The only one close to being as much fun as the 360Z was the Boxster, and we didn't relish Porsche parts & service prices. In fact, we're burned out on German cars, having owned quite a number of them. Our two previous Nissans had been much more reliable, and both of them were still going strong well over 150,000 miles.
Probably more specs than you wanted, eh?
HJM