Realised the other day that my 135i was a bit good and a bit expensive to keep smashing 20K miles onto a year. Business is also going quite well so I thought it was time to treat myself .......
First up was a test drive of an Alfa Giulia QC - amazing car, very quick and felt lovely on the road. Unfortunately test drive was pretty short and didnt give me much of a chance to open it up much but if it had been 45K Id have put a deposit down there and then. Unfortunately £65K and a £22K GFV doesnt add up.
Next was an M2, I manged to find one to drive but when I told them I wasnt going to buy for at least 6 week they said they'd rather not put miles on it, fair enough I suppose. Beautiful car but pretty uninspiring interior, no way to turn TC fully off and 11 month waiting list ........ and still a crap GFV, how does that work?
Also much slower than my current steed, doubt it would handle as well either.
Considered Cayman 987/981 but then realised there is no point in having to make a decison which car youre going to take to the Nurburgring, particularly if one is depreciating heavily. So the decision to buy a diesel luxobarge was made!
Following an epic FB thread narrowed choices down to Range Rover, Jag XJ/XF, 7 Series BMW or a phat Merc. Realised I already have a Range Rover, tested an XJ but it didnt ride that well (big wheels), XF would be great as a single car but wasnt really special enough, Mercs were all a bit too sensible or V8 and mega juicy. Drove an E65 730d and loved it, but then this happened:
For those that dont do a recognise on sight (why would you, theres only 64) its a V10 VW Phaeton. Some specs:
V10, twin turbo diesel - 308hp, 550 lb/ft at 2K RPM
Air suspension, 4 damping settings, 2 ride heights
18 way electrically adjustable seats with heat, aircon, 6 way adjustable lumbar and massage
Draughtless 4 zone climate control, passive heating (wood slides down over the air vents)
Double glazing, 4WD, intelligent gearbox, HBA, EBD, CDC, ASR, ESP, EDL, ABS
And its genuinely awesome - the only car that rides like it is a Rolls, its faster than my brothers 123d and over 100 getting on for as quick as my 430hp 135i and is returning over 30mpg despite being driven like you drive a new car :lol:
totally silent at 80mph, totally isolated from the road, its a weird experience.
Even the missus likes it, its easily the best luxobarge Ive ever traveled in and the best Bahnstormer Ive driven - looking forward to a quick jaunt over to Ostend next week and I bet it doesnt even notice it. Only concern is if anythign goes wrong (a single injector is £1K and it has 10, for instance) but you only live once right?
Originally Posted by scimmy ben
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