It was this or the God Box.

[digitaldiscipline]

[God Box price courtesy of Ars Technica.]

The ride is dead. Long live the ride.

http://www.digitaldiscipline.com/images/car

[for the record, this is my very first New Car, all previous ones had been previously loved]

Comments

[angel-renewed.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the world of responsible driving. Oh wait. I haven't owned a sensible car since 1999. I can't do the welcoming. Looks nice! It's nice enough now here to drive topless!!!

[get yer minds outter the gutter folks. I'm talking about IGOR'S top]

[etcet.livejournal.com]

fuck igor, we want sil's headlights on HIGH. can i get a "hell yeah"?

responsible? HAH. my nod to sanity was -not- getting the turbo sedan.

the downside: i got assraped on my trade in (by about $2000). the upside: 60 months to pay off, no penalty for early completion, and the first payment isn't due until 5/27.

now, i need to figure out how the radio works. there's actually a nearly-adequate subwoofer mounted in the enclosure with the spare tire, so i may not eat half the lower trunk with my 160W amp and kicker box (dual 10" drivers). well, at least not right away.

[arcsine.livejournal.com]

The 5? It's pretty freaking slick, but ditch the tires. I had a set of SP5000s, they were bald in 10,000 miles.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

good to know. i'll be keeping an eye out for a local tire place. i'm happy with the continental all-season tourers i had on the audi, but they were a scosh big to xfer (225s to 195s, i could probably stuff 205's in without much trouble, maybe even 215's, but wouldn't want to push it further than that))

[arcsine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think 195 to 225 would end up looking sort of lowrider-ish. I thought Contis were bad on treadwear, too. How many miled did you get out of them (or would have)?

[etcet.livejournal.com]

the first set, i put 40 on, then one of them suffered massive sidewall trauma in brooklyn (ask axissilverhand or whippingboy about that evening), and, since the audi was 4wd, needed to swap all of 'em. not sure how many miles were on them when i got the car (it had 42k when i got it).

[arcsine.livejournal.com]

Did a little curb checking, eh? My Regatta 2s have been holding up well, and surprisingly enough, they give good traction without being too grippy for my suspension (like the 5000s were, I'd end up powersliding on off-ramps while trying to accelerare). What exactly happened to the Audi that made you give up on it, anyway? I thought about buying one at one point, but I've heard some mixed feelings about reliability and availability of parts.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

the audi was, other than the average problems you'd start seeing in a '96, pretty damn good. the problem, however, was that the only dealership in town is fucking incompetent (see my assorted rants in nov/dec/jan/feb). the car itself did need legitimate work: the door locks (apparently endemic in the '96s for both audi & vw) needed replacement, and the sunroof switch acted up (which resulted in massive clusterfuckery at the hands of the service department). other than scheduled maintenance and a wonky oxygen sensor, the car was pretty much bulletproof.

i'm going to be sending a letter to audi usa's VP of customer service letting him know why i'm now a mazda driver. i'm disgusted and disappointed that a dealership of "premium" automobiles (audi/vw/porsche) has such abysmal service. if it was because of my stickers, and i can prove it, i'm gonna have some heads on my dashboard.

[arcsine.livejournal.com]

Basically, get a parts catalog and the Chilton's manual for it, and it would be a decent car.