Getting a super car
Published on Friday, September 1, 2006 By Brad Wardell In Your Car
You ask someone what their dream car is and you'll get all kinds of mega cars that cost millions of dollars.
I never gave much thought about cars until relatively recently. I drove a 1984 Chevette well into my 20s. That was all I could afford.
But over the years, fate and prosperity have been kind to me and getting the untouchable dream car starts to become a reality. But a lifetime of ignorance on cars means I've had to play catch-up. Having been burning the midnight oil for the past 15 or so years, I've finally reached the point where I can start to afford really cool stuff.
In just over 10 years, I've gone from the Chevette to a Jaguar S-Type R which is what I have now. The Jaguar S-Type R is a roughly $65,000 car. In a couple of years, I will be getting a new car. But the next step up involves looking at cars that you have to order literally a year or more in advance. Which means I have to start thinking about these things now.
Here are some of the cars I'm thinking of:
1) The BMW M5. It's a Sedan which means I can fit 5 people in it. Wife, and 3 kids. So it is practical. It's also about 500hp and does 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds. It's even faster than the Jag in theory.
2) The BMW M6. Not a Sedan and not really any faster but still an awesome car. But the BMW's have a really goofy transmision system.
3) Porsche 911 Turbo. Now this is starting to cost real money. $130k to get the version I'd want to get. Ironically, the Porsche has a really crappy GPS system. I know, it's a minor thing but at that price, there should be no compromises.
4) Ferrari F430. This is at the high end of what I would be willing or able to afford at this point. It's actually slower than the Porsche but it's a Ferrari. The problem with this and the other super cars is reliability. I am not a car collector. I plan to actually drive whatever I get pretty much every day (at least in good weather). Ferrari's and up tend to ironically be fairly unreliable by reputation.
What is a real bummer for me, as a Detroiter, is that there are no American cars on the short list. The Ford GT looks interesting but has reliability problems and just doesn't seem very interesting. Corvettes, here in Detroit, are a dime a dozen. The various high end Caddy's are somewhat interesting but I don't like the way they look. That pretty much leaves me with what I've mentioned here.
I figure now is the time to get some ridiculous car because the car after this one will be when I hit (gulp) 40 and I plan to have a more modest, reasonable car by then lest one thinks that I'm experiencing a mid life crisis. In reality, I just want to have a really cool car while I'm still young. So if you had $150k or so as your budget on a car, what would you get?
I never gave much thought about cars until relatively recently. I drove a 1984 Chevette well into my 20s. That was all I could afford.
But over the years, fate and prosperity have been kind to me and getting the untouchable dream car starts to become a reality. But a lifetime of ignorance on cars means I've had to play catch-up. Having been burning the midnight oil for the past 15 or so years, I've finally reached the point where I can start to afford really cool stuff.
In just over 10 years, I've gone from the Chevette to a Jaguar S-Type R which is what I have now. The Jaguar S-Type R is a roughly $65,000 car. In a couple of years, I will be getting a new car. But the next step up involves looking at cars that you have to order literally a year or more in advance. Which means I have to start thinking about these things now.
Here are some of the cars I'm thinking of:
1) The BMW M5. It's a Sedan which means I can fit 5 people in it. Wife, and 3 kids. So it is practical. It's also about 500hp and does 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds. It's even faster than the Jag in theory.
2) The BMW M6. Not a Sedan and not really any faster but still an awesome car. But the BMW's have a really goofy transmision system.
3) Porsche 911 Turbo. Now this is starting to cost real money. $130k to get the version I'd want to get. Ironically, the Porsche has a really crappy GPS system. I know, it's a minor thing but at that price, there should be no compromises.
4) Ferrari F430. This is at the high end of what I would be willing or able to afford at this point. It's actually slower than the Porsche but it's a Ferrari. The problem with this and the other super cars is reliability. I am not a car collector. I plan to actually drive whatever I get pretty much every day (at least in good weather). Ferrari's and up tend to ironically be fairly unreliable by reputation.
What is a real bummer for me, as a Detroiter, is that there are no American cars on the short list. The Ford GT looks interesting but has reliability problems and just doesn't seem very interesting. Corvettes, here in Detroit, are a dime a dozen. The various high end Caddy's are somewhat interesting but I don't like the way they look. That pretty much leaves me with what I've mentioned here.
I figure now is the time to get some ridiculous car because the car after this one will be when I hit (gulp) 40 and I plan to have a more modest, reasonable car by then lest one thinks that I'm experiencing a mid life crisis. In reality, I just want to have a really cool car while I'm still young. So if you had $150k or so as your budget on a car, what would you get?
