Could you post the VIN for the salvage records?
Sure. How do I do that? Just mention it here? JH4NA2169XT000068
Damn. Just realized I can do that from memory.<SIGH>
The only Porsche I would consider is a Cayman, but I learned on an earlier car that I greatly prefer a mid-engined vehicle.
Now, if someone wants to provide an Audi R8, I wouldn't turn that down either. They still run a bit out of my daily driver price range though.
USAA gave us enough for our car plus a low interest loan to cover anything up to about an S5 or a Mercedes CLS550 or E550, including the punitive California tax and license.
I went to a forum group called 6Speed and lurked on the Audi S5 forum and the Porsche Cayman and 997 forums. (997 is like our NA1 and NA2, the manufacturer's code for the chassis design. 997 is the latest design of their normally aspirated rear engine line, the ten Carrera models.)
The folks on the S5 forum spent over half their time talking about ways to deal with a design flaw in the latest model and bitching that the factory is so slow to fix blatant examples under warranty. That worried me, so I looked up the service bulletin and discovered they weren't just kvetching. Audi requires the dealer to try three progressively more ludicrous wheel balancing techniques before they will cover replacement of a defective steering link under warranty. And each attempt is to include the owner spending at least a week driving the car and still returning to complain. Lots of those complaining had bought their cars in the last 90 days.
We cancelled our appointment to test drive Audis.
I can't report on how they compare... well, the sedans don't compare to an NSX at all and the R8 would have required our adding a chunk of cash that soured the idea for me. Somehow a CPO R8 didn't ring my chimes. Besides, after reading that service bulletin, I don't want anything to do with the manufacturer. Forgive me, those of you who have an Audi for a second or third car, but I couldn't see buying into a bad situation that I knew about ahead of time.
So we planned to visit a Porsche dealership and Mercedes dealership that are near each other about fifty miles away and do some serious testing. (This bothered the dealers not at all. When you've just lost an NSX and say you want another car, they assume you're in the market for anything on their lot.)
Once we chose the type car we wanted, we had appointments at four other Porsche dealerships and two Mercedes dealerships. We are recovering from Swine Flu effects and going "down the hill" is a wearing process, so we were determined to find a new car that day and not prolong the agony. You know, like Audi is doing to their owners of brand new S5's?
We never got past the first Porsche dealership. We drove the Cayman, an older 911 and a new one. We selected a newish 911, the 997 chassis, as our kind of car without bothering to even visit Mercedes. I just called and cancelled those appointments. After trying a couple of CPO Porsches, we told the sales manager (who had met us and was the one dealing with us) that we hadn't seen anything that grabbed us and we had three other dealers we'd promised to visit. (Actually, I made sure to have one of the other dealers on my cell phone when he walked over.)
This motivated him to take me to a nearly new CPO car six rows back in their storage lot. When I expressed a vague interest, he had guys moving cars for twenty minutes to get it out. Meanwhile, he 'found' a new 911 as well on his inventory with all the options in which we had shown interest. Porsches are what NSX could be if Honda had ever had an interest in being a sports car provider instead of just building the NSX to stick one up Ferrari's nose. Besides the obvious model ranges like Boxster and Cayman and Cayenne and Carrera, the Carrera alone comes in a range that goes from 'simple' 95k cars up to $150,000 toyboxes on wheels. Our taste had settled around the 100k range, but he offered us that new one for the same price as the slightly used one: $86,000 out the door. In California, those last three words are very significant.
We drove the slightly used one, a 997.2 or the latest model of the 997 chassis. New engine version, new gearbox, and new computer controlled suspension. It reminded me of the NSX more than anything else we'd driven so far. Nice intuitive shift action, progressive throttle that makes it possible to show finesse, and that smooth but exciting run from a rolling start up to 120 or so without noticing the transition at any point. Alright, I didn't plan that last figure. Even on a car test, that's serious speed in California on a freeway. You might get away with it out here in the desert because the sheriff just looks the other way if you've chosen a deserted road. But on a freeway? Yikes. I could have spent a night in jail until our lawyer moved some paper.
You see that latest model has about twenty percent more displacement than our beloved NA2 and with the same smooth rush of power on the top end, I was caught off guard. It was dark by then, and "I couldn't find the damn speedometer, officer. Honest." It's true. The tach is twice as big and dead center, but the speedometer is next door, siamesed, with scant markings and five ticks up turns out to mean 125. I'm used to a speedometer that goes to 180 of course, so a 200-mph one shouldn't matter. But the designers compressed the range to about where our 140 mph reading would put the needle. So a reasonable 85 or 90 mph position of the needle on our car is in fact 125 on that toy speedometer. "Can I just take my wife to a hotel before we go, officer?"<SIGH>
Anyway, that seductive smoothness is just what we enjoy with the NA2, except with an extra hundred horsepower. Like one of our turbos. Yowza.
86k was about fifteen more than we came prepared to spend, but Cindy insisted this was my super car. She had already had hers, and of course her NSX cost even more. So, strictly to be a good husband, I let her buy it for me, contributing the cash from her service account for the NSX.
Then the question was which one. The silver one designated 911S with 385 hp and the dinky speedometer,but with eleven months service? Or the brand new one in black that was only a standard 911 and with only 345 hp? We talked while they were getting the new one out for us to inspect. Turned out it was in a tight stack in the overhead indoor storage and the guys had already left that manuevered cars in that building. Sales Manager: "What I'll do if you want the new one is let you go home tonight. Monday, I'll put it on a flatbed up to the high desert and your home. You test drive it as you will with no obligation. If your don't like it, come back and let us try to find you one you like better."
Besides the fact that the car business is pushing hard right now, it was very obvious at every dealership that owning an NSX is an entree to any other car you care to consider. Just saying.
Naturally, being sensible old people, we opted for the silver one. Easier to keep clean in the desert you know. The extra forty horsepower and the chance to drive it home that night instead of the Hertzmobile had nothing to do with it. It was interesting that when I did the math, the new one at the same price was actually a better deal financially. Backing out the tax and license and doc fees and all that crap, the selling price was about $2,800 under the "actual dealer's cost after holdbacks, et al" that USAA had estimated for the model with those options. But we needed that easily cleaned silver color you see. Hehe.
We ended up adding as much cash as would have gotten us into a new R8 or one of the Mercedes roadsters, but the Porsche just felt right. (I allow for the difference between mid-engine and rear-engine automatically. I raced Formula Fords, which are as tail happy as you could wish.) This latest Porsche Carrera feels like our NSX should feel with another ten years development that we've lost. Just as smooth and civilized when you need to play dignified or your wife doesn't feel good, but a serious supercar -- on any type of road -- with no limit on speed this side of jail.
I am not going to be sucked into track days. I am not. I'm not. I'm...
We're not going to quit mourning RAINBBY, Cindy's lovely NSX, but the healing process has begun.
Gary
