We purchased a new truck back at the end of 2018 because that is what my wife wanted and we purchased it as a life style choice. We purchased it in conjunction with a larger replacement travel trailer. We spend every other weekend towing the 9k lb trailer all over the southeast. That’s what we do for fun.

Here’s a specific example to consider:

I have more than enough equity to either make a down payment or incur the depreciation expense at the end of the use of the vehicle. So why would I not take advantage of the 0% financing? I either incur the cost at the beginning or the end. Time value of money dictates that incurring that burden at the end is often…

Ours is over 600. But that represents a small fraction of our Mortgage. It's also a fraction if what we put into savings every month. And if either my wife or I lost our jobs, we would still be able to pay for everything comfortably without skipping a beat. It does help that one of the cars was paid off a few years…

True, but this was financing available to every F150 purchase with qualifying credit. It didn’t affect any other discount and we got every option and color we wanted.

I do my own work and I get parts at 10% above cost from a major parts distributor because of long previous ties to a major redistributor who shall go unmentioned.

We didn’t pass on a single rebate and received about $10k in total. We even received an additional family and distributor discount from Ford due to my employer.

That’s not true in this case. It was a new F150 and it included all of the discounts offered by ford. In addition, it was the cheapest available truck with the options that we wanted within the southeast. The financing was offered specifically by Ford as an ongoing promotion that did not exclude us from other options.

0% for 6 years for us. I would have been crazy NOT to take it. If anybody wants to loan me that much money with no interest for 72 months then I’ll be 100% all over that 😀

It is the same engine, which is why I excluded it. It came out in many VAG products around the same time and within the last year or so.

330ci was the E46 generation. I think you mean 328i. But your point still stands.

No. Sorry. That’s incorrect. It had a 2.7t, not a 3.0tt. I know... I had the displeasure of hel9ng a friend replace the timing belt on theirs. It was awful.

One could make an argument that the early B5 S4 was competitive with the E36 M3 in the US.

The first 3.0 turbo V6 from VAG? This IS the first twin turbo 3.0 V6 from VAG (excluding the totally unrelated 3.0t that was in the Macan S).

“twin-turbo V8"

This is just silly 

This looks like my dream engine. Wide angle V6, hot-vee. Fantastic

1986? So a Gold top B20A? Those aren’t terrible engines - particularly for the 80's.

But a 4g63 doesn’t need to be destroked to withstand high rpms in a time attack or hill climb setting. There are many high hp and high rpms 4g63 time attack cars that didn’t bother to destroke.

I know the blocks can take a tremendous amount of abuse. But I also know that time attack and hill climb teams with deep pockets have been going to billet aluminum to save weight.