I’m sure that Audi’s auto is faster and more efficient than a manual transmission. I just prefer driving a car with a manual transmission.

The interior looks pretty sharp, but the transmission is a deal-breaker for me. After owning several Audis including an S4, I would consider compromising with a DSG car. However, the automatic transmission just doesn’t do it for me in a car like this. I hope that the 340i x-drive with a manual gearbox is as good as it…

It would be interesting to find out - I’m not sure about VCCD. I’ve done some research and it appears that VC’s tend to be set up as 1-way diffs (although I could be wrong on this).

This is only true in a few cars. For example, Audis with Torsen center differentials don’t engine brake any better, as the Torsen only applies torque bias under power. It has no lock-up under deceleration. As far as I understand it, most AWD center diffs are like this and only provide locking in one way (I’m curious…

Riding with regular jeans? Tsk-tsk. I’m sure that you already know how those hold up in a crash (if not - they do not hold up at all). There are plenty of options for overpants if you don’t want to bother to change when you get to work. When I commuted I wore perforated leather pants on hot days. On cooler days, I had…

Murtaugh = Gettin’ too old for this shit

So you’re saying that I’m right. You said it yourself - pick up a reasonably priced car and do your own wrenching to sort a car out - parts are plentiful and cheap. These cars are incredibly simply built and fairly easy to work on. Great cars to learn to wrench on (albeit the later cars did get a bit idiosyncratic).

Agreed - I really liked the Elise that I drove. However, the two are difficult to compare (unless you gut an early 911 and even then, they’re totally different cars). The two are in a different class and don’t drive the same in any way.

I know - when the RSA values bottomed out, they were an incredible deal!

I realize that this is a subjective opinion, but as a counterpoint...IMO, Singer really moved away from the clean look of their earlier cars that took the best looks from all eras, and I don’t care for the looks of this one. Certainly, Singer has held nothing back to build what I assume is a very fast and high quality…

A very nice ride, but I’d prefer a real 964 RS over an RS America any day. The RS America was a nice package with a good look, but was more cosmetic over the Euro RS. :)

You can still find reasonable deals on air cooled 911's. No doubt, the market for these is a bubble. Porsche made a lot of 911's and enough are on the road to make the current sale prices hard to justify. Still, I haven’t experienced any car that drives anything like an air cooled 911 (for better or for worse).

I’ve done this before - I’ve also used hazard lights. Ultimately, IMO, if on a multi-lane road, I try to just let them pass. If it’s on a single lane road and there is no place to pull off as well as is no way to speed up ( due to traffic), the worst that I’ll do is slow way down and then punch it to create a safety…

Wow, scary. Never brake check trucks. That being said, never brake check anyone ever. Best to just let assholes and tailgaters on by.

From this detail alone, we can rule out any model of BMW.

Pretty much every club racing class in America is manual transmission. That means that the highest level of racing that 99% of drivers will ever get into involve a stick shift. (...and yes, NASCAR too)

Wow, aren’t you an oracle of wisdom today. I’m fantastically curious about what you do for a living that makes you so wise to the ways of the world. (Also, I hope to avoid that industry if I need to prove my worth with a car.)

I’m not offended in the slightest bit. In most industries, people tend to be judged by their competence in their job and the results that they deliver rather than the car that they drive. Law isn’t especially different. I’ve worked with dozens of attorneys and I am fairly certain that I never saw any of their cars…

This gets my vote for the douchiest comment of the day...or maybe just makes a statement that you’re a status symbol kind of guy (kind of synonymous for me, given your choice of verbiage).

Why can I only star this once? I feel like this should be /thread and /debate. Can you take this message on tour?