Agree with your approach Tom, but if (in the Mercedes example), the dealer was originally offering $5k off a $70k car, shouldn’t the “same deal” on a car with a retail price of $73k be ~$5200 off? Maybe I am missing something about how dealer economics would work on this.

Hey!

I’ve been thinking for a while about picking up a 124 Abarth or 500 Abarth as a run-about.

I saw this a few weeks ago and almost haven’t stopped drooling. My favorite Ferrari body (fuck the purists!), and an amazing in-marque motor.

...or the nose.

Good intel.

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

I put the 430 ahead of the 360 because it was the last of the gated manuals. But I’m not really wedded to that idea.

The 360 is at the absolute bottom of my 3x8 series Ferrari ranking. (Also my nomenclature is antiquated.) Not great looking when new and lapped in performance by more recent cars. Not the last gated shifter, not the last NA car.

$200k budget?

I test drove the 2018 M5 a couple of weeks ago. It’s almost certain the most competent, most luxurious, and fastest 4-door car I’ve ever driven. But I didn’t feel like it had any soul, and there was no personal connection to the car. I doubt 17 more HP would change my mind.

I guess it depends on which suburb. I was just back home in Powder Springs last month and most of the vehicles were domestic pickups. Didn’t see any sports cars that were not Corvettes.

When I was a kid in the 80s seeing any of these cars would have been a huge event, but now it’s more common. However, I also used to live in the Atlanta suburbs and now I live in SF and spend a lot of time in LA. So I don’t know which thing moved the needle more. Has your geography has similarly changed?

Why not both?

This is a good story, but if he had a Sandman Van as his diplomatic vehicle it would have been a GREAT story.

Having been to Australian consulate parties in several jurisdictions: confirmed!

I would never ever spec this, but after the super-steep depreciation curve kicks in I could rock it for a year. Needs matching pink and purple suit.

I am a big BMW fan but was not aware of these interior color options - the only yellow I knew about was the partially-yellow interiors on the early 2000s M3s and Z3Ms.

That’s surprising! The salesman at Bentley in San Francisco didn’t appear to know that, and I certainly didn’t like the car otherwise enough to do any research. FWIW at the price point I can’t believe something like that isn’t standard.

Completely agree this is about refresh and update cycles.