Catch up

So the car was purchased in Miami on 12/27/09 after reviewing it in person 4 days earlier.
I was looking for something under 70k miles and this just made it.
Other cars I was interested in:

VW Passat W8 4-motion. This is an all wheel drive 8 cylinder VW, rather rare. I had my eye on one in Tampa and probably would have jumped on it had I seen it, but it was sold before I could arrange a visit. In hindsight, it may be a good thing I didn’t get it as I hear they are a mechanical nightmare and expensive to repair.

Audi A4: There was a particular A4 with a V6 that I was emailing the owner about…again was sold before I could see it on the weekend. Also was interested in various 1.8 A4’s.

Mazda RX-8; Saw a great deal on an RX-8 with a recent motor swap under warrantee. Just before going to see it, I Googled the car and saw nothing but issues with people being stranded due to a common engine fuel lock out. I bailed.

Other cars that peaked my interest but I didn’t research very hard were: Hyundai Tiburon GT, Mini Cooper S, Miata, Acura RSX, Subaru WRX and Mitsu EVO X. The latter 2 where just not in my budget and with the miles I was looking for.

I know the VR6 (especially the 24V) where a rather hard car to come by. When I would do a search in AutoTrader for all of Florida for “GTI” >2003, <70k miles, I would get pages and pages of 1.8L Turbo models but only 2 GTI’s with the VR6. I was very interested in 1.8T at first as I knew there was a huge following and very tunable. But once I saw the VR6, it gave the “boy racer” GTI a more “grown up” impression with leather, power everything, and sunroof (to name a few) all standard.
One of the 2 VR6’s for sale in Florida was my color of choice (Silver), under budget, under max miles, the preferred 24V, no “racing stickers” that would give an impression the car was fast and furious every Sat night, subtle mods and cosmetically well maintained. A CarFax didn’t reveal any past issues, but also doesn’t lend support to how well it was mechanically maintained. However this is a gamble with any used car sale unless the prior owner(s) were meticulous with service and maintenance records


The audio equipment is a little over the top from what I would have done, but I can deal with it for now as it’s a pretty nice set up. Not sure when I’ll watch TV in the car, but it’s interesting to say the least. Have yet to do a “road trip” so maybe the DVD will come in handy for Cindy …we’ll have to see. One draw back I foresee with the audio is that the Alpine control unit, amp and tv module are all attached to back of rear seats. This may cause a clearance issue with a rear strut cross bar.