It's you... Not Me

I added a new category to the list of topics because I'm going back to a subject that I was obsessed with as a kid and in high school. Last year sometime, my sister came around with a Cadillac CTS she had just gotten and I had the chance to take it for a test drive. Wow. I had shunned Caddies for years because of the constant and consistent boat look. It was one thing to cruise in an old Brougham or Eldorado (70's, preferably) and another in the shapeless, ugly boats from the late 80's and 90's. I took it for a hard ride and enjoyed it thoroughly. There's a relatively short track of road near our office where Madison St. turns into West Bound Lane (in Darien) that is a good drag strip - no one on it and if you know it well enough, you know where to slow down in case anyone was out on a bike ride.
That whole experience started a series of test drives that lead up to the car that now occupies another space in our garage. I thought I would eventually end up with a BMW 330xi. Something happened in the past year to the 330 that makes it feel slow, though. The car handles like a dream - no question about that. Something that I was particularly interested in was power and four wheel drive. I am partial to German cars (for numerous reasons), so while I started there, that wasn't all I had looked at. What really made me realize the 330 was missing something was a test drive of the BMW 540i. The 540 has a 5.4L V8 with somewhere in the neighborhood of the low 300's in horsepower. It was much more responsive than the 330 and felt more comfortable. The 540 was missing one important item, however, four wheel drive. For some reason, BMW doesn't see a market for a 540x or newer 550x. I can understand to the extent that four wheel drive systems require more torque and power to move the car, but in any type of rain or snow condition, four wheel drive can be amazingly helpful. When test driving the S4, I was amazed at how well it took the corners. Of course, there weren't many 4x4 sedans that I'd driven, so I can't say that I've had many to compare.
Since we bought Steph's A3, I've been smitten with the Audi grill and general looks. That was the same as I felt about BMW before their latest changes (i.e. the '97-2002/3 cars). Looks are always personal, so I don't expect someone else to feel the same way I do about cars. The only car that has always seemed to have the right mix of modern looks and power are Porsche's cars (and now SUV). My dream 911 Carerra 4S is years away, though ;)
A few weeks ago, I was at Napleton in Loves Park having the 15k mile service performed on Steph's car and wanted to take the waiting time I had ahead of me to test drive a few cars. I mostly wanted to see what would come of the A6. It so happened that the A6 was the car they loaned to me while I was waiting for things to finish at the garage. I got in the car and immediately felt out of place. The size was too similar to my Tahoe and the pickup of the V6 wasn't what I was hoping for. In general, I was disappointed. (I consider it a great car, but not along the lines of what I had been searching for.) So, I asked to test drive an A4 and S4. I figured both (since they are the same, except engine), would feel too small, but I had time to kill.
The A4 was nice. It was nice the same way that the 330 was nice. 'nuf said.
Then we stepped into a used S4. I didn't even have to drive out of the lot and I already knew I'd found it. Torque, power, space - all in a relatively inconspicuous family sedan shell. Perfecto.
The next part of the story is simply one of "what should I?", "what can I?" and most importantly, "is Steph going to go along with it..."

The rest is history. To the left is a sad picture of a new 2006 S4 25th Anniversary Edition - the one that will sit next to Steph's A3. I'm looking forward to a few things: avoiding tickets like the plague (something I haven't done since I was 20 and stopped speeding), thinking that I just might be able to keep up with that 911 that passes me in Chicago like I'm standing still, and a bit of legal racing at a track nearby called Blackhawk. I have done yet another one of those things that I never thought I'd do. I live back where I grew up and I now own more than one Audi (oh yeah, I forgot to mention - I hated Audis up until the late 90's early naughts - really).

I tend to scoff at a lot of ideas that don't make sense at first glance. One of those was satellite radio. What??? Pay for radio??? You're nuts. If I'm gonna' pay for radio, I might as well use my iPod and own the music. Well, if you have an extra $120 sitting around for a year's worth of clear and uninterrupted radio service and have found the iPod distracting at times, then you might actually find it worth it.
One of the few times I can listen to what I want, as loud as I want is in the car on the way to work or running errands. While Steph and I have similar music tastes, there are enough differences to make it hard for me to enjoy some of the music I miss when we are listening together. (Psychologically it is probably like the child that has a sucker and sees another child with the same sucker - and suddenly his sucker is no good and he needs that of the other child.) I've had an iPod direct wired into my car for a few years and while I find it a must have, it is sometimes too distracting and too difficult to get to an album that I want to listen to without driving the car off the road.
The fact is that I like gadgets and I like to experiment. So, when I was setting up delivery of the S4, I called the salesman* to ask him whether or not they could get Sirius installed (I wanted to go with the satellite underdog). I had everything else you could get - plus a hard-wired iPod adapter on the way - so why not? He said they happened to have another customer remove it from their car to change to XM and he could give me the used Sirius module for a song. Nice.
Therein began the love affair. I didn't realize how enjoyable uninterrupted, single format radio was. I have two stations programmed in the favorites: Channel 33 // Area 33 (Trance & Progressive House) and Channel 20 // Octane (Pure Hard Rock). I haven't had time to find others because my commute is so short and the list of channels is ridiculously long (although, like satellite tv, I imagine at some point that will become too short). The best thing about it is that I don't have to take the time to set up playlists. I know I'll use the iPod about 50% of the time, but for short highway stints, Sirius has become a good friend of mine.
So, yes, in a word, I'm Sirius.

* John Ray and Tim Hayes at Napleton Auto Werks in Loves Park, IL are simply the best. Both are busy salesmen, but between the two of them, they were able to answer all my questions and give me the service I had hoped for. I was a little leery of dealing with Napleton because after three calls last year, I never was able to get anyone to respond to questions I had about getting all-weather floor mats and some electronic upgrades for Steph's A3. This time around, however, they were on the ball and have taken care of everything. There are two items that topped it off and put them over the edge: 1) when I had Steph's A3 in for the 15k mile service, they gave me a loaner and 2) they delivered the S4 instead of me having to try to arrange taking a car to Loves Park, get it back, etc. etc. Dealers seem to not understand the value of loaners to customers. Let me make it clear: because Napleton gave me a loaner, I will put them at the very top of my list next time I purchase a car, even if their price is slightly higher. The value of having a loaner is difficult to measure because it saves time and the hassle of arranging transportation or a rental. I don't mind paying for a rental, if it is needed, but it certainly helps if the dealer has the facilities to make the appropriate arrangement.

Until you get to the exotics (e.g. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bently, Aston Martin, Porsche), it seems that the power of many Euro sports cars are balanced by the driver. Yesterday, on my way in the S4 to pick up my parents (from their 40th anniversary trip to Europe), I was on I-90 a few miles before O'Hare
and whadaya know a Z8 and 2006 Merc. SL500 come up on my rear having slowly made it through the wall of idiots who were taking up all three lanes doing about the same speed. At the time I was going around 85-90, just cruising behind a Camry (that looked like it was going to fall apart every time the driver thought that an instant lane shift was great for he and his car), simply waiting for him to get out of the way. The Merc pulled around to the right lane and zoomed ahead and I figured that would be the last that I would see of him. We finally came to a point where the Camry wouldn't push it any more and a Tahoe was speeding up and slowing down in the middle. The Z8 got lost somewhere in the back while I was trying to finagle my way around the Camry (all in a safe and controlled manner, mind you). Finally, an empty space opens up way on the right and I hit the brakes, look for traffic and take the right lane to freedom. The Merc was in the middle ahead and the Z8 came out of nowhere up on my rear again. None of us seemed to be impatient - what I hate most about cruising at the 90-100 mark is when you notice that the driver seems to think that he's Schumacher on a badly bruised Tollway like I-90 - it makes for unsafe and "unfun" driving. So, I gently cruised ahead of the Merc, knowing that my exit was ahead a mile or so, letting the Z8 cruise ahead if he wished. The irony is that by this time we were all doing 100 and while no one was struggling to keep up, each time one driver passed the other, it wasn't like being blown out of the water. There is no knowing whether or not the other drivers where taking it easy or not - it seemed not in the sense that I wasn't being passed up as if I was going still.
Anyway, it was a thrill. It was nice to see the S4 hold up against two premium demanding Euro-trash cars (I'm including mine in the mix - albeit on the cheap side).
Oh, by the way, if the woman driving the Mitsu Montero around the I-90/I-290 exchange thinks it is safe to tailgate me at 85 (when it is obvious that I can't go any faster because of the Camry in front of me and all the traffic on the right), then you are an absolute idiot. I'd love to see you hit the brakes when you're only 10 ft behind me. Idiot.