I had the pleasure of renting a Pontiac Grand Prix for the past serveral days in NJ... Ittook me a little while to get used todriving it. I felt like I was in a Buick LeSabre orsomethingeven bigger. My wife couldn't stop laughing as she took enjoyment from me beingsuperp*ssed drivingthis boat around. Myfamily couldn't believe I thought thecar was agiant slug.I'm convinced that people are crazy and have no idea whatfun driving can be.

When we got back to the ATL I tore through the overflow lot like it was a test track.My wife was white knuckled as I put my new tires to the test again, using the parking spot signs like a slolom course. It was so much fun I started laughing like a mad man.

The longer I own the A3, the less tolerant I am of driving other vehicles.

 

Today the Audi dealer passed me a Pt Cruiser [:@]while my A3 gets the roof trim fixed.
What a boat

But the radio sounds better than my A3 2008 [:@]

What's wrong with my radio? How can the radio of a32k $ carsound so crappy?

 

Chryslers/Dodges/Jeeps, etc. all have fantasitc radios from my experience. The cheapest Dodge pickup truck has a wonderful stereo, haha! Still not as good as the stock A3 stereo. The Bose is fantastic. Holds it's clairty at high volumes very well.

Anyways, the overwhelming majority of American cars are dull, lifeless, terribly designed peices of trash. They offer no driver involvement nor do they have responsive controls or good interiors.

What persuades people to buy these things anyways...

The super-cheap car range has the Chevy Aveo, the Dodge Caliber and Ford Focus. It's European competetion: VW Rabbit.

1) The VW has character, the others do not.
2) The VW has an immensely well-designed and outfitted interior for it's price
3) The VW is built by a race of people who are obsessed with perfection and once tried to dominate the world
4) The VW doesn't use 14th century technology (the Aveo has DRUM brakes in the rear... haha!)
5) The VW has a fair bit of power, poise, and handling ability.

All for more or less the same price as the American counterparts. The Aveo is a 70's car, the Caliber looks like a stupid red panda bear, and the Focus is commonplace and built by Ford.

Sorry for the rant.

Don't get me started on Buicks or the Cadillac Escalade. Oh god, I saw the interior of that 40,000 dollar Escalade and it had many of the same parts as a 1996 Chevy Suburban. Such stupidity.

 

I currently floating around the bay area in my grand marquis rental. Danville to Sacramento and back...3/4 of a tank of gas and i dont know how many close calls (almost accidents). What a piece of$hit. Thankfully tomorrow we will be riding in style in my colleague's a4 cabrio (no a3 but it will do).

 

my audi dealer got me a rental today because all of there loner cars are out, people keep them longer then they are supposed to. anyways my loaner is a sweet white kia optima, haha, the thing is peppier then i thought it would be and it has some silly manutronic transmission. I was bummed to not get an audi loaner though.

 

I lol'ed at the Caliber comment. What a hideous little car! I'm still appalled that the new SRT-4 is going to be a Caliber. And I thought the Neon was ghey...

 

Yea, the Neon srt-4 was respectable becuase it's fast and not ugly... but thats about it.

But a Caliber srt-4. Gah... terrible.

Dodge itself used to be respectable becuase it did something no other car maker did: make their cars simply badass. Now they've added a "flair" to the headlights and it all looks real girly and gay. Pathetic... I've lost all hope for American cars.