I started to wonder...
 

If I was the only waffler freak... going through the following mayhem:

1999 BMW 328i (on a three year lease)
1999 Suburban (also on a three year lease)
2000 E430 (on a 4 year lease which we finally freaking sold last week)
buying a 2002 A4 (and selling it after 11 months)
buying a 2003 G35 Coupe (and trading that after 10 months)
buying a CPOed 2002 Volvo S60 (going on 4 months)
buying a used 2003 MCS (going on 6 months)

all the while visit Auto Trader on a weekly basis to consider the following cars: used Miata, used Toyota Land Cruiser, another used A4 (just like what we sold above), a new S40 wagon, an R32, Z3's, Z4's, TT's, used Ford pickups, etc... AND visiting dealers to drive a Toureg, Land Rover, Cayenne, various E46's, 4-runners, Passat, and a GTI.

My point is all of this is... we are all wafflers, we are all freaks. And I am damn proud of it. :D

If www.carmudgeons.com doesn't work out we can always be www.waffles-r-us.com.

Re: I started to wonder...
 

True. I almost hate to admit that my wife and I have owned no fewer than 13 cars in ~8.5 years of marriage.

This place is actually support group for people like us. :lol:

i'm done waffling.

finally settling in for the duration. takes a long time.

15 years of driving and 21 or so cars.

finally.

I ain't buyin' it, "Serial Auto Trader." You will fall off the wagon sooner or later...

Re: I started to wonder...
 

Holy Shit! I had no idea jp! :lol: Wow! :D

I'm not buying it either. I give him 6 months. MAX.

Define duration. :?

:twisted:

I've had my license for almost 9 years (9/95). Bought my first car in May 2000. Haven't sold it yet.

Call me what you want... but I don't waffle.

Well, that's a funny way to put it...

waffler in training... you're showing all the classic signs. denial only makes it worse. ;)

bets?

bets?

we putting down money on this?

6 months? 8 months? 12 months?

this is going to be good because HACK is already going to owe me $25.

Re: I started to wonder...
 

You should try the Evo and STi. ;)

:D

No way. Too much incentive for you to buck the trend. That, or you may keep the car just to spite us.

nah. that's not true. a bet like this wouldn't keep me, if i really wanted to try a different car.

e.g. c6 z06

it'd be an interesting bet, though. it would make me laugh for sure when i caught myself ogling another car. it has been quite the long amount of time since that has happened, though. well, okay. that has not happened. i have seen the red 360 scream through my town on sundays and i appreciate the car for what it is, but realize i am not envious. maybe if i saw a ford GT on the road.

the c6 z51 is enough to catch my attention, but not enough to think that i'm missing out on something just yet. hard to say if that will be true for the c6 z06. the new 997 looks neat, in an overpriced why don't they put in 8 cylinders sort of way.

I always waffle whilst the decision is being made. But ultimately, once it is made, I stick to it.

I think the main issue is that I am too fiscally responsible (cheap? :? ) to bear the huge depriciation hit of a swapping cars often. Particularly now that "I'm broke." I'm sure as years go by and hopefully we are more financially settled I wont be as willing to put up with a car I don't like just because I want to squeeze the most money out of it. Not that I am currently putting up with either of my cars (well maybe the Benz), but I would if I had to.

fiscally responsible.

ouch.

the fact is, i've never been. why start now? :twisted:

the fact of the matter is that we are all going to corrupt TD and mbr and they will have an itch that becomes an insanely wicked rash and they will have to get different cars sooner than later.

But I'm with mbr where financial constraints keep me from doing all that I'd like to. I can't complain about my car line-up, but I'm also not currently in a position where I can afford to act especially irresponsible.

These waffler threads actually help me. The more I hear people talk about their cars, the more I realise that the Miata is the right car for me. I used to want other cars, to have and to hold; now I just want to maybe drive other cars for the fun of it.

It's fun to thought-experiment what I might get if I ever need a 'practical' car, but if I never do, that's fine.

I'll be honest. I got my 330i a year before I originally planned. And the 'fest is guilty for that. I was supposed to pick up my car in Germany as part of my honeymoon. So I WAS influenced by "you poeple" collectively. Oh well. :twisted:

Hi. My name is blee. (Hi, blee) And I'm a waffler too.

The first car I bought for myself was in December of '99. I saw myself driving that car up to school to propose to my girlfriend, driving it to our wedding, driving it to the hospital to deliver our first baby, etc. etc. etc.

I traded it in July of '02. Including that first car, I've owned five cars in less than two years. Now that I have no money, this car is gonna stay for while. i think.

My money is now gone, so

we are now running lean. just two (relatively cheap) cars ;-)... with the new mortgage we are grounded -- for a while.

Ah yes... denial - classic symptom.

I thought the same thing after buying our house last May. We have since bought an M3 and a 'Disco. You might as well try to hold back the tides.

;)

what he said.

Going on 18 years. 19 cars (give or take).

Possibly interesting stats:

11 sticks, 8 slushies, 0 wankermatics

5 black
4 blue
3 dark red
2 gray
2 yellow/white
1 gold
1 green
1 white

54 doors
3,906 horsepower
4,631 lb/ft torque
75.9 liters of displacement
59,102 pounds
124 cylinders
2 rotors
84 forward gears
14 V engines
4 inline engines
1 rotary engine

So, my average car:

2.8 doors
3110 pounds
205 HP
243 TQ
6.52 cylinders + .105 rotors
4.42 forward gears

:?

now that's obsessive.


(...i wonder what the stats are for my cars...)

LOL - I like that summation. But you should add your average vehicle's weight/hp ratio. Hmm...

3 sticks, 2 sequential

2 white, 2 red, one black

6 doors
459hp
465lbs/ft
7.25L
17 cylinders
8152lbs
3 inline engines, one V, one thumper
26 forward gears

Average car:
1.2 doors
1630lbs
91hp
93lbs/ft torque
3.4 cylinders
5.2 forward gears

18lbs/hp

Motorcycles make things a little different, eh?

Wheeeee!

it's interesting in general that your average car has more torque than horsepower. odd.

;)

Don't all the really good ones... :smile:

:thumbup:

My GTP had 240hp, 280ft-lb from the factory. All it took was a pulley to help the SC boost power a little bit. Man, I loved mashing the pedal on that thing.

that cryptic, subtle statistic actually dates clyde pretty well. superficially, to me, it means bigger displacement OHV engines with plenty of torque but didn't breathe well to produce HP.

since many of the young ones haven't even ever owned cars with OHV or cam-in-block engines, they'd not generally know what it's like to live with more torque than HP.

that's why it's funny. :D

325e = more torque than hp. :smile:

My 190E 2.6:

162lb-ft
158 hp.

:D

Combined both cars

HP= 393
TQ= 384

Close enough. ;)

:p

To be totally fair, it's really not all that cool to have tons of torque and relatively little hp. You feel the car sort of wheezing at higher speeds, so it's not great IMO for quick highway cruising.

OTOH, most driving for most people requires stopping at lights and going again from a stop. Torque is a LOT of fun in that range...just hope that you don't have enough room to hit 60 mph before the next light. ;)

Re: I started to wonder...
 

1. i'd skip the S60 and a4 and keep what you have. yuck and double yuck. :-)

2. i'd skip the G35 and just get a subsizdized lease on a 350Z (the G35 is prettier, though).

3. i do not fully understand the MC phenomenon, but it seems like a better idea to get a used one if you're holding it for that brief a period of time.

4. i'd skip the z3 and go straight to the heavily discounted z4s. the z3 parts bin was bloody awful and handles much worse than the z4 and this isn't really even subject to debate.

5. i dunno about the r32 or the tt. both are the "old" golf platform. at this rate, wouldn't you rather wait to see how the mark V is since they're bringing it over in the GTI version first?

6. don't really understand the land rover or cayenne appeal but the toureg makes sense. especially in the badass v10 turbodiesel version.

____________________-

as far as the more torque than hp, i'd love to have a nascar v8, especially a hendrick motorsport one with a redline close to 9000.

:-)

that would take care of torque and breathing at high rpms. that's the whole appeal of a 360 to me, the high rpms and the 8 cylinders. someday.

Re: I started to wonder...
 

If we ever have towing needs, I'll get a used Touareg TDI V10.

lemming... check your PM.

Re: I started to wonder...
 

That engine commands a $15,000 premium over the standard 8 banger!

Re: I started to wonder...
 

MBR!

i just got home.

am sorry. i PMd your back. it was a disaster today.

f*ck.

okay. 15k premium. screw that.

Re: I started to wonder...
 

Honest-to-goodness off-road capability and usable cargo space. My money is on LR over VW when off-roading gets seriously nasty. I am looking for some good steel wheels and some heavily sidewalled, lugged rubber for the Disco' as the stock alloys would look like hamburger meat after some of the mountain trails we're accustomed to. The tires would be toast within a few hundred yards.