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Okay, I'll keep this short.
I had read a lot about the car and sort of thought I knew what to expect. There were a couple of things I was expecting to find a problem with and, surprisingly, those were the areas I really didn't.
Every VW I had every driven, I hated the clutch take-up and travel and the rubbery-ness of the shifter. This clutch had very short travel and the shifter was precise. Total snick snick.
And I expected it to be slower than my M3. And it might be. But it didn't feel slower. And it really didn't feel 3400 lbs heavy.
I was very impressed.
HIGHS:
-Clean, handsome appearance, inside and out. Exterior doesn't look too garish and the interior is just gorgeous.
-The seats are awesome.
-Power and torque both are very impressive. It pulls hard. And I was immediately able to pull off perfect shifts.
-The exhaust note is intoxicating. Throaty without sounding ricey.
-Great, practical package for such a strong performing car.
LOWS:
-Power still feels ever so slightly limited (I've become a HP junkie).
-Brakes felt weak. I assume new pads would help as the rotors are pretty large.
-In the limited lane change exercise I tried (with a salesman in the car), I noted more body roll than I'd want.
-I don't care to have bright blue painted calipers and springs.
-Lease rates are AWFUL. Payments on a 35 month least with 15K miles/year with only fees/etc down at inception would run over $600/mo. Hell, lease payments on a new M3 (at sticker) are only just over $800/mo. (I expect awful depreciation and difficult resale so I wouldn't want to own one outright -Granted that awful resale would account for the lease payments being so high).
Still, I'm planning on spending time listing my car on Autotrader tonight. I don't think I would miss my M3 if I had the R32. And that's a huge admission for me. I really enjoyed driving that car.
That's not to say I WILL buy it.
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