[ZBB]

So... I did most of my perseverating in the 911 thread, but I haven't posted an update here...

Over the last week, I've done a few test drives and put a deposit down today...

- 2018 911 C2S Cab. This was a fairly lightly optioned car, although it was in fantastic condition. I mostly liked the color combo (blue top was odd and I surprisingly liked the interior color). But it felt pretty basic (manual seats for example). Was nice to drive, but I just can't wrap my head around spending over $100k on a car that didn't match a more "ideal" spec for me. I mentioned having full leather in the Boxster, and I now realize how special that find was. The one thought I had when driving the 911 was that even though the 991 interior looks different than the 987 I sold a decade ago, much of the feel was the same -- similar view over the hood, similar steering feel, similar shifting feel, etc.

- Miata RF (the hard top). Actually drove 2 (stick and automatic; the automatic was just to see the color combo, and it felt rude to not take it for a drive). The stick was black on black and they had none with the terracotta interior at that dealership, but I did get a good feel for top up and top down driving. I drove the automatic this afternoon, and its a rainy day, so got a good feel for the hard top and wipers. I also was reminded at how much I really dislike torque converters (even with paddle shifters avail). The color combo on the auto was fantastic though -- Platinum Quartz Metallic over Terracotta Nappa leather. I was worried the paint color would be too much like the champaign metallic color that used to be fairly common on Lexi and BMWs, but its not. Its actually a silvery-gray with a bit of tan in it, which looks really good with the terracotta interior, which is between a baseball glove and basketball (less orange that a basketball though). As for driving top down... Even though the RF has a fixed portion of the roof, the top section and back window glass fold down and you really can't see them, so it feels like a full convertible. But with it up, there is not a lot of road noise and it did great in the rain. Driving feel is great; it feels plenty fast, and shifting was just about perfect from a feel standpoint. There's also a nice view over the long hood, especially with the wheel arches being higher than the center of the hood (not exactly the same as the Porsche view, but more similar than you'd think).

- Kia EV6 -- I figured I'd better drive it before making a decision. Honestly, this is a fantastic car, with decent room. The rear storage space is a bit smaller than the Model Y (feels a good 30-40% smaller -- not as tall nor as deep). It drives well -- and like most EVs has really good acceleration. I drove an AWD model, and it was interesting seeing the graph on the driver screen showing that most of the drive that only the rear wheels had power / regen. I saw a short blip of regen on the front wheels once. It also has regen paddles -- the left one gives max regen and the right one a light regen (neither paddle was set to mid-regent, although you can change the default to any of the 3 settings...). Good decent car, but it really didn't excite me as much as I thought it would (I had a similar feeling after driving the Mustang Mach E a year or so ago...)

I also stopped by the Hyundai/Genesis dealer and looked at both the Ionic 6 (the droopy butt sedan...) and the GV60 (which is the Genesis version of the EV6/Ionic 5 triplets), but didn't drive either. After driving the EV6, I figured they would drive similar, and ended up not being that interested in driving them. The GV60 looks smaller than the EV6, even though its likely very similar in dimensions. The Ionic 6 has a presence to it -- its longer overall and has some really interesting design elements. But I don't want a sedan.

So, it turns out that the Miata is the answer to this itch! I put a deposit on a manual version of the one I drove today -- same color combo. Its somewhere in the Pacific right now and slated to arrive in 3-6 weeks (currently scheduled for late April, but I wouldn't be surprised if it slips to mid May...).

I feel good. Something new. Something fun. Different than before (which was partly what nagged me about the 911 -- I already had a Porsche, and felt like having something different this time)...