Took the boy on some test drives

Well that was fun. Wanted to check out a few cars, ended up taking my son with me. Letting him learn some about how to check out cars. He was fascinated and rather appalled at some of the things we found, and some of the dealers.

Lexus LS400 We started with this one. Just because I thought I really should check one out, especially based on the past comments and advice of folk here regarding them. One of the best examples of a truly nasty car that looked pretty good in the pictures. It was a total roach. But, it did give me a few minutes of driving time with an LS400. It is indeed plush and nice and totally not what I was looking for (having nothing to do with how skanky the car was).

Son was astonished that people would attempt to sell a car like this. It even broke down on the test drive, after we finally got it running. Almost nothing worked, full of water and mold and pee. The best part, this was a front line car. And ah, it really was compared to much that was there.

2002 Volvo C70 This one happened to be a great example of a badly wrecked and equally badly repaired car. So I was able to show him how to look at panel alignments and paint to pick up the damage. The car was well battered and abused, though the engine bay was oddly in excellent shape, and the engine ran superbly. Test drive was another useful lesson. First about tires and the value of balancing them, then about brakes and why not having them is unpleasant. Actually, it did have them, at about 10% capacity.

I'd already tested a C70 previously, and found it boring. So did the boy. As he put it, it's like driving moms V70, so what's the point?

Funny dealership. Inside it was bedecked with various dried coon/fox/coyote hides ready for auction, as well deer heads, a huge gater hide, and all sorts of other mixed stuff. Outside, they had cars and motorcycles and cherry picker trucks, and and and. Couple of guys (probably Daryl and his other brother Daryl) were taking apart a wheeled tow dolly and strapping it to the bumper of a jeep to drag it home. Son thought this was a better and more interesting dealership, but ah...

So on we went.

2004 Saab 9-3 Aero convertible. Finally, a completely working car in perfectly fine shape. I had already driven an earlier model, and this was definately better. Most notable, the brakes. Wow, if that's how Saabs come to a halt, that's great! The car drove just fine. Good handling, good ride, etc.

The boy was agog at the car. He thought it was the niftiest thing he'd ever sat in. The dealership was nice, and the salesman (whom I'd already met previously) was enjoying the time spent teaching my son what to look at. The salesman was active in the teaching, in a good way. Together we were doing things like showing my son how to tell if an engine bay has been cleaned by the dealer, or has been kept clean by the previous owner. How to look at the fluids.

Like I said, the son was enthralled with this car. Me... Ever date a really nice girl that you just don't really want to ask out for a second date? That was kinda my feeling with this car. It was great. And it never caused my pulse to race. I'm really kinda surprised that I'm so neutral to the Saab. I thought I was going to really like it. Still, it was mighty nice, and low mileage. So I still might go back.

2002 BMW 325 Ci We actually started here, and ended here, and never did get to drive it. The owner/sales guy never showed up to open up the office. If that was the office. Sleazy hole in the wall place. SLEAZY! (A2Z Motorsports in Hanover PA). Couple of detail boys there in the morning, and they weren't too optimistic about the guy showing up. No one was around in the afternoon when we tried a second time.

This is a car I'd really like to test drive. It's rear wheel drive, which appeals to me greatly. The boy liked it quite a bit, but the much more expensive M3 sitting beside it kept distracting him.

So that was my Friday. I probably should have stayed home and replaced the head gasket on the Miata, but this was a more entertaining distraction.

Is this for you, or the boy? If it's for the boy, don't even glance in the M3's direction if you can avoid it.

No, it's for me. I'm window shopping for a replacement daily driver. The Miata is getting long in the tooth, I've had it for what feels like forever, and with grey hairs I swear that seat is getting lower to the ground.

FWIW we test drove a 2001-ish SAAB 9-3 turbo automatic when looking for Mrs. Duke's car about 10 years ago. It went like stink and stopped on a dime, and the SAAB engineers that programmed the automatic should go over to Subaru and either point and laugh, or maybe just teach them everything they know since the SAAB guys now need jobs.

I liked it a lot, but in the end we passed on it - the back seat was too small for a couple growing kids with the related gym bags, backpacks, etc. and Mrs. Duke couldn't get past the garish black-and-red interior (though I promised her we'd keep shopping for a different color combo, 10 years later she still brings up how ugly the interior was).

foxtrapper wrote: ...and with grey hairs I swear that seat is getting lower to the ground.

At least you have hairs.

Yea, rear seat room wasn't great. Boy is 14, so his shoulders aren't wide. I'm bigger, and it was ok back there, but not great.

This one had the less garish white and black interior. That red/black or orange/black, wow. And not in a good way.

Just got hold of the weirdo with the BMW 325 convertible. That's the one I really want to drive for final consideration. I almost hope I don't really like it. Because the Saab is safer. God I must be getting old to be considering safety.

Check the unibody near the rear subframe mounting locations, specifically the left rear behind the swaybar mount for cracks. Read up on the issue. I'm convinced they're ALL going to suffer eventually. The fix is to drop everything from the propshaft back and weld in reinforcement plates.

Source: Just finished shopping 330's. E46s fall into 4 categories: Cracked, about to be cracked, hacked and still going to fail, and repaired properly. The latter are pretty rare.