Six to 12 months.

 

Beautiful machine, Alfa reliability notwithstanding. If only Alfa had come through on the Giulia Coupe (or if I liked sedans). If only...

 

How about a mini sedan? ( sorry, i had to share this lil' beauty i came across last week lol)





That rear window is so cool!

 

That 197x Giulia Nuova Super would likely cost as much, if not more, than a new Giulia! (IDK, just guessing).

I wish I could find the pictures of my grandmother with her Fiat X1 back in the day- man, she could shift those gears like greased lightning...

 

X1?! Flip ups and targa, Your grandma was one cool lady!

 

She still is at over 100-years-old though, obviously, her driving days are far in the rear-view mirror. She loved that car but it was ripe with issues. Typical for Italian cars back then. And now.

This was her in her 70's with my old Honda del Sol (I think she loved that car more than I did):


So, I guess she is where I get my love for gearboxes and drop tops.

(To the tune of Archie & Edith Bunker) "Those were the days..."

 

Cent'Anni! That's so cool, good for her!
I have always loved del sols. Im my teggy days i was jealous that they had a targas and that rear window goes down too, awesome summer car.

Congrats on 100 to your cool gearhead grandma and wish her many more years!

 

For anyone who's ever thought backwards through the years about next car, instead of forwards... nostalgia and all that... this afternoon I saw something that made me pause. The wife and I were just finishing up a day of biking on the Erie Canal, and swung into the lonely parking lot where we left our car. At the same time an old (older LOL) man drove into the parking lot and sat there for a moment studying something in his hands. Directions, I suppose.

I asked if I could talk with him for a few minutes. He was driving a 1969 Corvette Stingray Coupe in Monaco Orange, with chrome side-pipes and the Chevy 427 big block. The car was absolutely perfect nose to tail, like it was brand new. OMG, what a stunner.

I didn't think to take a picture, but it looked exactly like this:

 

My old man owned that exact car in a convertible for a brief period of time when I was a kid, but my mom complained that it wasn't practical and attracted too much attention, and soon made him sell it; those side pipes would get so hot and always attracted my intrigued fingers (which paid the price a few times). I still love the generation of corvette which leveraged the chrome bumpers, and those deep dish Rally Wheels looked good on just about any Chevy of that era (Impala, Chevelle, Nova, even pickups). That one is in pristine condition.

 

No worries- it is the IS500 with the same V8 with even more power that was in the IS F that I am considering, not the IS350 (even as cool as the IS350's AWD would be for our winters). I am also considering a very clean used 2012 ISF that I think the dealer is asking a bit much for and thinks they are sitting on gold. The other problem is it is far away from me and screams 2012 Lexus. Not bad, but definitely dated. The thing I am concerned about with that car is the ride quality. They got an update to the suspension mainly for performance and it is about 50/50 on reviews that say the ride is improved to those who still say it is too stiff. I don't like the price nearly touching $70k on a new IS 500, but I definitely like the newer styling inside and out, features, fit/finish, and the fact that it sounds like it rides a lot better.

The new GTI 40th anniversary has black seats, but they do have retro plaid in the centers that looks cool.

How dare you! Haha! Ironically we just had a used white Guilia RWD that was a steal, but not a quadrifoglio. I actually went back and read reviews on the Quadrifoglio, but they were all reliability horror stores. I wanted one in the worst way when they first came out and still have a brochure showing the car with Sparco seats and a 6 spd. from the factory, but it only came with A/T in the U.S. Such a disappointment.

Exactly why I am considering an IS F if I can get over the dated styling and features.

Really, you think I would keep it that long? Well, I am getting close to 6 months with the Leaf. Mainly due to all the pain in my left leg and foot from my back injury. Honestly, the Leaf is really the perfect car for me and really just needs stickier tires. It is such a surprisingly fun car to drive and it is awesome that I never to need to pay for gas or electricity.

 

I got to drive the Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance and it is really good. It is just not great at that price point. First, the good stuff. The engine is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! It is easily the best part of the car and would make pretty much any car awesome to drive. It is so good that I actually did not mind the fact that it is attached to an A/T. First time that has EVER happened. It has a nice rumble on start up and is docile around town. However, flip the switch to "Sport +" and put the pedal down and it instantly transforms into a race car. A flap in the intake opens up and it sounds amazing and pulls like a freight train. Unfortunately, when you do that it does suck gas to the point you think there may be a hole in the tank. Drive it easily on the highway and you can get 29 mpg. Not bad! My second favorite thing is the gauge cluster out of the LFA. It looks great in Sport + and the tach actually mechanically slides over to reveal an info. screen behind it. First time I have seen that. Very cool! The thing I was most worried about, the ride, is excellent. Not a huge change in ride quality between the different drive modes, but it is noticeable on bumpy roads. I also love the exterior and interior styling (see pics below). The exterior is very sporty and aggressive with fenders that kick out for that muscular stance. But at the same time it is a bit of a sleeper because it looks very similar to the lesser IS 350. Very nice. Aside from the stacked exhaust pipes (actually functional now compared to the IS F), slight hood bulge, and badging on the back, only a handful of people will know what it is. The interior is also very well appointed and the layout of nearly everything is great. Lots of good feature content too. Finally, for me it is the perfect size. I never got the "big car" feeling driving it like I did with the Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing. In fact, the interior of the Lexus is also much nicer than the Blackwing. I actually like the Lexus better and it does not come with a stick shift. Never thought I would say that, but I also have yet to drive the 6spd. Blackwing.

Now the not so good stuff and ultimately most of the reason I am not getting one. The worst part of the car is honestly the tires. They are awful for cornering and squeal at the first sign of any real g force. The weight of the vehicle probably does not help either. This car had optional BBS forged wheels and they decided to wrap them in crap tires. Why??? The brake pedal is also eye opening because the travel is extremely long and soft. Not exactly confidence inspiring with that much power. The 1,800 watt Mark Levinson stereo with 17 speakers was disappointing. It was decent and sounded clear, but did not have much bass and made some songs sound downright strange. The ELS stereo in the Acura Integra is much better and may be the best factory system I have heard yet. Unfortunately, the rest of that car is awful. I would say the Mark Levinson is a little better than most Harmon Kardon stereos and those are not great, but a little worse than some Bose systems. It does have a CD player, which I think is cool because I have not listened to my old CD's in a loooong time and they would probably sound pretty good. Speaking of sound, the exhaust is nearly silent in this car. The intake does sound great at full throttle, but why not have an active exhaust so you can hear that awesome V8 sing. That one really boggles my mind. Moving inside the one thing everyone complains about is the touch pad for the touchscreen. I agree that it does take some getting used to. It is still a touchscreen so I am not sure why that is there. They really should have just removed that along with the dial for the different drive modes and made the drive modes available on the steering wheel. This would make it much easier to reach the heated and A/C seats and heated steering wheel. The seats were also white which is not my favorite, but did a good job breaking up the interior. Maybe they would be a touch cooler in the summer. And why is there no remote start button on the remote?? Yes, you can access it via the app on your phone for a limited time, but I think that should be there to help make up for the fact it is an A/T. Finally, they make the IS 350 in AWD, but this is only RWD. It probably has to due to the fact that they never designed the V8 to fit in that car with AWD, but it would be so much better if they did. Now I could spend another $10k+ to fix most of those issues, but at $67,500 why should I?








The final nail in the coffin for the IS 500 was I finding out about 30 minutes after driving it that the technician who was buying the red GTI 40th anniversary edition I thought I was getting backed out of the deal so now it is all mine! I am super excited about this news. I know the GTI will ride better with the active suspension, handle much better around corners and roundabouts with the stickier tires, and be much more engaging with the stick shift. I will also like the cloth seats and hatchback versatility. Oddly enough, it will probably be even faster than the IS 500 in some situations with a tune because it will easily end up with more torque. Since I am such a practical guy I am also pretty excited about the fact that the GTI gets much better mileage and I can do a decent tune on regular gas.

 

@4DRZ first.. Congrats on securing the red gti, it's obvious your heart was set on that car when you first wrote about it, and its a damn good looking car....

second: Im selfishly glad you went through all that drama because now i got to read an awesome review on the lexus, and you do proper reviews, so proper that one has to ask why you dont have your own review channel and become a professional reviewer lol.

Any how congrats man, glad you are able to score the lil ruby you wanted!

 

Same here. Really looking forward to seeing the pics and reading your entries about ownership. Should be loads of fun.

 

Thanks man! I am super excited about the GTI!! I did actually have a You Tube channel for a while with car reviews and it was fun to interact with real enthusiasts just like this site, but ultimately it was mega time consuming. I work long hours and with raising a 4 year old there was just not enough time to do reviews properly. I think my problem was that I was such a perfectionist that I would try to do long takes perfectly because I hated how it looked with lots of editing.

Thanks! I'll try not to bore you guys with too much VW content. I'm sure Lego will be excited though. It seems weird that this is my first VW. I don't know that I will do too many mods with the GTI. But you guys know me- I'll keep driving other interesting cars.

 

Id like to start a poll now. How long until he tracks the car he bought to not track

My guess is by summers end 2024, that lil red car goes screaming down the track!