Originally Posted by CliffJumper RS

If she likes the higher seating position of an SUV (I find most women do) and massive amounts of cargo space isn't vital, here's another vote for the Macan.... and I say that despite just buying a 2016 E63 wagon a month ago. In fact, now that we have the wagon, we may trade in my wife's Q5 for a Macan next year.

Originally Posted by Norsk

You already have a pickup...life's short.
This is what I got wifey for mothers day - CPO, 20K miles. SL 550.

Originally Posted by drsubie

All great ideas/suggestions...

ace37, you've hit the nail on the head in terms of what I am looking for. Except that I can't bear to daily drive my 991 the 3 miles each way to work (the car barely gets up to operating temp), so I end up putting those miles on the F150. Question though: what's an RRS?

As for a Ferrari FF as a replacement: man, I wish, though I would be much too worried and paranoid about that car.

Originally Posted by c_Gio

Range Rover Sport. Though the LR4 has more street cred. But then the RRS is sort of a girls car, and that is what you are looking for....

Originally Posted by ace37

So what's fun on a three mile commute? That's a hard one...

Originally Posted by ace37

Yeah, Range Rover Sport. The LR4 or X5 40i was what we expected to get, and I liked the look of the larger Range Rover better, but the test drives sold us on the Sport for our needs. It really depends on intended usage. I personally wouldn't want to daily drive the RRS, but I think it will be great to cart kids in.

So what's fun on a three mile commute? That's a hard one...

Originally Posted by R_Rated

Fiat - Miata.

Most fun car for the $$$ and possibly at any pricepoint right now.
"What could be better than the open air and a 160-horsepower turbo engine? You, behind the wheel. With electric power steering, and a responsive four-wheel independent suspension, even a trip to the grocery store is exciting."

http://www.fiatusa.com/en/spider/

Originally Posted by drsubie

Fellow Rennlisters,

long time lurker, occasional poster here. I currently have a 2015 991 GTS in white, a 2012 Audi Q5 S-line 3.2L (white), a 2013 Ford F150 FX4 supercrew (white, daily driver). I would like to upgrade the wife's Q5, mainly because it's pretty boring to drive. It's a car that doesn't do anything wrong, but every other person in town has one, and the 240hp motor and SUV handling doesn't quite cut it. Truth be told, it was more my idea to upgrade than my wife's...

I need some recommendations; for a short period, I had been dreaming of convincing the wife to seriously consider a small, fun/sporty run-about car--something that won't break the bank and can be parked in tight spaces at the local mall without too much worry about things like door dings etc... Plus, I rationalized that we still had our big F150 supercrew in case we needed to haul people/things. So some of my choices were cars like:

• Ford Focus RS
• Mini Cooper Countryman All 4 Cooper Works
• BMW M2
• Ford GT350

(Ok, so the M2 and GT350 are 2 doors and not AWD, and I would still be worried about door dings )

Then on a trip to Hawaii we ended up renting a Mercedes S550--man, what a great luxo-barge. So that got us thinking about Mercedes, not necessarily a S550 (too big), but maybe a E-class...

So that got me to test drive a E63 AMG S as well as a C63 AMG S. We were mightily impressed--both cars had huge addictive power. The C63 felt more 'manic' and nervous in handling, and the suspension was firmer and transmitted more NVH/pavement ripples than the E63. The C also had a more stylized and modern interior (it had the optional sport seats), but the 'stuck-on NAV screen' seemed out of place. There was a surprising amount of rear seat/leg room (though less head clearance due to lower roofline). Obviously, the C's trunk was smaller (you'd have to fold the rear seat down to fit 2 large suitcases). We loved everything about the E63 driving, but were let down by the 'dated' interior--many sharp angles and busy buttons on dash (I should be used to this from the 991 though), small NAV screen.

So can you guys recommend other cars we should consider? Price is 'somewhat' no object (I'd like to keep it < $80k out of pocket). I'd also like to preferably have:

• 4 doors
• AWD (we live in Seattle)
• ability to sit 3 in the back
• decent trunk space
• well appointed interior
• moderately sized (no bigger than, say, a Cayenne)
• fun to drive (whether power or handling, preferably both)

The E series will be refreshed, and will mainly mirror the current S-class (the interior of which is gorgeous)--this is due this Summer, with the AMG variants typically ~6 to 12 months later.

The Cayenne will also be refreshed, and rumored to be lighter and more powerful. I have yet to test drive the existing one--but have built many online--mainly the Cayenne GTS variant.

I've also built up a Macan (GTS vs Turbo), but I'm not entirely sold on the shape, the fact that it shares the same platform as our Q5, and the price point (bang-for-the-buck)...

So what would you guys do? I can get a current gen new E63 AMG S for a fair deal (aiming for 13% off MSRP, though dealer hasn't gone for this), but the refreshed E interiors appear so much nicer...

? Jaguar F-pace? Range Rover Sport? M3 (though I think this might be too hard-edged, just like the C63 AMG S we drove)?

Originally Posted by drsubie

wow, brought this one back from the past! The only car we've test driven was the C63 AMG S and E63 AMG S, both 2016. Made an offer on the 2016 E63 AMG S, I basically was willing to pay ~$92k (give or take) - $~27k trade in for our '12 Q5. MSRP on the MB was ~$107k.

This was this past summer. Despite a new E model coming out, the dealer didn't budge, and to this day this car still sits on their lot... that'll teach them!

We'll plan to wait to see what the new E 63 AMG looks like...