Macca

Yeah, I thought I had mentioned that. Jo took a TDI and a TSI for a test drive in early July in Taupo. Preferred the TSI. But thought they were both a little under powered. The GTI was my first recommendation because it would be more fun to drive. Did alot of research, emailed DaveB and other owners etc.

Jo hated the Tartan interior and the red trim line on the GTI demonstrator when we were at the dealer in March so we organised a test drive of the TSI/TDI instead. Afterward the sales guy opened her eyes to the fact you can order the GTI with full leather and a moon roof, and $6500 in options later you now have a 62K GTI!

My problem with buying a new Golf GTI is the depreciation. There are tonnes of them out there from ex demo to NZ used and even imports now which make so much better sense fiscally.

I hate loosing money on cars. I simply dont earn enough (well actually right now nothing!) to justify dumping 20K here and 40K there year year. Rather spend it on having fun with them. This is why I work so hard to buy well in the first instance. It costs only time and that's one thing I have surplus.

I think in the last 15 years Ive managed to avoid any major depreciation by being a little bit clever in what and how I purchase cars. many I have even "made" money on at resale. Its become a bit of an obsession. A few here that know my car history well know Im fairly prudent with my car purchases. Of the list in my signature below I personally imported all of them bar the 993 I recently sold (that was by far my worst purchase but it was also my first Porsche and I was green). The Alfa is the only other car I dont feel confident about on the depreciation front (definitely a heart choice not a head choice), hence the need to grey market in the first place to take the edge off of it (well the first 12 months then we will see from there). Even so I get the odd cold feet moment even now!

Another strategy I could consider is give Jo the Alfa and I drive the Focus RS. The Ford was my original DD choice after all. Ive got this red/white/blue thing in my head where the perfect three cars for all our car needs would be the GT3/Alfa/Ford. Ill still get to steal a drive in the Giulia often enough? Nah, maybe another dumb idea...

Its painful thinking this through, must be even worse for folks reading it!

P.S. Pete - what was that Volvo you had? I read a good review on the T6 & T8 VXc90 or something like that when shopping for options today in the UK. No arbitrage arbitrage really but it was well regarded and it looked similar to your one...

peterC2S

Ok I'm convinced (sort of )

XC 60 for Kim. She loves it and that's what matters. The new one based on the XC 90 tech is only a year away but that's only an opportunity for a trade right?!

I'm loving the cayenne diesel. John was spot on, it's such an effortless car to drive every day. Would have loved a Macan but still too early in the depreciation lifecycle.

nzskater

Whenever you like mate, happy to share the needle!! There's likely a few 997TT's floating around the market...

996tnz

Found my twin.

Seven modern car features that drive us crazy:

http://driving.ca/bmw/auto-news/ente...drive-us-crazy

nzskater

Macca, could you talk Jo into a slightly used Golf? Their depreciation is horrendous, and there's little difference from the MK6~.

Also, what about a BMW 1 series?

Macca

Pete the XC60 with the latest T6/8 tech will be a great package. Not to big but with plenty of performance!

The Cayenne's are great. I should probably look to shop one of them in the UK, but Im not much up with the play on what makes a good seller on the secondary market here (other than price!). The Macan S petrol works ok at retail ex UK and I was interested in it till I found out there are wait lists/or mark up premiums which destroy the viability. More as an addition to the container for a resell. Im not sure how they (Porsches) go down as daily transport in the Central North Island (will be trying hard enough to avoid the "Aucklander Connotations" as it is living there I suspect LOL)!

Macca

Targa Tour (Targa NZ) update for the breathern from Leong just a few minutes ago.

Weather has been great today (dry). Overnight is Ohakune. Some rain (not too heavy) forecast for tommorow but weekend is looking OK.

Stage One saw Mike Dillion roll his nicely modified E36 M3 into a ditch totally the car (he and his navigator are unharmed). Many will remember Mike (pony tail, dark blue M3 with carbon hood), hes done a tonne of work on making that car better and has been doing every targa for a dew years now. His steering wheel came off in his hands hence the accident!

Ron and Patsy pulled out in the GTR due to a transmission related issue (again). Car was driven to Dodsons in Auckland but they say its not the same issue as they had in the South Island (which they were lucky to get fixed and only missed one track day). They grabbed the GT3 and will start with it tomorrow.

Roger Carter/Chris Fluery are out after Rogers engine blew.

Leongs GT4 is running well. He moved up the grid to second place today after Ron & co departed. A brand new 2016 Focus RS running P1. Interesting to see how it goes. I think Leong would have it all over him in the dry...

Big turn out this year with almost 60 Tour Cars registered! Looks like the nice quiet window of 15-25 cars an event after we all dropped out last year has ended and its bigger than ever!

O2GO

The Maccan is a wicked car. Just don't expect to sit any kiwi adults in the back with their heads straight. It fails that test IMO. I had 9 very happy Cayenne years covering over 100k of road work. Three boys growing up from mid-late teens to adults, three across the back seat for 3 hours and towing a 2 ton boat, with the cat in the boot and a ton of luggage. The perfect setup for flooring it and whipping past lines of traffic in the uphill passing lanes listening to the beautiful sounding V8. F&$k me, why did I sell it again? Oh that's right, lack of space for Lola and the RS60 plus the Cayenne. I bought it at 30k and 2 years old and it cost me 11kpa depreciation over the 9 years which, in my books, is too high. Better buying at 4-5 years and 60k on the clock IMO. Overbuilt, strong and nothing much goes wrong if you steer clear of all the fancy electronic aids and pneumatic suspension etc. they're brilliant. all my personal opinion of course.

O2GO

Thanks for th Targa Tour report Macca. Feel real bad for Mike loosing his car. He loved that car. Weird mechanical failure loosing his steering wheel. I wonder if it was a racing removable one.

Patsy's Datsun will be annoying them with its poor reliability record. Nice that they have options.

Macca

Doug. Thanks for the Cayenne recap. When we had her for a week we really enjoyed it. Big brute and thirsty but ultimately comfortable and plenty of stink - they make them as oil burners these days for keeping the gas bill down!

Yip, this is third time the GTR transmission has played up and cost an event in as many years, so I suspect that car may be on the block soon!

Yeah mike loved that car and had alot of passion, time and money in it. Would have been like me binning the 993. Poor chap. Not sure what caused the wheel to let go - must have been a remove able one.

There are 2x 964 registered for the Targa Tour. I think maybe days 3&4. Good to see the old timers out there...

996tnz

Checked that reaction time estimate Michael as I was relying on memory from the race vid and an online test that I posted a link to on here some months ago. Thought I'd been in the low 200s then, but found some old screenshots and I was in the high 200, low 300ms range on that one:

Attachment 1098207
Attachment 1098208

The above was one of the more flattering results though. So redid it half a dozen times just now, with results grouped around 309 - 341ms (so called '19-23 year old' reactions lol), after a first one of 386 (29y).

For anyone that missed it last time:

https://www.justpark.com/creative/reaction-time-test/

That test above is fun but probably a bit laggy as the more boring 'Human Benchmark' site sees repeatable average results in the 220s, of which they state 30ms is typically due to input and output lag on the average laptop/desktop:



That test is here: http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/

And FWIW, my left foot clicking a wedged in place wireless mouse averaged 314. Human benchmark seems to be pretty popular reaction test with gamers by the looks...

996tnz

Wow just saw the last few posts. What a freak accident losing the steering wheel, and probably about the only time Mike would be left wishing for Bentleyesque levels of power steering assistance on Targa. Glad they both walked away from it. Pity about the GTR again, but at least a 991 GT3 is a heck of an impact player coming off the bench.

Appreciate the Cayenne musings too you guys, and looking forward to collecting her in 38 hours time!

Macca

Your younger than me Walt. Mine were 27-29 years old. Im gonna blame the dodgy 512k connect Im on here LOL

996tnz

Think these tests cache and run locally in the browser, but hey, we're both younger than we look. Lung function tested as that of an average eighteen year old too again this year, but I still just wish the belly would get with the program. My excuse if an alien aces us both on this is that I'm still at work tonight and have about 120 windows open...

Macca

Yip. As of last month Im now closer to 50 than 40 so Ill take all the breaks I can get Walter...