deezdad said:
looking to by gto and wandering 2 things... can a trailor hitch be installed (to pull jet ski, very light) and is the automatic tranny worth getting. already own two 87' turbo buick regals only came in automatic and there a blast to drive. most of you seem to like the m6... anybody endorsing the a4? focusing on 05 midnight blue/ black interior... just don't know a4 or m6
The M6 is nice, but in the city traffic I drive (D.C.), you stay awfully busy with the shifter and clutch. RI is pretty crowded, right? Even on the highway I find little advantage to the M6. I stay in 6th almost all the time, except when I drop to 5th to pass. The A4 is really an A5 if you consider the TC lockup, so you are only giving up one gear, but you gain the inherent torque multiplication of the TC.
The engine has a nice broad torque curve, so an automatic might not be that bad at all. I had a bone stock 74 Trans Am 455 with a Turbo 400 and I was able to consistently smoke the guys with M4's. It was all about the constant application of torque. While they were shifting I was pulling away, and they were never quite able to catch up. My son showed me a video clip of a 2005 A4 running a 12.99, right with the M6's.
I've seen a 1.25" hitch on a C5, so why not on an A4 GTO? We're not talking about pulling a camper, just a PWC that likely weighs less than the load allowed for 3 pax. Torque is torque, whether you use it for road racing, hauling your beer buddies around, or pulling a teeny little trailer. As long as it has a transmission cooler and you don't try to pull a Scarab, it ought to do just fine, provided they can find somewhere to attach the hitch. Plenty of room under there with the gas tank in the trunk. Just do us all a favor and get a detachable receiver so you can make it disappear when you aren't pulling. We wouldn't want our wives to find out the car is actually useful. Next thing you know, we'd all be hauling bags of fertilizer home from the Home Depot, and that would really suck.
Unless you want to take it racing, the A4 would probably be a better choice out here on the crowded coast. We would all love to drive where they shoot those car commercials, but our reality out here looks more like 'Escape from New York' than 'Easy Rider'.