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241 Posts
I grabbed a Spice Red M6 with 17 wheels on Monday. I'd been "looking" for something sporty and fun in the 28-33K range for about 6 months.
I gave the GTO brief consideration several months ago (looked on-line and at magazines), but the gas tank/trunk issue, lack of 4 doors, and no sun roof made me look elsewhere without ever seeing a GTO on a dealer lot. Never considered the Mustang. Everybody has one...
Other vehicles I cross shopped included Altima SE-R, Maxima (selling a 97 now..), STI, Legacy GT Spec B, Mazdaspeed 6, Saab 9-3 Aero. The STI was the performance king of the bunch (excluding the GTO in a straight line...), but the STI didn't project the image of a professional 31 year old with its wing and bright blue interior. Spec B was nice and I almost pulled the trigger until I found out about the STI Limited edition coming in 07 with a normal interior, sunroof, and no wing. The 9-3 Aero was close too.
I was in the process of trying to test drive everything, and I created a spreadsheet comparing the different vehicles to rule out a few such as the Maxima which is to portly for its power. So I had a bunch of cars on the spreadsheet at 30K with power to weight ratios at 11._ to 13._. I made the mistake of typing the GTO's digits on the bottom row and 9.3 couldn't get out of my head...
Last Saturday I stop by a local dealer selling both Subi and Pontiac. My intention was to find out when I could get an 07 STI limited, but this time he had 2 GTOs on the lot.
Having never sat in the GTO before, simply sliding in and starting the engine was almost all I needed to buy the car, but my wife and kids were sitting in the Freestyle waiting to go home, and I had to split with no test drive. That made for a terrible night's sleep. The excellent interior and V-8 sound was so different than the turbo 4's I was looking at.
I went back on Monday during lunch and left my 97 Maxima sitting on the lot waiting to listed in Autotrader.
I want to thank this forum for the good info provided here, and hope to give something back in the future.
I gave the GTO brief consideration several months ago (looked on-line and at magazines), but the gas tank/trunk issue, lack of 4 doors, and no sun roof made me look elsewhere without ever seeing a GTO on a dealer lot. Never considered the Mustang. Everybody has one...
Other vehicles I cross shopped included Altima SE-R, Maxima (selling a 97 now..), STI, Legacy GT Spec B, Mazdaspeed 6, Saab 9-3 Aero. The STI was the performance king of the bunch (excluding the GTO in a straight line...), but the STI didn't project the image of a professional 31 year old with its wing and bright blue interior. Spec B was nice and I almost pulled the trigger until I found out about the STI Limited edition coming in 07 with a normal interior, sunroof, and no wing. The 9-3 Aero was close too.
I was in the process of trying to test drive everything, and I created a spreadsheet comparing the different vehicles to rule out a few such as the Maxima which is to portly for its power. So I had a bunch of cars on the spreadsheet at 30K with power to weight ratios at 11._ to 13._. I made the mistake of typing the GTO's digits on the bottom row and 9.3 couldn't get out of my head...
Last Saturday I stop by a local dealer selling both Subi and Pontiac. My intention was to find out when I could get an 07 STI limited, but this time he had 2 GTOs on the lot.
Having never sat in the GTO before, simply sliding in and starting the engine was almost all I needed to buy the car, but my wife and kids were sitting in the Freestyle waiting to go home, and I had to split with no test drive. That made for a terrible night's sleep. The excellent interior and V-8 sound was so different than the turbo 4's I was looking at.
I went back on Monday during lunch and left my 97 Maxima sitting on the lot waiting to listed in Autotrader.
I want to thank this forum for the good info provided here, and hope to give something back in the future.
arty:
