Do you want to help pay for it? If so, I'll go with a BMW. :D
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I'm not really a car person, put the key in and turn it, if it starts, I'm good. But, and you knew that but was coming, our neighbor across the street has BMW convertible. We live in friggin' Boston so it doesn't get much top down use. I'll admit to lusting after that car. If I ever hit the big bucks, I am buying one of those things. Maybe we can start an LTE BMW convertible fund, everybody gets to have it one month of the year (I call July, it's the only month I could actually get use out of it :)! )
OK, I'm in, even though the BMW wouldn't be my first choice. I call dibs on September.
P.S. Language sidebar - is "dibs" a noun or a verb? I heard one of the kids I coach try to "dibs" something and had to correct him - you have to call dibs. I wonder if it's regional like pop and soda...
EDIT: wiki thinks it's a noun... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dibs
I say noun. But you can just point to something and say 'dibs'. Or you can say "I call dibs!". Both work for me.
Saab thoughts now. This was a mid-life crisis car (job and career related, NOT marital!) and was a 1997 black 5 speed turbo with about 190 HP. Saab had just come up to the 20th century with some of their designs but the ignition was still between the front seats near the parking brake and shifter. It really was not that odd or inconvenient. Good front leg room and OK rear leg room for small/average adults with about a 9-10 c.ft. trunk with the top up and about 5 with the automatic up/down top stowed. A few maintenance problems all covered by warranty. Initial cost was several thousand off sticker (near or at invoice) and it got just about the EPA MPG estimates of 21/30 MPG. As the 2 older children approached driving age, turning a 5 speed turbo over to them at 16-17 years of age became a rather unattractive option so I traded at 5 years and about 60K with about $1K to $1.5K being needed in work/service on the car for, you probably guessed by now, another 5 speed Accord. Took a little beating on the trade as it was then I found out that Sabb's quirkiness didn't translate into good trade-in value. I think it was at least $5K and perhaps $7K less up front for the purchase but I would have recouped a fair amount of that on the trade-in.
If I get another drop-top, I think it would be the hard-top convertible 3 series but I'm still not convinced I'd spend that much money on a car.
My mom has the Lexus SC hard top convertible. She's had it for... hmm... 5-6 years? I don't even think it's got 20k miles on it (she only drives around LV and if there's a group going-duh-they take my dad's Highlander). It's her mid-life crisis, but it's awesome. I told her she doesn't get to trade it in when she's done with it... it automatically goes to me. I don't think she's too on board with that. :rolleyes:
BTW, regarding dropping the top, I may have mentioned this here once, but I did that once on an absolutely gorgeous day in LV. I was driving her car around, and put the top down at a stoplight. It went back up at the next stoplight. 116 degrees is NOT droptop weather. I felt my skin burning in that one block!
Definitely need garage parking for summertime use. I would be interested to find out how cold one can drive with the top down assuming a heater in good working order. When I had a car with a sunroof, I would open it up whenever the weather was sunny and temps above freezing.
My wife and I love my '97 Z3 with in-line 6 cylinder. Same horsepower as that year's Jeep grand cherokee, but half the weight and more torque. It's a pretty sweet ride. Every time I start it, I think of Mike from Monsters Inc. "It's lke I've unleashed a panther." ;)
Do you prefer hard top convertibles, or cloth convertibles? I am not sure yet.
I'd drive around with the top down, windows up and heater on when the temps were in the mid to upper 50's, but not for long.:o If the humidity was fairly low with temps in the mid to upper 80's, the top would be down, too, assuming I wasn't wearing a coat and tie at the time.
It was 40 degrees here this morning and I drove to work with the sunroof open and the heater on! :D
By the way, what is the difference between a sunroof and a moonroof?
It was 46-48 degrees in Raleigh and I drove to work this AM with the sun/moonroof open and NO heater on. :p;)
I also look forward to my trip home when it will be 30 degrees and I'll walk through a blizzard, barefooted with only a t-shirt, shorts and running shoes on. Uphill. Both ways. :rolleyes:
Seriously. I love having a sun/moonroof in our vehicles.