KOA789
Go Kart Champion
In 15 years of driving I've owned 1 truck. It was a 1991 S10 with a 2.4 liter 4 cylinder engine. It was my first car and a hand me down. With no A/C, no radio, and a blown engine at 200k miles 3 months after I got it, I got rid of it and started my love affair with fast cars and fast bikes. In 15 years I've owned 14 cars and 5 motorcycles. Beginning of this year, after picking up my 62 Nova, I found it quite difficult living life with an old, loud, classic, and a modern car that was low, loud, and limited on space. One of them had to go, and after thinking about it for a few months, I decided to keep the Nova and lose the GT in favor of something a little more practical.
I knew I wanted a more comfortable daily driver that got better gas mileage and was easier to live with on a daily basis, so I went to go look at a MK7 GTI, having owned 6 previous VWs and still being in love with the brand. While there, a customer was picking up a Touareg TDI Executive. This is where the seed for an SUV got planted. After driving both a MK6 and a MK7 GTI, I spoke with my sales guy and took the Touareg for a spin. It rode nice, it was quiet, well appointed, got great gas mileage, real easy to get in and out of, and I loved the high seating position. I loved the panoramic roof, huge nav screen, and all weather traction. After doing some numbers, I fell out of love with it real quick due to sticker shock. $66k after tax title and license, and after a bit of negotiating they came down to $62,500. It was too much for me to spend on a car, so I left feeling a little disappointed as I really liked the whole package.
The next day, since I was off, I took a trip to my local Toyota dealer to look at a new 4Runner. I looked at a Limited trim, but found the ride to be a little too truck like for me and the interior reminded me of my dad's Tacoma, which I was not a big fan of. The price on the 4Runner was right, but the car was just not a fit for me. I began thinking that maybe I didn't really want an SUV at this point and started contemplating going back and picking up the GTI. As I left the Toyota dealer, right across the street I saw a Jeep dealer. I knew a Wrangler wasn't a fit for me, but I decided to swing in there as my girl's old man had a few Grand Cherokees and raved about them.
I looked at a 14 Limited and they just happened to have a diesel in stock. Quadra Track II, Luxury Pack II, Off Road Adventure Pack, and Tow Pack. The only thing it lacked was the radar guided cruise control and air suspension, but other than that, it had everything. Skid plates, nav, heated and cooled seats, heated steering wheel, pano roof, power everything, low range etc. I took it for a drive and found it didn't drive as car like as the Touareg, but it wasn't as truck like as the 4Runner. I liked the idea of having a low range transfer case just for the pure sense of security, as I most likely would never use it due to the fact I only do light off roading when i go camping and deal with very mild snow when I go snowboarding. I loved the interior on it. It was well designed and the 8.4" screen was nice. I felt the Touareg still had a much better designed interior and the switches had a much better feel to them. The seats on the Touareg also not only looked better, but also did a better job of keeping you in place. Some of the center console pieces on the Jeep felt down right cheap and did not fit the feel of the rest of the interior.
After the test drive I went inside and spoke with the sales guy. MSRP on the GC was $50k. After 15 minutes of talking to the guy and letting him know I don't want to haggle all day, they came back and we settled on a price of $44k. All said and done, I was going to be at $50k out the door, $12,500 less than the Touareg.
I ended up buying the truck on July 31st, and I could not be happier with it. It's gray with a black interior and I'm loving the HID/LED head lights and LED tails.
I've been on a few road trips to Vegas, San Diego, and Los Angeles. It averages 33mpg on the highway keeping the speeds under 80 miles per hour. At most I do 5 miles per hour over the speed limit and I don't take it out of "Eco" mode, so I think those are big factors. So far I have averaged a little over 27 miles per gallon in mixed driving over the last 3800 or so miles. The on board computer is about a half a mile per gallon conservative, but doing hand calculations I'm averaging 27.5 mixed driving.
Today being my day off, I decided to take it out and do some off road adventuring near Sedona. I looked at a list of trails that wouldn't destroy my truck and settled on Broken Arrow with a suggestion of a buddy that's into 4 wheeling. It's a 3.5 mile off road trail and it's frequented by the Sedona Jeep Tours, so I knew if I did fuck something up I wouldn't be stuck out in the middle of nowhere alone for too long. I loaded up some gear and hit the trail. It was more fun than I could have ever imagined it could be, and I never knew I could have fun driving at 3 miles per hour. The same rush I got at track days on my bikes and in my Mustang, I got here going up and down steep grades and navigating obstacles. I loved getting out and looking at the road ahead and planning my approaches and seeing which way would be the best and safest way to go. It was a ton of fun, got me outdoors, ended up hiking some red rocks, and got props from a few Jeep Tour drivers for making it to the end of the trail in a stock vehicle. I ended up making the whole way to the end without taking the lower air dam off or scratching anything on the truck. One of the skid plates hit a rock, but there was no way around it. Overall, it's easy to see out of and easy to place on the road, and the tight turn radius makes it easy to make corrections in narrow spots. It's a bad ass little truck and I'll update the tread when I find more trails and time. Thanks for reading. Anyways, here are some pics of today.
I knew I wanted a more comfortable daily driver that got better gas mileage and was easier to live with on a daily basis, so I went to go look at a MK7 GTI, having owned 6 previous VWs and still being in love with the brand. While there, a customer was picking up a Touareg TDI Executive. This is where the seed for an SUV got planted. After driving both a MK6 and a MK7 GTI, I spoke with my sales guy and took the Touareg for a spin. It rode nice, it was quiet, well appointed, got great gas mileage, real easy to get in and out of, and I loved the high seating position. I loved the panoramic roof, huge nav screen, and all weather traction. After doing some numbers, I fell out of love with it real quick due to sticker shock. $66k after tax title and license, and after a bit of negotiating they came down to $62,500. It was too much for me to spend on a car, so I left feeling a little disappointed as I really liked the whole package.
The next day, since I was off, I took a trip to my local Toyota dealer to look at a new 4Runner. I looked at a Limited trim, but found the ride to be a little too truck like for me and the interior reminded me of my dad's Tacoma, which I was not a big fan of. The price on the 4Runner was right, but the car was just not a fit for me. I began thinking that maybe I didn't really want an SUV at this point and started contemplating going back and picking up the GTI. As I left the Toyota dealer, right across the street I saw a Jeep dealer. I knew a Wrangler wasn't a fit for me, but I decided to swing in there as my girl's old man had a few Grand Cherokees and raved about them.
I looked at a 14 Limited and they just happened to have a diesel in stock. Quadra Track II, Luxury Pack II, Off Road Adventure Pack, and Tow Pack. The only thing it lacked was the radar guided cruise control and air suspension, but other than that, it had everything. Skid plates, nav, heated and cooled seats, heated steering wheel, pano roof, power everything, low range etc. I took it for a drive and found it didn't drive as car like as the Touareg, but it wasn't as truck like as the 4Runner. I liked the idea of having a low range transfer case just for the pure sense of security, as I most likely would never use it due to the fact I only do light off roading when i go camping and deal with very mild snow when I go snowboarding. I loved the interior on it. It was well designed and the 8.4" screen was nice. I felt the Touareg still had a much better designed interior and the switches had a much better feel to them. The seats on the Touareg also not only looked better, but also did a better job of keeping you in place. Some of the center console pieces on the Jeep felt down right cheap and did not fit the feel of the rest of the interior.
After the test drive I went inside and spoke with the sales guy. MSRP on the GC was $50k. After 15 minutes of talking to the guy and letting him know I don't want to haggle all day, they came back and we settled on a price of $44k. All said and done, I was going to be at $50k out the door, $12,500 less than the Touareg.
I ended up buying the truck on July 31st, and I could not be happier with it. It's gray with a black interior and I'm loving the HID/LED head lights and LED tails.
I've been on a few road trips to Vegas, San Diego, and Los Angeles. It averages 33mpg on the highway keeping the speeds under 80 miles per hour. At most I do 5 miles per hour over the speed limit and I don't take it out of "Eco" mode, so I think those are big factors. So far I have averaged a little over 27 miles per gallon in mixed driving over the last 3800 or so miles. The on board computer is about a half a mile per gallon conservative, but doing hand calculations I'm averaging 27.5 mixed driving.
Today being my day off, I decided to take it out and do some off road adventuring near Sedona. I looked at a list of trails that wouldn't destroy my truck and settled on Broken Arrow with a suggestion of a buddy that's into 4 wheeling. It's a 3.5 mile off road trail and it's frequented by the Sedona Jeep Tours, so I knew if I did fuck something up I wouldn't be stuck out in the middle of nowhere alone for too long. I loaded up some gear and hit the trail. It was more fun than I could have ever imagined it could be, and I never knew I could have fun driving at 3 miles per hour. The same rush I got at track days on my bikes and in my Mustang, I got here going up and down steep grades and navigating obstacles. I loved getting out and looking at the road ahead and planning my approaches and seeing which way would be the best and safest way to go. It was a ton of fun, got me outdoors, ended up hiking some red rocks, and got props from a few Jeep Tour drivers for making it to the end of the trail in a stock vehicle. I ended up making the whole way to the end without taking the lower air dam off or scratching anything on the truck. One of the skid plates hit a rock, but there was no way around it. Overall, it's easy to see out of and easy to place on the road, and the tight turn radius makes it easy to make corrections in narrow spots. It's a bad ass little truck and I'll update the tread when I find more trails and time. Thanks for reading. Anyways, here are some pics of today.
