As many of you probably know, I used to have a BMW 135is and a Grand Cherokee, and consolidated them into my current 335xi. But I often find myself hoping to once again have a comfy cruiser SUV or crossover and some other fun car, maybe the 944 Turbo, FD RX-7, or Z4 M Roadster I’ve always wanted.
Even though I chose my assorted suspension mods on my 335xi to keep the ride halfway decent, I semi-frequently feel like I’m unnecessarily getting beaten up by crumbling Wisconsin roads. There’s always some kind of road construction going on here, but it never quite keeps pace with how many roads are falling apart.
Because of this, sometimes I just want to cruise around in comfort, which gets me to thinking about diversifying my vehicular portfolio back to 2 cars. But my wife and I want to buy a house, and then we’re looking at adopting a kid(s), and having 2 cars for myself plus 1 for her is unnecessary/unreasonable/unrealistic.
My wife doesn’t drive stick, so right now if I decide I want to drive her reasonably comfy and quiet Impreza, that would leave her effectively with no car. Which led me to a bit of a light bulb moment:
What if when the lease is up on the Impreza, she gets something more comfy cruiser-y than the Impreza but still not huge, and at some point after that, I get a fun awd but automatic transmission car? I know what you’re thinking, save the manuals and all that. But you know what else I really enjoy aside from shifting for myself? A convertible.
This idea made enough sense to me that I decided to propose it to my wife in a totally hypothetical, we’re not actually buying more cars anytime soon way. She agreed with me.
This isn’t anything we’re going to do anytime super soon. The lease on my wife’s Impreza is up in April 2019, so that’s the soonest we’d replace it. Same thing with my 335xi. I modified the hell out of it and I have no great desire to sell it, but we’ll see if after another couple years I’m just totally sick of the stiff ride, noise, and having to shift all the time when so much of my driving is on boring totally straight Wisconsin roads.
I actually have a pretty good idea of what this sporty awd convertible would be, and it’s something that makes sense, except for this one little irrational bias of mine. I want an Audi S5 convertible, even though generally speaking I hate VW and Audi.
Look at these four fashionable people traveling in a blue convertible on a blurred twisty road! This is an experience that I will probably never replicate throughout my hypothetical S5 convertible ownership.
The S5 has the 3.0T (but actually supercharged) V6 with plenty of tuning potential, and a 7-speed dual clutch transmission that shifts super fast. Options include a torque vectoring rear differential (“quattro with sport differential” in Audi-ese), adaptive suspension that I could put in a more comfy setting for tooling around town, and a comfort package that includes ventilated seats, which are a godsend on hot top-down days, and similarly handy neck-level heat vents for pushing the limits of top-down driving on cold days, what with my being in Wisconsin.
The only problem with finding a used luxury car with specific options is that of course used car listings are often less than fully comprehensive when it comes to listing out specific options. But I found this handy Audi window sticker lookup tool and played around with it.
Just for shits, I did a quick search to see if I could find an S5 convertible with relatively low miles and the options I want. And I found this one at a dealer in Chicago. This particular dealer happens to list options somewhat thoroughly, and the lead image on the listing mentions the comfort package and sport differential.
I ran the VIN through the window sticker lookup tool, and the sticker shows that this car also has the adaptive shocks.
This car is basically perfect for what I have in mind although I’d prefer a lighter upholstery color rather than black. But hey, cars with the options I want are out there, and with the window sticker lookup tool, when it gets closer to actually doing this, I’ll be able to search for something equipped exactly how I want.
It’s nice to have some certainty in my vehicle plans, even though it’s not really certainty, and there’s plenty of ways this could change between now and then.
But I think this could actually work.