So I'm sure everyone knows my M5 saga... I was just about to grab another one tomorrow for an even better deal but then something strange happened. About 2 months ago I shotgunned every dealer that had a car I wanted and made them an offer. I told them if they'd sell the car to me for my price I'd come in and buy it. If not, no worries and thanks anyhow.
So all of the sudden I'm getting a bunch of calls from dealers asking me if I still want their car. They're not selling. Nobody wants the car out of warranty. Sure enough, I'm subscribed to RSS feeds and 1 car out of the original 13 that fit my variables has sold in 3 months. Nobody is selling their car and more are popping up on the market. I thought it might be a winter thing but 3 months ago was well into summer and nobody's car had sold.
So I scratched that idea. I'm fairly confident that instead of paying an arm and a leg for an E60 M5 right now I can buy one next year for about 10k less than they're trying to get for them now. In the meantime I still wanted something fun so I went back to my original plan.
There's been a 2006, 6 speed 550i with the sport package for sale locally. For two weeks I tried looking at it and all three times I called it was sold, pending financing. Well it popped back up on the dealer's site again so I called again and this time it was available. So I hopped on down there and gave it a drive...
For $15,000 less it's about 75% of the fun as the M5. The 6 speed is a blast, the sport package gives it great handling, it sits as low as the M5 and the rotors are $60 each instead of $500. So I bought it on the spot and with the money I saved I decided to keep the A8.
I'm sure it seems awfully redundant to have two cars that are so similar but truly they are completely different beasts. The A8 can hunker itself down and be a lot of fun to drive but the 550 is just downright sporty, rough around the edges, able to steer with the throttle, etc.
For now, I'm satisfied and maybe next fall M5 prices are where I think they'll be at which point I'll buy one as a toy car instead of a daily driver like I was going to do this time around.
Wow, that's a lot of paragraphs just to say I got another car. I think I might be the European car Dasfinc.
So all of the sudden I'm getting a bunch of calls from dealers asking me if I still want their car. They're not selling. Nobody wants the car out of warranty. Sure enough, I'm subscribed to RSS feeds and 1 car out of the original 13 that fit my variables has sold in 3 months. Nobody is selling their car and more are popping up on the market. I thought it might be a winter thing but 3 months ago was well into summer and nobody's car had sold.
So I scratched that idea. I'm fairly confident that instead of paying an arm and a leg for an E60 M5 right now I can buy one next year for about 10k less than they're trying to get for them now. In the meantime I still wanted something fun so I went back to my original plan.
There's been a 2006, 6 speed 550i with the sport package for sale locally. For two weeks I tried looking at it and all three times I called it was sold, pending financing. Well it popped back up on the dealer's site again so I called again and this time it was available. So I hopped on down there and gave it a drive...
For $15,000 less it's about 75% of the fun as the M5. The 6 speed is a blast, the sport package gives it great handling, it sits as low as the M5 and the rotors are $60 each instead of $500. So I bought it on the spot and with the money I saved I decided to keep the A8.
I'm sure it seems awfully redundant to have two cars that are so similar but truly they are completely different beasts. The A8 can hunker itself down and be a lot of fun to drive but the 550 is just downright sporty, rough around the edges, able to steer with the throttle, etc.
For now, I'm satisfied and maybe next fall M5 prices are where I think they'll be at which point I'll buy one as a toy car instead of a daily driver like I was going to do this time around.Wow, that's a lot of paragraphs just to say I got another car. I think I might be the European car Dasfinc.
