Month: July 2021

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1 of 5?! Maybe. Academy Award “Nominee” 2018 Genesis G90 Ultimate Coming Soon to a CarMax Near You!

The two-tone paint scheme caught my eye. Something special about this car. A quick Google search and I’m fascinated that for the last few Academy Awards Genesis has been partnering with Vanity Fair and rolling out five special edition models for “nominees and influencers” to arrive at the gala in style. Who knew?! The photo above is the 2018 Genesis G90 Ultimate unicorn currently for sale by CarMax. The photo below is from the 2018 Genesis press release announcing the five special edition cars.

What’s more challenging (aka impossible for me) is to learn whether Genesis sold replicas of the five Academy Award cars, or if this is actually one of the five. I’ve spent an hour or two so far and the only thing I know for sure if that Genesis presented a model just like this one at the 2018 Academy Awards, and the cars were on display at one point in Seoul. I’ve not found any two-tone cars for sale on Autotrader or Cars.com. There is a Car and Driver piece covering two-tone flagship G90’s as concept cars only. Thought I would post here and perhaps blog readers who are smarter than me (this means you!) may have some insight. This one first sold in October 2018.

Regardless, the 2018 Genesis Ultimate is plush and very well equipped. Heated and air conditioned seats and heated steering wheel. Heads up display. Auto cruise control. DVD system. Adjustable suspension. Car and Driver notes the interior includes “22-way power adjustability for the driver’s seat, 16-way for the front passenger, 14-way for the right rear passenger, and 12-way for the left rear. ” Nice. That said, the reviewer was disappointed with no hands free (or whatever it’s called) autonomous driving for this luxury sedan.

Car and Driver also moans a bit on the 420 hp V-8 – a good enough engine that will get you to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds. Certainly adequate and yet not world class. Of course, make any comparison to the Lexus LS or Mercedes S class and online forum discussions go berserk. Trying to learn more about this special edition car I waded into a few of those. I found G90 owners to be quite proud, and quite defensive about their sedans, and the German equivalents (Dammit! They aren’t equivalent!) sniff that a South Korean car could never compete. What gets your attention, though, is that the G90 Ultimate sold new for $75,000 – a good $25,000 below it’s competitors. This G90 is selling for $49,000. Here’s the tricky part. If it’s really a one of five Academy Award/Vanity Fair car maybe it’s special and worth it. BUT it’s a two accident car (one in the front and one in the rear) and that never bodes well for resell if nobody cares about the Academy Award part. Then again, Genesis only sold maybe 2,500 G90’s in 2018 so there is a bit of exclusivity anyway. Oh, and skip MaxCare. This beauty is still under Genesis’ generous manufacturer warranty. This one-owner car is the first Genesis to make it to my blog and is coming to Jensen Beach, Florida soon! Here’s the link.

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Need a 6MT / AWD Reliable and Reasonably Fast Sedan? This 2012 Acura TL SH-AWD is Coming Soon.

The first Acura to make The CarMax Unicorn Blog. Not what I think of as an enthusiast car at first, until you consider the niche. Who else has a sedan this size, with a 300+ horsepower six-cylinder motor, a six-speed manual transmission, AWD, and bulletproof reliability? The Germans are out. The Cadillac ATS V with a 462 hp six and a manual transmission I covered last week here is only two wheel drive, and by the way cost over $30,000 more. Think of the fourth generation, 2012 Acura TL SH-AWD as a gentleman’s Subaru WRX. Plus, there are only two other manual transmission Acura TL SH-AWD’s for sale on Auto Trader – one at half the price with twice the miles, and another with 10,000 fewer miles for a third more. This one’s a unicorn.

The 3.7 liter V-6 puts out 305 hp, and moves the sub-4,000 lb sedan to 60 mph in about 5.3 seconds. The motor didn’t get high marks for being high tech when new, but it is certainly good enough, and extremely reliable. Reviews considered it satisfying and beefy at the 6,700 rpm red line. It’s the transmission, though, that get’s high marks – short, crisp shifts the old fashioned way.

The interior was a bit dated in 2012 and is damned near vintage now. Nothing horribly wrong, just bland. The Acura has seat heaters, nav, Bluetooth, a sunroof, keyless entry/start and a rear view camera. Just enough. Only 18 months ago CarBuzz revisited this car in the review, “The Manual Acura TL Is One Of The Coolest Sedans Ever Made“. They clearly dug it. Check it out here. The 2012 Acura TL SH-AWD sold new for north of $43,000 and is being offered for $21,995 nine years later at CarMax. Plenty of money left over for MaxCare, offered for another 100,000 miles, but would you really need it? Find this two-owner Colorado car in the Coming Soon category here in Loveland, Colorado, just three hours north of Pike’s Peak!

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Remember This 2010 Mercedes S65 AMG? It Just Sold for $11,000 MORE Than The CarMax Price!

I transferred in this 2010 Mercedes S65 AMG last fall and ultimately declined to buy. My whole saga is here. Because of our car connection when I declined to buy I arranged for blog reader Hans to immediately take control and transfer to Wilmington, NC. Hans bought the car, but it was not what he expected (it was too tame, and Hans has enough AMG experience to know the AMG growl) and he returned it. Here the plot thickens. Hans and I cooked a deal to have CarMax transfer the car to another blog reader Collin. Oddly, CarMax told Collin the car was “accidentally” sold. Then the plot took an odd turn – blog reader Mustafa, a truly gifted CarMax sniper, alerted me this S65 was posted on cars.com and the seller, a dude named “John” from Connecticut, had contacted him about his Mercedes CL65 and mentioned the S65. More bizarre, the cars.com ad had the picture of the S65 in MY driveway from MY blog post! I contacted John but never heard back and forgot about it. This week Mustafa alerted me to the very same 2010 Mercedes S65 offered on the Bring a Trailer auction site by a company called Exclusive Impex in Miami. Of course I jumped in to share what I know about the car, both to bring prospective buyers’ attention to the car’s mysterious past, and to shamelessly flog my blog. The reaction? Absolutely no one gave a shit about what I (we) knew about this car’s path. Turns out someone else bought this car from CarMax and returned it after CarMax and Mercedes Benz of Manhattan could not solve an electrical gremlin. (Exclusive Impex says they solved it.) Oddly, the car’s history reflects neither my friend in Wilmington’s ownership nor the Connecticut buyer’s purchase. Exclusive Impex claims they bought the car at a CarMax auction (I’ve never heard of CarMax auctions), repaired and prepped it, and made it available on Bring a Trailer. My take after watching this car bid and sell for $11,000 MORE than we all could have had the car for from CarMax? I belong to a half dozen car groups on Facebook and all agree prices are inflated on Bring a Trailer. When I track cars on Bring a Trailer I’m impressed and discouraged by the depth of knowledge and deep criticisms in the comments section. That said, on this 2010 Mercedes S65, the commenters were intoxicated by the car and gleefully overlooked anything suspect. Why did two buyers return the car? Don’t care. What about the one accident on the Carfax? Don’t care. We all could have had this car for $36,000 and bought a five year MaxCare plan to protect us for another five years and 100,000 miles. Instead, a Bring a Trailer buyer got it for $47,500 with no warranty. Time will tell who came out on top!

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1 0f 62 – 2018 Cadillac ATS V Manual Transmission Sedan. Not slow. Not Cheap.

I’m going to cheat and add the link to the last 2018 Cadillac ATS V manual transmission sedan unicorn I wrote about five months ago here in order to get this posted quickly. But here’s the three points I’d like to make about this car. First. Cadillac only sold 62 manual transmission ATS V’s in 2018, and 54 manual transmission coupes. I have not yet spotted a 2018 manny tranny coupe at CarMax. Second. the car is a legitimate performance sedan. Sub-4 second 0-60 mph and 189 mph top speed from a six-banger, and 1 g lateral grip. Third, while this 2018 sedan has fewer miles than the one in my February 2021 blog, it’s $9,000 more. I absolutely HATE that the price of unicorns is going up! Reminds me of the Chevrolet SS’s that CarMax is selling used for more than they sold for new! Tossing in some pix and then the obligatory link to the CarMax sales offering below. Enjoy.

Handsome interior but nothing luxurious. Almost German in its functionality.
Honestly the automatic ATS V is a great car – the manual transmission makes this great and rare.
The 3.6 liter six cylinder makes 464 hp. Honestly, CarMax, why can I NOT see horsepower or my laptop but on my iPhone app it’s right there on the first screen?!

The 2018 Cadillac ATS V sold for maybe $80,000 new and three years later has only depreciated to $56,998. Low miles so maybe a bargain. Regardless, buy the MaxCare warranty (although it still has a little GM warranty left!) and drive this hot sedan hard. Find this accident free one-owner hot rod “coming soon” here in Orlando, Florida.

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Quick Hit – 1 of 1,750 in US Gelb Schwarzer Renner!

The car above is the original 1972 VW Beetle GSR, or Gelb Schwarzer Renner, or yellow-black racer. The 1972 GSR was a limited edition beetle pumped up to a whopping 50 hp and an unbelievable 18 second 0-60 mph run. According to Hemmings Motor News there are maybe 100 left in circulation. It is NOT for sale at CarMax. What IS for sale is its modern day equivalent, the 2014 VW Beetle GSR unicorn below. Car and Driver offers that maybe half of the 3,500 limited production run of 2014 GSR’s came to the USA. Makes it a bit rare, even if the modern GSR came from Mexico and not West Germany.

The GSR caught my eye during my nightly search for yellow cars. Out of 39,000 cars in the inventory, CarMax has only 79 yellow cars – pretty much tied with purple for the fewest. The time is coming when I will sell my 1971 Fiat 124 Spider, painted Porsche Speed Yellow (ironic for such a slow car), and I’m always on the lookout for modern day yellow scooters. At first I thought this was just an appearance package, but Google set me straight. So did Car and Driver, Autoweek, and Hemmings.

Let’s start with the motor. In 2014 the GSR’s 2.0 liter turbo four was boosted to 210 hp, 10 more than the venerable GTI of the same year. Too bad it’s automatic, even though it’s dual clutch. Car and Driver noted despite the 100 lb weight gain of a GSR over GTI, the 10 hp moved the GSR to 60 mph almost a half-second quicker. The following year GTI’s also came with 210 hp, for the record. The GSR cornered quicker and braked shorter than the GTI of the same era, defying it’s more civilized packaging. Honestly, had I not looked up the original 1972 GSR I’d have no idea why this Beetle looks the way it does. I suspect most casual car folks won’t either and will think it’s just a silly, summer Beetle.

Car and Driver described the interior well. “Inside the GSR, things are toned down a bit with tasteful black leather sport seats and a leather-wrapped steering wheel highlighted with yellow stitching. Pushbutton start, a Fender premium audio system, aluminum pedals, a panoramic sunroof, ambient lighting, a turbo-boost gauge, and a clock with a stopwatch feature help round out the GSR’s cabin kit. VW plans a run of 3500 GSRs, the special-edition number of each emblazoned on a steering-wheel plaque.” Unfortunately, CarMax photographers NEVER put effort into capturing the limited edition plaque numbers. Maybe you can see it below?

The GSR also minimally tops the GTI in cargo space due to the higher roofline. Makes the GSR pretty much all around a better car than the GTI, and yet a yellow-black-racer probably has a far more limited appeal, limited edition notwithstanding. Not sure this GSR is really that much of a bargain at almost $20,000, given it sold new for about $30,000 seven years ago, and it’s sporting a good 78,000 miles. That said for a true VW fan it might be just the thing. Find this two-owner car here in Turnersville, New Jersey.

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Quick Hit – A Truly smart Unicorn?

Seriously, Chuck – a smart car? Thought this was an enthusiast blog?! Not so fast (pun intended). Check out the “B” on the fuel filler door. This would “B” a Brabus-tuned smart Fortwo Passion car by Mercedes. Brabus being the German tuners with 40 years plus experience modifying German cars, and off and on they’ve applied their expertise to the diminutive Mercedes smart car. Didn’t know these were a thing before blog reader and car guru Hans alerted me last time CarMax had one!

The Brabus model isn’t just an appearance package though. The exhaust and suspension are tuned to (modestly) improve performance. Beyond that…I just can’t tell what more lurks in this Brabus smart car. The data card confirms it’s a Brabus but no further details on the motor. Stock smart motors are 1.0 liter three cylinders rated at 70hp, and CarMax suggests this one is, too. Brabus tuned a limited run of 100 units to 102hp in 2013 as 10 year anniversary editions, but this does not appear to be one of the 100. So not going to go too far out on a limb on how special this car is, or is not, unless I can find more data. But there are more cars to blog about and I’m way behind. (My excuses are twofold; prepared and drove my 1971 Fiat 124 Spider to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for the annual gathering of Fiats and TOOK FIRST PLACE! In my early Spider category, that is. I’ll blog about that next week. Second, my wife and I went on the road to Asheville, North Carolina to celebrate our 25th anniversary. I won’t be blogging about that.)

On the other hand, there appears to be only one Brabus smart car on Autotrader at this time, so perhaps this is a little special after all? The price seems a little high, so I wouldn’t spring for MaxCare – just drive it until it melts it’s little motor down. Find this one-owner little guy here in Sacramento, California.

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