Apologies From a Selfish Blogger on September Absence (Hint – Instead of Writing I Bought Another CarMax Car)

THE SHORT VERSION: I haven’t blogged for a few weeks because I’ve been frantically searching the CarMax app for my next car, ignoring the unicorns that have come and gone. Also preparing to sell my remaining two cars and working too much. Pathetic excuses. I bought a car and will be back to blogging shortly! What follows are my three test drives and one purchase.

THE LONG VERSION: Not what you were expecting? Me neither. A couple of months ago I zeroed my SUV search down to the BMW X3 M40i and the Mercedes GLC43 AMG. And if you’ve been here before you know I tend to change my mind as more information becomes available. Or my whims change. Well, I really, really don’t want to get pinned down to only an SUV and a business car (my Mercedes S600) and headed in a different direction. It’s complicated. I’m selling my vintage 1971 Fiat 124 Spider after some minor repairs shortly (will post here soon) after taking first place in the annual Fiat gathering in July. Right after the Fiat goes I’m selling the S600 as it approaches 95,000 miles. The big Merc still has over two years and 30,000 miles of MaxCare coverage. Both cars are as marketable as they’re going to be. That leaves me, the CarMax guy, without a car. So for the past three weeks I’ve been going nuts on how to manage my replacement strategy and not get boxed in to cars I don’t want. Been searching night and day at the expense of blogging about cars for you. Don’t get me started on the unicorns that got away this month. Maybe they’ll be back? So this past week I went on the road and looked at not one, not two, but three CarMax unicorns.

In short, this is why I bought this SUV – fully loaded with every modern feature, reasonably priced, only a few years old, and nearby. It also had a V-8. There were lesser equipped Jeep’s out there but savings were minimal. And all similarly equipped Jeeps were thousands more. And while I knew it was a compromise for a Euro-luxury guy, when I loaded all these features into the CarMax website and asked it t spit out a BMW, Audi, or Mercedes, they were all $15-20,000 more than this Jeep. It started to feel like a bargain. It’s also just a stopgap car until my wife gets around to replacing her SUV, and I find successors for my Fiat, the 911 I sold earlier this year, and my S600. So as a short term vehicle it’s not bad.

Rolled the dice and took the train from Washington DC up to Newark, Delaware to look at the Jeep. The risk was there might be something wrong with the car that would interfere with the sale and I’d have to hitchhike back. But the purchase went off almost without a hitch. The auto cruise control isn’t working and will be fixed if we keep the Jeep. MaxCare was $3,800 for the $50 deductible up to 150,000 miles. Driving home was pleasant with Apple CarPlay going, air conditioned seats, and the V-8 adequate at best with only 360 hp. I got 23 mpg at a steady 70-75 mph. Interestingly, the trip odometer / fuel economy info had not been reset for the past 9,000 miles, and it looks like the previous owner enjoyed a whopping 11.9 mpg. Had to be all city driving. But I didn’t drive straight home. There was another unicorn I had to see that same day!

From Newark, Delaware I drove another hour plus north past Philadelphia to Langhorne, Pennsylvania to test drive a $38,000 2012 BMW M3 I was absolutely sure I wanted in addition to the Jeep I just bought. Deep blue, tan interior, bawdy V-8, and a hardtop convertible. The logic here is this could replace for a while both my Fiat convertible and my 911, until the prices of 2017 911’s (991.2’s) drops to my price point in a year or two. That’s how my brain works. Loved the idea of a V-8 M3 since they were discontinued for more powerful and efficient inline sixes in 2014. My only question was how I was going to get two cars home.

But it was not to be. First, the sales rep was really irritated and confused that I had reserved the car in another name, since CarMax won’t let buyers reserve more than one car at a time. She kept insisting she could not let me test drive a car in a fake name even after I gave her my drivers license and came clean. She cared not at all that an hour earlier I bought the Jeep. We got past that, although she made me wait an hour to test drive the M3. Not upset with her. While waiting I sat in the car and knew I was not buying this particular M3. It was filthy and worn, missing panels, and the pass-through back seat hatch came off in my hands. I knew it was a one accident car and was willing to overlook that. But while the odometer says 40,000 miles I swear it drives like a car with twice as much. I test drove it anyway because I still thought an M3 convertible might be for me (and there’s a nice 2013 M3 – last year for V-8’s – here in Mobile, Alabama that has dropped twice in price to $35,998 now!) .

Well, the test drive ruled out M3’s for me as a daily driver that perhaps my wife would also drive with me on weekend trips. I so wanted to like the car and the whole sports car hard top convertible thing. But there were no settings I could find that were not embarrassingly raucous and race car like and I cringed screaming away from every stop light on the test drive. Oh it was certainly a hoot to snap the SMG transmission and roar hither and yon and I grinned much, but the car clunked and thudded on the road joints and was just too much race car for me. It took a lot for me to write that. It was also disappointing that the car was presented for a test drive with seven miles of fuel in it or I would have driven it more before walking away. I know several blog readers have owned M3’s – please tell me if there’s some way to adjust the settings (other than the bar graph button (?) on the center console) to make it civilized around town and race car when I want it to be. Otherwise I might have to downgrade to a 335 convertible. If you’re interested in the 2012 BMW M3 here’s the link. But before we close, I gotta share the third car I drove this week thinking it might be the be all end all successor to the S600.

Another V-12. (Mustafa this is your fault.) An M760 with 601 hp and almost loaded. It’s in Potomac Mills, Virginia, not far from me so I had to drive it. A bit pricey for a unicorn but a spectacular flagship car. And if I was going to spend that much, it would not be for this one. I’d so rather have the 2018 in Nashville with the tan interior for $2,000 less. Not that the savings would make a dent in MaxCare. How did it drive?

It drove any way you want it to drive. Sport mode can be bold and fast. Comfort was sublime. Once again CarMax shorted me with gas and had only 6 miles of range by the time I was done. I thought the car looked good on me but oddly, it has less leg room for the driver than my 11 year old Mercedes. I was bummed by that. It’s a beautiful dream car but I just can’t be cramped. Not even luxuriously cramped. So I passed on the BMW M760. But If you want the M760 it’s here!

I climbed back into my Jeep and drove home to start my search all over again. For $34,000 I have to say the Jeep rides damned nice. It’s growing me even if it isn’t unique. I have to admit I have a nostalgic soft spot on Jeep Grand Cherokees though. Just over 20 years ago I drove a Grand Cherokee over the Nabatean spice route and some old Roman cobblestone roads in remote Israeli deserts, and even got lost in the Judean wilderness for one very long day offroading (alone, in 115 degree weather, with a quarter tank of gas and one cup of coffee) for fun. Or at least is started out that way. That Jeep covered brutal ravines that I thought were only passable by Land Cruisers and never missed a beat. Made a believer out of me.

Well, that’s all I got for my opening post for September. Will scrub my saved cars and post some real unicorns over the next few days. Thanks for hanging in there with me – Chuck.