Bear with me here everybody. I currently have an '03 TLS. It's been a love/hate relationship.

I was originally going to buy a 40-50K car about 6 months ago. Looked at the Infiniti M35, Acura RL, Audi A6, Lexus GS. Well, things have changed a bit at my 100% comission job, so taking on that purchase price at this time may not be the best idea.

I've currently been looking in the 30-40K range. I have driven a TL, Passat, Volvo S60, Lexus ES350, BMW 330 and G35.

330- Nice. Too expensive, not a good value for the $$. BMW reliability. Next.

G35- I know it's due for a redesign this fall, and new pics look pretty sweet. However, it's small - I'm 6' 1" and feel slightly cramped. Excellent engine but jittery ride which I'm trying to get away from. Not likely to get the Infiniti even with the redesign (but the M was on the top of my list 6 months ago)

ES350 - Great styling, flawless tranny, luxury ride, excellent new engine, all the bells and whistles...at a price. With everything I want, this puppy tops out at about 42K, and it's hot so dealers are getting MSRP for these.

Volvo S60- I was actually really interested in the T5 version after finding out that Volvo is selling these around 6-8K under INVOICE. The car looks good and has a nice interior. But the engine is weak, noisy an unrefined. Just not in the same class as the others.

Passat- Drove one yesterday. I was pretty impressed. I drove very smooth and felt really solid. The Monsoon stereo system is absolutely fantastic. Navi is a little weak. The problem I have with the Passat is the rather bland styling and VW's reliability history. Also, you can get this car as a "value" edition for 21K. It's basically stripped down with almost no options. The thing that bothers me about that is this- I'm buying a 35K V6 that has all the options (leather, navi, xenons etc), but it's still on a 21K car - same build quality, same materials, same assebbly line.

TL- Well, well, well. I swore I would not buy another TL. Like I said before, I have a love hate relationship with mine. I'm at 39K miles and on the 3rd tranny, about to be 3rd set of rotors and pads, a hard idle which the dealer says is normal, and have had numerous little annoyances since day one (did someone say dash rattle?) Love the exterior and interior styling and the engine. The new TL is what I'm leaning toward. It has everything at a great price. Rattles do concern me, but I found and corrected all the rattles in my '03 that the dealer could not (I'm like a drug dog with those things).

So it's now between the V6 Passat and the 6MT TL (could these cars be more different?) I would get the Lexus in a minute if I had an extra 10K burning a hole in my pocket, but I don't.

What say you?

 

I'd go for the TL. 3G has not had the tranny problems the 2G had. People complain about rattles though, but if you can deal with them then I'd say get the TL.

The 330 and Passat are likely to have poor reliability and I wouldn't touch them.

 

I would go for the TL or the G35.

 

Tranny's a mute point cause your getting the 6MT. If I needed a car now it would be a 6MT TL.

 

Regardless of what car you go for... I'd look at a low mileage pre-owned. Get a car that's one year old or so. Let the original owner take the depreciation hit, and you'll be rolling in a basically new car for thousands less.

FWIW, I'd look at the Volvo S60r. You can scoop up a low mileage 2005 or 2006 for a great price, and they are fun cars to drive...

 

I hear what your sayin, but used 6MT navi's are hard to come by. And a one year old used car means one of three things - they didn't like it, they couldn't afford it or it got repo'd. I'd rather spend the extra 3K on a car that I know wasn't abused. Rarely do you have someone who babies a car for one year and decides to get rid of it.

I did drive a S60R, but way too firm for me. I felt every little bump and pebble in the road.

My Acura dealer today said they could do an '06 6MT with Navi for $100 over invoice. I'm going to see tomorrow if they will do $32,000 (including destination and dealer proc) and throw in some wheel locks. They offered me 17K for my '03 but Carmax will give me 18.5K (max KBB value).