![]() You could fit a road bicycle in back, among other things. Not to mention, I have always loved the utility of a hatchback. I drove a red one and was quickly taken in by the spunky personality of the car, which was like a happy puppy, and I was sold. And…better yet, they were running a 5-year 0.00% APR finance special which made it very affordable for us. And it meant that I could get my sisters Ford discount on it. They were sharing technology and platforms. Ford at that time had a controlling interest and long partnership with Mazda dating back the early 70’s. And a light bulb went on in my brain reminding me of the Ford-Mazda connection. Then across the street in the motor mall, I spied the new Mazda Protégé 5’s sitting in front of the joint Mazda-Subaru dealer. Perhaps a switch to the Ford Family? Maybe a Focus hatch or wagon? Whoa, wait, we stuck Adam in the back of the Grand Prix all the time, and it really wasn’t a big deal, now was it? Really? Long story short, I had to get her buy-in on a big-ticket purchase like this and I wasn’t going to get it, so I had to move on. The missus, however, did not want a 2 door, as it was more difficult to get our not quite 1-year old boy in and out in the car seat. And I was pleasantly surprised and excited to see they were just inside the outer limits of what we could afford…. C was not driving a manual, no way, no how. They were heavily discounted, lower trim level automatics, which was good because Mrs. One evening, I discovered that there were a couple of past model year GTI’s (2001 Mk4’s) sitting on the lot at the local VW dealer, in white and silver. It was winter time in late January 2002, a generally slow time in the car business especially here in the snow belt. Doing some high-level pricing on-line, I quickly realized that this was just a wee bit out of my price range. The Volkswagen Golf GTI was always one of my all-time favorite cars since it came out in 1983, and I decided to start there. A base Golf or Jetta was certainly affordable for us and made sense, but I always (and still do) coveted a hot hatch. Reciprocation or not, there was absolutely no way we could afford to buy or lease an Audi like an A-4. At this point in the early 2000’s, both brands were resurgent in the U.S., especially Audi. I liked my contacts there, was treated well, and I really wanted to reciprocate in some small way. Our company was doing a lot of business with VW/Audi at the time and I was on the account. GM was still in a of a product funk, pre-bankruptcy. Nothing there was really exciting me at all at that time with their product. Sure, I could do my predictable same-same and go right to a GM dealer like I always did. I was a bit perplexed in terms of which direction to go. Stinging from the sudden demise of my Grand Prix as referenced two COAL’s ago, it was now time to focus on the next vehicle.
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