[V8] another quandry

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Well, I'll admit this has next to nothing about V8 Quattros. I'll only 
mention Audi here because I am not going to mention Audi further.  My 
quandry is of a different kind.

We're moving. Well, not right now, but hopefully we can move out of here 
THIS year.  Our plans are to build a new, high efficiency house that is 
on one floor someplace "in the woods".  We actually have the land picked 
out and it might actually happen.

Once we do that, we will need to add a vehicle.  I don't WANT to do 
that, but we will need to have a primary vehicle that is reliable, safe 
and a pretty good carrier of things.  Once moved I will plan on retiring 
the truck to "truck like" things, perhaps mounting a plow if we are far 
enough off the main road.

Here's the problem. See, right there on the floor?  Those long scratch 
marks?  Those were made by me being dragged into the twenty-first 
century in the car shopping exercise.  It hasn't been pretty.

Last August the transmission in my truck died almost instantaneously one 
Saturday morning.  It had been 15,000 since I bought it so I harbor no 
ill feelings toward the used car dealer who sold it to me: the truck had 
over 125,000 miles on it when the tranny blew up and the truck had been 
used to pull a travel trailer most of it's first dozen or more winters.  
(At least it didn't stay in southern Massachusetts all those years which 
is why it is nearly rust free).  Anyway, a new transmission makes it run 
like new and I'm a happy camper.  A 2002 GMC truck that runs like new:  
how much better can it get than that.

BUT. The end of October last year my wife suffered a heart attack.  It 
was a good, clear and dry night and I just put her into the truck and 
drove her to the hospital.  From there she was airlifted to the big 
medical center in Bangor which is what they always do whenever they 
can.  But the nagging question is, if that event had taken place in 
August when I had NO truck, how would it have played out, considering it 
likely would be half an hour before an ambulance could have reached us?  
So, obviously we need two vehicles at all times given where we live now 
and how we want to live later.

So the qualifications:  1. A station wagon is ideal

                                     2.  All wheel drive is mandatory

                                     3.  Reasonable operating costs 
including fuel:  huge engine unnecessary

                                     4.  It's a guess but when we are 
ready to do this, we will likely be looking for something in the 
2011-2014 year range because more than five years old the state's excise 
tax is at its lowest point.

I have come to realize that I know NOTHING about vehicles built much 
after 2002.  So I have been reading a lot and watching a lot of Youtube 
videos.  What I have learned is that for the most part, vehicles now are 
essentially unchanged form when my 1990 Audi Quattro was built.  My 
observation is that unless you buy a really small car made in some 
country out at the edge of the Pacific Rim, fuel mileage is essentially 
unchanged in real world driving conditions:  20 miles per gallon overall 
is considered to be "good".   (Huh?  Whatever happened to saving fuel 
and not burning so much into the atmosphere?)

The only other thing that has changed is that while cars have become 
much faster, they also have become MUCH more electric and computerized.  
I guess they've become faster so they might outrun the electronic 
gremlins that might overtake them?

What I have found is that the chances of getting anything close to a 
station wagon is pretty much out there in fantasy land.  I rather like 
the looks at the Volvo V70, but those are now really old and most on the 
market have a gazillion miles and are very expensive.  I rather liked 
the looks of the Honda Crosstour, but those cars while plentiful and not 
all with huge miles, are really pretty expensive, too. At least right now.

I don't want an SUV or ANY type.  I don't LIKE them, consider them very 
overweight and inefficient and plus:  even used they often will have a 
gazillion miles and still be expensive.

I like the Cadillac CTS4 station wagon a LOT.  too bad they only made a 
handful  between 2010 and 2014.  They are not at all common, but the 
ones I have seen for sale, where Carfax data was present, seemed to have 
really good and complete service histories at Cadillac dealers.  
Probably owned by older people who believed in having the car serviced, 
ya think?  Maybe.

But  I've never actually been up close to one and the comments that I 
have read which concern me is that the CTS wagon is closer in size to 
the A4 and I don't think that will be large enough.  On my list of 
things to do this year is to actually see a CTS wagon at some dealership 
that I can sit in and see first hand.  I'm going to Massachusetts late 
next month, so maybe then.

So then there is something else I have been looking at which might be 
the thing:  what I said about NOT wanting above?  Well, there's those 
finger nail scratches once more.  I'm thinking a LOT about a Cadillac 
SRX from around 2012-2014.  That's the right size and it's not just a 
rebadged Chevy Tahoe.  Reasonalble operating cost and being a GM 
product, probably can be serviced adequately without needing to go to a 
European specialist who has special German-speaking auto-cardiac 
monitors.  I think the price will be right....around twelve grand.

I saw an interesting video on  Youtube last night. A salesman at a Caddy 
dealership gave detailed video instructions about how to program the 
SRX.  YIKES!  I'll need to call my granddaughter and as her to program 
the damn thing so I can drive it, I guess!

I don't want to be yanked into the 21st Century where driving is more 
like operating a pin-ball machine, but there it is....

Roger

P.S.  And you few V8Q types are the only people I know who might be 
patient enough to let me vent.....