Today’s Post by Joe Farace
My first car was a brand-new red 1961 Ford Falcon Futura, much like the one pictured below. Over the years I’ve owned lots of different cars and have written about a few of them in the “Our Cars” feature that appears here from time to time.
In a short time the lease on my Range Rover Evoque will be up and I will be car-less. My short term plans are to drive Mary’s personal car for a while but a rear-drive two-seater won’t work in the Colorado winter even in the near term. I want/need a car with some kind of 4WD or AWD setup. In fact, I want a station wagon, something that every time I say it causes Mary to gag.
Like most men, I hate shopping, even for cars. I also wanted a car that was 8-10 years old because Colorado’s punitive car tax aka annual license plate fees are outrageous for new and relatively expensive (even leased) cars.
I started by eliminating what I didn’t want. Even though the Evoque is more crossover than SUV, I’m tired of driving a truck—even a nice one. I’d make an exception for one of my bucket list cars—a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen—but even used ones cost more money than I want to spend. I really didn’t want a Japanese car and the fact that my lease ends on December 7’th has nothing to with that. Again, I would make an exception for the unique Subaru Baja. But used Subies, and used Jeeps for that matter, have big price tags in Colorado.
I like European cars so I talked to my friend John who works at the import specialist where we take Mary’s car for service and sought his advice about maintenance costs for a 8-10 year old Audi vs. Mercedes-Benz wagon. He likes the newer Audi wagons but suggested the Mercedes would be a better fit for me. Sorry BMW fans they’re not on my shopping list and E-Class wagons are too long for my garage space. The only problem is that 4Matic versions are scarce.
I’ve always had a thing for Volvos ever since I bought a 1958 PV444 back in the sixties and Mary and I have owned both 240 and 740 wagons over the years. The V40 is close in length to a C-Class wagon and some were built with AWD. And no, I’m not considering their pseudo crossover Outback clone the Volvo Cross Country—too big, too tall for me.
So if any of my readers come across any of these cars for sale, please drop me a note via the Contact button above. And when I finally get a new (used) car, I promise to do a post about the frog kissing process I went through to get it. Frogs, yuck!
Ford Falcon photo from Motorbase, The Encyclopedia of Motoring.