[quote=fredeng]would you really buy a Giulia Quadrifoglio over an RS3?[/quote]
I can’t really tell whether this is a serious question or not?
I really hope it isn’t because there is simply no contest in my view.
I’ll tell you a little story about how I ended up with a Focus RS.
About 3 months ago the 2 cars in the family were a 2005 Mitsubishi Evo 9 FQ-320, which I had from new, and a 2002 Porsche 996 Carrera 4S which we owned from 2008. The Evo was lightly modified. In all the 12 years of ownership nothing new had appeared on the market to rival the Evo performance, drivetrain, handling and price. Nothing had caught my eye in all that time. Not your BMW M cars (Don’t like non-harmonised BMW controls and a few other issues). Nor Audi RS (Uninvolving handling). Nor any other hot hatch that frankly just didn’t measure up to the mighty and way-ahead-of-its-time Evo. We thought we had 2 cars that we would probably never change, we liked them so much.
Then I caught a glimpse of the Alpha Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. Took a few test drives including an invite to Brooklands and was really blown away by the mix of practicality and performance. Handled just like an Evo with the same feel of alertness and darty front end with minimal steering input. Relentlessly fast. Great control weights and fearsome brake-by-wire braking system. I mean utterly amazing brakes. Expensive, though. Nevertheless, I decided to stretch the finances and go for one. I had chosen the spec. All I had to do was sell the Evo before signing the order form.
So I put the Evo up for sale…
Meanwhile, Mrs H hit a pothole in the C4S and caused a rattle. We took it to the dealer, who found a corroded exhaust clip. New clip fixed the rattle, so no cause for alarm and no broken suspension. Phew. While we were there we chatted cars, like we always do, and the dealer mentioned that I’d had the Evo for a long time now. I mentioned that I had put it up for sale because I was intending to buy a Quadrifoglio. Dealer knew very little about Alfas, but during the course of the conversation he mentioned that there was a car coming in that I’d be interested in. A 2009 Turbo Gen 1.5 manual. Last model with the Mezger 3.6L engine (still preferred over the new 3.8L). Turns out it was the same price as the Quadrifoglio. But values are rising strongly. Only 23 right hand drive black with black interior manual Gen 1.5s were built.
It was a no-brain decision to trade in the C4S instead of buying the Quadrifoglio. Always worshipped the Turbo and never thought we’d own one, but it was a now-or-never moment. The way values are rising we would be priced out of the market soon.
That decided, I still felt that I should sell the Evo even though we were changing the other car. It was beginning to cost a lot in maintenance and I didn’t want a stretched financial situation made worse with an Evo that could cost lots in maintenance.
So the Evo sold.
I had to find a replacement. And quick. I was looking to spend 2.5-3k on a 2005-ish Civic Type-R or Megane 225. Sadly, the ones I looked at all turned out to be a bit dog-eared and mostly thrashed already. Visions of spending more on maintenance again.
So on a Friday afternoon just as I was recovering from illness and had taken a week off, we had planned to travel to see another Renault about an hour from us. Stuff got on top of us, partly because I still wasn’t 100% better and we ended up late about to set off to view. So instead of going to see the 225 we popped into local Ford to look at the RS. Not with the intention of buying, just to have a look and “discount” it from our list of cars on the Lottery list.
We sat in the demo and immediately quite liked the cockpit. We then went for a test drive and it drove really well, particularly in the bends. In fact *Really* well. A bit like an Evo, in fact. Not as quick in a straight line, though. Heavier, I guess…
Turns out we liked it a lot.
So we asked about finance. Sounded very reasonable. A few man sums meant that it was probably more affordable than keeping the Evo. We asked about delivery time. We could get one in a spec we wanted within about a week. Cool.
The upshot was that about 1 hour from walking in the door I had handed over my credit card to pay the deposit and then picked the car up 8 days later.
(But I still want a Quadrifoglio.)
Yours Aye
Mark H
// ’17 Nitrous Blue // Forged Alloys // Michelin Super Sports // Painted Calipers // Sync 3 // Lux Pack // Winter Pack // Black Gel Spoiler Badges // Blue Gel Wheel Inserts // GTechniq Liquid Crystal // GTechniq Alloy Armour // sold Jun ’18
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