Discovering a car that I had never heard of--My first look at a 928

I have recently discovered a car in the last month or so at a car show that I had not previously heard of. It is not very famous, but it is made by a famous manufacturer. Most versions of it were not very fast, and they didn’t have very many gears, either. I discovered an old, slightly beat up Porsche 928. That is, a heavy, probably expensive car that apparently was supposed to replace the aging (at the time) 911. Good thing they did not, because Porsche is still very famous for their very fast and exotic 911 sports car.

The 928 really seemed like a Porsche in almost a Volkswagen sort of way--roundish looking, heavier, and what sounded like a American V-8 pumping under the hood (it was a German engine of course). It was kinda pleasant, and I almost immediately knew I would write about it after a few weeks, since it was Porsche that really didn’t feel or look like it. Pop-up headlights, a very lazy 200 or something horsepower, and most appeared to be automatics, too (the gentleman I looked at definitely had an automatic). I feel like it was Porsche’s answer to the Corvette, in like I said, a VW sort of way. Listening to its engine for a second or two was also really strange--as I have never heard of the car before, it almost sounded like a V8 from a not so recent Ford F-150. Porsche quite literally attempted to build an American car for I guess what were the 911-haters--people that liked Corvettes but really wanted something more unique and...classy? Artful? I forgot to take pictures of the car, so I will include pictures from Google images.

What shocked me the most was the car’s Chevy price tag--the guy said he bought it for $7000 or something, maybe $6k. I don’t remember exactly what he paid for it, but he did not appear to be fibbin’--it was repainted, the inside was not very clean, and the rear end of the car looked like it had seen better days. In any event, that is significantly less than what I believe those cars cost new. 
Long story short: the 928 appears to be a very affordable way to behind the wheel of one of the most exotic and very German carmakers of all time, and that would be Porsche. There is no substitute.

What was that? Cars that have eluded time

Is that some kind of Camaro or something?

Do you ever get that sort of response from somebody who sees your car and they have no idea what it is? There have been a few cars that, unless you are a total car nut, or otherwise know that particular car, have been a fad of the day, or otherwise. This list could go on for a book’s length, but that’s not the point of a blog.

1. Volkswagen Phaeton

This large car completely flopped after its first full year of production for the 2004 model year. Put together with a few parts from the VW and Audi parts bins, and air suspension from Bentley, the Phaeton should have been re-engineered or scrapped from the very beginning. Big German cars are always the right size, have tons of power, aren’t largely overweight, and the Phaeton (pronounced PHAY-tun) was all of those. Using a stretched Audi A8L frame and using heavy layers of steel instead of the mixture of parts the big Audi used, Phaeton was expensive, even for a VW, with pricing surpassing a cool $90,000, fuel economy poor, acceleration rather slow, unless opted with the rare W12 option line, which included a heavy W-12 engine (a 12 cylinder put together in a “W’ configuration, so not a “V,” just for the sake of being different), VW’s poor dealer network, and according to one source: poorly trained technicians that could do little more than change the oil. Parts had be flown in from Germany and some were only available from Bentley, such as the air suspension, so parts pricing were equally outrageous. It was bloated and styled much like the Passat at the time, just bigger, just wrongly proportioned. Owners liked the cars since they knew they were basically a cheaper knock-off of a Bentley, but few others took notice. Less than 100 cars were sold throughout the car’s last year of 2006. Surprisingly, the company insists that the company can sell them here in the thousands, a lofty bet since the Audi A8 barely does that here in the States. Car and Driver reported that VW insists the car will be available for the US market again, although this is now 2014 and nothing has been said for over 2 years about it.

2. Lexus HS250h

The HS250 wasn’t a bad car at all. It was just small, had a brittle ride, and very average gas mileage numbers, which are critical for a hybrid to do well in the states. Rather unfortunate, because the HS250h’s EPA numbers were only slightly better than a run of the mill Toyota Corolla of the time (the Corolla got around 25/33 city/highway mpg). Unlike the more stylish Lexus hybrid, the CT200h, the HS looked almost exactly like the Lexus treatment done to a--you guessed it--Corolla, again. See a pattern here? Buyers apparently did too, and Lexus pulled the plug after barely more than a year.

3. Chevrolet SSR

Remember the El Camino? Kind of a smart idea using the bed from a truck and the frame from a car, and a proven Chevy small block engine? Well, Chevy tried the idea again back in 2003, of which they killed the venerable, long-running Camaro/Firebird twins (still a little angry about, no matter they make the ugly current Camaro)for, and used the development money for a “Super Sport Roadster” (yes, that’s what this enigmatic name stands for). The clearest example of what truck buyers did not--and do not--want in a truck: is a bed that is not usable, regular cab only, very little ability to tow and haul, and awful, scientifically mutated front design that looked like something stolen from Area 51 and mated with a short bed Silverado, the truck was put on the market for nearly 5 years, and once again probably an example of what put General Motors into their 2009 bankruptcy. Don’t do it ever again GM, because truck buyers want a truck, not something from science fiction.

How to spell Perfection: The new Audi RS 7

 A lot of Audi’s cars sound a lot like a license plate. A3, S3, A8, and my favorite: TT. Only one of the them, the Quattro Sport concept, has really ever had a name that was not something alphanumeric, and that was merely a concept car.  
You can make fun of it really, because a lot of German car fans do. What is most interesting, and the perhaps the biggest news for select buyers in Germany and North America in 2014 is the introduction of a super-duper S (Sport) variant of Audi’s cars. 2012 brought us the V-8-powered RS 5, a Racecar Sport variant of the standard A5. Audi has now brought upon us perhaps the grandest car of its lineup, other than the S8--it is called RS 7.

Behold, a little twin-turbo V-8 powered monster of an automobile. Packing a Goliath of an engine in terms of output, and a Ward’s 10 best award for 2014 for gas-powered V-8s in the small 4-liter class, it produces an astounding, Porsche-envying, 911 Turbo-jealous 560 horsepower. Basically, Audi’s 4-0 V-8 has gone to the gym, and come back with much more than a six pack. In fact, the folks at the Porsche dealer across the street need to be jealous.

 For the first time in history, Audi has built a car that may be more for your money than the top tier 911 Turbo is (520-hp), or the fearsome Turbo S (also 560-hp). 

I’ll let that sink in for a moment. 
The closest competition is the current Porsche Panamera Turbo, with a similar strategy, and I believe approximately the same power, albeit ugly, disgusting styling. This is a short blog celebrating the folks at VW Group for making more Porsche than Porsche is, and badging it an Audi, and giving it very likely the best fuel economy of any car with more than 500 horsepower as notified by the factory, or 450 for that matter. The men behind the desk at Mercedes, BMW, Cadillac (yes, Cadillac), and whatever other competition this raging 2 tons of menace wants to have are scrambling through their papers in desperate efforts to create something as hardcore but also statement-making as this. Yes, the RS 7 is a bit of a heavyweight, weighing about as much as the average Dodge Dakota, at around 4,400 lbs. 
Feeding through a regular 8-speed automatic is an equally impressive 516 pound feet of torque rating. American truck fans have something to be jealous about as well, as this produces waaaaay more torque than any truck makes. Step aside, F-150 EcoBoost.

Beyond the car’s power is the incredible value, believe it or not. Audi has made the next Batmobile--it is very expensive, but in terms of luxury and power, the car can be up there with the desirability of BMW’s ubiquitous M division, or even as hardcore as a Bentley or Rolls-Royce. All of Audi’s finest Truth in Engineering for a rather steep $105,795 as a “base” price, with loaded cars stretching to a bit over $120,000. For this, the only thing that compares in Audi’s stable is the $113,000 S8 barge, or the little-known A8 with the W12 and long wheelbase option, stretching to about $140,000. Audi did it a few years ago with the RS5, and now they have done it again with the RS 7, of course for a price.