Last August, I did a bunch of test driving. I never did buy a new car. Today, I did a bunch more test driving. Here's my story.

Acura TL - I really wanted to like this car, since it seemed to solve many of my concerns with the underpowered Acura TSX. Unfortunately, the reviews were true. This thing has mean torque steer. You don't notice it in a straight line, but if you punch if when you're making a turn (say, when you're turning right after a stop light), then you're fighting the wheel. The 6-speed manual does feel pretty good, and the sound system is the best one I heard today. The electro-luminescent gauges didn't seem quite as nice as the TSX's, for some reason, but I'm relying on my fading memory. The dealer gains points for giving me the key and saying "go have fun", but looses points for giving me the car with the empty tank light on and 12 miles left according to the trip computer.

Volkswagen Golf R32 - What the heck, I thought, maybe I'll stop at the Volkswagen dealer. They had an R32 in the showroom and two sitting out on the lot on those pedestal things. They only had one for test driving and it was "out". I played with the showroom model and found that I could actually wedge myself into the backseat. The car seemed comfortable, and definitely had more room than the Audi TT (but more on that later). 20 minutes later, the test driveable car never came back and dealer-boy was doing his best to ignore me. Screw it. I left.

Subaru WRX STi - The Subaru dealer is next door to the Volkswagen dealer, so I thought I'd try my luck. It took some convincing ("I could write you a check for that car right now if I felt like it"), but they actually let me test drive one. They had one out back with 26 miles on it. I was only allowed to take it down the freeway feeder lane, u-turn, and come back. Umm, okay. I'm in the car, adjusting the mirrors and whatnot, and look down at the gauges. All the idiot lights are lit up: DCCD, Check Engine, etc. "Are you sure this thing's okay to drive?" "Sure, go ahead. We haven't PDI'ed it yet, but it should be okay." (PDI, or whatever acronym they used, is the "dealer prep" they're supposed to do.) For the first mile, it was everything it was supposed to be: amazingly fast, and with a very tight suspension. It felt just like riding in my father's 911 Turbo, and for a whole lot less money. Then, after the first mile, the car became less happy. Even when I floored it, it was accelerating like it didn't have the turbo at all, even though the boost gauge was indicating the turbo was boosting. "Do you smell something funny?" The salesman said it was nothing. Uhh huh. We got back to the dealer, parked the car, and turned the key off. Then, smoke started coming out from under the hood! Smoke! Dealer-boy opened the hood, and we could see anti-freeze all over the engine compartment. That's what was burning. The radiator cap looked fine, and the coolant reservoir was at the proper level. The head service guy came over, and said "I didn't PDI this car. I think we got this one in a dealer trade." Normally, when this guy preps a car, he drives it for 8 miles to make sure he gets everything right. Heaven only knows what the history of this car was, but needless to say, it was a memorable experience.

Infiniti G35 Coupe - The next stop was Infiniti. I wanted to drive a G35 Coupe with a manual transmission. Thankfully, they had one this time. The engine is fantastic. Lots of pull. The brakes are also very strong. The clutch sucks: its grab point is much higher than every other car, and it's quite difficult to do smooth shifts under full acceleration. You end up chirping the tires and jerking the car. The only smooth shifts either I or the salesdroid could do were under half throttle or less. The factory Bose stereo has lots of base, but it's boomy and non-distinct. Yuck. The DVD navigation system requires you to use this dorky joystick to enter an address -- slower and more painful to use than the Acura touch-screen. The G35 Coupe's back seats are barely passable, but I did fit. The car isn't actually a hatchback. It's a trunk with a hatchback-shaped rear window and fold-down rear seats. The only way you could get something large into the rear would be through the side doors, not the rear trunk lid. Lame.

Audi TT - Finally, I went by the Audi dealer, and asked to drive an Audi TT and an S4. This is the new TT with the 3.2liter engine and the dual-clutch computer-controlled pseudo-manual transmission. I loved it! The car is fast, and they fixed all of my complaints with the original 2000 TT. Most notably, they shrank the B-pillar, giving you visibility behind you. The back seats are, like Porsche, purely vestigal. No grown adult would ever sit in the back. However, unlike the G35, you have a hatchback and a serious amount of cargo space. The Bose stereo, like the G35's Bose, was boomy and yucky. At least it's easier to replace.

Audi S4 - The S4 is about the same size as the Acura TL, but they've somehow wedged a V8 engine into the thing. It's the fastest car I drove today, and it's also amazingly quiet. The suspension has that luxury-but-sporting feel that you expect from finer German cars. The brakes were grippy, and the brake pedal felt like it was two inches closer to me than the gas pedal. In an emergency stop situation, I could easily see getting your foot hooked up on the brake pedal. They got it right on the TT, but screwed up the S4. Go figure. This particular S4 didn't have the Bose "upgrade", so I got to hear a normal Audi stereo. Yuck. Bass was much tighter than Bose, but didn't go as low. The trebble was weird. It was like they had a special tweeter that only kicked in at very high frequencies, but forgot to have anything in between that and the mid-range. What can I say? Audi's audio sucks.

So, do I want to trade in my flakey BMW Z3 Coupe for something else? Nope, not yet. I'm holding out to see whether the 2005 G35 Coupe has a better interior and maybe addresses the weird clutch problem. I'm also holding out to see whether Lexus spins a replacement for the IS300. If my car blew up tomorrow (without injuring me), then I'd either buy myself an Audi TT, a Golf R32 or the Acura TSX.