So today we managed to test drive an Acura TL; we drove a TSX a few months ago. We also looked at the Mazda 6's and the Volvo S40's.

The TL is nice. Oodles of power, manual transmission, unfortunate but tollerable torque steer. Very nice stereo. Gadget-freak-friendly navigation system. Bluetooth phone integration. Power memory seats. Now just shrink it down a little.

Ahh, the navigation system. If I didn't have my gadget-heart set on one, then there would be so many other interesting options, but I really do want one, and that knocks out the used car market, even for robust cars like the Mercedes E320. A full-size wagon would have no hope of fitting in our garage, and I need to take the tape measure out tomorrow so I know whether the TL will even fit. If not, well, we've been pondering other reasons why we might want a larger house.

The Mazda 6's are intriguing, particularly the hatchback version, where the seats fold down and give you a huge flatbed for hauling loads of stuff -- particularly important as that's one of the occasionally invaluable features of the current Acura Integra. The interiors... feel cheap. My wife was really turned off. Now if Mazda did a luxury division... oh wait, it's called Volvo.

We went to the local Volvo/Porsche/Jaguar/BMW dealer (*sigh*), and it turned out that they didn't have any S40 T5's with manual transmissions on the lot. The salesman was trying to push a 2004 S60R "with only a couple hundred miles on it," saying that those T5's are hot and are selling for list price. (A Volvo? Hot?) Just sitting in the car in the showroom, I wasn't terribly impressed by the pretty new center console. The buttons are all very tiny and crowded together, plus the corner of the console is just exactly where I want to lean my knee on a long drive. Bump. Ouch.

I'm thinking I need to have another look at the Lexus IS300 and its optional navigation system. The gauges are an embarassment and the engine drinks gasoline, but it's a mature car that's unlikely to have mechanical reliability issues. When I last test drove one, I was put off by the traction control always kicking in far too early. That probably hasn't improved any. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to wait for the new allegedly forthcoming successor.