They cannot be rotated front to rear or vice versa because they are 275/35/19 on the front and 285/30/20 on the rear. I've seen a photo of a modded car in Europe which has 20"s with 285s all round. Looks very nice on a 20mm lowering kit, but scraping your carbon fibre splitter on a speed bump would be expensive to repair.
I thought I would waste bandwidth give you guys a recap of my car search to replace my trusty 2018 VXR. Mechanically the only thing that has gone wrong with it was the rear diff leak defect which was repaired. It has developed an annoying rattle in the dash somewhere near the HUD gap behind the drivers instruments, but other than that the rest of the damage has been inflicted by yours truly (kerbed wheels and a paint swirl in the clear coat).
The cars I evaluated in order driven: Audi S5, Audi RS4, BMW M3 Comp, Cupra Leon Sportstourer.
The S5 is a pretty nice car, but over this side of the ditch it costs more than 3 times what I paid for my Commodore, has less tech and is only slightly faster. The only places it by far exceeds my Commodore is the audio system (not a difficult feat - the Bose system in the ZB is pretty ****) and ride comfort - how it achieves such a luxurious ride on 20" wheels is mindboggling.
The RS4, what an enigma! Most of the time it is happy to masquerade as an A4 station wagon until you enable RS mode and suddenly it turns into a snarling monster that is seriously rapid, both in a straight line or on twisty back roads it makes little difference. I quite like Audi's attention to detail but for all the tech onboard it integrates seamlessly in a way that doesn't get in your way.
The M3 Competition sedan. You can immediately tell the difference between the design philosophies between Audi RS and BMW M. Audi like to design sleepers that change character at the touch of a button. BMW M hold no such pretence. The M3 never makes any excuses for what it is, it is always an M car no matter how fast or slow you drive it. And oddly enough, that is a good thing.
The Cupra Leon Sportwagon. VAG MQB cars - you either like them or hate them. I found the VWs and Skoda's I've driven that share that platform kind of soulless and lacking in character. Sure they are fast, in some cases, seriously fast, but I always felt they never asked anything of you as the driver for all that pace. The Cupra Leon was supposed to be the version with soul. It is there, but a lack of refinement and some seriously annoying intrusive tech ruined any chances of it winning the competition. On the way home after the test drive I realized that despite being 5 years older the VXR is still a better drivers car.
You may wonder why I would bother test driving something sub NZ$100k when the M3 is north of NZ$200k. Well, I was looking for the right car and I don't necessarily need 300+kw to have fun, I honestly went into all of the test drives with an open mind.
So the wife and I narrowed the list down to the RS4 and the M3. The advent of the new M3 Touring model means the two may be more directly compared as they are both wagons, which we prefer (I am allergic to SUVs). We were fortunate enough to drive the RS4 and M3 back to back, and truth be told, the M3 is a superior car. However, the RS4 is NZ$28,000 cheaper, so the actual question was, is the M3 worth spending an extra NZ$28,000? It took me more than a week of thinking about it to find the answer and it was a pretty close run thing because I changed my mind several times.
We're ordering a 2024 M3 Competition Touring this weekend.
We had a similar rattle in our Calais V. It sounded like it was the HUD surround, but it ended up being the top of the dash. I cut up a piece of rubber sheet and jammed it in between the top of the instrument cluster and the dash covering the cluster and it has (mostly) gone away.
Not that we re looking to upgrade just yet, but yes, the choices for a similar car are limited. Bimmer, Audi, or a bit left field, Lexus ES300 hybrid - if I can bring myself to buy a front wheel drive........
Congrats mate. When does it arrive ?
New Skoda Superb released today. I'm liking the looks of the liftback. Current version has the AWD 206 kw turbo petrol and good for 0-100 in 5.8 seconds so slightly quicker than our cars. Not expecting the new Skoda in our showrooms down under until late 2024 or early 2025. That sort of replacement timeframe for my Calais V will suit me fine. The new Cognac interior looks classy to my eyes. Been there done that with high end Euro's. The depreciation is eye watering. I think the Skoda liftback in top spec trim will suit me fine.
Yes I am indeed because it demonstrates just how good the VXR is as a car. The other cars I drove only put slightly more smiles on my dial for 2-3 times the VXR's price. But the M3 is in another league entirely and is better in every metric (except cost lol). I got a pretty reasonable trade-in price for the Commodore too (significantly more than half what I paid for it), so much for the crippling depreciation this forum was wildly speculating about in the early days.
Well this is it and it is with a somewhat heavy heart I say goodbye to my first ever Holden.
Yes I am indeed because it demonstrates just how good the VXR is as a car. The other cars I drove only put slightly more smiles on my dial for 2-3 times the VXR's price. But the M3 is in another league entirely and is better in every metric (except cost lol). I got a pretty reasonable trade-in price for the Commodore too (significantly more than half what I paid for it), so much for the crippling depreciation this forum was wildly speculating about in the early days.
