It was a big week for me. After VidCon and a ton of work, I took time off with my family and one of the things we did was go to Newport Beach to look at exotic cars and then go test some muscle. Here are my thoughts
Lamborghini: Was obviously unable to TEST the Aventador (no one was allowed to touch it without a deposit), but I got to sit in a Gallardo and it was super uncomfortable and cramped. No shocker there.
Ferrari: There would be no sitting in any of the Ferrari's in this showroom but I did get to finally get up close on the Berlinetta (my favorite Ferrari) and that was cool.
Maserati: Wonderful experience at Maserati. Sales guys were super friendly (unlike Lambo and Ferrari) and invited me to sit in all of the models. Surprisingly, I kind of fell in love with the Grantourismo. A simply wonderful cabin with lots of room. Comfortable and, when they fired it up, BLISTERINGLY great noise. Seriously, this might be the best exhaust note I've ever heard. I have a new car dream? Also, interestingly, saw two different people pick up their brand new Maseratis while we were there. They move more (obviously, Maseratis aren't as expensive as Ferraris and Lambos). But it was just a super awesome experience.
Mustang: Got in a 2014 GT and tested it for about 20 minutes. Squirrely and loose. GREAT acceleration. Good cabin but suffers from the same thing that Camaros and Challengers do, it feels cheap. Granted, the price on this was $26k... that's literally 1/4 the price of the lowest end Maserati. Quality is obviously going to suffer. But, it was super fun to drive. Also, I hate touch screens so it was nice to be in a car that just had a radio, MP3/iPod connection, and no touch screen.
Challenger: Took the 2014 SRT8 for a spin and thought is was TERRIBLE! Weird clutch and bad shifting. The clutch had almost zero throw and didn't hook up well. There were also some electrical problems going on like the "Door is Ajar" light just constantly switching back and forth between left and right... weird. The car also really felt heavy and sluggish. One thing that's not the car's fault was the sales lady trying to point things out on the car while I was driving it on the freeway. I don't need to be messing around with a touch screen at 80mph in a car I'm unfamiliar with and with one window (DRIVER'S SIDE) completely covered with the car info. That was frustrating.
At the end of the day, I was super happy to get home and get back in my 1le. It's got some problems; that weird trans/drive train grind is there in the first few gears and MyLink just doesn't work well (or at all) with iPhones. One funny thing is that I had a much easier time seeing out of my Camaro than either the Mustang or the Challenger (granted, the Challenger had some handicaps).
So, until I can afford a Maserati, I can stay pretty happy with my Camaro
