[LosAlamosAl]

Greetings from northern New Mexico. I'll try and give you my story in bite-size pieces.

1. Owned a 2012 BMW M3 (V8 air breather). Love, love, loved it.
2. Warranty about to expire. $5K out of pocket for extended. Ouch.
3. Retired the nanosecond I hit 60. Yay!
4. Thought wife and I would enjoy vacations driving vs. flying (lots of free time).
5. Thought I had the fast cars out of my system.
6. Traded the M3 for a loaded 2016 X3. This event is now known as the "major brain fart".
7. Drove X3 for a month. "Nice" car (er, SUV).
8. Realized I did NOT have fast cars out of my system (60 is the new 40).
9. Went back to BMW. "Hey, can I trade this back on an M4?"
10. Drove the M4. Fast (especially with turbos at 7000 feet).
11. Can't get past the M4's lawnmower soundtrack.
12. My M3 sounded like a beast. This sounds like a Honda!
13. M4 is $82K. Dealer will take 2% off. Hosed on X3 trade (natch).
14. Good bye BMW. Hello Chevy.
15. Drive C7 Corvette. Awesome. Loved it. Expensive (but way more than 2% off).
16. Explored trading X3 for C7. Hosed on X3 trade (natch).
17. Channeling Risky Business: "Looks like we're keeping the X3!"
18. Can't afford two really expensive cars--bye, bye C7.
19. Salesman says offhandedly, "Have you considered the Camaro?"
20. Huh? No, why?
21. Internet and YouTube frenzy.
22. Drove SS.
23. Ordered Red Hot 2SS 10 minutes later

So, through no genius on my part, things are working out great. My wife gets the X3. She's happy. I trade her 2007 Audi A4 for the red SS (with manual, mag ride, perf exhaust). I'm happy that I seem to have luckily turned the brain fart of losing the M3 into a new adventure back in an American car.

I will lose 20% power up here at 7000 feet, but what I really like most in a car is the sound (my M4 was a screamer, the SS is all muscle) and accelerating (this is where the SS feels faster than the M3--torque). All else is secondary.

As I said, I'm retired but back working part time. I will lease the SS for 2 years (with a healthy down payment to get those payments down--I may decide I don't like working part time!). I'm not paranoid about American cars, I've had plenty that have been great (Trans Am, Ranger, Avalanche) but I am always leery of first model year--hence the 2-year lease. If the SS awesome, maybe there's a ZL1 in my future (full power at altitude!).

Anyway, looking forward to the car and to hanging out with all of you on the forum.

--
Al