Maserati Quattroporte

Continued from "Maserati Purchase" entry...

With a starting price of $112,500, the Quattroporte (which literally means "four doors") competes with the likes of BMW's 750iL, Audi's A8 and Mercedes' S-class. It's offered in three trim levels: the $112,500 Quattroporte, $122,400 Executive GT and $121,100 Sport GT, the last being the one I test drove.

Initial impressions: By the exterior alone, the Quattroporte is immediately set apart from it's more conventional competitors in styling alone. Having Ferrari roots (Maserati and Ferrari are one in the same company), its Pininfarina (the Italian automotive design firm hired by Ferrari to design most of its cars) styling queues are unmistakable. However, the most notable aspect about this car (to me) was the way it sounded; like a Ferrari with four doors, which is really what this car is. The note that comes out of the exhaust at open throttle is somewhat unexpected from such a large sedan, and will undoubtedly earn the hearts of overpaid automotive enthusiast-execs the world over.

Driving dynamics: The engine in the Quattroporte is a variation of the one used in the Ferrari F430; a 4.2L V8 mated with a 6-speed transmission (which was improved this year) good for 400 horsepower and a 0-60 time of 5.6 seconds. I obviously had some reservations in driving this car hard, as crashing it would have meant selling all of my possessions to cover its cost. However, I can say that it's nimble and very willing to execute on the wishes of your right foot. The shifts via the paddles were crisp and immediate, given the bias that I generally don't like paddle shifting.

Time for the $1M question: if I had $130,000 to drop on a luxury sedan, would I buy this car? One pro is that unlike A8s, 750s and S-classes, you don't see too many of these in the parking lot of your local Silicon Valley Starbucks. Other pros are its Ferrari lineage and again, the way it sounds. Cons are that there isn't much in-cabin tech (the sat-nav does the job and that's about it), which was most likely intentional, as the Italians want to focus more on the drive. At the end of the day, I think I would take an Audi S8 (lots of in-cabin tech, indisputable S-line performance) and pocket the remaining $30,000. Sorry BMW, the styling of the 7 series still turns me off.

Introducing Hayami

I finally did it. I purchased an S2000. Those who know me well know that this was an obsession a very long time in the making. You can read my previous TEK Auto posts about the S2000 here and here (the latter post dating as far back as a year ago).

I picked her up last Saturday at 10am and drove around for most of the day, just getting to know the car better; handling dynamics, clutch engagement point, etc. In a moment of convertible n00bosity, I actually got sun burnt. Somewhat embarrassing, but absolutely worth it.

I won't go on and on about how unbelievable this car is (you can read the two aforementioned posts to get that). But I can honestly say that this car is truly in a league of its own. The sound that screams out of the engine bay as you approach the unheard of 9,000 rpm redline is unlike anything you will hear from any production car on the market.

Hayami (thanks Iku) means "Fast Beauty" in Japanese. Quite appropriate. Her and Adriana (my 3) are still getting acquainted. Stay tuned for more updates.

[ Complete album ]

Pioneer AVIC-Z1

After what seemed like an eternity (more details below), I finally got the Pioneer AVIC-Z1 installed in my car. Initial impressions on the unit after a few day's use and a trip to Napa Valley is that it's quite good. The navigation is clear and accurate, the Bluetooth paired very easily with my BlackBerry and all incoming and outgoing calls are very clear. You can also control dialing, answering and ending calls from the touch-screen. The DVD player is adequate for what it is (a DVD player in a car) and the iPod connection is decent (although the navigation of songs is slower than I'd like). The unit also has a 30gb hard drive to store music, photos, movies, etc.

The AVIC-Z1's menu screen.

Split-screen navigation.

3D route guidance.

DVD player/photo album viewer.

Not my car, but close enough (another E46).
This is what a good installation would look like.

I took some pictures of the unit in my actual car, but Sarah H. (a.k.a Gansta Hwangsta) decided to steal my camera this past weekend, so I'll have to wait until she returns it to post them.

I'll make a very, very long story short here; do not go to Bay Car Stereo in Mountain View to get anything done on your car. In retrospect, I wouldn't want these morons installing new windshield wipers on my car, let alone a dual-DIN integrated navigation, DVD, iPod, Bluetooth system, which is exactly what I asked them to do. It took them well over 20 hours (for a five hour job at most), three return visits (by me) and many lies, deceptive business practices and lost hours and dollars (on my part) in between. If you want details, you can read one of my seven reviews below.

I'm usually not a malicious person, but I'm very serious about steering people away from this shady, unprofessional establishment (and I'm being fairly generous in even calling them an establishment). I've gone out of my way to protect other consumers as well:

• Yelp (1)
• Yelp (2)
• Yahoo Local
  
• Citysearch
• E46F
  
• Yellowpages
• AOL YP
  

*Don't ask me why Google Maps/Local isn't listed here, because I can't tell you.

Total cost: Approx. $3,500 (parts and installation)
Rating: A- (product), F (installation/service)