The Urban Dink: 2008 Subaru Outback Update

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the Urban Dink’s wagon of a purchase from back in July. Truth be told, we’ve put very few miles on the 2008 Subaru Outback 2.5i since then. How many? Just over 2,300. That’s not many miles even for my wife, who usually only puts about 7,500 miles on a car a year.

We’ll get into mileage in a minute, but overall I’ve found the Outback to be one heck of a car. Every time I get into it I can’t help but think we made a good decision. There are a few nitpicks, but not many, and none have to do with overall quality.

The Urban Dink: 2008 Honda Accord Coupe

I’m not a fan of large coupes that don’t have some kind of performance aspect inherent in their existence. What the heck am I talking about? The Ford Mustang, Pontiac GTO, BMW 335i — they’re worth the two-door, 2+2 seating configuration headaches. Otherwise, I find most coupes — like the new Accord, Pontiac G6, Nissan Altima and the god-awful Toyota Camry Solara — just pointless. Even as an Urban DINK, you might want to go out to dinner with another couple in comfort, and there are plenty of sporty sedans on the market these days.

What does all this spell for my time with the Accord coupe? It has a lot to make up for in my warped mind.

The Urban Dink: 2008 Volvo C30

Finally! A car in the fleet that fits the theme of this column perfectly. I’ll admit there were others I could’ve squeezed in from this point of view but in the end, I think the wait was well worth it.

You can’t talk about the Volvo C30 without keeping it in the context of its two main competitors: the Volkswagen GTI and the Mini Cooper S. Neither of those cars has won me over completely, even as The Urban Dink, mainly because they both have harsh rides — to help with performance — that are not the most fun to live with from day to day. For me — and just me here — I need some more compromise on that front. That’s where the C30 wins points, big time.

The Urban DINK: 2007 Acura TL Type-S

When the last generation Acura TL was roaming the streets (circa 2000) I was still at my first job out of college, making a livable salary and driving a very affordable economy car. That TL was a pretty slick ride to my mind and epitomized what a young urban professional in the next millennium should be driving. Flash forward to 2007 and I'm cruising to work in a 2007 Acura TL Type-S and I'm totally nonplussed.

I should have been enjoying my commute immensely, but instead I was a tad disappointed. Of course, in the span of time between when I put the TL on a pedestal until I was actually driving one to work, I've logged thousands of hours in everything imaginable on four wheels, including tough competition like the new Mercedes-Benz C300 and Infiniti G35.

The Urban DINK: 2008 Mercedes-Benz C300

This is what this column is all about. The new Mercedes-Benz C300 came into the fleet, and guess who got the first night alone with this bad boy? That’s right, the DINK. Mike Hanley actually got more time with it and wrote the full review on the C300, and I think overall his points on the driving feel are dead-on. What I found fault with in the review was the fact that there was no mention that this is the perfect car for an Urban DINK.

Now, to be sure, our full-length car reviews are supposed to address the broadest audience, which is why Suburban Dad, Weekend Athlete and Urban Dink exist on this blog. The C300 has a lot going for it, Dink or no. It has a low starting price — less than the Lexus ES 350, Acura TL, BMW 3 Series and Infiniti G35. Plus it has a decent list of standard features.

The test car had a lot of options, though, like a slick navigations system, a superb surround-sound stereo system, a double-paned sunroof and an iPod adapter in the glove box. I thought the interior was very well done, with Mercedes continuing to stun with its gauge design. The leather on the seats was nice to the touch, but they sure were firm. My only major beef with the inside of the C300 was the plastic shift knob.

When an Auto Writer Buys a Car: Part IV

Now that I knew my wife would be happy owning either a Hyundai Santa Fe or a Subaru Outback, it all came down to one last factor: price. I got back onto the good old internet and sent out quote requests for an all-wheel-drive Hyundai Limited (expecting to get a discount similar to the one I saw on the Mazda CX-7) and a 2007 Outback 2.5i. I had learned in my earlier visit to the Subaru dealer that our chances of finding an ’07 3.0 or XT Outback would be very slim, as even the new ’08s would have limited stock of them.

Again, the quotes came flooding in from local dealers. Most came via email, but we got a few phone calls. One Hyundai salesman called me while I was on a business trip in Colorado. He was shocked that, at 2 p.m., not only was I too busy working to talk to him about the email request I had asked for, but that I was out of town. I don’t know exactly why. He wouldn’t email me a quote, saying he was “too old” to email his info, so I said maybe I’d call him back when I got back to town. That didn’t happen.

Most of the Hyundai Limited quotes came in at about $27,000 or $28,000 with destination, nowhere near the discounts Mazda was offering. I could have moved down to the SE for about $26,000 with destination and still gotten the more powerful V-6 Hyundai offers. There were no rebates. Unlike the Hyundai, Subaru was in the middle of turning over its model year for the Outback from ’07 to ’08 with only minor changes for the 2008, including a slightly different grill and heated fabric seats standard.

There was a $1,000 rebate on the 2007s, and the first Subaru dealer who gave us the test drive quoted a price of $22,500 for a 2.5i including destination, all rebates and dealer cash. MSRP was $24,595 before a $625 destination charge. So basically I was getting the invoice price, or another $1,500 off in dealer cash or other markdowns on top of the published incentives. Two other Subaru dealers came in at almost identical prices, so I figured I’d just deal with the salesman I already liked. Now what to do…

When an Auto Writer Buys a Car: Part II

Yesterday, I told you how my wife and I came up with our list of potential replacements for our 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Out of that list, I had a very good idea what my top choice would be. I had enjoyed the Mazda CX-7 when I first tested it, and thought it was going to be an easy sell to my wife. My next step was to take her for a test drive and get some price quotes online.

There was only one model we hadn’t really tested thoroughly — yes, as an automotive journalist you do test cars for yourself as well as for a story — and that was the Subaru Outback.

I hopped onto Cars.com and sent out quote requests on both the Mazda and the Subaru using my personal email address, so it never showed up with @cars.com after it. At no point in my car-shopping process did I tell a salesman where I worked.

I was surprised at how quickly the emails came pouring in.

When an Auto Writer Buys a Car: Part I

The inevitable has finally happened. For the first time since I began working at Cars.com, I wound up in a position where my wife and I needed to buy a new car. Not too long ago I mentioned the shopping list we had put together for our next purchase, and now I’m going to retell everything that took place in our search for a new car, right up to driving the car off the lot.

Today, I’m going to tackle how we narrowed down the cars that made it to our final shopping list. Unlike most car shoppers, I have the distinct advantage of driving dozens of new cars every year, but the way we came up with our list is pretty much the same as anyone else.

The Urban DINK: 2007 Audi RS4

First, I just wanted to point out the cool new graphic the Urban DINK and Suburban Dad series now sport. Spiffy, no? Second, this post is in direct response to some mild complaints that I was focusing too much on small SUVs, since that’s what my wife and I are currently in the market for.

Count your pleas for something more DINK-ish answered. The Audi RS4 should be the dream car for any Urban DINK. It’s ludicrously fast, has the smoothest shift motion I’ve yet to see and it’ll fit easily into city parking spots.

The Urban DINK: 2008 Audi TT

As you may have read, some of the Cars.com editorial staff got up-close-and-personal with a number of new cars this week. One I was really impressed with, and that fit the Urban DINK mold, was the all-new Audi TT coupe. The TT will also come in a convertible roadster body style later this year, but we just had the coupe on hand.

The old TT never appealed to me aesthetically. The lines were too bulbous and rounded, and it didn’t look like it was a performer. The new TT adds the big-mouth grille and aggressive head and taillights, though, and in red I’d have to say it was a looker.

Unlike most test drives I do, which last a full week of daily driving on normal roads, I was able to take the Audi TT on a real race track at Road America in Wisconsin. Then I took a decent jaunt out onto the relatively empty roads nearby, and then I even got to try the TT in an autocross setting. There might not have been a week of driving involved, but there was certainly enough to know that this car has some chops.