My Bride's New Ride

She jumped head first into electrification by getting a Mustang Mach-E Premium Extended Range this time around.   Gorgeous, gorgeous car!  She looks great in it!

This makes her third red car in a row - and not intentionally.  Each time we get a new car, we look at the colors available and pick the best one for that vehicle.  It just so happens it has been red on her last three (we've bought other cars in-between in other colors).

We didn't trade anything in as we are hedging our bets - we wanted a spare vehicle to share the commute load in case she decides she doesn't want to drive the new one in every day.  She'll have her choice!

I must say purchase experiences are getting better and better.  Very smooth and fast, no dealership games,  honest prices for honest cars.  Just the way we like it.

The question will surely arise:  why didn't we go with a Tesla Model Y?  We are not Tesla fans for a variety of reasons I won't go into here.  And just for grins,  I did price one out on the Model Y configurator - similarly equipped, price came out very close - lease payment was even EXACTLY the same!  
 

Alfa Photo Shoot

It dawned on me the other day that I never did a proper photo shoot of the car we leased my wife back in 2019...shortly afterwards we bought another car so the "new" attention was showered on it and somehow the Alfa was never properly recognized.  So the time is now!

It is a 2019 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Sport AWD (Q4).  She wanted something that would fit five people comfortably and this was on our short list.  Once she drove it, it went to #1.

It has a turbocharged 4 cylinder and has plenty of power.  I've never been wishing for a few more ponies, it has willingly done whatever I've asked it to do. 

Luggage space is good, though it might be a bit tight if we took five people on a long trip with five suitcases.

Being Italian, the designers paid plenty of attention to getting the exterior and interior shapes just right.

It is a design that will age very very well in my opinion.

In fact, we like this car so much we've decided to buy it at the end of the lease.

She can lease another car at that point, but we're keeping this one!

Love the wheels too.

 Exhaust tips are a pain to keep clean and take additional care every time the car is washed, but they do look nice.

Maserati Ghibli Photo Shoot

I finally got around to taking more photos of our newest car.  I was waiting for spring when landscapes are green again. 

So at sunrise in the crisp morning air,  I drove around a bit and took photos.

This is our 2019 Maserati Ghibli S GranLusso.

Exterior Color:  Tri-Coat Blu Nobile

Interior Color: Cuoio

The 'S' denotes the larger of the two engines.  It is a twin-turbo V6 built in the Ferrari factory and shipped over to Maserati's Ghibli production line in the Giovanni Agnelli Plant in Grugliasco near Turin, Italy.  It puts out 424 horsepower.

The "GranLusso" denotes a luxury package.  On the exterior,  this package includes adaptive LED headlights, chrome trim just below the headlights, the "GranLusso" badge just behind the front wheels, body-color side skirts, and a body-colored panel between the tailpipes.

On the inside, the GranLusso package includes a steering wheel with a wood insert. Highway Assist, Traffic Sign Recognition, Harmon Kardon Sound System, full natural drilled leather, and 19-inch Poseidon wheels.  Note that the 19-inch wheels are not on this car - it includes an upgrade to the 20-inch silver Teseo wheels.  It also includes an upgrade from the Harmon Kardon to the Bowers & Wilkens Sound System.

This car includes the optional the Driver Assistance Package:  Adaptive Cruise Control, Forward Collision Warning, Lane Departure Warning, Surround View Camera, and Advanced BAS.  Advanced BAS could be talking about Maserati's Brake Assist System (BAS) which recognizes emergency braking and increases boost accordingly,  or it could be a mis-spelling on the window sticker and really should be Advanced DAS (Driver Assist System) which includes features such as pulling the car back into the lane if it detects the car drifting - a feature that can be turned off which is how I have it set as it induces a slight panic in me to feel the car ignore my instruction.

Other options on this car include the Cold Weather Package, Umbrella, Luggage Compartment Mat, Luggage Compartment Net, Sunshade, and License Plate Frame.

When the Ghibli first came out in 2014, we went to the dealer in La Jolla and bought one - you can see it here.  In 2014, we bought the base model with very few options:  only navigation and Urano wheels, as I recall.  As we purchased other vehicles with more options, we began missing those options in the 2014.   Since we were driving it much anyway, we sold in after 4 years.  Big mistake!  We really missed the car.

So we began researching what options we would want on a new Ghibli.  My wife told me to just order one from the factory so we would get what we wanted. While circling in on a decision I visited the local Maserati dealer to see the options and colors in person.  This was sitting on the showroom floor with everything we were considering and more.  At an astounding price.  It was such a good deal we decided to end our research and buy it.

We're very happy we did as it is everything we want.  We're hoping this is a forever car for us.

This car hits the sweet spot I love:  performance, luxury, beautiful styling, and a practical size (not too big, not too small).

This photo shows the Cuoio drilled leather seats, the heated black leather and wood steering wheel,  the Open Pore Radica wood, and the Bowers & Wilkens speakers.

The back seat is comfortable for most people, but those over 6 foot 2 will probably need to ride up front.

Adequate leg room.

The 8.4 inch MTC+ - Maserati Touch Control Plus.

LED taillights.

Beautiful hips.

Very elegant yet sporty.

In sunlight, the blue paint really sparkles.  It is hard to capture in photos, but this shows a bit of that coming out.  At mid-day, it is really really full of sparkle!

In any case, we hope you enjoyed the tour of our Ghibli.   
 

Just Walking Down The Street, I saw this 1949 Alfa...

 I was looking through old photos this weekend when I stumbled across these that I took in August 2012 in Carmel.  It was Concours d'Elegance week and the nearby town of Carmel is full of cars and live music and fun in the days surrounding that event.  Somehow when I did my original post on the show back in 2012, I did not talk about this car that was just parked on the street.

We were out looking for a place to have dinner when I saw this by the curb.  Just parked there, with no one around.  I knew instantly it was something special and probably unrestored so I took a few photos while my wife patiently waited.

Turns out I was right - this is car sold a year and a half later for $324,500 at a Sotheby's auction.  Read more about the history of the car here.

My Wife's New Alfa Romeo Stelvio

 After reviewing cars at the LA Auto Show and test driving a few, we narrowed down her top 3 to the Alfa Romeo Stelvio,  the Cadillac XT4, and the Subaru Outback.  All three cars are excellent, but the one that excited her the most and was offering the best deal was Alfa Romeo.

So we negotiated with the Carlsbad dealer and brought this one home!  This first photo is how it looked when we went to pick it up.

Our Stelvio is Alfa Rosso Red with the Nero interior.

 About two hours later, here it is in the garage.  Her old car, a 2017 Lincoln MKC, is in the background.  The MKC was a fine car, but the 3 year lease was up.  We considered keeping it,  but it was missing a couple of options we wanted (front parking sensors, sunroof) and even if we extended the lease a year, we only had 10K miles/year on it and with her new job, we need more like 15K.  So the choice was buy it or lease a new car.  With the deals being offered on the Stelvio, the choice was clear.

The interior is just exquisite.  The Italians really know how to design - the Germans are nowhere near as good at visuals as the Italians.

 The dashboard.  The car comes with Android Auto and Apple Carplay, so there is no need for a built-in navigation system anymore.  And that's a good thing - the settings that have been saved on the cell phone can be saved in the car also, and it eliminates the need to update the maps stored in the car nav every year.  win-win!

Very nice dash design also.

 My wife insisted on rear a/c vents and USB ports, and this car has them.

 Comparing the rear end of the Stelvio to the MKC.

The MKC feels much bigger inside and out, but in reality it is an inch wider, an inch taller, and 5 inches longer.

 Love the 20 inch sport wheels with red calipers!

 ...and the front wheels.

 The Stelvio has the traditional Alfa Romeo triangular grille, and the front end is just like the Alfa Romeo Guilia (pronounced "Julia"), only a little taller.

 The Alfa logo is awesome!

 I also snapped a few photos in a local parking garage.

 The rear slopes quite a bit, giving this SUV more of a sports car profile.  It still has more luggage room than our prior MKC.

 Rear view.

 One thing I didn't notice until we bought it was how the character line that runs above the taillights wraps THROUGH the taillights and continues on around under the taillights.

It is the attention to details such as these that truly sets the Italians apart.

While we were picking up our car, this Stelvio Quadrifoglio was sitting there.  I'm not much of a fan of the blacked-out look typically, but this just looked phenomenal.  Black wheels, black paint, black interior.

The Quadrifoglio is the high performance Stelvio - it has something like 500 HP.  Quadrifoglios all have the four leaf clover, so they are easy to spot on the road.

Anyway, we are really enjoying the Stelvio so far!