Over the last few weeks I've seen a lot of used cars. While my parking lot is currently full, my friend Andrew was sadly car-less. No longer an NYC resident, he finally got around to getting a driver's license and a car to go with it. His budget was a pretty hefty sum, which in theory gave us lots to choose from. Initially, I thought he'd be looking for something cheap, so I was steering him towards an early 90s Acura Integra. In my experience they are relatively bulletproof, reasonably practical, and they have surprisingly good handling characteristics (although FWD.) However, even with amount to spend, I was saddened to find that there weren't that many cars to choose from. Sure there are plenty of ill-handling boats, price inflated VW & BMWs, and a slew of forgettable appliance mobiles, but not much that interested us. What he (I) was looking for was: good handling, low weight, solid build quality, driver-centric, and not terribly common. I quickly learned that a lightweight car simply no longer exists (with very few exceptions) I consider my Milano somewhat portly at 2900lbs. But compared to any car of more recent vintage it's actually downright anorexic. 3400lbs seemed to be the minimum. Why care about weight? Low weight makes everything else better... acceleration, handling, ride comfort, braking, gas mileage (execpt maybe for sound levels and crash protection.) OK, so fat is where it's at I guess. Using the other criteria, we picked out a few cars worthy of a test drive... A '97 Audi A6 Quattro, a '96 Volvo 850 Turbo R, and a '95 Acura Legend. Test driving cars is tough. Exactly the kind of things you'd like to do to "test" a car are exactly the things the owner is going to get pissed about. Plus, my Milano is not like many other cars... very quick steering rack, momo wheel, highly bolstered Recaro seats, and relatively stiff Bilstein shocks. Compared to the cars I was testing it's a gokart. The A6 was sharp, but sedate. The handling was rather soft and the steering a bit numb. I did like the guages and the rest of the interior. Nice, but not nice enough to stop shopping. Next up was the Volvo. I was really disappointed with this car. Even in the R-trim it is far from a driver's car. It was numb and gutless. A lousy set of tires didn't help matters either. We decided to call it a day. Searching the classifieds I found one more auto of interest, a 95 Lexus SC400. Finally a car that uses the rear wheels as god intended. It was also somewhat unique (at least around here), was black, and had a nice 4.0l, 32-valve V8. I think Andrew was sold from the minute it pulled up. It was an unfair comparison to the other sleepers. A shakedown cruise confirmed it was a solid car and minutes later Andrew agreed to be a car owner. A perfect car for a first time driver for sure. :) I'm only just a little jealous. For me the whole experience just reaffirmed my commitment to my Alfas (probably to the dismay of deb... will I ever own an automatic again?)