I think you lost your focus here. If your “riced” FiST is not sufficiently grown-up (and there are quite a few of us with gray hair driving those), then switching over to an R isn’t going to make you look “grown up” (whatever THAT means to you).
Unless you are a rancher or live in TX, driving a truck won’t deliver the message you’re after, either. You want a sedan/wagon preferably with some cachet (you know, grown up). A 2yo Benz will fit that bill; a GLE or a CLA45. You can find a CPO low mileage MB without any trouble, and they depreciate rapidly in the first couple of years. I would be partial to a XJ (even an older one, especially in the R trim - to come off as a grown up sophisticate).
When you DO grow up a bit more tho, you’ll learn to not give a shit about people who make judgement about you based on the car that you drive. I have a few - but you’ll see me mostly driving my flared out FiST festooned with stickers. Quite juvenile.
I appreciate the input, but unless you work in the cannabis industry, it's hard to relate to the scrutiny and stereotypes that persevere. We have to jump through hoops to do business, still can't bank and many city officials view us as illegitimate business. I've had city officials refuse to sign off on plans and fail inspection even though zoning and building was up to code. Also had potential investors back out when our previous consultant would pull up in his fast n furious modded Civic type r. Having a facility get denied costs investors (my bosses)tens of thousands to millions of dollars. I only get paid when facilities are up and running so I'm motivated to make sure that happens.
At the end of last year I started driving my boss' Tesla to meetings and making sure everyone else's car and appearance was more PC. Guess what? Higher success rate and went from opening 2 facilities in 18 months to opening or getting approved another 4 facilities in 4 months. I literally doubled my income and it's still rising. Going to continue down the path of professional appearance for these meetings. It's literally paying off.
The golf r would remain stock appearing and warranty in tact so no risk of it looking or sounding too fast n furious. As for trucks? In southern California a truck or SUV is very commonplace on the roads and many use them purely as commuters/grocery getters. Would prefer a car and hopefully Toyota, Honda and Hyundai will be easier to deal with post covid19.
After driving a cla AMG [emoji1418] lol. I would not consider any cla 'fun to drive'. I don't need the car to ooze success or have badge envy, just look grown up(discreet) and be fun to drive. And while I'm ok with a golf r, I would prefer a bigger car than a compact if I go that route.
With covid19 all my in-person meetings have been cancelled and dealerships are closing their sales departments. Unlikely I'll be getting a new car in the next few weeks anyways.
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