Brilliant!!!

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Maybe you could find an Mercedes E63 AMG wagon, regular E-class, or a BMW 540i Touring but those are too expensive. Audi A6 Avant is ok but you would probably have to get the 2.8 with Quattro. It is a bit slow and small on the interior. I would stay away from the Allroad. As an aside, have you seen the new RS6 Avant? A V10 with twin turbos and 550 hp. Yeah, the price tag makes that a good candidate for a poster in the garage. Back on topic: A Passat is ok but you probably had or rode in a 1989 Golf or GTi as a teenager. Though nice, a Passat is kind of just a grown up version of that. It is not an entry-level luxury car. A Subaru Legacy GT with a manual transmission is too hard to find and also too small for that Costco run. I mean, by the time you get toilet paper, paper towels, and the orange-scented wipes to clean the counters, where do you put the Diet Coke and beer?

That leaves one other cool wagon for sale in the country. The Volvo V70. Let's discuss the different models. There is the base model which is slow and, well, basic. There is the XC which has extra plastic body cladding and all-wheel drive. It handles poorly compared to the other models. The extra traction from the all-wheel drive is a trade off for worse gas mileage. There is the R model which, frankly, is a darn nice car but can cost quite a bit more than the star of the show, the T5.

It only took three paragraphs to get to it but I'm selling a 2001 V70 T5. This has front-wheel drive. You can pass all those AMG and BMW drivers when it snows and they are stuck at the bottom of the hill swearing into their bluetooth headsets. The engine is a thing a beauty. It is a 2.3 liter, 5-cylinder, with a turbo. How does 247 hp and 243 ft-lbs of torque sound? It sounds nice when you plant your right foot. Miles per gallon depends on how you drive. I get in the low 20s but you get 25 MPG or better if you try.

Oh, it has the heated seats and a sunroof, power windows, power door locks, power memory seats, loads of airbags, LATCH anchors, and so on. The dual-zone climate control is great. You will like the leather seats. They are so comfortable we purchased a new car that has the same seats. It has a five-speed automatic transmission, which I campaigned against (this is my first car with an automatic) but eventually grew to like. It has that Geartronic function where you can select the gears manually if you like. I normally use that when going down steep hills. There is a cargo net built into the back seat that keeps the dog from jumping up front and eating the kid's Cheerios.

This car is the perfect balance of space, safety, speed, mileage, and it looks great too. I bet you would look great driving it. It has about 120,000 miles, which is why the price is a bit less than others available from private sellers. There is a small mark on the rear bumper where I scraped the tail light of my neighbor's Toyota FX16 but it is only cosmetic.

There are some specifics and links below but that is just support for convincing your significant other.

The car, and I, are near Seattle but I am willing to meet you if you are serious about buying it. Drop me an email and we can set up a time to meet.

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And guilty about stealing time from my very wonderful employer. Somehow, however, reading Jalopnik doesn't ever leave me with that same sense of guilt.

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OR

Jesus, Layabout....get some help man.

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