Followed the cars development via our forums and eventual release so I was kinda sold on wanting to own one, even though I had never seen one with my own eyes, let alone taken a test drive.
Soon started seeing a few here and there on the road and, every time I did, I remember being full of awe and wonder. Almost like I was seeing a unicorn ride past. You could of parked it next to a Ferrari and I never would of noticed the Ferrari was there!
A few months after release I recall going on a family drive and passing a large Toyota dealership on the way to out so we thought, why not drop in on the way back?
At the time I was still two years away from paying off our Maxima so really wasn't in a financial position to do anything, but the family knew how excited I was about the twins, so figured they'd at least throw me a consolation visit to take a closer look at one.
I remember there being a red one in the show room and then two Lava 86's outside, a GT base model in A/T and a fully loaded GTS with M/T. I thought to myself no way they will let me take a test drive as I heard these things were so popular you had to book an appointment just to slot you in! Turned out it was a really quiet Sunday afternoon for them and they actually didn't mind if I took one for a spin!
Oddly I wasn't quite as enthused when climbing in. After being used to much larger and roomier family cars in the past, the interior felt a little cramped. Only a few years prior we had an S15/200SX in the family and that car oddly had more room inside with slightly larger seats so I wasn't expecting less room in a car that was of a similar size.
Sadly it was the GT so it wasn't spec'd out as nicely as the GTS. Back then there was no LSD on the base A/T GT, no push start and, the single greatest deal breaker of all, no digital speed display (just the shity analog one). Anyway the dealer climbed in next to me and asked if we wanted to take it on a freeway run? I looked at him with what must of been a bemused wtf look and asked if there were any twisty roads nearby? So happens there was a nice twisty mountain road not far away so we headed out that direction.
I remember immediately being oddly relaxed. The seats started to feel nice and comfortable, everything fell nicely to hand, even the interior started to feel a little roomier than I first thought. Changing lanes was easy in traffic and I had no issues with blind spots. Just a minute or two into the drive I remember this odd sensation. I was so in sync and comfortable with the car that it felt not like it was my first test drive, but like I had already owned it for a few months and it was just another drive!
We reached a down hill section with lots of twists and I recall just going easy and mostly breaking all the way down with few points where I could accelerate, but once we turned around (to go back up) I was able to really open her up and wow, what a cathartic experience. Being on 16" wheels the car rode better than expected and there was that angry sound track being piped into the cabin. It was hot outside so the aircon was pumping pretty hard and, even though we were riding two up, I never felt like the car was low on power. Perhaps it was a good thing we never took the highway route :)
We got back to the dealer and I really thanked them for the test drive. We exchanged details and all that, but the real outcome was that experience became the turning point for me. From that point on I started saving like crazy and managed to pay off the remaining two year loan on our Maxima about 10 months later. Soon after I organized a great loan with ADCU a military credit union. They actually take in regular civilians (who knew) and, with some good old thumb screw twisting, managed to land a good deal for my CWP BRZ. And so we lived happily ever after.
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