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Just Picked Up a Gallardo Spyder

42K views 232 replies 180 participants last post by  jay3737 
#1 ·
Some of you guys might remember this thread where I mentioned I was looking into getting a Gallardo:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthre...365-Days-What-Should-I-Do-With-My-Current-Car

As usual for a thread about a relatively expensive car on TCL there were a ton of people that wanted to either claim I was lying or speculate about my financial situation. Hopefully we can keep that to a minimum in this thread.

Anyway, I've been looking for the right car for a while, and I finally found one in Seattle. I flew into Seattle to pick it up today. The car is pristine, a 2006 with only 12,000 miles on it, full service records, all the original documentation, both keys, etc. The car had a PPI done and it passed with flying colors.

Before today I had never driven a Lamborghini (the only first-hand Lamborghini experience I had was sitting in a Murcielago at the Exotics Racing thing out in Vegas) but the dealer was really cool and spent 30 minutes with me teaching me the ins and outs of driving this car. I've been driving stick for years, but I had very little experience with the E-Gear transmission so his tips were very helpful.

When I was at the dealership a group of 18-19 year old boys came in and were checking out all the nice cars. The dealer told them they could look but they couldn't sit in the cars or open the doors (which is understandable) and I could tell they were a little disappointed. I told them they could sit in my car all they wanted, which seemed to make them very happy. I remembered when I was that age I would have loved to take a ride in a Lamborghini so I offered to give them a ride as soon as my paperwork was all finalized. I only had time to give one of them a ride but the guy was ecstatic, he told me they had driven 50 miles to check out the cars. It felt pretty nice to be able to do that for him

When I finally got the car on the road I was really surprised at how docile it is. It's not that loud, the ride isn't that harsh at all, and the interior is really nice. At low speed it drives more like a luxury car than what I had imagined an exotic car should drive like. Of course, rush hour in the rain in Seattle is not one of the best times to be driving a car like this, especially since I really wanted to put the top down, but I guess that will have to wait until I get back to California.

I've only had the car for a few hours, but I'm still trying to get used to how much attention it gets. I've already had people taking pics of the car, people staring at it, pointing, kids literally screaming, etc. I knew the car would attract attention, but I didn't realize the full extent until I got in it.

I'll have more driving impressions tomorrow. I barely got a chance to see what this car could do because I was stuck in rush hour traffic the entire way from the dealership to the hotel.

I've only got this one terrible pic that was taken on my crappy Blackberry, but I'll have better pics soon enough



By the way, any TCL member that is in the LA area and wants to take a ride in this car is welcome (as long as you weren't one of the people that ruined my initial thread), just PM me and we can figure something out
 
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#185 ·
That's just it ... I think a great majority of people who buy cars like this don't ever take the time to stop, look around, see the achievement they just made, and think that only a small minority of people will ever get there.

A couple years back, I was able to participate in a photoshoot with several exotics in Columbus for my friend's senior thesis photography project. The owner of the R8 and the Continental GT was nice enough to let us drive the cars back to his house at the end of the day, and, when he left, he said, "Drive it like you own it, because these are some of the finest cars made today." You didn't have to say anymore as I did a 1-2-3 shift in the R8 to 90mph ... put the biggest smile on my face. :D





Good for you for buying a car I still only dream about ... hope you love it like it should be loved :thumbup: :beer:
 
#187 ·
I don't understand why anyone doubted this acquisition in the first place. IIRC the OP worked for Boston Consulting Group (or similar), is single, and a big car enthusiast. Well deserved IMO :thumbup:

TopDog, be sure to get a "My other car is a Miata" sticker and put it on the Lambo:D
 
#194 ·
:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: Congrats on the purchase. C&C is a must. I'd love to meet more LA folks
 
#218 · (Edited)
The attention is cool, I really like talking about the car. It was just a little much due to the stress of the trip both mentally and physically. But now I'm back in sunny LA so any attention is welcome, especially from members of the opposite sex ;)


I called the snow in OR. I would have shipped it in the storms we just had. But, I'm glad you and the car made it down in one piece.
Yeah, I remember reading your post and thinking "there's no way it's going to snow", I couldn't have been more wrong :laugh:


I had this EXACT thing happen to me in the same EXACT spot. Southern pass out of Oregon right? I had a 1990 Coupe Quattro and I giddily passed all the "schmucks" putting on chains in the driving snow below the pass. As I came down the far side of the pass I notice that horrible grinding noise. Took a guess what it was and quickly turned off to find a cattle grate to drive over and knock the gravel loose. Worked like a charm. You're car has some nice patina now and you have a good story about actually driving your expensive toy. No hanger queen there. If it makes you feel any better Jay Leno's Macleran's nose is full of rock chips too.:thumbup:
Yeah, it was right near the OR/CA border. I'm not the type of person to panic but I almost freaked out when I initially couldn't figure out the source of the noise. I don't think there were any Lamborghini dealerships within a few hundred miles :laugh:


Really? 6 pages and two pictures of acquired Lamborghini???
I'm not really the type of person to take a lot of pics, but my friend took at least 75 pictures, I'll upload some when he posts them on his facebook. I've also been really busy, the drive back took about 2x as long as it should have and I took Friday off work so I have some catching up to do work-wise


I find this a very interesting tidbit. Does this hold true for most hypercars as well?
I'd say the Gallardo is a step below a "hypercar," but from what I've read the single-clutch E-Gear transmission doesn't like stop and go traffic. Every time you start from a complete stop the system has to slip the clutch a little to get the car moving and constantly stopping and starting can wear the clutch prematurely. Especially on hills (I was in another mountain pass called "The Grapevine" when traffic backed up). I'm not sure exactly how much damage it does, but I didn't want to risk it, I definitely need to read up on the ins and outs of owning a car with this kind of transmission


Congrats to you as a fellow Miata owner, sounds like you are a real humble person and very well deserve this car. Great car to own, once I am out of college its the first one I have in mind. :thumbup:

For anyone picking a part his financial situation, that is very rude of you, and is the OP's personal business. :screwy:
The only thing I'll say about my financial situation is this: I was very happy with how much money I was making a few years ago when my salary was Z, where Z=X-Y and X is the amount of money I'm making now, and Y is the estimated annual costs of payments/insurance/parking/maintenance/gas for the Lamborghini. X is probably a less than a lot of people on TCL would need to be making to buy a car like this but apart from my love of cars and travel I have a very low-maintenance lifestyle

I may have to go over there after work and take care of business with the DSLR :p.
Come by any time. I'll be at the gym/MMA classes until 7:30pm but I should be around after that

Congrats on your new car!....but...you are also a bad influence and got me perusing Autotrader. There's a 2004 with only 5700 miles here in my town for $99K. Don't have much data on the Gallardos but from the dealer pics, 2006+ was the first facelifted model?
Everybody I've talked to told me you don't want a 2004. I can't recall all the issues but apparently that first year had a bunch of problems that make the 2004 cars worth a lot less. They changed some things in 2005 and more things in 2006. I think 2008 was the first year that the actual body of the car had significant changes, with the deeper front air intakes and thinner taillights. 2006 was the first year of the Spyder

The 04's were nice cars and all, but they had the older E-Gear, the older 500hp engine, and they were pre-facelift.

Your TT-RS is probably faster and nicer.
The TT-RS would definitely be faster to 60 but even the early Gallardos are much faster at speed


Congrats on your purchase. Be sure to check out lamborghini-talk.com & lambopower.com very great informative Lambo forums. :beer:
I'm on Lamborghini-talk but the design of lambopower is terrible. The registration process was so frustrating I just gave up on that forum entirely
 
#209 ·
I may have to go over there after work and take care of business with the DSLR :p.
 
#208 ·
Congrats to you as a fellow Miata owner, sounds like you are a real humble person and very well deserve this car. Great car to own, once I am out of college its the first one I have in mind. :thumbup:

For anyone picking a part his financial situation, that is very rude of you, and is the OP's personal business. :screwy:
 
#210 ·
Congrats on your new car!....but...you are also a bad influence and got me perusing Autotrader. There's a 2004 with only 5700 miles here in my town for $99K. Don't have much data on the Gallardos but from the dealer pics, 2006+ was the first facelifted model?
 
#219 ·
Some of you guys might remember this thread where I mentioned I was looking into getting a Gallardo:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthre...365-Days-What-Should-I-Do-With-My-Current-Car

As usual for a thread about a relatively expensive car on TCL there were a ton of people that wanted to either claim I was lying or speculate about my financial situation. Hopefully we can keep that to a minimum in this thread.

Anyway, I've been looking for the right car for a while, and I finally found one in Seattle. I flew into Seattle to pick it up today. The car is pristine, a 2006 with only 12,000 miles on it, full service records, all the original documentation, both keys, etc. The car had a PPI done and it passed with flying colors.

Before today I had never driven a Lamborghini (the only first-hand Lamborghini experience I had was sitting in a Murcielago at the Exotics Racing thing out in Vegas) but the dealer was really cool and spent 30 minutes with me teaching me the ins and outs of driving this car. I've been driving stick for years, but I had very little experience with the E-Gear transmission so his tips were very helpful.

When I was at the dealership a group of 18-19 year old boys came in and were checking out all the nice cars. The dealer told them they could look but they couldn't sit in the cars or open the doors (which is understandable) and I could tell they were a little disappointed. I told them they could sit in my car all they wanted, which seemed to make them very happy. I remembered when I was that age I would have loved to take a ride in a Lamborghini so I offered to give them a ride as soon as my paperwork was all finalized. I only had time to give one of them a ride but the guy was ecstatic, he told me they had driven 50 miles to check out the cars. It felt pretty nice to be able to do that for him

When I finally got the car on the road I was really surprised at how docile it is. It's not that loud, the ride isn't that harsh at all, and the interior is really nice. At low speed it drives more like a luxury car than what I had imagined an exotic car should drive like. Of course, rush hour in the rain in Seattle is not one of the best times to be driving a car like this, especially since I really wanted to put the top down, but I guess that will have to wait until I get back to California.

I've only had the car for a few hours, but I'm still trying to get used to how much attention it gets. I've already had people taking pics of the car, people staring at it, pointing, kids literally screaming, etc. I knew the car would attract attention, but I didn't realize the full extent until I got in it.

I'll have more driving impressions tomorrow. I barely got a chance to see what this car could do because I was stuck in rush hour traffic the entire way from the dealership to the hotel.

I've only got this one terrible pic that was taken on my crappy Blackberry, but I'll have better pics soon enough



By the way, any TCL member that is in the LA area and wants to take a ride in this car is welcome (as long as you weren't one of the people that ruined my initial thread), just PM me and we can figure something out


You are awesome. :thumbup: :beer:


Please, will you post in my thread? http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5639379-Supercar-owners-of-TCL-what-do-you-do-for-a-living

You'd be the first one to actually post in it that was on-track with the OP :(
 
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