Okay, here's the scoop after a week of thinking about it. When the seller of the '95 in my first post gets back to town this weekend I'm going to tell him 'no'.
That doesn't mean I'm giving up but my wife threw a wrinkle in the situation - she's decided she wants the SLK if I get a different car. At first glance this seemed kind of crazy but in all fairness it is her turn to get a new ride (she's been driving the Ford Escort after all) so here's what I'm thinking.
The reason I wanted a '95 or later was because I wanted the Targa roof. But, if we're really going to keep the SLK then we have a convertible in the stable and maybe I'd be just as happy with a '91 NSX with a solid roof and for $15,000 less money. Really, the only differences between a '91 and '95 NSX is the Targa roof, a passenger side airbag, and different wheels. So I've been asking myself if those three things are really worth $15k to me and the answer is probably 'no' especially if we're keeping the Mercedes.
Anyway, I've started the money part of the thing going. We've got a ton of equity in our house thanks to stupidly inflating property prices the last couple years and I'm going to take some of it out for this. Within a couple weeks I should have enough cash in the bank to buy whatever car I decide upon. I'm going to try to keep it to less than $30k which should get me a really nice '91 to '93. Who knows, maybe I'll even have some bucks left over for a mild supercharger so my horsepower-head friends won't have to be embarrassed for me driving a mere 270 hp 'exotic' (it can go to 350 or so pretty easily).
Trust me when I say I'll keep y'all informed. It *is* happening - just a matter of weeks now.
