off topic response. I binned my Audi last Friday on my way to work.
In Massachusetts, on rt 128, it's legal to use the breakdown lane between the hours of 7am and 10 am. At approximately 9:30 am, I was on my way to work in the breakdown lane behind a VW Golf and a Ford Explorer. The Explorer slowed to take an offramp, when it moved out of the way the Golf and I sped up and then the Golf performed an extremely quick lane change to the left and there sat a '92 Mercury Sable. I had nowhere to go, so I slammed on the brakes. When I realized that I was going to hit the car, I tried to go over a curb onto a grassy median, but the curb slowed me down and I rearended the guy. As far as I know, he wasn't broken down, he was on the phone or something and he didn't know that that area used the breakdown lane.
I was told this past Thursday that my car is a total loss, which just breaks my heart. It was a '92 with 87k miles on it, new Bilsteins, 16" A4 sport wheels, and a new set of Kumho Supra 712's on them. It was just a gorgeous car and I wanted to keep it for a long time. The bonus was, it was fully paid off and it had a lot of life left in it. Now it's gone.
We just went and checked out new Passats and some '99 A6s. I think the A6 is what we'll end up with, but they're automatic only and that just bores me. We'll see what happens.