It is pretty simple. Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. Yep, that’s it. What I haven’t decided is if my favorite is Oreo, Banana or . . . wait for it . . . seasonal Pumpkin. No matter, the price to pay is FAR more than the $6.95 cover charge from the Overton Family. It is the 850,000 calories for this small piece of heaven. Yes, in life there is always a price to pay for cheesecake goodness.
However, there are trade offs one can make. In my case, I have gladly exchanged the 30 seconds of cheesecake lovin’ for 26.2 miles of pain, agony and general torture. After I finally acknowledged that cheesecake would have a global impact on my midsection I became a distance runner. In fact, I am training for my seventh Marathon yet I still won’t give up the cheesecake because a. I want my cake and eat it too and b. I have yet to find an edible low fat alternative.
That is until now. And this one does not come from the California Confectionary but rather the land of Beer and Pretzels. And it has four wheels. But most importantly, it has all the cheesecake goodness without any of the calories. That is because it is an Audi and has a Diesel engine.
Actually, this is not as much of a stretch as you are thinking about now. The Audi A3 2.0 TDI has more than enough day-to-day power than you will ever need without any of the ‘calories’ of negative MPG or tailpipe emissions.
Let me explain. In spending a week with a Euro market A3 2.0 TDI in the land of the Prius, LA, I was never at a loss for get up and go. I was even able to smoke most cars off the line short of Audi’s own R8. Even more amazing was that I was able to smoke the tires in one feeble attempt to best a BMW 335. Even recalling my best days as a New Yorker lead foot, I did all this averaging between 40 and 60 MPG. Let that roll around in your brain for a bit. 40 to 60 MPG! Without the emasculating experience that is driving a Hybrid.
I drove like a high school kid to a free porn convention for a week and was not able run the 15-gallon tank dry. Where cheesecake goodness comes in is that I did not have to endure zombie like acceleration, dancing on screen graphics depicting a stowaway electric motor or the scorn of driver’s behind me in frustration because I was lulled into maximizing MPG at the cost of reasonable acceleration. How is this possible without something that says ‘Hybrid Synergy Drive’ on the side?
The bakers in Ingolstadt used an age-old European recipe with a twist. 1. Take a very capable and fun to drive 5 door sport wagon. 2. Toss out a perfectly good gasoline engine in favor highly modern interpretation of Rudolph Diesel’s classic design. And for the twist, 3. Add the always-entertaining VW/Audi corporate DSG Dual Clutch 6 speed transmission. Mix and you have a real environmental alternative.
The reason why I call this a real environmental alternative is because the Audi A3 2.0 TDI drive like, well, a car. It has all the acceleration, passing power and fun to drive goodness as the gasoline power sports wagon (or sedan) that you are currently used to.