Category Archives: car

Freak Day

car, thoughts

Have you ever experienced days where nothing, I mean literally nothing works as planned or intended, despite your best efforts? Today was such a day for me.

It all started quite innocently. I got up, got coffee and got ready to take Ro to his 9:15a swim class. Then I got a message and a call from my wife: turns out I had both keys for the 3rd vehicle in my pocket – oops!. My BMW had been quarantined in the garage for the last 7 days, waiting to be ferried to our mechanic to have it looked over – I was suspecting something wrong with its power steering.Due to the lack of keys for the 3rd car, MrsM drove the soon to be sick car for the Sat groceries trip. She almost didn’t make it. On the turn into the parking lot she lost all power steering, veered into the other lane and managed to not hit anything while slowly making her way back to her lane, while hanging off the side of the steering wheel for her life – there was no more  power assist and the 4600lb curb weight, nor the 255 size front tires where of any help in this situation. She finally made it into the parking lot unharmed. Fast forward 3 hours. After picking her up with the 3rd car after having returned with car #1 from the swimming lesson, I called AAA to have the stranded Beamer towed to my preferred independent mechanic in town. I had to be present to pick up the Beamer. So I drove back with car #1 with the kiddo in the rear to wait for the flatbed truck. After 1.5h wait the tow truck finally showed up and shortly after we were on our way to the BMW shop, me in close pursuit of the tow truck (by now you probably have figured out that the BMW is car #2). Shortly after entering the freeway behind the tow truck I lost power on car #1 completely! – My mind went: Oh shit!!! – another tow truck needed. Then it hit me: MrsM had mentioned earlier in the day that car #1 was low on gas. What an understatement: it was OUT of gas. And I needed another tow truck. How embarrassing – and entirely my fault. When the engine died I was going 55mph towards an uphill exit ramp. When the shoulder started to disappear I hit the breaks and stopped.

Silience.

After weighing my options (narrow exit ramp with shoulder) I decided to call MrsM to request fuel to be delivers via car #3 and to call the cops to deliver my ticket along with some protection from the rear traffic while I was refueling. 15min later all that unfolded, minus the ticket. I can say I got my tax dollars back from a super friendly cop. He was very helpful and Ro was very relieved that daddy didn’t end up with a ticket for “biggest moron on planet” – the cop’s comment: this happens all the time. Scary, is what I say.

So after 30min of unplanned parking on the off ramp we were again on our way to see if the Beamer had been dropped off at the shop, which it had been. For the rest of the day I cancelled flying and any other potentially dangerous activity and pretty much stayed in bed. It was much more relaxing than the first half of the day….

What a day!

The Texas learning: cops can actually be your friend AND one needs three cars.Now shoot me.

 

 

Driving Tips for Accident Avoidance

car, thoughts
  1. Keep your distance – 3 sec rule to follow
  2. Don’t speed into turns – brake before the turn, accellerate out of the apex. Use the brake lights of the cars ahead of you as your “eyes ahead around the turn”.
  3. Don’t get distracted – actively and consciously drive and concentrate on driving, when you’re driving. No talking on the phone (pull over), no texting, no deep conversations with passengers, no eating, no drinking, no computers/DVD in driver visibility, no Nav system operation, ideally – no radio (I know – music affects your mood and can work you up – try Techno on the Autobahn).
  4. Know all the cars around you, especially in the rear. You need to track usually at least 5 cars at all times
  5. Anticipate what other drivers will do next – that includes all other targets around you
  6. avoid clusters of cars. If caught drive 5mph below speed limit to let cluster slowly pass around you to re-create your distance
  7. In dangerous looking situations – cover your brake pedal either with your right foot, or if you’re trained, with your left foot to be ready for emergency breaking. But don’t ride the brakes!
  8. Know your “outs”. Where can you stick your car if someone is trying to hit you head on? At that moment anything but the head on collision is the better choice – the guardrail is a great place to put your car! Even a tree is better than head on on driver side!
  9. Many times you can avoid a collision altogether by knowing how many cars can pass each other on a given road. In our neighborhood on the single lane road with bike lane that number is five! Five cars can pass each other without touching, despite markings for only two – know that!
  10. Your brakes are stronger than your engine in every car. Know how much pressure you need to apply to engage the anti-lock brakes. Train in a safe environment (empty parking lot).
  11. Avoid eye contact with agitated drivers. Get away from aggressive drivers – let them pass/let them go. (Drive 5 mph below speed-limit, don’t try to speed away from an aggressive driver). If that doesn’t work, take a detour, plan a turn off the road and aggressively brake at the last moment for the turn without a car behind you and without endangering anybody. The aggressive driver will be surprised and shoot by you in the parallel lane before he knows what’s happening. If you’re followed, call 911, but keep moving, never stop. Drive within the traffic rules as much as possible.
  12. Traffic jams: when passing a traffic jam in a faster lane: turn on your head lights, follow the car in front of you at a safe distance, off-set by a half foot towards the side of the traffic jam. Ensure that the gap behind you is ideally larger than the one in front of you. That ensures, that cars sitting in the jammed up lane will try to merge behind you, not in front of you.
  13. Always check cross traffic when entering an intersection, even with a green light and especially during the first 5 seconds of a green light! Look for bicycles, motorcycles, emergency vehicles….
  14. Beware of red trucks
  15. Don’t mess with an 18 wheeler, you’re going to loose. Don’t drive next to them. Wait behind them until you can pass them safely.
  16. Don’t merge in front of 18 wheelers unless you have 300ft. Same goes for cars/trucks with trailers – their brakes are much weaker, and if you have to emergency brake in front of them, they *will* hit you.
  17. If you do something stupid – we all do at some point- slow down, be upset with yourself, pledge to never do this again and correct your behavior. Worst case pull over and take a breather and think about how you got yourself almost into trouble. You probably violated one of the rules above… My driving instructor once told me: “The difference between an experienced and inexperienced driver is that for an experienced drivers there’s a bell that goes off when you’re doing something stupid. For an inexperienced driver, there’s no bell.” Learn from your mistakes.
  18. Keep your windows and mirrors and eye glasses clean
  19. Always turn your head before changing lanes or turning
  20. Be extra careful when backing up. Turn your head, don’t rely on distance sensors or cameras only.

You might be surprised to find that “Don’t Speed” is *not* on my list of safe driving tips. That’s by design. I’m convinced that when you follow above rules you can safely maneuver traffic while exceeding the posted speed limit by a reasonable margin – but don’t be reckless and be respectful to others! Go fast where you can and slow down if you would impact the driving of others.

20 years of accident free driving support that point. But make no mistake: driving faster than the speed limit is statistically more dangerous – period. The choice is yours and there’s nothing wrong with sticking to the posted speed limit. In fact it’s the only legal way of driving as you know :-). But speed limits change with time and location. It used to be 55mph on Interstates, now it’s 85mph in Texas. In Germany there are stretches of Autobahn where there is no speed limit. So perspective on how safe it is to drive fast, and how acceptable the risks are for doing so change over time and in different countries.

Happy driving!

P.S.: if you do nothing but folow guideline 1. + 2. you’ve eliminated 80% of all danger.

After a day of thinking I’ve found two more interesting guidelines:

21. Always signal your intentions to allow other drivers to “read you”

22. When under time pressure “slow down, to speed up”. Think about it. You’re not gaining much time by speeding i.e. 20% on  a 10 miles drive. But you could hit the next three lane traffic light at green while the speeding cars had to come to a full stop. You might zoom by them with momentum in the free lane, just when the light turns green. Slow down to speed up is a psychological way of arriving safely and not giving up much time in the process. All you’re giving up is fun and pressure. But you’re decision making skills aren’t so hot under time pressure to begin with. So overall, you’re coming out ahead following this “Zen driving” approach. Much safer.

 

 

 

 

Car Lust

car

Every so often I find myself lusting after a new set of wheels. This is such a time. The first step of fighting this expensive lust is to stop the subscription of the car magazine that shows off the latest and greatest sports cars. Check.

But as they say, “talking about it” also helps with the problem, so here it goes:

What I’m going to describe are cars that make me smile when I see them on the road. Not all of them are exactly feasible as a daily driver, but many of them would be up to the task. Since I’m not going to buy new, all these cars that are at least 2 years old and available on the used market. Some of them are nevertheless quite expensive – especially in maintenance.

Let’s start with a list:

  • Mercedes S500 AMG V8 Kompressor
  • BMW 335d
  • BMW 135i
  • Mini Cooper S convertible (oh, I already got one of those)
  • Audi Q5 3.2
  • Audi S5
  • Porsche Cayman S
  • Porsche 911 S4 – 997 model (2007+)
  • Volvo C70 hardtop convertible with the T5 enginge
  • BMW GT 550 – Twin Turbo V8
  • Subaru WRX stationwagon
  • Audi R8
  • Audi Allroad 2.7T (for snow) 2008
  • Caddillac CTS-V wagon (supercharged 6.2l V8 – 556hp)
  • Toyota Prius (yes, I’m serious)
  • Mercedes CLS (2008)
  • VW Corrado G60 (1993)
  • BMW 635 CSI
  • Porsche 928 GTS
  • Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1
  • Volvo C30 T5
  • Lotus Elise
  • Audi A8L 4.2 (until 2001)

Oh, the list is so long! Well, there is a theme here: I like cars either for their powerful and hopefully super/turbo-charged engines, their large size, their looks or their technology. Sometimes it’s a combination of it. There would be more Diesel powered vehicles on the list if they were only sold in the US. We only got the wimpy small displacement TDIs from VW and Audi in the past. If we had the 2.5 and 3.0l TDIs in the US, they would all be on my list. But they’re made of “unobtainium” in the US. And the general public doesn’t know what they’re missing. Last year I drove a BMW GT 530d in Germany and couldn’t believe the power of the vehicle! What a blast to drive!

 

 

 

Stolen Car?

car

This story already happened a couple of months ago (over the 4th of July week-end) but it is just too funny to pass up. We were invited to our friends’ house in a close by neighborhood to attend the 4th of July parade and hang out at their house thereafter. Since my taste for crowds is unchanged (I don’t like them) I opted to skip the parade and join MrsM and Ro later at our friends’ place. When I drove there after the parade had finished I thought I would stop by where the parade ended to pick them up and drive them too their car (which would be a couple of hundred yards away from were the parade ended). As I drove down the hill I was looking for MrsM’s spanking red Mini Cooper S convertible but couldn’t see it parked anywhere. Shortly after I saw MrsM and Ro walking up the hill towards me. I honked my horn and waved them over. As they boarded the car MrsM described her parking location – right on the street where I came from. I was pretty sure I hadn’t passed the Mini on the way down but MrsM was confident of her parking location. As we approached the described location there was no red car anywhere. Hmm. Did it get towed? Did somebody else like the Mini Convertible as much as we do? Thoughts of a stolen car crossed my mind. Shortly after more adrenaline rushed in realizing that I had canceled my full coverage insurance on that vehicle some six months ago. We would have to pick up the tap for the car ourselves – ouch. I tried to stay calm and rational, but I have to admit that was hard. We stopped and got out of my car to ring a neighbor’s door bell where the Mini was parked before, but nobody was home. Had the car been towed? But there were no “No Parking” signs anywhere to be seen! Special rules for the parade? Maybe some strange neighborhood ordinance that got enforced? Unlikely – and our friends weren’t aware of any such rules either. So we switched to the last resort: calling the police – it was’t an emergency so 311 was our number (instead of 911 for emergencies).

The first person on the line didn’t know anything about a towed Mini Cooper. Well, time to file a report for a stolen vehicle I thought. But after 5 long minutes on the phone with the police our car showed up on a list of cars at an impound lot (where car’s get towed to – way out of town). Interestingly when we called the private towing company they again didn’t have a record of our car. Frustrating. Called again 311 to confirm the towed vehicle. Only to be put on hold again and finally being connected to the impound lot that had our car.

But one mystery remained; why was the car towed? Turns out when the police arrived responding to a local 911 call they found the vehicle out of gear in the middle of the road on a  hill – ooops! So glad it didn’t run into any other vehicles and/or persons on the way down before having turned 90 degrees  perpendicular to the slope. There’s a reason why San Francisco city ordinance requires the wheels turned all the way when parked on a hill. Good practice!

So finally after driving 20 miles out of town to the impound lot in the boonies and paying $200 in cash we had our beloved Mini Cooper S Convertible back. A reminder to maybe keep full coverage on such a high profile vehicle.

BMW 530d GT – growing on me

car

image

During my last trip to Germany, I’ve rented a BMW 530d Grand Touring – the somewhat odd looking 5 series with the curved roof line. I’ve test driven it in the US but couldn’t make up my mind in the short time of 1 hour if I liked it or not. A Sixt week-end special for this car rental gave me a chance for a more detailed analysis of this strange species.
I got it with the 3 liter Diesel, which produces 245hp, and more importantly 540NM torque. In one word, this power plant is stellar! It provides rocket accelleration, while saving you from a heart attack at the pump. I really liked the immediate and linear power delivery of this engine. It was matched with a 8 gear automatic and adaptive suspension. The settings could be adjusted from Comfort over Normal and Sport to Sport+. The last setting disables the traction control, which I didn’t know and only learned at the limit – oops.
The car had a brownish/reddish leather interior which really looks nice in combination with the black color of the car. The car had the panoramic sun roof and of course the GT trunc. This reasonably sized trunc can open only the lower part, or the complete door, including the window (like the 80ies Audi Avants). The rear benches fold. With the benches down the cargo space is huge. Otherwise the trunc is OK, but not large.
Cabin space is great for four adults including in the rear seats.
The Car had the I drive system in its latest generation and It is somewhat usable at this point. Still not a fan, but usable, and I appreciated the NAV and traffic guidance feature in heavy traffic.
The sun roof is probably the biggest disappointment in the car. Operating it takes lots of time, the sun shade opens seperately, and when fully opened there’s a very annoying buffet starting at low speeds. The deflector and fence that BMW provided is insufficient to prevent this buffet. After trying a couple of times (hey it was perfect convertible weather after all), I kept the roof closed.
I can’t say enough about the engine. It left me in awe. The power delivery to the rear wheels is so massive, yet seemless, I couldn’t get enough from pressing that pedal. The electric brakes are strong and very easy to modulate. Electric steering hides the size and weight (4400 lb curb weight) of the car from the driver. It’s very responsive, but not nervous at high speed autobahn speeds. I drove all the way to red line (245km/h) – and top speed is maybe one of the items that leaves something to desire. With 8 gears I was hoping for 260km/h. Autobahn is really where this car shines. In sport mode it has superior accelleration, combined with responsive steering and a communicative suspension. The overall noise in the cabin is very low when the sun roof is closed. With switching to comfort mode, you give up a little aggressiveness during accelleration (it shifts earlier), but you gain a lot in suspension comfort. Road imperfections nearly disappear. In this setting this vehicle can compete with my 740I for comfort. Definitely appreciated during long trips.
Another feature I liked a lot was the head-up display. Combined with the posted speed limit (it reads and interprets road signs by a camera in real time) it provides speed information projected into the windscreen. It isn’t distracting and allows the eyes to stay focused ahead on infinity instead of having to refocus to the instrument panel distance. A definite safety plus. The only downside was the polarization of my sunglasses that cancelled out the LCD – not a problem at night though.
Overall I give the vehicle a 4 out of 5 star rating. Everything is really solid. All the gadgets are sure to not age well though and therefore this is probably not a good car to buy used later on.
The design grew on me and I liked it in the end. I’m still not a fan of the steep front of the current 5 and 7 series, but that’s a different story. The roof line of the GT is beautiful and the rear looks great. I only realized how much I had grown to like it when I dropped it off at the airport, parking next to a regular 5 series sedan. That car looked outright boring compared to the GT.