Autolust, part 2

About a month ago, I posted about wanting a new car to replace the Lumbering Beast. In some weeks of driving the new commute, I’ve determined that the Lumbering Beast gets approximately 19 mpg on the highway. That’s NOT good. It’s rated (in 2005 numbers) 17/21. It gets more like 15/19, though. I need to improve that immensely.

Going to Germany added some perspective to what you need in a car. Granted, we were mostly in cities, so I saw a lot of city cars, but the German perspective on cars was refreshing.

First, they’re all SMALL cars. Only around what is often considered the most expensive hotel in Berlin (Hotel Adlon, where Michael Jackson famously dangled his infant son out the window a few years back) did we see any big cars (big Benzes and 7 series BMWs). There were virtually no SUVs or trucks in Germany. LOTS of VWs (with the Golf and its siblings being the most popular). Lots of A-class Mercedeseseses, too. I REALLY like the looks of those little cars, but they don’t sell them here and, if they did, they’d be almost $40k (or about $15k over my budget). Still, the Germans got me thinking about cars (and bathroom design, but that’s another topic).

The other car I mentioned in that other post was the 2009 Subaru Forester. I have some history with the Forester, having driven an ‘03 for a while two vehicles ago. I loved that car. Sold it to get my MINI Cooper S (which I also loved). I test-drove the all-new ‘09 Forester last week. I liked it, but not as much as I thought/hoped I would. Also, its fuel efficiency is not fantastic (20/29), though of course way better than the Lumbering Beast. That’s also the mileage range for both of VW’s american-spec engines (though the 2.0L turbo requires premium fuel).

On the horizon looms the VW Jetta SportWagen TDI, which has a few things going for it as far as I’m concerned: (a) it’s a wagon, and I’m partial to them, and (b) the new Bluetec TDI diesel engine, which is 50-states emissions safe (one of the cleanest engines in production now) and gets 40 city/60 hwy mileage. Oh, and it has a super-large giant moonroof, and I likes those (the Forester has a big moonroof, too). But, that version of the SportWagen (known as the Golf Variant in Europe) won’t be here until the fall. That might be okay, though. It might take me that long to decide what I want.

Stay tuned…

Germany 2008: Dresden

Dresden looks a little, um, run down on the way in on the train. Is this because it was in the East Germany? I don’t know. Maybe that’s just Dresden.

The Hotel Mercure was über-swanky. Upscale modern accomodations are always welcome. The teenagers were in awe. We were merely pleased.

Snow. Cold. Rain.

Bus tour of the city included a stop at the super cool Volkswagen facility where they put the glass on their high-dollar Phaeton sedan (which is no longer available in the US because no one here wanted to pay $70k for a VW, no matter how swank).

Also toured all the historical stuff. The Zwinger museum has a nice collection of arms and armor. Dresden’s old buildings are impressive, even the fake ones that aren’t really 500 years old (rather they are rebuilt versions that the Allies bombed the shit out of in WWII — sorry about that).

Germany 2008: München

München is more Euro-feeling than Heidelberg for some reason. Nice and clean for a big city. Lots of weird internets + phone booth joints for, I am assuming, the immigrant population.

München Hauptbahnhof is BIG and cool. Excellent wurst and pommes. Lots of Germans wear the Jack Wolfskin products. Sorta like the German The North Face (in ubiquity). Lots of Germans passing through on their way south to the Alps to go skiing.

I like traveling by train. It’s convenient and a good way to see the countryside.

Went on a private bus ride through the countryside to Neuschwanstein, largest castle built by the Mad King Ludwig. Fucking steep-ass hike up to the castle, which is gorgeous… from the outside. Inside is a whizzingly-short and lame welfare Disney-esque tour. My advice: make the trip, but skip the tour. Just use you imagination about what it’s like inside. You’ll have better memories.

The orginal Hoffbraü House. Beer is good. Hotel Apollo is older, but nice. BIG rooms for a German hotel. Bathrooms still very small.

German breakfasts are good: sammmiches, yogurt, coffee, apfelsaft, fruit. More on German food in a standalone post.

Germans who drive do so in small, often diesel-powered cars. Lots of VW Golfs, quite a few Opels, a number of BMWs (including MINIs) and Mercedeses. I’m loving the Mercedes A-Class, which we don’t have in the U.S. More on cars in a standalone post.

Germany 2008: day 1, Heidelberg

Generaly observation: Heidelberg is a tourist-y town. Hotel Ibis was nice. Euro-flavored, clean and comfortable. Bathrooms were quite small, but okay. Didn’t really see much of the town except for the area around the university. Photos to come.

Doesn’t yet feel very non-American yet (other than the speaking German all the time). I am haunted by American music of the 1980s.

Traveled.

I return, victorious, from my European conquest, whereupon I did indeed tour much of southern and eastern Germany (including the majestic formerly-walled city of Berlin) and managed to avoid doing any of the following to a teenager:

1. wring neck,
2. assault with a broken beer bottle, or
3. throw in front of (ubiquitous) speeding U Bahn Train.

I did:

1. call one (or more) “asshole” (sometimes repeatedly and with feeling),
2. call one (or several) “dumbass” or “stupid-ass” (when dumbass started sound repetitive),
3. swear off of leading stupid-ass asshole teenagers through Europe.

The rest of them weren’t half bad, though.

More to follow as I sleep and become less jetlagged.