Monday, November 26, 2007
Back in the train gang
The BMW?s health has taken a turn for the worse, and the timing isn?t good: winter has arrived, and the train strikes in Germany are threatening to cause further chaos. But the train is the sensible option, as the Beemer seems to have had some kind of computer brain aneurism, and I know that whatever the cure, it?s going to be expensive.
We?re not quite sure what?s wrong yet but we know what the symptoms are ? the ABS/ASR light comes on and the ABS and traction control systems shut down. That?s normal if there?s a dodgy ABS sensor but this time we?ve been through that, and the car ECU seems to be blaming a different sensor every time. No sign of any cables having been chewed by our pine marten, either. What?s really worrying though is that the automatic gearbox is playing up now as well ? sticking in third gear and refusing to provide its usual silky-smooth shift.
We?ve been through the calculations and it?s just about break-even for me to get a company car (for the company, it?s a far more positive story because of the costs that can be offset and the sales tax reclaim). So the choice is now either to rejig my package so that a car is included, or to allocate a decent amount of money to buy a two- or three-year-old replacement for the Beemer.
In the six years since I bought it, car prices have crept up. I?d need about 50 percent more cash now to buy a newer 5 series of the same age/mileage that mine was in when we first met. It?s clear that the EUR10k to 20k bracket is the mid-market battle ground where prices are most keen. Cars tend to hang around for ages above 10k before plummeting to ground like a rock. My Beemer is getting into the ?pocket change? territory now ? even in perfect working order it has a trade value of under EUR5k.
To update the car shopping list:
Company car ? probably a Ford Mondeo diesel. Yeah, I know it?s a boring family hatchback but that?s what we need.
Private car ? sensible option is to look for a tidy used BMW 320d ? late old shape with lots of kit or a Spartan new shape. Alfa resale prices aren?t to be trusted ? they hold up ok for three years or so, then plummet, and even the run-out 164s are on the precipice now. I?ve dropped the idea of a Disco, a 740d or an SLK ? and the Astra was the bogey car.
Labels: auto, petrolhead, rant
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Breaking the "rules"
I smell opportunistic profiteering. Yeah, the prices are jacked because oil barrels keep going up. Yes. But no. The USD is falling just as fast so where's the difference going? Oh boy, are those stock prices for the petroleum companies looking healthy.
It's totally not politically correct to say this, and after midnight, so double-plus bad, but forget investing in renewable energy companies and get on that fossil fuel bandwagon before the wheels finally fall off.
This could be worth a bit of research into the last hurrahs of staple-but-outdated technologies - you know, like the stagecoach, the gas lamp, the typewriter - to see if the leading manufacturers enjoyed a massive surge as they crossed the finish line. Any more for my putative research list? The fax machine? The CRT TV market (gut feeling is that this will show a fabulous last flourish), or the LP, which eventually lasted longer than the Compact Cassette despite tape taking over market share leadership briefly in the mad, mad days of something like 1988.
Monday, July 02, 2007
20-year-old Trabi sells for two grand shocker
Labels: Alpentour, auto, odd, oldtimer, petrolhead
Friday, June 29, 2007
Trabi parked at EUR800
Labels: Alpentour, auto, odd, oldtimer, petrolhead
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Shifting gear in an auto SL
Step on the gas when the straight six is spinning at less than 3500 rpm in any gear and you get what we named "Flounder" mode. For a more brisk pace the only answer is to manually shift down, as the 'box wouldn't kick down from S to the higher of the two L gears.
So we named these gears:
After that, the standard comment on a lack of grunt-on-demand was: "Oh, you must be in Mittel...." etc.
Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead
Falling behind the Trabi
Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Outbid already!
Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead
Hooked on oldtimers
The Alpentour really has gotten under my skin. Found myself bidding this morning on an eBay auction for a pristine-looking 1989 Trabi convertible - with a TüV through 2009 it should be good for some topless motoring this summer AND the Alpentour next year.
I'm only sharing the link on a need-to-know basis - the fewer bidders, the better! If you want it, email me.
Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead
Monday, June 25, 2007
The Cockroach
A what? You may well ask. It's a kit car that was popular in the UK in the 70s and 80s, usually cobbled together from old Ford Escorts including the classic crossflow Ford Kent engine, and not forgetting the tail-lights from a Reliant Robin. It's loosely related to the Caterham 7, which itself was based on the old Lotus 7.
Quite a pedigree.
However, not quite so easy to simply stand on the loud pedal and see the Dutton recede in your mirrors, except on the autobahn or auto stradale, and that's not the point of a classic car tour of the Alps.
Point-to-point on mountain passes, a well-driven Dutton is very quick indeed - and the driver on our tour was in that class.
As the proud owner put it, the Dutton is a "mountain runner". Or a cockroach - they're both bug-eyed, ugly, and extremely hard to kill: the Dutton is made from fiberglass. It's also fast, just like a 'roach, and in the case of the Dutton we had on the Alpentour, it even had the mottled orange/brown color. Here's a picture of an American cockroach - unfortunately we didn't take any of the actual Dutton but I'm also linking to a similar one...
Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Next year's entry?
Next year will be the 10th annual Alpentour, and Gerry's fifth: he and I have been starting to think about a suitable car to enter into the 2008 event. It has to be a convertible and of course a head-turner - we ain't got the money to buy into the Ferrari league. Ideas? Email me.
Meanwhile as we ripped up the A95 autobahn on the way home, our mirrors were suddenly full (and I mean full) of silver Lamborghini: not any old Lambo but a Gallardo. He came out of nowhere - and was just as quickly gone. By the time we'd found the camera and turned it on, the Lambo was already vanishing. Not surprising for a car with a v-max of 300-plus kmh, on a pretty open autobahn.
Labels: Alpentour, auto, Lambo, oldtimer, petrolhead
An expensive weekend
A weekend participating in the Freising Oldtimerfreunde Alpentour 2007 rally with my colleague Gerry has reawakened my interest in cars and is probably going to prove expensive. After two days of cranking up and down Italian mountain passes in a 1984 Mercedes 280SL my interest has been piqued and I'm hooked (again) by wind-in-the-hair motoring. We weren't bothered by the little bit of rain, again it was Italian rain.
More to come soon - meanwhile here's one of the 100-plus snaps: on the Austrian/Italian border on the 2509-meter Timmelsjoch pass.
Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Stuff I don't get, part 96
Labels: auto, odd, petrolhead, rant
Monday, May 21, 2007
The price you pay...
"If that's the price you pay for owning a Ferrari, I'd rather not have one," quipped Andrea...
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