Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

Hmm, dammit, I was at least hoping to narrow my choices......
 
me whining about winter tyres and speed ratings etc

The weirdness has increased. I've been around to the tyre dudes and they say that you cannot get winter tyres with a V rating over here. What they do offer is regular H rating and you get some sort of sticker. you have to stick this in your dashboard in a clearly visible place, it says something like "warning max speed XXX"

The sticker is valid from october until april,you use it to show the cops if they pull you over and find out your tyres are rated too low



lolwut?
 
Blarg! Buying new tires and rims is expensive. The rims are another set of off-brand ones I already have ($600 for 4, meh), but the tires are expensive...

...like Hoosier A6 expensive...

...like $1,040 expensive. :'(
 
Because you'd be crazy going top speed on snow?
the whole point would be to drive safe on snow and ice,which is usually slow
The answer was already given by Kat:
It doesn't snow all the time and he DOES live where it is legal to go that fast.

Besides, when are you going to go over 190 for an extended period of time anyway?
Well, it's legal here in Germany, and it's entirely possible when you choose the right time.

That they do offer is regular H rating and you get some sort of sticker. you have to stick this in your dashboard in a clearly visible place, it says something like "warning max speed XXX"
That's standard procedure here, too. In fact it's only legal to have "slower" winter tires , but it's illegal for summer tires.
 
Meanwhile, I have V-rated snow tires and nowhere to max them. <_< Oh well, I'll just have to find an empty parking lot somewhere and dorifto when the snow comes down.
 
Well, it's legal here in Germany, and it's entirely possible when you choose the right time.

well, when I'm driving across Germany I don't usually have time to spare. Also, there's few roads left that are

A) derestricted
B) good quality (ie not too bumpy)
C) not overrun by slow people/trucks

but I do admit I did go over 190 for a very short time on my "old" winter tyres

Never did know about the whole "sticker" thing though, seemed weird
 
well, when I'm driving across Germany I don't usually have time to spare. Also, there's few roads left that are

A) derestricted
B) good quality (ie not too bumpy)
C) not overrun by slow people/trucks

but I do admit I did go over 190 for a very short time on my "old" winter tyres

Never did know about the whole "sticker" thing though, seemed weird

Try the A4 from Aachen to K?ln.
 
Try the A4 from Aachen to K?ln.

but I don't want to go to K?ln! :p
Actually I took that road a couple of years ago, it was one big misery of roadworks, followed by 120 kph limits, followed by extreme thunderstorms. no highspeed runs for me (well atleast not longer than a couple of minutes)

Srsly, if there's roads out there where you can still go pedal to the metal for an hour (since the tyre ratings mean : 190 kph is sustainable for 1 hr), tell me where!
 
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I just said that.

my route to the ring (A4->A61) is mostly limitless and not too many roadworks anymore. It's the reason my record time from the ring back home stands at just under 90 mins.
 
I only had a similar experience once, when I went to Hockenheim. it was the middle of the night though, and IIRC I did the last autobahn section, covering 255 kms in just 80 minutes, averaging 187 kph (117 mph for you weird folk)

I also managed to record my highest ever mpg figure, at 9l/100 kms... which is impossible, even according to Opel themselves

ok enough bragging now, off to get new tyres
 
Gonna go drop the Mazda off at the garage for fixes. Do I really have to walk home from there? Hmm, maybe I can fit a bike in there somewhere. Both options suck, though.
 
Gonna go drop the Mazda off at the garage for fixes. Do I really have to walk home from there? Hmm, maybe I can fit a bike in there somewhere. Both options suck, though.

Don't you have friends?


Besides, if you did the work yourself, you wouldn't need to walk back :p
 
Where do you live then? (Stalker mode: ON)

20to0sp.jpg
 
I am seriously this close to buying a car....working isn't very good for my mental health. Now that I have a job, thus income, again the "grocery list" in my head is growing longer at an alarming rate.

I almost hope the couple of cars I have asked further about turn out to be complete lemons. Because if one of them turns out to be a real find....I might have had it at that point. Somebody talk me out of this !! I don't want to bancrupt myself...
 
Many...the list is shockingly long and as with any car fanatic, the favorites change day in and day out.

But at the moment I have been eyeballing a 1997 BMW 528i, specifically this one:

http://www.nettiauto.com/bmw/528/2843198

It's got the sport seats, which is a huge bonus point (I hate rubbish seats and love good ones), manual transmission, sport suspension, M-sport front bumper (improves the looks by a factor of a billion), automatic air con and of course the straight six sending 192hp top the rear wheels - hello winter time :mrgreen: !!

It looks to be in fantastic shape and well kept. And I reckon you could haggle the price down to 8000?, at least.
 
I drove a similar BMW several months ago in my car search, it was 530i with all the sporty stuff. Most fun I think I've had in any car, you just melt into it and have a constant grin on your face. Electrics are one thing to watch out for, that particular car was a 2002 and the radio was broken, the digital display for the trip computer was broken as well. All that stuff isn't cheap, either, the instrument binnacle is over 400 euros.

Don't get me wrong, they're great cars. Just be prepared for expensive service bills.
 
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