Observations on ED

Lufthansa gets my recommendation because they have hot flight attendants and wireless Internet on shiny new clean Airbus planes. Arrived in Munich early AM and was pleased to see the M6 on display at the airport. 10 minutes passes - sheer admiration, feet planted. ED was the next day but this was beneficial because I desperately needed to go to biergartens. Like a kid on Christmas, I woke up at dawn the next morning and headed to Friemann. 90 minutes of patient waiting, food service, chatting and signing paperwork later I was with my new e90. As I was crawling over every inch of my car, the ED gentleman let my buddy sit in someone’s soon-to-be-delivered M5 and rev it to 4000. It sounded like the space shuttle from 3 miles away. I made aggressive adjustments to the seat and bolsters, so much so that when the ED gentleman drove my car out of the garage he remarked “Oooo sportiffff.” I laughed my ass off.

The first 20 minutes of driving were stressful because of the lingering uncertainty about a new car on an unfamiliar road system, but the car is easy to learn and the road signs are surprisingly apparent. The biggest shock came a few kilometers outside of Friemann on a 2 lane road with no shoulder…and no speed limit. This was not a highway and were this road stateside 45mph would be pushing it. So I went 85mph and I reflected on how dangerous (totally awesome) this was.

I respected the 4000-4500 rev limit, but I didn’t believe in abiding by the 100mph maximum speed. This car, especially with the sport package, is confident, balanced and planted as if it were parked even at my cruising speed of 120mph. Driving this fast in rush hour traffic is an incredible rush but requires a lot of concentration.

I went to the car wash every evening because autobahn driving leaves hundreds of crushed insects all over your front end and takes away from the swiveling xenon headlights. Speaking of which, these headlights ruuule. For US customers, I get the idea that xenon headlights are a styling option. For the sake of not out-driving your headlights in Germany, you really need them to run 125mph at night. High beams on country roads are amazing; it was like daytime with no glare. And best of all, you can manipulate the direction of the beam without moving the car by ever so slightly nudging the wheel right or left. Make a 90 degree turn onto a straight road and you can see the beam pattern catch up a half second behind the car - really freaking cool.

On the last day on the way to dropoff in Bremerhaven, I was following a sporty new A6 wagon who was running very high speeds – cruising above 130. At one point I brought the car up to the 149mph = 250kmh speed limiter and my buddy snapped a photo. I can’t get over how comfortable and confident this car is at insane speeds. You can bring it down from to 60mph from 130mph without spilling a cup of coffee, like when some jackass in a Fiat pulls out in the left lane unexpectedly.

A few observations on Europeans and their cars.. As most of you know, the bulk of Europeans drive small displacement cars with thin, low rolling resistance tires. I’ve seen more e90’s where I live than I did on my 1000 miles of driving in Germany, which was disappointing (or totally cool because of the exclusivity). After swallowing several fill ups for 81Euros = US$100, you can’t blame them. The ED gentlemen told me my car costs 37000Euros = US$46000 for Germans to buy and mine only stickers for US$36800. Standard North American spec cars are extremely well equipped and are discounted to be price competitive: moonroof, alloy wheels, 5mph crash bumpers, all the extra airbags, etc. All these goodies cost the Europeans, so most of their cars don’t have these things. There’s something sad about all the 320d’s with steel wheels and hub caps.