My first trip driving on the German Autobahn!
and.... Awesome BMW rental car!!!(November 26, 2006)
Complete Set of Photos
and.... Awesome BMW rental car!!!(November 26, 2006)
Complete Set of Photos
When we went to the Hauptbahnhof in Stuttgart to pick up our reserved car, a VW Golf, the guy handed Isaac a BMW key! I of course, was already excited, and when we made it to the parking garage and saw our car, it was just incredibly awesome! We received a BMW 320i for the VW Golf that we had reserved (same price, too!)!
This was new, dark blue BMW 320i with leather interior, heated seats, sunroof, navigation system, no CD player for some reason, and an automatic transmission. When I sat in the co-pilot seat, I got to mess with the nav system. It's a small computer screen built into the dash that is controlled by a knob on the center console. It would show a list of the radio stations you could recieve, so we controlled that all by computer. To use the nav system, all I had to do was select the destination from the built-in database and it would take a second to initialize and then an arrow would appear with a distance until the next turn, as well as the total distance left to go. When you were three kilometers from your turn, a German voice would inform you of it! If you still took a wrong turn, it would automatically adjust to put you back on the right road.
On the way back from Liechtenstein, I drove the awesome rental BMW 320i from Austria back to Stuttgart. Now, once you cross the border from Austria to Germany, there is no longer any speed limit on most stretches of the Autobahn! If you go the "recommended" speed of 130 kph (so about 80 mph), cars will still zoom by on the left, leaving you in the dust. 
With this powerful BMW at my disposal, we rocketed along at speeds of up to 200 kph, or 124 mph! This is a somewhat common speed to reach, too. Most people would go aroun 140-160 kph though, or 90-100 mph on average. It was fast enough for me - I wanted to get me and my friends back to Stuttgart in one piece (well, four separate pieces!), and we were in the mountainous part of Germany so there weren't that many stretches of straight road that are really long.
There are many sections of the Autobahn that do have speed limits, though. Any time there is a bridge or tunnel, there will be a limit of 80-130 kph (50-70 mph). You have to make sure you slow down fast enough, because they have a lot of traffic cameras that will photograph you if you speed to much. Note the speedometer in this picture: 130 kph (normal speed).
We had to fill it up with gas before we returned it, of course. This car took 95 octane, which is the norm in Europe, and that cost 1 EUR per liter exactly (this is a low gas price). This works out to $4.98 a gallon, so don't complain back home when it hits $2.50!
Click here to see some video of us driving. I had a blast fulfilling one of my life goals (really, don't laugh!) of driving a BMW on the Autobahn!
Videos of the Autobahn/Driving (note: large files!):http://www.csl.mtu.edu/~tgwaltz/MISC/Me on the Autobahn.mpg
http://www.csl.mtu.edu/~tgwaltz/MISC/Zurich.mpg
http://www.csl.mtu.edu/~tgwaltz/MISC/Alps.mpg
http://www.csl.mtu.edu/~tgwaltz/MISC/Cars passing at 160.mpg
This was new, dark blue BMW 320i with leather interior, heated seats, sunroof, navigation system, no CD player for some reason, and an automatic transmission. When I sat in the co-pilot seat, I got to mess with the nav system. It's a small computer screen built into the dash that is controlled by a knob on the center console. It would show a list of the radio stations you could recieve, so we controlled that all by computer. To use the nav system, all I had to do was select the destination from the built-in database and it would take a second to initialize and then an arrow would appear with a distance until the next turn, as well as the total distance left to go. When you were three kilometers from your turn, a German voice would inform you of it! If you still took a wrong turn, it would automatically adjust to put you back on the right road.
On the way back from Liechtenstein, I drove the awesome rental BMW 320i from Austria back to Stuttgart. Now, once you cross the border from Austria to Germany, there is no longer any speed limit on most stretches of the Autobahn! If you go the "recommended" speed of 130 kph (so about 80 mph), cars will still zoom by on the left, leaving you in the dust. 
With this powerful BMW at my disposal, we rocketed along at speeds of up to 200 kph, or 124 mph! This is a somewhat common speed to reach, too. Most people would go aroun 140-160 kph though, or 90-100 mph on average. It was fast enough for me - I wanted to get me and my friends back to Stuttgart in one piece (well, four separate pieces!), and we were in the mountainous part of Germany so there weren't that many stretches of straight road that are really long.
There are many sections of the Autobahn that do have speed limits, though. Any time there is a bridge or tunnel, there will be a limit of 80-130 kph (50-70 mph). You have to make sure you slow down fast enough, because they have a lot of traffic cameras that will photograph you if you speed to much. Note the speedometer in this picture: 130 kph (normal speed).We had to fill it up with gas before we returned it, of course. This car took 95 octane, which is the norm in Europe, and that cost 1 EUR per liter exactly (this is a low gas price). This works out to $4.98 a gallon, so don't complain back home when it hits $2.50!
Click here to see some video of us driving. I had a blast fulfilling one of my life goals (really, don't laugh!) of driving a BMW on the Autobahn!
Videos of the Autobahn/Driving (note: large files!):http://www.csl.mtu.edu/~tgwaltz/MISC/Me on the Autobahn.mpg
http://www.csl.mtu.edu/~tgwaltz/MISC/Zurich.mpg
http://www.csl.mtu.edu/~tgwaltz/MISC/Alps.mpg
http://www.csl.mtu.edu/~tgwaltz/MISC/Cars passing at 160.mpg
posted by Thomas Waltz at 3:39 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Thomas--Enjoyed reading about your travels thus far, especially the Autobahn tour. I drove a 3 series BMW for 14 years and absolutely loved it. It was fire engine red with a sunroof and I loved its pep, road handling, and turning radius. I would like to drive on the Autobahn one day too but haven't made it yet. Good for you. Glad you are having lots of fun.
P.S. We're moving across the street to Park Place later this week (12/8 actually). We released 3 of 4 products that were being worked when you were here. Hope you check in with us when you get back to Michigan. Take care, Deb
2:29 PM
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