Luxury Performance Sedans

Replies to this message:
• rayng (Mar 28, 2006 3:03 pm)
  • vchiu (Mar 29, 2006 3:30 am)
    • bartalk3 (Mar 29, 2006 2:28 pm) and 1 more...

Replying to: lexusguy (Mar 27, 2006 9:42 pm)

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• lexusguy (Mar 28, 2006 9:34 am)

Replying to: lexusguy (Mar 27, 2006 4:01 pm)

Perhaps in Germany all people are the same size, but in other parts of the world there are the tall and the short. BMW has decided that you and I will be comfortable without adjustable seatbelt height. This brilliant non ergonomic engineering caused us to walk out of our BMW dealer (our '03 530 (pre Bangle) lease is up in a month)...the seat belt on the new 5 series (and 3 series) is fixed on the doorpost (no adjustments) and cuts across my wife's neck...she's a petite 5' 0". While she can adjust the seat up to eliminate this, she finds that it's also helpful to be able to reach the pedals
 
On a $50K+ car, she should not have to wear one of those aftermarket devices that pull the seatbelt down. The old style 530 had a sliding mount on the door that was coupled to the seat position automatically....even that's gone. We found no seating problems on the Lexus, Acura or Infinity and our Graphite/Wheat M35 will be waiting when our BMW lease is up.

Replies to this message:
• rayng (Mar 28, 2006 2:59 pm)

Replying to: shipo (Mar 27, 2006 5:49 pm)

I'd have my "navigator" do it, but she spends most of her time sleeping. Her idea of "keeping me company" on a long road trip."
  
My "navigator" can get herself lost on the way to work. :-/ Like yours, she too loves to keep me company by sleeping for all but the last ten or fifteen miles.
 
You guys are lucky! My "navigator" forces herself to stay awake so she can harrass me about my speed the whole way!

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• hpowders (Mar 28, 2006 10:44 am)

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• dewey (Mar 28, 2006 9:41 am)
  • docnukem (Mar 28, 2006 10:17 am)
    • dewey (Mar 28, 2006 11:24 am)
  • markcincinnati (Mar 28, 2006 10:21 am)
  • 2001gs430 (Mar 28, 2006 10:47 am)

Replying to: markcincinnati (Mar 28, 2006 5:24 am)

Replying to: 2001gs430 (Mar 28, 2006 9:31 am)

Replies to this message:
• docnukem (Mar 28, 2006 10:17 am)
  • dewey (Mar 28, 2006 11:24 am)
• markcincinnati (Mar 28, 2006 10:21 am)
• 2001gs430 (Mar 28, 2006 10:47 am)

Replying to: dewey (Mar 28, 2006 9:41 am)

Replies to this message:
• dewey (Mar 28, 2006 11:24 am)

Replying to: dewey (Mar 28, 2006 9:41 am)

In the mid-nineties, I made my first of what became 6 visits to the Audi factory in Ingolstadt. Two of the 6 visits my wife and I made just as people walking up to the gate and asking if we could come in and go on one of the tours of the facilities. One of these tours we even took although it was completely in German. Our tour guide was bi-lingual and would give us the reader's digest version of what he said in German translated into English.
 
Anyway, it must've been 1993 or 1994 that Audi had what appeared to be an A4 Avant (that was the size of the car and the look of the car) it was a TD engine with electric motors for the around town part of the journey.
 
The talk was of a car that was 100% electric but that could seamlessly power up the ICE (diesel in this case) to transfer from battery power to fossil fuel power above certain speeds where diesel mileage could be used for greatest advantage.
 
Diesel fuel and diesel vehicles in the US (of the passenger car variety) struggled for years in some Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles, although some Mercedes Benz cars of the 80's (with diesels) would routinely go 200,000 miles and sip diesel fuel.
 
They were dogs however.
 
One of my buddies picked up a diesel Jetta (1979 vintage?) and we filled it up in Cincinnati and with one additional fill up, as I recall, drove it to Boyne Mountain snow skiing with four of us and our gear in the car.
 
Talk about the little engine that could!
 
Now, we've come to diesels winning Sebring and powering Audi A8L's and achieving 40MPGs in a lux barge.
 
The governor of Montana, as unlikely a VW spokesperson as one could imagine (a Democrat governor in a "Red" state) bought a new Jetta and is powering in with 100% Montana bio-diesel.
 
All we need is a tiny bit cleaner fuel and diesel engines the likes of that can be created by Audi and Mercedes (and probably BMW) -- and we have made a significant dent in our fuel consumption.
 
The LPS cars, "ought" to be the proving grounds for such clean, powerful and economical engines. Who knows if they will be.
 
Audi NOW claims the new Q7 will offer diesel motivation and the tongues are wagging that this may foretell of a wider importation of diesels across the Audi product line providing both strong "S" class performance capabilities and 40% better economy using fuel that TODAY is still a few pennies less per gallon that the Premium swill most of these LPS car demand.
 
Be still my heart.
 
OK, I'm over it.
 
Seems too logical, too easy almost -- we'll probably just make a gazillion batteries to power a gajillion gas/electric hybrids. . .er, "because we can?"

Replying to: tayl0rd (Mar 28, 2006 9:28 am)

When you put it that way, I guess I was lucky to order the comfort seats!