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Why is that? Are the fines from speeding higher than from passing on the right infractions? Wait, wait, don't answer that, yet: If the speeding fines are, for example, $100, then passing on the right fines ought to be $250 -- you would think once the word got out that such infractions would sharply shrink.
I'm one of the people that thinks you should either take laws off the books that are routinely ignored or that the infraction fines should be made proportionate to the potential bodily and property damage that such infraction, if ignored, suggests. And, then, of course, enforce them.
So, if my friend's trooper husband is correct, that passing on the right side really is suicide and that speeding, in an of itself is less likely to cause death and destruction, why not "align the time (i.e., the fine) with the crime" so to speak? Full disclosure, I have little compunction about driving 85 or 90 in a 70 zone (with assured clear distance), but, as noted, I break out in hives and nausea if I am dragged kicking and screaming into passing on the right due to some moron who certainly must be ignoring my repeated wink, wink, winking left turn signal "the universal (and polite) signal to please let me pass."
OK, I have one more ? to pose -- I took driver's ed in high school, I took a course to learn to teach driver's ed in college -- why is it we are taught to maintain about 15' per 10MPH assured clear distance between you and the car in front of you (on the highway, not on the crowded stop and go streets of, say, Manhattan) yet, if you were even to attempt to keep 90' between you and the car in front of you on the state highway or Interstate highway at 60MPH, you are assured someone will risk heaven and earth, life and limb to squeeze in between you and the car in front of you and then essentially brake hard, thereby causing a ripple effect of some dozens and dozens of miles on such thoroughfares as the long flat and straight stretch of highway say between Cincinnati and Columbus OH?
Has no one even heard of the pop-sci occurrence called The Butterfly Effect?
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
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I find myself passing on the right many times a day.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
There will be folks who drive at 110MPH when the speed limit is 65 or 80 -- that doesn't change. If the natural speed is 85, the "NORMAL" range will be 80 - 90MPH. Go figure.
Me, I do pass on the right, but only after sincere and polite attempts to get the Left-Lane-Bandit to move over, I'm crazy, I know, but I do have physical symptoms that arise when I pass on the right -- it seems like breaking a societal covenant restricting and preventing us, mostly, from having "stupid attacks."
Thankfully, I can't recall someone driving at 30MPH in a 70 zone in the left lane, I would think I would probably use my voice command cell phone to call 911 to report a very dangerous situation, then I would pass on the right and get the hell outta Dodge!
What adventure it was today, we went from Salzburg to Lake Hallstatt, then to Ljubiana, Slovenia. Lets say a trip that would take roughly 6.5 hours total, took 12... I'm too damn tired to write it out, I'll post in the morning, it is currently 11:23pm and I'm pooped..
No one ever accused the highway patrol of using logic or common sense though.
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
So driving over here is a treat, and the people really know how to drive, they do drive faster then posted speed limit even on "B" roads, but they are safe drivers. You do not see them texting, or talking on the Cellphone, or putting make up on while driving, plus on "B" roads there are bike all over the place.. It amazing to see how many bike share the road. Now, no bikes are allowed on "A" roads. "A" roads would be like major highway, "B" roads are just that the back roads. But people are very focused on driving, when we came into Solvenia, you wouldn't have known, the roads are in excellent condition, smooth as silk.
So we are in Italy, the A2 Autostrada was fast and smooth, car is passed the 1200 mile point and now we can open her up. had it up 135mph rock steady. more on that later time for some cappuccino..
ciao bella
So to catch you up on the driving from yesterday, we left Salzburg to go to Lake Hallstatt, what a place, and the tourist love it. It's also home to one of the biggest salt mines in Austria. The Drive there was about 2 hours, nothing to really report, ate lunch hung around and left, about 2pm. Now this is where it gets weird, we I put the info into the Nav system to get us to Ljubljana, Solvenia I told it NOT to take toll road or highway. This was a big mistake. The Nav system said it was about 200 KM away, and said we would arrive about 6pm, About two hours into the drive I noticed the time to arrive keep getting longer, I went back into the nav system and saw what was chosen as the route all "B" roads.. I fixed this but we were so far buried into the ALPS it didn't matter, we saw some great places, then we came upon a accident. After sitting for about 30 minutes, one of the fireman came up and told us we can wait 2-3 hours before it is cleared or we can turn around and take the "detour", when I asked him about this detour he couldn't answer the question, mind you the Nav gave us an alternate routes but we had to go forward about 20km before they took effect (that wasn't going to work.) so we turned around and followed people who were just as lost, but they spoke German. We got a gas station and asked someone there, they gave us direction and found the detour,once we got half way through the detour we turn the Nav back on and found us a route to get moving. But this route, routed us OVER the ALPS, we hit the highest point of 1765 meters (close to 6K ft) we finally got into Slovenia, and arrived at are hotel about 815pm, about 2 hours later then we wanted.. Ljubljana is a wonderful city, we hit the town about 845 for dinner, we were supised on how many people were walking about, we were by the river that splints the city in town. Lots of history there and we both want to go back. It's a very modern city.
Salzburg has large elect bus network, but you have to see this mess all over the place.
Austria, like German have a lot of lakes, this is just one of them. Here we meet a daughter and father who were riding bikes from Munich to Lake Halstatt they are on holiday..
Hatchback and Wagons are all over the place in Germany and Austria, this has to be one of the more popular models around Europe, I would day 90% of them are diesels I saw many 118d or 120d's. BMW also makes this as a 3 door hatch, also the A3 5 door (the one we get) as well as the A1 is very popular, and most are oil burners.
First real photos of the car in bright sunlight the blue look amazing..
The 3 series has a mid-life cycle for 2016, but the GT and 4 series do not get one, however, both the GT and 4 series have received some updates that the 3 series gets. First the Rims, these have more of a grey tone to them less silver, also the middle consul and AC controls are different and lastly, the rear exhaust is black not silver this photo shows the rear exhaust.
The next two are in Lake Hallstatt, truly an amazing place.
Last is a shot of a town we detoured through, got to love iPhones and GPS, I had no idea the name of this town, but when you take a photo with the phone it says the GPS coordinates and will stamp the photo with the name later on. The name of this town is Bad Aussee, it was really charming. BTW I don't think this town gets this many cars...
One word of caution - the car always looks fantastic when just washed and detailed, but it's absolute dust magnet. That blue will show you every speckle of dust. I learned to live with it.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
Maybe this is old fashioned thinking.
It seems to me, if you're going to market your car with a choice of ten standard (non-custom) colors, the price should include the cost of the paint. When the customer requests a "non-standard" or custom color, well, whatever the traffic will allow should govern the price.
I've taken the tour through the Audi factory in Germany (6 times), and they are very proud of the part of the tour where you get to see the paint booth. There is a display near the paint facility that has the entire spectrum of available colors displayed as somewhat large paint chips (for the workers or the customers? to see). There were dozens of Audi colors apparently able to be specified -- I would call them non-custom.
I understand that Pearl Swirl Pink is probably not a color chosen often, ditto some fantastic purple swirl colors -- but, I assume the fact that they are "on the wall" means the factory just didn't make a one-off paint blend for a customer (perhaps Bentley does this, but I would not imagine Audi would not for $1,000, in other words.)
We're down to two (black gloss and white gloss) standard colors these days -- literally every other standard color costs extra. The Audi Exclusive line (should one venture into their paint pallet) costs even more on top of that.
It just irks me to be charged for something that shouldn't be a question. Silver is not a custom color, hell, even the purple infused black Audi calls Panther black justifies a $1,000+ optional add on. Pull the other one.
I know, I know, everyone does it and seems to get away with it -- and I do assume that some paint colors cost more to fabricate than others, but couldn't these companies just bury the cost in the base price and let the customer pick what they want. This is especially annoying since most folks don't order their cars, and therefore have no say.
Rare is the car on the lot that is gloss black -- the ones on the lot are pearl black or panther black or oolong black or whatever the name du jour is. But at anything over 10 feet away, they all look black and shiny.
Even the Ibis White (a free color) looks little, if any, different than the metallic white offered -- beyond 10 feet away.
I had no issue paying for a full-on leather interior (no alcantara, that is) for my S4, but I would have been miffed if leather was standard and yet RED leather was $1,000 upcharge. God help me if I wanted the leather in a non-standard color.
I'd gladly pay for a heated steering wheel or heated rear seats -- those options weren't available. But 'cmon, black or white paint or pay up? Luckily I am fine with white.
Now, my wife, on the other hand, just rolls with it and says, $1,075 for the color is OK.
I've watched the cars being painted, mostly it's done by robots -- does it really cost THAT much extra to get one in silver?
Roll up your arm and bend over!
3series 10,163 +24%
ES 7,286 -1.6%
C-Class 7,154 +38.9%
IS 4,537 -11.3%
TLX 4,353 +97.7%
Q50 3,839 +44.6%
S60 2,730 -13.1%
MKZ 2,571 -9.5%
A4 2,541 -21.4%
ATS 2,449 -12.7%
A3 3,188 +31.2%
CLA 2,622 -3.7%
ILX 1,660 -4.1%
CT 1,504 -28.7%
Regal 1,450 -23.2%
1/2series 1,024 +55.9%
1. BMW 223,348
2. Lexus 222,151
3. MB 220,870
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
It's the same reason you can get a certain cell phone for some lower price but the base model has only 16Gb which is pretty minimal. Of course the upcharge to 32 or 64Mb is way out of proportion to the actual cost of those changes for the manufacturer. Instant profit!
We took the BMW factory tour this time and watch 3 series sedans and wagons being built, was very interesting to watch.
Yesterday we went to Lake Como, now lake Como is shaped like an upside down Y, for me it's one of the most beautiful area's of Italy, when we left the resort it was gloomy and overcast, on the trip up we got hit with a very heavy downpour which cleaned the windshield of all bugs! We stopped in Varenna for lunch, then took the Ferry to Bellagio (yes, the hotel in Vegas is named after the city.) Then we drove home, but the rain had stopped but was still gloomy. Didn't matter the area is still beautiful.
Hotel in Varenna, just on the water.
Waiting for the Ferry to arrive, the Bently's owner saw our plates and asked where we were from, when I told him he stated he was jealous of what we North Americans can do with the ED.
Out on the lake
Lastly when we got back to the resort, there was a Infiniti Q50 that had a 2.2l turbo-diesel
Oh yeah on the start of this adventure, I got a ticket for going the wrong going down a road, the damn GPS told me to go, but I didn't see the sign saying One Way... 27,50 euro fine...
We are off to Monaco, Nice and Marseille (staying in Marseille.)
Ciao
My wife's family (from Columbus, Ohio) have an apartment in Venice (and they are so gracious as to give us the keys whenever we go), so we ALWAYS to to Venice. And, we do love Venice, but, to me, Venice is good for about 3-days before it gets on my last nerve, the place is just so crowded and, if possible, just keeps getting more and more commercial.
A short train ride from Venice, however, is Verona -- a city (well, town) that while certainly for the [German] tourists, retains walkability without pain, and, for my money has better restaurants, by far, than are widely available in Venice.
The "oldest restaurant in Italy, Europe? the World?" is in Verona -- it is called The 12 Apostles, and the food there bests even Tantris (Munich's best, I think). Apostles is built right on top of the original Roman road, and if you tip the manager, he'll take you to the basement which as a plexiglass floor allowing you to walk on the Roman road, more or less.
http://www.12apostoli.com/en/
Hmm, I'm seeing a pattern here -- I live to eat!
FN -- reading your stories and viewing pics have been, these past few days, the best parts of my day. Gratzie!
So my impressions of Italian drivers, they aren't as reckless as you hear about, they follow most of the German or Austrian driving rules, 1) they only use the Right lane to pass, 2) they use their left turn signal if they want you to move over, and 3) yes, some are crazy.
So we are motoring down the A5 autostrata and come up to slower traffic so we slow down, then barreling down on us is a VW passat wagon (they are big in Italy) and yes, it's a TDI.. The VW driving is flashing his lights, turn signal on, looks pissed that I didn't move over, Once we clear traffic and people move over (this whole time VW driver is inch's from my bumper) I nail the gas (we have 2200km on the car) and wham, talk off. VW growing smaller and smaller in the mirror. Top out at 135mph, we reach slower traffic, VW own barreling down doing the same thing, flashing lights, turn signal, giving me the Italian salute, not too sure if it was a good one or bad one. Again, once traffic opens up, and people move up, I take off, and the VW gets smaller and smaller in the mirror. Again, top out at 135, reach slower traffic, again VW driver flashing lights and turn signal, this time once we clear traffic, I get in front of slower traffic and pulled over the right land (this A5 has 3 lane's in each direction) and the VW pulled up, it's quite funny, he can tell he has it floored but not moving so fast, I nail it get in front, and pull away. Had to slow down speed limit lowered to 110 kph. VW owner catch's up and passes me.. He finally got what he wanted. It's interesting that it doesn't matter what country they are from they all barrel down on you at warp drive then get stuck on your bumper like that is going to make the car in front go faster..
France
What to say about France, if you think the Germans have an aire of attitude, you need to come from France. The attitude is, we can do that because we are french... Merging traffic, they will pull in front of you if there is day light between you and the car in front, they don't care about their cars, well most french don't.
We stopped in Monaco, did the tourist thing, stopped in front f the Casino, and got a photo of the car, TALK ABOUT CROWDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The cars, WOW, the Cars, I got one photo of a Lambo, lots of make there too. The streets are narrow REALLY narrow.. Lots of construction going on and our GPS wasn't updated on this, so it took a little longer to get to the Casino, but we got there.
Marseilles
What to say about Marseilles, I didn't know much about the city except it was a port city. It's a very old city, and it shows, when you come in from the toll road, you come in through the slums, the GPS worked great, some of the streets we went down, were REALLY narrow,dirty, and stinky. Insane is a word that Rick used a lot....
My thoughts of Marseilles, lots of immigrants, usually from north Africa, lots of different cultures, Christians, Muslims and so on. Have seen some women in Burka's walking about here and all over Europe, the native people of Marseilles aren't happy with most of the immigrants. It's a very diverse city, the food says it all, more on that later.
So here are the photos from our trip to France..
In Italy they have rest stop's but nothing like what have in the US, the rest stop has gas, food and places to eat the food outside, and they are SUPERCLEAN... The next couple of photos is one place we stopped to get gas and something to munch on.
So we stopped at a French version of the roadside gas/convenience store what a big difference, the placed looked like it was about to be shutdown, hardly no drinks in the coolers, and the bathrooms look disgusting (this was the real reason why we stopped) see for yourself. A far cry from what the ones in Italy looked like,
So car's in Europe, we have seen some American cars over here, here is a photo of one that we had a good laugh at.
Monaco is supper clean, VERY clean in fact. Monaco is not a country, it is part of France, but it is a Principality, their license plates say, Principality of Monaco on them..
So I know you are all waiting for that Lambo photo, so here it is..
Traffic lights are interesting here, if you do not stop behind the crosswalks you will not see the traffic lights, but the French being The French have a fix....
Once again the GPS, she works well, she really does but at times I have to wonder, when we left Monaco, we put into the GPS the hotel address and said, the faster route, even toll roads, well..... For about 60 km we were on two lane country roads, then finally back on the toll roads.. She tries..
So I'll end this installment with a photo taken from our Balcony over looking the harbor and looking at the monument that is roughly 500 yrs old, it's a night photo..
Keep 'em coming!
I'm so used to EZ pass now, couldn't function without it.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
The German people have always been friendly, polite, courteous and sometimes playful even. I've been to Oktoberfest about 6 times, and when going into a beer tent, you join a large group of people at a picnic table and within a few minutes it seems the folks are wanting to know about the US, US sports and are trying to teach us Americans some of the German-only songs that come up every 15 minutes or so between good ol' Rock and Roll. A gentleman and his father were in Munich for Oktoberfest and when they found out my wife was a lawyer, the older man bought my wife an order of peeled radishes (covered in salt) from one barrister to another. We had a great time. The folks on the subways in Munich, too, are always willing to help you figure out which stop will get you closest to your destination.
In France, on the other hand, we went to a bistro, like you see in the movies, in Paris and the waiter gave up his picture for the dictionary next to the word "surly". Apparently since tipping is not as serious as it is in the US, this waiter was actually pissed when we thanked him (in English) when he brought us our wine, beer and cheese saying (in heavily accented French) "why can't you people even TRY to speak French?" OK, well perhaps I could say merci, but other than asking "how's the weather" and saying "I like chocolate ice cream" I didn't think I wanted to embarrass myself or run the risk of butchering my communications (especially since the menu we were given was multi-lingual). How wude!
The staff at our (5-star) hotel in Paris was totally gracious and friendly, but my impression, from several interactions with the locals, was that they don't like us much -- or maybe they just don't like me. I went ahead and gave an American tip anyway, who knows if anything changed. The Italians were huggers and both-cheek kissers (didn't have that happen in Germany, but they were friendlier than the French.)
FN, I have no clue as to your age -- I am 63 -- I started going to Europe when I was about 20 years younger (and richer), but it can be done for not too much money, if you realize that most of the time you spend in a Hotel it is dark (meaning, 3-star hotels with air conditioning work just fine). Once I got over the sense that we needed 5 star hotels (because, well, you never know), we found we could see Europe for not much money (saving our coin for fine dining instead). Also, we don't use cabs anymore, we figure out how to use the trains and subways -- and for the long trips, we splurge on first class train travel if the distance is over 5 hours. Also became a fan of night trains with full size beds (saves on hotel bills too). My point is, unless you're much much older, I urge you to make this trip one of many, many more you should take. Benelux was a fun couple of trips -- Amsterdam, Brussles and Luxembourg city, do it again, do it again.
Anyway, you've taken me, at least, on a great vicarious trip with you two. My only regret is that you didn't get an Audi, but there's always next time.
Keep 'em coming.
Ciao (baby).
But that's just me.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Scooters are the way to get around town, and let me tell you they will let you know it too. Just a random shot
Yes, they are looking for the next winner of The Voice of France here in Marseilles
Ok so we are americans, we stopped in a Mikey D's to get a coke, interesting place, you can order take out or have it served at your table and order at this Kiosk, the McCafe is a separate area in Miky D's, they had pastries and macaroon's.
So now it's all about the car's we saw, the first if a Peugeot wagon, very popular and a looker too.
Another Peugeot hatchback
Here is an Audi A2
Here is a surprise, this is a Kia, called a Ceep, very good looking car.
We can park how we want, because we are French..
The Mediterranean, and sorry guys no topple women at this beach...
An Alfa 147, another popular car in Europe
The names car companies give their cars, we had a good laugh at this one.
So the next couple of photos are interesting, we ran into a wedding procession of the well to do, all the license plates were from Monaco.
This AMG did not sound stock at all..
Now this is what the Bride rode in, a limo of a Chrysler 300 with a RR front end...
Now some random photos of the city
On our walk back to the Hotel we came upon this glass cover, very interesting, this is a photo of my taking a photo straight up, looking down at me.
Just the harbor
So some of the Chrysler cars are brought over here but sold as Lancia, the 300 is called the Thema, It's a big car over here..
Thanks it for now, off to Beaune France.
Thanks!
When I travel to Quebec, my limited French gets a smile and a hearty English reply.
Similar thing goes in some post Soviet Union countries. They all are working very hard building their national identities, often overcompensating. Most speak Russian, but they again have to be asked.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
FN, thank you so much for going to the trouble of posting your travels and pics. Very enjoyable and enlightening.
To be clear, I'm not trying to diminish your father's sacrifice, or Americas role in the War, or the fact that people in Europe should be grateful for it. I'm from the part if the world that had misfortune to be "liberated' by the Red Army and I would trade with French in a second. However, you also need to understand the wounded pride, which resulted in irrational lashing out against the very people who don't deserve it, but are close and convenient. The best way to deal with it is shrug it off and not get too flustered. It's just ignorance. Also, you need to remember that while substantial sacrifice was made, USA was also by far the greatest beneficiary of the new world order after the War and the casualties suffered are not even in the same order of magnitude and devastation than those suffered by the Europeans. Average European sees America as a net beneficiary of the War and it's not an unfair view from the global perspective (grant you not necessarily you father's).
American soldier came, fought gallantly, often died or got wounded, but then came back to his country that was intact and stronger than ever. French, Polish, or even English soldier had to stay in their ruined country, rebuild it from ground up, sometimes starving in the process, often having his family decimated. Having those proportions being remember, you may find out much easier to get along, even with French.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
2018 430i Gran Coupe