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Comments
OTOH, geez you must be a Zaino addict, no matter the circumstances you just can;t forget it :P
But Zaino is far better, and saver, than drugs or alcohol. :shades:
I agree with Tag, gas is going to go up and stay up!!!!!
I feel very blessed to be able to return to school in this economic climate and finish a degree. I also find that serving the less fortunate is a great way to cure what ails you in the heart, and soul. All the best to you Dada, may you return to us happier, and funnier than ever!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am obviously not an expert on the oil market but I do watch it closely every day. I am not sure what Len's thoughts are now as opposed to a few months ago, but I am in agreement with LG here. $5 gas in the near future would be devastating to any economic recovery. Therefore, I think we are not going to see such levels over the next year or two. Yes, we have probably seen the lows, but I don't think we will go that much higher from here. The powers that run the nation and the world will simply not allow the oil market to go too much higher any time soon. Call it manipulation or call it whatever you want.
It will indeed be interesting to hear Len's thoughts on the energy market now. Like me, he was probably "bored stiff" reading all about super charged BMW sports cars
A more interesting comparo of high-horsepower roadsters had the BMW Z4 sDrive35i and the Porsche Boxster S in a virtual tie for first place with the slight edge given to the Porsche. Bringing up the rear was the "rental-car interior" (OUCH!) Chevrolet Corvette. From the photo, it appears the latest BMW Z4 is quite the looker! :shades:
As I found from sitting in a hard as a rock Cayman seat, the Boxster was demoted in sympathy to my view for "too stiff seats and the bolsters too narrow."
The MSRP $76,625 Boxster S achieved a rather poor 7 out of 10 points for driver comfort in the comparo. Sports car or no-when one spends that kind of cash, your bottom shouldn't ache! :sick:
Whichever way one slices it, one thing is clear-the superiority of German engineering re-emerging in Car and Driver's latest comparos-Audi, BMW and Porsche.
Now if only Porsche would commission BMW to design its seats! :sick:
I hope you are enjoying your BMW 335d as much, if this is indeed possible.
The 335d may be fine for Europe, but the excessive low-torque is not really favourable for driving in the USA. In my opinion, it was a mistake for BMW to bring the 335d to America.
PS: As sadly predicted, the wife did not honour my sincere request of celebrating Barcelona's great victory with a deluxe order of ranchos huevos for yesterday's breakfast. Well, I thought it was an absolutely splendid idea!
I seem to recall some of you guys were proclaiming that the last time gas was at $5/gal. They came right down once American consumers started talking w/ their wallets. I don't think Big Oil is going to start jacking around w/ the prices yet again. You'd think they would've learned a lesson the last time. :sick:
I just wish (some of) you guys would quit wanting us to pay the same high prices as Europe! :mad: That's their problem, and as far as I'm concerned, they can keep it. It's not our fault that if they roll over two times in bed they'll wake up in another nation. Supply and demand... They don't have as far to travel to get to anywhere, so they don't use as much fuel; hence they pay a higher price for Big Oil to turn a profit. For "us," if we drive a mile, we haven't even reached the end of the driveway yet! Big demand, but many more stops at the petrol station, so Big Oil can charge less and still make money, hand-over-fist.
Just conjecture... :confuse:
EW's worrying by the husband health are more dangerous than cholesterol, much more perilous than wine drinking, even more than champagne or cava, as WHO has repeatedly stated. :sick:
Me too, I think 335d was not the right choice for BMW to introduce their diesel Bimmers in the USA. Best choices would have been Series 1 diesels and 330d, as I posted sometimes. But I am enjoying 335d very much. You should try one if available. When driving my 335d I am aware I am polluting the atmosphere with less CO2 than I would with an similarly powered gas engine. :P
Regards,
Jose
Let me give in to my contrarian tendencies for a moment & say that energy independence is neither attainable nor desirable. IIRC, we haven't been self-sufficient in energy since Eisenhower's 1st term in office - more than a half-century ago. I don't see how we can go back to those golden days without suffering intolerably painful hits to our living standards.
Let's set realistic goals. Importing oil makes sense, since we long ago used up all the easy-to-get oil within our borders, but let's aim to import less oil from unfriendly countries. Let's diversify energy sources. I'd like to see much greater reliance on nuclear power, for example. Let's also make the most of what we have & squeeze much more GDP out of every unit of energy that we consume. During the last era of rising oil prices - roughly 1973 - 1983 - our economy became much more energy-efficient. Since then, we've been treading water.
Look at Japan. Despite having small amounts of coal & no oil at all, Japan has built the world's number 2 economy. The Japanese import a dollar's worth of oil from Saudi Arabia & use that to make $25 of high-value merchandise for export. We should learn from that.
Soccer brings out such intense emotions from European fans. I imagine England was not the place to be recently.
I wish BMW would introduce some 4 cylinder vehicles here, including diesels. That could be fun!
Waiting for another source of energy, but if this source is not coming soon, social human nature could work for the worst. I am sorry I am not optimistic in this. I admit I am not taking into account variables out of my sight.
Regards,
Jose
Yep, more than one hundred quarrelling youngmen, most of them skin-heads or similar but also some minor, were arrested early this morning by violent deliberate behavior.
Regards,
Jose
Pure frustration!
Spain and Britain could go to war over something like this! :surprise:
1. Momemtum trades, indexing to equities, overstated fear of inflation
2. A little birdie told me when you hear Nigeria mentioned in the oil news (and after a 6 month absence suddenly it's back in the news almost daily) Wall Street is pushing up prices in a suckers rally
3. usage remains way down and speculation in oil is again very high mainly as a hedge against the dollar. There certainly is no fundamental reason.
4. proper price for oil IMO is in the low to mid 40's and I fully expect we'll be back there in Q4.
5. ultimately I'm always a fundamentalist so I look past the lack of common sense or in the words of Alan Greenspan - irrational exhuberance.
BTW - I had put a stop loss in on Apple at 129.50. Never in my life did I feel as lousy as I did over a business transaction when the price triggered a sale even though I made great returns on it. Even at $118 I was sorry I was out of it. Never bought it back though. Why did I feel bad? Fundamentals of the company are phenomenal. The day Steve Jobs says he's stepping down I'm sure that I'll be buying some emotional traders sell order.
Find your faith and never give up the fight. Character and strength have to win over despair. If you let despair triumph then you have no chance. Find something in your life, a special moment that moved you and cling to it and you'll get through it. There's not much else I can say. I'll keep you in mind in my prayers.
The Q5 also walked away with an easy victory in Motortrend, beating out 2nd place Volvo XC60, 3rd place RX350, and 4th place GLK350. Not good showings for the Mercedes, especially losing out to the ancient X3.
Btw, did anyone notice that the referee seemed very, very reluctant to give Ronaldo a yellow card? He should've been sent out by the middle of 2nd half if the referee was strict enough.
Well, back at cars, GLK finishing last was no surprise to me. I kinda like the looks, but the interior was horrific. The X3 was the same, but at the very least BMW fixed the materials inside (I still stand by my words that the X3 is the ugliest BMW, with the e46 hatchback taking the 2nd place). I'm a bit surprised the XC fared that well, I've never seen one, so I can't make any comments for now.
Well, the Jeep Liberty... er ... GLK350 is kind of "ancient" itself considering the platform that influenced it.
Your view on the energy sector is a breath of fresh air. I am in total agreement with you except that I now have my doubts that crude will go back down to the low to mid 40's in Q4. Whatever, I think people that talk about hyper inflation are out to lunch. I'm sure that TagMan hopes we are right.
What I think we'll happen is that the economy will uptick but that energy demand we'll not be much. That's why I can see a year end Dow 10,000 with oil in the $40's. The economy is in much better shape than 5 months ago yet Mastercard reported 7.5% lower gas consumption in gallons than a year ago. In fact the usage was not much higher than in December/January. This is exactly what I am expecting. Economy comes back (although very modestly) but uptick in energy demand is a fraction of that comeback.
Read back through some of these links (note the dates too) and you can see how Wall Street firms and investors, not big oil, pushed us to $147 - under what were actually lousy fundamentals. I mean you had folks talking a shortage and an outstripping of supply when in fact the biggest oil glut in 19 yerars was right around the corner. Talk about pump and dump! Also I think Obama we'll tackle the 20:1 speculative leverage ratio still allowed in oil as these spikes, with no underlying fundamental support, are starting again. The day he does that, Europe will force the same on ICE, and then the air will come out of this baloon fast. You still just need to put a nickel to buy a dollar of oil and anything that leveraged infaltes and deflates fast
BTW - OPEC wanst so badly for oil to reach the 70's and stay there. If oil gets too high they will pump like crazy because they now all understand why the Saudis were trying to temper the oil bubble a year ago at this time.
Oil companies/producers:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/20/news/econo...execs/index.htm
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2149269220071021
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/articleshow/3121712.cms
Morgan, Goldman and Speculators (notice the what-if's were always the driving force of the Wall street firms that drove the whole oil bubble):
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB122065354946305325.html
http://www.infowars.com/investment-banker-...a-barrel-oil-2/
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3099290.cms
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/03/09/oil-at-200-a-barrel-a-distinct-possibili- - ty-if-anything-bad-happ/
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/articleshow/articleshow/3121250.- - - cms
The deal is apparently close to an end, after FIAT stepping back not happily because of the German Gov. imposing conditions.
Regards,
Jose
The life-span of so-called gurus is deservedly short. Nobody can predict the future.
Too many variables. Look at the closely followed guru from yesteryear, Abby Joseph Cohen-totally dead wrong on stock prices for 2008. She predicted the S&P would be up around 14% for the year. If you trusted her without reservation, you just about lost your shirt in 2008. For that, GS made her a partner making lord knows how many millions. The fact is we all know as much as she does about where the S&P will find itself on December 31, 2009.
So, the crowd puts its hope on the next so-called guru-this time Meridith Whitney-until she makes her first inevitably incorrect major call-and then the crowd will abandon her and find somebody else.
When you attempt to predict oil prices at the end of the year, have you discounted a possible terrorist attack on US soil? A devastating series of hurricanes? California finally getting the "big one" as it sinks into the Pacific Ocean taking lovely Malibu along for the ride? An Israeli-Iranian war? The Korean War, Part Deux?
Maybe none of those things happen and oil goes lower.
Attempting to predict the direction of oil over 6-9 months is a fruitless exercise at best.
Let's use the word :black cat, for example
Do you notice how most languages put black before cat?
Spanish use el gato negro, basically putting cat before black, or tarjetta amarilla, card-yellow, not yellow card.
Well Indonesian is the same, you say "kucing hitam" (kucing=cat, hitam=black) or kartu kuning (kartu=card, kuning=yellow)
Your example is illustrative. Placing adjectives after names is a heritage that Spanish as well as Portuguese, French and Italian have in common from the old Latin Language; by opposition to the languages of German heritage. It's interesting to see how the same pattern is repeated in cultures so different and located so far away. However, the experts say that language patterns are few and sharing more things than differences. This would be a consequence to the wiring of the human brain.
BTW, How is it in Japanese and Chinese languages? (Just a short digression from the topic.
Regards,
Jose
Uh oh... my move to Malibu has just been ruined. I will never sleep nights again... LOL.
Fortunately, we won't be living right on the water's edge, like we did when we lived in Maui. I learned my lesson there. This time I will simply be within short walking distance, safe from the Tsunami and all those crazy tourists. Of course, if the "big one" hits, I could end up with beachfront property anyway.
TM
I wouldn't worry about Malibu-with the Governator in charge, what could possibly go wrong?
The gentle sound of the ocean as you sleep.... I get a similar sensation, but it's from a Hammacher Schlemmer white noise machine!
It sure was a pleasure to see you today, and the car looks splendid----and I know how smart the driver is
Indeed. It's similar to the A4 and A5 interiors, but some of the surfaces are slightly softened and more rounded. The difference is subtle, but I think its an improvement. The Q5 also features Audi's new state of the art NAV system. It makes the Volvo and BMW systems (a pre-iDrive relic) look absolutely medieval. Even Lexus and Acura have nothing this advanced.
I wonder if King Ludwig is home?
One thing I will readily admit, Audi trounces BMW when it comes to interior quality and design. No contest..... except for that X5 I drove back in 2005.... an amazingly nice interior for a BMW. If it wasn't for the awful, jarring suspension, I would have taken it. Even the wife liked the X5, except for the buttache-inducing ride. :sick:
The X5 is one of BMW's best (though the Q7 is also very nice on the inside). That design worked successfully in the new 7, but I don't think the scaled down version in the upcoming 5 works as well. Another surprisingly great BMW interior is the one in the new Z4. It's very competitive with the TT, perhaps better.
After we went separate directions, I was in a mild state of shock. "Did that really just happen?. How cool!"
My wife couldn't believe I ran across 'Forum Tony.' :-)
I must admit, your car caught my eye, as many Audi's do, & I've always liked the looks. It just took a bit to put 2 & 2 together.
It's really cool to be able to put a face to the poster! Of course we've lost privacy, & now that I know your car, next time I may track you down & force you to take mine for a spin. ;-)
BTW, was returning from 5K service. Everything is tip-top, & the service was quick & pleasant.
W/R to the MMI, I love the location on the center stack vs below the shifter like my car. 1st, it feels more ergonomic & IMO, keeps the eyes pointed towards the winshield more. A good thing.
2nd, moving the MMI AWAY from the cupholders is very smart. I always questioned the wisdom of locating it near where drinks may spill.
One word of caution. I set the driver seat to my liking then sat behind it. Not much room. Hard to get in & out w/o kicking everything. While I could ride back there, I'm sure I wouldn't want to do it for very long.
Did you by any chance test out the seat sliding feature? Maybe the rear seat was in the forward position? The Q5 isn't particularly strong on cargo space, so I wouldn't be surprised if the dealer had the rear seats forward to make the cargo area look bigger. The seats have 4" of travel, so I would think at the rear position there would be plenty of legroom. At least on paper, the Q5 is much roomier in back than its direct rivals.
I would take a pass on the dirt-magnet ivory white leather seats, however.
Even though C&D gave the slight edge to the Boxster in its roadster comparo, if it was my choice, I would take the new, more comfortable Z4 with the twin turbo. If BMW does one thing exceptionally well and better than Porsche, it is the sport seat. No way I would trade the rock-hard Porsche seat for the BMW sport seat. I've sat in both and there really is no comparison.
C&D complained that the Z4 is more suited for "semi-relaxed" driving.
Believe me, I can do that!
As a matter of fact, ol' Smokey hiding behind the bushes rather insists on it! :surprise:
I'm glad you brought that up so I can check next time. Q5 is on my wife's short list, & if there is more room to be had back there, it'll remain an option. What I sat in today would be a dealbreaker.
Usually, there's a sales guy handy to point this stuff out, but they were all w/customers. A good sign for Audi, at least this dealer.
These eyes, though biased, have seen a noticeable increase in Audis on the road locally. Both new & used. They used to be much more of a rare sight.
They had 4 A5's on the lot, the most I've seen there at once.
When I did talk to my sales guy, he said numerous people had mentioned seeing my car.
I should get an advert commision! :-)
He knew it was mine based on color. They've been allocated & sold 6 S5's total!
It's basically "subject-do something- time" Ex in past-present-future form: in English we say I went there yesterday, I am going there, or I will go there tomorrow.
In Indonesian it's like " Saya pergi kesana kemarin (I go there yesterday), saya sedang pergi kesana(I go there - notice the lack of -ing), and saya akan pergi kesana (I will go there).
I'm not sure about Korean but Japanese has this odd grammar where you put verb in the end of the sentence, after object. For instance, basically with normal style you say: where (are) you going to, but in Japanese it's "anata wa doko e ikimasuka?" (you (anata-wa) - where- (doko-e) - going to (arimasu-ka?)). It's really confusing. :sick:
Regards,
Jose
I know well what you mean. Only a piece of public garden (lawn with a few tamarind trees and an old fig tree) is in between the beach and my home. Excellent views (even of nice ladies sunbathing in European style :shades: ) but not so pleasing crowds. :sick:
At least I hope a Tsunami is not reaching my home since it is about 100 feet above see level. (The garden I referred to above is in fact hiding the beach and its appealing contents from my eyes; only the garden and the ocean are at sight from my windows — and right now a few young ladies in the garden, waiting for the crowd to come to the beach on this mild saturday morning.)
Regards,
Jose
Last week a colleague of mine gave me a ride in her new Z4. Black color outside and beige leather inside, that Z4 was handsome and comfortable. Consoles fitted very well the roadster style of the car. Unfortunately my colleague wouldn't allow me to drive the car. May be in the future, when novelty has passed out.
On the other hand, I saw on the road a new 7-Series, dressed in a dark shade of gray. Good-looking car, more slender than the competence. And more attractive than when laying in a showroom.
Regards,
Jose
By the way, the difference between a "friend" and "colleague" is the friend lets you drive the car. If you ever find yourself in Florida, you are more than welcome to drive whatever BMW I have at the moment.
Thanks for your friendship.
Regards,
Jose
Regards,
Jose