Almost five months ago I became a proud owner of an E90 325i. Apart from initial problems with the Valvetronic system which have been taken care of the car never let me down, even through most of the winter and more than 8.000 kilometers. Needless to say I’ve enjoyed every single one so far and am looking forward for a good couple of years more. So I’m not surprised that Yahoo Autos rated the BMW 3-series “Most Noteworthy Vehicle of the Decade“.
Archive for the ‘free time’ Category
This decade’s most noteworthy vehicle
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010Going boldly
Thursday, January 21st, 2010I’m not a trekkie – at least not yet. I’ve seen three Star Trek movies and watched a total of one episode from an unknown series (presumably TNG). Instead I’ve rather delved in the Star Wars universe during my teens which I knew had less lore but had this fantasy (if not fairy tale) atmosphere.
But anyway, I’m looking forward to the start of Star Trek Online in two weeks. I’ve played the beta enough to know that i’ll spend a fair amount of time there. Who knows, perhaps I’ll eventually become a trekkie but I really gotta catch up on that lore.

Travelling around Switzerland
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010Although I live in central Europe I’ve never seen much of it. Perhaps that’s due to the mentality of many of the last generation of Germans which unfortunately seem to try to avoid their own surrounding. That’s why I’ve seen more cities and places in France and Spain than I’ve seen in my own country or its neighbors. Heck, I’ve never been to Berlin and I haven’t even seen the capital of my home state until I started my university course there.
Since a couple of years I’m trying to do some catching up. I’ve traveled around Germany quite a lot, also been to Denmark and Norway to see something new and I haven’t been disappointed so far. Last Christmas we’ve been on another travel, this time through many countries, all in and around Switzerland. Although I grew up right at the border and even work there these days, it was by far the most intensive tour so far – which means something considering it only took three days.
Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Our previous travel to Munich and castle Neuschwanstein was done in a ’93 Toyota Starlet whereas this time around we’ve travelled in a ’05 3-series BMW. Another highlight was the fact that we’ve crossed the border ten times from and to Switzerland, Italy, Lichtenstein, Austria and Germany.
Vehicles evolved
Saturday, November 14th, 2009I must say that not everything went as I had planned but in the end I’ve bought a 325i. Not new, of course, but it’s been well taken care of since it’s initial registration in May 2005 and has been driven a mere 53k km since then.
Unfortunately I couldn’t savor its mighty six cylinders and 215 bhp yet, the next autobahn is just too far away. Nonetheless, it feels quite powerful and the whole steering and breaking is so much more sensible than I’ve been used to. It’ll take some while to get used to it. Which reminds me that my good friend Alain was a little swifter and picked up his Mini Cooper two days before; good for us because we could enjoy both of our first real car acquisitions and celebrate accordingly.
However, the awesome moniceiver I’ve been talking about in the last post isn’t ever going to be installed; I just can’t imagine the interior looks to be tinkered with, no matter the benefits; for now the built in CD player and radio tuner is enough to keep me entertained. Instead I’ve been looking into the BMW-branded portable navigation systems, which seem to be exactly what I need for the time being: a car navigation system with bluetooth handsfree functionality for my cell phone. I can live with the fact that the sound output isn’t being redirected to the car’s audio system (which it does for newer models though) because all I want is to avoid loose cables dangling around the center console.
I might also get my hands on some not too pretentious enhancements such as an M gearshift or aluminum pedals but anyway, what’s next might be enough to fill another blog post. I’m anticipating that it might be most interesting to drive a lap or two on a test circuit…