Hm. Sure looks quirky. But people who try to use a Unimog as their private means of transport usually find out it’s not as much fun as they thought. Travelling in a vehicle that gets 9 mpg (Diesel) and maxes out at around 50 mph gets old really fast. Okay for “extreme vehicle-dependent situations” maybe, but not for…

Used to be an annual contest when I was a kid (not on snowboards then, just skis), called ski-kjoring. Scandinavian origin, I guess.

Was about to post that. Here in Austria, it’s illegal to drive with any loose-heel type footwear. High-heels would be okay as long as they sit firmly on the foot and don’t flop.

Looking at this thing, a scene unrolled before my mind’s eye:

Are those really rare in America? Because from where I am sitting it looks like you can get a 400i that actually runs, with actual windows and paint and stuff, for that kind of money.

Once I heard someone tell the story of how they went to a meeting with a leading Opel engineer. They entered the corporate parking lot, went past rows and rows of Astras and Rekords and Corsas, until they came to a Jaguar E-Type. That was where the chief engineer’s office was.

As a matter of fact, it’s not rare to see a US license plate as decoration behind the rear window of a car here in Austria. Never on the plate holder, though. That would get you pulled over very soon.

Love the King of the Hill reference. Happy Thanksgiving!

Are you sure about “Hottentotten”? The word was used (mostly by Germans and Boers) for a number of Southern African peoples, against some of which the Germans led a rather bloody war.

A colleague recently explained to me that men who have reached a certain age (to wit, ours) start finding bimbos not so repulsive anymore. This is because life has taught them there are basically two kinds of women: a) dumb and b) taxing.

I always felt that the change of the movie as opposed to the novel - stealing the gold instead of contaminating it - was not an improvement but quite the opposite. It turns a realistic threat into something that, as Bond points out in the movie, someone hasn’t quite thought through all the way.

In many European countries headlight level adjustment has been mandatory for quite some time now, to compensate for different loads.

Without a carrier, but with a signal? I don’t quite understand. I was of the impression that emergency calls had a better chance of going out because they were not restricted to the carrier with which you have a service contract. In Europe, you can call 112 as long as you have a signal from some carrier - it doesn’t…

Sorry for the late reply. Without having hard data, I would say: None of that difference. As I already pointed out, fatalities per mile as well as per inhabitant are lower compared to the US across most of Western, Northern and Central Europa. This includes countries that are significantly less densely populated than…

I have read five of those (1, 2, 3, 5 and 6). Was very disappointed in #5.

Depends on how far you want to go. At 6” I have sat in the 3rd row of our Mazda5. It is not a painful experience, but it isn’t one to be enjoyed for more than half an hour, either.

In German-speaking Europe, the Mazda5 segment is called “Kompaktvan”, for being based on compact cars like the Mazda3, Golf (Touran), Focus (C-Max), C4 (Picasso), Corolla (Verso) etc. What we call minivans are considered to be one size (or maybe a half size) bigger, like the VW Sharan, which is pretty much of a size…

My dad found another solution when he had his right arm in a sling, while his buddy had a cast on his left foot. They took their trips to the hospital together, and - well, you can see where this is going.

AFAIK, Swiss dentists are required to adjust their price chart to the patient’s income bracket. I.e. the less you make, the cheaper it’s going to be. And vice versa, unfortunately.

The plates look to be older than the car (at least the headlights). I doubt they are still legal.