Not quite everything was thought out-the reason for the famous gullwing doors on the coupe was because the engineers didn't leave enough room for a standard door mechanism.

Good work, but also, people need to learn how to use extinguishers properly. They are much more effective when aimed at the *base* of the fire, not at the flames in the air. (In fairness, I only learned this because I volunteered at a few tracks. Still, it makes a *huge* difference.)

Ouch... still could be worse. Ask Cris da Matta.

Munich's system really is fantastic. Great coverage, on time, and unless it's Oktoberfest, pretty clean. I'd kill for something like that here, but it'd never work in the US....totally different mindset.

Pretty much. Keep in mind, this is a German car for a German market.

Absolutely. This spring I got a 420di convertible for about the same length of time for about the same price. Quite enjoyable for tooling around southern Bavaria..

Reminds me of our trip to Germany in '90-my German-born father had arranged for a rental car at Munich airport when we arrived. We walked out to find a Fiat Panda waiting for us. Dad took one look at the thing, swore a blue streak, and promptly marched back in, returning a few minutes later with the keys to a Golf.

And there's your answer-rent German. The styling may be Spartan, but the performance is usually at least Autobahn-sufficient. Even the Opel Signum (a.k.a. Chevy Malibu Maxx) mini-station wagon thing I rented a few years back could handle 120 mph decently.

I'd like to see you land a DC-10 with no hydraulics. That means no control surfaces. They were only able to keep the thing in the air by varying the throttles of the 2 remaining engines. Try driving your car with no steering and only using the gas and brake. You might also look at what happened to JAL 123,…

Then looking up "safety car fail" on Youtube should make you downright estatic....

My Dad had the misfortune to be driving our mid-'70s Buick Century station wagon when it decided the ramp was too slick for the boat ramp. The water came up just short of the pedals. Still ran, but we had to sit on garbage bags for about 6 months....

I get the feeling you've never been around someone with any degree of dementia. Speaking from experience here, but if the guy had noticeable dementia, he shouldn't have been driving. But taking away an elderly relative's car and lisence is a horribly difficult thing to do.

But he isn't a functioning adult if he has a noticeable degree of dementia. The dealership may be skeevy, but a good portion of the blame should also go to the family. My mom had ever-increasing dementia the last 4 years of her life, and I would *never* let her go out by herself, let alone drive. Frankly, I…

Thank you for making the one German joke of which I heartily approve.

like Oezil, Klose, Boatneng and Khedira.

Thank you. My family is German, and you don't know sick I am of this. It's not funny. It's really not funny when you have to deal with it constantly. I'm sick of having to apologize for things I didn't do, and that I'm not allowed to be proud of my heritage. My paternal grandparents were very messed up people…

And there's your answer: it depends. It depends on the car, the age of the car, the type, and how well it's been maintained. It depends on how and where you're driving it. I have three cars: a 2005 F-150 "beater", my 2000 Civic, and the family sacred cow, my late father's 1988 260E. Honestly? the Mercedes is…

Personally, my problem with the Google theory of self-driving cars is that it doesn't do anything a well-designed modern public transit system does already. Look at Germany-definitely a gearhead-friendly culture, but no one in their right mind drives in the cities if they can avoid it. Of course, they also generally…

Please go research some racing history. Driver/rider safety is a relatively new development in motorsports, starting around the late '60s/ early '70s, and it really only gained a hold due to 2 factors- television broadcasts and drivers like Sir Jackie Stewart and Emerson Fittipaldi getting very sick of losing a…

ugh...that's supposed to be "home sick."