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there's a reason for the automatics in the States: Posted by John Fitzgerald [Email]  (#77)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from John Fitzgerald) on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:35:20
In Reply to: We have ourselves to blame, tz, Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:53:30 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
traffic lights. Try living in suburbia, driving in rush hour 2x per day, let alone dealing with any 'big city' traffic. The red lights every two blocks, plus the boring 'straight ahead' layout of so many US roads [few curves, few 'fun' parts unless a leftover from a 40+ year-old layout] = dominance of the AT.
We lived in the UK for four years - roundabouts and, in general, less traffic [higher taxes? high fuel costs? fewer multi-teenager families? prob lots of reasons ...] meant that it was fairly rare in rural Oxfordshire to see lots of two-car families. People walked and took the bus. And when you did see a second car, it was usually a tiny econobox w/ a stick - cheaper & better mileage.
I realize I'm part of the problem when I bought a used 3 series a few years ago and one of my criteria was AT for handling Chicago rush hour traffic, especially in the summer. And when my family would end up with three different cars at a church service on Sundays [and there was still another car sitting in the driveway]. At least two of them were/are 9000's w/ 5 speeds.
Nothing else really comes close, as these conversations usually boil down to this: seats 5, 30+ mpg, huge and flexible cargo space [let alone easy to maintain]. I've looked at various crossovers, mid-sized wagons, etc, as potential future replacement, should a stray deer or some fool w/out snow tires slides into one of us driving the Aero and totals it. There's nothing there. The price of the BMW is a killer. The 9-5, used, = sludge. The 9-3 is ok, but small [we still have three kids at home - nice to have the option of getting all of us in the Aero vs hauling out the Suburban at 14 mpg]. Haven't driven or sat in the Honda Crosstour yet - their cars don't seem as comfortable for people over 6' tall in most any seat, unless you're willing to drone around in an Odyessy minivan. And those days are over ...
Ah well. The Wisconsin DOT has begun building roundabouts to handle large intersections. Their design mods leave a bit to be desired [and they seem averse to replacing the semi-rural four way stop with them, ever, which always hit me as a perfect location for them] so I might get to drive through them now and then in the future. Still won't break us of the AT habit, though. Best we can hope for is Tiptronic [or similar].
Done rambling for now.
John
Burlington, Wisc
'73 96 RHD sold after four years in Middle Barton, Oxfordshire, UK
'80 99 sold after 20 years/192,000mi
'86 9kT sold after 12 years/approx 121,000 mi
'87 9kT sold after 9 years/approx 174,000
'97 CSE 238,000 - given to my son, but I still work on it
'97 Aero 182,xxx
and a couple of 'non-Saabs':
'01 Suburban 111,xxx
'03 BMW 330 Cic 30,xxx
_______________________________________ John Burlington, Wisc '73 96 RHD sold after four years in Middle Barton, Oxfordshire, UK '80 99 bought new, sold after 20 years/192,000mi '86 9kT picked up at Trollhatten, sold after 12 years/approx 121,000 mi '87 9kT sold after 9 years/approx 174,000 mi '94 CSE given to my son after 8 years @ 245k; he sold it at 254k mi '95 Aero 146,xxx mi sold '98 CSE 248,xxx mi gave it away '97 Aero 317,xxx mi my daughter’s school car … gave away [we put 300k mi on it] still driving: '97 CSE 170xxx mi 'project car' for myself and my daughters to drive '07 9-3 2.0T 240xxx '08 9-5 191xxx mi my wife's daily driver and a couple of 'non-Saabs': '01 Suburban 201,xxx mi '03 BMW 330 Cic 84,xxx mi '14 Mercedes E350 103,xxx mi
, Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:24:25, Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:35:20 <-- Viewing This Message
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