BMW Owners

[norseman]

I remember cars where you opened the bonnet and you could see the ground below the engine bay. There were about 2 or 3 wires running to the engine. Somewhere you could see and get to there was a small box with 4 fuses in it.
And service intervals were shorter, overall life was less, things were always going out of adjustment, fuel consumption was poor, emissions were bad, reliability was bad, crash safety was bad, ...

'Ah yes, I remember those days with a fondness
Even the lack of safety features wasn't such a threat, less traffic & impatient drivers .. you just drove within your own & the car's parameters.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I remember cars where you opened the bonnet and you could see the ground below the engine bay.

Where you could sit on the wing, legs dangling alongside the engine, whilst doing the points. The almost weekly service intervals, where you spent the week driving working, then the weekend under the bonnet. The near empty roads, the adventure of setting off, wondering how far you would get, before you broke-down.

 

[Old Salt]

The best has to be a triumph spitfire/herald. Lift the bonnet and sit on the wheel to do maintenance.

 

[Brigadier]

And service intervals were shorter, overall life was less, things were always going out of adjustment, fuel consumption was poor, emissions were bad, reliability was bad, crash safety was bad, ...

Making a headlight bulb impossible to change, without specialist tools and the patience of a saint, let alone while in the pouring rain on the roadside, doth not a safe car make.

 

[norseman]

Making a headlight bulb impossible to change, without specialist tools and the patience of a saint, let alone while in the pouring rain on the roadside, doth not a safe car make.

Neither does climate controls where you have to look down for silly little buttons & a digital display to change the settings, whereas at one time you kept your eyes on the road whilst you felt for a knob & turned it the appropriate # of clicks for the desired fan speed. Simple coloured slide controls determined the required temperature & air flow direction, all of which could be seen out of the corner of your eye whilst you concentrated on the road ahead.

 

[ReganAndCarter]

And you can show a causal link between the car being an Audi and the driver behaving like that?

Yes, all Audis come with a certificate that tells the driver he owns the road.

 

[ReganAndCarter]

Having been a passenger in a BMW while the driver was smoking his e-cig in one hand, texting in the other while overtaking other cars at about 80mph I can attest to how bad they are

Can't remember the make of car, but I've had worse. I was staying in a small town 15 Kms to the east of Ostrava, Czech Republic. Anyway, we had been out for quite a few beers (some of the best beer, £1 pint!) - and lost track of time. When we got to our restaurant it had closed and there was nothing except a really grim takeaway for food in the town still open at that time of night.

We were starving, so got in a taxi telling him to drive to McDonalds in Ostrava. Remember belting down the motorway in the dark and pouring rain while the driver and I passed his phone back and forwards so we could converse using Google translate. The danger didn't really occurr too much to me at the time because of all the beer.

 

[ReganAndCarter]

Where you could sit on the wing, legs dangling alongside the engine, whilst doing the points.

Or the luxury of sitting on top of the front tyre, enjoying great access to most components if you owned certain Triumph models.

 

[morqthana]

Where you could sit on the wing, legs dangling alongside the engine, whilst doing the points. The almost weekly service intervals, where you spent the week driving working, then the weekend under the bonnet. The near empty roads, the adventure of setting off, wondering how far you would get, before you broke-down.

I remember you used to be able to get a sealed cardboard box of key spare parts from the AA shop at Dover to take with you on your foreign travels. Paid a deposit and a rental - if you returned the box still sealed you got your deposit back. The idea was they could be used by a foreign mechanic, or yourself if you'd lugged tools with you as well. I never did need to carry out repairs at the side of a road in France, but I could have done.