[Donuts]

Greeting from the Fatherland!!!
Just wanted to drop a line to the forum from here in the Stuttgart, Germany while on business for two weeks.
Let's just say it is great to be able to go to the Hertz counter and get a five-speed, two-door VW Golf TDi Sports Edition to play with on the Autobahns - this after I had a Ford Mondeo for one day. I have got to say the steering and brakes on VDubs are set much tighter here in Germany than in the States. Certainly my '00 B5 GLX is not this tight and I don't think my '98 Jetta GL was even close. Unfortunately, no cup holders are available to I have to drink my morning Java before getting on the road.
What a pity Americans are so used to "steering" (automatic drivers) the likes of bland Japanese cars like the Accord and Camry or Detroit's road yachts like the Century or Monte Carlo. Also most Americans could take a lesson on the need to stay out of the left-lane if they are only tooling along at 120 KMH.
Looking forward to receiving my VMaxx fog light for my B5 sometime next week.

 

[arc]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (Donuts)

Donuts,
I'll hoist a beer toward Stuttgart in your honor. I've never been to Germany, but I'm certainly a big fan of cars from there, especially from that city.
While in London last year I rented a 5 speed Ford Escort. It was cool to be able to rent a manual trans car there. The "roundabouts" they have in the UK work really well too. Do they have the same things in Germany?

 

[jeffp25]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (arc)

>>It was cool to be able to rent a manual trans car there<<
The majority of vehicles sold in the UK are manual transmission - and this is true for rentals too. Its harder to find/rent and auto than a stick.

 

[Donuts]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (arc)

Arc-
> The "roundabouts" they have in the UK work really well too. Do they have the same things in Germany? <
I assume you are referring to circles. Yes, the have those here too. I orginally hail from Philadelphia and in nearby New Jersey there were always a ton of then. Come to think of it when I was in Colorado two weeks ago I ran into them in Golden, as well.
Just back from the Porshe factory and museum. Sweet! Gotta check out the Mercedes plant/museum also before I depart. Hoping to see about a Audi TT rental when in Hamburg next weekend.
Later.
Joe

 

[arc]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (Donuts)

quote:[HR][/HR]Arc-
> The "roundabouts" they have in the UK work really well too. Do they have the same things in Germany? <
I assume you are referring to circles. Yes, the have those here too. I orginally hail from Philadelphia and in nearby New Jersey there were always a ton of then. Come to think of it when I was in Colorado two weeks ago I ran into them in Golden, as well.[HR][/HR]​

Yeah, I know we have them here in the states, but they are much rarer - especially out here in the west. I'm orginally from New England where we had a fair number of them. They are called "rotaries" out there. Here in Fort Collins, CO, we had an engineer suggest one for a particularly busy intersection of five roads. They people here freaked, and we got this god awful 5 way traffic light arrangement.
What got me in England was that they are used very widely and they work extremely well. People know how to deal with them there. I also liked that traffic lights turn yellow again right before they turn green.
Your tours sounds great! Hope you can get the TT rental!
Andy


[Modified by arc, 6:15 PM 12-2-2001]

 

[archaic]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (arc)

I came to love the roundabouts when living in England. Many a time I went around a few times to make sure I got the right exit (or in London, trying to find an opening so I could exit)! We have two roundabouts near where I live in Canada. They're disasters...you tend to see one of two things: (1) two cars trying to yield to each other (when one has the right away) or (2) no one yielding. Canadians, on the whole, just don't understand roundabouts, in my experience.

 

[arc]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (archaic)

The first time I hit a roundabout in England I think I went around 3 times. I wasn't sure I was even supposed to enter on the left, but it was apparent that I certainly shouldn't enter to the right! I had been on the United red eye all night and then we took a cab to the hotel at 7 AM. The first time we hit a section where we were heading on a blind uphill left hander I was sure we would be killed by oncoming traffic. Yank in the UK. Then I got the rental 5 speed Escort (read: better than US Escort). What fun!
Roundabouts work very well if people understand them. They can stop traffic still for folks that aren't aware of how to do them. I'd love to make them more common here in the states.
arc

 

[Orjan]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (Donuts)

quote:[HR][/HR]Unfortunately, no cup holders are available to I have to drink my morning Java before getting on the road.[HR][/HR]​

I thought german Golfs had the same cupholder as the rest of the world, right under the central air vents.

Anyway, germany is a cool place to be http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif
And speaking of "roundabouts" - some are easier than others: (this one is somewhere in the UK)

 

[NickB]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (Orjan)

Looks familiar! This is the 'Magic Roundabout' in Swindon - a few miles from where I live. Believe me - it gets much busier than this, but it's never gridlocked. All you do is just treat each roundabout separately and take the most direct route to the exit you need. You see the odd bit of headlight glass on the road and a few bewildered tourists, but on the whole it works really well. You'd certainly never get the same volume of traffic through a 5-way interesction controlled by lights.

 

[BZZZZ_02_1.8t_Passat]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (NickB)

Driving in Europe is just a whole lot more fun. and i agree that the yellow before green is great, we won't see those in the states because they would lead to more drag racing!!!!

 

[ajchenmph]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (Orjan)

quote:[HR][/HR]And speaking of "roundabouts" - some are easier than others: (this one is somewhere in the UK)[HR][/HR]​

Wow, that looks scary. OTOH, though, once you stare at it for a while, it begins to make sense. It's basically two rings -- the outter one goes clockwise, the inner one goes counter-clockwise -- with mini-roundabouts at each turnoff to get off the two rings.

 

[NickB]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (ajchenmph)

At the risk of turning this into a 'roundabout' thread...
http://www.swindonweb.com/life/lifemagi0.htm

 

[AlphaPepper]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (NickB)

They look like crop circles

Can you imagine a soccer mom in her Ford Excursion trying navigate one of these?
..Alpha

 

[SCTrent]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (Donuts)

Donuts - would you mind letting me know what rate you paid for the Golf TDI? We are heading over to Frankfurt on 12/19 and then renting for a few weeks. My wife is German and her relatives are in Stuttgart (suburb - actually a small village called Dettenhausen).
Her father owns a 356 cabriolet, a 356 coupe, a c4 cabriolet, and a c2 coupe but we cannot drive those during the winter. He actually tools around in a Jeep Wrangler during the fall/winter since he has an orchard. My mother-in-law drives a BMW. I am the only son-in-law and a replacement for the flaky son so hopefully those babies will be part of the inheritance.
Anyway, just looking for a good rental rate for VW cars. Thanks. By the way, I go all out on those autobahns no matter what car I am driving over there. It isn't so nice lately since they do have speed limits near towns and much more radar traps but still better than driving in Washington.
If any of you can make up any excuse to go over there and pay for the test drive in the Nuerburgring - it is well worth it. Yeah!

 

[KeithVH]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (NickB)

quote:[HR][/HR]At the risk of turning this into a 'roundabout' thread... [HR][/HR]​

Aw heck...why not.

I've LOVED the roundabouts in the UK and Europe. As already said, they work well ONCE you get the hang of it. Then they make all the sense in the world. But I definitely had someone lay on their horn once at me in the Midlands before I figured it out.

And it really is so easy...just yield to whoever is already there. We do have a handful of them in Colorado....the problem is that they tend to not really allow enough space...they try to squeeze them into what was a regular 4 way (or more) intersection.
But, back on topic, post pics of your adventures in the Fatherland.

 

[Donuts]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (SCTrent)

SCTrent-
Sorry for the delay. I checked my contract and the rate I am getting on a weekly basis (before taxes & Fees) for a Golf is approximately $175.00. However, that is a corporate rate so I couldn't tell you how much a regular rate is with Hertz.
Joe

 

[TravelnBill]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (SCTrent)

quote:[HR][/HR]Donuts - would you mind letting me know what rate you paid for the Golf TDI?[HR][/HR]​

Try the Europcar website. They rent VWs, along with Audis, etc. I've usually gotten better rates through a US travel agent than you through a European agent. I don't know how those compare to the web rates.

 

[TravelnBill]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (jeffp25)

quote:[HR][/HR]The majority of vehicles sold in the UK are manual transmission - and this is true for rentals too.[HR][/HR]​

Driving on the left feels pretty weird, but driving a manual is stranger still.
The driver sits on the right side of the car... so you shift the transmission with your *left* hand. The shift pattern is the same.
For those of us who grew up driving on the right, this is a very strange sensation.

 

[DCdave]

Re: Test Driving in the Homeland!!! (TravelnBill)

Back to the roundabouts discussion....

Here in DC they're just called "circles." The story goes that they were put in to confuse an invading army. Don't know how well that thinking held up in 1812 though.....