re are bmw s worth the price in article ceylon gte com hhd harvey gte com horace dediu writes in article pvjlninnckf daffy sps mot com shantanu risc sps mot com shantanu ganguly writes some comments a good performance and mid and high speeds can be obtained by adjusting the top gear and final drive ratios contrary to popular misperception a number of japanese cars have quite good performance from in top gear no problem with that the question is do they perform consistently in all conditions roads winds and curves at that speed and do so for hours on end year after year without giving the driver white knuckles from my experience on the autobahns autostrade a good touring car can be easily distinguished by its poise at mph the best stay on cruise control at for hours i ve seen the typical boy racer in a fiat try to keep up sure they hit the century mark but if the wind blows the wrong way they change lanes and if on an overpass they may fly right into a guardrail the buffeting at can be severe enough to make the hood bend tires at can melt and a pothole can kill many german cars are designed for this environment even if they can t seem to get out of their own way from a stop light mercedes come to mind in particular and another design point is fuel economy at those speeds the germans gear the car for very good high speed efficiency a typical m b e turns at almost a stall good point i have no idea how either of my hondas will handle at mph nor do they reach however using high to be mph a they are quite amenable to long high speed drives i ve done several k mile trips in my civic with no problems whatsoever the last big trip i made was driving from new york to texas i remember driving miles a day at typically mph without any problems i m sure i would have been more comfortable driving a benz but no white knuckles no problems with winds and curves then there was the trip back from new orleans after mardi gras where we were doing all the way to houston no problems b both my cars have surprising good fuel economy at high speeds i see no difference between sustained mph and sustained mph on the trip back from new orleans we got about mpg in my integra quite ok mind you the engine revs to almost k at the civic is markedly better than the integra in fuel economy k miles down the road i still get mpg at mph driving b i can t understand why these high scale european marquees are afraid to design engines that can be repeatedly revved to near redline in the low gears i have been doing that for that last k miles with my lowly civic with no detriment to either the engine or the clutch and getting excellent mpg to boot i d call this an engineering hack to cover up design deficiencies at k miles you d still be breaking in a high scale european marquee they typically are designed to last miles per engine mi per chassis the record is now over miles on a benz diesel and i ve read about transmissions lasting miles speaking of now now you can t compare a diesel with a gasoline engine i see enough bmws and gasoline mercs for sale that have k miles on them and advertise rebuilt engines if honda was to build an accord for k i d darn well expect the sucker to last k miles diesels they have very good efficiency at the cost of acceleration and are very popular in all european cars diesel is considered the green fuel from the smallest econoboxes to the luxo barges again we see a difference in mentality diesels in the us are considered slightly worse than useless and extremely dirty to boot so you can t give them away ever got caught behind a early s sdl at a stop light it s not pleasant the newer mb s are a lot better though the diesel volvos and vws are probably the smelliest offenders as for economy why should we care gas is cheap i personally wouldn t buy a diesel car for any reason what does it buy me shantanu ganguly somerset motorola phone motorola inc mail drop oe fax william cannon drive w austin tx email shantanu ibmoto com oakhill sps mot com
