22 posts tagged “bmw”

These posts are in reverse chronological order, but I did take these pics to show all of you in Voxland. These were from last weekend, before the blizzards, as I headed north toward Hamilton.

   This was the first sight of Mt Ruapehu on State Highway 1. Below are the shots as I passed the mountains on the eastern route (I eventually got stuck on the western route coming back).

It was an interesting experience driving home yesterday. I thought I would go via Napier on State Highway 5, since I have never been to the sunny coastal town. I never made it, because the route to the sunny coastal town was like this:

   State Highway 1 (Desert Road) was also closed, which originally made the detour on SH5 a clever plan—not so when it snows in the supposedly warm springtime here.
   Napier has a reputation for having great weather but my one and only memory of getting there will be this! However, I can no longer say I have not seen snow up close any more.
   And how.
   Knowing that the Desert Road was closed off, I took State Highway 41 west, where I was greeted with similar scenes. A very helpful motorist in a pick-up truck led the way down to the Taumaranui intersection, otherwise I would have been stranded at the top of the mountain. As I had discovered earlier on 5, the BMW is terrible on sludge and I had next to no traction in attempting to make a U-turn.
   It didn’t end there. I got as far as the National Park area and stopped for dinner. As I headed down on State Highway 4 (which was also shut for a time as I waited, while Wedding Crashers came on the BMW’s TV tuner), it turned out that SH48 was closed—it would have been much faster going to Wellington from there. I was advised to continue on SH4, which, incidentally, has no lighting. I dodged quite a few slips and if it were not for the three-dimensional sat nav, I would probably not have attempted the drive, as it was tricky for a first-timer.
   I got as far as Wanganui, because I was running low on petrol and a lot of stations were shut at that hour, or on pre-pay. I spent the night in a hotel where a lone cockroach walked atop my blankets—I will not name the place because I cannot say for sure whether this little creature walked in while the door was open as I shifted in my luggage. I am no entomologist. But I have advised the place that they need to take whatever steps are necessary to clean the room.
   Wanganui is an interesting town: the sat nav told me that there were hotels called the Four Seasons (which was really a motel that has nothing to do with the Four Seasons that I know) and the Quality Inn (which has nothing to do with Quality Inn). Sorry, I won’t confirm if either of these was where I stayed. Neither is breaking the law here as far as the names are concerned: as far as I can make out, the old Quality Inns are now the Quality Hotels, and Four Seasons does not operate here.
   So a six-and-a-half-hour drive turned into one lasting about 25 hours, but I had a whale of a time.
   And finding a way to State Highway 2 would not have helped. The police shut that off because a killer was at large yesterday (yes, just one—and in a generally peaceful country, that’s sufficiently for our police to act).
   Oh, and to the asshole in the Touareg who overtook me on SH4 (reg. DZC ***): tailgating in the snow is a really bad idea, dick. I don’t care if you do have four-wheel drive.

Current transport: BMW Z4. At least it’s more butch than the prissy Z3 (too “Pierce Brosnan”) but one cannot help feeling one is compensating. Long hood, short deck.

It was cold, wet and windy today. I had been wondering where this weather went.
   Compare it to last Sunday around the Overseas Terminal and what I call ‘the marina district’:

   Although I was not shooting the scenery, you can get a feel for how grey it was today:

The weather has been very mild here this winter. Cold and sunny best describe it. Here’s a shot from 5 p.m. yesterday:

And the BMW 335d, my transport this week—note that it’s very sunny here.

Here are the photographs from the BMW launch on Thursday night, to which Devin, Natalie and I went.

Props to Robin, Timothy, Matsu, Takeratta, Neil and everyone else for making the Cars’ group on Vox the biggest, most active and most fun on the automotive topic here on Vox.
   While the old Cars Rock! group also has 51 members (a number which we hit today), it’s unmoderated and a great deal of its newer members are bots and sploggers. (In fact, its latest one is called Splogger!) I am glad to say that of our 51, there appears to be a human being behind the account, and I have kept an eye on it to make sure it remains spam- and bot-free.
   We took a mere two and a half months to become the biggest, and I frequent it often to see the various models and stories that have fascinated each one of us.
   I’m really grateful to you all for joining and hope you get as much out of it as I do. And when I get that Bluetooth dongle for my laptop, you can see the pics I took tonight of the new BMW Z4 and F01 7-series at their Wellington launch.

[Cross-posted from Lucire] When Hummer is the least fashionable brand on the planet, other SUV manufacturers can take one of two directions: trim down and look responsible, or go sporty and offer those who don’t mind poorer mpg figures a real alternative. BMW has taken the latter. (Continued at Lucire.)

These cars are beaut and I thank (on behalf of Lucire) BMW’s Piers Scott for arranging them. There are better pics on my 35 mm camera.

   This might look as sharp as the 135i Coupé I drove last year, but I like black more. It’s a 123d, a twin-turbo diesel doing 204 PS with great pick-up—and even with my driving in Auckland city, 32 mpg! How is this possible? A sports car doing fuel economy that my little Renault Mégane gets!
   In the background you can see that a New Zealander bought an American car, a Chrysler no less. Miracles never cease.
   In fact, the BMW does better mileage than this little motor I picked up today: which answers all my complaints about the Minis lacking power. Not this baby, the John Cooper Works model. I am getting a low 22 mpg and the engine, I understand, develops 211 PS. Overall, the BMW presents a more rounded package, but how can you resist this car? As I drive I am saying things such as, ‘You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!’ and ‘Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got a great idea.’ Real Italian Job stuff but in a modern context.