Monday, July 13, 2009

Toyota?

THE BREAKFAST

As I mentioned earlier, we've been looking for a car since we arrived, well I think we have found the one car that 1.) fits in our driveway. 2.) has sufficient backseat space for visitors and 3.) power, power, power. We needed something zippy for the Autobahn, man does not want to be in the way of a faster car, man must have enough horsepower under the hood to switch lanes fast enough not to have a Porsche permanently attached to your cars rear bumper. Really.

Nothing has been set into stone but here is what we might buy.

THE CAR














This little car has some get up and go under the hood, while still retaining a sort of lady car quality. I know some of you are thinking, you moved to Germany and you're not gonna buy a German car...well in all honesty, we couldn't find a German car that truly spoke to us, the closes was the VW Golf and the ones we looked at had way to many miles, and if we wanted a lower mileage Golf we would have to spring for a pretty penny. We also want to resell the car when we leave and we've heard Toyota's do well here in Germania.

Originally we thought we'd get a nice German car and ship it back to the States, but I did some research and that kind of move would require a small fortune, ready for the kicker, to down grade our German car to fit U.S. standards. I said wha'?

The same goes for the Toyota. While the U.S. may have higher emission standards, foreign cars tend to have a more aggressive stance, (lower to the ground to increase the downforce of the car) meaning we would have to have the shocks and struts replaced and headlights and on and on and on. So we decided to find a car that would be fun, simple and easy to sell when we decide to leave. The Toyota is a 2.0 diesel and at the moment diesel is twenty cents cheaper here. So things are looking fairly good for the Toyota. Plus it has a two year warranty and the dealership is five miles away. Captain we have lift-off.

Tonight we will be heading to the local Sommer Festival, code for Beer Festival, with Renee's coworkers. Oh yes, Teacher Tomblin, wait... Librarian Tomblin. Renee is ... I'll give you a hint L.R. Mitchell, it's kind of like code, she can be particular about who reads our blog. She's part German remember, the being part of a small group is in her blood, plus being like a German their is a certain mistrust of anything foreign, well except cars, she doesn't want the Gestapo breaking down our door for blogging bout subversive ideas. Kinda of like buying a Toyota over a VW.
Oh yes, the Sommer Festival, I'll try to take some pictures of the event.

Can you believe they are sending me to make sure our reserved table for the evening doesn't get given away. I have to arrive early, before 6 because after that all bets are off, look for the adidas table labeled Monika and then sit there until everyone shows up, the whole while I have to scare off the locals from trying to sit at our reserved table. Renee's coworkers told me not to worry, a beard and scowling a lot would scare most Germans off. I'm not worried about the Germans I might scare, I'm worried about the Germans that don't scare and try to pull some kind of imperialistic RISK move on our table.

It's kind of like the German concept of forming a line, oh wait, there isn't a concept, it's first come first served, particularly in festivals as was evident at the Samba Festival. We were standing in what we though was a line for food only to see people cut in front of us, I finally told Renee we have got to get up their and get some food and we did. The expierience was weird at first but it's normal here, cutting is part of their culture, you got to be decisive and quick. Therefore a table might be fair game unless someone sits their and tells every soul that would like to sit there, that I have this table for the evening, even though I'll probably be sitting alone for about an hour.

YIPPIE, I can't wait!!!


THE ADVENTURE

I have a new video for today.
Titled:
Hold on to you Stomach, it's gonna get bumpy.




many hugs and kisses,

-M and L

P.S.

The peanut butter was a gift from a friend, it's hard to find peanut butter, if one can find it at all in our village.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Love the video and new car- Corolla Diesel, crazy! I just saw a commercial for Volkswagon and they are having an "Autobahn for all Sales Event", you should ask that what that entails if you live in Germany.... Miss you guys!

Martin said...

Yes, I
ll have to ask about thie "Autobahn for all Sales Event." hmmmm