My BS is mechanical enginerring. I quite focused on automative industry and was friend with a group of "car geek". I then went to the pilgrim school, U of Michigan. For an automotive engineering, that is the dream school. But ironically, during the final stage of my graduate degree, I decided to leave car industry and tought it is failing (which is kind of true now).
Back on track. This is one of the friend from this group. He came to here, went to the MBA program of one of the elite school. It was quite a investment but we all think it should be worthful.
The interesting part comes. Finally he landed a nice job and graduated. When relocation is still going on and student loan is not cleaned yet, he decided to buy a new car.
A BMW 335xi!!!
This car is more than 40K and in a upper class among BMW family.
This made me recall the last time I drove BMW. It was Autumn of 2005 when I was managing a project in Regensburg, Germany. I had some photos. But I really cannot recall what exact they were. I remembered the first time I got a BMW 318, then 320 I believe. Whether I got 325 or not, I am not sure. Funny thing is, I kept all the rental records back 2004, but I just cannot find any of these.
I always rent BMW mainly because I need GPS and client was ok for the higher rate. So, I managed to stay away from VW which my client keep saying they are crap. Oh... one point here, having a GPS in a country which you can not speak the language is a life saver. I ended up using the GPS more fluent than my own product I guess.318 was not impressed. The space is not sufficent and the engining is crying all the time... I managed to drive up to 200Km/Hr on AutoBahn but the whole car was getting shaky. 320 (or 325) was relatively better. The space is about the same (actually better because the 32x was the new model). But the smoothness around 150-200Km/Hr is quite improved.
BMW 318 when reaching 200 Km/hr
I then got couple chances to take rides with client's IT manager, who was driving a BMW 525. I just think I will never accept the tiny space in 3 series to be a family car. Overall, it is a car for two adults only, a hippy car.
Before my daughter came, we actually went to the car dealer and tried the 3 series. We also then tried Mercede C220 (I think). Well, my wife was apparently not even putting them in consideration.
Oh... when looking for photos (and rental records but return nothing), I recalled all the days I had in that small nice town in Germany. Regensburg is quite a peaceful place and may be I should post some photos later. I also noticed I actually got a Mercede B series one time. Maybe I should talk it a little bit since B series is quite rare out of Europe.
Ok... the point is, I am quite happy for my friend actually. Even thinking about all the financial implication. Car is consumer good, we all agree. And it go depreciate all the time and does not preserve value well. But from car guy ego, I can sort of understand. And I kind of thinking that if I could, I may go crazy because of this ego thing once a life time.
