Europe trip

[Michael Murphy]

Hi folks,

Got back on Tuesday from a 2 week, 2000 mile (3,300km) road trip 
through Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland.

Megeve FR - an S6 taxi?!  Quattros are everywhere and clearly the 
go skiing vehicle of choice in this town.

Ingostadt -
A must see for any Audi nut...the town too but skip eating Mex food 
at Sausilito's.

The plant's new car delivery pavilion had two RS4s' waiting for their 
owners.  Talk about A G G R E S S I V E.  Scary looking just 
standing still.

The Audi museum is a very classy tour-de-force of Audi's history.  

Dead A8 3.3TDI on the side of the road as we're leaving the plant.
Yes, a 3.3TDI.  Owner is an Audi employee who we gave a lift back to 
the plant - he didn't think Americans: (a) liked Audis and (b) were 
that considerate.  Hope we helped to change his mind on both fronts.  
BTW, his A8 ran out of fuel with 1/4 tank on the gauge.

3 MAN "Audi Sport" trucks traveling south from Ingolstadt. 
Surmise they were hauling the R8s to ???.

Any Autobahn - 
1.9 and 2.5TDIs blowing past everyone...almost :)

Badges - Seems Audi, MB and BMW are playing the we don't need no 
stinking badges game.  Plenty of A3-8s with nothing but the 
4 rings on the rear deck.  Same for the other marques.  Then along
comes one with full badge regalia?  The exceptions being the A2,
BMW 525tds wagons and AMG MBs.

Salzburg - US Army guys pull into tourist info. parking lot in a 
99 A4 1.9TDI the owner picked up for $13K (ouch).  Says he's bringing 
it back to the States.  I advise him of potential parts problems.
He responds that he doesn't care, he loves the car.  Tell him about
the list and he's off with no noise or smoke.  You just gotta' love
the TDI system.

Our rental A3 1.6 (w/4sp AT) performed amazingly well.  Only took about 
50 miles of driving for it to learn our driving habits and I figure it
got close to 45mpg highway and well over 30mpg in the city.

BMW -
Developed a new respect for this company and it's cars.  I get the
feeling there's a synergy between Audi and BMW that drives both to 
amazing levels of automotive genius.  While waiting to meet with a 
rep from BMW's Mobile Traditions Program, 4 guys wheeled a Williams 
F1 car through the front door of BMW, AG HQ and into a plain white van 
in the lot.  Guard had a fit when I tried to snap a few pics.

My $0.02
Surprise.  We're getting screwed in North America!  
Regardless of the marque, us poor 'Mericans and Canadians get maybe 
30% of a remarkable lineup of cars from Germany's big 3.  
Want proof?  The German A6 Sales brochure shows a choice of 7 motors, 
3 transmissions, 3 sound systems (not including Bose), 4 steering 
wheels and on and on and on.

And then there was the visit to Dachau...

When the pics (of Audi stuff) are uploaded, I'll provide a link.
--
Mike Murphy
Despite the whining, it's good to be home.