[s-cars] NAC: Rear-ended on the Autobahn

[Wayne Dohnal]

My wife and I are traveling in Germany.  I reserved an A4 wagon for the
rental, but they didn't have one available and instead gave me a BMW 320D
wagon with 300 miles on it.  It has a 6-speed automatic, and after
confessing that I truly hate driving automatics, I'll admit this one is
extremely smooth and isn't as stupid as most of the others.  The leather
seats look great but are nowhere near as confortable as those in our S4s.
The 4-banger diesel gets up and goes really well, not as fast as the S-cars
of course, but it's pretty snappy and gets about 50 mpg.  Trying to use the
radio that's integrated with the nav system is so distracting that I just
quit trying to use it.  Anyway, we were about 30 miles southwest of Dresden
on A4, going about 70 mph in the right-hand lane, and got firmly rear-ended.
I saw the car coming in the mirror and was accelerating but I was truly
shocked at the strength of the impact.  The sound was horrible, and our
heads got very firmly planted into the headrests.  I will also note that the
bimmer took the impact well, and the Nissan had a lot more visible damage.
The bimmer needs a new rear bumper and tailgate, and who knows what else
under the skin.  Police reports took about 3 hours.

So for now, driving the Autobahn isn't all that appealing to me.

Wayne Dohnal
1994 S4