Kent M

Recently, I had the chance to cruise the autobahn. It was much different than i expected and I thought that others might enjoy hearing my experience:

We drove for approx 8 hours across 2 days before entering france:

1) It was only a 2 lane road (each way)
2) Speeds were limited to heavy traffic
3) THere are very few P.O.S. cars on the autobahn. Even the smallest cars are built to cruise at high speed.
4) Most familiar german cars are similar in body style to us models, yet have much smaller engines ex> 518i, etc.
5) High speeds occur in short bursts (1-4mins)when vision and traffic permits
6) THe roads itself is very smooth with few seams and breaks. WHen at high speed, there is little concern about bumps, etc
7) THe german drivers (and french) are well trained at the rules of the road. WHen at high speed, it is not uncommon to be flying by cars that are in the right lane..ie> little concern that a car will pull out in front of you suddenly.
8) No cell phones, etc to distract drivers. drivers are very serious
9) Our average cruising speed was about 80-110mph without fanfare.
10) high speed for us was 135mph
11) Of all of the cars we saw on the road, Audi and bmw represented 90% of them. Only saw a few japanese cars and a handlful of other cars. Suprisingly, only a few porsches seen in germany, many seen in paris.
12) The fastest car we saw was an Audi a8. We guess at around 150mph. It whipped past us when we were travelling around 120

Now don't freak (i own a a6 2.7t) but i was travelling in a new 540i that my bro picked up from bmw in munich. My observations with the 540i are as follows:

0) Overall, an incredible car
1) Stick shift was incredibly long to throw
2) Sport suspension was not as impressive at cornering as I thought it would be, but was most impressive when travelling at high speed. Very stable with total confidence
3) ENgine had a nice rumble to it.
4) HP / Torque were not as exciting as I anticipated, but still very fun.
5) Nav system with ger/french CD was a godsend.
6) This is my bros 3rd bmw and he leases. Break in period was the first 3 miles from factory to the autobahn.

+++
MY 2.7 is approx. 6 mos old. When I retuned, i couldn't wait to drive it with my fresh 540 experience for a comparison. Objectively speaking, my audi rocks! Power, handling, features, feel, comfort et al. were all at par, or in many cases better than the bmw. Overall, i felt VERY satisfied with my decision to go Audi despite strong persuasion to by beemer.

My temporary concerns that my car would feel less impressive when i returned were comletely unfounded.

Ken
2.7t 6 speed (not chipped yet)Ming
sport, bose, premium, yada yada

srosie

suprised you did not see more Benz's. We usually see plenty on the Continent when there.

kkemp

You are right about the quality of the roads in terms of size and smoothness, however I found that the qaulity of the drivers was comprabable to those in the US.

We cruised at about 130-150 km/h with bursts up to 220-230. (80-95 topping out around 140 mph), and ALL DAY LONG german drivers would pop out into the left lane in front of us and then stay there while they tried to stretch their slow pass over many cars spread far apart. German truck drivers also made many grindingly slow passes of other trucks while going up hills etc. The only reason they weren't on their cell phones is because their big brother government has put very stiff fines in places, not because they respect the road.

As far as their cars, while there were plenty of nice ones, the majority of them were no better suited the autobahn than any american car, with some being laughably worse (e.g. Smart, MB A class, any Renault)

My biggest gripe with the autobahn system is that there is no system. The route numbers have no discernable meaning, and the roads do not go in any easilty identifiable direction (e.g. east-west) This means that in order to navigate the autobahns you must know the names of most of the cities and towns along the route you want to travel, even some that are past your final destination.

My audi content here is similar to yours, we were moving at about 170 km/h when we were passed by what looked to be an RS6 (I wasn't sure if they existed yet?) and an AMG E55 wagon that were traveling in formation. They blew by us like we were standing still and disappeared up the road *very quickly* once they got past the jackass who pulled out in front of them

2.7tDallas

huge differences in what type of cars are around depending on region

TXurS6

I lived in Germany for 3 years and I remember we used to joke about the signage with newcomers. A common joke would involve a sign pointing in a direction and have a destination on it (like Munich). The newcomer would ask if that was the way to Munich and the response would always be "Yeah, you CAN get to Munich that way but take a map and a navigator...". Problem was that that might be the last sign you see pointing to Muncih for the next 200km and meanwhile you would have needed to take several turns or exits to stay on track.

There were plenty of signs but most of them were only useful if you already knew your way around.

Kent M

i live in san diego, the land of the worst drivers on earth. Not uncommon to observe a person talking on cell, putting on makeup, petting a dog on their lap hanging out the window, smoking a cigarette and yelling at the kids in the backall at once...

I thought that the drivers were predictable enough to pass cars going 70mph or so while we were travelling at 120moph or so.

As far as the road signs, etc, our gps solved all of those problems.

Admit it, when you returned and had to deal with US speed limits, etc it felt pretty lame...

Arburg2.7t

And I agree with your points on the road signs. Luckly we had along a navigator.

The 2.5TDI(6speed) was fantastic, tremendous low end torque, would never have knowen it was a diesel if they didn't tell us.

We cruised at 100mph with sprints to appx. 130mph(I think it was limited) while getting great mileage. The car was rock solid at any speed.
I was suprised at the interior, not many options, very plain with no leather or wood trim it looked very different. It was a rental afterall.

The rental agent first wanted to give us a Fiat Punto (I did that in Italy before, never again), she thought we were crazy for wanting "such a big car", It was very comfortable for four guys and all our luggage.

We were in the Black Forest area and saw lots of BMW's, MB's and Audi's.

2 months to delivery of our 2002 2.7t!!!

2.7tDallas

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/5503/03280019.jpg"></center><p>In fact - here it is!!!Computer controlled top speed at about 130. Fealt great. 100mph all day long is no problem. Try Sunday Morning early if you want to go fast for a long time

But the S320 TDI MBZ was much much more fun, I have to say.