bikes and beemers
My car is tired. It has been a good car, and has seen more of this country than I have, but with over 20 years and ~150,000 miles under her tires, things are breaking down. It hasn't a SPOT of rust on its body that I've seen, and for that I give the beemer people serious kudos. However, her electric is starting to evidence wear, and alot of little parts are adding up to alot of money. The belts have been replaced, the battery twice, the sparkplugs, the driver's lock needs to be but i cant afford it, the passenger window only works sometimes, and the car again wont start. I've bought a new ignition coil, hoping thats all she needs. So, overall a good car, but not very reliable because everytime something little breaks im without a car for days or weeks.
That in mind, ive been thinking more and more about when i might be able to afford to buy something a little younger... dont tell the beemer.
I really really like my car, so i thought i might check out the bmw site and see what sort of things theyre putting out lately... afterall, If I could buy a new car and have it last as long as this one has i'd be set into my 40's... a good investment. Those of you who are realists are going, yeah but you can't afford a bmw... *pout* i just wanted to look. Ok, so the cheap beemers are 30,000-40,000$ new and thats about 15 times my annual income-- not feasible, not surprised.
However, while i was there i learned about something i knew nothing about. Does anyone remember years ago when the US said we were going to sink money into developing more fuel-efficient vehicles, etc etc. What we got was hybrids, better gas mileage and such. What happened to all the talk about hydrogen vehicles??
Did you know that BMW has cars capable of running on SOLELY hydrogen? Did you know they've had them since 1999!? In Germany companies like BMW and BP have teamed up to place hydrogen fueling stations in the major cities, and the shuttle fleet at Munich airport is entirely made up of BMW "CleanEnergy" vehicles... I wanted to price these to get an idea of the cost, but theyre not available for purchase because the hydrogen-fueling infrastructure isnt in place to support them. The BMW 745h is bivalent and can run on either liquid hydrogen or petrol (the engine switches automatically)-- these are the vehicles currently being built in Germany, but mainly for promotional purposes.
Damn... the way people talk about fuel alternatives it always sounds like its very experimental. It doesnt sound like its experimental to me at all.. it sounds political.
So, with one old beemer that isnt working, and no new vehicles in sight, I've opted for the most fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicle I can afford-- I bought myself a new bike :) It was about $100 but I managed to get a pretty good bike with front and rear suspension-- something i wasnt even aware bikes had, as well as what im told is a much better braking setup than the 53$ bike came with. Sadly, my bike is now taking up the length of my dining room because it wont STOP RAINING! but im looking forward to test driving my new vehicle very soon...
Luckily I just found out that I will be working for the Biology Dept part time this summer, because I dont think my credit card can handle much more of my transportation funding. I have the option of working 20 hours at $5.4 and 20 at (hopefully) $6, so I'm hoping this will be able to pay my rent and pay off my credit cards so that I can start the school year with a positive balance this time... the car troubles and recent purchases are making this increasingly difficult.
Last but not least in my very long update, grades are in and not only do i seem to have passed organic chem, i think i still made the deans list... I dont actually remember the numbers, but having a billion credits seems to have smoothed over my gpa both overall and for the semester... yay!
i hope everyone has a great weekend, i'm going to get away from my computer now before i start to grow on the keys...
That in mind, ive been thinking more and more about when i might be able to afford to buy something a little younger... dont tell the beemer.
I really really like my car, so i thought i might check out the bmw site and see what sort of things theyre putting out lately... afterall, If I could buy a new car and have it last as long as this one has i'd be set into my 40's... a good investment. Those of you who are realists are going, yeah but you can't afford a bmw... *pout* i just wanted to look. Ok, so the cheap beemers are 30,000-40,000$ new and thats about 15 times my annual income-- not feasible, not surprised.
However, while i was there i learned about something i knew nothing about. Does anyone remember years ago when the US said we were going to sink money into developing more fuel-efficient vehicles, etc etc. What we got was hybrids, better gas mileage and such. What happened to all the talk about hydrogen vehicles??
Did you know that BMW has cars capable of running on SOLELY hydrogen? Did you know they've had them since 1999!? In Germany companies like BMW and BP have teamed up to place hydrogen fueling stations in the major cities, and the shuttle fleet at Munich airport is entirely made up of BMW "CleanEnergy" vehicles... I wanted to price these to get an idea of the cost, but theyre not available for purchase because the hydrogen-fueling infrastructure isnt in place to support them. The BMW 745h is bivalent and can run on either liquid hydrogen or petrol (the engine switches automatically)-- these are the vehicles currently being built in Germany, but mainly for promotional purposes.
Damn... the way people talk about fuel alternatives it always sounds like its very experimental. It doesnt sound like its experimental to me at all.. it sounds political.
So, with one old beemer that isnt working, and no new vehicles in sight, I've opted for the most fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicle I can afford-- I bought myself a new bike :) It was about $100 but I managed to get a pretty good bike with front and rear suspension-- something i wasnt even aware bikes had, as well as what im told is a much better braking setup than the 53$ bike came with. Sadly, my bike is now taking up the length of my dining room because it wont STOP RAINING! but im looking forward to test driving my new vehicle very soon...
Luckily I just found out that I will be working for the Biology Dept part time this summer, because I dont think my credit card can handle much more of my transportation funding. I have the option of working 20 hours at $5.4 and 20 at (hopefully) $6, so I'm hoping this will be able to pay my rent and pay off my credit cards so that I can start the school year with a positive balance this time... the car troubles and recent purchases are making this increasingly difficult.
Last but not least in my very long update, grades are in and not only do i seem to have passed organic chem, i think i still made the deans list... I dont actually remember the numbers, but having a billion credits seems to have smoothed over my gpa both overall and for the semester... yay!
i hope everyone has a great weekend, i'm going to get away from my computer now before i start to grow on the keys...