Comments on: BMW: The Ultimate Driving Machine

By: Stephan Wilkinson

Stephan Wilkinson — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:34:25 +0000

It’s obviously a European development, not U. S., which is why the Euro-spec headlights and lack of lawyers. European home garages are narrower than what we’re accustomed to.

By: GS650G

GS650G — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:50:53 +0000

Lawyers actually approved development of this?

By: Mirko Reinhardt

Mirko Reinhardt — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:57:23 +0000

@JJ
Euro-spec headlights?

By: JJ

JJ — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:15:54 +0000

Hmm, so judging by the small fragment of car you see when the garage opens, I think the car next to the siebener is a dreier, but the front end looks weird.

Facelift? weird glare? Mule?

By: shaker

shaker — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:57:23 +0000

jdizzle:
So…this does work in reverse, right?

Hope so!

Manual tranny need not apply!
That scene from “Fast Times” keeps popping into my head…

By: jdizzle

jdizzle — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:40:27 +0000

So…this does work in reverse, right?

By: creamy

creamy — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:15:45 +0000

is that a 550? it looks less bangled.

By: Stephan Wilkinson

Stephan Wilkinson — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:26:13 +0000

I was driving a Cayenne once in Denmark and had to park it in a garage that had an ancient creaky self-service elevator the size of a European garage-space. The Cayenne barely fit, and when I got it in, I reached out the driver’s window and pushed the “up” button. Halfway between floors, the elevator died and I was totally stuck. Couldn’t even get out the tailgate. Fortunately, the elevator eventually restarted after much button-mashing.

By: speedlaw

speedlaw — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:24:25 +0000

Redox is correct.

I was in Berlin a few years ago. We ended up with a rental E Classe (max speed 130 mph-and we used it). When we got to Berlin, our hosts were quite happy to tell us we got a parking space too. Parking in Berlin=Manhattan with less of a sense of humor.

The space was designed for a VW golf. Between two concrete pillars. I had to drop all passengers, and very carefully watusi out of the partly opened door. The Parktronic (looks and sounds like a radar detector) was key for parking anywhere. Those huge SUV spaces don’t exist anywhere in Europe, and the “design size” for all cars is the Golf size.

The kicker is that in this environment, not one car had the “door dings” you see in the States. Not one.

By: Redox

Redox — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:12:01 +0000

dmk1976:

It’s not pointless if you’re trying to squeeze your new Yankeestrassencruizer-width 7 series into a German garage so narrow that you can’t get out once the car is parked. That’s what the film was showing us. It is pointless for those of us in the U.S. The lawyers will never allow it to be sold here.

By: dmk1976

dmk1976 — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:57:22 +0000

Wow the ultimate driving machine that now drives itself. Seems pointless to me, why would I want to get out of my car before it goes into the garage, if it was raining I would get wet! The whole point of having the car in the garage is so I never have to walk out in the rain to get into the car.

By: Robert Farago

Robert Farago — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:48:00 +0000

TexasAg03 :

If that will get people’s cars parked straight and withing the parking lines, I’m all for it!!

And I thought I was the only one with OCD…

By: TexasAg03

TexasAg03 — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:45:52 +0000

If that will get people’s cars parked straight and withing the parking lines, I’m all for it!!

By: holydonut

holydonut — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:35:55 +0000

This makes me forget about the heartbeat monitor in the S60.

I wonder how this thing detects if it’s just about to scrape something. It seems there’s still the need to line up the car just right.