MORE POWER FOR THE PEOPLE! A 3.0 SIX FOR EVERYONE.

Or: The frustrating paucity of genuine road test data.

Being able to read in more than one language allows you to read even more road tests. Only reading English can give one a skewed perspective; What the Americans say about cars is best ignored, the Australian and South African markets are somewhat insular and irrelevant. The British, while masters of the language, only appear to care about diesels. 

And so I was reading a Swedish comparative road test: The (then - early 2010) new Volvo S60 2.0T vs its competition from the usual German triplets. I was actually reading this test (does one need a reason, really?) for more into the featured ethanol burning A4 2.0 TFSI Quattro when I glanced across to the figures for the BMW 325i, a car I had hitherto ignored - because obviously no one can afford to run a normally aspirated 3.0 straight 6 in this day and age of downsizing and forced induction - when I was socked to see it was the most economical car in the test, beating it’s 1.8 and 2.0 blown 4pot competition. Surely not? But no, the testers were quite sure, despite being the fastest and most powerful car on test it used the least fuel. (and put out the least CO2, if you care about or even believe in that sort of thing - I assure you, your taxman does.) For the kind of practical and sensible reasons that could only be understood by a Swede the Audi was still pronounced the winner, but that’s hardly the point here. The point is that here is a “big six” you could afford to commute in, and what’s more, how did I not know about this?

Now having something to set my obsessive mind to, much very enjoyable research followed. The late 2007 facelift of the BMW e90 included, in addition to the “Efficient Dynamics” set of modifications, the new direct injection N53 in place of the the Valvetronic N52 but only in Europe. In the case of the 325i the engine was now a 3.0 instead of a 2.5. Power remained the same, torque increased slightly but the headline is the dramatically improved economy. Comparing tests done on the pre- and post-facelift 325is done by the same Swedish mag, a dramatic improvement indeed. Suddenly there is no need to bother with a Golf GTi or Skoda Octavia RS. 
This knowledge of course, in addition to requiring visits to the nearest BMW dealer to check their “Premium Used” section, and replacing excitement at the launch of the new forced induction only f30 with a slightly bittersweet feeling, also lead me to suddenly wonder about a e60 5-series. Didnt it also receive the N53 and Efficient Dynamics kit - yes, in Europe it did. Doesn't that mean it will also be amazingly economical? Should I not in fact perform my daily commute in a 530i auto? No, apparently not, in the single tests each I can find of the post 2007 525i and 530i is was pretty thirsty. Sad. How can it use so much more fuel than the (only) 220kg lighter e90?

I don’t know and I am unlikely to find out due to the paucity of information I am forced to work with. Why does nobody test these cars? When someone tests a 3-series, why it is always 320d? (or a 335i?) Why wasn't more fuss made of the N53 and its amazingly economy? Why where we being told to buy 2.0 turbo 4s, when we could have had one of the last attainable normally aspirated sixes? Why it is so hard to find any test on any BMW with name ending in -25i? Yes I know I am very boring, I want to sit and read fuel consumption figures, I want to compare the e90 and e60s and work out some kind of pattern - because I live in the real world were petrol costs money and what to see what the real costs are. 

I am sick of this massive diesel preference, specifically in the English motoring press. Comparing the tested figures of the last, now sadly gone e90 325i to the 320d of the same time show that you’d really have to do a lot of mileage for total cost of ownership (ignoring depreciation) of the 325i to be greater than that of the 320d. Now don't get me wrong, the 320d is a great car. I dont like diesels but I am forced to admit that it is excellent…but compared to the incredible joys of a 3.0 BMW straight6? For similar money, can you get your head around that?

And yet nobody knows, for these cars are simply ignored.

Edit 16 months later:
It appears, sadly, that the N53 suffered a fair amount of reliability issues, specifically injector problems and now appears to be largely dead. Even in the F10 its place has been taken by the new turbo 4 bangers. I say appear because, as always, there is virtually no information on this, and in any case relatively few N53 engined E90s were sold. (Because you were all to busy buying diesels, weren't you?)

But to end this on a more positive note, here is the article in the original gansta: (Excuse the language.) http://www.gizoogle.net/xfer.php?link=http://gtdriver.tumblr.com/post/17656547265/more-power-for-the-people-a-3-0-six-for-everyone&sa=U&ei=umqwUc3hJO-N7AaEsoCYBw&ved=0CCoQFjAG&usg=AFQjCNHn6JuJURy5DG6q5kre93rr_l2oMg

Now thats a small computer. HTPC anyone?

A lot of what I watch on TV is from the internet, in avi format etc or not even a TV program. Youtube, Google maps, photos and such. In other words I find myself wanting a computer connected to my TV. Now I've watched downloaded .avis for a long time - and I refuse to sit and do it on my PC because I am not a teenager, so I have tried various other approaches. Many years ago I even had a huge noisy tower PC connected to my TV setup - it was the easiest/cheapest way of watching DVDs at the time (South Africa, long story) - but subsequently I've tried more civilized methods like DivX DVD players or even USB compatible models and these have worked to a acceptable degree. This all culminated in the purchase of a PS3 three years ago. An excellent media device and cost-effective (at the time) Bluray player.
And I have never gotten around to building a proper HTPC as such. (Unless I count my fulltower AMD K6 based DVD playing monster of the 90s.) They have always seemed too expensive, too big and too noisy. And recently, not powerful enough - the PS3 narrowly beat out a Asus EEE nettop. (No optical drive and I am suspicious of Atoms...)

Yet here I have so something that could be called an HTPC. Its tiny, its silent and it cost me about $50.
An Android minipc it calls itself....essentially a smartphone minus the screen and battery, i.e the expensive bits. A9 dual core CPU and 1GB RAM putting it on par with a typical  2011 smartphone, think iPhone 4S or Samsung Galaxy S2.
It runs some variant of Android 4.1 and so far seems to work perfectly.  Its fast enough and played Youtube HD beautifully. Amazingly my Logitech 2.4ghz wireless keyboard worked straight away. I chose the cheaper non-bluetooth version and so have two USB ports, a microSD reader, Wifi and a miniHDMI port that obviously also handles the sound.  Which seems to work fine as well. So far Ive connected it to my 23" Benq LED screen that serves as a bedroom "TV"  (yes I know, disgusting first world habit, multiple TVs...).
More tests will follow. I am specifically interested in streaming avis via SMB (vs DLNA) and image quality on a real TV.

In this general spirit of Androidness I even made this blog post on my Galaxy Note, which I can say was a plague.  Be fun to see how the formatting turns out...

(Edit 2013-05-06 - Fixed formatting on PC...)

Childhood hero

When I was rather young I saw this magazine:

Quite a long time ago if you note the date. The cover article sparked a near long interest in that car. The more I read and learnt the more I wanted one, a 535i manual with cross-spoke wheels.
Years of reading about E34s and the mighty M30 straight six did little to dampen this. Getting a e30 316i in 2002 and learning the joys of RWD didn't harm it either.
Until finally many years later:

My own 1988 (March or April for that matter) 535i manual, with cross spoke BBS wheels. A lifelong dream fulfilled or meeting a childhood hero? 

They say you never should and in many ways its been a mixed bad. I still find the car beautiful and the M30 is an even more magnificent engine then I had imagined. However its not quite the dynamic paragon I had hoped, its magnificent but not fun as such. Its fast but not quick. In the confined driving environment here its mighty and intimidating. While it was in for a recent service I was lent a lovely late model E36 316i compact (the 1.9 M43 model) and honestly it was more fun. Not as good to look at, to sit in, to start, to hear, or to tell people you own, but honestly more fun to drive.
That combined with the effort and expense of owning a "summer only" car, makes me being to wonder if what I really want a simpler, lighter, more sporting second car. A traditional lightweight sports car?
Is this turning ones back on a childhood hero, or merely achieving a life goal and then moving on? 

Before and After - Fuji S3 Pro sensor clean

Recently acquired an old Fuji Finepix S3 Pro DSLR camera. Several years old and probably never seen any maintenance. Noticed black spots on most but not all the images - have been trying the camera with 3 different lenses and it was far more apparent on certain lenses than others, typically most visible on wider zoom angles and smaller apertures. All this and some Google-assisted deduction led me to believe it was dirt on the actual sensor. (Fuji's so called SuperCCD in this case.)
Finally got my cleaning kit last night and tried it out (more pics of that job later).

Before:

Quite horrible...
and After:

Both pics taken with Nikon AF-S DX 18-55mm "kit" lens - the lens that worst showed the dirt.

Success!

What is it with women and hatchbacks?

As I lament and curse the BMW F20 and Merc A-class and wish they were sedans instead, I see this and find it very interesting.
Is the current rash of premium hatchbacks and the demise of the small sporting sedan to be blamed on the fairer sex?

Ultra low cost cars

Reading the newspaper review of the Dacia Logy this morning. I don't usually read newspaper reviews of cars - usually annoying nonsense written by opinionated journos who don't actually know anything. (Some would say this applies equally to actual car magazines but that is a blog for another day.) Two loud criticisms stood out. One quite legitimate of the lousy steering, and another of the safety. Or rather lack of: only 3-stars NCAP, shock horror. This was followed by the very Swedish comment that "even poor families should be able to afford safety", which is unfortunately the kind of vomit inducing socialist gunk you have to put up with if you insist on reading a Swedish newspaper.
Don't misunderstand me, I am not saying low-income families deserve to die, I am merely saying that safety costs and that this is a technical and economical point and should not be make into a political one.

After its final descent into self-righteousness the review ends off by saying: Rather spend your 100000kr on a second hand car.
I think that is good advice. Few low budget cars have made it to Scandinavian shores, but every time I read about one being launched in the UK, back to the Sao Penza (whenever that was) the advice given to buyers has been the same: Don't. Rather buy a second hand car. And in Europe, where second hand cars are so cheap, surely this makes sense? You can buy a far superior, often low mileage  second hand car for the same money. I can only think of one reason to buy the new car and that is the piece of mind, but surely you trust a 4 year Honda more than a new Dacia? (And if you don't, you need to go and read up on some statistics, because you should.)

Of course our champion of low income families' safety's point was that the second hand car would be safer. Now this is interesting. Would it really?
What caused the upset was Logy's 3-star rating. Now firstly NCAP's star ratings are, if simply taken at face value, wildly misleading. Secondly, they change over time. The second facelift of the Toyota Aygo recently scored 3-stars, yet it originally scored far higher - NCAP gets harder every year. Something to think about when comparing a new car to a four year old one.
And yet another reason why I can't see the point of the ultra-low cost car in the 1st world.

Observations on quality 1 of ?

Performing the rather odious (when its very cold and you'd rather be doing something else, like shopping for old Siekos on eBay) task of changing the wheels on my car. From summer to winter tyres, in case you live in a tropical country and don't know about this.

I usualy take this opportunity to clean the wheels that are coming off the car before putting them away. And so I was cleaning the filthy 16" alloy wheels that my Polo GT was supplied with. And musing on the qaulity of VW rims...
Now I am a little careless with cleaning my wheels, and drive fairly hard, so there was fairly extensive coating of brake dust...and beneath it, pitting in the paint. Hmmm, sad, and those wheels are only 14 months old. Yet the wheels on my previous car, a 2007 e90 320i, never suffered from this. You wiped off the brake dust and beneath it the paint was fine. And I remember making this same comparison, years ago in South Africa between an old e36 320i and a South Africa made CitiGolf (Golf Mk1) that I owned at the time. If you didnt clean those VW mags every month or so the paint took damage.

What can we learn from all of this? Well obviously: Buy a premium car and you don't have to wash your wheels as often.