I'm still going to get A/S tires. I'm going with the General AS3 since it has gotten some good reviews and I need the extra money that I was going to spend on the Pilots on some other stuff. Man I didn't reallize just how expensive it was to live in Europe. I knew it wasn't cheap but DANG.

 

Yeah, there are a lot of things here that can cost you a bit. Hope the A/S work out for you. We have had a bit of snow/ice this week, but they have kept up with the roads pretty well. I am glad I have the beater to drive and keep the Boss in the garage though.

 

We have been having some of the same weather here too. It was fluries today mostly. No heavy stuff. I'm really impressed with the way that they keep up with the roads. I am actually going to get the Kumho 4X's instead due to chatting with a TireRack rep last night about them vs the Generals. I had just replaced the rear crappy Michelin's that were on the 2010 Mercedes C300 Sport I traded in for the Mustang. My wife wasn't happy about that. I had the 6 speed manual in that which was rather rare for the states. Once I had them installed it instantly changed the handling of the car. Not enough for me to warrant keeping it any longer but in a great way. I liked them for the short time I had them. For less than $1K shipped I couldn't justify a beater. I probably won't drive around much anyway except for the weekends because I'm so close to work (500 meters). I walk to back and forth 3 times unless I need something else from the room.

 

I hear you. It's rough to put the car in garage for an extended period too.

 

Since I am not Baller enough to buy my car outright, I would feel like I would be kind of wasting money if she just sat in there looking longingly out every time I took the recycling out if I stored her.

I just checked today and she is on the way here now. It said she was "In Transit" when I looked it up. She's supposed to get here on the 19th but probably will be here sooner. I only have 5 annotations on my inspection sheet so I will be super **** about when I pick her up. I might make some loot if there is even one ding anywhere. And, I would be pretty angry.

 

The car I shipped over sat at the port for about a week before they trucked it here. Showed up just about on the RDD.

 

I figure since I know it's on the way here I will wait till after the beginning of next month to check on it again. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Get you a rent a dent for the winter months; the salt and chem's they put on the road here will age your car by three years in one winter season, Unless you have a good undercoat on the car. Also I would not bring out the car until Mid April as it does snow up to mid april in Vilseck.

 

I plan on using this on the regular once my car gets here.

http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-roa...er-gallon.html

 

Make sure you check the octane ratings there if you have a tune. When I lived in Italy and Germany the highest octane I could get was 87. But that was 8 years ago. It's probably totally different now.

 

Thanks for the advice. The lowest that I can get here is 93+ which is ethanol in it. Incidentally it's also the cheapest. The next up is 93 without the ethanol. Then 95 which is premium here. I will be running the straight 93 in my car. I don't have a tune so I'm good. She's staying stock pretty much till I retire. Unless I can free up some for the stuff I really want like the Fiske 302R wheels but they are $700 a pop. Dead sexy though.

 

I lived in Germany, and traveled extensively throughout western Europe for 27 years and never had a problem finding 91 and higher octane. Also 100 although expensive has been available for quite some time. More than 10 years ago in Germany they stopped selling 87 octane on base, and if I remember correctly off base as well. Today 89 octane is about the lowest you will find, if you lucky to find it at all.

 

Octane ratings use DIFFERENT scale in Europe vs. US. You can't compare the two numbers straight. US87 = EU91, and so on.

"Because of the 8 to 10 point difference noted above, the octane rating shown in Canada and the United States is 4 to 5 points lower than the rating shown elsewhere in the world for the same fuel. See the table in the following section for a comparison."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_...en_RON_and_AKI

 

I can if they already converted it for the idiots who are on military installations in Europe and suck at math.

 

Yes, I'm aware of the differences and I compensated for that in my post. In the end, with or without a tune you can still get good gas.

Now here in eastern Europe, in my area the best I can hope for is 98 (which is 92-93 US) When I drive thru Serbia and Croatia the best I can find is 95 which is (90-91 US). On the other hand when I'm in Greece or Bulgaria she gets a treat of Super 100 (which is 95-96 US). I try to stay away from ethanol, but that's getting harder and harder to do.

 

I'm still trying to figure out why everyone is putting ethanol in the gas. I know there's something to do with emissions and yada yada but it's so bad for engines that I don't think they really thought that through. I mean yeah at the end of it's life (200K miles) using ethanol gas is going to make all these engines croak sooner burdening the recycling industry versus not using it and having our engines last another 100K miles. I don't get it. I try to avoid it.

 

LOL )

 

I just found the calendar for the Ring and a British website with tons of info on everything. Even a link to the webcam.

 

I heard it was to decrease our dependence of foreign oil, make fuel cheaper, and help the farmers by buying up their excess corn. I say bull sausage to all of it. A gallon of gas has X amount of BTU's or energy. When you replace 10% of it with ethanol you decrease the amount of energy that gallon has. Aside from the long term damage to the engine and fuel lines, your car is less peppy and burns more fuel per mile. This is what I think is going on. Am I correct?

 

Good Luck, Post some vid's..