As some of y'all might know, I attend the University of Virginia, which is located in middle-of-nowhere in the Communisticalwealth of Virginia. I also commute on occasion back to my primary residence in the "state" of Northern Virginia (more on this another day).

The geographic and demographics of the two regions are very, very different. Every time I go back, I usually find a new ding, dent, or paint chip on my parents' 325i. And it's covered in 2cm of road grime.

That got me thinking: Geez, city cars really suffer. I feel sorry for all those Germanic thoroughbreds that never see the countryside and the kinds of roads they were designed for.

The X3 lives a charmed life, in many ways. The roads here are good and well-paved. And while on weekdays the X3 sees a lot of short urban trips, the fact that everything and anything is an hour away makes for a lot of highway driving on the weekends. I have a saying "Oh yeah, that town is an hour away, and so is that city. It takes an hour to get anywhere". No wonder the X3 has over 117tkm (73250mi). To make things better, once outside of town, traffic lights don't exist so the car is pretty much rolling 80-130km/h (50-81mph) for long, long periods of time at a steady state even on rural roads.

When you want to be daring or raise your pulse, you take a drive on any mountain road. Because there usually aren't any cars or mobile phone service within a 10km radius, you can drive around the smooth bends quickly. If you want, you can hit wide open throttle and you won't run into anyone. It's not as good as say, Germany and Austria, but it's pretty darned close.



I can't help but feel sorry for the miserable 325i. It's a grocery getter, pretty much, except for the weekends, when it might see a trip across the river to Maryland. The roads up North suck. The traffic is terrible. There's constant acceleration and braking even when one tries to be consistent on the freeway. Every 500m there stands a stop light. And because it is VA, synchronising them is not an option. When there's the slightest chance of rain, they spray acres and acres of salt and sand.

There's no chance to enjoy the sport suspension to the full. If anything, you only experience the drawbacks of sport suspension because of all the potholes and cracks in the road. If you floor the 325i, with all that power, you will run into somebody or slam on the brakes for a red light, whichever occurs first. And because there are no real corners, the true spirit of Active Steering is kind of wasted.

Of course, every place has its plus points and bad points. I really hate this town, and in the countryside, everyone drives a pickup truck, which means they will probably park too close to your car and put a dent in it. The lack of regulation for Light Trucks in the US also means their headlamps will blind you at night because they don't have a sharp asymmetric cutoff. Thanks for auto-dimming interior rearview mirrors.

As a proposed business major, it might surprise you to know that I will not accept any job offer in NYC. Or the DC area. I'm willing to forsake a bit of pay, to live in a place that's not so rushed or hurried. A place where I can sit down for an afternoon espresso break that lasts 30 minutes. Back in the good ol' days, one didn't multi-task, send SMS messages via their Blueberry, or ferry their 2,2 children to football practise. I want to be able enjoy die Freude am Fahren.