I love trains, but German trains have really disappointed me in the last years. Let’s see whether they manage to salvage that wreck.
In the meantime, somehow my partner has made me get into cars in the last months - recognising and understanding brands and models as well as car types. So here are some random things I learned.
Volvo
A friend drives a Volvo V90, which I had the pleasure to drive for quite a bit in the last years. It is quite luxurious and spacious - as all Volvos it seems. From what I gathered Volvo only makes premium cars.
On vacation we had some rental cars and then came back to the Volvo for a while, and really missed the accuracy of Google Maps in CarPlay. We ran a hotspot to it and an update - and voila, the unimaginable happened! The one annoying shortcoming was solved, CarPlay actually runs on it.
Now Volvo just needs to solve one thing: Their very handy Pilot Assist turning off SILENTLY! When you cruise along nicely, it may at times get blinded by the sun, or if you locked it in just under its limit of 140, exceed it by rolling down a hill - and then stops automatically steering you into the lane without notice. The only indication is the green wheel in the cockpit turning grey. This is really dangerous and should at least have an alert, and maybe even a fade-out where it gradually hands over.
Car Criteria
While Volvos are quite reliable, they are topped mostly by Japanese brands like Toyota and its premium brand Lexus. Those cars apparently run well for decades because of Japanese culture.
Next to our new home, we have a Peugeot dealer, and we soon started looking into available models. After a while I also did some research and found out some curious facts: First of all Germans are not fans of Peugeots because of unreliability - but that got a lot better in recent years.
What Peugeot gets right is giving an affordable car an identity. And they are efficient with space: The 308 SW is about 20cm shorter than the V90 yet supposed to have more boot volume.
But again, research - apparently there are different ways of measuring leading to different results, and Volvo might have taken the more conservative measurement approach. Then you have to consider that the Volvo is probably better insulated - thermally and acoustically - and has more bells and whistles for comfort and probably safety too. Nonetheless handy.