Germans and their Cars

ADAC is Germany's premier autobahn road service organization.  When ADAC speaks on cars....people stop and listen.

This week, ADAC published a customer satisfaction survey.  The curious thing is that the Germans are most happy with..... Subaru cars.  Not Volkswagen.  Not Porsche.  Not Opel.  Not Audi.

At the bottom of this satisfaction survey?  France's Renault.

I would be the first to admit that Germans have high expectations.  If a German owned a Chevy and had to visit the dealer more than once in an entire year...he'd be furious.  If some problem continued with a car and required three visits in a 60-day period....they'd never buy from that company again....and they'd tell their neighbors far and wide of the experience.

I worked with an American a few years ago who had a five-year old Renault.  About every six months...the car went into the shop for something.  He liked the power.  He liked the compact nature of the car.  And he eventually got to know his neighborhood mechanic by his first name.

What surprised me is that BMW or Mercedes didn't take the top spot.  Maybe they were just expecting "more" and actually got a five-star car instead.

So what should you take away from this survey of ADAC?  It was made to measure your happiness with gas mileage, dependability, and general driving comfort....and some minor-league Japanese car won.  I should add that there aren't that many Subaru dealers in Germany.....and their sales don't match up to any of the top six franchises.  So they must be doing something right.

The Seat Discussion

It's an interesting "slap".  Germany and Japan woke up yesterday to her that President Obama was talking about the idea of getting India a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.  Both were peeved.  So they'd both like President Obama to mention that they deserved a seat.

The problem with this permanent seat business...is that folks would rather not get into a big huff about this.  You see....Brazil also thinks that it deserves a permanent seat.  Indonesia also thinks that it deserves a seat.  And South Africa thinks that it deserves a seat.

After a while, you kinda realize that the Security Council has it's limits and you can only spread the wealth around a certain amount.  You have the five permanent seats and then the ten seats that keep flipping....so countries like Cuba, Tonga, and Liberia get a shot once in a while.

My guess is that the Germans will bring this up in conversation....just to needle President Obama, and they know they will never get a seat.  The President will shift around in his seat and agree to say something and then says forty-four words to the effect that Germany has finally recovered from WW II....which will infuriate every single German....and then suggest they deserve a seat.  Japan will observe the comment, and just let everything drop because it's best not to have that WW II comment ever get brought up in public forums.

So for you Germans....sit tight....you've got another fifty-odd years to go.  By that point, the US will have the financial power of Tonga....and then you can make a pretty solid case of taking away their Security Council seat.

Starbucks Versus German Bakeries

This is my own personal evaluation....coming from an American....and covering something that people often debate....morning coffee and 'treats'.

I will be honest....if this were a simple debate over just coffee....it would be a very close call with German bakeries likely winning.  In most cases, when you walk into a German bakery....they have a premium coffee machine set up and whip up a cup within twenty seconds.  With most shops....I'd rate the coffee between four-star and five-star.

Yes, there are exceptions.  I can name a dozen German bakeries that I've walked into and found rather poor coffee served.

On the whole.....most shops don't serve lousy coffee, and you tend to pay for the premium cup that you get (don't worry....Starbucks would have charged the exact same amount).

Then comes the discussion over the croissant or the 'treat' that you will buy with the coffee.  Bluntly.....after you've had a couple of German 'treats'....you really don't want to slide back over to donuts or rich glazed items.  Yes, you give up a vast amount of sugar....and step back to something slightly more healthy in nature.  Germans will brag about this but let's be honest....200 percent sugar glaze versus 100 percent sugar glaze.....is a bit of a difference.

So I'm giving traditional German bakeries an edge here.  Course, if you wanted thirty-three different types of coffee....then Starbucks is it.  If you want ice-coffee....it's Starbucks because German bakeries will never offer ice-coffee (it just hasn't done well with Germans).

The Elite Game of Spiegel

Is the American dream over?

This is the newest Spiegel title for it's slam on the US.  For anyone who has kind of sat around and viewed Spiegel over the past two decades....you might note in almost every edition, there is a article that tries to cast a long shadow over the US, it's business structure, it's political structure, it's education system, it's medical structure, it's agricultural sector, and it's beers (we might not argue with that analysis).

The truth is....if any dedicated Spiegel journalist was given a task to write up the mandatory Spiegel slam on the US and they actually said something positive....I suspect they'd be fired or sent to write Bavarian agricultural articles in the future.

The simple truth is that Spiegel has an enormous task.  It must render judgement....ever constant...over the US.  This judgement must be in a fashion that only a educated German could deliver.  The problem with America?  It simply isn't capable of running its government, it's society, or it's culture.

It's kind of like reading a blitz of articles on the Green Bay Packers on a Monday after their big win or their big loss.  There will be forty national sports writers who dwell on the quarterback situation, the team's dismal draft choices, or the way that the coach ran the game.  Everyone will read the articles and be this secondary individual sitting in a LazyBoy recliner admiring their expert and his precise wording of how things worked terribly and the team should improve....even if they won.

Who reads Spiegel?  This is the fascinating thing about the magazine.  Walk through a German village and ask the butcher if he reads it....and the answer will be no.  Ask the car mechanic....and he'll say no.  Ask the plumber....and he'll say no.

Spiegel is typically read by well educated Germans....who naturally attended university and are quite bright.  They will always let you know that as well.  They will quote from Spiegel...like some religious folks would quote from Bible.  Typically, you can ask them questions which Spiegel didn't cover....they freak out that you know something that went beyond Spiegel's gifted writers.

Should you worry about these anti-American slams by Spiegel?  No.  It's actually worth reading a couple of paragraphs of the article so you kinda wonder on the things missing from the text.  It's like looking at a black & white version of the Mona Lisa....with some wonderful grays mingled into the picture....then remembering that a dozen other colors would fill out the entire picture and really make it complete.

Now, certainly....I don't want to insult the Spiegel folks because this is really the only 4-star magazine that gifted and educated Germans read.  Otherwise, they might start picking up the Bild or the London Telegraph....and that'd be a bad thing.

So, for you Spiegel folks....keep up the fine work.  If you notice....we haven't exactly fallen over ourselves because of your comments.  In fact, if you wanted to take them up a notch....why not draft up an anti-American article on NASCAR, NCAA football, Delta airline attendants, septic tanks, or Johnny Cash?  I suspect your readers would like some fresh criticism of America because you keep talking over the same general sixteen topics.

And the American dream?  Well....it's a funny thing....some Germans pack up every year, and go for the American dream....even living in Texas and driving a eight-cylinder pick-up.  Heck, some Germans (like Konny Reimann) get so successful in Texas, that they become a legend back home in Germany...then they start to sell their own salsa version....and start speaking German with a Texas accent.   Don't know why they'd do a crazy thing like that....especially in a failed country....like you guys say.

Be Nice!

German politicians got together and decided that they wanted a civil place to operate.  So they've invented these rules to be used in the Bundestag....and if you were doing something stupid or insulting someone....you could face up to 3,000 Euro in fines (roughly $4000).

It's a curious thing.  They've had some far left-wing folks appear in the Bundestag lately....protesting about the German troops in Afghanistan.  They wore t-shirts while on the floor, and even held protest signs about the war involvement.

Interestingly enough....both CDU and SPD members are agreed that the fine was necessary.  It hasn't passed yet....but it appears to have enough votes to make it happen.  This is supposed to "fix" the Bundestag.

I paused and thought about this.  It renders freedom of speech a bit of a blow.  You can't wear a t-shirt into the Bundestag with anti-whatever slogans.  You'd have to dress right, talk right, and behave right.

The more I thought about it....it'd be nice to have that kind of rule in the US congress and senate.  No more insulting and no crazy antics.  Course, we Americans would never go this far.

I suspect that someone will challenge this immediately and then spend two years running via the German court system to prove that they have the right to still do stupid things.  My guess is that the court might agree with them.  Then the next day....all of the nicely behaved Germans would show up in a t-shirt that had some Nazi symbol to demonstrate to the court that rules might be necessary.   That's typically the way that folks make a point in Germany.

The Blur in Germany

Google launched it's street view section of Germany yesterday.  The curious thing is that houses which the owner wanted "out" of Google....got that privilege but they still are in the shot....just blurred drastically.

You can imagine a German guy....happy because he opt'ed out, and today viewing the street.....seeing all his neighbors clearly, and his house is totally blurred.  What a number of Germans were thinking was that nothing from the house would be in the picture.  And now?  A massive blur?

It is comical in a way.  Germans often have this view of things and how they will work out.  In this case....I'm thinking alot of folks will be upset and disappointed over what happened to the idea of privacy.  They end up with a blur representation.

You can imagine Huns coming over from across the street.  His house is clear and crisp.  He wants to ask how come your house is so fuzzy.  You answer is that you opt'ed out.  Huns will stand there and drag this topic around, over and over.  Eventually, you will go back in the house and spend weeks mad and upset over the image of your house.  I suspect most home owners will now regret this decision.

Google probably took the appropriate measure.  A measured amount of blur, and then folks start to rethink their wisdom in accepting a blur.  Most folks just won't be able to handle the blur.

Comical in a way....if you think about this.  If you could just find an entire street of Germans who opt'ed out....and you could refer to it as "blur strasse".  That might stick with the neighborhood kids.

Two Different Jews

There's an interesting German article over at the London Telegraph today.

It may be a shocker to some....but Germany has quietly been funding a Jewisih rabbi training deal for a number of years.  This topic comes up because the Germans did a bit of thinking....and found that there are different kinds of Jews (yes, shocking, isn't it?).

They've discovered that the old fashioned type of Jew....the Orthodox type.....were just too difficult to get along with.  And those liberal rabbis, were the right variety that Germans could get along with.  Thus, the liberal rabbi training areas are the ones that get funded by the German government now.

For most Germans, no one really cares.  They are funding Islamic funding in German universities now, so why say anything critical about this topic?

I looked at the amount....over six million Euro ($7.5 dollars) and it's not a major sum of money anyway (compared to American stimulus values, you have to understand).  This money goes to support the 120,000 Jews left in Germany today.

This is a topic that I never thought much about.  You would think that most Jews would be anti-German anyway, but apparently this rebuilding effort within Germany is underway.  As for the different labels to attach to Jews?  The article suggests that the liberal Jewish crowd don't run around bringing up past history.  So I could understand why Germans of 2010 kinda like that mentality....and hate the continual mention from the Orthodox Jews about the 1930s.

Let's be honest, it's Germany's money....and if they wanted to fund clown schools in Saarbrucken....they'd do it.  They can pick the liberal guys over the Orthodox guys, and never feel bad about it.  The only folks who ever feel bad about funding anything?  The taxpayer.  And they aren't allowed to speak in any case.

The Brake-pad Grant

I noticed an interesting story today.....involving the Bahn (Germany's train company).

The German government is going to provide a grant of 7.5 million Euro (roughly ten million dollars) to put low-noise brakes on freight cars.  For a number of years...passenger cars had the feature already, but the Bahn had been kinda cheap and just kept waiting.

It's true, they were likely waiting for a government grant or hand-out....but they waited long enough that people had complained in small towns and villages over the freight cars that came through and made too much noise.  

The truth is that if you lived within 500 feet and some freight train came through and hit their brakes....you could hear it easily.  People could tell the difference between passenger and freight trains. I'm guessing by the end of 2011....you won't be able to tell the difference, and a number of folks will toss out a negative opinion of the Bahn.

But don't worry....they've still got at least a dozen complaints to lodge with Bahn trains or operations.