Yes, very pleased it has got through again. The test is tough but fair and very consistent.
The spring must have gone very recently as I only recently noticed a slight vagueness in the steering/tramlining but otherwise the car looked OK! Broke very close to the bottom so ride height seemed normal. Glad it is changed though as driving it once you know it is broken is a bit worrying. Only used it once to get to the garage but it was a longish drive.
I'm in the Stuttgart area working as a freelance software technical writer, not that you can always tell from my typing here!
Aalen is East of Stuttgart, north of Ulm in the northern Schawabian Alb (hills). Quieter than the Stuttgart area and the people seem more friendly. We live in Sindelfingen; home of Mercedes, so having something different is nice
The other side of us lies the Black Forest, also a great place to drive around, and south of us is Lake Constance and Switzerland, so I can't complain about location.
Now I need to clean up/protect the underside of the car and try and slow down its decay a bit. It would be nice to get a few more years out of it but I fear that rust will win out in the end. I can see the very start of it around the back wheel arches and the bonnet seams were probably not best protected. Mine has rust bubbling through from the inside, either side of the lights. Otherwise it looks surprisingly clean for a 15 year old car.
The derestricted parts of the Autobahns are still fun but the good part is that if you have a long way to go, you can make good progress at say 90 mph or so which is still slow enough to not need to slow too often for slower traffic. I find trying to go far at higher speeds just does not pay. 70 feels too slow these days, but 100+ is too expensive to feel like fun anymore
