Northern California
Good Morning Warren and Friends,
It’s been one wet week in Northern California! Yes, we need it, but we’re not used to it, and certainly not this much all at once.
Stretch, and I drove to Palo Alto, CA for a BMW event (when you see me in my videos, Stretch is the videographer). We went to BMW’s tech center in Silicon Valley (Silly Valley as we call it). We drove the Mazda 6 Grand Touring down in the pouring rain. Total MSRP $34,530 and we got 35 mpg. The car was smooth, steady, and solid.
We drove from Palo Alto up to the wine country. So many roads were closed, potholes from too much water all at once. It’s going to take a bit of time to repair all those potholes and get the roads open.
The BMW 5-Series was a delicious car to drive. All of you know I love my luxury and BMW took care of me. The one car I would buy is the 530e plug-in hybrid. It starts at a paltry $200 more than the 530i. Why would you even buy the 530i? You could charge at home for the first 15 driving miles every day. Help keep the air clean, get low-end torque, and give BMW the props for creating a clean high-performance sedan.
We also had the Ford Raptor for a week. That is one mean machine! Just the lettering of Ford on the fascia is menacing. I got 12 miles per gallon, a little less than I had wished for in a Ford pickup.
It’s been two weeks since we talked, I got to drive the Volvo XC 60 T6 AWD inscription. Another delightful SUV that didn’t have the jarring drive of an SUV. The 4WD was $53,000 out of the door, and I got 20.4 mpg.
If you have been watching Driving the Nation Facebook, you know that we have been at the Winter Fancy Food Show. I’ll have the articles up soon about foods to eat in your car. Till then, let’s chat about cars.
Click on the picture to read the rest of the Washington Post car chat
Volvo XC 60 T6 AWD inscription
