(photo courtesy of clive bullian) next to subaru, the volvo wagon is the unofficial car of the people’s republic of portland. with the pacific northwest being the unofficial scandinavia of the usa, it makes sense.

this vehicle represents a time when “foreign cars” really did look foreign. the saab 95 was a 7 passenger wagon built in trollhättan sweden and was a variant of the saab 96. i remember my friend steve lodefink had a pristine white saab 95 a few eons ago that he bought from a homely boeing engineer in seattle…. it was a beautiful looking specimen. i vaguely recall it languishing in a repair shop for a lengthy time after the acquisition…. now that i ponder, i believe it was more of an instance of incompetent mechanics and not a faulty lemonish car, though mr. lodefink would have more to say on that subject .

what is the best all-around car ? the bmw 5 series touring. why ? easy: it is fast, it is sporting, the quality is uncanny, it has all wheel drive to safely transport you over-the-river-and-through-the-woods, it hauls stuff, it looks great, it is german made, it is available with a manual transmission. and guess what ? you can’t have one. why? because the muckety-mucks over at bavarian motor works have decided that americans are doltish enough to be satisfied with the new horrible bmw 550i gran turismo. thats right….. no new generation 5 series touring for the u.s.a. the truly civilized of us will eschew suv’s and new bmw’s in favor of hunting down and gobbling up used e61’s. good thing i saw the writing on the wall and ordered a 2010 535i touring last summer… black on black with 6 speed manual. i am set! though my only beef is that BMW wouldn’t let me order a M5 Touring, i would have sold all my other cars as an M5 touring satisfies every need.