"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

JohnH wrote:

The wife will retire in Jan '08. We'll probably doing some serious
traveling then. She's not seen much of this country, and I've some
favorite
spots I want to show her - not by air!
--


John, if I were shopping for a car in that price range and were planning a
lot of driving, I'd sure take a new BMW 530x for a test ride. Of all the
cars I've driven in the last five years, the BMW was the most "driver's
car."

The Caddy *is* a nice car, as is the BMW, both the 5 and 7 series. My wife
drives a 750il and it's probably the best touring car I've ever driven. I
won't comment on the M5 - it's just too crazy.

However John, if traveling the country is in your future, you might want to
consider something else.
Mrs.E. and I just returned from a very pleasant trip to Norfolk in our Dodge
Sprinter mini-RV. I've tried big class "A" motorhomes and Fifth-wheel
trailers and didn't like either for a number of reasons. We got the little
Sprinter last summer and it's perfect for two. It's easy to drive ... not
tiring (I did 582 miles in one day and didn't feel exhausted from driving)
and has a number of advantages over big RVs. They include:

Small size (21 feet) allows parking anywhere you could park a pickup.
Little Mercedes diesel delivered 17-18 mpg on our trip, pulling a 13'
Haulmark trailer.
You can stay at campsites, or stay at a hotel without worrying about where
to park.
The power sofa easily opens at the touch of a button into either a
king-sized bed or two singles.
(The bed is bigger than any of the beds in our other RVs)
It has all the amenities of a big RV - stovetop, refrig, microwave, LCD TV,
bathroom and shower.
Mrs.E. has no problem driving it. On our last trip she sat on the rear sofa
for a while watching a DVD while I drove. On the way back we left the bed
set up and she took a long nap during part of the trip.

For trips of 3 or 4 days there's enough storage space for clothes, food etc.
within the RV. I bought a small Haulmark trailer and set it up to carry
extra stuff in the event we want to travel further. The rig will tow up to
5000 lbs. The Haulmark trailer we got is one size up from the smallest and
has a GVW of 3000 lbs.

The Sprinter is actually made by Mercedes and is marketed in the US under
the Dodge, Freightliner and Mercedes badges. Most of the major RV
conversion manufacturers are introducing their RV versions based on this
chassis due to it's popularity and relatively high fuel mileage. Ours was
built by Pleasure-Way, but there are several others available.

Pics at:

www.eisboch.com/sprinter

Eisboch