As a general rule in past years my birthday has just been another boring day.
My only purpose in the last few years has been stuffing money away into a account for someone I care about that doesn’t want anything to do with me (and no it is not my ex as she just gets the house as my will forgives all my loans to the trust, but all the cash/super/etc and other assets will go to T).
But I must be my midlife crisis. This time instead of stuffing a spare $20K into that account to keep the balance in my main account low I just spent it on a birthday present for myself instead; as below.
A second hand (jap import < 75000k) E350 (badged as a E500 for some reason) that in around the town driving with the current low petrol prices does 1.5Km distance for every dollar of petrol. However once it is on the open roads out the back of masterton where it can sit at 100kph (which is pretty much at idle) it seems to run on vapour, the gas guage doesn't seem to move on decent open roads. So many buttons, I downloaded the manual for the car. Like many cars it is supposed to be driven slowly for the first 1000K, the manual clearly states that while running in the engine it should be kept at low revs and the speed should not exceed 140Kpm while running it in. After it is run in depending on the tires fitted 240Kpm+ should be fine. Shame the max speed limit in NZ is 100Kpm (well the state of the roads dictate that); but it does explain why I getter much better mileage on the open road, it may be able to switch to 3rd or at a pinch 4th gear. In NZ there will never be an opertunity for it to switch into the higher gears which is why I guess the mileage/petrol ratio is so different between round town and open road driving; 50-60Kpm is still 2nd gear and idling. But hey, midlife crisis and I have a new toy.
