[Thegermanbadger]

Hello to everyone that does read this, hope 2021 is going well for you all!

Let's get the introductions started, you can call me Thegermanbadger (I shall explain shortly). This is the second time I'm making an account on the forum. I have been using team-bhp since 2007 around. My old handle was called DevilVtec.

Now for the long road explaining why I'm here, it all started when I was just a young lad, following my dad around the local shops, eyes on a swivel for anything intriguing while doing homely duties with the big man. I guess it was autocar or maybe overdrive, the beautiful cars and bikes on the cover that finally caught my eye .. and here we are some 24 years later still fascinated by everything with an engine in it. My dad being a mechanical engineer from IIT he taught me whatever a kid could grasp at a very young age.

Fast forward to late teens I started to really get an itch to drive. I used to sneak my dad's 1988 omni back and forth in our driveway to learn clutch and throttle modulation. Learned how to drive in the omni after that. It was great, the synchromesh for 2nd gear was gone so had to really Rev it out in 1st and then up-shift to 3rd. Ahh the days.

Once my family got a wind to my escapades I was remanded promptley and then my dad took me out to see if I could actually drive in the incredibly dangerous omni. Over a year, I started to drive a more stable and powerful car, dad's old Cielo, the jump from 35 bhp four speed to about 85 with 5 speeds! Did not sit well with me and I sooner than later drove the car into a mud mound on the side of the road. Lack of braking experience and abs is probably the cause. No major damage just a cracked corner light and bruised ego.

My dad had his Honda city vtec that he never let another soul touch. Till he got a Skoda Octavia in 2007. This was a diesel and a different car to any car before. I did get the ohc vtec hence the old username devil vtec.

Another family Skoda Octavia later I came to an age where I could finally afford to buy a car for myself. So in around 2014-2015 I saved up some cash from my then job and went looking. I was looking for anything in my vast budget of 2 lakh rupees. Took a while maybe about 2 weeks of daily olx and online searches. Finally, found this mint 2005 mk1 Octavia vrs in silver. I was so lucky to have gotten that car at that time. I had just lost my dad a little over a year before and he loved his Skoda Octavias. He had 2 of them for a while. And it came full circle with my first car being that as well. Drove the car for over 40k kms. It was the best car I ever had. Still love it to bits. Next I got a more practical car a pre-owned 2012 Nissan xtrail t31 (all my cars that I have self-owned have been used). It was fabulous, great highway and driving dynamics, good ride coming from the vrs and insane practicality. Did all sorts of trips and house moving and what not in the car. Practically lived out of it for a while when i was shifting houses. Drove it about 50k kms before selling it. Driving that 2.0 dci diesel even with all its strengths, I did miss the Rev happy nature and just explosive performace of the vrs. I did have a ohc vtec as one of my first cars so the next had to be petrol and what a banger too.

Just before the pandemic found this Next to new vw passat tsi manual. Yes the car was almost 10 years old and yes the car was german. Yes I may be mad, it's not my final stage yet. Lol. Bought the car for less that 4 lakh rupees with all the uncertainty of covid and all. It had only 6.5 k kms on the clocks. Did a full service record check from vw. It was a steal. I still have this car, done about 18k more kms on it till now. 3 services and a fuel pump that costed me about 8k to replace and nothing else. Driven the car to the hills 650 kms non stop. Took and got us back without any issues.

Okay now the reason I called myself Thegermanbadger, late 2020 I got myself a little treat, a e60 530i. With the n53, it is brilliant. Crisp and I mean himachal gold apple crisp throttle response. My first car with over 200 bhp and first car with an auto box. Love it, its comfortable and fast and very thirsty. Next, early this year I got a mint e90 325i. From the owner directly. Nice old business man the car had done some 60k kms when I bought it with full service records. Clincher is the price. I bought a full bmw for under 3 lakh rupees. I couldn't say no even with the e60 at home. So that makes a vw tsi and 2 inline 6 bmws.

I'm coming into final evolution mode of a Beemer fanboy/ Thegermanbadger, more recently in July I found my girlfriend's dad's old lc 120 prado for sale. It has the 1grfe engine 4.0l v6. I got that also just for the sake of having the car back into the family. Also, it's a land cruiser! Plus I was getting the car for an unbelievable price for a lc120. It's currently being brought back to stock form and being restored. After driving sedans for most of my life and having had that fling with a softroader and incredibly high fuel prices I decided to get a used crossover in diesel again. A close friend who is in the business of cars informed me about a nice f25 x3 3.0d. Did a test drive and the fact the car came from a close friend I went and bought the car home. The torque from the n57 (560 odd newton meters of it) is what sealed the deal. Plus it is the newest and most luxurious car in my stable currently with all my other cars 10 years and above. Its the only one that has oem Bluetooth!! Added benefits of diesel, I mean the car gives me about 7.5-9kmpl in the city. That's much better that the 3-7 kmpl of the e60 and e90. At about a 11 buck difference in fuel costs that does help. Dont even get me started on the prado. That thing gives me 3-5 kmpl at the best of times.

So this is my final form with no logic and only listening to my heart I have got myself into the Bought More Worries wagon big time. With 4 Germans in the house I find it my own fault to be in this love and (sometimes) hate relationship of old and used German badgers ..

I hope this extended rant was not a total blow. Look forward to posting ownership reviews of my 10+ year old bmws and all that goes into driving them. Also coming is the renovation and ownership review of the lc 120. I'm just compiling images and updates for it currently.

Please forgive any mistakes in my post. I did type all this on my phone and autocorrect is no friend here. Also, just attached some random snaps of my cars. The passat is missing as it sees less and less usage.

Stay safe all my fellow forum members and happiest miles too

[RahulNagaraj]

Hello Thegermanbadger,

Welcome to the forum, its glad to have you on-board!

That's an amazing lineup of cars you've got yourself in the garage, especially the BMW E60 530i and the Land Cruiser Prado.

Do share your ownership experiences with some of the cars in your garage. Also, waiting to read about the restoration process of your LC Prado as well.

Cheers!
Rahul N

[allinbalance]

Welcome back to the forum, @Thegermanbadger! For their age, the interiors/seats of your BMW sedans look pretty amazing. Also, I noticed that your Prado exterior has barely even a scratch on it (except the rear left bumper) - your girlfriend's father is one super careful owner.

Look forward to hearing more of your adventures on your German badgers and the Prado.

[tilt]

Thank you to whichever mod/admin that edited the title of this thread and added upper-case letters to the member's handle.

Yesterday I saw this thread, and spent a few minutes trying to understand and try out various ways to pronounce the name (theger man badger, theg erman badger, theg er manbadger etc.) and gave up in frustration without coming to the one correct pronunciation.

Welcome again to the forum

Cheers

[Thegermanbadger]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

Hello Thegermanbadger,

Welcome to the forum, its glad to have you on-board!

That's an amazing lineup of cars you've got yourself in the garage, especially the BMW E60 530i and the Land Cruiser Prado.

Do share your ownership experiences with some of the cars in your garage. Also, waiting to read about the restoration process of your LC Prado as well.

Cheers!
Rahul N

Thank you! I am currently working on writing up the restoration process for the prado.

Also, will write ownership reports on my old bmws.

Hope you have a great week ahead!

Originally Posted by tilt

Thank you to whichever mod/admin that edited the title of this thread and added upper-case letters to the member's handle.

Yesterday I saw this thread, and spent a few minutes trying to understand and try out various ways to pronounce the name (theger man badger, theg erman badger, theg er manbadger etc.) and gave up in frustration without coming to the one correct pronunciation.

Welcome again to the forum

Cheers

Lol, theg er man badger definitely sounds more fun

Thank you mod/ admin for editing the heading to make it easier on the eyes.

Apologies as I had typed the thing out on my phone.

Cheers!

Originally Posted by allinbalance

Welcome back to the forum, @Thegermanbadger! For their age, the interiors/seats of your BMW sedans look pretty amazing. Also, I noticed that your Prado exterior has barely even a scratch on it (except the rear left bumper) - your girlfriend's father is one super careful owner.

Look forward to hearing more of your adventures on your German badgers and the Prado.

Thank you kind sir! The interiors have help up well. I feel the old e 60 and e90 held up better than the f25 I have.

The f25 definitely has an extra rattle and squeak. Also the rubber/plastic bits don't like the indian weather.

He definitely has excellent taste in cars. Had a lc 200. currently drives a w221 s500 and tech art cayenne s v8 diesel. That thing has like 1000 NM of torque. It's insane.

Cheers