Siddharth
I am just at the finishing level of A1 German in my German class, and I thought of trying to learn to read some German by reading some articles. I love cars and I follow websites such as autoblog and jalopnik quite eagerly, and I thought if those websites had a german equivalent, it would be nice, but they aren't there, and what other german auto websites would be interesting enough? I mean, I did try to read a few articles from auto-news.de and automobil-produktion.de (Google Translate for the words, rest I try to figure out by myself), but while they do make for informative websites, they aren't jalopnik-ish. What are some interesting automotive websites in German preferably like jalopnik?
Answer
Yours is a nice, if unusual method. I've used that in the past and it works fine, although somehow delimited by the technical language - German, as any other language, is MUCH MORE, so make sure also to move on.
One of the features of German as a technical language is that it has the highest INTRINSIC precision, leaving least space for interpretation. This in itself simplifies communication, but requires a higher level of rigor than English or most other languages.
so you should first of all learn PROPER terminology, then spread out to more informal one, which is why I would suggest a few useful sites, not necessarily close to the one you cite:
http://www.kfz-tech.de/ (among other things, contains a well-compiled EN-DE glossary of terms)
http://www.adac.de/ (the German equivalent of the AA, an international-level service, very well documented, with many car-relate topics)
most German equipment manufacturers (BOSCH, HELLA, EBERSPAECHER...) have excellent sites in several languages. Those are the world leaders who actually "write the book" on car technology.
As a very good DE-EN dicitionary I suggest LEO (http://dict.leo.org/).
Keep up the good work.
Yours is a nice, if unusual method. I've used that in the past and it works fine, although somehow delimited by the technical language - German, as any other language, is MUCH MORE, so make sure also to move on.
One of the features of German as a technical language is that it has the highest INTRINSIC precision, leaving least space for interpretation. This in itself simplifies communication, but requires a higher level of rigor than English or most other languages.
so you should first of all learn PROPER terminology, then spread out to more informal one, which is why I would suggest a few useful sites, not necessarily close to the one you cite:
http://www.kfz-tech.de/ (among other things, contains a well-compiled EN-DE glossary of terms)
http://www.adac.de/ (the German equivalent of the AA, an international-level service, very well documented, with many car-relate topics)
most German equipment manufacturers (BOSCH, HELLA, EBERSPAECHER...) have excellent sites in several languages. Those are the world leaders who actually "write the book" on car technology.
As a very good DE-EN dicitionary I suggest LEO (http://dict.leo.org/).
Keep up the good work.
I'm looking into getting a new car, any opinions on an Audi?
tom_carla
I'm planning on buying a car within the next 6 months. I really like Audis a lot but I've heard good and bad things about them. I like the A4, but if they're too much of a hassle I'll look at something else.
Answer
I'm assuming you like the Audis because of their looks, performance, interiors, etc. Yes, they are quite excellent in these aspects (especially the interiors, which are really attractive).
As far as reliability, maintenance, service - there's good and bad news. The A4 in recent years has become a more relia ble model, probably more so than the A6, its bigger brother. I think Consumer Reports has rated them to be at least average or better than average - which is based on ownership surveys. Are you buying new or used? If you can get new, or at least a certified pre-owned, you will have some things covered.
Whatever model you get, in any case, you will really need to pay strict attention to maintenance schedules. Audis aren't cars that you can just forget about in terms of regular maintenance - they are German luxury/performance cars. They are not cheap to maintain or fix. You can save quite a bit on service costs if you go to an independent garage as opposed to a dealer service center, but it will never be like getting a Honda or Ford serviced in terms of cost.
I would suggest you get in contact with local Audi clubs who can advise you about their experiences with ownership and where to find good service facilities. Good luck!
I'm assuming you like the Audis because of their looks, performance, interiors, etc. Yes, they are quite excellent in these aspects (especially the interiors, which are really attractive).
As far as reliability, maintenance, service - there's good and bad news. The A4 in recent years has become a more relia ble model, probably more so than the A6, its bigger brother. I think Consumer Reports has rated them to be at least average or better than average - which is based on ownership surveys. Are you buying new or used? If you can get new, or at least a certified pre-owned, you will have some things covered.
Whatever model you get, in any case, you will really need to pay strict attention to maintenance schedules. Audis aren't cars that you can just forget about in terms of regular maintenance - they are German luxury/performance cars. They are not cheap to maintain or fix. You can save quite a bit on service costs if you go to an independent garage as opposed to a dealer service center, but it will never be like getting a Honda or Ford serviced in terms of cost.
I would suggest you get in contact with local Audi clubs who can advise you about their experiences with ownership and where to find good service facilities. Good luck!
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
No comments:
Post a Comment