The economy: yesterday and today.

[RobertArthur]

Photo from March 2011, Berlin, the week of the tsunami and Fukushima. The Germans – the Ministry of Economic Affairs – were promoting themselves with headlines from *The Economist*. I was a bit surprised. Fifteen years later I'm even more surprised. I’ll just say it straight away before anyone else finds out: in 2012, after many years of brand loyalty, I said goodbye to German cars. Now I drive a car of Japanese origin. So however I look at it, I’m partly to blame too, although it doesn’t keep me awake at night.

[Hotrodder]

I don't think I have ever been much into brand loyalty. At one point I was aware of German build quality but never owned one because I saw them as boring and way too expensive for parts. I had a Japanese van bought from new in 1978 and sold it ten years later for 2/3rds what I paid for it, having only replaced the battery in all that time. I also had a Japanese motorcycle for about the same amount of time and happened to mention to the shop that sold it to me that I was moving on to a boat to go travelling and might be selling it. He offered me the price I paid for it new. Apart from those two exceptions I have bought mostly secondhand American pre war and British rust buckets to hone my mechanical skills. I think I would do exacly the same again if I had the chance. Thinking hard about it..........I have a warm feeling for Peugeot 2 litre diesels, as boring as they are.

[Blaze]

We've had German cars for decades. We had a Toyota Landcruiser for about 15 years - I loved it and would happily have kept it. But when we moved, we didn't need it (though I regret we don't have it to pull the caravan).

[Hotrodder]

A friend here has an old Mercedes and a Landcruiser. I guess he has the best of both worlds. Both are built like tanks.