Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike

The only bike pic with a child seat I ever posted was taken 1983 (before I ever set foot in Germany) of me and my twins on my 1972 Raleigh Sports, which was purchased new for $82 in Philadelphia. My older daughter left the Raleigh on a parking rack in Freiburg in 2002 when she finished her classes at the University and left Germany.

My regular German commuters were/are a 1999 Vaterland 3speed purchased at my local Opel dealer for 400DM (equivalent at the time to about $210), and a 2000 7speed IGH Ragazzi purchased at Real for 268DM (equivalent at the time to about $135). I did buy one bike for a daughter in Euro at about €550 from the same Opel dealer, and at the time a dollar was worth slightly more than a Euro

I can go out today and buy an equivalent to your so called BSO for about $100 at Walmart, and I would expect less problems than you have encountered over such a relatively short time and distance. That is why I described your bike as you do, though I think you paid waaay too much if you were looking to set a cost standard for inexpensive short distance bicycling transportation.

Whether anyone else interested in commuting and saving money concurrently would buy the type of bike you chose at the price you paid is a question I cannot answer.