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Thread: The State of The Car

  1. #1006
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kitdy View Post
    We did a bunch of hinges for BMWs at my old workplace. A very good young engineer was working on them.

    It is a shame the programs he was working on all turned out to be extremely hideous cars.

    I don't even bat an eye when a new BMW comes out anymore. They're losing the quality and quantity race to Mercedes, and increasingly, Audi.
    Are they losing out on snob appeal, too? Audi had a run in the last decade and early part of this one. I still see a shitton of them, but E90s (which are still modern in my brain) are being poorly modified more and more, which must be a sign to the Roundelheads that their beloved brand is plunging downmarket. I see a lot of the other premium SUVs these days; K̶u̶b̶a̶n̶g̶s̶ Levantes, Stelvios, Macans etc... Merc is completely lost at sea; they fill the niche vacated by Oldsmobile, with the G capitalizing on the horrible-people market that it shares with the X6(M). At least in the two corners of America (and Montreal) that I frequent, I think Tesla is the brand du jour in the upper middle-class and aspirational middle middle-class stakes. Also, in New England, the previous buyers of pitiful base model BMWs and Benzes seem to have realized that they can have a Subaru with more toys and a less-venal dealer network, though I still find Subies to be pretty agricultural.

    *Darth Vader saying "Sister!"*
    EDIT: This works better if Kitdy's picture is on the same page...
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by f6fhellcat13; 07-07-2019 at 06:57 PM.
    "Kimi, can you improve on your [race] finish?"
    "No. My Finnish is fine; I am from Finland. Do you have any water?"

  2. #1007
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    Quote Originally Posted by f6fhellcat13 View Post
    Are they losing out on snob appeal, too?
    Luxury is surely becoming more democratized. See: Hyundai, Mazda... The gap is closing I think in terms of features. BMWs are kinda getting meh'd in the haze. CEO ousted, the purists don't like them; not that that matters a bit for sales.

    Quote Originally Posted by f6fhellcat13
    but E90s (which are still modern in my brain)
    Yeah, no one is getting younger; time is zipping.

    I keep thinking E90s are current... The F30 (good looker, not so much well loved) and G20 (had to google their codes as they don't inspire passion) landed with a thud, which is maybe part of why the E90 seems current.

    Quote Originally Posted by f6fhellcat13
    K̶u̶b̶a̶n̶g̶s̶ Levantes, Stelvios
    At least these look cool. I don't inherently hate the looks of SUVs, but these are particularly head turning.

    Quote Originally Posted by f6fhellcat13
    I think Tesla is the brand du jour in the upper middle-class and aspirational middle middle-class stakes
    Yup. Their rise has been meteoric. They litter the streets. See: I was reading today that they account for like 1/4 of new car sales in Norway, which has about 50% electric sales in recent months.

    Quote Originally Posted by f6fhellcat13
    *Darth Vader saying "Sister!"*
    EDIT: This works better if Kitdy's picture is on the same page...
    I worked on that one. We had a laugh when we saw the first photos in the office. The LD Silverado, particularly the Z71 in red looks spectacular. GM must be shitting themselves Ram overtook them in sales.

  3. #1008
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    Quote Originally Posted by f6fhellcat13 View Post
    Are they losing out on snob appeal, too? Audi had a run in the last decade and early part of this one. I still see a shitton of them, but E90s (which are still modern in my brain) are being poorly modified more and more, which must be a sign to the Roundelheads that their beloved brand is plunging downmarket. I see a lot of the other premium SUVs these days; K̶u̶b̶a̶n̶g̶s̶ Levantes, Stelvios, Macans etc... Merc is completely lost at sea; they fill the niche vacated by Oldsmobile, with the G capitalizing on the horrible-people market that it shares with the X6(M). At least in the two corners of America (and Montreal) that I frequent, I think Tesla is the brand du jour in the upper middle-class and aspirational middle middle-class stakes. Also, in New England, the previous buyers of pitiful base model BMWs and Benzes seem to have realized that they can have a Subaru with more toys and a less-venal dealer network, though I still find Subies to be pretty agricultural.

    *Darth Vader saying "Sister!"*
    EDIT: This works better if Kitdy's picture is on the same page...
    That new Chevy pickup is horrendous. What is going on with automotive styling now?

    You guys forgot the grille swap BMWs.

    Look how positively ginormous the grilles have gotten.

    And that BMW ute is perfect. It rounds out the group of anonymous SUVs that BMW has been building.

    1. Let's build a lifted 5 series.
    2. Then make a lifted 5 series coupe.
    3. Then make a slightly smaller lifted 5 series coupe.
    4. Profit...?

    It reeks of throwing spaghetti at the wall until literally something sticks. I mean you can ride the SUV craze, but don't lean into it.

    [url="https://jalopnik.com/heres-how-hilariously-the-huge-2019-bmw-x7-grille-fits-1835330294"[/url]

  4. #1009
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    By the way, I dunno how to put URLs from Jalopnik without the forum freaking me out. Some HTML bug for sure.

    And F6Hellcat, I didn't know you were based around Montreal. I was just there for Memorial Day weekend. Nice place to be.

  5. #1010
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    I need an advice

    Hi guys, I'm a new member. I want to buy a car via https://incacar.com/used/cars/toyota...orolla-570864/ but I´m a bit worried about that, just if they are reliable. Is there someone who knows them, or bought a car from them?
    What do you think about that? Thanks for answers.

  6. #1011
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    Quote Originally Posted by NSXType-R View Post
    And F6Hellcat, I didn't know you were based around Montreal. I was just there for Memorial Day weekend. Nice place to be.
    Connecticut, unfortunately, but I spend a good deal of time up here. Four months a year or so.

    Yeah, it's lovely this time of year; especially when the F1 madness subsides.
    Last edited by f6fhellcat13; 07-13-2019 at 12:22 PM.
    "Kimi, can you improve on your [race] finish?"
    "No. My Finnish is fine; I am from Finland. Do you have any water?"

  7. #1012
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    I'm digging up this because... it fits I want to have a little bit of a rant.

    As many of you know I have recently bought a BMW M140i. It is a lovely car... if a little bit absurd. It is quite possibly the fastest car I will ever own and maybe even the best one. I try to enjoy it as much as I can when can.

    Unfortunately about a month a go I also switched jobs, and my new job requires... commuting. Now, commuting in a 340bhp car, capable of making mince meat of 99% of cars you are going to cross with is useless if the top speed on your fifteen mile commute is... 56mph.

    But that is not the worst part, oh no. We are now in August and everyone is on holiday. So my commute is free of traffic jams. For the other 11 months of the year my commute will be packed full of cars and my top speed will probably be around 12mph. So a straight six monster becomes not useless but rather completely stupid.

    For reasons I won't bother you with, I will spend the next 20 days or so (oh by the way, in case it wasn't clear, new job means no holidays) commuting in a Smart Forfour Turbo. Now, since the car has been with the family for about four years I have already driven it extensively before and I didn't like it one bit. But now it's been some months since I last drove and I thought, well let's give it another chance... maybe it isn't so bad.

    Well I'm afraid to report it is. It certainly isn't a car you buy because of the precise engineering. The stop-start system takes ages to restart the engine at the lights, the radio is rubbish, if you've got the stop-start on it judders every time you come to a halt, the break feel is weird, the throttle mapping configuration is all wrong (25% of throttle input gives you 75% of the power), the gearbox insists on going everywhere in 6th bogging the engine down, it is badly affected by cross winds and never mind taking it above 80mph. Oh and it is really rather expensive. Its only redeeming features are manoeuvrability and a tight turning circle, which make you king of the city.

    So it's like a moped. Only you can't park it anywhere in the city because it is actually a car and not a motorbike.

    As you can see, it is as bad as I remembered. I wouldn't buy one in a million years. But today, that is besides the point.

    The point is, this afternoon, coming back from work I was stopped at a set of lights and the latest Katy Dandee tune came on the radio and while I waited something amazing happened. I started dancing. Well, when I say dancing I actually mean moving about clumsily in an asynchronous and terrible way.

    And then I got it. What it was, is a happy car. Well not mine, mind you, because the one I'm driving is black and white which makes dull and dreary and boring. And that is, my friends, wrong. Happy cars demand happy colours. This Smart car should be orange or yellow or light blue or something funky and different. Not the colour you choose for your brand new S-Class because you are seventy and retiring from the accounting job you had and you are on your third Merc S-Class.

    So, since I may need, in the near future, a car for commuting I decided to start shopping around for something happy and yellow. Or light green perhaps. Now, if you don't want to break the bank or look like Victoria Adams (and trust me, no one wants that) there are only four options. The Nissan Micra, the Citroën C3, the Renault Twingo and the Suzuki Ignis.

    The Nissan Micra is... well a Nissan. You certainly don't want to drive around in a Nissan, because Nissan's aren't happy cars. And the only wheels available from the factory are silver. So that's a no.

    Next stop is the C3. You can get in orange from the lowest trim levels. The problem is, that in the lowest trim level you get black plastic mirrors and hubcaps which isn't very funky... but don't despair there's still hope. In another, higher, trim level with another, silly, name you can get it in blue... with... wait for it with a red roof! How good is that!?! Unfortunately the trim separating the red roof and the blue body panels is... not white (it's black). So it had the makings of a great choice, let down by a poor choice of contrasting colour. We were so close to driving around in a french car with a french flag...

    The Twingo is interesting. It will probably be just as bad as the Smart, but much, much cheaper. In the Renault's case there are two trim levels, the base one and higher one called Le Coq Sportif... which is french for The Sporting Cock. This frenchies never cease to amaze me. Anyway, I digress. The thing is, the colour choice for the Golden Cock model is... wait for it... black, silver or white. If you go for the lower one you can get it in yellow, but if you pay more you get less choice? What the hell are they on about?

    And that leaves us with the Suzuki Ignis. I like Suzukis a lot, they are like Mazdas, only smaller, funkier and with a greater sense of humour, but still with a dose of cleverness in them. The Ignis is a lovely looking thing, it's small and light and it is available with a mild hybrid system for stellar fuel economy. It is also available in orange.

    So my next car is an orange Suzuki Ignis. Fight me.
    Lack of charisma can be fatal.
    Visca Catalunya!

  8. #1013
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    I thought you were looking into electric cars?

    Nothing wrong with Suzuki, they make good cars. I still think they left the US market in too much of a hurry. I think as a carmaker they make more compelling products than Mitsubishi which is nothing more than a husk of its former self in the US.

    As a bit of a side note, I may actually end up buying a car at some point next year because I may have to drive to my site of work. Which may require me to get a car. I wait with much bated breath as I may end up owning my own car now.
    Last edited by NSXType-R; 08-13-2019 at 03:14 PM.

  9. #1014
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    Yes, I am still interested in an electric commuter. I have even gone as far as asking how much would it cost to install an electric recharging point in my garage (It's around 2 grand by the way).

    However electric cars are still expensive (around 25 to 30 grand for something decent) and I might have to look around for something a little more conventional.
    Lack of charisma can be fatal.
    Visca Catalunya!

  10. #1015
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    2k is a ridiculously high amount. Damn.

    That is gonna have to fall drastically if/when electric cars become ubiquitous obviously.

  11. #1016
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    2 grand for your own personal fuel pump doesn't sound that expensive to me. I thought it'd be more like 6 to 10 k. Also the fuelling costs would be pretty much nil.

    I don't think this a sustainable model in the long run, though. But right now, if you want to run an EV it is pretty much the only option.
    Lack of charisma can be fatal.
    Visca Catalunya!

  12. #1017
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    Lack of charisma can be fatal.
    Visca Catalunya!

  13. #1018
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    I am enjoying that all of the low-quality manufacturers are agglomerating into a rusty, arcing and sparking, shuddering, hard-plastic golem that lurches around the global car market peddling shit. Too bad BL no longer exists to compete with them.
    "Kimi, can you improve on your [race] finish?"
    "No. My Finnish is fine; I am from Finland. Do you have any water?"

  14. #1019
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    It's like, if you can't be the best, be the rest. God help them. They're still a bit player in Asia.

  15. #1020
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    Hellcat Cactus incoming. On the other hand you could actually recreate the SM with a proper Maserati engine.

    I wonder what will they do with all the massive overlap they have in their range (especially in Europe). Will any brands be terminated?
    Lack of charisma can be fatal.
    Visca Catalunya!

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