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kimbo305 posted:It's really busy looking in that color, but I think I'd be ok with it. I applaud switching to the hidden rear door handle gimmick. I'm unfamiliar with this, where is it?
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Sep 13, 2011 19:50
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oRenj9 posted:I really don't understand why Nissan decided that the Juke should be a CUV. The Juke looks so much better sitting at a normal ride height. Plus, its specs and styling (in the sense that it is unique) are so close to the Mini; it seems like it could have made a great Mini/GTI fighter. I never thought of it this way, but goddamn you're right.
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Sep 27, 2011 23:45
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Left Ventricle posted:Have car makers forgotten that people have arms, and that said arms sometimes need to be somewhere other than pointing at the steering wheel or shifter? Resting on something, if you will? How dare you not be at 9 & 3 all the time!
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Sep 28, 2011 19:39
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Mazda has been kind of wishy-washy on whether they're definitely continuing with Wankel development. I've never owned a rotary, but I've always been intrigued by the technology and have always kind of rooted for it just because it's different and an underdog. It's quite possible that the rotary hasn't blown it's last apex seal just yet.
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Oct 7, 2011 19:45
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You're crazy, the new F30 looks way better than the E90. Sharper front end, cleaner body lines, and the whole car just looks slimmer and lighter (and is ~90lbs lighter). Still no E46, but I think it's a good evolutionary redesign. Can't wait to see the coupe next year. M-Sport package: 
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Oct 14, 2011 21:44
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I rather like the front end, even the lights-connected-to-the-kidneys. Edit: ^^^^ Yeah, see, that looks awesome IMO. Compare to the mustache-grille of the early E90 sedans, which still just looks hilariously bad:  The new F30 is a huge improvement. Guinness fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Oct 14, 2011 |
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Oct 14, 2011 21:57
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The coupe won't probably won't be launching until MY 2013. The coupes (or 4-series, as the case may be this time) typically don't launch for about a year after the sedans, and the convertibles another few months after the coupes. I think the coupe version has the potential to look really great with this generation. The coupes tend to look better than the sedans IMO (especially with the E90/E92s), so here's hoping the trend continues with the new generation. Guinness fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Oct 14, 2011 |
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Oct 14, 2011 23:26
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rscott posted:These days I'd say anything under 2000 lbs is pretty god drat light 2000? These days, seems anything under 3000 with any semblance of sportiness or power is ultraleggera. I don't believe for one second that a budget sports car like the Toyobaru will be anywhere near 2000 pounds, but I would love to be proven wrong. Guinness fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Oct 20, 2011 |
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Oct 20, 2011 22:12
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BonzoESC posted:Subaru only caters to ricers (no offense intended, I drive a Mitsubishi) and Colorado-tier granolas, and the BR-Z covers half of that.  Subaru is the official car of the Pacific Northwest. Seriously, like 1 out of 3 cars here are Subarus. Not exaggerating at all. And most of these people driving non-WRX Imprezas, Outbacks, and Foresters aren't going to care one bit about the BRZ - the same way they don't care one bit about the WRX/STi. Guinness fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Oct 21, 2011 |
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Oct 21, 2011 17:12
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Ugh, guys, I thought we said no fat chicks?
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Oct 31, 2011 08:08
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thebushcommander posted:Like'a Dis? Get rid of that obnoxious wing and that is one fantastic looking car.
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Nov 1, 2011 18:18
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You didn't look very hard then http://www.bmwusa.com/standard/content/uniquely/bmwefficientdynamics/ExploreActiveE.aspx It's a pilot program comprised of 700 of their electric 1-series cars over 2 years. They are leasing them to the general public instead of just doing internal testing. Sign ups begin later this year. They've started hyping it up a bit, and that one looks like it has dealer or manufacturer plates or something like that, probably driving around for final testing and to raise awareness.
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Nov 2, 2011 22:00
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Ah yeah, it's almost all Flash, that's probably why. Looks like a neat car, I think it's primarily field testing for technology they'll be implementing in their upcoming i3 and i8 cars.
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Nov 2, 2011 22:34
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I just spent the evening at the Seattle international auto show, and I've got to say I was really surprised at how uninspired and cheap-feeling most news cars are across the board, especially the interiors, even in the "premium" segment. I checked out first-hand most of the major offerings from virtually every major brand available in the US, and more often than not I found myself thinking "they want HOW much for this??". Granted, I didn't actually drive any of them, but from just settling into the driver's seat and checking out the interior feel, I was left unexcited at best by most cars, and appalled by others. I'd say the most impressive interiors IMO across all sub-75k cars were the Hyundai Genesis (sedan and coupe), Acura TL (best interior under 75k IMO, too bad the outside is so frumpy), Mazda 3 and MX-5 (simple, but nice and clean), and the Ford Focus (for the price). The most disappointing/shocking were pretty much all Volkswagens (man, talk about moving down-market), Volvo S60 (  -inducing layout), and Audi, especially the big boy Audis like the A6/7/8 - for $60-100k, they were just pathetic and cheap feeling, although cleanly designed.I walked away from the show thinking 95% of all the new cars were crap for how much they cost. The interior of my 04 BMW 330Ci and my dad's 03 Acura TL-S have way better materials and layout than almost everything being sold new right now. As a big BMW/Audi fan, it feels really weird to say that some of the best interiors on the market belong to Hyundai. How times have changed. On a positive note, my dad is seriously considering going to test drive a Genesis Coupe as a potential new DD after being so impressed by it and Hyundai in general. They are legitimately nicer cars than most stuff that costs 10k+ more. poo poo, I could even see myself going from a BMW to a Hyundai. Never in a million years did I think I would ever utter those words. Guinness fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Nov 6, 2011 |
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Nov 6, 2011 07:49
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I don't know if they refreshed the interior, but I thought the fit and finish were really overall quite good, especially in the Genesis Sedan. Which is not to say it was the best in fit and finish, but as far as interior goes I really do think it is a top-tier car. Doubly so when you consider it costs 10-20k less than its competitors. But I haven't actually driven one, so I'm just strictly comparing interior. I have no doubt that the 5-series or A6 are still a better driver's car.
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Nov 6, 2011 20:12
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Viktor posted:I really dislike the console on the Mazda 3. They have totally different font/illumination color on the two displays which is a giant Now that you point that out, that's really grating. I wonder how I didn't notice that, I bet the 3 that I sat in wasn't fully powered on. It's obnoxious when the display cars aren't all lit up, as it allows for dumb design decisions like that to go by unnoticed. I still really like the MX-5 dash, though, but mostly because it isn't cluttered with all these multiple displays and techno crap and is just nice and simple and clean (kind of like the MX-5 in general...). It's funny, I love technology and even like it in some new cars, but it has to be non-intrusive and not obnoxious looking. So few manufacturers pull it off well, and maybe that's why I hate so many new car interiors. All the loving displays and LCDs and brightly colored gauges and buttons and AGGHHH drives me nuts. Blinding white/blue is NOT a good color for gauges, especially at night no matter how much you can dim them. Give me a good old fashioned BMW/Audi-style solid orange/red gauge cluster any day. Guinness fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Nov 6, 2011 |
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Nov 6, 2011 22:38
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to me. It looks like something aftermarket slapped on with no design constancy.
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Replace the Kia badge with an Audi badge and no one would know the difference.
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Nov 12, 2011 00:00
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It's not a V10.
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Jan 5, 2012 00:42
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That front overhang is killing me, but that's one of my bigger complaints about most cars' styling.
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Jan 10, 2012 18:52
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Speaking of, saw a Veloster on the road yesterday. Not a bad looking little... thing. As far as sub-20k economy cars go, at least.
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Feb 22, 2012 21:52
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davebo posted:Speaking of Chevy liftbacks, I don't understand why they didn't do that with the new Camaro. The trunk is pretty useless not because of the space inside but the actual opening. Holy LOL. That's terrible. I'm pretty sure my NA Miata had a more usable trunk than that.
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Feb 22, 2012 22:04
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PT6A posted:Really, of all the laws to complain about, I just don't understand why you'd take issue with this one. Better visibility is a win for everyone, and we have the technology to do it relatively inexpensively compared to the price of a new car. If you don't like it, don't look at the camera image. Problem is, the backup camera requires an in-dash LCD. I specifically don't get cars with navigation systems so I don't have a big ugly LCD sitting in the middle of the dash. I guess they are an inevitability, though. 
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Mar 2, 2012 18:31
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Captain Duvel posted:I've been thinking about trading in my 2007 Mazda 3. I'm looking for mainly MPG since work is close and I really don't drive long distances. Why would you trade in an otherwise excellent, fun, practical car at a huge expense, just to save, at most, a couple hundred bucks a year in gas? Maybe there are other reasons and I totally understand that, but if your primary concern is "saving money", then buying a new car, no matter how good its gas mileage is, is not going to save you money over the car you already have in any reasonable time horizon.
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Mar 14, 2012 18:00
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:At the end of the day it's about money though, since when I get this new car I'll be a poor recent college grad. I can get 38 MPG highway in the Veloster Turbo on regular gas, vs 35 mpg in the Mini S on premium. I also hate to say it, but why are you buying a new car if money is so tight? It's one of the poorest financial decisions you can make as a young person without a lot of income. I graduated a couple years ago, and even though I've had a couple of very lucrative jobs I still don't think that buying a new car makes sense yet. That said, the cost difference between 35 and 38mpg, even premium vs. regular, is so marginal that if that is actually a monetary concern for you you really probably should not be buying a new car. Even if you drive 15,000 miles per year, with a price premium of 30 cents/gallon for premium vs. regular, that's only $120 in extra fuel costs. And that 3 MPG difference means you consume a whole 33 gallons more of gas per year, which even at $5/gallon is less than $200. If $300/yr is enough of a financial burden to make you think twice about getting your top-choice car, then I'm not sure that new is the best decision. Not that buying a new car is always a bad idea, but they carry a huge price premium and are utterly terrible "investments". Buying new is for people with established careers and healthy income, not poor recent college grads. The much higher initial cost and higher insurance requirements/premiums make it an extremely expensive proposition compared to a 3-7 year old used car without much benefit other than "being new". Guinness fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Apr 3, 2012 |
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Apr 3, 2012 19:00
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Preoptopus posted:Can someone explain to me why the Quattraporte is tanking its value? This is why: Preoptopus posted:besides running costs. Niche brand requires expensive niche parts, expensive specialty knowledge/tools, and frequent expensive service with expensive labor at expensive niche shops. Did I mention it is expensive?
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Apr 16, 2012 22:45
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Nonsense posted:Wondered if there were any car-news websites that weren't filled to the brim with imbeciles in the comments? Like I tried reading TTAC, saw the word marxist mentioned in article by a writer for the site, closed the window. I mean the article was about EV charge stations, and I was interested in that, then it quickly was not at all about EV charge stations. They're all terrible, and unfortunately TTAC and Jalopnik are some of the least-terrible with regards to comment quality out there. That's why I love AI so much.
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May 30, 2012 00:27
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travisray2004 posted:Apparently BMW is going to alter their model lineup to odd series signifying sedans and even series signifying coupe and verts. Talk about clusterfuck. And they've already hosed up that scheme with the 6-series GranCoupe.
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Jun 22, 2012 22:58
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discstickers posted:I read somewhere (C&D?) that the F30 wagons would be auto-only stateside. God drat it, there is/was a real chance I was going to look at an F30 328i/xi wagon with a manual as my next car, and to hang on to it for a while. Ever since I picked up my motorcycle my car has been more of a utility vehicle and I've felt less of a need to have the highest performance/sportiest variant of car. Which is not to say I don't care about performance and handling at all, just not quite as much as I used to, and the new turbo-4 motor seems like much less of a performance compromise than in the earlier "small engine" 3-series. I love my e46 330ci, and it's pretty drat practical for something its size, but for being my "utility" vehicle it is a little bit lacking.
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Jul 21, 2012 10:43
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dissss posted:Or you could have none of that and be just as happy in a car with much cheaper fabric seats. No I couldn't, I despise cloth seats. You can pry my leather seats from my cold dead hands.
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Jul 26, 2012 14:50
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Nitrox posted:Not another staple goony post about how every car should be available with turbo, manual, AWD and pick-and-choose luxury options for a price of an econobox. At least once per week, like clockwork. "I basically want an Audi/BMW, but I only want to pay for a Focus. The car manufacturers are screwing us again!"
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Jul 26, 2012 15:20
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Cream_Filling posted:And isn't everything stuck on using Torx screws? Torx screws are awesome. I wish everything used Torx screws. Phillips screws can go to hell.
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Jul 26, 2012 19:31
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Agreed, if you're worried about money, buying any new car, whether it's a Toyota or a Porsche, is a losing proposition financially speaking. Some of my idiot friends go and buy brand new 25-30k generic appliance cars that they don't care about and then think I'm the rich rear end in a top hat for driving an 8 year old BMW I paid half that for; and haven't had any non-routine maintenance costs with. They could have spent 10k on an 8 year old Camry and had a MUCH cheaper and pretty equally reliable appliance car even if they had some (unlikely) unexpected maintenance issues. But these are the kind of people who don't maintain a car at all, and think that once it needs new tires, new brakes, and some fluid changes that it is "a ticking time bomb" and they need to go buy a brand new car. Guinness fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Jul 26, 2012 |
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Jul 26, 2012 19:38
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Warcabbit posted:Is there a thread about selling your old car to the dealer, by the way? Generally, you're going to get MUCH more money for your car selling it private party. Dealers will never give you fair market value for your trade-in, especially if it is in good condition. They're going to turn around and sell/auction it, and they want to make money on it. If you're getting a "good deal" on your trade-in, chances are they're screwing you on the price/financing of your new car.
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Jul 27, 2012 21:44
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Yeah just about all the street parking in Seattle, if metered, uses pay stations that you print out a ticket and stick it to your window. There aren't really any demarcated parallel parking spaces, and even when there are they are suggestions at best. Still though, very rarely would something like a Smart or an iQ actually mean you could fit into spaces that you couldn't fit into with a more typical 'compact' car.
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Aug 13, 2012 19:07
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PT6A posted:Except you can park perpendicular to the curb in a parallel space. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it over and over in Berlin. But that's illegal here.
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Aug 13, 2012 22:42
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Well you see let me tell you about heritage and brand purity and abburrrrpphhhff I've got a BMW and I don't give a poo poo what other models they make as long as they keep making models that I like. If they stop making models I like, I'll stop buying them. Simple as that. That they make things like the X6 and 5GT really has no bearing on whether or not the 3-series is a good car. The existence of the X6 isn't going to stop me from buying an M3. Same poo poo with people getting their jimmies rustled by Porsche making the Cayenne (which made Porsche profitable enough again to keep making 911s and whatnot...). Guinness fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Sep 15, 2012 |
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Sep 15, 2012 00:30
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I generally agree that most modern cars can be taken care of and last 25+ years and well over 200,000 miles. It's just that some will age with much more grace than others, and some will cost more in time, money, and headache to keep in tip-top shape than others. The biggest reason for a modern car not lasting 25 years is that the vast majority of car owners are woefully neglectful of any sort of scheduled/preventative maintenance. And then when a couple of more or less expected issues crop up, the car "is on its last legs" and they trade it in on a newer vehicle and take a bath financially. What's really funny is that over in the BFC car thread, most of the "last legs" posts are about cars that are only about 10 years old and generally with not much more than 100k miles on them. These cars are barely at their halfway point in life if given a bit of maintenance. It does makes a certain amount of sense, since that's roughly the time interval when most cars will need a little bit of basic maintenance and attention (fluids, filters, brakes, tires, plugs, sensors, maybe some suspension work) to freshen things up, but these are all wear items and are to be expected on every car, be it a Honda or a Bentley. For a relatively small maintenance cost (certainly no more expensive than a couple of payments on a new car!) you can take care of most of the major maintenance items and the car will be mostly good for another 10 years/100k miles. The exception is model-specific design flaws or manufacturing defects that cause an expensive and potentially recurring problem. For example, Subaru head gaskets from the 90s-mid 2000s, or Honda/Acura V6 automatic transmissions from late 90s-early 2000s. Having to do a head gasket job or an automatic transmission replacement is definitely a lovely/expensive thing that will cause most people to write-off a 10 year old car. But even with those, once replaced they shouldn't be a problem again for another 10+ years (or at all if replaced with improved/redesigned parts). But I can see why someone with a 10 year old car staring at a $2000+ repair bill might write it off, even though repairing it would likely be the more strictly financially sound decision in the long run. Guinness fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Sep 17, 2012 |
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Sep 17, 2012 18:49
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Cream_Filling posted:I think part of the reason this is so may be because prices for maintenance and service are primarily labor-dependent and highly local, which means that they scale differently compared to the prices of goods. I would need to support this hunch with data, but it's possible that everyday maintenance has gotten more expensive for people who can't do a lot of the work themselves. That's true, the biggest killer on mechanic visits is the labor, but even expensive shops or dealers for non-exotic cars aren't more than $150-175/hr or so, and that's on the extreme high end. Even in a very high cost of living area, most labor rates are in the 100-120/hr range or less, which of course still adds up quick. But even so, take your typical "on its last legs" scenario of some 10 year old generic Toyonda Camcord with ~100k miles that is starting to hit its first real round of expected, but overall minor, maintenance: fluids/filters/plugs, brakes, perhaps a timing belt/WP, and maybe some miscellaneous stuff like worn/squeaky accessory belts, an O2 sensor going bad. or a leaky valve cover gasket. When most people tell me that their car is one foot in the grave it's all minor stuff like this. Yeah, getting it freshened up by a mechanic will probably run you about $1000-1500 but then it will basically be good for another nearly 10 years/100k miles. The same cost would be realized within just a few months of payments on a new (or new-used) car, not even accounting for taxes or downpayment. And of course most people don't perform any maintenance ever until it's something serious, making all that delayed periodic maintenance pile up and make it one very expensive trip to the mechanic, instead of several cheap ones. EVERY car eventually needs maintenance. Fluids break down, filters get dirty, pads get used up, plugs get worn, tires goes bald, and belts start to crack. It's just amazing to me how so many people equate having to do even the most basic of periodic maintenance as "car is dying, must go take out a 20k loan and buy a new one!" when for a tiny fraction of the price they could fix their car and get another 100k miles out of it. Guinness fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Sep 17, 2012 |
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Sep 17, 2012 22:09
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Huh, the mirrors on my E46 fold the way in Linedance's picture, but they are still manual folding mirrors.
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Oct 12, 2012 18:36
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My only gripe about manual folding mirrors is that they are practically a non-feature since I never fold them because  , especially the passenger side.And I also avoid super tight spaces because of door dings and scratches so what's the point anyway, it's not like I've got huge F350-style mirrors. Guinness fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Oct 12, 2012 |
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Oct 12, 2012 20:44
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