deskthority

The problem with planting the basics of life is that you'd have to wait millions of years for any meaningful results.

I just ignore Elon Musk, he's just another business narcissist. I identify him with shit companies like PayPal, which shows what he really is about. Get on that first ship to Mars, Elon. Are you prepared to die for your shit ideas? That kind of sci-fi is over since we realized it will be the robots that will do the pioneering. Sending humans is meaningless sacrifice, designed, in this case, to give the narcissist a hard one. If we're gonna be like that I prefer Larry Ellison. Who at least is unashamed and transparent.

webwit wrote:
Get on that first ship to Mars, Elon. Are you prepared to die for your shit ideas?

Lol. Would love to see that one.

Fiat 500? If you are Italy presumably you won't be paying a premium for one.
We had one for two years and it was reliable, cheap to run. We've now moved on to a 500X and that is great too.

I recently purchased an Audi A3 Sportback e-tron. Electric when I can, else it is petrol


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webwit wrote: I just ignore Elon Musk, he's just another business narcissist.

I view Elon Musk as another in the old tradition of automotive autocrats. We've not had a really good autocrat in a while. Henry Ford, William Morris, John Black, Carl Borgward, the founders of Hyundai and Daewoo - an autocrat can do a pretty good job of running a company...

webwit wrote: Get on that first ship to Mars, Elon. Are you prepared to die for your shit ideas?

... until his character flaws start running away with him. (It always seems to be a "him".) Autocrats end by either retiring before they do any more damage, running their company into the ground, or being the victim of a boardroom coup. Look out for some interesting happenings at Tesla if Elon gets serious about Mars.

vivalarevolución wrote:

webwit wrote:
Get on that first ship to Mars, Elon. Are you prepared to die for your shit ideas?

Lol. Would love to see that one.

Make him be the first to ride the stupid hyperloop thing he is trying to build and then when it loses vacuum and he is propelled at the speed of sound into a mountain he will learn the errors of his ways.

urbancamo wrote: Fiat 500? If you are Italy presumably you won't be paying a premium for one.
We had one for two years and it was reliable, cheap to run. We've now moved on to a 500X and that is great too.

Fiats have literally the worst reliability reputation in the USA. Reports of cheap materials that fall apart or malfunction. Perhaps they are made different in Europe, because from what I have read, they don't have such a terrible reputation.

andrewjoy wrote: Make him be the first to ride the stupid hyperloop thing he is trying to build and then when it loses vacuum and he is propelled at the speed of sound into a mountain he will learn the errors of his ways.

I actually welcome the Hyperloop. For all those insufferable people that live in New York City and Los Angeles and refer to the rest of the country as "flyover" country, the Hyperloop would give them the opportunity to avoid interaction with the rest of the country. We all benefit.

axtran wrote: I recently purchased an Audi A3 Sportback e-tron. Electric when I can, else it is petrol

Perhaps we should chat, that one really caught my eye.

vivalarevolución wrote: Fiats have literally the worst reliability reputation in the USA. Reports of cheap materials that fall apart or malfunction.

Oh dear, I did hope they'd avoid that this time round. Last time Fiat tried selling cars in America, it was said that FIAT stood for "Fix It Again, Tony".

vivalarevolución wrote: Perhaps they are made different in Europe, because from what I have read, they don't have such a terrible reputation.

Wouldn't surprise me - the two factories listed on Wikipedia are Fiat's Polish factory which has been making small Fiats since the 80s, and Chrysler's Mexican plant which also made (among other things) the Neon and PT Cruiser. From what I hear of the quality of small Chryslers, there could well be a difference...

The Fiat-Chrysler brand generally has a shit reputation for reliability around here. Chryster, Dodge, RAM trucks, Jeeps....poor marks all around.

If you want to get a smaller car , try a ford fiesta, they drive loverly ( even around them funny corner things you americans get confused by, i have just come back from the US at least in Nashville you guys suck at driving ) , it has very good build quality and the ecoboot 1L is super efficient and very powerful.

Ecoboost is a hilariously brilliant snake-oil ad campaign. It's made Ford tons of money. They essentially give you a smaller displacement engine designed around a turbocharger -- nothing more. The supposed fuel economy gains vs. a naturally aspirated engine are tenuous at best, but you can't argue with the torque curves that the Ecoboost engines produce.

I haven't tried them, but from what I've read, those ecoboost engines are really a fun drive (I guess their accompanying gearbox is nice too). It was an International Engine of the Year three times in a row, and still holds that title in sub-1L category (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internati ... f_the_Year). It displaced Toyota's engine that I have in my 107, and that engine is quite a bang for that buck, so if it's better than that it has to be nice. If I was in for a city car right now, I would seriously consider Fiesta (do they offer those engines in Mazda as well?).

andrewjoy wrote: i have just come back from the US at least in Nashville you guys suck at driving

I don't know how it's down there in the South, but up in the Northwest driving around town is nice. However, driving on a highway is torturous. It's like no one heard of keeping in the right lane(s) rule.

andrewjoy wrote: i have just come back from the US at least in Nashville you guys suck at driving

I don't know how it's down there in the South, but up in the Northwest driving around town is nice. However, driving on a highway is torturous. It's like no one heard of keeping in the right lane(s) rule.[/quote]

When I went to France last Christmas, the orderliness of freeway driving was astonishing to me. Nearly everyone in the right lane, no speeding, slowing down to let drivers on the entrance ramp. I couldn't believe it. Compared to that experience, freeway driving is chaos in the States. I wondered if some of the other European countries are as orderly on the freeways.

City traffic in Tours and Paris seemed about as nutty as any American city, except the cars were smaller. Also, drivers seemed a bit more aware of cyclists in Paris, probably because people actually ride bicycles in that city.

My personal theory is that the dominance of automatic transmission in the American car industry makes us lazy and unaware drivers, because we don't have to pay attention to driving conditions in order to select the proper gear. But it's not like manual transmission eliminate shitty drivers.

You should have driven to Italy then. Driving between Venice and Turin and vice-versa is more chaotic than anywhere else I've been in the west. i don't think they know what signalling lights are for When I do it, I just keep waiting for the french border, it's so tranquil there after the whole ordeal.

vivalarevolución wrote:
I actually welcome the Hyperloop. For all those insufferable people that live in New York City and Los Angeles and refer to the rest of the country as "flyover" country, the Hyperloop would give them the opportunity to avoid interaction with the rest of the country. We all benefit.

The problem with it is , its totally impractical for a multitude of reasons.

Big one being how do you deal with expansion of the tube ? The thing has to be sealed so unless you have an expansion joint every few meters ( and then every single one has to have a seal), if its one piece it will expand in length by about 300meters ( for the smallest hyperloop), and thats without getting into buckling due to differential heating of the top and bottom of the tube.

Another one is , what happens if there is a failure of the tube ? Air will rush in at almost the speed of sound turning it into essentially a long gun barrel firing out capsules full of people.

He has more chance of getting to mars in his crappy rocket than getting the hyperloop to work, its impractical. Its almost as insane as someone replacing all of the roads with glass covered solar panels .

I could go on but this is about cars you know a sane method of transport

alh84001 wrote: I don't know how it's down there in the South, but up in the Northwest driving around town is nice. However, driving on a highway is torturous. It's like no one heard of keeping in the right lane(s) rule.

I agree , you see people change lanes all the time without any signal , not to mention that in the US side indicators ( the ones on the wing of the car or wing mirrors) are not a requirement.

Its not all Chuckles and Sunshine in the UK people screw up on the motorway all the time. People just crawling along in the middle lane causing people to have to over and under take them, its unsafe. Or people who think its ok to brake on the motorway form 80mph to about 50 and then dive across 4 lanes, assholes.

alh84001 wrote: You should have driven to Italy then. Driving between Venice and Turin and vice-versa is more chaotic than anywhere else I've been in the west. i don't think they know what signalling lights are for When I do it, I just keep waiting for the french border, it's so tranquil there after the whole ordeal.

Napoli is far worse! They just crash into one another for a laugh , i don't think i saw one car with an unscratched body panel , but then again they all treat the city streets like a shithole so why not there cars.

I didn't actually think about the mechanics and physics of the Hyperloop. I would just be thrilled that individuals referring to the middle part of the country as flyover country to have the opportunity to spend even less time interacting with people they disdain.

One of my buddies when to Uganda this summer. He said traffic laws simply are ignored everywhere. Absolute traffic chaos. Heard similar stories about many other places, too. I think we have it easy in the Western world.

vivalarevolución wrote:
He said traffic laws simply are ignored everywhere. Absolute traffic chaos.

I think we have it easy in the Western world.

When a society understands that it can operate as "a well-oiled" machine to everyone's benefit, it works well.

But it does not take all that many anarchists to throw a wrench into the works and cause disproportionate havoc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bette ... Our_Nature

I agree, it takes one person to fuck up at a roundabout to cause traffic to a crawl. Use your indicators , so i know if i can go or not !

Regarding cars i think this will be my next one.

http://www.ford.co.uk/Cars/CarPromotions/FocusST

Not a new one ( i am not that rich) but i think the last model will be cheap enough now.

Gotta go with the hatchback Ford Focus. My sister has the sedan and it just doesn't have any trunk space. Plus, hatchbacks tend to get better mileage.

andrewjoy wrote: I agree, it takes one person to fuck up at a roundabout to cause traffic to a crawl. Use your indicators , so i know if i can go or not !

Regarding cars i think this will be my next one.

http://www.ford.co.uk/Cars/CarPromotions/FocusST

Not a new one ( i am not that rich) but i think the last model will be cheap enough now.

Okay, I just looked up the Focus ST after becoming enamored with sporty hatchbacks over the weekend. Holy shit, that would be a fun little go-kart for getting around. A lot of power in that little thing.

And the Focus RS takes it to another level.

The RS is amazing. However you cannot match the seat colour with the bodywork , its blue sports seat trim or nothing. So you would have to have the blue bodywork for it to match , same for the brakes.

The ST is loverly and i do want one , but i may just have to go down to the Titanium, i would rather have a 2 year old titanium with the 1.0l ecoboost ( the 125hp version) and have all the cool bluetooth and DAB radio and navigation and so on than an older ST that is fast but still has the old ( and quite frankly terrible) bluetooth and radio system my 09 fiesta has

The thing I like most about those Ford Foci is how boring, conventional, and utilitarian they look, but then they have all this power hiding under the hood (trunk). Woo!

I think they look pretty cool with that silver grill, not sure if the US has a different body kit.



And yeh the ecoboost has all the power for its displacement, all the power under the bonnet

If you still need a new car:



If you need a larger car:



If you need a smaller car:

matt3o wrote: got a toyota yaris at the end. very happy with it so far. ...

A pity they don't make those any more:

My second car. I have very fond memories of it. Last ones were made nearby in Slovenia and had a distinctive feature of having separate rectangular rear signal lights. Plastic covers would break after many years, and it was a hassle to find a replacement. Other than that, it was a tank.

If you want the ultimate car though, there is only one (no matter which variant)

kbdfr wrote: A pity they don't make those any more:

Spoiler:

I bet there's a north korean car based on this design that is still in production and - according to north korean media - is winning the Le Mans 24h year after year.

Wodan wrote:

kbdfr wrote: A pity they don't make those any more:

Spoiler:

I bet there's a north korean car based on this design that is still in production […]

That would be enough of a reason to consider moving to North Korea

The more so when you consider the traffic density there:

I hope one day they have a reunion. It is really sad to see Korea still in two halves and Korea north being the last communist country of the world.


Another suggestion, should matt3o change his mind:

The only drawback is is lame engine (only 140HP).


@Fiat: make this with a 6-cylinder engine and at least 200HP and I buy it instantly, right after Round 7 has shipped ...

Easy on the Fiats. They make Americans cringe.