Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

I really don't like these classes of car sizes, but the Fiesta is a subcompact...

Here's a point why I don't like these classes ... apparently a Rolls-Royce Phantom is a mid-size car...

Eh?!?
I think the EPA needs to revise the way they classify cars... (isn't the Phantom a large luxury car?)


...and I thought the Fiesta was a compact. Oh well, I think you guys know what I mean...
 
I am now totally spoiled with luxuries like cold A/C and power mirrors.
Heh that's what I'm trying to avoid, since I'm planning on selling that boat. But it's been years since I owned something with AC and damn is it nice. If I lived in Texas I'd definitely keep a vehicle with AC around. Here it's not so bad.

Pah. My MG dosen't even have a heater.
Wouldn't be much point in it having one, with your MG not having an engine and all ... :D

If I didn't have it there would be days that are just undrinkable.
No day is undrinkable. :beer:
 
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Wouldn't be much point in it having one, with your MG not having an engine and all ... :D

True. The nice thing about Flintstones style vehicle propulsion is that it keeps my body temp up. :p
 
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Ok, long ass post, Things that are important to Kat in a car:

The dashboard/interior:
This is a bad dashboard, it has too many buttons that do multiple things and requires the manual to operate. This is stupid, annoying and unnecessary when you are trying to concentrate on driving when you just want to skip to the next song on the CD
Good dashboard, simple with buttons that make sense and can be used without a manual, lots of dials I can operate without looking, gadgets are fun but in a car it's just distracting. Even though half the buttons go to a optional trunk cd player that I don't have it is still less annoying than the stupid outback ones. The outback also has lots of unnecessary buttons on the steering wheel, on the other side of the steering wheel, on the door, on the seat next to the door etc and neither of us can keep track of them all.

I don't want electric everything, I don't even care about windows being electric, roll down is fine, I just don't want 45087650 buttons for things I do not want or need.For the seats I would prefer cloth, no heated seats, no extra crap, and grey/black/color/anything not beige. Heater doesn't really matter as I only use it when it is like 10 degrees or less out, AC is a must and needs to be good.

My car for some reason has the premium sound packaged dispute having a tape player, but it is so much better than the one in the outback as it has to be carefully adjusted with the confusing buttons every time you change from radio to cd to aux and if you don't it sounds like a tin can.

Color: Not silver, not grey, NOT BEIGE. If you gave me a beige car I would be forced to rattle can it before I could stand to drive it. NO NO NO BEIGE. I do not like boring resale colors. White and Black can look good depending on what they are on but beige and silver? no.

Body style:
I am allergic to heat, sunlight is warm, no more convertibles. Fucking waste when I can't use the top. I don't really care for sedans, but not necessarily a deal breaker. I rarely use my back seats so 2 seaters or things with no rear legroom would probably be fine. I don't need anything big or with lots of space, and I am really tiny so fuck headroom as well.

Power: I would like 0-60 under 10. Whatever engine accomplishes this is fine though I would like a car that weighs enough not to go skating down my steep hill of a street when it's slippery. That shouldn't be hard when everything is bloated as fuck lately

Transmission: I unfortunately recently realized when my hand was swollen up was shifting was kind of painful. Because of this I am not sure if I could live with a manual, if I can't I would prefer a transmission set up like mine now; one with a manual mode that shifts with the stick. The flappy paddles are annoying as they move with the wheel and can be mixed up when turning the wheel.
 
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The dashboard/interior:
This is a bad dashboard, it has too many buttons that do multiple things and requires the manual to operate. This is stupid, annoying and unnecessary when you are trying to concentrate on driving when you just want to skip to the next song on the CD
Good dashboard, simple with buttons that make sense and can be used without a manual, lots of dials I can operate without looking, gadgets are fun but in a car it's just distracting. Even though half the buttons go to a optional trunk cd player that I don't have it is still less annoying than the stupid outback ones. The outback also has lots of unnecessary buttons on the steering wheel, on the other side of the steering wheel, on the door, on the seat next to the door etc and neither of us can keep track of them all.

... or to translate it to common language: kat like the dashboard she's used to, and dislikes the dashboard she isn't used to.

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:


ONE EXTRA BUTTON, I'M SO CONFUSED! :p


Color: Not silver, not grey, NOT BEIGE.

/me glances to the left of kat's message. Umm.. ok.
 
Ok, long ass post, Things that are important to Kat in a car:

The dashboard/interior:
This is a bad dashboard, it has too many buttons that do multiple things and requires the manual to operate. This is stupid, annoying and unnecessary when you are trying to concentrate on driving when you just want to skip to the next song on the CD
Good dashboard, simple with buttons that make sense and can be used without a manual, lots of dials I can operate without looking, gadgets are fun but in a car it's just distracting. Even though half the buttons go to a optional trunk cd player that I don't have it is still less annoying than the stupid outback ones. The outback also has lots of unnecessary buttons on the steering wheel, on the other side of the steering wheel, on the door, on the seat next to the door etc and neither of us can keep track of them all.

I don't want electric everything, I don't even care about windows being electric, roll down is fine, I just don't want 45087650 buttons for things I do not want or need.For the seats I would prefer cloth, no heated seats, no extra crap, and grey/black/color/anything not beige. Heater doesn't really matter as I only use it when it is like 10 degrees or less out, AC is a must and needs to be good.

My car for some reason has the premium sound packaged dispute having a tape player, but it is so much better than the one in the outback as it has to be carefully adjusted with the confusing buttons every time you change from radio to cd to aux and if you don't it sounds like a tin can.

Color: Not silver, not grey, NOT BEIGE. If you gave me a beige car I would be forced to rattle can it before I could stand to drive it. NO NO NO BEIGE. I do not like boring resale colors. White and Black can look good depending on what they are on but beige and silver? no.

Body style:
I am allergic to heat, sunlight is warm, no more convertibles. Fucking waste when I can't use the top. I don't really care for sedans, but not necessarily a deal breaker. I rarely use my back seats so 2 seaters or things with no rear legroom would probably be fine. I don't need anything big or with lots of space, and I am really tiny so fuck headroom as well.

Power: I would like 0-60 under 10. Whatever engine accomplishes this is fine though I would like a car that weighs enough not to go skating down my steep hill of a street when it's slippery. That shouldn't be hard when everything is bloated as fuck lately

Transmission: I unfortunately recently realized when my hand was swollen up was shifting was kind of painful. Because of this I am not sure if I could live with a manual, if I can't I would prefer a transmission set up like mine now; one with a manual mode that shifts with the stick. The flappy paddles are annoying as they move with the wheel and can be mixed up when turning the wheel.

hardtop%20miata%200022.jpg
 
... or to translate it to common language: kat like the dashboard she's used to, and dislikes the dashboard she isn't used to.

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:


ONE EXTRA BUTTON, I'M SO CONFUSED! :p




/me glances to the left of kat's message. Umm.. ok.

all of the buttons on my dashboard do 1 thing, the buttons on the outback do many things. Those seek arrows on the outback? I tried to switch songs on a cd and they don't do that. I had to look up in the manual to find out which button combo switches songs. That is useless and annoying.
Also my car is YELLOW not beige.

That is a convertible that will never have it's top put down and make my life hell more than half the year. :p
In everyday use, that is WORSE than my car because I can drive the bug on snow without sliding everywhere.
 
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things in bold go under the "not needed" category for me
manual is an absolute must though in Europeania they are standard

srsly, alloys #1????

I like how alloys look on a car. A good hubcap can look decent too, but the fact that alloys are becoming more common as standard equipment helps my reasoning.

Manual would be a must for me if I knew how to drive one....<_<

Sunroof's important because it makes the interior that much brighter and nicer. A panoramic one would be even better, and yes...i'd actually use it whenever possible.

Yeah, I know. Not a great way to classify vehicles.
Based on that our old '90 VW T3 Multivan probably was an OMG IT'S HUGE. Basically it was a box with nothing in it but air luxurious interior space.

But the Multivan/Eurovan was huge, bigger than most minivans here. VWOA even played off that fact with it's slogan for it: "There's nothing mini about it!"

/esoteric facts
 
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That is a convertible that will never have it's top put down and make my life hell more than half the year. :p
In everyday use, that is WORSE than my car because I can drive the bug on snow without sliding everywhere.

How about a VW Rabbit? It would retain that premium "solid" feeling you get from your Beetle, yet it would probably be substantially more reliable. (CR likes it surprisingly)

volkswagen%20rabbit%20(2).jpg


Here is what a bad dash really looks like:

*last gen grand prix dash*

*Third gen Taurus dash*

The Grand Prix doesn't look too bad, at least the controls are separated unlike the Taurus' "Integrated Control Panel." I distinctly recall them crowing about how that was a "ergonomic breakthrough" but it looks awful. IIRC they planned to spread it throughout their product line, but only the third and forth generation Taurus/Sable and last generation Escort/Tracer got it before it was promptly killed. Did anything else have it?
 
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Yes, those are even worse.
What is the second one? the parts of the interior that is not the radio clusterfuck looks almost identical to the countor's.

How about a VW Rabbit? It would retain that premium "solid" feeling you get from your Beetle, yet it would probably be substantially more reliable. (CR likes it surprisingly)

volkswagen%20rabbit%20(2).jpg

No. I have had enough of VW custom service and fixing the same tail light every few months thanks. I defiantly don't want another VW.
 
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That is a convertible that will never have it's top put down and make my life hell more than half the year. :p
In everyday use, that is WORSE than my car because I can drive the bug on snow without sliding everywhere.

800px-97-01_Jeep_Cherokee.jpg


800px-Mercury_Marauder.jpg
 
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I think those may be excessively large for me :p
I never even put things in my trunk and never have passengers, a full sized car or suv is a lot more car than I need.

Though something like a wrangler that is a smallish SUV could be fun. :hmm: Still would kill me on gas money though..
 
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But the Multivan/Eurovan was huge, bigger than most minivans here. VWOA even played off that fact with it's slogan for it: "There's nothing mini about it!"

4.57x1.85m isn't really huge? A Focus estate is pretty much the same. The main difference is height though, 1.96m is quite tall (side note: Fun to load up the roof with surfing equipment, no fun to go into garages).


To fit it into the interior space classes... a "large station wagon" is 160ft? or more of interior space. The loading area alone had 5.7m? or 201ft?, plus whatever you get from the front seats.

<German>
https://pic.armedcats.net/n/na/narf/2011/04/06/seite10.jpg
</German>
 
The problem is mostly the weight, because the miatas are nice lightweight cars they would probably slide down the hill like a sled if trucks are having issue getting traction. You of course know this as you have a light rwd mazda and you have mentioned it's poor snow performance. :lol:
A heavy weight car will slide down an icy hill just like a light weight car because the gravity pulls the heavy car stronger and it also needs more friction to stop the heavy car.
When most of the weight is distributed on the non-driven wheels it can be hard to get moving but it won't affect the stopping.
 
4.57x1.85m isn't really huge? A Focus estate is pretty much the same. The main difference is height though, 1.96m is quite tall (side note: Fun to load up the roof with surfing equipment, no fun to go into garages).


To fit it into the interior space classes... a "large station wagon" is 160ft? or more of interior space. The loading area alone had 5.7m? or 201ft?, plus whatever you get from the front seats.

<German>
https://pic.armedcats.net/n/na/narf/2011/04/06/seite10.jpg
</German>

That wasn't sold here as the Eurovan. This was.
ts


A heavy weight car will slide down an icy hill just like a light weight car because the gravity pulls the heavy car stronger and it also needs more friction to stop the heavy car.
When most of the weight is distributed on the non-driven wheels it can be hard to get moving but it won't affect the stopping.

Um... i think you need to go check with Galileo Galilei. If you shove two identically-shaped cars off a cliff, the heavier one doesn't hit the rocks at the bottom significantly ahead of the other.
 
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I think those may be excessively large for me :p
I never even put things in my trunk and never have passengers, a full sized car or suv is a lot more car than I need.

Though something like a wrangler that is a smallish SUV could be fun. :hmm: Still would kill me on gas money though..

Yaris? They're quite cheap and small, and, since they're made by Toyota, presumably reliable.
 
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