Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

I don't know, I see a lot of Ford and Dodge dealers in small ranch towns around here. They aren't big dealerships and cater more towards trucks, but the dealer network is pretty significant. This is one of the reasons we have a Ford Taurus, parts are cheap, can be found at any NAPA/Auto Zone/O'Riley's, and nearly any town with more than two stop lights has a Ford dealer or someone who knows enough to work on them.
 
It’s the brand loyalty that’ll sell them. There’s a Chevy dealer in so many rural towns where ford and Chrysler are not let alone an euro brand. It doesn’t have to be good as long as it marketed to pull on “heritage” and the feeling that you’re a tough but smart person for buying it.

Yeah, that's becoming less and less of a factor even in those tiny towns in BFE these days. You need to read this: https://www.autonews.com/article/20...ow-steady-demise-of-the-small-town-dealership
 
It’s the brand loyalty that’ll sell them. There’s a Chevy dealer in so many rural towns where ford and Chrysler are not let alone an euro brand. It doesn’t have to be good as long as it marketed to pull on “heritage” and the feeling that you’re a tough but smart person for buying it.
I don't see how brand loyalty factors into the HUD discussion, or were you referencing something else?
 
I don't see how brand loyalty factors into the HUD discussion, or were you referencing something else?

I think he was talking about the Blazer discussion upthread from the HUD one.

Regarding the HUD issue, there's been lots of issues with people complaining about them. One of the biggest complaints has been that it was distracting and glaring at night. I suspect, leaving out poorly designed and built HUD systems, this is much like how a segment of the population complained and continues to complain bitterly about properly aimed, properly engineered headlights being glaring and distracting at night when we went from incandescent lights to halogen, from halogen to composite halogen, halogen to HID and now HID to LED.
 
I don't know, I see a lot of Ford and Dodge dealers in small ranch towns around here. They aren't big dealerships and cater more towards trucks, but the dealer network is pretty significant. This is one of the reasons we have a Ford Taurus, parts are cheap, can be found at any NAPA/Auto Zone/O'Riley's, and nearly any town with more than two stop lights has a Ford dealer or someone who knows enough to work on them.

Oh for sure. You'll go by the lot in some town of 1500 and the only thing there is a single Mustang, a couple Tauruses, a metric fuck ton of F-series trucks and a couple used tractors.
 
I don't see how brand loyalty factors into the HUD discussion, or were you referencing something else?

As spectre said, I was replying to the blazer talk. Sorry!
 
I think he was talking about the Blazer discussion upthread from the HUD one.

Regarding the HUD issue, there's been lots of issues with people complaining about them. One of the biggest complaints has been that it was distracting and glaring at night. I suspect, leaving out poorly designed and built HUD systems, this is much like how a segment of the population complained and continues to complain bitterly about properly aimed, properly engineered headlights being glaring and distracting at night when we went from incandescent lights to halogen, from halogen to composite halogen, halogen to HID and now HID to LED.
Just get some night driving glasses people geez.
 
Just get some night driving glasses people geez.

While I'm sure that a lot of said people are complaining only due to mental problems, there is a certain subset of the population that is abnormally sensitive to light of one or another color temperature. While most people perceive a 5000-6500K light as "brighter" due to how the human eye picks up different color temperatures, some people perceive a 6500K light as blindingly brighter than a 3000K light even if the 6500K light is actually producing less light as measured by a photometer. A couple months ago, I ran a test with a friend of mine (and former FG member) who was complaining about the new stock LED lights on cars as being misaimed - I don't have any problems with them on the road or in oncoming traffic, so I had him come over to check out the LED conversion on my 4R; he found them blinding compared to the stock halogen light sources even though the beam pattern is the same and he was viewing the lights from above the cutoff. We later compared a couple of Mustangs with stock lighting, one with HIDs and another one with LEDs, viewing the headlights from well above their cutoff lines. Turns out they aren't misaimed, it's just his photosensitivity in that particular spectrum. Not sure night driving glasses would help.

Night driving glasses might not help with HUDs - a lot of them tend to be in the same amber spectrum as those glasses are.

That said, there are some other objective issues with car HUDs. Depending on design, they can be difficult to read if you have astigmatism, even with glasses. Another issue is automatic light level control sometimes not doing a good job along with auto contrast. They all still have issues with washing out in bright lights, too.
 
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While I'm sure that a lot of said people are complaining only due to mental problems, there is a certain subset of the population that is abnormally sensitive to light of one or another color temperature. While most people perceive a 5000-6500K light as "brighter" due to how the human eye picks up different color temperatures, some people perceive a 6500K light as blindingly brighter than a 3000K light even if the 6500K light is actually producing less light as measured by a photometer. A couple months ago, I ran a test with a friend of mine (and former FG member) who was complaining about the new stock LED lights on cars as being misaimed - I don't have any problems with them on the road or in oncoming traffic, so I had him come over to check out the LED conversion on my 4R; he found them blinding compared to the stock halogen light sources even though the beam pattern is the same and he was viewing the lights from above the cutoff. We later compared a couple of Mustangs with stock lighting, one with HIDs and another one with LEDs, viewing the headlights from well above their cutoff lines. Turns out they aren't misaimed, it's just his photosensitivity in that particular spectrum. Not sure night driving glasses would help.

Night driving glasses might not help with HUDs - a lot of them tend to be in the same amber spectrum as those glasses are.

That said, there are some other objective issues with car HUDs. Depending on design, they can be difficult to read if you have astigmatism, even with glasses. Another issue is automatic light level control sometimes not doing a good job along with auto contrast. They all still have issues with washing out in bright lights, too.
I'm in a similar predicament to your friend in that I find 6500K to be too bright and night driving glasses do help quite a bit. After all they basically shift colors more towards yellow and filter out blue. I don't tend to use them during normal night driving but in rain/snow they are actually a massive help. As far as interfering with HUDs, I've only ever seen green ones so not sure if it would make much of a difference.

As far as issues like brightness, astigmatism, etc.. go it's hardly a reason to not put them in cars. The only real issue IMO is how expensive windshields can end up being, but a separate display could fix that rather easily.
 
I think a lot of people conflate improper headlight alignment after repair, shitty aftermarket HID/LED bulbs and OE LED setups into one big mess. I rarely find OE systems that are bothersome, but it seems like most social media angst is aimed at OE due to lack of understanding. There are of course exceptions - one at the top of my mind is the pre-facelift current gen MKZ.

Audi actually got a patent a few years ago for using onboard cameras to adjust headlight aiming, but that wouldn't help the issue of older cars having headlights pointing god knows where.
 
I miss the basic HUD in my old Grand Prix. It was nice having my speed just float on the road in front of the car. :dunno:

In other news, I've done something silly got peer pressured into buying something twin turbocharged. Will have to be unlazy and do PYC thread.
 
Twin-turbo’ed Coyote S197?
 
In other news, I've done something silly got peer pressured into buying something twin turbocharged. Will have to be unlazy and do PYC thread.

Yup. I have some pics from this weekend’s ‘festivities’ if you want them for the PYC thread.

For those guessing, here’s another hint as to what it was: I was called in to fix the horribly broken wiring on one part of it. (“Hail Lucas, Prince Of Darkness! Protect thine worshipper!”) And I’d already seen the problem before. :p

Have fun guessing! :D
 
Hmmm, Spectre, king of Jaguars. Twin turbo. Lucas Electrics.


Must be an XJ220
 
I want to say an early Toyota Supra or Nissan Z of some sort, but I'm not too familiar with the turbo setups.
 
I miss the basic HUD in my old Grand Prix. It was nice having my speed just float on the road in front of the car. :dunno:

In other news, I've done something silly got peer pressured into buying something twin turbocharged. Will have to be unlazy and do PYC thread.

Did you get tired of having a reliable car?
 
I love the 300ZX. When I first saw one on the road, surrounded by 1980s boxes, it looked like a spaceship with wheels. I've loved it ever since.
 
Hmmm, Spectre, king of Jaguars. Twin turbo. Lucas Electrics.


Must be an XJ220

To clarify, the vehicle did not have Lucas electrics that I know of (although the maker has used Lucas products in the past), I was merely describing the invocation one makes before embarking on electrical repairs. :p
 
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