Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

WhistlinDiesel's editor Keller Moore got arrested, charged with 5 counts of inciting a riot for organizing car meets.

part 1

View: https://youtu.be/L3Zy-pLBn4I?t=229
part 2

View: https://youtu.be/Bbn5jHwthn0?t=62

Cops ability to police seems a bigger problem...


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Encountered this Beauty today. The charger worked, but when we returned an hour later and I put the pram into the car, that exact moment there was a power outage in the entire area :| yeees… causation / correlation something something… we still got the hell outta there real quick 🙈
 
“I don’t like these newfangled computers on wheels. Cars should be mechanical so they’re reliable and easy to fix”

You do realize why your “mechanical” 30 year old shitbox starts on command and idles all day long, while your dad’s’ three year old company car didn’t start on damp mornings and stalled at the lights if he didn’t keep a foot on the throttle? Them’s the newfangled computers doing their job.
 
Is a €30 solar panel worth it as a battery tender? What about overcharging etc?
 
Perc said:
Is a €30 solar panel worth it as a battery tender? What about overcharging etc?
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Maybe? It depends on the specs and the parasitic losses of the vehicle.

Solar panels are rated for voltage and amperage. For a car, you want 12- 14ish volts, and at least twice the amount of amperage to cover the parasitic losses. You will also want a charge controller to prevent cooking the battery. Adding the cost of a charge controller to the equation may not make it financially feasible unless you don't have power where you are storing the vehicle.
 
Heard a mildly interesting thing from my parents today. My little brother drives that Volvo 850 I had. Seems it caused the neighbor across the street to buy newer Volvo of similar color one recently as they parked it behind my little brother‘s. So I guess Volvo‘s move on herds?

THEY DO MOVE IN HERDS.
 
I've been driving my 1993 Nissan Hardbody more recently, and I had an interesting thought. What I realized is I fit better in this little truck over my 2014 Frontier, I am more comfortable, have more head room, etc., yet the Hardbody is a smaller truck than the Frontier. My thought was, "Why do manufacturers always march ever larger with vehicles? Why not update the original models with a little more power and better safety?"

I'm sure part of this is because of marketing/capitalist forces where people, especially in 1st world countries want the newest, the latest and the greatest. I also understand that changing safety regulations may require new models to have thicker doors/panels in order to meet the required standards.

I also know that you have cars like the Lada/Vaz 1200 were updated over and over, etc. And even the Hardbody lived on in countries outside the US/Canada well into the 2000, long after they were discontinued there. Mexico and Thailand come to mind. The king of long running vehicles has to be the Nissan Junior, come Zamyad Junior/Z24. Built under license in Iran from 1970 to, well, today. Yes, 50+ years of the same truck. Damn, I want one.

I guess my point is, if you can keep the vehicle in emission/safety standards, other than market forces, why do we continue to want bigger, faster, more gadgets, geegaws, bells, whistles and a much larger price tag?
 
CraigB said:
I've been driving my 1993 Nissan Hardbody more recently, and I had an interesting thought. What I realized is I fit better in this little truck over my 2014 Frontier, I am more comfortable, have more head room, etc., yet the Hardbody is a smaller truck than the Frontier. My thought was, "Why do manufacturers always march ever larger with vehicles? Why not update the original models with a little more power and better safety?"

I'm sure part of this is because of marketing/capitalist forces where people, especially in 1st world countries want the newest, the latest and the greatest. I also understand that changing safety regulations may require new models to have thicker doors/panels in order to meet the required standards.

I also know that you have cars like the Lada/Vaz 1200 were updated over and over, etc. And even the Hardbody lived on in countries outside the US/Canada well into the 2000, long after they were discontinued there. Mexico and Thailand come to mind. The king of long running vehicles has to be the Nissan Junior, come Zamyad Junior/Z24. Built under license in Iran from 1970 to, well, today. Yes, 50+ years of the same truck. Damn, I want one.

I guess my point is, if you can keep the vehicle in emission/safety standards, other than market forces, why do we continue to want bigger, faster, more gadgets, geegaws, bells, whistles and a much larger price tag?
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I knew an engineer that worked on GM and Ford small trucks and he told me about 20 years ago that the small trucks were not long for this world due to safety regulations. That is why GM abandoned the S-10 mini trucks for the mid-sized Colorado and Canyon line. He said it was not impossible to make the mini trucks meet safety regulations, it was foolisly expensive though.
 
^ And the small trucks were already priced close enough to the larger ones wherein a price increase would wipe out the market anyway. After all, as a value proposition it's hard to justify a more expensive, smaller vehicle which would cost about the same to maintain (especially when new) and when the break-even point for Gas Mileage savings is distressingly close to a decade unless you're clocking 30k miles a year

IMO, you have your premise backwards @CraigB. It's not so much that a consumer wants the newest and latest and greatest, it's that your markets (thankfully) allow you to absorb that and your consumers will take advantage of it.

Yes, the Hardbody survives outside of the US, but its interior is gutted and replaced with something which rather more resembles an 80s economy vehicle. Out go the airbags and the side impact beams and all of that lovely equipment. The KA24 and VG30 are taken out back and replaced with a 2.0-liter four that won't crack 100 HP...or if you're really lucky a non-turbocharged 2.5-liter diesel.

The post-USDM hardbodies were not crash tested of course, but the mexican spec B13 sentra was. Here's how it did:

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sidenote: This got a Zero-Star Latin NCAP rating. Unsurprisingly. Cars sold in developing markets are still more prone to killing people. Latin NCAP standards are roughly similar to 2014's EuroNCAP. Global NCAP (India, confusingly enough) uses circa 2013 Latin NCAP standards.

Shockingly, the more upper-class aimed Pathfinder didn't stay in production anywhere and it was quickly replaced with the safer (and larger) R50. Imagine that.

By the time you have you have engineered a D21 which would be NHTSA compliant and have at least the passive safety features to meet current standards in developed countries your safer D21 would resemble a D40 anyway. All of this is expensive of course. Expensive enough that making sure that the corporate sunroof, ICE, and heated and cooled seat modules work will not add that much to the overall development budget but can reap substantial margins on the market.

Modern production techniques favor option packs over individual options. The base model on most cars will be a loss-leader to advertise at best (people really looking to buy a cheap car will buy a more premium used one, ask Tata) Why not make even the low-trim levels to share as much with the high-trim as possible, including most of the standard equipment. That sunroof and bum coolers can be bundled on an uptrim pack for $3500, which is pure profit because the car is already engineered to take them anyway.

And since most people finance, that $3500 package is not $3500, it's $75 bucks a month for the standard 60 month financing allowing for interest. Cars last a lot longer these days so the increased cost can be perceived as investing in making the car enjoyable on the long-run

And it's not like everyone wants bigger all the time. Ask the Americans in the late 50s, when they flocked to the first generation of compacts. Or the late 70's, when the great downsizing and the influx of imports made it clear that the American consumer was just about done with thinking a car's worth was directly proportional with length. Or minivans killing the station wagon, or right now with the "medium size" truck market being red-hot as full-sizers happily sit above the threshold of "Too big, even for big" (which I've unscientifically ballparked at about 230" or 5.8 meters.) and they're the size of 2-gen old Full-sizers.


sidenote 2: please enjoy this test crash of the continuation D22s (which in the states was indeed an attempt to keep that Hardbody up to date with safety standards) compared to the contemporary European Nissan Frontier:


View: https://youtu.be/UL_2MdSTM7g?t=41
 
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New Cayenne configurator just dropped: https://www.porsche.com/usa/modelstart/all/?modelrange=cayenne

...and my favorite brown (Mahogany Metallic) isn't on there! :'( I know I can't get a Cayenne yet, but I'm still crushed!

I am amused how quickly Rennbow updated its list of browns with the PTS changes, though: https://www.rennbow.org/colorwiki


edit: fine, I made a configurator parsh even though that Blackberry interior really deserves all the strings pulled for a Moonstone exterior (sans Acid Green e-hybrid accents in that case) lol https://configurator.porsche.com/porsche-code/PRGDCYD7
 
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So many bloody VW Eoses around here! Too many Eoseses.

It's like people only just realised that they exist and I saw at least 4 different ones in this area over the weekend. Some different colours too, there's a black on this street now with black wheels that looks a bit meh but I've at least seen silver and teal too. No white/red combos yet.
 
I will refuse diesel for as long as possible here in Germany. I hate walking a long the sidewalk, something diesel drives by and then there's a wave of either typical diesel exhaust or a weird tinge of something due to the adblue. It's annoying as fuck.
 
Suddenly I really fancy an Alpine A110, real shame that they don't do a targa version. :hmm:
 
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