Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

rickhamilton620 said:
EDIT: Annndd Spectre's right...the new Yaris is garbage...just look at this shitty door panel:
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they both look like arse to me. No wood, no vinyl, no exposed screws, electric windows, decent speakers, sculpted panels... WTF is this shit?

None of that will constantly rattle or kill you in an accident, bah! This is a quality car interior.

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I have the suspicion that BL cars have such nice interiors so you have a pleasant place to wait for the RAC truck to arrive.
 
Hyundai is 5/10 warranty right? that should still have 2 years of powertrain on it too. That does sound too good for the price, it would probably not hurt to check it out though in case they just have no freaking clue what the car is worth.
 
katwalk said:
Hyundai is 5/10 warranty right? that should still have 2 years of powertrain on it too. That does sound too good for the price, it would probably not hurt to check it out though in case they just have no freaking clue what the car is worth.
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The 10 year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty is non-transferable outside immediate family members. However, the reliability of this generation has been good: good enough for Consumer Reports to recommend it and identifix give it 5 green "dots" The interior is pretty nice as well.

I'm hoping its the latter that you mentioned, that the lady simply has no clue what she's got.

Gotta see when the timing belt needs changed on that engine though, because I know on the older hyundai/kia V6's it's every 60k...which is ridiculous.
 
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There is an exception - if you buy the car through a Hyundai/Kia dealer, they can transfer the warranty as part of their used car program.

Kat, it's GM with the statistically mostly useless 5/100 warranty they keep trumpeting about. They know their cars start falling apart after 5 years and few people put more than 15K per year on their cars so the mileage is basically meaningless.

Edit: Also, it looks like a scam. Notice what's missing from the windshield?
Edit 2: Google image search says that same image is or was used on a car for sale in Albuquerque, new Mexico. Almost certainly a scam.
 
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Spectre said:
There is an exception - if you buy the car through a Hyundai/Kia dealer, they can transfer the warranty as part of their used car program.

Kat, it's GM with the statistically mostly useless 5/100 warranty they keep trumpeting about. They know their cars start falling apart after 5 years and few people put more than 15K per year on their cars so the mileage is basically meaningless.

Edit: Also, it looks like a scam. Notice what's missing from the windshield?
Edit 2: Google image search says that same image is or was used on a car for sale in Albuquerque, new Mexico. Almost certainly a scam.
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Ahhh good eye, it's missing our inspection/emissions stickers in the image. Sucks that it's a scam. I kinda felt it due to the weird [[[ in the title, the curiously staged looking image, and the typed twice description.

Oh well, on to the next one. thanks guys :)
 
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rickhamilton620 said:
Ahhh good eye, it's missing our inspection/emissions stickers in the image. Sucks that it's a scam. I kinda felt it due to the weird [[[ in the title, the curiously staged looking image, and the typed twice description.

Oh well, on to the next one. thanks guys :)
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It's really funny to see those phishing-type ads when they're placed in Texas. They're usually missing:

1. The mandated front license plate.
2. The very obvious windshield-adhered registration sticker.
3. The very obvious windshield-adhered inspection sticker.

Doesn't take much to start noticing their absence. They've tried to compensate by using angles that don't show those three things, but that seems to have had limited success at best.
 
The best ones are where they've used pictures with palm trees in the background for cars that are supposedly located in northern climates. Yeah, try harder.

The mid-90s were a great time to buy cars built like brick shithouses at any price point. Back then, the Camry and Corolla were at the peak of their bulletproofness, the 190E, 300D, and XJ6 were unbeatable, and the Jeep Cherokee still had the 4.0L straight six.
 
silly random question : why is it that when you're refuelling the pump "clicks" to say the car is full, yet if you wait a bit you can still get 3-4 liters more in? Is it because the fuel takes a while to run down the hose thing to the fueltank?

silly random question #2 : if you have an electric car and get hit by lightening, do you get a "free" full battery ;) :p
(given that the car itself conducts, and is bolted straight to the battery)
 
On the fuel, yes. It cuts off when there is splash back, onces it runs down the fillter neck it won't spash back until its filled again.
 
NooDle said:
silly random question #2 : if you have an electric car and get hit by lightening, do you get a "free" full battery ;) :p
(given that the car itself conducts, and is bolted straight to the battery)
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The short answer is no. A battery is charged by placing a higher then nominal voltage across the terminals to cause a chemical reaction to reverse. Lightning strikes develop a huge voltage and a lot of power, but not a lot of energy because they are over within micro-seconds. Even if there was a way to lower the voltage of a lightning strike and store the energy to recharge a battery, the amount of energy stored in a lightning strike isn't a large amount. I am not certain it could even fully charge an electric vehicle.
Trying to harness lightning for electrical energy is just about futile.
 
NooDle said:
silly random question : why is it that when you're refuelling the pump "clicks" to say the car is full, yet if you wait a bit you can still get 3-4 liters more in? Is it because the fuel takes a while to run down the hose thing to the fueltank?
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Fuel foams. A lot. So after the foam dissipates, you can put more fuel in the tank.
 
I was thinking that a 2006+ Chevy Impala SS with the 5.3L V8 might be a good "sleeper" car - pretty quick, with 300hp, and with bland rental-car looks. So long as you're doing something excessively stupid, you should fly right under most police radar.

Of course, the one drawback is the fact that you'd be driving an Impala, and you would not be immune from the "neuralyzer" effect the car has on people - resulting in a lot of long walks through parking lots trying to find your car.
 
phoenixsac said:
I was thinking that a 2006+ Chevy Impala SS with the 5.3L V8 might be a good "sleeper" car - pretty quick, with 300hp, and with bland rental-car looks. So long as you're doing something excessively stupid, you should fly right under most police radar.

Of course, the one drawback is the fact that you'd be driving an Impala, and you would not be immune from the "neuralyzer" effect the car has on people - resulting in a lot of long walks through parking lots trying to find your car.
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With one of the worst interiors ever fitted to a car. :p
 
Spectre said:
With one of the worst interiors ever fitted to a car. :p
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You know, that's one thing that's always puzzled me. Why do manufacturers seem to scrimp on car interiors? That is where the driver spends the majority of his/her time, so why not make it a pleasant place to be?
 
phoenixsac said:
You know, that's one thing that's always puzzled me. Why do manufacturers seem to scrimp on car interiors? That is where the driver spends the majority of his/her time, so why not make it a pleasant place to be?
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It's GM. All styling, no substance. And then they cut back on the styling... They have the world's largest library of human-machine interaction ergonomics - and they refuse to use it.

One reason I like Jaguar - the interior is a pleasant place to spend time in most of the non-Ford designed models. Other makers don't do the same stupid crap as GM does, either. Heck, even the Crown Vic isn't terrible. But GM? "Gray Plastic #3, Hard" and parkbench seats in everything.

Edit: Seems the odd rear styling isn't hurting the uptake of the new Focus 5 door. Seems to be a lot of them running around here.
 
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Spectre said:
It's GM. All styling, no substance. And then they cut back on the styling... They have the world's largest library of human-machine interaction ergonomics - and they refuse to use it.

One reason I like Jaguar - the interior is a pleasant place to spend time in most of the non-Ford designed models. Other makers don't do the same stupid crap as GM does, either. Heck, even the Crown Vic isn't terrible. But GM? "Gray Plastic #3, Hard" and parkbench seats in everything.

Edit: Seems the odd rear styling isn't hurting the uptake of the new Focus 5 door. Seems to be a lot of them running around here.
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I was surprised at how liberally padded the last gen Impala interior was.

I was also shocked at how GM could manage to use that much soft touch material, yet make it look and feel uber cheap (little to no grain) and horribly thin.

EDIT: That and being cheap enough to decide that only the driver needed a optional seat mounted side airbag. Really?!? That's just awful.

I will say that I was impressed by the Rendevous interior. For as ugly as the car was, The interior was nice. I'll say the same goes for the last SRX (with the refreshed dashboard), but that looked great inside and out.
 
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