Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

I guess Doug is sort of channeling Clarkson in some ways, like driving over the PT Cruiser or using obvious hyperbole. I don't mind him, I like a lot of the stuff he does, but a lot of the commenters saying "That's so funny!" are like Mandy Moore saying "That's so funny!" in Scrubs.
 
Be more interesting to see what toxic materials it is made of and how quickly it will go on fire. :mrgreen:
 
Its funny, but having driven several Chinese build vehicles recently, they're put together far better than UAW ones.

Theres a different between Chinese built Chinese cars and Chinese built "foreign" cars. And the ones I've driven were Chinese build for the Chinese market. I'm guessing Chinese built for export will be even better.
 
I've been in the Chinese-built Rover 75 (Roewe 750), and it's not bad. Granted, this was 8 years ago and I was just a passenger, and more easily impressed.
 
Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

I'm not doubting the build quality being better than the UAW's craptastic output. I'm pretty sure my cat could produce better build quality given some of the screw ups I've seen. I'm doubting the materials quality - Chinese products have been known to sometimes have decent build quality but be coated in lead or rat poison, etc.

Or, 'hey, that's a beautiful exhaust shield, too bad we made it out of sodium.' Or something else that explodes or otherwise has a bad reaction to the presence of water...
 
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You mean sodium-filled valves aren't the same as sodium valves? omg
 
Well the cars are still designed in Sweden but merely built in China. The inscription S60 is just the American name for the long wheel base S60L that was developed specifically for the Chinese market. Volvo is all about low VOC in their interior materials and I have been in enough late model Volvos to know the difference between what a new one of those smells like compared to almost any other new car. The out-gassing of the interior on a new Volvo is pretty close to zero so you don't get that over powering new car smell like you do in just about every other new vehicle.

I will know instantly if they cheapened the interior materials when compared to the Swedish or Belgium built Volvos. The interior of the S60 inscription is supposed to be higher end than the regular S60 as it is going to be a stopgap replacement for the S80 till the S90 comes out in a year or two.
 
There's also the 10K closeout truck, whose season we are now entering.

Any advise on how to look for these? My father wants to replace his old rusted out Ranger and a super cheap contractor spec truck should do just fine to haul his boat to the causeway and back. He is in South Florida near West Palm Beach but I haven't had any luck finding any killer deals.
 
He used to be better. Or at least different. Now its all the same, the same shitty analogy style over and over, the same "if you follow me on twitter you already know", etc. Its just turned into a big wankoff about his Skyline and Hummer.

All in all I've started to cut down how much I go to Jalopnik. Steve Lehto posts are really interesting. Some of their old car trivia posts are really cool. But not much else.

He's found a niche by buying cars that many people can afford, but know would be a terrible idea, and then writing about the ownership experience.

I guess Doug is sort of channeling Clarkson in some ways, like driving over the PT Cruiser or using obvious hyperbole. I don't mind him, I like a lot of the stuff he does, but a lot of the commenters saying "That's so funny!" are like Mandy Moore saying "That's so funny!" in Scrubs.

Two-three videos/essays per car are fine. I liked reading the first ones about the 360, the Skyline, and the Hummer. But now it's become like a daily update, which I'm sorry to say, is boring. And yes, a lot of us may do this here in the Post Your Car section, but I don't see people drooling over each new post about a car we are already familiar with.
 
Two-three videos/essays per car are fine. I liked reading the first ones about the 360, the Skyline, and the Hummer. But now it's become like a daily update, which I'm sorry to say, is boring. And yes, a lot of us may do this here in the Post Your Car section, but I don't see people drooling over each new post about a car we are already familiar with.


Its not just that. I'd happily read stories about his cars everyday if they were written differently. Hell, there are some PYC threads on here I check out every time theres an update, and it doesn't get boring. Its just that his repeated use of over exaggerated comparisons and silly comments that he thinks are funny - which they were, the first 5 times he made them, now they're just old.

Exerts taken out of his recent posts.

There it was: the new RX?s turn signal. And it wasn?t a regular ol? halogen bulb or a blinky light, like normal cars have. It was this fluidic design that moved with the grace of a ballet dancer wafting across the stage at an Upper East Side charity event where they serve six meal courses, none of which are larger than a regulation USB stick.

It is a member of my family. I sometimes give it hugs when I finish driving it for the day. I like to stroke its dashboard as if it were a walrus in a petting zoo.

In fact, Hummer hasn?t existed since the Great Recession, when the kind of people who purchased Hummers saw their Las Vegas-area construction businesses fail because property suddenly had approximately the same value as an extension cord.

This is because I am six-foot, three inches tall, whereas the maximum height for sleeping on airplanes has been strictly defined by the FAA as ?no taller than a medium-sized badger.?

I posted a couple of photos of my car hanging out with Altimas they?ll finance with nothing down, even if your credit report includes bankruptcy, divorce, repossession, animal cruelty, attempted murder, war crimes, etc

Just to be clear, this problem could?ve been fixed by anyone. A child. An infant. A koala bear with a Philips screwdriver.

Its that kind of thing that has turned me away from reading his posts. I can sort of see what public means with Demuro trying to channel his inner Clarkson, but its just not working in his favor imo.
 
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Had yet another 300XZ / 350Z owner live up to the stereotype of:

1)having me look up a really obscure part
2)tell me they already found it on the internet for much less
3)demand, yes demand that I sell it to them for that price

It's been the same way since I started working for Nissan 11 years ago, and it is always...always 300ZX or 350Z owners, every single one. If they demand a discount, I am not going to give them one, fuck them. Some even tell me I should sell parts to them at cost, grab the monitor and look to see if they can find our cost on the screen.
 
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Had yet another 300XZ / 350Z owner live up to the stereotype of:

1)having me look up a really obscure part
2)tell me they already found it on the internet for much less
3)demand, yes demand that I sell it to them for that price

It's been the same way since I started working for Nissan 11 years ago, and it is always...always 300ZX or 350Z owners, every single one. If they demand a discount, I am not going to give them one, fuck them. Some even tell me I should sell parts to them at cost, grab the monitor and look to see if they can find our cost on the screen.

I don't understand why do they try to argue with you. I go to the dealer to check prices on certain parts, and while I may laugh in my head, I never argue with the employees because I know it's not within their power to control prices.

Latest example is spark plug wires - at the dealer $165, online OEM $58.
 
Had yet another 300XZ / 350Z owner live up to the stereotype of:

1)having me look up a really obscure part
2)tell me they already found it on the internet for much less
3)demand, yes demand that I sell it to them for that price

It's been the same way since I started working for Nissan 11 years ago, and it is always...always 300ZX or 350Z owners, every single one. If they demand a discount, I am not going to give them one, fuck them. Some even tell me I should sell parts to them at cost, grab the monitor and look to see if they can find our cost on the screen.

Fucking Z bros... if you found the part online cheaper just fucking get it... Also you work at a Nissan dealer? *rubs hands together* :p
 
something about overnight parts from japan
 
something about overnight parts from japan

I used to do that when we sold GT-R parts to a company called AMS, some of you may have heard of their Alpha series, we were instrumental in helping them launch that. I even got to invent a few part numbers that were not in the catalog. Nothing special, just bolts.
 
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