Nice Things

[Double 0 Soul]

53 minutes ago, AlientoyWorkmachine said:

Honestly, I think the issue here really isn’t America’s cars but Britains ones, no? We’ve got our own problems, but can’t regulations address this at home? If cars are too big for the road that sounds like an issue for government. (Yes, I’m aware that’s not an inspiring response, but really, it feels like the right place no?)

No, i think the blame should lie with the British consumer.. I think American cars and British cars are one of the same.. $$$s are made by car manufacturers selling into the foreign market, it's massive comparred to our market share, car makers are not going set up a production line for a downsized model for British roads, it's just bad for business.. British consumers are given a choice from the available range 'do i buy a massive Audi Q7 or do i buy a smaller Audi A1?' (for instance) even though the Q7 is too wide for our roads.. zero fucks are given because, for one they can afford it so why shouldn't they and for two, the width of their vehicle doesn't affect them, only other road users.. which is what i alluded to at the start of all this, until the international market changes.. we're fucked!.. thankfully most choose the A1 but those choosing the Q7 fuck it up for the rest of us.

Edited October 18 by Double 0 Soul

[reallypeacedoff]

4 hours ago, tooth said:

@rbeck Is that picture of the 5 or 10 in LA?

It's the 101, actually 😆

[tooth]

@rbeck I was just joking… some of the trucks you see on The 5 or The 10 in LA could be monster trucks they’re so jacked up.

[chicote]

For those interested (perhaps particularly those in Europe & the UK who aren’t familiar with the development of US automobile culture), this is a great video explaining the reasons why our vehicles are getting bigger and more dangerous year after year..

 

Just like everything else in this finance-driven society, decisions about what products we are offered are determined by multinational, multi-industry corporate monopolies and the governments they control through lobbying and cronyism, NOT by individual consumers. There are so many reasons why our perfect small environmentally friendly vehicles will never come to bear under this system, and it’s the same reason why our electoral choices are usually limited to two or a handful of politicians who are entirely oblivious to the needs and antagonistic to the desires of the average person. I think if people were given an informed choice, we would choose to have robust public transportation systems, safe and thoughtfully designed communities, localized food systems, affordable healthcare, well-made clothing, and so on, but sadly we have been down this path for a long time already. The incentives driving companies like Shein and Forever 21 to shove billions of disposable garments down our throats are the same ones pushing enormous new trucks and ridiculously expensive EVs that barely anyone can afford to buy outright. It has absolutely nothing to do with consumer choice.

[Cold Summer]

1 hour ago, chicote said:

For those interested (perhaps particularly those in Europe & the UK who aren’t familiar with the development of US automobile culture), this is a great video explaining the reasons why our vehicles are getting bigger and more dangerous year after year..

Just like everything else in this finance-driven society, decisions about what products we are offered are determined by multinational, multi-industry corporate monopolies and the governments they control through lobbying and cronyism, NOT by individual consumers. There are so many reasons why our perfect small environmentally friendly vehicles will never come to bear under this system, and it’s the same reason why our electoral choices are usually limited to two or a handful of politicians who are entirely oblivious to the needs and antagonistic to the desires of the average person. I think if people were given an informed choice, we would choose to have robust public transportation systems, safe and thoughtfully designed communities, localized food systems, affordable healthcare, well-made clothing, and so on, but sadly we have been down this path for a long time already. The incentives driving companies like Shein and Forever 21 to shove billions of disposable garments down our throats are the same ones pushing enormous new trucks and ridiculously expensive EVs that barely anyone can afford to buy outright. It has absolutely nothing to do with consumer choice.

Nailed it. One of the interesting things that's happened as I've become aware of all this, is how much it feels like our whole Left vs. Right dichotomy is a bit contrived and involves a lot narrative-manipulation on both sides. Eventually you (or, well, me) come to the conclusion that the "free market" and corporations are bad, international finance is bad, government is bad, and the whole thing is just this big mess that can't be tidily distilled down into a prepackaged political position. This results in me feeling like I'm the most extremist maniac of anybody I know, while also paradoxically being able to sympathize with the average person's position regardless of where they fall on the spectrum. It's a bit of a strange and lonely place to be.

6 hours ago, AlientoyWorkmachine said:

I’m skeptical of this whole “push” to get everyone to drive EV’s. No one is stopping anyone from going to the dealer and buying up a ton of ICE vehicles right now. No one is telling anyone they can’t drive what they want to drive. Some govt incentives for objectively better environmental technology is only that, an incentive. It’s not a push. 

Oh, I'm talking more about on the level of the auto industry and its moves, more than a push directly on consumers.

 

[julian-wolf]

While we're on the topic…my first car, the day after I bought it (for $750…)

Only ever driven one or two things since then that were as fun, and never owned anything that was anywhere to as easy to work on

RIP

[rbeck]

5 hours ago, tooth said:

@rbeck I was just joking… some of the trucks you see on The 5 or The 10 in LA could be monster trucks they’re so jacked up.

Lmao I didn't know what you were talking about with the numbers, now I see that they're roads

[Double 0 Soul]

^^ Even though 'NOT' is in caps.. it has everything to do with consumer choice.. 

Nobody has a gun at your head forcing you to buy a massive truck, if they did you would have one too.. you make a choice as a consumer and you chose to buy a motorbike, Cold Sums chose a 90s wagon, Broark chose a massive truck. If you had no choice, all the WAYWT pics would be Forever 21 this n that..

It's the bottom line which matters to these companies .. if, as a society you only had the choice between 3 massive trucks.. Large, XL and XXL and 80% of people consistently bought Large, 15% bought XL and 5% bought XXL, the production of the XXL trucks would damage the company bottom line and this is all they care about, the problem is people don't want Large, either through fear or macho projection.. i agree, their choices are not free from manipulation but they are still choices.

For example.. VW Golf has been sold over here for nearly 50yrs because this is what we want to buy, the VW Phaeton was sold between 2004 and 2006, consumers chose not to buy them so VW stopped making them.

Folks around here tend to make better, more informed choices in what they buy.. but you can't wait to be 'given' that information, if you're not making informed choices you have nobody to blame but yourself.

I'll watch the video later.. see if it changes my mind.. if it does, i look fwd to your fit pics.. 

Edited October 19 by Double 0 Soul

[Dr_Heech]

For the guys Stateside l can empathise to a point as lve been fortunate enough to spend time there, albeit 70's until late 90's so not necessarily relevant today, but the vastness of the country plus the size of the other vehicles on the road would certainly have pushed me to buy something safer (and probably bigger) than the ford focus l drive here ( think it was called the Taurus?) but the other crucial thing is that there was still a massive gap between the smaller Japanese and European vehicles and the 'smaller' vehicles produced in the US. I remember that spectrum of small cars available back then in the UK dwarfed the so called small cars available in the US and imo it hasn't changed a great deal.

As an aside @Double 0 Soul here's my addition to really cheap motoring, the fun years of my 20's mostly driving these. They were cheap to buy, bought my first 2CV for 40 quid and my forth for 200. Great fun to drive, a convertible that also had removable seats for picnicking, crazy leaning into corners and ran on lemonade! (..well 50-60 mpg in reality).

 

(Lake district. Check out the case of Directors in the boot lol)

 

One time when we all couldn't fit into the car l removed out all but the drivers seat, opened the roof and took seven people standing up through the roof, whilst drinking and smoking, 12 miles through back roads to a pub and back no bother. Looking back the cars were fun but the inevitability of death by driving in such circumstances with a car essentially made out of tin foil was not well thought through. Saying that, with my son now learning to drive l want something a little more substantial for him with the volume of traffic on the back roads compared to when l was a young'un. And let's not forget our chocked up motorways.

 

Born again boy racer pic incoming...

@julian-wolf this is the best l can do to match your 240/260(?) - a 1981Renault Fuego 1.7 GTX l owned in 1999. The thing was 250 quid with a years MOT and that's as long as it lasted due to excessive rust underneath. Both front seats were broken and didn't fold forward so it was a squeeze for peeps trying to access the rear seats. To me it was a poor man's Porsche 924 and went like a  rocket! The only sports type car l will ever own. Here's the only pic of it and of note the jacket is a pre lvc type 2.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 19 by Dr_Heech

[AlientoyWorkmachine]

2 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

Folks around here tend to make better, more informed choices in what they buy..

Haha I knew it! American exceptionalism was inherited trait from the founding lot all along. 

[Double 0 Soul]

31 minutes ago, AlientoyWorkmachine said:

Haha I knew it!

Nope, you only think you did

2 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

Folks around here tend to make better, more informed choices in what they buy..

ie- folks around the forum.. so

[MJF9]

@Double 0 Soul so was your old Volvo 240 the latter day equivalent of @Broark's new motor, only the Volvo was comparatively less environmentally friendly??? 😜

[Double 0 Soul]

Only car i've owned which could be considered 'the latter day equivalent' would be my old 1954 Series 1 Landy, alas, I can't find a photo (i can sense @Dr_Heech disappointment from here) but even that was 8" narrower than the current Mini

Seen here poking into shot in front of my old V-Dub

I used to sub-let a council garage under a block of flats for £5/mth so i would garage the bug over the winter and use the Landy for chucking MTBs / BMXs and friends in the back, the bikes would be covered in mud but i could just hose it down.. come the spring, i would swap the Landy for the Bug and hit the festivals... then i became a responsible adult and bought a house

I sold the Series 1 for £1200, it'd be worth £30k nowadays.. much like the Volvo, i bought them used, they only traveled a few 100 miles/yr and i sold them used so their carbon footprint was negligible.

[jkbrwn]

My uncle was at a Dawson Denim launch party for Graham Marsh and Tony Nourmand's new book yesterday which alerted me to its presence: 'Denim: The Fabric That Built America 1935-1944'. Immediately pre-ordered after he told me about it. Thought it'd be of interest:

https://www.reelartpress.com/catalog/edition/245/denim

Edited October 25 by jkbrwn