Car Chat

[Morris Minor]

I took a wrong turn yesterday... thought it was the entrance to a shopping center: in fact it was the entrance to a Chevy dealer. The inventory was spread VERY thin. Vehicles in the front row had been parked at 45° to the parking space lines to fill the gaps, & present more metal to anyone viewing from the road. I'd say the lot was about 1/3rd to 40% full. A lot of that was taken up by second tier used vehicles, stuff that I would have thought normally would have been sent off for auction.

Things are bad out there.

[cawimmer430]

I don't necessarily disagree with this post but I would just add that cyclists/pedestrians that cross the path of an automobile usually end up seriously or mortally injured and so I don't know whether reducing the speed limit for cars to a crawl actually encourages shitty behavior on their part.

The problem is that in Germany ANY accident involving an automobile and a cyclist will generally result in the motorist getting the blame - even if the cyclist is clearly at fault. And this rule basically encourages cyclists to drive like complete fucking morons: reckless and dangerous.

A member of the R129 SL Club we are in was involved in an "accident" with a cyclist. Here's what happened. He left his house late at night. In front of his home is a cycling lane which is poorly lit and obscured by vegetation and a wall. The cycling lane is a one-direction lane meaning that the cyclists have to follow the direction of the road, in this case they come from the left side. This guy inches forward slowly but surely watching the left side for any cyclists. Suddenly, a cyclist crashes into his car from the right side: she was cycling in the wrong direction, had her headphones on to hear music and her bicycle had no light. The judge ruled that HE WAS AT FAULT claiming that "he should have been more careful".

I want to tell this judge a big FUCK YOU. This stupid cunt cycled in the wrong direction, had no lights, had headphones on which prevented her from hearing the noise from the SL's internal combustion engine and if she saw his headlights she should have stopped right away. But this is exactly what I mean with cyclists are getting a free pass for being total retards.

I also cycle a lot through the city - but I follow and know the rules. Many cyclists here don't have a driver's license and don't know the traffic laws and that is a huge problem. And the amount of cyclists I see driving through red lights, driving in the wrong direction etc. is just mind-blowing. Also at night, I see a lot of cyclists with no lights (front and rear) being passed by police cars and these stupid cops don't even pull these people over to reprimand them. It's unbelivable.


Here's what needs to be done. Every cyclist has to pass an intelligence and driving test. Every bicycle needs a license plate so that they can be identified when they fuck up. Every bicycle needs strong functional front and rear lights. Every cyclist has to bring their bicycle to a TÜV every year for inspection to see if it is roadworthy (functional brakes, lights etc.). And - cyclists should be forbidden from listening to music and wearing headphones while cycling. They turn the volume up so high that they can't hear traffic and thus don't know what's going on around them. A lot of these retarded stupid eco cyclist morons don't even turn their head or signal when they are changing lanes etc. They are a pest and I fucking hate them and the retarded piece of god damn shit German Green Party which essentially encourages their behavior because "cars are so evil bla bla bla". 

At those speed limits might as well just drive a golf cart in the city.  Car would just be for when you leave the city limits or if it's freezing temperature outside.   

I am telling you, Germany is such a complete eco shit hole right now. These speed limits are not really intended for safety reasons, they are intended to make driving hell on earth for motorists so that they will willingly give up their car and switch over to shitty German public transportation (which is an unreliable and overpriced joke).

Here in Munich we have main roads where the speed limit was reduced from 50 km/h to 30 km/h - and the reasons are given in form of a sign underneath the 30 km/h sign. In many cases it's because of "children and senior citizens" or "clean air". Total bullshit. My dad's SL's fuel economy readout shows that at 30 km/h that V8 guzzles 20+ liters of gasoline while at 50 km/h it will use around 9 liters. My A250 needs more fuel at 30 km/h than at 50 or 60 km/h. The "clean air" claim is total bullshit. At 30 km/h city traffic flows worse and the traffic lights are still synchronized to work at 50 km/h. The results are that at 30 km/h there's more traffic, more senseless engine idling and more pissed off motorists.

The people of Munich are retards. They vote SPD (Socialists) and Greens (Eco terrorists). The SPD long ago got rid of the green traffic waves in favor of stop-and-go style driving. The Greens have changed the timing of traffic lights to create more traffic (to piss of motorists). They even admit this! In my area there are traffic lights for side streets which are green for 20 seconds and red for 3 minutes. Yes, 3 minutes. The "funny" thing is that cyclists are also sitting there pissed off for 3 minutes... And when the light finally turns green, motorists turning left or right have to wait for slow ass pedestrians to cross. Thus, for every 20 second green light cycle, one or two cars can turn left or right. That's how traffic is created in this city courtesy by the SPD and the Greens - two political parties who are so fucking hysterical about CO2 emissions.

When fellow and former CarSpinner CJ was with me in Munich, he was also wondering at the utter retardedness of the traffic light system here.

[veeman]

The problem is that in Germany ANY accident involving an automobile and a cyclist will generally result in the motorist getting the blame - even if the cyclist is clearly at fault. And this rule basically encourages cyclists to drive like complete fucking morons: reckless and dangerous.

A member of the R129 SL Club we are in was involved in an "accident" with a cyclist. Here's what happened. He left his house late at night. In front of his home is a cycling lane which is poorly lit and obscured by vegetation and a wall. The cycling lane is a one-direction lane meaning that the cyclists have to follow the direction of the road, in this case they come from the left side. This guy inches forward slowly but surely watching the left side for any cyclists. Suddenly, a cyclist crashes into his car from the right side: she was cycling in the wrong direction, had her headphones on to hear music and her bicycle had no light. The judge ruled that HE WAS AT FAULT claiming that "he should have been more careful".

I want to tell this judge a big FUCK YOU. This stupid cunt cycled in the wrong direction, had no lights, had headphones on which prevented her from hearing the noise from the SL's internal combustion engine and if she saw his headlights she should have stopped right away. But this is exactly what I mean with cyclists are getting a free pass for being total retards.

I also cycle a lot through the city - but I follow and know the rules. Many cyclists here don't have a driver's license and don't know the traffic laws and that is a huge problem. And the amount of cyclists I see driving through red lights, driving in the wrong direction etc. is just mind-blowing. Also at night, I see a lot of cyclists with no lights (front and rear) being passed by police cars and these stupid cops don't even pull these people over to reprimand them. It's unbelivable.


Here's what needs to be done. Every cyclist has to pass an intelligence and driving test. Every bicycle needs a license plate so that they can be identified when they fuck up. Every bicycle needs strong functional front and rear lights. Every cyclist has to bring their bicycle to a TÜV every year for inspection to see if it is roadworthy (functional brakes, lights etc.). And - cyclists should be forbidden from listening to music and wearing headphones while cycling. They turn the volume up so high that they can't hear traffic and thus don't know what's going on around them. A lot of these retarded stupid eco cyclist morons don't even turn their head or signal when they are changing lanes etc. They are a pest and I fucking hate them and the retarded piece of god damn shit German Green Party which essentially encourages their behavior because "cars are so evil bla bla bla". 






I am telling you, Germany is such a complete eco shit hole right now. These speed limits are not really intended for safety reasons, they are intended to make driving hell on earth for motorists so that they will willingly give up their car and switch over to shitty German public transportation (which is an unreliable and overpriced joke).

Here in Munich we have main roads where the speed limit was reduced from 50 km/h to 30 km/h - and the reasons are given in form of a sign underneath the 30 km/h sign. In many cases it's because of "children and senior citizens" or "clean air". Total bullshit. My dad's SL's fuel economy readout shows that at 30 km/h that V8 guzzles 20+ liters of gasoline while at 50 km/h it will use around 9 liters. My A250 needs more fuel at 30 km/h than at 50 or 60 km/h. The "clean air" claim is total bullshit. At 30 km/h city traffic flows worse and the traffic lights are still synchronized to work at 50 km/h. The results are that at 30 km/h there's more traffic, more senseless engine idling and more pissed off motorists.

The people of Munich are retards. They vote SPD (Socialists) and Greens (Eco terrorists). The SPD long ago got rid of the green traffic waves in favor of stop-and-go style driving. The Greens have changed the timing of traffic lights to create more traffic (to piss of motorists). They even admit this! In my area there are traffic lights for side streets which are green for 20 seconds and red for 3 minutes. Yes, 3 minutes. The "funny" thing is that cyclists are also sitting there pissed off for 3 minutes... And when the light finally turns green, motorists turning left or right have to wait for slow ass pedestrians to cross. Thus, for every 20 second green light cycle, one or two cars can turn left or right. That's how traffic is created in this city courtesy by the SPD and the Greens - two political parties who are so fucking hysterical about CO2 emissions.

When fellow and former CarSpinner CJ was with me in Munich, he was also wondering at the utter retardedness of the traffic light system here.

  Thanks for the low-down.  They're moving towards a car free society and eliminate their dependence on fossil fuels, the majority of which come from Russia. EV requires electricity which ultimately mostly still comes from burning fossil fuels so mass public transit and bicycles is probably the only way to reach this goal and also reach climate neutrality.  Maybe Wimmer, for your own sanity, you should move out of Western Europe. Argentina has a large German population

[r0tor]

Honestly, a car free city might be the only way to get me to move into a city.

[giant_mtb]

This thing is sick.

https://youtu.be/1MrIv1JDlhg

[Eye of the Tiger]

Rad

[r0tor]

That is amazing

[Laconian]

The entire dashboard is made from one of those McMansion home theater couches which electrically recline and have a million cupholders.

[Laconian]

Honestly, a car free city might be the only way to get me to move into a city.

Amsterdam. I'd move there in a heartbeat.

[SJ_GTI]

Germany has become such a shit hole. And the fucking retards in this country keep voting for the car-hating Greens.

Stuttgart - home of Mercedes and Porsche - will now have a pathetic speed limit of 20 km/h (12.5 mph) in the city center in order to make this area "more attractive for cyclists and pedestrians". Aha. Those same cyclists or pedestrians which cross roads when their traffic lights are set to red and in the case of cyclists who drive around at night without front or rear lights. But when you are involved in an accident with these retards, you as the car driver, are automatically at fault. That's the rule here. And this unfair rule just encourages shitty behavior on part of cyclists and pedestrians - because they will never be at fault.

The last time I was in Stuttgart it was hell on earth. 30-40 km/h on fucking main roads (18-25 mph)... I could not live in such a shit hole city. But you know what? The retards of Stuttgart... FUCK THEM. They voted for the car- and freedom-hating Greens, so fuck them. DEAL WITH IT. Morons.

https://www.echo24.de/baden-wuerttemberg/stuttgart-tempo-20-autofahrer-regeln-aenderung-zone-fahrradstrasse-fussgaengerzone-cityring-zr-91439940.html

Can you not move to another country or something? Can't people in the EU pretty much move to whichever EU country they want? If I hated NJ as much as you hate Germany I would definitely move rather than constantly complain about it.

[cawimmer430]

  Thanks for the low-down.  They're moving towards a car free society and eliminate their dependence on fossil fuels, the majority of which come from Russia. EV requires electricity which ultimately mostly still comes from burning fossil fuels so mass public transit and bicycles is probably the only way to reach this goal and also reach climate neutrality. 

The funny thing is that the retard German Greens and other dumb politicians here are claiming that once we get rid of ICE cars and other fossil fuel-using industries, we will be "independent from energy imports". What an utterly retarded claim since we import nuclear and coal power from our neighbors and moving towards EVs will create even more dependence on raw materials from.... African nations, China, Russia, Canada etc.

I view this whole CO2 and anti-ICE/car hysteria as a means for the freedom-hating Greens to reduce the amount of cars on the road and take away my freedom and individual mobility. A decade ago the Greens were pushing for the sale of Diesel cars. Now they're anti-Diesel and anti-Gasoline. Once everyone drives an EV, they will want that off the road as well. Germany has become such a retarded, stupid, woke and politically correct nation where ideologically insane people are in power. 

Maybe Wimmer, for your own sanity, you should move out of Western Europe. Argentina has a large German population

[cawimmer430]

Honestly, a car free city might be the only way to get me to move into a city.

I'm the complete opposite.

Car-free city = unappealing, you won't see me there. 


I don't use my car to go everywhere in the city. For inner-city errands I tend to use my bicycle. But there are areas in this city where you can't go without a car because public transportation is non-existent there. I also hate public transportation and refuse to use it.

[veeman]

I'm the complete opposite.

Car-free city = unappealing, you won't see me there. 


I don't use my car to go everywhere in the city. For inner-city errands I tend to use my bicycle. But there are areas in this city where you can't go without a car because public transportation is non-existent there. I also hate public transportation and refuse to use it.

I also hate public transportation 

Of all U.S. cities, NYC is probably one of the most public transportation friendly but I very rarely go on it.  It would be different and I would be forced to take it if I worked during weekday daylight hours in Manhattan but I don't. Even during a busy holiday weekend, I'd much rather spend the commute in my comfortable car than dealing with the trains/subways.  Public transportation especially from outside NYC going into NYC is not cheap anyways. 

People get flustered with bumper to bumper traffic but to me that's much better than a packed train/subway and it's associated crime, filth, smells, and habitual delays/cancellations.  Just sit in my car, keep the AC on comfortable, listen to music, and I'll most probably get to my destination at roughly the same time as public transportation and often sooner especially if traveling off peak hours. 

If I lived in Japan, Singapore, or some place like that I would think differently.  Public transportation I've heard is always on time, is clean, and relatively crime free.  We went to Paris a month ago for a week and I never used the subway    "Uber"ed everywhere if it was too far to walk.  Cost a little bit more but no one pickpocketed me or my family. 

[Laconian]

Can you not move to another country or something? Can't people in the EU pretty much move to whichever EU country they want? If I hated NJ as much as you hate Germany I would definitely move rather than constantly complain about it.

I think he'd hate it more if everybody moved out of the city and into suburbs, gobbling up all the best driving roads. Which is exactly what happens here, because US cities are generally loud and ramshackle places, being built primarily around cars and car parking.

[cawimmer430]

Can you not move to another country or something? Can't people in the EU pretty much move to whichever EU country they want? If I hated NJ as much as you hate Germany I would definitely move rather than constantly complain about it.

Sorry for the late reply didn't see your comment. 

I don't hate Germany, I just find the economic, social etc. directions we're heading into highly problematic. We have a left-leaning government whose political ideas and handlings are based on emotional and ideological ideas and not facts. Also, if I were to leave Germany I'd have to leave the EU. Every country in this socialist-borderline communist construct known as the EU receives their orders from some "politicians" in Brussels whom we didn't vote for. I am so sick of these assholes interfering in my life and telling me how to live.

What I really hate about our SPD-Green-FDP (Socialist-ECO TERRORIST-Wannabe Liberal Democrats) coalition government is that the two leftist political parties, SPD and Greens, have the most power and are furthering their ideological ideas.

Munich for example is run by the SPD and the Greens. There was a recent survey from the city about future mobility in this town, I took part in it. The result was that 80% of people in Munich preferred their cars and want to use their own car instead of public transportation or a bicycle. For 40% of those people, public transportation or a bicycle is not an option. What do the Greens and SPD do? They IGNORE this survey and will make the city even more car-unfriendly. Looking out the window now, it's pouring rain and these idiots want me to use a bicycle in this weather... or public transportation.

Our state propaganda news networks all use this pathetic gender language in which certain words are made more complicated with a * or _ or a *innen just in case one of the 93,427 genders is watching and feels offended for not being included or something. 80% of Germans think gender language is retarded and don't want it - but the SPD and Greens are still pushing it through. I had a 15-year-old internee last month and he was telling me how his teacher (obviously an idiot who is and votes for the Greens) was teaching his class that A) cars are bad bla bla bla and B) gender language is important. His English was terrible. I'm thinking like, "What will help this kid later in life and on the international level? Knowing the correct pronouns for all 93,427 (or is it 93,428 now?) genders, or speaking proper fluent fucking English!?" 

Germany also has a brain drain of about 200,000 highly-qualified people a year. Engineers, doctors, scientists etc. who leave the country due to the high tax rates. I just recently read an article which stated that we lack 150,000 qualified engineers! Since we're exiting nuclear power for good at the end of this year, the remaining highly skilled nuclear engineers and scientists will leave this country for good and go to countries where nuclear power is considered the future or a means to lowering CO2 emissions while providing cheap and plentiful energy. We will from then on rely on our remaining coal power plants (which we are also reducing and want to exit by 2030 or earlier) and wind and solar. Wind and solar are not powerful enough to sustain an industrial nation like Germany. But our ideological politicians keep telling the dumb masses that they are.

I could go on, but things here are just terrible. Yes, the country is still economically strong but we're living from past performances and substance. The current left-leaning government is making things harder for businesses to survive, especially smaller businesses which are the backbone of our economy and employ the most number of people in this country. Our car industry is being ruined by fantasy emission standards out of Brussels - which are supported by the fucking German government. It's like if I am an overrated Formula 1 driver who earns his money by driving in circles but at the same time I call for a ban on the internal combustion engine, speed limits and go hysterical over climate change... oh wait... that's Sebastian Vettel! 

[cawimmer430]

People get flustered with bumper to bumper traffic but to me that's much better than a packed train/subway and it's associated crime, filth, smells, and habitual delays/cancellations.  Just sit in my car, keep the AC on comfortable, listen to music, and I'll most probably get to my destination at roughly the same time as public transportation and often sooner especially if traveling off peak hours.

Agreed. My car is comfortable, safe, I control the environmental conditions through A/C or heater, I can listen to music and I am FLEXIBLE.

Public transportation in Germany is a joke. It's unreliable, not punctual and since 2015 there has been an increase in knife attacks and sexual assaults in trains, buses etc. thanks to Kim Jong Merkel opening our borders to primitive peoples from around the world. But even before 2015, I just never needed to use public transportation. I walked everywhere in the inner city or used my bicycle. For my job I always use my car.

If I lived in Japan, Singapore, or some place like that I would think differently.  Public transportation I've heard is always on time, is clean, and relatively crime free.  We went to Paris a month ago for a week and I never used the subway    "Uber"ed everywhere if it was too far to walk.  Cost a little bit more but no one pickpocketed me or my family. 

Agreed. Japan and Singapore also have excellent public transportation which is safe, hygienically clean, reliable and punctual. The Shinkansen in Japan will drive over 400 km/h between cities which are only 50 km apart. The same applies to their city public transportation infrastructure: clean, fast and efficient, reliable and safe. Now this is public transportation well implemented!

Meanwhile here in Shit Hole Germany our ICE (InterCityExpress) trains can theoretically drive 250-300 km/h, but mainly creep along at a pathetic 120 km/h because we don't have enough high speed rails. And do you know why? Because when the Deutsche Bahn wants to build more high speed rails, the fucking Greens are the first to immediately protest that they can't build these rails in this area because some rare frog or salamander or whatever lives there and they'd be destroying its natural habitat...

And in Germany the government approvals are fucking slow taking 8-10 years. Want to hear a joke? The Forbidden City in China took 14 years to build. The new Berlin airport took 14 years to build and is still not finished.  Shit Hole Germany...

The last time I took an ICE train it creeped from Munich to Hamburg at 120 km/h, sometimes 100 km/h, then short bursts into the 140-200 km/h region and then 120 km/h again. There was no A/C (it was summer) and there was no power outlet for me to charge my old laptop with its crap battery. Regional trains are even worse: no A/C and they tend to creep along at 80-100 km/h. SLOW. Public transportation in Germany is just no attractive. I'm actually faster with my car!

In the cities our trams and subway trains are slow and unreliable and extremely dirty. The last time I took a subway was when I still owned the BMW and dropped it off at BMW near the Olympiapark for servicing. I took the subway back home and later back to the BMW dealer. The seats in that train were torn up, graffiti was everywhere, dried chewing gum was on the floor and seats, some crazy guy was in my compartment talking with himself and the subway train to Olympiapark smelled like piss. No thanks. I prefer my car!

By the way in Germany this is the ideology and plan of the Greens. Make driving your ATTRACTIVE CAR as unattractive as possible through higher car taxes, higher fuel prices, more speed limits etc. while making an UNATTRACTIVE TRAIN as "attractive" as possible by making driving unattractive and financially expensive. Instead of making public transportation cheap, reliable, quick, efficient, clean etc., they are making the car unattractive. Shit Hole Germany. And the retards in this country keep voting for the Greens.

If you want people to jump from their car into a train, bus etc., you have to make it attractive and flexible. Right now waiting for and taking a German train, bus, subway etc. is a waste of your life time because they're always late, break down so much and don't even cover many parts of the city.

[Morris Minor]

This could be big. Apple saying "Hey we'll do your UI."

Next-Generation Apple CarPlay Will Be a Whole Car OS
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/next-generation-apple-carplay-wwdc-2022-preview/

[veeman]

Wimmer, your rants are hilarious my friend    Without getting too political (wrong subforum for that), it's great to know that the angst many American's feel is equally strong on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.  A car enthusiast as you are, I feel your pain.   

Your country is heading towards a personal car free culture and while that's very painful, it's also more possible because the distances between population centers is much smaller than the USA.  That might be where California ends up twenty years from now because I'm not sure the electric grid in California can handle EV for everyone.  I highly doubt it. 

As land starts going underwater because of melting of polar ice due to climate change, paradigm shifts in how we live will inevitably occur. 

It seems to me the big automotive brands in Germany are too important for both the economy and national pride for Germany to completely get rid of personal transportation though. 

[cawimmer430]

Wimmer, your rants are hilarious my friend    Without getting too political (wrong subforum for that), it's great to know that the angst many American's feel is equally strong on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.  A car enthusiast as you are, I feel your pain.   

Your country is heading towards a personal car free culture and while that's very painful, it's also more possible because the distances between population centers is much smaller than the USA.  That might be where California ends up twenty years from now because I'm not sure the electric grid in California can handle EV for everyone.  I highly doubt it. 

As land starts going underwater because of melting of polar ice due to climate change, paradigm shifts in how we live will inevitably occur. 

It seems to me the big automotive brands in Germany are too important for both the economy and national pride for Germany to completely get rid of personal transportation though. 

The problem in Germany is also that this country has a strong history of socialism and communism - both of whom hate individual freedoms and only think in terms of collective freedom. For virtually all politicians of the left political parties here (SPD [socialists], Greens [eco terrorists and gender retards] and Die Linke (communists), driving around by yourself in your car is akin to lighting baby cats on fire and uploading the video on Youtube - literally. These are also the political parties which tend to squander our tax money for absolutely retarded and useless projects worldwide one famous example being the Green-pushed gender studies for children in Afghanistan and shit like that...).

What these idiots fail to realize is that an economy and the individual are more productive with individual mobility because of the time it saves you and the flexibility this provides. There are areas here which I can reach by car in 20 minutes - with public transportation this same short route would take 90 minutes. One of my neighbors is an elderly lady with a dog and I do a lot of errands for her and drive her where she needs to go (in return she gives me gas money). The places I bring her to are quickly reachable by car, but many times public transport does not even extend that far.

To me, private car ownership is the best thing. It's freedom. 

And yeah, something needs to be done about the traffic conditions in cities, but when I see how retarded the traffic light systems are in German cities I can safely say that part of the traffic problem is created by these stop-and-go red light traffic waves. We need intelligent traffic lights which monitor the flow of traffic and accordingly change the light settings. For example, one car wants to drive onto a main road from the side street, but there are 30 cars on the main road which will soon pass the still green light. An intelligent system would let those 30 cars pass, then switch the traffic light to green for that single car which wants to drive onto a main road. That way those 30 cars don't have to stop, idle and accelerate again. Actually, that single car merging onto a main road just needs a STOP sign - but Germany being the tax-payers-wasting shit hole country that it currently is, has fucking traffic lights in places where you don't need one! 

There are even traffic lights in the middle of nowhere here which suddenly switch to red - at 3 fucking AM in the morning - with nobody around. But you're forced to stop.... for some reason.

[shp4man]

Jesus, Wimmer, that rant sounds exactly like what many people say about California.
Then they move to Texas and Arizona and end up screwing up those states, too. 

[Morris Minor]

The Honda Pilot, that's been in the family since the fall of 2002, is nearing the end. The old girl has done very well (>200,000 miles) but now has oil seals in hard-to-get-to places looking very dodgy, plus it's just worn out, not worth throwing money at any more. It's lived in Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Hawaii, & California. When I last drove it, it was a "Whoa!" experience.

[veeman]

The Honda Pilot, that's been in the family since the fall of 2002, is nearing the end. The old girl has done very well (>200,000 miles) but now has oil seals in hard-to-get-to places looking very dodgy, plus it's just worn out, not worth throwing money at any more. It's lived in Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Hawaii, & California. When I last drove it, it was a "Whoa!" experience.

Sounds like my parents' '87 Mercury Sable, only your Honda is twice the age and has more than twice the miles when it was time to get put out to pasture. 

I wonder where it'll end up if you trade it in.  Auction and used for parts or sold to a customer. 

[heelntoe]

This could be big. Apple saying "Hey we'll do your UI."

Next-Generation Apple CarPlay Will Be a Whole Car OS
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/next-generation-apple-carplay-wwdc-2022-preview/

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I love CarPlay and can't imagine buying a car without it, but the addition of more distracting touch controls can't be good.

Also, I'm surprised Volvo/Polestar is on the list of manufacturers adopting it. I drove the Polestar 2 with its Android integration recently, which does all the things CarPlay would do. Not sure why they're switching camps.

[cawimmer430]

Jesus, Wimmer, that rant sounds exactly like what many people say about California.
Then they move to Texas and Arizona and end up screwing up those states, too. 

You mean Commiefornia, right? 


www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO3ct4iCkfU

[Morris Minor]

Sounds like my parents' '87 Mercury Sable, only your Honda is twice the age and has more than twice the miles when it was time to get put out to pasture. 

I wonder where it'll end up if you trade it in.  Auction and used for parts or sold to a customer. 

It's possibly got utility as transportation for a talented home mechanic willing to do weekly work. It'll probably go to a salvage yard to be parted out.

Son & D-I-L now have a child - guessing one or two more are on the horizon - so safety & space are big priorities. Safety is night & day compared to a 20 year-old Pilot - especially now they're engineering for IIHS small-offset tests.

I think their ideal would be a Highlander hybrid. But they're Unobtainium in this market.

[cawimmer430]

The EU has banned the sale of internal combustion engines beginning in 2035. From then on you can no longer buy cars with internal combustion engines.

Fuck the EU. I am so sick of these unelected "politicians" pretending that we live in a "democracy" while a handful of them decide over our lives. Fuck them so hard.

Basically they want to tell us that EVs are the only "solution". No they're not. We can run ICE cars on eFuels. Instant climate neutrality. The excess energy from wind and solar can be used to produce eFuels or hydrogen. Instead, the retarded dumbass dipshit fucktard morons who run this country pay our neighbors to take our excess electricity - but when we require electricity, we buy it from our neighbors at expensive prices. That's how fucking retarded Germany is these days. Fucking god damn moronic retards.

I just don't think that EVs are the solution and will come with their own set of ecological issues. Already produced ICE cars running on eFuels are SUSTAINABLE, also because the infrastructure to transport and store this fuel already exists.


https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/das-eu-parlament-will-den-verkauf-von-neuwagen-mit-verbrennungsmotor-ab-2035-verbieten_id_107951710.html

[shp4man]

We need to get nuclear fusion energy up and running. I don't think anything else can actually replace fossil fuels. They are getting close to a working reactor. I think all the money/taxes being currently wasted on other green energy solutions should be diverted to fusion.
Of course, it won't happen, because it's not really ALL about CO2, is it? 

[SJ_GTI]

I am not an expert on European politics (and I don't read/speak German), but as far as I know the EU Parliament is indeed elected.

[veeman]

The EU has banned the sale of internal combustion engines beginning in 2035. From then on you can no longer buy cars with internal combustion engines.

Fuck the EU. I am so sick of these unelected "politicians" pretending that we live in a "democracy" while a handful of them decide over our lives. Fuck them so hard.

Basically they want to tell us that EVs are the only "solution". No they're not. We can run ICE cars on eFuels. Instant climate neutrality. The excess energy from wind and solar can be used to produce eFuels or hydrogen. Instead, the retarded dumbass dipshit fucktard morons who run this country pay our neighbors to take our excess electricity - but when we require electricity, we buy it from our neighbors at expensive prices. That's how fucking retarded Germany is these days. Fucking god damn moronic retards.

I just don't think that EVs are the solution and will come with their own set of ecological issues. Already produced ICE cars running on eFuels are SUSTAINABLE, also because the infrastructure to transport and store this fuel already exists.


https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/das-eu-parlament-will-den-verkauf-von-neuwagen-mit-verbrennungsmotor-ab-2035-verbieten_id_107951710.html

At least it's not a ban on personal cars Wimmer.  2035 is a long time away and when politicians make rules which apply down the road many years in the future, they have a strong tendency to get significantly watered down when it actually comes down to enforce them.  I highly highly doubt some of the less economically prosperous EU countries on the southern end of the EU will have the infrastructure necessary to support full EV in < 20 years.  Where's the money going to come from?  The German automobile companies have all seen the writing on the wall and have advertised they are all going full EV in the not too distant future.  That's what it is though. All advertising and placating the European politicians and China.  China needs to go EV because they are very dependent on fossil fuel imports and because they have significant pollution problems. 

The only way, come 2035, you will not be able to get an ICE vehicle in Germany is if they have EV charge stations everywhere and if that's the case, it shouldn't be that much a hassle to only have EV in Germany. 

[Laconian]

I am not an expert on European politics (and I don't read/speak German), but as far as I know the EU Parliament is indeed elected.

Correct