Quote from: MrH on April 11, 2024, 12:17:33 PM"The tires are fine" and they're almost 10 years old are incompatible.

   definitely.

Whatever happened with the fenderz???

Ford had 144k trucks built but waiting to ship because there was some kind of issue with hardware so they did a software update then shipped them out.

They spent $4.8 billion last year on warranty work (including picking our Maverick up from the house and dropping it back off TWICE because they ordered the wrong rear strut the first time).

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/ford-to-send-144-000-trucks-to-north-american-dealers/ar-BB1ltcrW?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=deb9ffde719c41799285c43b4bd681a4&ei=16

"The tires are fine" and they're almost 10 years old are incompatible.

hah, Half those buttons were for the keypad for the built-in phone thing. Technology! I've got a Mercedes ML that I detail once a year, it's like a 2010 and still has all the chiclet buttons. I imagine they moved past that with their next generations shortly after that...smartphones were already a thing. The keypad phone buttons right on the dash just look oddly ancient now.

Quote from: MrH on April 10, 2024, 08:15:13 AMOccam's Razor is outlawed in Germany.

 We had a late-aughts Mercedes CLK at one stage. It was wall-to-wall indecipherable chiclet buttons, dozens and dozens of them. Completely unusable. They've carried that tradition into the touchscreen era. 

Part 24: Venturi America


Anyone remember Venturi?  Anyone?  Hello?

You can be forgiven if you don't.  The French company was founded in 1984 by Claude Poiraud and Gérard Godfroy, two former engineers for Heuliez.  Heuliez was a engineering company and coachbuilder who did special projects and contract production builds for a number of European manufacturers.  Poiraud and Godfroy set out to use their expertise to create a French rival to established sports and supercar companies.

For enthusiasts, their most well-known product was the Venturi Atlantique, a mid-engine sports/supercar powered by the PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) V6 engine and fitted with a five speed Renault gearbox.  The Atlantique had a fibreglass body and production ran from 1991 through 2000.  Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the car in a 1992 episode of Top Gear and declared it to be better than a Lotus Esprit.

However, as is almost always the case with small supercar start-ups, the money ran out and Venturi filed for bankruptcy in 2000.  Financial salvation came in the form of real estate developer Gildo Pallanca Pastor.
 Pastor bought the company out of bankruptcy, moved its headquarters to Monaco and decided to focus on electric vehicles.  This resulted in the electric Venturi Fétish sports car.  However, Verturi's most popular car to date is the Citroën Berlingo électrique, a Citroën Berlingo van converted to run on electric power.

in 2010, Venturi unveiled the car you see above.  Venturi described the America as a "high riding sports car" using a 300 horsepower electric motor to send power to the rear wheels.  This two-seat EV looks to be a cross between a Mazda Miata and a dune buggy and allegedly had a driving range of 186 miles per charge.  Venturi promised to build 100 of these cars but production never got off the ground.  In 2015, the company announced it was ending series production and sales.  Only around 750 cars in total had been built by the company since 1984.

Even if the America had gone into its very limited production run, none of them would have come over here to the Land Of The Free and the Home Of The Whopper.  Alas, you'll never be able to pay tribute to America by driving an America.

As a postscript, However, Venturi does still exist as a racing team in the Formula E series for electric race cars.  So that's something, I guess?

Every enthusiast needs to own an Alfa at least once

Quote from: r0tor on April 10, 2024, 05:27:09 PMGiulia Giulia Giulia

Friends don't let friends drive FCA. Unless they're leasing under warranty.

Giulia Giulia Giulia