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Author Topic: The New Car Saga (and general auto chat)  (Read 158879 times)

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evanft

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Re: The New Car Saga (and general auto chat)
« Reply #1540 on: September 19, 2015, 01:44:46 AM »

Which is why I haven't been looking at any hybrids. The lone exception was the Prius because it is the best at what it does.

Why did I think you were looking at hybrids? D'oh.

Acura MDX
Kind of on the bigger side, but good for growing family and has third row of seats. Good brakes and engine for its size. Wife feels safe. We picked this over the larger Buick Enclave. The Enclave's brake and overall larger sized GM handling and feel didn't give my wife any confidence. Great motor. Latest models have been transmission that don't slog as much as the prior years. Shit mileage.

My last job had a loaded 2014 as a pool car. I really liked it, and I usually hate SUVs. Handling and performance were surprisingly good for a car of its size/type. Very comfortable, high-quality if not spectacular interior. Auto cruise control was absolutely fantastic. I'd try to find an advance package one with SHAWD. Might as well go all out.
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Maxvla

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Re: The New Car Saga (and general auto chat)
« Reply #1541 on: September 19, 2015, 01:58:05 AM »

I thought this was an interesting recall I haven't seen before:

Volkswagen Group must recall 500,000 diesel cars for cheating on smog tests

Some models had “defeat devices,” which selectively turned on emissions controls.

http://arstechnica.com/cars/2015/09/volkswagen-group-must-recall-500000-diesel-cars-for-cheating-on-smog-tests/
Interesting. Blatant fraud. Losers on all sides, resolving this.
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DaveBSC

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Re: The New Car Saga (and general auto chat)
« Reply #1542 on: September 19, 2015, 02:55:55 AM »

I thought this was an interesting recall I haven't seen before:

Volkswagen Group must recall 500,000 diesel cars for cheating on smog tests

Some models had “defeat devices,” which selectively turned on emissions controls.

http://arstechnica.com/cars/2015/09/volkswagen-group-must-recall-500000-diesel-cars-for-cheating-on-smog-tests/

VWAG did NOT handle this well. The cars in normal operation were releasing 40X the level of NOx as they were when the special "testing mode" was enabled. Supposedly, they were questioned, lied about it, and then finally fessed up once CARB and EPA had them dead to rights with the emissions data. The maximum allowable fine is $18B.
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Anaxilus

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Re: The New Car Saga (and general auto chat)
« Reply #1543 on: September 19, 2015, 03:11:45 AM »

VWAG did NOT handle this well. The cars in normal operation were releasing 40X the level of NOx as they were when the special "testing mode" was enabled. Supposedly, they were questioned, lied about it, and then finally fessed up once CARB and EPA had them dead to rights with the emissions data. The maximum allowable fine is $18B.

Actually VW fessed up when the EPA threatened to stop sales of 2016 models. VW obviously didn't care what the data said.
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DaveBSC

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Re: The New Car Saga (and general auto chat)
« Reply #1544 on: September 19, 2015, 04:37:22 AM »

Actually VW fessed up when the EPA threatened to stop sales of 2016 models. VW obviously didn't care what the data said.

Ah ok, I had only glanced at the story before. Makes sense, that would do it. I'm curious how this will shake out. It's obviously not nearly as bad as 100+ deaths caused by a shitty ignition switch, but the PR is still going to sting. When you think diesel, you think VW.

Incidentally, the French are now desperately trying to get diesels off their roads after promoting them for decades because of increased fuel efficiency and lower CO2 output (once the increased mileage is factored in) compared to gasoline. Now they are choking to death on air quality comparable to Shanghai. Turns out NOx is worse than CO2. Oops.
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Maxvla

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Re: The New Car Saga (and general auto chat)
« Reply #1545 on: September 19, 2015, 05:42:07 AM »

Pretty neat air quality index map that is constantly updated:

http://aqicn.org/map/world

Crazy how bad and how widespread the air quality is in China, but I'm assuming a time adjusted version of Appalachia 100 years ago to be in a similar state.

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DaveBSC

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Re: The New Car Saga (and general auto chat)
« Reply #1546 on: September 19, 2015, 04:10:10 PM »

Crazy how bad and how widespread the air quality is in China, but I'm assuming a time adjusted version of Appalachia 100 years ago to be in a similar state.

Or pretty much anywhere during the industrial revolution. London "fog" was not fog.

http://io9.com/5955311/the-london-fog-that-killed-over-ten-thousand-people
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Anaxilus

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Re: The New Car Saga (and general auto chat)
« Reply #1547 on: September 19, 2015, 04:31:39 PM »

Turns out NOx is worse than CO2. Oops.

Yeah we've known that for ages. Amazing how a media driven reality distortion field can cause society to make the wrong choices. The mass hysteria demonizing personal transport while the Amazon is farting up Methane mushroom clouds is ridiculous.

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/methane-vs-carbon-dioxide-a-greenhouse-gas-showdown/

Hooray for selective science and statistics presented out of context. Any wacko climate change nutjob that mentions 'car' before 'cow' should be roundly ignored as the village idiot.

As for China, on my last trip to Beijing, I wore a mask the whole time. People on the bus were asking me why I was wearing a mask as we drove by the huge Lung Cancer Institute. facepalm The govt. over there actually convinced most of the people I met that it was 'fog'. I shit you not. The power of govt. controlled media. What sucks is that crap floats all the way over to California and other places.

The Chinese govt. also blocked all sites and links related to air quality indices except one, the US embassy. That was the only site where you could find out what the AQ would be like that day.
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"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." - Lao Tzu

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evanft

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Re: The New Car Saga (and general auto chat)
« Reply #1548 on: September 19, 2015, 06:16:21 PM »

UH OH.

2013 Scion FR-S (automatic, base model)
My friend has one, and he let me drive it.

Exterior
I like it. His is orange with tinted windows, and I actually really like the color. I'm usually not a fan of bright colors on cars, but it works here.

Interior
Maybe I've been spoiled by the Mustang, but holy shit is this cheap. Like, wow. I think the radio is out of my old 2004 Civic. That being said, the really important stuff, like the steering wheel, seats, gauges, and overall ergonomics are great. The steering wheel is the perfect size. Kinda weird that it didn't have steering wheel audio controls, but whatever.

Driving Impressions
I'll do bullet points

- LOVED the size. So tiny!

- Steering on center wasn't as direct as I would have liked. I was actually somewhat disappointed by it. I mean, it was better than the Mustang for sure, but not as good as the BMWs I drove.

- Car is fun at pretty much every speed, which is not something I can say about the Mustang. I mean, when you're doing 45 in the FRS, it feels like doing 110 in the Mustang.

- Suspension is phenomenal. In fact, I'd say this car had the best suspension of any car I've ever driven, including the glorious 135i.

- I  squealed the tires at basically every hard turn, but they're the stock ones. I'd probably switch to Pilot Super Sports.

- No body roll. Corners completely flat. Fantastic chassis.

- Pretty loud on the inside, especially at highway speeds.

- Merging and passing on the highway left we wanting more power. It's not terrible, but after having a car with so much low end torque I was wanting more.

- I had the car in sport mode, and I never felt like the auto was a problem. The paddle shifters were actually quite responsive.

Overall, a pretty great little car.
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Anaxilus

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Re: The New Car Saga (and general auto chat)
« Reply #1549 on: September 19, 2015, 07:00:07 PM »

Cool impressions! Just a couple points.

1-If you care about the interior you get the BRZ or a limited edition FRS. I think people get generally caught up with the cheap scion center stack which they don't even sell in japan. With the normal/upgraded stack I think it actually has pretty nice interior quality for the price tbh. The padded faux leather and vinyl softness and contours are pretty nice imho. I couldn't buy the standard FRS with that center stack either tbh.

2-There's a sound inductor you can disconnect to quiet things down and the Subie gets a little more sound damping.

3-Yeah, forget about torque, you just have to downshift and use the gears. That torque dip can also be tuned out but it helps with fuel economy.
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"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." - Lao Tzu

"The Claw is our master. The Claw chooses who will go or who will stay." - The LGM Community

"You're like a dull knife, just ain't cuttin'. Talking loud, saying nothing." - James Brown