cars and how they get that way

[Highway]

Another thing for big people to remember about little coupes is that they usually have a really small load recommendation. The Miata is at 340 lbs or something like that. So even at my recent lightest weight, two of me would be way past that. Maybe someone in trail hiking shape like Andrew could bring a friend, but I definitely couldn't.

[D.A. Ridgely]

Another thing for big people to remember about little coupes is that they usually have a really small load recommendation. The Miata is at 340 lbs or something like that. So even at my recent lightest weight, two of me would be way past that. Maybe someone in trail hiking shape like Andrew could bring a friend, but I definitely couldn't.

I'm a tad suspicious of those numbers, having read that for example they tend to be estimated on the low side to juice their MPG figures, but sure, if you're looking for a daily driver that can haul a load, you're better off with a minivan or a truck. My son and I and a fair amount of luggage (such as can be carried in the Miata's mini-trunk) had no difficulty driving from Virginia to Texas by way of New Orleans. Obviously, the sort of tires and suspension you have makes a difference and under a full load a car like a Miata is going to be even more sluggish off the mark than normal, but I haven't heard any stories of cracked frames or other weight related disasters.

And, again, I'd never recommend the Miata as a daily driver. It's crap in winter and merely bearable with the top up in any weather and even if you're a "little person" you're going to find the experience of riding in it after a few hours not unlike a discount passenger airplane. It's designed for top down motoring in good weather along winding roads and it does what it's designed for excellently. Beyond that, well, no, not so much.

Also, having just looked at leg room comparison, the fact seems to be that convertibles in general don't fare all that well. You won't be getting all that much more legroom in a Corvette, for example, though admittedly every inch counts if you're 6' or over. For that class, however, Consumer Reports puts the Miata in the top ten, so it isn't as though its legroom is unusually limited, it's just that, yeah, it's not a car for big men (or big women, for that matter).

[Warren]

OH NOES

Chevrolet Impala's last run: Production to cease Thursday

[Andrew]

OH NOES

Chevrolet Impala's last run: Production to cease Thursday

The last real Impala was 1996, though.

[Incel Pangolin]

I dated an impala once.

She threw a fit when I asked for a good-night blowie.

Bitch.

[Warren]

OH NOES

Chevrolet Impala's last run: Production to cease Thursday

The last real Impala was 1996, though.

I loved my 2008. However much it failed as a Scotsman, it was available without the FUCKING RETARDED center console or HELLA MORON bucket seats. Which means if I was driving for more than six and a half minutes I could shift my feet around and not be locked into one single uncomfortable position.

And don't even get me started on 19" rims.

[Kwix]

Having not driven an Impala since the caprice SS* model I can't speak to it but from what I read the last iteration was a damned fine and underappreciated specimen of the "full sized sedan". At least one lamentation has been written on "good riddance to GM's sedans excepting the Impala."

*A friends mother bought a new off the lot 1994 model; available in any color you like as long as it's black. My friend, upon first sitting in it exclaimed "This think looks like Darth Vader's bathroom!" She still owns that car though sadly it no longer runs.

[Highway]

Having not driven an Impala since the caprice SS* model I can't speak to it but from what I read the last iteration was a damned fine and underappreciated specimen of the "full sized sedan". At least one lamentation has been written on "good riddance to GM's sedans excepting the Impala."

*A friends mother bought a new off the lot 1994 model; available in any color you like as long as it's black. My friend, upon first sitting in it exclaimed "This think looks like Darth Vader's bathroom!" She still owns that car though sadly it no longer runs.

That is what they used for the ads:

[Kwix]

I completely forgot about that, yeah that makes sense now.

[Mo]

OH NOES

Chevrolet Impala's last run: Production to cease Thursday

Now what am I going to put these 20 inch blades on?

[Andrew]

OH NOES

Chevrolet Impala's last run: Production to cease Thursday

Now what am I going to put these 20 inch blades on?

20s? How... retro. I believe you mean 22s or 24s.

[Warren]

I don't want to be a baller. I just want some leg room.

[Mo]

OH NOES

Chevrolet Impala's last run: Production to cease Thursday

Now what am I going to put these 20 inch blades on?

20s? How... retro. I believe you mean 22s or 24s.

I know what I meant.

[lunchstealer]

OH NOES

Chevrolet Impala's last run: Production to cease Thursday

Now what am I going to put these 20 inch blades on?

20s? How... retro. I believe you mean 22s or 24s.

I know what I meant.

https://youtu.be/InGtiEXQyF0

[JD]

Not cars exactly, but close enough: Revel has temporarily shut down their scooter-share system in NYC after a series of fatal crashes.

OK, whatever, but this is just fucking stupid:

Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking during his daily City Hall press briefing Tuesday, called Revel’s decision to shut down Big Apple service “the right thing to do.”

“We have seen too many times in the last few days painful realities of people injured and even worse lives lost by folks who were just trying to have an enjoyable experience and rented a Revel scooter,” de Blasio said.

Hizzoner called the matter “an unacceptable state of affairs.”

“The Revel scooters have proven to be really problematic,” said de Blasio. “It’s been really, really dangerous…We got to protect lives first.”

The mayor added, “I do think it stands to reason that if folks are using something that in many ways is like a motorcycle without having to have a license, it stands to reason it’s going to put people in harm’s way.”

“I’ve been very clear with Revel – they cannot open in this city unless they find a way to make the service safe,” de Blasio said.

A whopping three people have been killed on Revel scooters. Is the Mayor going to hold cars and bikes and subways to the same standard?

[JD]

An interesting, if somewhat political, take on why the most popular recent vehicles, SUVs and light trucks, are more deadly to pedestrians: https://theweek.com/articles/929196/cas ... ruck-bloat

I wish that the author had delved a little more deeply into why Americans want and make big SUVs and pickups now, though, and how CAFE standards may have unintentionally driven this. This article goes a bit into the reasons: https://www.greencarreports.com/news/10 ... kes-it-one
(tl;dr: (CAFE standards make trucks easier to design relative to smaller cars, and if you have a fuel-efficient car, then you redesign it into a truck and hey presto, your average truck fleet fuel efficiency gets better.)

[Jake]

I wish that the author had delved a little more deeply into why Americans want and make big SUVs and pickups now, though, and how CAFE standards may have unintentionally driven this.

Having studied this specific issue during econ classes in my masters' program, I think it's pretty safe to drop the "may" from that sentence.

[Jake]

The Atomic Fruitwife had a collision in a parking lot (the sort of unlikely occurrence where two people, each located squarely in the other's blind spot, simultaneously back out of parking spaces and meet in the middle). Despite it being mostly cosmetic damage (several panels were crunched up, and the trunk wouldn't quite close right), the insurance company decided that the cost to repair was greater than the vehicle's value, so they considered it totalled and gave us the princely sum of around $6000 to shop for a replacement. Feh.

The original vehicle was a 2011 Nissan Altima Hybrid, and I'd been paying little attention to cars since buying that one new, so I was almost a decade behind the times. Started doing some online comparisons, made a spreadsheet, etc., and the long and the short of it is that we brought home a 2018 Honda Clarity plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) with about 19K on the odometer. It's super comfy, rides nice, and the really nifty thing about it (and the reason we settled on this particular model) is that it can go about 48 miles on electric power only, and then kicks over to the highly efficient hybrid engine when that runs out. As most of our trips are under seven miles (Cottage Grove's not that big) this means we're not using gasoline at all around town. Even when driving to the nearest bigger city -- about 25 miles away -- we only use any fuel for the last little bit of the round trip. (Yesterday's trip worked out to roughly 191 mpg, and electricity -- almost entirely sourced from wind and hydro -- is dirt cheap 'round these parts.)

So far, I really really like it. This PHEV thing is downright nifty... it solves the problem of "but what if I don't want to have to stop for two hours to recharge on a road trip?" that comes up with the pure electrics.

[Highway]

I considered the Accord PHEV when I bought my Accord Hybrid in 2014, but decided at the time that I didn't want to pay like $5000 extra. I was also a bit worried about the long time that it would take me to use the gas in the tank. At the time, my commute was on the order of 6 miles round trip, and I was almost always under 20 miles per day. The Accord PHEV had something like a 14 mile electric range.

I really enjoy the Honda i-MMD hybrid system, and love the way it operates seamlessly. And the way it cuts in and out on the highway is great.

I hope you enjoy it, and get a lot of good use out of it.

[JD]

Here’s what happened when a country let people trade in old cars for electric bikes, scooters

Believe it or not, a cash-for-clunkers plan helped get old and polluting cars off the road, replacing them with efficient and traffic-reducing personal electric vehicles like e-bikes and e-scooters.

Shocking, right?

Perhaps it’s not so shocking for Lithuanians, who jumped at the opportunity to swap their old cars for new e-bikes.

(https://electrek.co/2020/11/01/lithuani ... -scooters/)

Wow, that's really impressive! I had no idea people would be so eager to switch from cars to scooters and e-bikes...

In fact, many of the older cars being traded in are worth less than €1,000...

Oh, so people aren't so much jumping at the opportunity to trade a car for a scooter as they're jumping at the opportunity to get more than their old rustbucket is worth. How much do we want to bet most of the cars being traded in were already second (or third) cars for their owners?

[Highway]

Actually, I probably wouldn't bet on them being extra cars. Lithuania only has about 0.46 registered vehicles per person, and well over 2/3 of the population lives in urban areas.

And as far as them being old beaters: If the goal is to get the most polluting cars out of service, then the oldest ones are the ones you're going to focus on there. And apparently Lithuania is a good target for this, as it's a dumping ground for old cars from other, richer countries in Europe.

I'd say that it's not as crummy as the US Cash for Clunkers program, which did almost nothing to generate additional demand for motor vehicles, just moved demand up by a month or two. And it's probably far more effective at reducing total emissions.

[dead_elvis]

[JD]

Actually, I probably wouldn't bet on them being extra cars. Lithuania only has about 0.46 registered vehicles per person, and well over 2/3 of the population lives in urban areas.

And as far as them being old beaters: If the goal is to get the most polluting cars out of service, then the oldest ones are the ones you're going to focus on there. And apparently Lithuania is a good target for this, as it's a dumping ground for old cars from other, richer countries in Europe.

Oh, I agree with you as far as if it gets old clunkers off the road it may be a good idea.* But the small print is kind of what counts here, and the original article makes it sound like people are trading in their cars wholesale for e-bikes and scooters, and I really doubt anybody is saying, "Hey, honey, let's get rid of our Nissan Qashqai and replace it with an e-bike!"

* OTOH, the old clunkers were already sunk costs, and they're being replaced by new production vehicles, and how long is the projected lifespan of a new electric scooter?

[Ellie]

I looked up the rules for kids in the front seat and started reading more about airbags and now I'm frankly terrified by them.

[JD]

I found my new car.

https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/s ... 23593.html

(The only part I take issue with is "I built the car to look like VW delivered it this way", to which I would say, "No." But honestly, I don't even care.)