Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I took a disabled client as part of a weekend away, he was absolutely thrilled and hasn't stopped talking about it since. Tho' I think he liked the big pro team trucks the most, he fucking LOVES trucks.

We'll definitely be going back for more events, also about to book him in for Hot Wheels Monster Trucks next month. Another first for both of us!

There is something visceral about big fuck off racing cars in person. NACSAR cars are actually pretty awe inspiring, as are the F1 cars IRL.

nice... looking forward to some monster truck pics.

Gonna buy the Octavia we've leased for a couple of years. Price is fair I think and despite the lease costs is still cheaper in total than buying the latest generation which is not a better car as far as I can tell.

Keep thinking that it's not the car I would buy if I wanted to drop £17k on something second hand low mileage but then I work through it in my brain and come to the conclusion it probably would be a boring efficient estate that I can get a shit load of stuff in and take to the tip and back and at least I know how this one has been treated. Ho hum.

we bought our skoda at the end of a PCP deal - haven't regretted it.

every now and then i think about slightly more interesting cars i could have /could have had, but what we have is affordable and does the job so it just stays.

How did Europe succumb to diesel passenger vehicles?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8r2xnITnqA

this is not very #buyer lads

In the last week I've seen two Capris, one 'Y'-reg, one 'A'-reg.
Presume they've become daily drivers due to being ULEZ-compliant due to age/'vintage' status?

How did Europe succumb to diesel passenger vehicles?

Is it not the obvious story of diesel churning out less Co2 which was really attractive to the powers that to the point where they subsidised their production in an effort to make them attractive to consumers (who, let's face it, would never have considered them without them being significantly cheaper to buy and run).

tl;dr should I bother to watch beyond the intro?

How toxic has Tesla's brand gotten?

People are trying to disguise their Teslas as Audis or Hondas

(shamelessly stolen from somewhere online, but this site will handle the traffic better)

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Given that diesel engined passenger vehicles were/are typically higher priced than petrol, maybe.

Given that diesel engined passenger vehicles were/are typically higher priced than petrol, maybe.

That really surprises me give how awful they are / were. I remember an old Top gear where they reviewed a state of the art diesel M series BMW - seemed laughable that anyone would choose it over the petrol at the same sticker cost.

Will have a watch though, thanks for sharing.

Hate on musk all you want but I think that’s a function of EV hate in the US. Plenty of evidence online of people’s EVs being damaged when parked or road rage when driving to ‘own the libs’

I think 'were' is the operative word, I had an old diesel pick up which, yes, drove like a tractor. I now have a modern one which is surprisingly refined and drives like a car. It will also do 40mpg, not bad for 2.75 tons of unaerodynamic metal.

Audi did win Le Mans with a diesel if my memory serves me right.

Yeah. I guess the proliferation bit is more in the commodity passenger car end of things where - at scale - folks would favour mpg over the general feels of the vehicle.

Agree modern diesels feel ok until the dpf backs up or it runs out of addblue ;)

I assume interests rates also impact what you could replace it with?

Heard a couple of stories of people looking to replace their Rangers at the end of pcp and the new ones costing x3-4 current payments. I think in both cases they've bought/going to buy the old car.

Buying a known car is also incredibly valuable. My mum bought her company leased car. Admittedly there someone else has born the brunt of depreciation. But we're still using it 14yrs later.

How toxic has Tesla's brand gotten?

https://autos.yahoo.com/many-unsold-teslas-piling-see-170500028.html

Modern diesels are really refined to drive in BMWs anyway.

The mass move was probably aligned with the desire for 4x4s for.. reasons, some warranted some wank. Having a near 3 tonne mobile powered by a less torquey petrol isn’t great.

So it’s 3.0 diesel or 4.4 petrol

There's a bloke just down the road from me with a Ford Raptor, the performance is terrifying in a pick up, but not as scary as the fuel consumption. Even he moans about it and his 'other car' is a McLaren.

Hate on musk all you want but I think that’s a function of EV hate in the US. Plenty of evidence online of people’s EVs being damaged when parked or road rage when driving to ‘own the libs’

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/06/ev-sales-slowdown-is-mostly-a-tesla-problem-according-to-sales-data/

Having taken the child seat out of here I've found that the seat belt sticky in bit is facing the wrong way. Had a go at trying to twist it back but the slot just seems too small to spin it.

Any tips? Cheers

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Im sure that’s true but what does that have to do with people rebadging them?

Yeah those are notoriously bad.

X5 gets 40mpg easily. The 4.4 Range Rover I had🏌️‍♂️ got 30/35 but 17 to make it make fun noises.

If it's definitely the wrong way round through twisting previously, I've had joy by doubling/folding the strap over itself above the buckle then sliding the buckle up onto the doubled section of belt. Then keep pushing up or working the doubled belt round within the buckle.

I must have missed that, got a link?