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 The most beautiful display of utter crap I have ever had the mispleasure of seeing

 Author:  Topic:  Posted:
Aug 30, 2002
 Comments:
Well, isn't this great. The liberals and soccer moms have a place they can get together, tear apart the Constitution, and display their awesome lack of knowledge. I seem to remember the article on "nerdism" saying that "nerdism" is caused by wanting to take things apart. I take my go kart apart. Does that make me a nerd? What about the awe inspiring "console wars" article where the author makes his not-so knowledge of games apparent? What about the asshole who was scared of the name "Dragunov" because it sounded Communist and "HK PSG-1" because it sounded Nazi? Why don't you guys go and talk about stuff that you know absolutely nothing about? Why don't you get a fucking clue? Oh wait, now I'm going to be called a "horny teen" and criticized for my use of quotation marks! Oh the pain! THE PAIIIIIIIIIIIN! Why don't you totally ignore what I'm saying? Don't you liberals have anything better to do? Like trying to protest Harry Potter because it promotes satanism?
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Good advice. (none / 0) (#1)
by Illiterate Bum on Fri Aug 30th, 2002 at 08:19:57 PM PST
I think I'll take it.

So, I'm in the market for a new car, and I have a ceiling of $18,000. I have no preference for any sort of car in particular (and my knowledge about cars equals zilch), which is why my decision has been a little difficult for me.

Ideally, I'd like a car that gets good mileage, has nice safety features, a decent amount of power under the hood, and won't look too tempting when I'm in the bad part of town. Any suggestions from the Adequate?
-----

"...normal, balanced people do not waste time posting to weblogs." --tkatchev

Buy a bicycle. (none / 0) (#3)
by tkatchev on Fri Aug 30th, 2002 at 11:24:02 PM PST
But really, I have a question -- is it possible to buy a decent new car in the U.S. for under $18000?

Just wondering.


--
Peace and much love...




Sure you can (none / 0) (#5)
by jvance on Fri Aug 30th, 2002 at 11:44:19 PM PST
You can get a decently equipped Jetta, Civic, or Impreza for about that, or a base-level Accord or Camry. It's easier to get a loaded compact than a stripped down midsize, though.

I payed 18.9 K for my Outback in 1997. That was almost two grand below what my sources claimed was dealer cost. I bought it in Oregon too, so there was no sales tax.
--
Adequacy has turned into a cesspool consisting of ... blubbering, superstitious fools arguing with smug, pseudointellectual assholes. -AR

 
Yes (none / 0) (#8)
by SpaceGhoti on Sat Aug 31st, 2002 at 08:38:21 PM PST
I bought my 2000 model Mazda 626 off the lot for a little over $16k. It had power windows, mirrors and locks, power assist steering, AC, factory-installed CD player and speakers (sounded pretty good, too) and a V4 engine that was more than sufficient to let me merge with Denver's freeway traffic. The only thing it didn't have that I wanted was a sun roof, but I was able to live without it. It was a very sweet car for just the right price.


A troll's true colors.

Mine isn't a new car... (5.00 / 1) (#10)
by gordonjcp on Sun Sep 1st, 2002 at 02:12:39 PM PST
... but my 1989 Volvo 340 cost me £30. Yep. Thirty quid. About as much as a Chinese takeaway for four people. The paint's a bit rough, but it goes, it will probably pass its next two annual MOT inspections without needing any work beyond routine servicing, and it's nicely anonymous - no-one looks twice at it.

Quick question though - you say that the Mazda's V4 is "more than sufficient to let me merge with Denver's freeway traffic", and a few other Americans I've spoken to say they need such large engines to get on and off freeways safely. Just how fast do you drive on freeways? My Volvo's 1.7l 120hp engine is far more than enough to safely use motorways, with a top speed of over 110mph (thoroughly illegal in the UK). Fully laden (2000kg) it does 0-60 in about 11 seconds, and (more important) does 50-70 *in fifth gear* in 3 seconds. Drop down to fourth, and it takes less than a second.

Now, the other part of my question is, if you drive that quickly over there, why do Americans never drive above 45mph in the UK? You guys seem especially frightened of twisty roads...


I never timed it. (5.00 / 1) (#11)
by SpaceGhoti on Sun Sep 1st, 2002 at 02:57:08 PM PST
However, acceleration is important when you're trying to merge with bumper-to-bumper traffic. Yes, I know most Americans complain about having wimpy V4 engines, but most Americans drive vehicles with automatic shift. You don't get optimal output from an engine when you need it when you can't control the gears.

I don't know how quickly the 626's acceleration was, but I know it was sufficient for me to pick a spot and take it. I didn't attempt to drag race anybody in it. What more needs to be said than that?

As for your second question, the more comfortable a person is with a road the faster they'll drive on it. You try driving on an unfamiliar road on the wrong side of the road and see how fast you go! Of course, Americans everywhere seem to suffer from a terminal case of "rubberneck" in which they have to crane their heads around every which way to see whatever point of interest is in view, be it a national landmark, monument or car wreck. That tends to impede driving speed by quite a bit.


A troll's true colors.

Bumper to bumper? (none / 0) (#13)
by gordonjcp on Mon Sep 2nd, 2002 at 12:35:24 AM PST
Traffic here tends to only be like that at rush hour, when it's slow-moving anyway. Once things are moving everyone maintains a bit of seperation (two seconds, folks!).

I'm pretty sure very few Americans bring left-hand drive cars over with them on holiday. Try driving from the UK over to Europe (or vice versa) - that's scary stuff. You're driving from the nearside of the road - seeing to overtake is almost impossible.


 
AMerican highways. (none / 0) (#12)
by tkatchev on Sun Sep 1st, 2002 at 03:28:13 PM PST
Actually, in America people drive quite a bit slower than in Europe -- in the U.S., 130 kmph is basically the highest speed anybody in their right mind would dare driving. However, the road quality in the U.S. is very, very poor when compared to Europe, so driving 130 is America feels like 170 when driving on, e.g., a good Italian road.

P.S. The road quality problem is a very big problem for all large ocuntries, for some reason.


--
Peace and much love...




Road quality is poor in the U.S. because... (none / 0) (#16)
by hauntedattics on Wed Sep 4th, 2002 at 01:47:30 PM PST
there are only so many highway workers to work on millions of miles of highway. And then once they've gotten around to fixing all of it, the stuff they worked on before needs repaving. At least this is how it works in my fine city.




Plus, the harsh weather does a number on roads (none / 0) (#18)
by Adam Rightmann on Thu Sep 5th, 2002 at 05:46:06 AM PST
comparing an expressway in Italy, where it gets below freezing once a decade, with an expressway in New York which undergoes the contraction/expansion cycle with ice 100 times a year isn't really fair. Every spring potholes sprout like daffodils up north.


A. Rightmann

 
It's a stop light drag race culture thing (none / 0) (#15)
by Adam Rightmann on Tue Sep 3rd, 2002 at 08:33:17 AM PST
A lot of American drivers are infatuated with neck snapping acceleration, to the exclusion of handling or breaking power. It's not an uncommon thing for high school males to time their time to 60 mph for hours on end.

I'm not sure why this is. We do have lots and lots of land to lay out straight, wide highways, with frequent stop lights, so you can have 10 mini drag races every mile. Also, drag racing to 60 is safer than high speed curves, the worst you can do is burn a little rubber and wear out your clutch, as opposed to flying off the curve into a tree.

That being said, I've almost always owned and driven underpowered cars (by American standards), Ford Escorts, Subaru station wagons, my 78 Fairmont 4 banger wagon(the 960 is an exception, though it still has a poorer power to weight ratio as it's a wagon), so I'm better at high speed turns.

So, to sum up, typical American's don't routinely drive fast, but will try very hard toget to 55 mph before the people in the lane next to them, and once they start cornering fast enough to hear tires squealing, they slow way down.

As an addendum, we do have lots of boats and trailers (caravans) here too, and people will pull them. Nothing like pulling 3000 pounds to take care of any extra horsepower you have.


A. Rightmann

Handling and speed. (none / 0) (#17)
by gordonjcp on Thu Sep 5th, 2002 at 03:07:17 AM PST
Yeah, that's pretty much what I'd thought. In the UK, you wouldn't find a 400hp car that had such soft, soggy suspension, and low gearing. You tend to find that even fairly sporty cars here have pretty tall gearing, so they have a nice fast cruising speed at the expense of acceleration. In fact, the handling is a problem if you want to use an American car in the UK - there's no good reason not to import one and use it, but good luck finding someone who'll insure you!

As for towing, it's a shame you don't have Citroen XMs over in the US. You'd probably hate them because the thirstymatic transmission versions suck - the gearbox is too weak for the 2-litre 4 pot, so what chance does it have with the turbodiesel or 3-litre V6? However, they will pull a large, heavily-laden car trailer, fairly effortlessly (especially the 2.5 TDi), and the hydraulic suspension levels itself out no matter what load you stick in it. Plus it stiffens when you chuck it through the corners, thanks to horribly complicated electrickery and plumbing. No springs, just a couple of green metal balls full of gas... Nice cars, but definitely one for a home mechanics enthusiast. They give you a terrible pain in your wallet.


 
Miata (none / 0) (#14)
by johnny ambiguous on Mon Sep 2nd, 2002 at 07:08:23 PM PST
Get you a Mazda Miata. You can't quite buy a brand-new one for $18,000, but that much will get you two nice used ones. I'd tell you all the reasons you'd be ridiculously happy and super-satisfied after you take my advice, the indestructible engine, the adequate gas mileage, alla that legendary fun-to-driveness, the surreal handling, blah blah blah, but no! And then there's that highly amusing alternation between wide-eyed pretty girls flirting with you over your ride and mullet-wearing Camaro-driving losers sneering how you're driving "a girl's car," but that's beside the point too. I mean you aren't rich enough to blow $18,000 on a cheap laugh, are you?

Just somehow get hold of a Miata (you can rent them in some cities) and drive it for a couple of days, then make up your own mind.

Yours WDK - WKiernan@concentric.net


Getting into my Chevrolet Magic Fire, I drove slowly back to the office. - L. Rosen

 
Woo! (none / 0) (#2)
by First Incision on Fri Aug 30th, 2002 at 10:15:27 PM PST
I've been zinged! And I like it! More please.

And yes, taking apart your "go kart" does make you a nerdist.
_
_
Do you suffer from late-night hacking? Ask your doctor about Protonix.

Well done [no text] (none / 0) (#6)
by PotatoError on Sat Aug 31st, 2002 at 07:32:09 AM PST
hahaahaa i lied!
<<JUMP! POGO POGO POGO BOUNCE! POGO POGO POGO>>

 
Go-kart (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by jvance on Sat Aug 31st, 2002 at 08:03:35 AM PST
Just owning one makes you a nerdist.
--
Adequacy has turned into a cesspool consisting of ... blubbering, superstitious fools arguing with smug, pseudointellectual assholes. -AR

 
You are mistaken... (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by faustus on Fri Aug 30th, 2002 at 11:42:00 PM PST
...there are no liberals here, since liberalism is a branch of trolling.


--You seem to be suffering from a liberal-arts education.

I thought... (none / 0) (#9)
by Anonymous Reader on Sat Aug 31st, 2002 at 10:29:05 PM PST
Trolling was a part of liberalism... fuck...


 

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