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Powershift posted:yay, it's the 80s again! I think every car should be available in construction zone orange. Honestly, I really like it. Ford gave the Mustang a one year only color in 1996 called Bright Tangerine and I've loved orange cars since. 
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Feb 6, 2013 21:01
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RWD dreamsicle. 
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Feb 6, 2013 21:04
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InitialDave posted:Not a wife/GF, but I do worry about one of my friends. She passed her test last year, and her driving is ok, but she has both stupid learner habits that can be blamed entirely on the idiocy they teach learners (bogs the engine and shifts up too early, slow shuffly-hand steering), she is also not very spacially aware (left/right confusion when doing parking manoeuvres), and her observations and lane discipline are quite lax. She'll wander into the middle of the two lanes on a dual carriageway, or sail up to roundabouts without noticing there's someone coming along with right of way. Shuffly-hand steering can be quick, but not if you do it 100% strictly the way they teach it. The reason it's taught like that is to make learners slow the gently caress down in corners so they have time to survery the surroundings, identify possible dangers and so on. Done right shuffly-hand steering keeps both hands on the wheel as much as possible, so it's (theoretically) safer. And by 'done right' I mean you shouldn't just move your hands 10cm up and down. You should reach over and grab the other side of the wheel and describe half circles with both hands, alternating as you're turning it. You're not strictly supposed to reach across the wheel because of the airbag, but gently caress that noise, I want to be able to steer. Anyway, bad drivers. My old boss drove like a goddamn idiot on the motorway. He'd stay in the left lane by default, no matter the amount of traffic. He'd only grudgingly move over to the right lane briefly to let people pass, usually after they'd been tailgating him for at least a minute and flashed their high beams at least once. He'd always follow this up with some kind of annoyed remark at how impatient other people were. Admittedly, this didn't happen a lot, since he always did at least 30kph over the limit.
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Feb 6, 2013 21:31
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Xguard86 posted:my mom doesn't go around people or drive aggressively but she sure as hell has this problem in clear traffic. She is either accelerating or braking with not much in between, even if shes gunning it through a row of red light. blk posted:
 Generally speaking, traffic flow is a function of traffic volume (or passenger cars per hour per lane). As traffic gets heavier, speeds decrease. In fact, between 55 and 75 mph, the greatest effect on overall speed is volume and the greater the volume of cars and the faster the free-flow speed, the greater the effect on overall speed (75 mph drops to 54 mph whereas 55 mph only drops to 50 mph in LOS E). Someone driving in the left lane at less than (but not significantly less than) the desired/required speed - 'normalized' over great distances - really doesn't affect the flow rate all that much. Still, I'm a firm believer that with the advent of the automatic transmission - we, as a whole, have become lazier, less aware drivers. That's what I'm researching now - and haven't yet come to causation/correlation -- but the data isn't as accurate as I'd like, particularly in the 1960s and early 1970s.
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Feb 6, 2013 22:13
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blk posted:Also, my fiancée was driving us home from a show last night, 2 hours away on the interstate. She stayed in the left lane the whole time, even if someone was on her rear end and wanted to get around (they all ended up passing on the right). Her speed varied 20 under/over even though the speed limit and traffic flow didn't change. Who is this person I am marrying and how do I get them to stop? I am convinced that people who drive almost exclusively in major cities do this. People in these cities never learn that the left lane is a place to be temporarily rather then a place to pass. There also seems to be a little psychology that says "if I'm in the fast lane then I'm going fast." blk posted:I did, she didn't take the suggestion well. It was a little bit better after that but it's happened several times before and I imagine it will happen again. It will. My wife is the same way and I've learned that I would much rather be the passenger of the jackals in the left lane then tell her she is doing it wrong.
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Feb 6, 2013 22:17
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The one that bugs me on our highway now is that a lot of other drivers are slowly being accustomed to passing on the right because slow-moving drivers stick in the left and middle lane and never move (because being in the right lane means you're slow, and I'm not slow, I am going exactly the speed limit and/or passing this other guy at a 0.7 kph differential). So when there actually is an opening and I set up for a pass in the left lane, occasionally when I go to merge back into the middle lane there's some rear end in a top hat who shot up the right lane and undertook the guy I just overtook and is trying to merge into the middle lane at the same time.
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Feb 6, 2013 22:20
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I hate having to pass people on the right, but around here it's just a fact of life due to non-existent lane discipline and I do it all the time. Also, at least in WA, it's not illegal to pass on the right on roads with 2 or more lanes: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.61.115
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Feb 6, 2013 22:47
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Guinness posted:I hate having to pass people on the right, but around here it's just a fact of life due to non-existent lane discipline and I do it all the time. Same here in Massachusetts, Nissan Leafs and Prius love the left lane on RT3. They also love to merge at 20mph than cut to the left lane going 45! Fun times, and with this storm coming to buttfuck us immediately expecting to watch a load of folks spin off into ditches. Because they think AWD/4WD makes them superpowered. Edit: Might as well add that there is a Driving School in Kingston Mass that has kids learning in Leafs. It seems like the worst car for doing that kind of work since you can't have many kids in a row take turns driving.
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Feb 6, 2013 23:06
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BabyMauler posted:watch a load of folks spin off into ditches. Because they think AWD/4WD makes them superpowered. This is my favorite part about snow storms. We don't get a lot of snow in the lowlands here, but when we do it's almost all AWD/4WD vehicles in ditches.
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Feb 6, 2013 23:21
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BabyMauler posted:watch a load of folks spin off into ditches. Because they think AWD/4WD makes them superpowered.
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Feb 6, 2013 23:29
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I would just like to point out as a young person who got a drivers license after 2000 at no point did anyone ever educate me on any of the following driving topics: Left lane being for passing, merging onto roads at all (other than yielding if there is a yield sign), how roundabouts work, handling any sort of weather at all, and reacting to common dangerous situations. Things that were covered: Doing a 3 point turn in an empty parking lot, driving a 1/2 mile on 30 mph suburban streets, stopping at a stop sign and turning, and parking on a hill. Basically I am saying every time you are on the road you are going to die a horrible fiery death caused by bad drivers. E: vvvv Good point, 2 guesses where I got my license. Fuzzy Pipe Wrench fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Feb 7, 2013 |
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Feb 6, 2013 23:38
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It really depends on where you got your license. We had a lot of passing in left only, roundabouts and how to drive in the snow.
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Feb 7, 2013 01:22
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Powershift posted:yay, it's the 80s again! I heard the WRX was going to be separated from the Impreza.
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Feb 7, 2013 02:17
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Taaaaaaarb! posted:I heard the WRX was going to be separated from the Impreza. Next year. This is the "final year" of the GE/GH/GR body style and so this is their sendoff package/colour.
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Feb 7, 2013 02:18
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Fucknag posted:Holy poo poo that guy is my new hero. This is fantastic, and he is completely right.
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Feb 7, 2013 02:30
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So the new 2003 BMW Elantra 5 door is here guys. 
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Feb 7, 2013 02:41
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You can't quite tell from the pictures but it's loving huge, like 7 inches longer than the SportWagon.
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Feb 7, 2013 03:13
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Is it some kind of scam where they try to make the dimensions just so for it to count as a light truck for CAFE or something
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Feb 7, 2013 03:16
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Powershift posted:yay, it's the 80s again! I love orange cars. Also, you can't post JUST the WRX!  That vent by the front wheel looks really awkward, placement-wise.
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Feb 7, 2013 05:51
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Devyl posted:That vent by the front wheel looks really awkward, placement-wise. It might be ugly, but it's supposed to be functional.
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Feb 7, 2013 07:23
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Functional or not ts aesthetically terrible.
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Feb 7, 2013 08:46
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Throatwarbler posted:So the new 2003 BMW Elantra 5 door is here guys. At least it isn't nearly as aggressively hideous as the old 5-series GT.
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Feb 7, 2013 09:12
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I have to admit, on some twisted level I really want to see them make an M3 GT.
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Feb 7, 2013 09:14
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Well the front isn't so bad, because I think they're using the front fascia of one of the higher trims of the 3 series? The rear 3 quarter is...unfortunate. GM is back in the diesel small car game. http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2013/Feb/13-chicago-show/0207-cruze-diese-engine.html 
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Feb 7, 2013 09:19
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'Quiet, smooth performance' Really? That rattly old thing?
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Feb 7, 2013 09:27
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dissss posted:'Quiet, smooth performance' I'm not sure because the details are scarce the judging from the picture that's not the same engine as the Australian one.
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Feb 7, 2013 11:06
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Know how all the auto manufacturers are switching to small displacement turbocharged engines to get similar power with large boosts in fuel efficiency? And still pretending it's the 70s when "Turbo" was synonymous for "performance" when it comes to badging and premium pricing? Consumer reports says they're full of poo poo in the real world.Yahoo posted:Small turbocharged engines are marketed as delivering the power of a large engine, with the fuel economy of a smaller one. That's a tempting proposition, but our testing shows these small-displacement turbos are not delivering on the promises. http://autos.yahoo.com/news/consumer-reports-finds-small-turbo-engines-dont-deliver-050100955.html
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Feb 7, 2013 11:42
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Conclusion: People can't drive for poo poo.
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Feb 7, 2013 11:48
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My take on that is simple: Automakers are using turbos on smaller engines, but not really opening them up properly like they should. What's the first thing most performance-oriented people do when they buy a turbocharged car? Get an ECU flash or re-map to adjust the turbochargers' performance.
Devyl fucked around with this message at 11:57 on Feb 7, 2013 |
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Feb 7, 2013 11:50
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KozmoNaut posted:Conclusion: People can't drive for poo poo.  "My car feels really slow, I think there's something wrong with it."*Uses quarter-throttle and upshifts 1500cc Civic at 1900rpm*  "Nowt wrong with this."*Grabs car by metaphorical scruff of the neck and finds an Audi driver to pick on on a country road*
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Feb 7, 2013 14:24
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InitialDave posted:Ugh, yeah, people just don't understand how modern small engines like being used. So is the first one literally how CR tests the 45-65 MPH performance of their cars?
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Feb 7, 2013 17:32
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Didn't we just go over this CR poo poo a few pages ago? Surprise, small turbo charged engines don't get 40 mpg. I'm shocked.
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Feb 7, 2013 17:49
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It's anecdotal I know, but my parents had a first gen Acura RDX with a 2.4L Turbo 4 cylinder. It got worse fuel economy than their new second gen RDX with a 3.0L V6. The new one is also a lot smoother to drive.
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Feb 7, 2013 17:57
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leica posted:Didn't we just go over this CR poo poo a few pages ago? Except when they do? I have a 12 Cruze Eco manual and have been getting 33 city/46 highway/36 combined. Most of my driving is city.
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Feb 7, 2013 17:58
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Goober Peas posted:Except when they do? I have a 12 Cruze Eco manual and have been getting 33 city/46 highway/36 combined. Most of my driving is city. Congrats, you own a manual and know how to drive it to get the most out of it. Problem is 90% of the population drive automatics.
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Feb 7, 2013 18:06
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leica posted:Congrats, you own a manual and know how to drive it to get the most out of it. Problem is 90% of the population drive automatics. Ah, so it's not a problem with the cars, it's a problem with the drivers! I wonder what could be done to combat this. Perhaps some sort of rigorous testing regimen could be instituted? For best results, you would need to teach from a solid theoretical foundation to cover the laws, signs etc. involved in driving, as well as basic methods for fuel-efficient driving. Furthering this, some amount of practical lessons would obviously need to be instituted, in order for the driver to prove their ability to handle their car in a practical, safe and economical manner. You could even go so far as to bar people who are unable to pass these tests from driving! I wonder why no one has thought of this before?
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Feb 7, 2013 18:26
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Throatwarbler posted:GM is back in the diesel small car game. quote:The engine has an overboost feature capable of increasing torque to an estimated 280 lb-ft (380 Nm), for stronger acceleration periods of about 10 seconds. Hell yeah!  I want a diesel so bad. I shopped the Cruise pretty good too before getting my '12 Focus.
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Feb 7, 2013 18:27
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KozmoNaut posted:Ah, so it's not a problem with the cars, it's a problem with the drivers! No, the problem is with the automatics. quote:Many, especially those smaller 1.4- and 1.6-liter engines, still downshift frequently to keep up with traffic. Unless you have a plan to promote manuals and hypermiling I don't think there's a solution short of inventing some super hypermiling automatic that does everything perfectly for all the lazy rear end consumer drivers.
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Feb 7, 2013 18:31
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Also, another giant problem with the EPA numbers is that car companies try and game the system (e.g, specially programmed shift points in the transmission, skip shift, incredibly low shift lights) or just flat out lie. The numbers they use also look like city or combined values, and in terms of fuel economy: there is a set limit of energy you expend to get a car moving from top -> regular traffic speeds in a given time period, and adding a turbo and a smaller engine isn't going to do anything to help that. Large fuel savings are going to be cruising at highway speeds, so it's important to stick to the speed limit and use cruise control. edit: leica posted:No, the problem is with the automatics. Please show your work.
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Feb 7, 2013 18:35
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leica posted:No, the problem is with the automatics. I don't get why most automatics don't come with various pre-configured settings so people can switch from sport to eco or highway/city/gridlock whatever. It can't be difficult to just have a button that changes a couple variables in the computer.
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Feb 7, 2013 18:37
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