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The biggest wanker SUV I could think of, the Merc GLS, weighs 2610kg. E: gently caress sake. Have a pic of my kittens. https://twitter.com/WhatEvil/status/1320948567469678592?s=20
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Oct 27, 2020 05:39
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I absolutely detest SUVs. They’re pointlessly tall with a high centre of gravity so they handle like poo poo, so the manufacturers have to compensate by making them pointlessly wide with rock hard suspension. So they still drive like poo poo but at least they won’t feel like you’re about to roll over when cornering at more than a snails pace. It is however immensely funny watching them try to get through a 2.0m width restriction (and some SUVs now literally won’t fit). Even small cars are not immune to the plague of the SUV. Ford replaced the KA with the KA+ which was the same thing with taller suspension, ruined handling and a bigger price tag. They also released the Fiesta Sport Active which is a ruined Fiesta with a bigger price tag, because apparently you can’t go running unless your car is pointlessly tall. My partner unfortunately loves them for reasons already raised in the thread - she feels safer in the elevated driving position. I’ll stick with my compact saloon I think.
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Oct 27, 2020 05:56
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Yeah Ford have released a "New Puma" or something now. I had a second hand (original) Puma for a bit - it was a *fantastic* car, very light, nippy and had amazing handling. The new one is... a "compact crossover" which means it's a smaller car trying to be an SUV which I just don't get the point of *at all*.
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Oct 27, 2020 06:56
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OwlFancier posted:Literally the only reason i have a car is because bus services are crap to non existent for where I need to go a lot of the time. Private car sales are still dropping off a cliff in China I believe, where ride hailing has become the default way to get about in cities for anyone under 40. Which means less need for parking spaces and more need for charging spots etc. I remain convinced that state-sponsored ride hailing using electric cars is the future. Nobody living in a city should be forced to own a car to get hither and yon. E: mass transit is probably never going to completely satisfy need; people have too many odd point-to-point requests and the cost of adding infrastructure and reconfiguring it is too high. Beefeater1980 fucked around with this message at 07:00 on Oct 27, 2020 |
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Oct 27, 2020 06:57
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We’re one of Those People looking to buy a new car early next year and it’s most likely going to be an electric compact SUV because that’s the way things are going. It works for us because Mrs. Dickus has a back problem that requires a more upright and slightly elevated driving position - she currently has a CMax. As for seeing over other vehicles, You can’t really beat a van. I never noticed how many people were driving them until I got mine.
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Oct 27, 2020 06:59
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Pretty sure new cars are mostly bought by companies, who then sell them within a couple of years, which is where used cars come from. I had a 67 plate rental for a few weeks in early 2018 & within days of the 18 plates coming out they took it off me & swapped it for a new (identical) one. Also hire purchase agreements &c on new cars are relatively affordable, lots of people would rather pay a ridiculously inflated sum over a few years than a much smaller but still very high sum all up-front. BizarroAzrael posted:Going to be furnishing my new place soon, any recommendations? Is Wayfair any good? Just want to consider other options before I get everything from IKEA.
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Oct 27, 2020 08:04
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willie_dee posted:I read a study a long time ago about how when asked people will claim all sorts of reasons for wanting to purchase a car, but the most common reason anyone drives an SUV when they are truly honest, like if they are told their answer will be anonymous, is because they like being higher up in traffic seating position wise. Odd thing to be insecure about liking to admit. One of the things I absolutely like about both the Smart and the motorbike is that they're high compared to other vehicles, so you have a much better view ahead of you.
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Oct 27, 2020 08:06
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ngl the few times I've had cause to hire a transit van I've really enjoyed driving, you get to sit upright like you're at a dining table & the views are nice Pootling along in tractors is also nice, haven't had any cause to do that since I was young though
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Oct 27, 2020 08:17
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sebzilla posted:Probably signalled left but turned right. He abstained from braking.
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Oct 27, 2020 08:17
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Driving a consumer SUV for safety is like being the vaguely posh tubby lad down the pub that claims to have studied capybara, which is Brazilian Jew dough. Driving a Transit is standard pub gammon, tractor same but he's got sideburns and a tweed sport coat and there's a scythe on the pub wall for some reason. Unless you're going to drive a tracked ag vehicle or a T-34, the closest road equivalent to the wiry home haircut man with an 11 o'clock shadow who nobody wants to start poo poo with is a late 90s Hilux. You can run them off of 95% vegetable oil and 5% petrol too, which was ace until the government confirmed companies could do that legally and the price of vegetable oil doubled overnight. Sadly the new Hiluces have all suffered SUV disease.
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Oct 27, 2020 08:39
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Guavanaut posted:the wiry home haircut ... with an 11 o'clock shadow who nobody wants to start poo poo with . Isn't this all of us during lockdown, regardless of gender? The Omnibus Podcast had a fun episode on the Toyota Hilux and how it became beloved of jihadi groups and surfers, due mostly to the robustness you describe
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Oct 27, 2020 08:47
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You could drive a tracked ag T34.
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Oct 27, 2020 08:49
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Failed Imagineer posted:Isn't this all of us during lockdown, regardless of gender? It definitely had a "look, I'm not pissed off, but I'm not loving about either, I just want to get to bar for another one" expression though.  Failed Imagineer posted:jihadi groups and surfers OwlFancier posted:You could drive a tracked ag T34.  За большой урожай победы.
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Oct 27, 2020 08:55
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Some of us stopped shaving or cutting our hair years ago.
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Oct 27, 2020 08:59
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I'd love to cycle round with a set of annoyingly sticky stickers saying "your car is too big" and attaching them to these huge but still 5 seater cars. They seem to be making car parks increasingly difficult and making small roads harder to get down.
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Oct 27, 2020 08:59
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Borrovan posted:Pretty sure new cars are mostly bought by companies, who then sell them within a couple of years, which is where used cars come from. I have read that too, but I don't know why it is. I mean I can imagine that company bosses are shallow enough to care about their own registration numbers looking new, but it's strange that they automatically give new cars to employees, unless there is some sort of bulk deal with car manufacturers or insurers.
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Oct 27, 2020 09:02
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I think the sort of person who gets a company car is the sort of person making the company enough money that they care more about them not being unavailable because the car broke down than they do the expense of buying new cars.
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Oct 27, 2020 09:03
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Oh dear me posted:I have read that too, but I don't know why it is. I mean I can imagine that company bosses are shallow enough to care about their own registration numbers looking new, but it's strange that they automatically give new cars to employees, unless there is some sort of bulk deal with car manufacturers or insurers. If you need to buy more than one car, let alone a couple of hundred, the tax and accounting situation gets insanely complex if they're not all new and from a fairly limited pool. Also warranties, and liability if it turns out the second-hand car you bought for Simpkins in Regional Sales is stolen or has had improper maintenance in the past.
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Oct 27, 2020 09:21
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Can we not just blame it on Simpkins? I've never liked him
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Oct 27, 2020 09:39
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Am I weird that I feel relieved to get back into my nice low hatchback after hiring a van? I don't get the high=better thing at all. I feel like if you're trying to see over the car in front of you, you're probably not keeping the necessary distance.
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Oct 27, 2020 09:41
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mudskipp posted:Can we not just blame it on Simpkins? I've never liked him
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Oct 27, 2020 09:42
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I certainly don't see the need yeah. The solution to increasing visibility is to move further away from the thing in your view.
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Oct 27, 2020 09:43
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Yeah but I've worked for a few really big companies and over the last ten years in every case they were actively eliminating company cars as far as they could, for various boring tax and cost calculation reasons. So who the gently caress IS buying new cars these days. Is it all a government plot paid for with taxpayers cash.
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Oct 27, 2020 09:45
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Nice to see Asda going full ACAB this Halloween
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Oct 27, 2020 09:48
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The Universal Monsters series: Mummy, skeleton, devil, cat, police.
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Oct 27, 2020 09:51
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Pistol_Pete posted:Yeah but I've worked for a few really big companies and over the last ten years in every case they were actively eliminating company cars as far as they could, for various boring tax and cost calculation reasons. Rental firms, and of course everyone doing variations on the theme of hire purchase.
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Oct 27, 2020 09:53
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Bobstar posted:Am I weird that I feel relieved to get back into my nice low hatchback after hiring a van? I don't get the high=better thing at all. I feel like if you're trying to see over the car in front of you, you're probably not keeping the necessary distance. I spent 3 days driving up and down the country in some fat diesel SUV for work (the hire company "upgraded" me from the compact car I requested, gee thanks) and dropping it off and jumping back on my motorbike was like a religious experience.
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Oct 27, 2020 09:56
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mudskipp posted:Can we not just blame it on Simpkins? I've never liked him In my mind now Simpkins is Alan Partridge explaining how if you buy a car from a Cockney you'll find a person's ribcage in the sump and a teste in the gear knob.
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Oct 27, 2020 09:58
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goddamnedtwisto posted:If you need to buy more than one car, let alone a couple of hundred, the tax and accounting situation gets insanely complex if they're not all new and from a fairly limited pool. Also warranties, and liability if it turns out the second-hand car you bought for Simpkins in Regional Sales is stolen or has had improper maintenance in the past. I think it's mostly this, but also the sales people at my old company were all absolutely obsessed with that poo poo and they wouldn't be caught dead in a car that was more than three years old if the management tried to make them (which they wouldn't because they're the golden boys) they also wouldn't drive anything other than a bmw, so they'd all get the lovely little coupes rather than something nicer, larger and with fancier gadgets but a less glamorous marque e: i don't think coupe is the right word, the small stupid looking ones
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Oct 27, 2020 10:03
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Pistol_Pete posted:Yeah but I've worked for a few really big companies and over the last ten years in every case they were actively eliminating company cars as far as they could, for various boring tax and cost calculation reasons. Well a bunch of countries were offering Grant's and tax incentives to buy Hybrid and Eletrcial cars, so there was definitely people who were buying new (or newish) cars to take advantage of that and to I drive a 10+ year old Toyota Rav4 that I was gifted from my dad. It has a Tow Bar on it so he could drive trailers around and one of the terms of gifting me the car was that he could borrow it the odd time he needed to move a trailer around (since he couldn't get a Tow Bar on the car he wanted.) It's a fine car. Runs well despite the odd hiccup. (Like last Christmas it started leaking fuel just after it had the NCT done. Just what we needed before heading to Derry for our Christmas holidays.) I previously had driven a Ford Ka and a Honda Civic. You notice changes between cars (break distance, acceleration, top speed, how much the wind batters your car around on the motorway) but once I switched to the RAV, the higher seating makes other cars seem less like they will actually crush you like they are Bigfoot*. So I absolutely get the safer feel. As for buying a new car, I would absolutely change to the Hybrid version of the RAV if I could. I drove my in laws one and it feels like the car I have just better. But the only ly way I think that will become a reality is if I change jobs or sue the health service for the death of my daughter. So in conclusion, cars are a land of contrasts. * = ...and the Muscles Machines. They are big, bad, dirty and mean.
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Oct 27, 2020 10:07
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Hah! Well it's good bye Simpkins then. Nice Sandra always said you were a wrongun. I thought new cars were being sold mostly via perilous finance deals. Perhaps they could add an advertising rule where you have to show a car driving round the local area or something. Those wide laned new suspension bridges and two way mountain roads don't remind me much of driving in England.
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Oct 27, 2020 10:07
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Biggus Dickus posted:We’re one of Those People looking to buy a new car early next year and it’s most likely going to be an electric compact SUV because that’s the way things are going. It works for us because Mrs. Dickus has a back problem that requires a more upright and slightly elevated driving position - she currently has a CMax. NB don't buy a Tesla. If I was going to buy an electric car like you're describing next year I'd be looking at one of these https://www.skoda-auto.com/models/range/enyaq-iv
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Oct 27, 2020 10:18
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Time to drop a UKMT classic, "Tales of Modern Motoring", all the blokes who care way too much about their company car brand and have their Little Chef order numbers memorised. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQsMFQZa8os
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Oct 27, 2020 10:18
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SUV versions of small cars are dumb but a few years ago when I was getting a different hire car every week to go tooling about the country and helping NT properties through the harrowing process of till installation, I was given a Fiat 500X and spent a lovely few days bombing around the Lake District in it. It owned.
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Oct 27, 2020 10:19
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Most new cars are leased these days no? Which is why you see £60k+ SUVs absolutely everywhere.
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Oct 27, 2020 10:19
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SUV-ish versions of electric cars do make at least some sense at the moment because of having the battery pack in the floor, so for packaging them it's natural to have the seats a bit higher. The centre of gravity is still super low, and that body style allows better boot space. For petrol cars I'd agree that the push towards SUVs is poo poo and seems mostly to be driven by the US where if you don't drive a Dodge Ram you're basically not even human.
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Oct 27, 2020 10:24
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I used to be in charge of risk for a consumer finance company and we had a very, very strict list of cars the sales team were allowed to lease for their company cars. They had to be flashy enough that the potential clients would think the company was doing well, but not so classy to trigger a “where are the customer’s yachts?” reaction.
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Oct 27, 2020 10:26
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Aren't most actual SUVs pretty much designed to kill other people in traffic in an effort to keep you marginally safer?
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Oct 27, 2020 10:27
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sebzilla posted:SUV versions of small cars are dumb but a few years ago when I was getting a different hire car every week to go tooling about the country and helping NT properties through the harrowing process of till installation, I was given a Fiat 500X and spent a lovely few days bombing around the Lake District in it. It owned. I’d be terrified driving a hire car down Lake District roads. I’d want the smallest one I could get, not any kind of suv I’ll tell you what does own in the lakes tho and it’s evs. That instant torque is amazing up steep roads.
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Oct 27, 2020 10:31
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big scary monsters posted:My decade and a half old SUV weighs 1300kg and I guess now counts a small-medium car. The fuel efficiency is bad though. yikes, my tiny Yaris weighs 1600kg, does between 4.6 - 4.9l / 100km though.
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Oct 27, 2020 10:31
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