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The older I get the more I realize that a lot of things happen not for any particular reason but mostly because somebody thought it would look good on their resume and there wasn't enough pushback from anyone in the organization because it mostly exists for people to kick back and collect paychecks
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Oct 17, 2023 04:37
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StormDrain posted:It's OK. The AAMVA is a lobbying group. They state that the Keis are unsafe, but their main beef seems to be concern over "another country's cast-offs" that no longer meet fuel and pollution standards on their home shores and are 'flooding' US markets, blunting the effects of environmental regulations. How sweet. Not mentioned is the slight blunting of US new-car sales that this lobbying group doesn't mention. I doubt a Kei car or truck is any less safe than my '65 Econoline:  ...which didn't have seatbelts until I installed them. Most US cars built before 1966 didn't have seatbelts, which makes me wonder when they'll come after them.
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Oct 17, 2023 05:58
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Its because kei trucks are useful, cheap, efficient and reliable. That's it. They are a threat. It's strictly because someone somewhere thinks they are missing out on money because of them. It's always that, any time there is any lobbying at all. Absolutely nobody is going to spend money because they are worried about safety . The whole reason the 25 year rule exists in the United States at all is because Mercedes didn't want people in the USA to import cheaper Mercedes from Germany. In Germany a BMW is a Ford or a GM, but oh boy in the USA why it's a prestige brand fit for kings!
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Oct 17, 2023 06:33
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KakerMix posted:In Germany a BMW is a Ford or a GM, but oh boy in the USA why it's a prestige brand fit for kings! No, not really. VW would be a better comparison.
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Oct 17, 2023 06:42
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KakerMix posted:Its because kei trucks are useful, cheap, efficient and reliable. That's it. They are a threat. Ya for sure I just can't quite figure out who thinks they(or is or who stands to) lose so much money due to the import of the cars. It has to be used car dealers right? Autonation, Carmax etc. I'm suspecting it's got a lot to do with the cash they rake in during closing for bullshit. Maybe it's those fucks who run extended warranty scams. I just wanna know who's bankrolling this and why.
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Oct 17, 2023 06:43
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KozmoNaut posted:No, not really. I don't know I saw a lot of basic Mercedes running around Germany when I visited and I don't think people in USA think VW is luxury. I thought this comparison is apt.
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Oct 17, 2023 06:44
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StormDrain posted:I don't know I saw a lot of basic Mercedes running around Germany when I visited and I don't think people in USA think VW is luxury. I thought this comparison is apt. Even a basic Mercedes or BMW is fancier than the average car, is my point. Either way, BMW is a bad comparison, they only make premium segment passenger cars. Mercedes is better, since they make basically everything (except affordable cars) and stick a three-pointed star on it. Trucks, vans, unimogs, busses, luxury cars, it's all Mercedes. E: I'm in Germany very often, the Ford/GM segment there are driving Opels, Fords, Peugeots, Renaults, VWs, Toyotas, Hyundais and so on. If you drive a BMW or Mercedes, you're someone who spends more on your car than the average person. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Oct 17, 2023 |
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Oct 17, 2023 06:48
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Preoptopus posted:From a fb group. Not my screen grab That man's using his truck to do things? 
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Oct 17, 2023 07:10
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KozmoNaut posted:No, not really. If VW is Ford, I guess that makes Audi Lincoln?
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Oct 17, 2023 07:57
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My guess is the excuse is emissions and safety, but the actual reason is auto manufacturers and/or dealers getting cranky about someone else elbowing in on their turf.
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Oct 17, 2023 08:04
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Yeah it's not even a stones throw to talking about the chicken tax which props up a full third of the US "domestic" auto industry Why compete on 4 door sedans, when you can talk the entire US southern population into buying import restricted
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Oct 17, 2023 08:12
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KozmoNaut posted:No, not really. Domestic market BMW and Mercedes have fleet-only SKU that are barren as a Lada. Steelies and in certain cases wind-up windows. They rarely get exported outside Germany.
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Oct 17, 2023 08:58
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E39 squad cars and taxis   
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Oct 17, 2023 09:01
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:That man's using his truck to do things? No, not really, the bed seems to be empty. I bet it belongs to some overseer who needs to drive around the gravel pit all the time and they felt emasculated against all the 3+ axle dump trucks around them.
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Oct 17, 2023 09:17
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kastein posted:My guess is the excuse is emissions and safety, but the actual reason is auto manufacturers and/or dealers getting cranky about someone else elbowing in on their turf. isn't that the compromise inherent in the 25 year rule, though? they get protected exclusivity for the first 25 years, and in exchange we can get whatever we want after that if we can wait that long
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Oct 17, 2023 10:19
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Raluek posted:isn't that the compromise inherent in the 25 year rule, though? they get protected exclusivity for the first 25 years, and in exchange we can get whatever we want after that if we can wait that long Guess that rule worked when the average fleet age was new enough that 25+ year old cars didn't matter to moneyed interests. Maybe new compromise for kei cars could be 50 years, but the interests realized this would only delay the problem and they would need a new round for 75 year excemption. Better to ban them outright.
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Oct 17, 2023 10:31
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Saukkis posted:No, not really, the bed seems to be empty. I bet it belongs to some overseer who needs to drive around the gravel pit all the time and they felt emasculated against all the 3+ axle dump trucks around them. I'm just amazed he even took it off a paved road in the first place.
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Oct 17, 2023 11:36
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Raluek posted:isn't that the compromise inherent in the 25 year rule, though? they get protected exclusivity for the first 25 years, and in exchange we can get whatever we want after that if we can wait that long
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Oct 17, 2023 12:14
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I'm not much of a Doug fan but this is awesome, dude is genuinely giddy over owning a dream car, and I had the same poster of a white Countach on my bedroom wall as well lol I'm super jealous https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da-EmG7Xw5A
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Oct 17, 2023 12:50
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Preoptopus posted:From a fb group. Not my screen grab I am 100% ok with this. Someone took a 25 year old GMC Sonoma, modded it at home in a weird way, and they're probably using it for lafs at the quarry where they work. This is probably driven by the head welder or someone at the site. I get the digging on the guy in the luxo-truck that never uses it as a truck, but an old Sonoma is not a luxo-truck by any means.
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Oct 17, 2023 13:53
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:That man's using his truck to do things? Respect.
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Oct 17, 2023 18:08
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Olympic Mathlete posted:Respect. I thought that was illegal!
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Oct 17, 2023 18:20
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Saukkis posted:Guess that rule worked when the average fleet age was new enough that 25+ year old cars didn't matter to moneyed interests. Maybe new compromise for kei cars could be 50 years, but the interests realized this would only delay the problem and they would need a new round for 75 year excemption. Better to ban them outright. I was thinking that too. I saw a little Saturn SW2 at my gym the other day, when that car was new the equivalent would be a Pinto wagon. OK that's a bad comparison because I'm sure I saw those with the same frequency. Maybe the 1998 Suburban vs the 1973 suburban. OK let's try again. The sheer number of Buick Park Avenues I still see, when I wouldn't have seen hardly any 70s buicks at the turn of the century.
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Oct 17, 2023 19:15
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the Citroën Ami looks silly but from what I've read it's pretty good. it's also under $8,000. it's technically not available in the US yet but that probably might change soon 
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Oct 17, 2023 20:28
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The Ami will never be sold in the US.
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Oct 17, 2023 22:04
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Mr. Wiggles posted:The Ami will never be sold in the US. There is a Fiat variant  Which could be sold to decarbonize the US fleet without adding extra marques to the FCA network.
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Oct 17, 2023 22:28
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SlowBloke posted:There is a Fiat variant It's technically a "quadricycle" in Europe, not a car, so it's regulated as a motorcycle. It doesn't meet US collision standards and won't be imported to the US without major modifications.
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Oct 17, 2023 22:52
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SlowBloke posted:There is a Fiat variant There’s an Opel variant as well. That’s all I saw in Amsterdam.
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Oct 17, 2023 22:56
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Oct 17, 2023 23:37
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what kind of abomination is that. 
JAnon fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 01:13
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PainterofCrap posted:The AAMVA is a lobbying group. They state that the Keis are unsafe, but their main beef seems to be concern over "another country's cast-offs" that no longer meet fuel and pollution standards on their home shores and are 'flooding' US markets, blunting the effects of environmental regulations. How sweet. They're deffo not blunting new car sales, but they probably are blunting the sales of poo poo like Club Cars, John Deere, etc. The offroad only truck-like vehicle makers who make them shittier and less featured than kei trucks but sell them for 2x the price. ...Tbh though Iii don't quite know if I'd say that's the only reason this is becoming a thing. They are legitimately unsafe for US roads, between being small, already safety compromised, and slow as balls and more often than not barely able to even maintain highway speeds or stop in a remotely safe manner  You're right that old US vehicles also fail most of those criteria too but I imagine there are probably far more miles put on the average kei import than there are the average 60s car.
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Oct 18, 2023 01:33
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I really hope this is actually amphibious.
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Oct 18, 2023 01:39
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ishikabibble posted:They're deffo not blunting new car sales, but they probably are blunting the sales of poo poo like Club Cars, John Deere, etc. The offroad only truck-like vehicle makers who make them shittier and less featured than kei trucks but sell them for 2x the price. The idea that safety matters goes out the window when you factor in just how many pedestrians die in the USA because of our vehicles. Or the side by sides that certainly aren't made with safety at the forefront. Safety flatly does not matter to anyone lobbying, it's always an accessory to profit. We might get better safety but it is always a side effect, never the main event. Kei trucks a non-issue when we have so many other unsafe aspects about how we in the United States do 'roads'.
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Oct 18, 2023 01:53
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I bet that handles like a boat 
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Oct 18, 2023 02:33
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JAnon posted:what kind of abomination is that. Odds are it’s a Fiero. I will await correction.
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Oct 18, 2023 02:39
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MrYenko posted:Odds are it’s a Fiero. I will await correction. There was never a Fiero without a roof, closest would be the ones that were T-tops but that was a dealer thing anyway. I thought the windshield was shaped like a C5 vette.
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Oct 18, 2023 03:42
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I knew I recognized that steering wheel, it's a 1994-ish LeBaron! Name makes sense now.
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Oct 18, 2023 03:57
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Deteriorata posted:It's technically a "quadricycle" in Europe, not a car, so it's regulated as a motorcycle. It doesn't meet US collision standards and won't be imported to the US without major modifications. The Aptera is supposedly regulated as a motorcycle and all the interior pics make it look even less sturdy than an euro quad. I'm not seeing this huge hurdle if Stellantis decide to import it.
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Oct 18, 2023 06:11
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SlowBloke posted:The Aptera is supposedly regulated as a motorcycle and all the interior pics make it look even less sturdy than an euro quad. I'm not seeing this huge hurdle if Stellantis decide to import it. It tops out at ~30 mph and sub-50 miles per charge, which means its realistic market is maybe those four or five cities in the U.S. with both awful traffic and mostly surface driving (NYC, Seattle, come to mind). It’s closer to Torchinsky’s Changli than the median car. They simply wouldn’t sell enough to recoup the costs of modifying, federalizing and certifying it.
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Oct 18, 2023 07:14
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Jean-Paul Shartre posted:It tops out at ~30 mph and sub-50 miles per charge, which means its realistic market is maybe those four or five cities in the U.S. with both awful traffic and mostly surface driving (NYC, Seattle, come to mind). It’s closer to Torchinsky’s Changli than the median car. They simply wouldn’t sell enough to recoup the costs of modifying, federalizing and certifying it. Donut did a video on the Aptera yesterday and I know people don't like them but the Aptera seems like it actually works... (and is better stats wise than you're saying here). https://youtu.be/0PU4DQoQAWY?si=YCY4xS_p4S--OF8O In other non EV news, a rare glimpse of an RX500 in motion. https://twitter.com/yori7110/status/1714524004390973552?t=DKM0D9ira2IEdu6Ee17QdA&s=19 And a closer look sat https://twitter.com/yori7110/status/1714490734198534468?t=m5rtzotoeCtcsd7PwGmwtw&s=19 SlowBloke posted:There is a Fiat variant And if we weren't all cucked by marketing this is all the car most people would need for their day to day. Olympic Mathlete fucked around with this message at 08:23 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 07:57
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