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Friend of mine just bought a Midget II, which I should see for the first time in two weeks or so and which is almost exactly the same size. Be interesting for scale. For the poster two down: the friend with the Midget 2 (who fits in just fine) is 6'2". tetrapyloctomy fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Jun 29, 2010 |
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Jun 29, 2010 02:21
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Too bad that hp/lb is going down for the next generation. Why, oh why, couldn't the next-generation engine have been a direct-inject 2.5L engine instead of a non-DI 2.0? (Yes, I know. Cost. Don't care.) VVVVVVVVVV For both manual and the CVT, or is the CVT just better than the (truly terrible) automatic that it replaces? tetrapyloctomy fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Apr 26, 2011 |
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Apr 26, 2011 23:04
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PT6A posted:Out of curiosity, why? I don't have it in my car, but it's always seemed pretty cool whenever I've seen it (in my parents' cars for example) and I've never seen any problems with it personally. I think Clarkson covered this one.
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Apr 27, 2011 23:47
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NOTinuyasha posted:It's not the photos. For a car as inexpensive as it is it's not bad. Two tone would have been so much better, though -- Sea Of Light Undifferentiated Grey doesn't work well in anything.
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Apr 30, 2011 08:41
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Viggen posted:I'd rather run into something at 25, than, oh, a deer at 65. Detection and evasion would be easier and safer at 65 mph on a highway than at 25 mph in the city ... and no one only goes 25 mph in the city.
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May 11, 2011 01:22
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I'm excited about more high-powered wagons. A friend is getting a CTS-V Sport Wagon and I am damned anticipatory.
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Jul 18, 2011 04:30
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I'm seriously considering an Abarth SS as a daily driver, and retiring the Subaru for winter use. (Although the Impreza is great for just driving over the concrete parking stops when our card reader at work goes on the fritz.)
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Jul 28, 2011 03:23
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I was going to say that I had no problem with the Spark gauge cluster, and then I realized I'd googled the Sonic gauge cluster instead. It's the same basic idea, but somehow looks less cheap, and it has the tach front and center with an LED readout of the speed rather than the other way around.
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Aug 11, 2011 00:23
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Brigdh posted:When the people stop falling for cheap ploys to get votes and start demanding real solutions to actual problems So, the article states, "For the 2012 model year, 45 percent of vehicles offer a rearview camera as standard equipment, according to the automotive research Web site Edmunds.com. It is an optional feature on 23 percent of models." So these cameras have been standard on almost half of new vehicles for half a year. Google says that 13.3 million vehicles were sold in the US in 2011. With over 3 million cars with backup cameras on them on the road already (not even counting the pre-2012MY cars that had them), you have to ask: so why aren't they already touting impressive data showing the huge decrease in rearward visibility-mediated accidents?
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Mar 2, 2012 16:59
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Oh, how I do love fast wagons. I wish Imprezas would go back to a wagon over a hatch, but it's just not going to happen. Minor quibble: I wish people didn't care about rear windows not going down fully, because those skinny pillars to split the window just throw off the look, in my opinion. On a related note, someone recently backed a truck into my friend's CTS-V Sportwagon (with special edition paint, no less), and it just makes me a little ill. I don't know how many are out there, but it can't be very many. edit: cell phones make typing hard tetrapyloctomy fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Apr 16, 2012 |
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Apr 15, 2012 20:05
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I think the CTS-V sportwagons look better in person. I wasn't a huge fan until my friend got one in Black Diamond Tricoat with the yellow calipers. Looks pretty hot.
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Jul 22, 2012 04:33
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Not only is the new Mazda 6 good-looking, but it's dropped two hundred pounds from the last model. I wish more manufacturers would follow suit.
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Aug 30, 2012 00:34
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Warcabbit posted:
I think the AMC Eagle two-door coupe might qualify as an earlier example.
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Sep 15, 2012 18:38
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It's a car designed strictly for city commuting, therefore if you need to commute on the highway, find a different car. A friend of mine daily drives a Midget II and does just fine; he just drives the CTS-V for highway driving.
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Oct 10, 2012 20:23
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angryhampster posted:I don't see why it matters. Is highway commuting in a ForTwo really any worse than doing so in an F-150? Yes, if the ForTwo cannot keep up with the flow of traffic. On my drive last weekend, 78 MPH was slower than the norm during some portions of the route, and people who weren't keeping pace caused problems. Likewise, the Midget II take approximately seventeen years to accelerate from 55 MPH to 65 MPH, so taking it on the highway would probably endanger both my friend and other drivers.
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Oct 10, 2012 22:15
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Weinertron posted:Do people doing ~70mph in the farthest right lane really cause such huge problems? I spend some significant time in right lanes when I'm in my girlfriends car because the three speed transmission makes for disastrous fuel economy much over 70mph. I get passed like crazy, but I don't think I'm ever holding up traffic doing 65-75 in the rightmost lane. As noted, not all highways have more than two lanes. In addition, plenty of highways have exits and on-ramps on the left, which further enhances the mess caused by a driver limping along below the speed of the rest of traffic. Couple that with the decreased visibility of a tiny car as compared to, for example, a tractor trailer.
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Oct 11, 2012 00:20
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Sadly the Forester XT is still automatic-only, it seems (from the leaked Japanese brochures).
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Nov 1, 2012 17:59
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Steve French posted:From the press release attached to the Autoblog article: Sorry I missed it. Seriously, hill descent control on a Forester?
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Nov 1, 2012 22:12
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These two cars really do not look all that much alike. The body panels' creases and the trim pieces are fairly different.
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Dec 11, 2012 23:55
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KozmoNaut posted:Of course I have, but I don't let it distract me. Right, because he's not at 100% at every hour of the day, it's "not giving a poo poo about driving safety." I very much give a poo poo about driving safety since I routinely have to fix what a split second of distraction can cause, and yet I have been required to do things like drive into the hospital when extremely tired. I'm glad that you're apparently able to live a life where there are never any distractions, never any emergencies, and never any extenuating circumstances, but most people in the world don't. None of us are saying that it's okay to add unnecessary distractions to commutes like phones and the like, but be realistic.
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Dec 21, 2012 17:11
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nutnmunch posted:I couldn't determine from the article if they were saying STI in 2015 or WRX + STI in 2015. I'm hoping the WRX shows itself a lot sooner than that and we just get the STI a few years later. I believe earlier reports said the new WRX was for the 2014 model year, so a 2013 release, but maybe things have changed. I hope not, I'm ready to upgrade. I'm curious how all of this is news, though, since the linked article is from last May and there's definitely newer information out there (mainly hot-weather testing mules seen, that sort of thing). It also conflicts with other reports that the WRX/STI chassis was going to be smaller and lighter than the Impreza.
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Jan 10, 2013 21:14
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VikingSkull posted:I love that they charge extra for not painting the roof. Isn't it because the clearcoat for the unpainted carbon fiber costs something like sixty grand a gallon?
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Apr 27, 2013 12:05
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oRenj9 posted:I like it a lot, it looks like how I imagine the Forester should. They made Subarus into Toyotas and Toyotas into Subarus. That was exactly my reaction: smaller and lower with a little more glass instead of C-pillar and you have perhaps my ideal Forester XT. (Though to be fair to the newest Foresters, they look better in person than they do in press photos, for some reason. Maybe the lower angles in the photos make them look taller than they actually are?)
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Apr 28, 2013 20:44
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Stealth Like posted:And yeah, the CST-V is amazing value (as long as the build quality has gotten better, but I think that has been resolved).
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May 28, 2013 18:56
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Sadi posted:Why is that? I thought the new ones had pretty stout drive lines.
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May 29, 2013 01:49
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MrChips posted:Coming from an aviation background, anything you to need to use frequently or in an emergency is only a flip of a switch or a twist of a knob away - it's simply good ergonomics. I would love to see an updated chapter in Raskin's The Humane Interface dedicated to touchscreen controls in cars. Had he not passed from pancreatic cancer, it would have been the easier chapter he's ever written: "WHAT THE poo poo, DID YOU NOT READ ANYTHING IN THIS BOOK?! GO TO HELL, AUTOMAKERS."
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Jun 19, 2013 13:12
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D C posted:It looks cool but I think they are terrible to use real world, no storage, no places besides the cupholder to put, say a phone, or your wallet or something like that. I loved the layout in my '02 Focus ZX5. Not only were all of the interior controls perfectly placed, but the cupholders were low and a bit forward of the gearshift, which was really convenient.
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Jun 22, 2013 03:56
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leica posted:Yeah and we're about to invade Syria so perfect timing, gas should be skyrocketing real soon In other news, goddamn, do I wish Volvo would build this. It appears the next XC90 will incorporate some of the styling cues, but the Concept Coupe is gorgeous.
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Aug 30, 2013 17:29
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Someone I went through residency with bought one (she's making jaw-dropping amounts of money in Texas). She loves it and has nothing but gushingly positive things to say about it. I guess there could be some degree of cognitive dissonance given how ungodly expensive they are, but taking into account all of the other reviews out there I'm inclined to believe her. I can't say it's the car I'd have my eye on were I to decide to take a huge chunk out of my monthly savings, but it seems pretty awesome nonetheless. This link says the Model S lease starts at $1421 per month if you ignore their hand waving about fuel savings and so forth. I think I'd rather stick that $51k into retirement instead of into a car I wouldn't own at the end of three years, especially since I couldn't drive it more than 12k miles annually.
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Oct 7, 2013 13:42
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SouthLAnd posted:Subarus and Subaru owners are generally pretty cool IMO so that's nice to see. Yeah, I was looking at the teensy Cadillac bar and thinking, "I've driven a chunk of that." (And man, is it ever FUN.)
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Oct 30, 2013 00:13
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1200 CTS-V wagons sold as of mid-year. That's more than I was expecting, actually. Luckily, they only needed to sell around 35 to make back their investment, since pretty much all of the bits already existed for the regular wagon and the other V-variants. Edit: that's ALL wagons, not just manuals. I don't know the breakdown there. tetrapyloctomy fucked around with this message at 11:53 on Oct 30, 2013 |
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Oct 30, 2013 11:50
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I wonder if the CVT is an option on the higher trim levels or if it's required. The CVT in the Forester XT is supposedly very good, at least. It's a no-go for me anyway without a wagon or hatch variant, which is a shame because a WRX hatch was my planned upgrade to my '06 2.5i wagon and I wanted to wait for the new platform.
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Nov 27, 2013 21:33
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goatse guy posted:It's optional in all of them, and the base models are manual-only. The last of the 2014s are coming out now, why not get one of those instead? Cream_Filling posted:When the third gen WRX came out, wasn't it hatch only at first? With the sedan being introduced a year later?
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Nov 28, 2013 13:22
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LeftistMuslimObama posted:Now that the RX-8 is gone and the new RX-7 is delayed forever, the new WRX is honestly looking pretty good to me for a new car. The only other car that looked fun and non-ugly to me is the mazdaspeed 3, and I think that car would murder me dead in winter here in Wisconsin.
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Dec 20, 2013 23:06
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DEUCE SLUICE posted:2014 WRX, too. Holy crap, I don't know how I missed that. That's ridiculous. ... soooooo, who's the best person in Philadelphia to swap an STI drivetrain into my wagon, 'cause Subaru just doesn't seem to want to sell me a car ever again.
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Jan 10, 2014 13:15
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VikingSkull posted:This is where I point out that the Cayenne almost buried Porsche, and they've doubled down on that game plan.
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May 24, 2014 14:21
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Wheeee posted:Yea, the Prius is actually an awesome and fantastically practical car which has a solid reason for existing beyond stroking the ego of trophy wives.
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May 27, 2014 13:57
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Snowdens Secret posted:Poe's Law claims yet another victim Still, I don't understand how anyone can think that the Cayenne killed Porsche. If they mean fiscally, the data clearly state otherwise. If they mean ... spiritually or some poo poo? ... then I also don't understand because the thing is fast, comfortable, and reportedly is fairly capable off-road as well. Sure, few people actually WILL take their expensive Porsche off-road, but most Wranglers just get driven on the street too. Likewise, the Prius hate is silly. It's more than competent enough at filling a niche to justify its continued existence and sales record. Car enthusiasts didn't wail and gnash their teeth when GM announced the CTS-V sportswagon, which makes a hell of a lot less fiscal or practical sense than a Prius. Now the Smart ForTwo available in the US ... that's a hard one to figure out other than, "Eh, someone will buy it."
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May 27, 2014 18:35
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Snowdens Secret posted:Porsche is such a weird company financially with its strange ownership structure, and non-car investments making ridiculous gains and losses that dwarf the auto sales side, that claiming any particular model 'saved' or 'killed' it is silly Business Week did a follow-up article almost a decade later, and the SUV's selling power still appears to be a large driving force: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-05/porsche-has-an-identity-crisis-amid-its-suv-success But yeah, you're right -- it's really complex. But the Cayenne sure as hell didn't have a negative effect on the company unless it's purist Porsche-is-a-sportscar fist-shaking. I'd personally shake my fist a hell of a lot harder if they'd gone bankrupt. Regarding Prius battery replacement: http://autos.aol.com/article/toyota-prius-reliability/ Doesn't look so bad to me. Note the real-world change in performance, and that Consumer Reports has found that perfectly-usable batteries can be found at salvage yards for about $500. Granted, their data are only for one car that CR tested, but that's the same sample size as "my friend with a Prius" and actually includes numbers. Edit: While talking Priuses as city cars, I really wish we could just have Kei cars widely available. A Midget II has plenty of pickup to 30 MPH for suburban driving. Too bad that the mileage is actually laughably bad, and Philadelphia is basically a Kei car murder factory. tetrapyloctomy fucked around with this message at 19:09 on May 27, 2014 |
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May 27, 2014 19:01
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13 INCH DICK posted:Honestly I get the idea of a Prius but I've never driven a more uncomfortable, awkwardly positioned, numb feeling car that drives like it's so much larger than it is due to it's horrific blind spots outside of a 2011 Chevy Aveo.
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May 27, 2014 22:13
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