[Lord Lucan]

Given your name,you obviously have a man who does that for you

Have to do everything myself to be discrete, as I was officially declared dead since two years ago at least. I was supposed to have been fed to a tiger in a zoo among other theories, although I had not heard that one before :-

Lord Lucan 'shot himself and was fed to a tiger in zoo' - Telegraph

[Gimbal]

I have a BMW m140i, a very nice little car.
A bit of a sleeper as it looks ordinary but with rear wheel drive and a straight six cylinder engine delivering 340hp and 500nm it's loads of fun.

[Kombivan]

I find it interesting how different generations seem to strongly dislike certain types of vehicles. On the past few pages, several have made comments regarding their distaste for SUVs.

As I listen to people speak about automobiles, I find most hate the type of vehicles their parents drove and say they'll never own the same. Meaning if your parents drove a station wagon, you might hate station wagons and refuse to buy one. My parents hate station wagons, so they bought one of the first minivans (when minivans were a new thing) to haul us around when we were young. My wife and I hate minivans and said we'd never own one (even though my wife drives one due to the functionality hauling our own kids around -- and because as much we want an SUV, they're too expensive as kid-haulers). Now that so many people drive big SUVs, will the younger generation hate them too?



Maybe the younger generation will drive station wagons... When does the cycle start to repeat?

Lowering cars isn't wise I have 2 bulging disc and two torn disc's in my spine and a harder ride is not wise on australian roads as they are long and full of potholes you can have an economical and powerful car these days with ground clearence, if you cut the ground clearence as well you lose customers for that vehicle as many australians live in rough terain not everyone has a paved highway to their front door. My parents had sedans and ute's but that was a time when holiday accomodation was cheap as chips nowdays many people need to take their accomodation as its overpriced so most people these days are going for 4x4 or vans the suv are stupid as they are too short to sleep in also I have Kombis and they have a thing that is now forgotton its called floor space a place to put your feet and move them around from time to time its way better than been in a capsul type seating arrangement and if that arangement isn't perfect you can damage your hips or spine so many things if its not right but with floor space you can move about till you are comfortable.

[ChrisPlatt]

Most new cars now have all-plastic noses, along with surprisingly low ground clearance.

Even where all roads are paved there are high curbs, potholes, road debris and numerous other hazards.
In my mind's eye a couple of inches of snow could stop some of these cars cold.

OTOH I guess there's plenty of work for the auto body shops...

Chris

[kadajawi]

That's pretty funny they're so resolute with a body style, but it makes sense; many of us here are similar with camera equipment. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but to me, a hatchback is a two-door, and a wagon is a four-door car.

I have to disagree with you there. IMHO hatchbacks can have 3 or 5 doors, just like estates. Often there is an estate version of a hatchback. Hatchbacks are pretty much like estates, but with less of a boot. Say, a bit like a sedan with the boot cut off (not that much, but a bit). Estate happens when you take a sedan, make it a tad longer and add a box on top of the boot. A prime example is the Golf. Available as a 3 door (the boot is considered as door, whereas with a sedan it isn't) and as a 5 door. Additionally there's a estate variant (Golf Sportswagen in the US), which is simply longer, with all of the added space going towards the boot (and in the case of hatchbacks with reclining roof lines head room for rear passengers). The hatchback has 380 liters of boot volume, the estate 605. For a while the sedan version of the Golf (called Jetta, Bora, Vento at different points in time) was closely related to the Golf, basically taking a Golf and adding a bit of a boot at the back. Newer Jettas don't do this anymore though... I guess they are mostly popular on the US market etc., which has other priorities anyway, so they may as well optimize the car for that market.

@Chris: Worse yet, there are enough people who lower their car even further, or add crap that makes them look lower (without any of the benefits!). I can kind of understand not having too much ground clearance, as that improves handling while retaining a decent amount of comfort (of course you can make a SUV handle well... but it's not going to be comfortable!). But these people lower their car so much that it becomes absolutely impractical and more like a moving road block. Very annoying (thankfully where I live now most people are more reasonable).

[Just1MoreDave]

Most new cars now have all-plastic noses, along with surprisingly low ground clearance.

Even where all roads are paved there are high curbs, potholes, road debris and numerous other hazards.
In my mind's eye a couple of inches of snow could stop some of these cars cold.

OTOH I guess there's plenty of work for the auto body shops...

Chris

That's the problem with the Miata in the snow. It has snow tires on it so grip is no problem. Ours has a limited slip differential so it doesn't spin wheels much. You can feel road surface changes and slipping at any corner. But a pile of snow in the wrong place and you're stuck.

[ChrisPlatt]

Though the Miata can be fitted with a hardtop, and is reliable enough to be your everyday driver, it's really a 3-season car.
I gotta laugh whenever I see someone driving a Mustang or Corvette etc. in the snow - and always give them a wide berth!

Chris

[cooltouch]

kadajawi, regarding the amorphous shape of hatchbacks, one needs only to look at the new Mini -- called the "Hardtop 4-Door" here in the US. It's a four-door Mini! Which seems to be very oxymoronic to me, but there ya go. Plus it has the hatch. One thing it does have going for it is it is a very compact four-door hatchback. Scarcely bigger than the 2-door in looks. Here in the US, I don't know whether people will view it as a hatchback or a compact wagon. I suspect the former because, with a wagon, folks are expecting to find quite a bit of room behind the rear seats, and this car has a hatchback's roominess back there, not a wagon's. So I guess the argument is that this Mini is a 5-door hatchback. So there ya go.

[ChrisPlatt]

Once they reach USA many car models that start out small often tend to grow in size and weight with each succeeding redesign.
There are good reasons for this. Americans typically drive longer distances and so prefer the comfort of a larger car, and we have usually had relatively cheap gas.

Surely you must remember how small Toyotas and Hondas were when first imported here.
When I watch NHK I am still surprised how small the average car in Japan is even today.

I think Bruce McCall's "Bulgemobiles" capture perfectly the essence of Americans tendency to automotive excess:

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2015/07/27/on-the-bloat-of-extravagance-satire-in-automotive-renderings/

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/here-are-some-humorous-illustrations-by-bruce-mccall-h-1633457775

Chris

[cooltouch]

I dunno Chris. I just attribute it to something akin to bloat. It's not just imports that tend to bloat with each passing model year. Take a look at the Ford Mustang, for example. When it debuted in 1965 (mid-year 1964 actually), it was a fairly compact car. But with each successive redesign, it got bigger, until by the early 70s it was an overweight pig. The only thing that saved it (in some folks estimation, at least) was a complete redesign, called the Mustang II -- and then suddenly it was even smaller than the original. But this was brought on by the sudden rise in gasoline prices -- a powerful set of market forces that required the change. But absent the market forces -- or ever intrusive government regulations -- bloat seems to be in a manufacturer's DNA.

[Canada_Rockies]

Bloat is everywhere. Software is even worse for that problem. Back to the automobile world, I drive a 2002 Toyota Tundra, which is considerably smaller than the current version of the Tundra. The "compact" Tacoma pickup truck is now the same size as my Tundra. I shudder to think of trying to park the new Tundra in a store parking lot. Mine is enough trouble.

[Ratmagiclady]

@Chris: Worse yet, there are enough people who lower their car even further, or add crap that makes them look lower (without any of the benefits!). I can kind of understand not having too much ground clearance, as that improves handling while retaining a decent amount of comfort (of course you can make a SUV handle well... but it's not going to be comfortable!). But these people lower their car so much that it becomes absolutely impractical and more like a moving road block. Very annoying (thankfully where I live now most people are more reasonable).

I'd lower my old Volvo wagon a bit if it were practical to do so where I park and with what I do, (Actually have had to plan around load-levelling springs,) but there's a whole setup designed to work well from IPD that isn't too ambitious for street use. There'd be no sense really slamming, though, past a point that is pretty much just for looks.

I was surprised to park next to one of the newer Mustangs and realize the thing's about as long and somewhat wider than my wagon, actually.

Also, Gimbal's BMW sounds like my kinda little wagon.

[Skodadriver]

I am on my 2nd Skoda Octavia and it is red. I quite liked my previous Skoda and this 2nd one actually has a zero road tax so is not quite so "dirty". I needed a car that would transport 5 adults and provide good fuel economy and running costs so it was a no-brainer having another, I can be budget conscious and this is reflected in my camera lenses, they are budget too.
For those members not privy to the delights of the Skoda I have an image, must get round to cleaning it again.

[cooltouch]

I'd lower my old Volvo wagon a bit if it were practical to do so where I park and with what I do, (Actually have had to plan around load-levelling springs,) but there's a whole setup designed to work well from IPD that isn't too ambitious for street use. There'd be no sense really slamming, though, past a point that is pretty much just for looks.

Our recently departed 1998 Volvo V90 was very low to the ground from the factory -- like about 4" of ground clearance. Yet its suspension was so robust that you would have had to hit a huge pothole to bottom it out. That was a great wagon -- probably the best wagon we've ever owned (we also owned a 740 and 760 wagon prior to the V90), if not the best car we've ever owned. Our latest, which we've owned now for a couple of months, our Volvo XC90, is a totally different animal from a wagon -- in a sense, since it's a crossover -- so it's hard to compare it to the old V90. But the wife and I like it a lot. Surprisingly, given how different it is.

With regard to ride setups, I figure that if it's coming from iPD, well, you know they would have thoroughly tested the product before putting it up for sale to the Volvo owning plublic, so I'd be inclined to trust whatever they're offering.

[Lord Lucan]

Our recently departed 1998 Volvo V90 was very low to the ground from the factory -- like about 4" of ground clearance. Yet its suspension was so robust that you would have had to hit a huge pothole to bottom it out.

..... a 4" pothole in fact. No problem finding those in the UK these days, it has become a national scandal, and don't you have sleeping policemen (aka speed humps) in Texas?

Long ago I had a car with about 4" ground clearance (a Triumph 2000 if you know it) and it would bottom out sometimes on a good surface where a side road on a hill joined a main road at an angle.