Car Talk 2: Un-American Motor Company.

[max225]

So you’d have to quadruple your income to make that statement.

By that time times, I'll be able to afford it. I'll give it 10 years, or just get a CPO, and take advantage of someones placprofit. Or something else, who knows.

As do priorities. Crotchfruit changes priorities into vans

[max225]

Here is something crazy... Uber to my work which is 10 miles one way is $9, which is way too cheap. So for $350 a month I could have a personal driver to work.

[MexicanYarisTK]

Here is something crazy... Uber to my work which is 10 miles one way is $9, which is way too cheap. So for $350 a month I could have a personal driver to work.

another way of "ballin on a budget"

[MexicanYarisTK]

By that time times, I'll be able to afford it. I'll give it 10 years, or just get a CPO, and take advantage of someones placprofit. Or something else, who knows.

As do priorities. Crotchfruit changes priorities into vans

I'll only get one when I start to have 3 kids, and it will be wife's car #sorrynotsorry, and I'll done do driving on roadtrips. I'll always have a fun car of my own anyway, and probably get a cheap ass beater for a NFG daily/winter driving. Maybe dat 2018 camry in 2028 from a

But that said, I was pretty much sold on the macan as it is a great compromise for an enthusiast and dropping kids off soccer practice.

[Davestr]

If I had to go SUV, Id test this!!!!

The new X3 is legitimately awesome. M40i sounds fantastic. I'd pick it over anything else in the segment aside from a Macan.

Will check em both out this week when the M2 goes in Thursday pm for oil and summer wheels/tires

[max225]

The new X3 is legitimately awesome. M40i sounds fantastic. I'd pick it over anything else in the segment aside from a Macan.

Will check em both out this week when the M2 goes in Thursday pm for oil and summer wheels/tires

Why would you check out an SUV when you have exactly 0 need for one.

[Davestr]

Not mandatory there. Here your new car will have winters on or it wont be released to you.

Detroit appeared to be very cold when he was driving it. All season suck. Should be evident to the author and was so why didnt the Mag spring for some rational tire upgrade or is it cheap or just fun to beeotch about it.

Mags don't spend a dime on press cars (not even gas) so they can complain about every little thing and do nothing about it.

I was amazed that it's required in Germany. My rental Polo had snow tires on it. It snowed pretty hard when we were in the black forest, pretty amazing how well the car did on those tires. Winter tires are absolutely a worthwhile upgrade if you live somewhere with cold/snow.

Yep they started cracking down about 3 yrs ago and they are now mandatory in 'winter conditions'. Basically Nov - Feb/March depending on the weather. I had them off last winter in mid Feb. They were on in late Nov. So barely 3 months. Not bad and with so little use a set will last years. Its smart and in general not a big hassle. They take good care of the road and I hope you were witness to that.

[max225]

Mags don't spend a dime on press cars (not even gas) so they can complain about every little thing and do nothing about it.

I was amazed that it's required in Germany. My rental Polo had snow tires on it. It snowed pretty hard when we were in the black forest, pretty amazing how well the car did on those tires. Winter tires are absolutely a worthwhile upgrade if you live somewhere with cold/snow.

Yep they started cracking down about 3 yrs ago and they are no mandatory in 'winter conditions'. Basically Nov - Feb/March depending on the weather. I had them off last winter in mid Feb. They were on in late Nov. So barely 3 months. Not bad and with so little use a set will last years. Its smart and in general not a big hassle. They take good care of the road and I hope you were witness to that.

I barely even snows in Germany if at all. Dem lack of freedoms.

[Davestr]

Yep they started cracking down about 3 yrs ago and they are no mandatory in 'winter conditions'. Basically Nov - Feb/March depending on the weather. I had them off last winter in mid Feb. They were on in late Nov. So barely 3 months. Not bad and with so little use a set will last years. Its smart and in general not a big hassle. They take good care of the road and I hope you were witness to that.

I barely even snows in Germany if at all. Dem lack of freedoms.

True but winter tires work as a function of temp....cold roads

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Yep they started cracking down about 3 yrs ago and they are no mandatory in 'winter conditions'. Basically Nov - Feb/March depending on the weather. I had them off last winter in mid Feb. They were on in late Nov. So barely 3 months. Not bad and with so little use a set will last years. Its smart and in general not a big hassle. They take good care of the road and I hope you were witness to that.

I barely even snows in Germany if at all. Dem lack of freedoms.

I encountered more snow than we get in Murica when I was there.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Mags don't spend a dime on press cars (not even gas) so they can complain about every little thing and do nothing about it.

I was amazed that it's required in Germany. My rental Polo had snow tires on it. It snowed pretty hard when we were in the black forest, pretty amazing how well the car did on those tires. Winter tires are absolutely a worthwhile upgrade if you live somewhere with cold/snow.

Yep they started cracking down about 3 yrs ago and they are now mandatory in 'winter conditions'. Basically Nov - Feb/March depending on the weather. I had them off last winter in mid Feb. They were on in late Nov. So barely 3 months. Not bad and with so little use a set will last years. Its smart and in general not a big hassle. They take good care of the road and I hope you were witness to that.

The roads were compared to what we call "roads" here.

It also cost me $70 to fill up a VW Polo with petrol...

[max225]

I barely even snows in Germany if at all. Dem lack of freedoms.

True but winter tires work as a function of temp....cold roads

It doesn't even get cold either... Unless you're up in the mountains. Cold being below 0. It hovers around there, but overall it is not like Minnesota.

[Johnny_P]

My rental benzo had pos winter tires on it. In September. Was super disappointing.

[max225]

My rental benzo had pos winter tires on it. In September. Was super disappointing.

Winter tires are obviously a must.

If the EU had their way no one would drive period. Insane taxes on car ownershit, fuel, diesel ban, weird pedestrian safety shit that makes cars hideous and requires hoods that pop

Dat nanny state.

[Johnny_P]

My rental benzo had pos winter tires on it. In September. Was super disappointing.

Winter tires are obviously a must.

If the EU had their way no one would drive period. Insane taxes on car ownershit, fuel, diesel ban, weird pedestrian safety shit that makes cars hideous and requires hoods that pop

Dat nanny state.

They certainly choose to heavily incetivize mass transit and penalize owning a car. US seems opposite of this. Easy af and cheap (relatively) to own a vehicle, and mass transit systems are typically in disrepair, beat, smelly, never on time, etc.

[max225]

Winter tires are obviously a must.

If the EU had their way no one would drive period. Insane taxes on car ownershit, fuel, diesel ban, weird pedestrian safety shit that makes cars hideous and requires hoods that pop

Dat nanny state.

They certainly choose to heavily incetivize mass transit and penalize owning a car. US seems opposite of this. Easy af and cheap (relatively) to own a vehicle, and mass transit systems are typically in disrepair, beat, smelly, never on time, etc.

Because we’re not communist hippies

[Johnny_P]

They certainly choose to heavily incetivize mass transit and penalize owning a car. US seems opposite of this. Easy af and cheap (relatively) to own a vehicle, and mass transit systems are typically in disrepair, beat, smelly, never on time, etc.

Because we’re not communist hippies

Also.. How's the smog been lately?

[max225]

Because we’re not communist hippies

Also.. How's the smog been lately?

Really bad actually but it doesn’t matter we are at the forefront of pods. So it is only temporary

[Johnny_P]

Also.. How's the smog been lately?

Really bad actually but it doesn’t matter we are at the forefront of pods. So it is only temporary

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Winter tires are obviously a must.

If the EU had their way no one would drive period. Insane taxes on car ownershit, fuel, diesel ban, weird pedestrian safety shit that makes cars hideous and requires hoods that pop

Dat nanny state.

They certainly choose to heavily incetivize mass transit and penalize owning a car. US seems opposite of this. Easy af and cheap (relatively) to own a vehicle, and mass transit systems are typically in disrepair, beat, smelly, never on time, etc.

I was surprised by how many people actually did own cars in Germany. But further, how nice driving was. The roads are fantastic. Drivers are unbelievably good/attentive. Traffic was minimal. I wish we'd go to a European style. Amp up public trans and make cars harder to own.

That said, Europe is laid out way differently than the US, so it'll pretty much never happen. I would love to see a higher gas tax to make our roads drivable, doe.

[Johnny_P]

They certainly choose to heavily incetivize mass transit and penalize owning a car. US seems opposite of this. Easy af and cheap (relatively) to own a vehicle, and mass transit systems are typically in disrepair, beat, smelly, never on time, etc.

I was surprised by how many people actually did own cars in Germany. But further, how nice driving was. The roads are fantastic. Drivers are unbelievably good/attentive. Traffic was minimal. I wish we'd go to a European style. Amp up public trans and make cars harder to own.

That said, Europe is laid out way differently than the US, so it'll pretty much never happen. I would love to see a higher gas tax to make our roads drivable, doe.

Agreed. Gas tax needs to increase. Roads in this country are trash. We're never going to get as pristine as Germany though. Those roads are great but they spend an assload of money to keep them great, and have fewer roads to maintain, and fewer vehicles traveling on them so less upkeep.

Also agreed on the layout being different in Europe. However, in the US the northeast is laid out very similar to Europe. There's absolutely no good reason we don't have high speed bullet trains between DC and Boston. Acela is a piece of shit compared to true high speed rail in Europe/Japan/CHINA/etc. Between Philly and NYC, Acela is limited to 135 MPH because it can't tilt due to track spacing. The Northeast Regional poverty train reaches 125. Acela can hit 150 MPH north of NYC for a short section into Connecticut but that's it. Meanwhile the ROW are reaching almost 300 MPH. Our infrastructure is garbage.

[fledonfoot]

I was surprised by how many people actually did own cars in Germany. But further, how nice driving was. The roads are fantastic. Drivers are unbelievably good/attentive. Traffic was minimal. I wish we'd go to a European style. Amp up public trans and make cars harder to own.

That said, Europe is laid out way differently than the US, so it'll pretty much never happen. I would love to see a higher gas tax to make our roads drivable, doe.

Agreed. Gas tax needs to increase. Roads in this country are trash. We're never going to get as pristine as Germany though. Those roads are great but they spend an assload of money to keep them great, and have fewer roads to maintain, and fewer vehicles traveling on them so less upkeep.

Also agreed on the layout being different in Europe. However, in the US the northeast is laid out very similar to Europe. There's absolutely no good reason we don't have high speed bullet trains between DC and Boston. Acela is a piece of shit compared to true high speed rail in Europe/Japan/CHINA/etc. Between Philly and NYC, Acela is limited to 135 MPH because it can't tilt due to track spacing. The Northeast Regional poverty train reaches 125. Acela can hit 150 MPH north of NYC for a short section into Connecticut but that's it. Meanwhile the ROW are reaching almost 300 MPH. Our infrastructure is garbage.

NJ raised the gas tax 23 cents per gallon over a year ago.

Roads are still garbage and potholes worse than ever.

[Apex]

Agreed. Gas tax needs to increase. Roads in this country are trash. We're never going to get as pristine as Germany though. Those roads are great but they spend an assload of money to keep them great, and have fewer roads to maintain, and fewer vehicles traveling on them so less upkeep.

Also agreed on the layout being different in Europe. However, in the US the northeast is laid out very similar to Europe. There's absolutely no good reason we don't have high speed bullet trains between DC and Boston. Acela is a piece of shit compared to true high speed rail in Europe/Japan/CHINA/etc. Between Philly and NYC, Acela is limited to 135 MPH because it can't tilt due to track spacing. The Northeast Regional poverty train reaches 125. Acela can hit 150 MPH north of NYC for a short section into Connecticut but that's it. Meanwhile the ROW are reaching almost 300 MPH. Our infrastructure is garbage.

NJ raised the gas tax 23 cents per gallon over a year ago.

Roads are still garbage and potholes worse than ever.

Gas tax ain't going towards fixing roads.

[Johnny_P]

I think investments in public transit would be very wise. Many cities have terrible traffic and growth is being restricted because of it.

Of course networked pods could alter this significantly. Podtrains could move a ton of people quickly and efficiently if they're all talking to each other and drafting close to each other.

[Johnny_P]

Agreed. Gas tax needs to increase. Roads in this country are trash. We're never going to get as pristine as Germany though. Those roads are great but they spend an assload of money to keep them great, and have fewer roads to maintain, and fewer vehicles traveling on them so less upkeep.

Also agreed on the layout being different in Europe. However, in the US the northeast is laid out very similar to Europe. There's absolutely no good reason we don't have high speed bullet trains between DC and Boston. Acela is a piece of shit compared to true high speed rail in Europe/Japan/CHINA/etc. Between Philly and NYC, Acela is limited to 135 MPH because it can't tilt due to track spacing. The Northeast Regional poverty train reaches 125. Acela can hit 150 MPH north of NYC for a short section into Connecticut but that's it. Meanwhile the ROW are reaching almost 300 MPH. Our infrastructure is garbage.

NJ raised the gas tax 23 cents per gallon over a year ago.

Roads are still garbage and potholes worse than ever.