General Auto Chat

I know people with 500k and million dollar mortgages too but that doesnt mean Im jumping into a 200k one myself if I can help it. I am personally very debt averse though, I hate it, its necessary thing but I try to minimize it as best I can. I have a house payment because you basically need one...I have a car payment because I do like cars and I need something reliable. I don't want to be spending a ton of time fixing something old if I don't have to. Even the car payment is about to go though because we have 2 and Im close to work. I can get by with a "beater" or something a touch more impractical, and cheaper, than what Im driving now.

the other option which may be doable is get the house, finance it and then just try to pay it off as fast as you can. That way you get the best of both worlds, but that option takes more discipline for most people.

 

Thanks for the information, I will probably get a regular car at the airport and then swap it for one of the cars you mention for a week or so. I probably won't go for the Mustang as it is also available in Europe. I sometimes see Rams and the odd F150 but I don't think they are imported to Europe buy their respective makers. All the others will probably fit as my son is only seven years old.
I did not know that the Charger is not built in the US like Beamers out of Spartanburg or Toyotas from Valenciennes or Sunderland.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I will probably have the chance to drive a two door Jeep anyway, so don't now whether I will go for this solution. The other thing I don't know is, how high is the risk of serious sunburn in an open car in Texan summer, on the other hand I still got most of my hair, might be worth the risk.

 

I am happier on any motorcycle than driving any car, until cars wheelie and lean in corners anyway.

 

A little sunscreen and a "Don't mess with Texas" baseball cap...You'd be all set.

 

My favorite car of all time, the Ferrari F40 - I wonder how many Ferrari owners in general are as passionate and knowledgable about their vehicles as this guy, would love to meet him (and his collection).

 

Every year at Thanksgiving or Christmas time I watch this classic 8 min video ... not sure why, but I think because it combines 3 things I like: chicks, cars, & 20th century Paris.

If you like the sound of a 70s v12 Ferrari (275 GTB), definitely watch with some bassy headphones:

 

I took my driver's test in my 1966 Impala, including parallel parking in a small spot not designed for that boat. In that car I had drum brakes, and I knew if I tailgated someone I wouldn't be able to stop fast enough. I also didn't have an air bag or a shoulder belt, so if I rear-ended someone I was fucked.

Knowing these things changed the way I drive for the better, just like all this automatic shit will make people worse driver's because they are expecting the car to save them. I've been saying it since the first commercial where the dumbass isn't paying attention and the auto brakes stop them, this is going to be a net negative.

 

Yeah, I work “somewhere” in this industry now and am so far convinced the so called advancements do not help much. At the end of the day, point of contact, drivers are still responsible for their actions, or inactions.

I learned to drive on an old stick shift farm truck at 14. I had to try and concentrate to keep it on the road in fair weather and with no other vehicles around. The suspension was shot, the steering gear was shot, but it could still get me somewhere to fix a fence or feed cattle. I’m talking 20 too 60 degree adjustments on the wheel alone to keep it within the lanes. You had to pay attention to even drive it within the lane above 20mph.

I have had the same conversation with various people for several years and even if people are not drinking or texting I honestly think the technology and marketing has made us worse drivers. The way cars are built today drastically lessens the chance someone will be hurt or killed, but this schooled redneck thinks it has made the frequency of collisions at least the same, if not worse.

Mechanically unreliable car; you pay attention. A friend or relative seriously injured; you pay attention. Someone you know died; you pay attention. I have ridden a motorcycle from one end of this country to nearly the other multiple times(sorry I thought your coast wasn’t worth visiting) Much more vulnerable. Individually, I would advice ignore the “features” and learn to drive. The newer tech at this point will save you from a fender bender if you are only halfway paying attention and that’s about it, but it is probably doing most of us a disservice given the way we operate day to day.

 

I think in both cases electronics are making crappy pilots less crappy, but don't have much of an impact on good pilots.

Said differently, electronics don't make good pilots into bad pilots; I'm biased but I'd consider myself a good driver and this time around didn't get any drivers assist features (lane, braking, blindspot, etc) because they annoyed me since I was already looking over my shoulder or whatever anyway (or they engaged all the time because I drive like a douche - I don't need the car telling me that)

Anyway, there are plenty of bad boeing pilots is my point ... and some might be good, just not sober:

Drunk Japanese pilot nine times over the limit gets 10 months in prison

 

based on some of the work i did in a prior life/career track, one of the less studied parts of driver interaction/intervention is what should be done after a safety system intervention without collision. based on what I witnessed as a study lead (i.e., not a research faculty member tasked with publishing results, but as a research coordinator running the actual study) I saw all sorts of goofy shit go down after vehicle system interventions.

For example, when a collision perception system "sees" a pile of snow on the side of the road, and triggers the ABS mech to fire at max vehicle decel, it usually freaks the fuck out of folks in the driver's seat - and because nobody at the dealership explained to them what it might actually feel like when a car does a complete "panic" stop for no apparent reason, abnormal driver behavior usually abounds in the seconds after. which then causes stupid shit to happen for other drivers.

 

Some useful technology would be to have eye tracking in your car that puts you in limp mode if you look away from the road or instrument cluster too many times while driving. I see dozens of people every day swerving or erratically accelerating and slowing down because they are staring at their fucking phone instead of driving. Damn, I guess this wouldn't work if you are wearing sunglasses. There must be a solution, because it seems common sense isn't common anymore.

 

This got me curious as I spent 10 years at an airline and was involved in flight operations at both the company and industry (ATA/IATA) level (although I never worked or interacted with Lion Air, or anyone from Indonesia AFAIK). Anyway, in my experience pilot / safety systems operations is complex, well documented, well trained ... for western airlines ... and there's always the variable of the pilot.

Anyway, I found a few interesting things similar to your point:

(1.) Procedures followed?

[Boeing] also noted that the day before it crashed, the aircraft experienced incorrect air speed data and the activation of the anti-stall system. In that case, the pilot used the recommended procedure, which Boeing’s manual prescribes as a “memory item”—something that can be performed quickly without using a checklist.

According to the crash report, on that flight the shaker indicating an impending stall activated at about 400 feet. The flight system carried out three maneuvers to adjust the nose downward, but the commanding pilot initiated steps to override it a little over eight minutes into the flight. The flight landed safely in Jakarta about an hour and a half after takeoff.

It’s not clear why pilots of the Oct. 29 flight weren’t able to override the system or what procedures they tried to use.​

(2.) Ok, but what's up with the training?

several of the biggest US pilots’ unions say this was the first time they were hearing of the new anti-stall system. “Before the crash we were not provided any information on the MCAS or even its existence,” captain Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, the union for American Airlines pilots said​

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