I can think of nothing worse than having to drive around in a car that looks like a Mk3 cortina.
Growler I am afraid your version of a car stopped looking like that over 40 years ago. ie the Mini.
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Errr RF, the mini only stopped looking like a Mini when it became a MINI.
Growler. Just because they don't look as though they'll use a gallon of gas every 5 miles doesn't mean they cannot be proper cars...
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what is a proper car? we all have our own views, you can't buy a model t anymore but in its day most would say it was a proper car,would you want one nowadays for everyday driving . although i can also see where growler is coming from some modern cars are trully horrendous looking vehicles . and i assure you i wont want some of them in the future when we get used to them.(they are ugly now and time will not improve that)
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Thanks!
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A proper car has no "instruments" except a speedo. It has no gear-lever or other extraneous "controls".
It has a waterproof interior so that it can be washed out, and a drainhole in the floor so that it doesn't become a swimming pool when washed.
The proper car is made of materials which don't rust, and ot can be easily and cheaply reskinned or repainted when you get bored with the color. The seats can be refaced for a change of interior decor, and no part of the insode is black.
The front is made of foam so that it doesn't instantly break the limbs of anyone it hits. The back is made of foam so that there is no expensive crunch when reversing.
It doesn't go over thirty mph unless you select "out-of-town" mode, and it can never exceed the legal national speed limit. (The owner doesn't care how many speed cameras exist)
Unfortunately, no-one has ever built the proper car :(
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You seem to have described the perfect car - for people who don't like cars, at least.
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You seem to have described the perfect car - for people who don't like cars, at least.
I guess it depends what you want them for! I would really like a car as described, but I can see that it might be other people's idea of a nightmare. I just wanted to make the point that the notion of a "proper" car is subjective
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>> You seem to have described the perfect car - for people >> who don't like cars, at least. I guess it depends what you want them for! I would really like a car as described, but I can see that it might be other people's idea of a nightmare. I just wanted to make the point that the notion of a "proper" car is subjective
A point well made, it'd be a bit of a nightmare for me!
The 30 limiter wouldn't be a bad idea though, so easy to creep over in some cirsumstances when you're paying attention to the road rather than the speedo
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The 30 limiter wouldn't be a bad idea though, so easy to creep over in some cirsumstances when you're paying attention to the road rather than the speedo
Nice to see that there's one point where our tastes overlap!
Actually, I'm surprised that this 30-limiter feature isn't already available. Plenty of cars have cruise control, and this is only a sort of "unCruise" control -- same mechanisms, I would think, just with a maximum speed rather than the mimimum set by cruise control.
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RE: 30mph limiter
Maybe that's another piece of F1 technology which will eventually filter down into mass-produced car manufacture?
I can see it happening soon, what with the increase in speed cameras and the like
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Sorry, incase it wasn't that obvious, i was of course referring to F1 cars pit speed limiter button!
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Sorry, incase it wasn't that obvious, i was of course referring to F1 cars pit speed limiter button!
Thanks -- you had me confused for a moment there, I thought that F1 cars went just a little bit faster than 30mph!
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What an interesting concept!
Push a button and the car won't exceed 30mph, unless say you floor the throtle shoud the need arise.
Can see that being too difficult to arrange with the modern fly-by-wire technology.
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Actualy having thought a little more there is no reason why in say urban mode it couldn't accelerate at an optimum rate for fuel/time efficiency.
Quick patent the idea I think we're on to a winner here!
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The driver of the car in front might have an opinion on what a winner that is if his rate of acceleration for optimum fuel/time efficiency is slower than yours.
Seriously I, and I suspect many others, use the cruise control at times for just that purpose. Set it to "30", brake to override as required and press the resume button to go back to 30 at the "optimum" rate when the road is clear
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Believe or not Growler there is a forthcoming piece of EU legislation that will affect how a car looks. The car must protect a pedestrian as much as possible if you are unfortunate enough to hit one.
Low, long shallow bonnets are out, tall, short, steep bonnets are in.
So we're all going to be driving Transit vans then.
The reason why cars do look very similar could be explained by a lot of things.
CAD/CAM software, there are very few vendors of automotive CAD/CAM, this means that styles and shapes are ultimately limited by the software.
Fleet sales. Fleet hate outgoing models that look different to incoming models. Take the Cavalier and Vectra change over, the styling differences were minimal.
Customers. Cars are high volume, low margin, no one wants to make a car that is different anymore especially the Fords and Vauxhalls of this world. They can't afford to lose customers. They don't want to upset them when the residuals of their old model plummet because the replacement is so different.
Sign of the times. We live in perhaps one of the worst eras for originality. Everything we see has been pinched, revised or downright stolen from some other time. Right now, fashion, the 70s, cars are retro from the 50s and 60s, house interior design lends itself to Bauhaus and Minimalism/Neo-modernism from the 1930s and 50s. There is not a design 'movement' today. In cars, Bangle tried, stuffed it and no-one else really has much of an impact.
Risk. Car companies used to be brave and take risks with their cars. New Golf anyone ? Renault were brave with their bussel bottoms, BMW lost the plot. But car firms don't sell cars really, they sell finance, consumables and servicing. The car is just a means for the end to most of main manufacturers.
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3500S - Surely CAD/CAM systems don't place much of a restriction on design? I would have thought that the actual machinery used would be versatile enough to create all kinds of shapes and sizes, and obviously the software packages would reflect the abilities of the machinery, surely?
But yes originality does seem to have gone out of the window. Remove the badges and compare a silhoetted profile view of the 307, New Golf, Mazda 3, New Astra, Corolla etc. I don't think i could be confident of picking each one correctly, could you?
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i drive a mk2 golf gti, its classic lines and shape make me happy, i agrre with the growler (once again) im not a euro-sceptic but lets stop making euro bubbles!!!! (new golf seems to have good shape though) formely sp30
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Jesus! Cars designed to protect pedestrians? What are pedestrians doing on the road in the first place? They should be on the sidewalk where they belong. They don't even pay for the usage of the highway. If they end up interacting unexpectedly with motor vehicles that's their problem. EUrotopian politically correct nonsense, keeping seat warmers in overpaid unelected jobs as usual making meddlesome pointless legislation. Making drivers responsible for pedestrian well-being is totally ludicrous. Next thing they'll be doing is making laws for beds to have rails round them so people don't fall out. You better believe it.
In the good old days when we had a dictatorship where I live jaywalkers were summarily hauled over by police and made to do press-ups in front of everybody at gunpoint. I wish they'd bring that back.
We have 2 Lynxes in the household (nice good looking proper little cars if slightly boring) and now I have my impulse buy of an ageing Mustang. It's a car dammit. It's like my Harley, every time I walk out with the ignition key I get a good feeling. I know the experience is going to be special and a feeling of reverence and anticipation comes over me, just like meeting my best girl of an evening for a date. A 2004 Honda Civic? I couldn't even remember where I left it in the car park....or was it a Civic or did I buy a Corolla, can't remember. I think it was silver actually but I can't be sure. It's like asking me what brand my fridge is. Hang on, I'll just go and have a look.....
GRowlette is extraordinarily perceptive, as women tend to be, and says well Dadi of course you feel that way, it's the difference between driving and motoring.
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>>>>>But car firms don't sell cars really, they sell finance, consumables and servicing. The car is just a means for the end to most of main manufacturers.
You're right on. Like McDonalds is really in the real estate business when you get down to it.
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