Follow on from the New BR Member thread.
In 20 years time Amelie will be taking her driving lessons with ESM (Eurostate school of Motoring - Britain of course no longer exists in 2026)
What car will she be driving in, and what features will it have.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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It'll be a Toyota. Her Dad will say "And I can remember all those European car companies before they went to the wall. Rover was first of course, but then Fiat went, then..." and Amelie will say "Dad, do shut up, the car won't move until you've put on your seat belt, I've had my breath checked, and the computer has taken my £50 daily road toll"
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Petrol will be £20 per litre and she won't be able to afford the mortgage to buy it...
madf
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You will also have to book your time slot to travel on the roads, since rush hour became 24hr gridlock & travel time slots became compulsory.
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Well RF clearly great minds think alike! Please see below my reply to your post in the New BR Member thread:
Clio Mk8
Is that the 0.25 NF FCi (Nuclear Fission Fuel Cell) Dynamique 5dr 7 seater, with optional hydrogen generator and UHM (Urban Hover Mode) so Congestion Charge exempt?
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My guess is it'll be made in Korea, if its a mass market car, or possibly South America if its a budget car. By then Toyota will be a premium brand and, as said earlier, most of Europe's makers - except BMW - will have gone under.
But...
- it'll be made of steel, aluminium and plastic
- it'll run on hydrocarbon fuel
- and give 40-50 mpg
- it'll have four door, five seats and have a three-box saloon or two-box hatch design. In whatever variant of sharp-edged or bulbous design is à la mode
And National Geographic will recently have run a special feature on how the ultra efficient hydrogen-powered fuel cell car with polymer composite bodywork, amazing low weight body shell and 100 mpg efficiency is just around the corner. As it has been since the mid 1970s :-)
Plus ça change, and all that...
The only thing Amelie and her counterpart new drivers won't have to contend with is large 4x4s on the school run, as by 2026 fuel will be so costly nobody will be able to afford to run one, and they'll have long since gone out of fashion.
Regards,
- Gromit
PS: Come back in 2027 and laugh at how badly I got it wrong :-)
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In 20 yrs time there will be no cars - everyone will be using public transport to cater for their every journey - it will be cost effective and environementaly friendly, we will wonder how we ever got around before it!!!!! (please wake me gently)
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She won't be driving. In 20 years time all cars will drive themselves and safety obsessed bureaucrats will outlaw taking manual control...
I wish there were a funny punch line to this, but alas I fear this may actually happen... :(
That's if anybody can afford to own and run personal transport thanks to esacalating energy costs.
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Yup OilBurner, you got it. Get in, punch coordinates, turn round and play cards with anyone else in the car. It won't make any noise, won't go over 22 mph in town and 37 mph on the road, and will have endless messages delivered in a grating dalek voice e.g.: 'On-board diagnostic software reports your pulse 84, blood pressure slightly above median level, would you like windows blacked out and soothing rhythmic sound, or would you prefer immediate sedative injection? ... Answer please... Answer please... Are you dead please? Answer please... '
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Do you not remember in the late sixties early seventies we were all going to be holidaying on the moon by the turn of the century ......dream on!
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30 years ago I learned in a 1300xl ford escort mk1
how different is that from a new Ford Focus today?
Not much to be sure.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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My dad had a '69 1300GT, lovely car, I bet if you were to drive it back to back with a new Focus though it would sure seem like 30 years.
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In 20 years time I'll be dead but hopefully the "current" Focus will actually be pretty. Even the saloon.
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>>In 20 years time I'll be dead but hopefully the "current" Focus will actually be pretty. Even the saloon.
I thinkj you might be better off hoping that the Focus is dead and you'll be pretty.
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If you've ever seen me, you'd realise that was even more unrealistic.
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I've seen photos and I've seen the Focus.
The focus is worse - not much, I'll give you, but still worse.
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You're an absolute gent....I think.
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In 20 years time I'll be dead but ...
Is this a statement of intent, Adam, or a prediction based on yr current lifestyle (likely cause of death a surfeit of pies if I understand the general view correctly)?
Lot of people used to say they'd be dead by 40 but it's amazing the way the deadline moves back as it approaches.
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I don't know really Lud. I don't plan on living past 40 but I'm not about to shoot myself in 20 years time.
I'd rather hoped I'd go out in a blaze of glory after a high speed police chase involving some fast car and a shootout....and maybe a few fireballs.
That's if the pies don't finish me off first.
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>I'd rather hoped I'd go out in a blaze of glory after a high speed police chase involving some fast car and a shootout....and maybe a few fireballs. That's if the pies don't finish me off first.
The pies would be a lot more dignified.
Do you think you could manage the chase and shootout without the fireballs? The Hollywood convention that cars always explode when they crash is a constant source of irritation to anyone sensible.
Setting aside the possibility that in 20 years' time everyone approaching 40 will be required to undergo euthanasia 'for social and economic reasons', why do you think the police will be chasing you? Or will you be chasing them?
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They'll be chasing me definitely. No doubt by then I'll have crept over the limit by 3 mph thus warranting a countywide Police chase (if we still have counties by then) to execute me for my transgression.
Either that or something to do with parking on double yellows which I'm sure will be looked on as an equally heinous crime.
P.S. My car would definitely explode on impact. The Nuclear Fusion reactor would surely be punctured when I rolled off a bridge at 140mph onto a power substation.
P.P.S. I've decided that when I go, it'll be off a bridge at 140mph onto a power substation.
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P.P.S. I've decided that when I go, it'll be off a bridge at 140mph onto a power substation.
Perhaps you will manage a small fireball in that case. Have you picked the spot yet?
I only ask because you may be able to sell tickets for the event, help yr heirs with the wake espenses...
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No. Spot not yet picked. If you see anywhere good (preferably high up) let me know.
Ticket idea is a cracker btw. Thanks!
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> >> >> I'd rather hoped I'd go out in a blaze of glory >> after a high speed police chase involving some fast car and >> a shootout....and maybe a few fireballs. >> >> That's if the pies don't finish me off first. >> >> The pies would be a lot more dignified.
Do you mean like this?
www.intriguing.com/mp/_pictures/life/vi-explo.jpg
personally I'd like to go out like this...
www.intriguing.com/mp/_pictures/life/vii-nude.jpg (WARNING contains mild nudity)
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Yes Jonathan, dignified indeed... it's the moustache that does it. Adam should start growing his now.
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I've now found my aim in life
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She's stuck in the hi-rise parking area, after shopping at the virtual mall & can't get home.
Some low-life has attempted to scramble the remote id scanner, on the car, trying to break in & steal the high value nimhybridplatinumcoatedsolidgoldbatterypack, leaving it immobile.
The bar code implant, in her arm, can't be identified & the DVLA system is down again, due to restricted power supplies, to their operations centre in Iran, the up & coming economy, of the world, which is rationing elecrickery.
VB
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A stripped down back to basics BMW with a sate of the art,seamless hybrid engine, offering 200mpg and 155 mph performance from a six cylinder 1.5 engine returning 160bhp at the rear wheels. The badge will still be hated by some and loved by others.
Real world - most of the South of England will be under salt water, the country will be bankrupted and there will be no petrol or drinking water.
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>>most of the South of England will be under salt water
Well 30 inches of it will be,assuming those that know are correct.
I think biggest change will be in fuels used in cars
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Steve
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Ah! Small efficient steam engines fuelled by bricks of peat and cylinders of nitrous oxide.
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Have to say I like the sound of PU's future BMW, perhaps not so wide of the mark fingers crossed, but don't think we'll be drowning or starving in 20 years (although come to think of it I will be feeling perhaps almost middle-aged by then).
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30 years ago I learned in a 1300xl ford escort mk1 how different is that from a new Ford Focus today? Not much to be sure.
Having owned both (admittedly not the latest Focus) I can assure you that there is a world of difference, in all respects.
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L\'escargot.
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In 20yrs time Amelie will be driving a big V8 open-top roadster.
On her first driving lesson she had been fined £1M and banned for 10yrs. Being the only remaining private sector worker in the EU, she'd switched off the lights and moved to Asia.
Kevin...
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>>On her first driving lesson she had been fined £1M and banned for 10yrs.
If things carry on as they are,no one will be able to afford driving lessons let alone get fined,certain people imply it wants people to learn and get on in life.But make it more difficult for these youngsters to do so/contradition in terms I think, and about time they did something about it-ie not enough tutors in college causing some to lose out on lessons and being sent home.
If things carry on as they are students are going to wonder why they took up the course in the first place
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Steve
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20 years from now we will all fly to work to avoid the rush hour and my degree will finally be worth something!!!
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Temporarily not a student, where did the time go???
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Given the prophets of doom that existed 20 years ago about the future of the car, and here we are still - most of us - enjoying our driving....I'd be a little mroe optimistic.
I certainly hope for advances in fuel cell technology, or other alternatives: sadly there will have to be more restrictions on us, at least in town centres - far more park-and-rides should help.
And I remember 20, 30, 40 years ago everyone said we'd all be diving automatics. Well I am, and multitronic is great, but SWMBO resolutely prefers a gearstick, so Amelie's Clio may still have one. Let's hope it's on the dashboard, like SWMBO's Honda, and....the 1934 Citroen Traction Avant!
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In 20 years time I'll be looking forward to retirement and therefore eyeing up automatic Honda Accords.
Saying that, in 20 years time, I'll probably be 20 years from retirement if the current trend continues.
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At the present rate of accumulation of miles, doing the odd dash, in 20 years Toad the Supra will be due a new camshaft drive belt.
Probably I won't be around, unfortunately :-(
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In 20 years time....
Algernon Arthur Smythe will just have been released from the Scrubbs for his driving transgressions
Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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I understand that Algernon Arthur Smythe has actually attended court and is still allowed on the queens highway.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Why is old Algy keeping so quiet about it then?
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He is a quiet reserved type.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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So did old Algy have a good brief?, or did his natural charm disarm the Judge?, or was the Crown's case thrown out of court on a technicality? or did the CPS withdraw or, or what?
You see I am not really that interested, well I dont like to pry, though I am sure others would really like to know.
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In 20 years time........Alijazz will have finally received her Swift.
_______
IanS
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Let it be said that Algernon, was given a thorough kicking by the bench, has no scope for any further transgretions and is considerbly poorer. He is however still allowed to drive.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Living out in the sticks in West Wales, I'll still be driving the same Volvo 240, running it on methane from a sack of pig manure on the roof rack.
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Shades of mad max?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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